IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

Revit 2011 Conceptual Design Improvements

In Revit Architecture 2011 there are Improvements in Conceptual Design, lets take a look at them.

Conceptual Design Improvements

For the 2011 release of Revit Architecture, Autodesk concentrated on improving the conceptual design tools in three main areas: form-making and editing, surface rationalization, and custom components.

Form-making and Editing

The Dissolve Form command will remove the surfaces from a form, leaving behind only its defining profiles, curves, and points. So let’s say you want to edit several profiles at once, or maybe you need to completely remove a profile from the form, like in the case of this 3-profile lofted form with. The form is too dramatic and I want to simplify it by removing the middle profile. I can dissolve the form, delete the profile and then simply create form again, using only the top and bottom profiles. Using the same methodology, I could just as easily have added a profile above the form, making a 4-profile loft instead of the original 3-profile loft.

Now let’s say we want to reduce the complex curvature of this front face even more. Sketch editing for conceptual masses has also been improved in Revit Architecture 2011 and provides the ability to edit individual profiles of any type of form without having to delete the form first, similar to “sketch mode” but even more accessible. So, by simply picking this top face of the form and clicking the Edit Profile tool, I enter sketch mode and can change this curve from concave to convex very easily. Now I finish the sketch and see that I’ve got my updated form. This command works for all types of form sketches, including, but not limited to, revolve profiles, sweep profiles, sweep paths and loft profiles.

In the past, only voids could be used as cutting elements for Boolean operations, and it was difficult to access them again for further transformations. Now solids can be used to cut other solids, so that when the cut is executed, geometry from both forms remains visible. So if you need your cutting element to remain as part of your design, you can do that. Cutting behavior is dependent on the order clicks when using the Cut tool. You’ll see the specific results of the transformation if you hide each of the elements in turn. Right here, I’m using the X-Ray tool to demonstrate the results.

Another interesting new feature that will help your design workflow is the Workplane Viewer. The Workplane Viewer is a temporary view window that dynamically aligns to the active workplane and displays geometry associated with that workplane. This feature is valuable when inspecting or editing complex forms. So let’s say I’ve changed the overall form of the cutting element in the model. The top face is now sloping and I’d like to sketch some lines on this face. I know that Revit will automatically set the face as the active workplane when I move my mouse over it while sketching, but I can also open up the active workplane viewer to align exactly to that face. This new view window is not a permanent view and you will notice that it has not been added to the Project Browser. However, it is an editable view. So now I see the top face of the form in the view and other related elements. But as my active workplane changes throughout my workflow, the view contents and orientation update dynamically, providing me with an optimized working view at all times.

Surface Rationalization

We have greatly enhanced the ability to rationalize surfaces by allowing them to be split by levels, reference planes, and model lines. So now, divided surface patterns can be made up of any combination of UV grids and intersects.

By default, when we divide the surface of this form, it is split up in two directions – with U and V grids. As usual, we can toggle on and off these grid divisions, but now you’ll see another control called Intersects. First,apply a pattern to the divided surface, and then turn off the U grid divisions.

 

 

Next, turn on some model lines that have already been drawn and using the Intersects tool, you’ll see how easy it is to create custom surface patterns for
your conceptual designs. This is an extremely powerful tool and extends the capabilities of surface rationalization beyond uniform two-way patterns.

 

Custom Components

The adaptive component is a generalized implementation of the pattern
was initially introduced with the 2010 release of Autodesk Revit Architecture. It is designed to handle cases where components need to flexibly adapt to many unique contextual conditions.

An example of a form has a custom curtain, edge panels are missing and I’d like to fill those in component is to fill in these edge panels. By simply draging it from the Project Browser to the canvas and click the point to which I want it to connect. This new tools provides unlimited control over your custom curtain systems and unlocks a variety of new workflows.

 

 

Use of the adaptive component is not limited to this simple, yet valuable, use case. Adaptive components be used in a variety of exciting ways; including structural framing applications.

