Onuma Revit Plugin and BIMXML

While Big Data challenges confront all large
BIM projects and large portfolio owners, some Autodesk®  Revit®  users have successfully employed an elegantly simple Revit plug-in that  uses Building Information Model Extensible Markup Language (BIMXML) to assist data sharing.

BIMXML employs a plug-in that capitalizes on the data cap- tured in the Revit model and allows further lifecycle data management. Data generated from the start of a project is made available throughout the design, estimating, construction, commissioning, operations, and maintenance phases. It uses accepted and proven Big Data management standards and processes.

The Revit ONUMA plug-in employs BIMXML to improve Revit data sharing. The BIMXML plug-in allows projects to be imported to and from Onuma. The plug-in also allows Revit models to be loaded with meaningful data and basic geometry from SketchUp, ArchiCAD, Bentley products, ArcGIS, Google Earth, and other software com- patible with basic Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard code. The BIMXML plug-in to Revit and other programs comes with ONUMA System web-based software, Onuma Editor Pro and Studio Pro. Student versions are available for free.

There's more information on Onuma and Revit here.

Credit: This post includes excerpts from the AUGIWorld September 2011 article "Revit Plug-in Allows BIG Data Sharing" by Bob Smith, PhD, and Michael Bordenaro

Design Review Mobile

Expedite the design review process by viewing and redlining design files in the field. Autodesk® Design Review mobile app enables you to review Autodesk 2D and 3D design files directly on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. View, mark-up, and annotate drawings on the spot, reduce the need to carry around over-sized paper drawings, and enjoy an all-digital design review workflow.



View

• Open and view 2D and 3D DWF files from your Autodesk Cloud account 
• Use multi-touch to zoom, pan, and rotate drawings
• View meta data and other details about elements within your drawings 

Markup & Annotate

• Use simple and intuitive redline and markup tools to communicate changes
• Add text or comments using familiar callouts and drawing tools

Download the Design Review Mobile app from iTunes here.

Bentley Innovations for the iPad

Bentley’s iPad apps are extensions of their desktop ProjectWise platform. These apps extend the core concept of smart sharing, flexible publishing, and dynamic review to the iPad. With Bentley’s iPad apps you can now work from any location. From your office you can author documents, package them together, and transfer them to the iPad. On site you can view those documents, review their properties, and mark up as needed. Finally, you can repackage them and synchronize with your work on your desktop in the office.

You can also download Bentley’s iWare apps to create your own optimized i-models (called “maps”) and i-model packages within ProjectWise Explorer, MicroStation, i-model Composer, and (presumably) indirectly from Revit using the i-model plug-in for Revit.

The iPad apps are applicable for all markets including civil, plant, building, and others. Follow the workflow diagrams below to get started. Enjoy innovative features like 360-degree panoramic viewing, redlining, and synching back with the desktop!

Bentley Navigator for iPad: Panoramic 360-degree navigation of 3-D design models as well as easy review of properties and red-lining of design models.

ProjectWise Explorer for iPad: Create, view, and mark up design models along with project files like PDFs, spreadsheets, and photos.

There's more information on Bentley's iPad apps here.

A Wizard for the Revit .NET API

On his blog, Spiderinnet has posted information about free wizards, coders and widgest that can be used to simplify the Revit API add-in development process.

From the blog post:

It finally comes out a very user friendly multi-page wizard, various needy coders, and many cool widgets for Revit .NET Addins. They have the following features:

• Can specify which Revit version and flavour to work with.
• Can start the specified Revit executable automatically when the Visual Studio project is being debugged.
• Revit API assemblies will be referenced into the project automatically.
• The Copy Local properties of RevitAPI.dll and RevitAPIUI.dll assembly references are set as FALSE automatically to avoid confusions and problems.
• Necessary namespaces are added to source files automatically.
• External application (IExternalApplication) is supported.
• External command (IExternalCommand) is supported.
• Application/command names can be named at will.
• Transaction mode (TransactionMode) can be specified.
• Regeneration option (RegenerationOption) can be specified.
• Ribbon panels (RibbonPanel) can be created.
• Ribbon buttons (PushButton) can be created.

Autodesk Cloud Rendering

The previous Autodesk Lab's technology preview Project Neon has made the leap to a commercial offering as Autodesk Cloud Rendering.

Autodesk Cloud Rendering allows Revit users to send views to the cloud for rendering via an add-in, freeing them up to continue to do other work while speeding up the rendering process.

Autodesk Cloud Rendering is included in Autodesk Subscription for those that have the Premium Building Suite or Ultimate Building Suite on subscription. Cloud storage is limited to 3GB per qualifying license on subscription.

There's more information on Autodesk Cloud Rendering here.

Revit Works: Door Factory

Create Doors & Curtain Panel Doors quickly & easily with the RevitWorks Door Factory add-on for Autodesk Revit®.

The Door Factory not only simplifies the creation of doors, it creates doors that are incredibly easy to use.

Any Revit user, from novice to expert, can create the doors they need quickly and easily.

Save time by creating doors on the fly, as and when you need them, allowing you to stay focused on your design.

Achieve consistency for all the doors in your project.

A free limited version of Door Factory is available. Pricing for up to 5 users is $595, with quantity discounts increasing from there.

More information is available here.

Revit Add-In .NET Template

While this blog is normally dedicated to finished add-ins, Jeremy Tammik, he of The Building Coder fame, has published a Visual Studio Add-In Wizard for Revit 2012 that creates a project starting point with the appropriate references, debugging options, and add-in file already setup. Very cool indeed!

More information here.

