Beyond the Paper

Looking for Accountability

"At the Greentech Media and Groom Energy, Enterprise Carbon Accounting Summit in Burlingame, Calif., Emma Stewart, who heads up Autodesk's Sustainable Business & Operations program, lays out the company's five strategies for reducing its environmental impact. It wants to not only build better design tools for itself and customers, but also to become more and more sustainable from within the company by examining everything from square foot usage to future partnership possibilities."

You can check out the video here.

Thank you.

List Revit's Model ID in Navisworks Clash Detective Report?

My recent post "What is Clash Detection" triggered some customer feedback, one of which I consider worthy covering in this article.

Here is the question submitted by the reader: "Is there any way to get the various reports to list a Revit's model's Element ID of a clashing object?"

Very happy to share that we can answer the question with "Yes it is possible".

Users need to set up "Smart tags" to  show the element ID.  "Smart tags display property information in a tooltip style window as you move your cursor over objects in the Scene Area. By default, smart tags show the name and type of the object, but you can use the Options Editor to define which properties are shown. Each definition that you configure enables you to display an additional category/property combination in smart tags. You can choose whether to hide category names in smart tags or not."

Then export the report as normal and the Element ID should appear in the report.

Please share any feedback, comments or suggestions you may have.

Thank you.

Navisworks File Open Error

Users may experience difficulties when attempting to open Navisworks 2010 files in earlier versions of the product.

At this point, users will be presented with a message when a model from a future version is loaded into a previous version. The message could match the one shown here or may be similar.

We recommend the following workaround to our customers:

You should load the model in the version it came from or ask the sender of the file to go to "File > Save As" and save the file as an earlier version of the file.

Note: The problem mainly occurs with NWD files but can occur with NWF and NWC files.

Please share any feedback or comments you may have.

Thank you.

Beginning of the End for Vista? - Off Topic

One can find many references out in the “blog world”, that indicate the rise of Windows 7.

Should that mean for Vista to exit the market earlier than anticipated?

Windows 7 is looking better and better as it gets closer to release. Many analysts state the obvious and tell businesses to move away from Vista and to directly go to Windows 7.

Remember Windows Me, which came on-line about a decade ago? Windows Vista appears to have similarities and turned out a “not so great” product, too. It was filled with problems and launched before it was ready. By the time Microsoft smoothed out most of the problems, Vista had already gotten a lasting reputation for being frustrating at times as well as slow.

A few businesses may want the option of buying Vista if they've invested in conversion and training, but most are still on XP for the majority of their users. Stopping the distribution of Vista just makes sense if Windows 7 really turns out to be as great a success as it seems to be heading for.

Said that, despite all the improvements made in Windows 7, it still requires additional expenditures for things like mal-ware protection.

Let’s see where this journey takes us.

I think that I will go straight for Windows 7, being still a strong proponent of XP – how about you?

Thank you.

Navisworks - What is Clash Detection?

"Clash detection allows for the effective identification, inspection and reporting of interferences in a 3D project model."

Navisworks use the Clash Detective tool for to permit clash detection. It can help you to reduce the risk of human error during model inspections. It can also be used as a one-off 'sanity check' for a completed design work, or it can be used as an ongoing audit check of the project.

You can conduct clash tests between traditional 3D geometry (triangles), and laser-scanned point clouds or you can combine the Clash Detective functionality with other Autodesk Navisworks tools:

• Linking Clash Detective and Object Animation together gives you the ability to automatically check interferences between moving objects. For example, linking a Clash Detective test to an existing animation scene would automatically highlight clashes for both static and moving objects during the animation, for example, a crane rotating through the top of a building, a delivery lorry colliding with a workgroup, and so on.
• Linking Clash Detective and TimeLiner together enables the time-based clash checks on the project. See Select Items for Testing for further details on time-based clashing.
• Linking togetherClash Detective, TimeLiner, and Object Animation enables clash testing of fully animated TimeLiner schedules.

 

Clash Detective also allows you to create custom clash tests via Exported clash tests. If you have a common set of clash tests that you reuse on multiple projects, you can turn them into a custom clash test. Once installed as a custom clash test, the entire batch of tests can be selected and run directly from the Select Tab. The results from all tests in the batch are combined and presented as the results of the custom clash test. The name of each test in the batch is displayed in the Description field of the results.

Custom clash tests are an excellent way to roll out a standardized set of tests across an organization. They allow the expertise of "power" users to be reused by everyone. Finally, they can be seen as a way of implementing object intelligence. For example, a custom clash test could be written that checked for compliance with a local building code based on object information and properties defined in a particular CAD system.

And last, but not least - there is report functionality. For instance, you may need a report that will enable planners to adjust the project schedule in their 3rd party scheduling software.

For time-based clashes, it may be helpful to include in the report additional information about each static package in the clash. This information can be set up in the Options Editor by using the Smart Tags definitions.

As always, please share any feedback, comments or suggestions you may have.

Thank you.

Plotwave 300 supports DWF format

Strategic Planner, Tim Moore, of Océ Reprographic Technologies in Phoenix, Arizona reports that the Oce Plotwave 300 supports DWF natively:

Specs include: Page description language HP-GL, HP-GL/2, TIFF, JPEG, DWF, PS/PDF-option, CALS, NIFF, NIRS, ASCII, Calcomp 906/907/951, C4

For more information, download OcePlotWave300SpecSheet.pdf (252.0K).

To go beyond thw paper, you have to be able to get to the paper first.

--scott

Navisworks Simulation sans frontières - Français

Autodesk Navisworks 2010 - Fonctionnalités

Les logiciels Autodesk® Navisworks® vous aident, vous et vos équipes, à gagner en visibilité et en prévisibilité, pour une maîtrise optimale et une collaboration de confiance. La famille Autodesk Navisworks compte trois logiciels de révision de projets de conception 3D et une application de visualisation gratuite*.

