From Autodesk Labs' STL Exporter: Create 3D prints of Autodesk Revit Models

Use the STL Exporter to create 3D prints of your Autodesk® Revit®-based models. Increasingly, architects and engineers are creating digital designs earlier in the project process. As the project progresses, design professionals can easily update and otherwise interact with their designs. 3D-printed models are becoming an increasingly important part of today’s design processes. These models enable closer study of design options, while enhancing communication between project team members and owners.

The STL Exporter for the Autodesk Revit family of products is a proof-of-concept project designed to create an STL file from a 3D building information model, thereby enabling easier 3D printing.

Visit the Autodesk Labs STL Exporter site to get started.

From Autodesk Labs' BIM Family Toolkit: Share Parametric Family Information from Inventor to Revit

The BIM Family Toolkit Technology Preview allows building product manufacturers the ability to easily export Inventor configuration data from iParts and iAssemblies (parameters, file properties & component visibility) directly to Revit families. Once the family data has been imported into Revit, users can create a simplified version and leverage the imported parameters and properties directly in Revit reducing the amount of time it takes to create BIM Ready Models

Visit the Autodesk Labs BIM Family Toolkit site to get started.

From Autodesk Labs' Project Vasari: Conceptual Design and Analysis for Buildings

Autodesk® Project Vasari is an easy-to-use, expressive design tool for creating building concepts. Vasari goes further, with integrated analysis for energy and carbon, providing design insight where the most important design decisions are made. And, when it’s time to move the design to production, simply bring your Vasari design data into the Autodesk® Revit® platform for BIM, ensuring clear execution of design intent.

Project Vasari is focused on conceptual building design using both geometric and parametric modeling. It supports performance-based design via integrated energy modeling and analysis features. This new technology preview is now available as a free download and trial on Autodesk Labs.

Visit the Autodesk Labs Project Vasari website to get started.

From Autodesk Labs' Project Bluestreak: Team Collaboration for AEC Projects

Autodesk Project Bluestreak is a cloud-based collaboration solution that helps AEC project teams collaborate informally and coordinate their work efficiently. Project Bluestreak simplifies AEC project team communication by consolidating the information silos used alongside design, analysis, and data management applications. Project Bluestreak is the first collaboration solution to integrate informal project team communication and automated notifications from AEC applications, starting with Revit. By combining team communication tools with Revit worksharing notices and one-click file access in a compact desktop app, Project Bluestreak consolidates multiple tools for BIM processes, making team modeling more efficient.

For more information or to get this app, visit the Autodesk Labs Project Bluestreak website.

Bentley Systems iWare Apps for Interoperability

Bentley Systems has an iWare Apps for Interoperability website where they've posted FREE apps for AECO professionals, including the following Revit plugins:

i-model plug-in for Revit

Publish i-models from AutoDesk Revit for open infrastructure information exchange with Bentley applications like Bentley Architecture and Bentley Navigator (a low-cost alternative to Navisworks)

ISM Revit plug-in

Coordinate, change, and synchronize structural data

RAM Structural System - Revit Link

Achieve interoperability between RAM Structural System (RSS) and Revit Structure

See the iWare Apps for Interoperability website for downloads, and for other non-Revit apps.

From RevitToday: XYZ Out and XYZ In

A shout out to a fellow blogger...

RevitToday has a couple of free utilities for Revit 2011 posted on his blog:

Export XYZ

This extension for Revit 2011 exports all coordinates of Point Based Generic Models to an Excel file.

You can locate Point Based Generic Models in your whole model. You are able to nest such a Family within another. These points are exported as well when you make this family Shared.

Insert Revit Families using a XYZ text file

This Revit extension reads a TXT file in which the coordinates are seperated with a semi-colons and inserts on these coordinate a selected Revit family.

See the RevitToday blog site for the downloads.