IES Virtual Environment (VE)

IES integrates with Autodesk Revit (BIM)

Toolbar enables environmental performance analysis


VE-Ware

Free energy and carbon plug-in for SketchUp and Revit

• Suitable for all building types across worldwide locations
• Easy to use – produce results at the touch of a few buttons
• Data entry and outputs are managed for you
• Uses full technical capabilities of IES’s powerful dynamic thermal simulation
• Based  on real climate data and typical characteristics of buildings and systems

Building Programming with Trelligence Affinity

Extending BIM and Enhancing Interoperability

As an integral part of interoperability and Building Information Modeling (BIM), Trelligence Affinity™ connects the requirements of a building program with the elements of the spatial design, giving you the ability to identify which constraints are being met and which ones are not.

Program

Affinity software starts with tools for architectural programming. You can collect program information in a central place and share it with your project constituents. Instead of managing forms or keeping track of lists, use Affinity project programming as the consistent source to integrate all the information you need to track about your building projects.

Visualize

Affinity’s schematic design tools help you visualize your space program and share ideas with your clients. Visualize the site plan and each story of your building, and lay out the spaces and rooms with Affinity’s easy-to-use graphical tools for space planning. Conduct multiple what-if scenarios together with the owner and design team. Affinity also allows you visualize the building in 3D block diagrams.

Parameter Sliders Add-in for Project Vasari 2.1

The Parameter Sliders add-in provides a graphical interface for flexing parameters on loaded families. This add-in currently only works inside Project Vasari Tech Preview 2.1.

More information is available here.

Project Vasari 2.1

A new version of Project Vasari has been released. Here's what's new:




Ecotect Wind Tunnel - Use the Wind Tunnel feature in conjunction with Ecotect Wind Rose analysis to dynamically simulate the impact of wind speed and direction on your projects. This prototype plugin provides a simplified computational fluid dynamics simulation that provides designers and engineers a ‘virtual wind tunnel’ to gain an insight on aerodynamic effects early in the design process. Main uses for this tool are:

• Exterior Air Flow: 2d and 3d tools provide a highly visual understanding of how air will flow across your building and site.
• Pedestrian Comfort: 3D simulations of key airflow circulation paths to provide an indication of the potential impact on pedestrian comfort.
• Natural Ventilation Boundary Conditions: 3D simulations of air flow across buildings to estimate the external pressure envelope.

WhiteFeet Revit Utilities - A Veritable Cornucopia of Tools

The WhiteFeet Revit Utilities toolset is composed of a collection of small, generally independent, programs that have each been created to address a specific need.  Typically, a project would encounter a problem, or envision an opportunity, that suggested a customization.  A tool was developed to address this need, but in a way that was slightly more general, so that it could be used in other ways and on other projects.

Sheet Manager

Sheet Manager links to an Excel file or (less commonly) an Access database. Based on this data, it creates or updates sheets in Revit as a bulk editing process. The tool can also be used to export data, renumber sheets, and place views on sheets.

It is also useful for maintaining “dummy” sheet lists of consultant drawings, whose only purpose is to populate the sheet schedule.

BIM on an iPad? Speed Up Mobile Collaboration with CadFaster|Collaborate

CadFaster|Collaborate for Autodesk® Revit® enables real-time annotation and co-viewing of BIM models and thus facilitates collaboration. CadFaster|Collaborate for Autodesk® Revit® is designed to enhance the design process in the AEC industry and to improve customer experience.

Challenge:

The architectural design process of a building or a site abroad requires constant interaction with various stakeholders. If the architectural design is done in one country, but the customer is in another, there is no practical way to co-view the BIM models, which translates to frequent traveling.

Solution:

CadFaster|Collaborate enables real-time feedback collection, co-viewing and collaboration. With CadFaster|Collaborate every stakeholder is able to participate in the design process enabling customer reviews and real-time feedback. Possible design flaws can be eliminated during the design process making sure that the customer specific needs and requirements are fully met.

Revit Content from Revit Works

At last...

...components for REVIT software that actually work throughout the whole BIM process.




WORKSHOPS

A Revit project file that contains a selection of pre-built families and variations on components that can be manually swapped to create new families.

The workshops that have been constructed to date are as follows:

• Casework and Interior Joinery 

ADN Plugin of the Month Sep 2011: TransTips

TransTips for AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, and 3ds Max

This plugin translates the contents of tooltips in various Autodesk products automatically into one of 35+ languages via the Bing online translation service. The translated text is stored in a local cache of XML files, which can also be edited and provided with the plugin, should someone wish to provide improved translations for certain tooltips.

Download it here.

From Autodesk Labs: Project Storm for Revit Structure

Project Storm for Autodesk Revit Structure is a technology preview that provides cloud-based structural analysis to structural engineers as a part of the BIM process. With Project Storm, engineers and designers can extend design models from Revit Structure to the cloud for structural analysis from directly within Revit Structure.

Results can then be visualized and explored within Revit Structure and disruptions to workflows are minimized by performing analysis in the cloud as users continue to design.

More information here.

From Autodesk Labs: Project Spark

Project Spark is a technology preview of a simplified 3D building information modeling (BIM) solution. Using Project Spark, building professionals can create designs efficiently with real-world building objects, produce more reliable documentation faster, and share files with consultants using Revit or AutoCAD-based products.

Project Spark is not intended to support conceptual design, analysis, rendering, advanced collaboration, and API.

More information here.

Jason Grant's Sheet Creator

Jason Grant has created a free add-in for creating sheets more quickly, and for organizing them in the Project Browser using shared parameters. His web site indicates that the source code is included for those that would like to further customize the add-in. Bravo Jason!

There's a video of the add-in in action on Vimeo.

Download the add-in here.