BIM - Video

Autodesk Navisworks Manage

• Fichier 3D et agrégation de données
• Navigation en temps réel
• Kit d’outils de révision
• Publication aux formats NWD et 3D DWF
• Nomenclatures 4D
• Visualisation photoréaliste
• Capacités d’animation d’objets
• Détection des conflits et gestion des interférences
• Puissante combinaison de toutes les fonctionnalités

Autodesk Navisworks Simulate

• Fichier 3D et agrégation de données
• Navigation en temps réel
• Kit d’outils de révision
• Publication aux formats NWD et 3D DWF
• Nomenclatures 4D
• Visualisation photoréaliste
• Capacités d’animation d’objets

Autodesk Navisworks Review

• Fichier 3D et agrégation de données
• Navigation en temps réel
• Kit d’outils de révision
• Publication aux formats NWD et 3D DWF

Application de visualisation gratuite* Autodesk Navisworks Freedom:

• Révision gratuite* aux formats NWD et 3D DWF
• Lecture d’animations d’objets et de simulation 4D
• Vue arborescente de sélection de modèle
• Vue de propriétés d’objets
• Vue de points de vue
• Vue de commentaires

* Les produits gratuits sont soumis aux termes et conditions énoncés dans l’accord de licence d’utilisateur final joint à la version téléchargeable du logiciel.

Provide Feedback on Naviswork and Design Review and Earn $150

We would like to get your thoughts regarding interoperability between Navisworks Freedom and Autodesk Design Review, so we’re kicking off a user research effort. We want to interview both Navisworks and Autodesk Design Review users in the Bay Area. In particular, if you are a Bay Area Autodesk Design Review user and can sign up for a 90-minute on-site interview, you could really help us out. The interviews will be conducted in the first two weeks of June. We will compensate participants for their efforts: $150 for the 90-minute session.

If you would like to participate, please contact [email protected]. You can help shape the future of collaborating with design data.

An electronic review process really allows collaboration to go beyond the paper. With your insight, you can help us make it go way beyond.

--scott

Navisworks - Wireframe Proxies During DWG Import

Some of you may have experienced the display of wireframe graphics (bounding boxes) of ducts, pipes or similar during opening of a DWG file in Navisworks Manage.

Some applications based on the AutoCAD® platform (including Autodesk products such as AutoCAD® Architecture, and non-Autodesk products such as Bentley AutoPLANT) generate custom objects, which are then saved in the subsequent DWG file.

In order to properly display the geometry and access the properties of these custom objects, you must have the corresponding Object Enabler (OE) installed on your computer. You can obtain the necessary Object Enablers from the manufacturers of these applications. For example, the Autodesk Object Enablers are available from the following webpage:

http://www.autodesk.com/oe

Follow these steps to display custom objects:

• Open the file that contains the proxy graphics in Navisworks.
• Click View menu > Scene Statistics. A list of the missing Object Enablers will be displayed.
• Locate, download, and install the missing Object Enablers from the manufacturer's website. Important! Some Object Enablers have dependencies on other OEs, and, therefore, need to be installed in a specific order. For example, the AutoCAD® MEP 2009 OE has a dependency on the AutoCAD Architecture 2009 OE. Therefore, you must install the AutoCAD Architecture OE before installing the AutoCAD MEP 2009 OE. Also, be aware that some OEs may not be designed to work with non-AutoCAD-based applications, such as Navisworks. In these cases, the OE may already be installed, even though it was listed as missing in the Scene Statistics dialog box, or it may cause the application to crash when used.
• Start Navisworks.
• Click Tools menu > Global Options > File Readers > DWG/DXF/SAT.
• From the Loader for DWG drop-down menu, select the year that corresponds to the DWG year of the file. Note: Depending on the OE, you may also need to change the Render Type from Automatic to Shaded.
• Click OK.
• Exit Navisworks.
• Delete any NWC (cache) files associated with your DWG file. A new NWC file will be created when the model is reopened.
• Start Navisworks and open the DWG file.

Note: When using some OEs (for example, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, and other OEs based on these) the display of the geometry in Navisworks depends on the display configuration in use when the DWG file was saved. For example, if a model was saved in a wireframe view in the AutoCAD-based application, it will appear as wireframe in Navisworks.

To change this behavior:

• In Navisworks, click Tools menu > Global Options.
• In the Options Editor, click File Readers menu > DWG/DXF/SAT.
• Select the Use ADT Standard Configuration check box.

Thank you.

GPS + DWFx + Autodesk Design Review = Field Environment App?

"Rough n' ready feasibility testing of Autodesk Design Review's GPS [Global Positioning System] mode, out in the field. Hardware used was a consumer level netbook & GPS device with installation of Autodesk Design Review 2010. Transport was by bicycle!

Window of opportunity for gathering accurate GPS tracking was missed. Full tree foliage could cause inaccurate readings. However, tracking was surprisingly good given the conditions. A more polished follow-up video may be uploaded in future - intent being more accurate tracking synchronized with route video. This depends on improved netbook & camera mounts to the bicycle transport."

Video Link

This reiterates that Autodesk Design Review is a powerful FREE stream-lined review and mark-up application and can be seen as optimized for sharing of intelligent Design communication amongst Engineering Design Professionals and all downstream stake-holders.

The video was created  by one of our customers, Trevor Gallyot. Thank you, Trevor.

Other customers are also encouraged to share their story, tests or even videos. The broader user community loves to hear what is possible, beyond the paper.

Please send us any feedback, comments or suggestions you may have.

Thank you.