Detail Manager for Revit

Finally… a Revit add-on that allows you to instantly view all of your AutoCAD details in high resolution, quickly select multiple details to be linked / imported, and set all link / import properties for all details and drafting views within one property grid. The properties and settings are now applied to all details as you lay them out on sheets in the layout manager. Then with one click, Detail Manager creates all of the drafting views, and places all the drafting views on sheets. Save hours of time on just a few details!

Import dozens of AutoCAD details into Revit in just a few minutes! Detail Manager allows you to quickly view and reuse your AutoCAD details without ever leaving your Revit project.

Who should use Detail Manager? - Well, anyone who has AutoCAD details. This Revit plug-in was created to help individuals and firms save time and money when choosing to reuse their DWG detail libraries, and those transitioning from AutoCAD to Revit that may not have the resources to recreate their details in Revit all at once.

SMARTBIM Libraries

SMARTBIM Library®

What is SMARTBIM Library?

If you are using Autodesk® Revit®, you have probably experienced the frustration of trying to manage Revit® Families saved to folders in your file system. It’s difficult to know how to use your families when the file name is the only means for understanding the product or assembly that the family represents. From a file name you cannot tell how it should be used in the project without actually loading it into Revit. You likely have an object mess!

SMARTBIM Library is a Revit family content management tool that provides a simple way to organize, find, and use Revit families.

SMARTBIM Library

• Streamlines design workflow
• Simplifies storage, organization and location of Revit objects including user's existing content
• Facilitates the generation of catalogs from Revit objects
• Enables manufacturers, architects, engineers and building owners to easily share catalogs of objects

Kiwi Codes - Family Browser

At last a Functional, fast and easy to setup family browser for Autodesk Revit 2011 Products.

Benifits of Kiwi Codes Family Browser

Easy Setup - As easy as Selecting "Add new Tab" and then selecting the directory that you want a Palette built for.  This can be on your local computer, shared network folder, or internet URL.

Fast - Once the tool Palettes are set up, the insertion of Revit families is incredibly quick.  No more endless searching through windows directories trying to find you required families.  Just click on the appropriate tab and insert the family from the icon.

Always up to date - Delete a family in a folder that has a palette created and it will automatically update.  Same goes for Adding a family to a directory.  It is instantly available.

Shared Palettes - A BIM manager can create a Palette Group on a shared directory and then it is available to anyone with permission to see it.

Roaming Palettes - If a Revit user has roaming profiles setup, their Palette shifts with them when they move computers.

Time Saving - With Kiwi Codes Family Browser installed you will see huge timesaving straight away from your Revit users.

$35 USD per standalone license or $250 for a site license.

Download from the Kiwi Codes website.

For more information, visit the Revit Family Browser blog.

Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) Plugins

ASHRAE Viewer for Revit MEP

Revit MEP utilizes the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Duct Fitting Database to lookup coefficients for determining pressure losses through duct fittings. This add-in provides a way to view the illustrations and the data table of available duct fittings from the database.

Room/DoorRenumbering for Revit

This plugin can be used to renumber or re-assign the "Number" properties of rooms and spaces or the "Mark" property of doors and windows in the order that the user selects while avoiding duplicated assignments. The command allows the user to specify the starting number with the option of the prefix and suffix added.

Available for free download from Autodesk Labs ADN Plugin of the Month Catalog site.

Autodesk Subscription Advantage Packs

Autodesk Revit Model Review 2012

Automate the process of reviewing and auditing building information modeling (BIM) projects in Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2012, Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2012, or Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2012 software with the Autodesk® Revit® Model Review plug-in:

• Check the accuracy and consistency of a Project or Family against standards set by your firm, your clients, or industry best practices.
• Correct inconsistencies with a single click or with instructions provided when manual fixes are required.

Globe Link for Autodesk Revit 2012

Globe Link for Revit 2012 platform products helps users streamline preliminary project planning by enabling them to present conceptual designs in the context of the project site.

With Globe Link, users can publish 3D building information models directly from Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2012, Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2012, and Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2012 software into Google Earth™ mapping service. Users can also acquire site information from Google Earth mapping service and import it into Revit 2012 software applications for building and site layout purposes. Globe Link is optimized for Google Earth version 5 mapping service.

Ideate BIMLink

Push. Pull. Power.

Power the “I” in BIM.

Ideate BIMLink lets you pull data from an Autodesk Revit file into user-friendly Microsoft Excel and push Excel data into Revit with equal ease. This indispensable tool works with Revit Extension Manager and gives you unprecedented access to Revit data – the I – in Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Pull Data Out
Use Ideate BIMLink to get more detailed information about your Revit projects. Ideate BIMLink gives you access to Design Option and Phasing information as well as additional parameters such as Top and Bottom Constraints and Unconnected Height for Wall object and Base and Top Level elevation values for Columns. Use this data externally with cost estimating, takeoff, or analysis tools. The link definition can be saved for re-use in subsequent projects.

Work the Data, and Push it Back
Ideate BIMLink lets you access data that Revit hides, including phase and design option data. Detailed access to room, space and zones data is at your fingertips. Plus, when you use Ideate BIMLink to bring Revit data into Excel, you can task Excel with calculating volumes of data and populating quantities of fields – impractical operations in Revit. You can push calculated data such as occupancy loads, duct and pipe lengths, or beam cut lengths, into your tags with astounding ease.

The Fast, Accurate, Easy Way
For Quality Control purposes, Ideate BIMLink lets you standardize measurements, naming conventions and parameter values in the data via Excel then quickly push processed data back into the Revit model. You can clean up your templates by reviewing all parameter values (Type Name and Type Mark, as one example) even while no instances exist. Automated Excel capabilities – fast, accurate and easy – are a time and error saver when compared with manual editing within Revit. And for locating information, you can gather data on even hard to find fields such as Wall Orientation or Unconnected Wall Height.

$850 USD per standalone license. Download from the product website.

Ideate Explorer

Search. Filter. Finish.

10,000-plus elements were never so manageable...

The Ideate Explorer for Revit tool gives you an easy, intuitive and profound way to search, quantify and select elements in a Revit model.

When having the ability to search, filter and tie up inter-relationships between 10,000+ building elements can make or break your workday, you need one simple, powerful Revit add-on to help you explore, quantify and manage your Revit building information model. Ideate Explorer for Revit from Ideate, Inc. empowers you to do just that.

Features

Export to Excel
Save search results directly to a Microsoft Excel file.

Scan to BIM from IMAGINiT

The Scan to BIM software add-on takes the ordeal out of the process of getting 3D laser scanning data into Revit. It enables you to import point clouds directly into Revit, visualize them directly in Revit, and interact directly in Revit with automated recognition and placement of walls and openings, as well as pipes and ducts.

Eliminate time spent working with point clouds outside of Revit - eliminate the ordeal of scanning to BIM. Work faster and more accurately, gain new revenue streams, and stay on top of client demands. The Scan to BIM software add-in for Revit actually makes scanning directly to BIM a reality.

$2,495 USD per standalone license.

Download it from the IMAGINiT website.

IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit 2011

Originally developed by Avatech (recently acquired by IMAGINiT), "the 'suite' 11 for 2011" includes the following utilities:

Room Renumber*
Easily renumber existing rooms into an order defined by selection. Insert rooms into an existing series with the subsequent room numbers “shifted” to make space for the inserted one.

Element Renumber
Enjoy the same kind of capabilities as the Room Renumber tool, but with other element types like grids, levels, doors, windows, and spaces. You can either renumber based on a selected order or insert a new number and shift the existing ones.

MEP Parameter Tool
Update parameters across an entire piping or mechanical system in Revit MEP. Configure your firm’s parameters either as single values to update across the system or based on the size of each element. This utility comes in handy when updating parameters like insulation thickness, lining thickness, and system type.