 
Payoff (Conceptual Design Improvements)
These additions and enhancements make an already very capable set if tools even more powerful and easy to use. New workflows make form editing more intuitive and allow users to interact with their models the way they want to in order to support a seamless design workflow. Intersects and the Adaptive Component open conceptual modeling to a variety of new and advanced design workflow opportunities.

Play Video by Autodesk below:

 

 

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Family Editor Enhancements

Family Editor Enhancements

By utilizing existing tools from the massing (conceptual design) environment, as well as implementing a few key new features, the family editor environment has been made easier to use and more powerful. Check out Revit Architecture 2011 family editor new enchancements.

1. Loose-labeled Dimensions and Visual Display of Related Parameters

New features such as loose-labeled dimensions and the visual display of related parameters take a lot of the guesswork out of editing and testing various parameter values. Simply by choosing a labeled parameter and clicking the Related Dimensions button on the Options bar, you can immediately see onscreen when multiple parameters are related with a formula. This can be very valuable when editing complex families or families created by someone else.

In addition, you can test family parameter values interactively by directly manipulating geometry, rather than opening the Family Types dialog box. By simply dragging geometry, labeled parameters values are automatically updated. And labeled parameter values can be edited directly in the view, via their dimensions, similar to editing temporary dimensions. The values that are generated by directly manipulating model geometry or dimensions in-canvas are assigned to the current Family Type, which can be seen when I open the Types dialog. These new capabilities enable quick-and-easy testing of multiple parameter values, which helps provide a smoother design workflow.

2. Reporting Parameters

Reporting parameters are a new type of instance parameter that can be applied in a variety of ways to achieve powerful results. Rather than driving geometry, they have their value driven by elements in the family model. They can expose and report their dimensional value at any time for use in unlimited downstream workflows.

So in this example, I’ve created parameters for each of the edges of the curtain panel which I will then leverage in the project environment. Once I’ve loaded the panel into this project what I want to check for is the area of each panel instance. By creating a calculated value in my schedule which multiplies the
reported dimension of each instance of Edge 1 by the dimension of Edge 2, I can quickly evaluate the structural viability of each panel with respect to its surface area. If the area exceeds a recommended value, in this case 30 SF, I will have it automatically highlighted in my schedule, using conditional formatting.

Payoff (Family Editor Enhancements):
These additions and enhancements make it easier and more intuitive to work with parameters in the Family environment and extend the capabilities of Instance Parameters for valuable downstream applications.

Check out this Video by Autodesk:

 

 

Revit 2011 New Enhancements – Design & Documentation

In my last post I talked about "User Interface Improvement for Revit 2011". In this blog I will talk about Revit 2011 New Enhancements in Design and Documentation for Revit Architecture 2011, Revit Structure 2011, and Revit MEP 2011.

Revit 2011 New Design Enhancements

These features will enhance the everyday design workflow by adding new capabilities, as well as making simple tasks easier to accomplish.

Temorary Dimensions

Revit gives you the ability to control temporary dimension font size and background display (transparent or opaque), thus allowing you to control the custom look and feel of the on-screen display.

3D Alignment

In 3D views, the align tool can be used independent of the active workplane and can be used to align patterns on non-coincident surfaces. This behavior is intuitive and makes it even easier to work in 3d views, which is very powerful for the design workflow.

Structural Tools in Revit Architecture

Several features formerly available only to Autodesk Revit Structure software customers are now available in Autodesk Revit Architecture, such as the ability to create curved beams, slanted columns, beam copings, trusses, metal deck profiles, and more.

The Span Direction tool enables you to interactively control the span direction of structural decking in a Revit Architecture project. After placing the span direction symbol, it is very simple to adjust the direction by interactively aligning the symbol to different edges of the slab or other guiding
elements in the view.

DWG Visual Fidelity

With the 2011 release of Revit Architecture, the framework for display, print, and export of AutoCAD DWG Drawings has been unified into one. Users should see increased visual fidelity in viewing, printing and exporting of AutoCAD files from Revit.

Payoff (Small Enhancements – Design):
These additions and enhancements will improve the experience with everyday tasks by extending the capabilities of Revit and making design workflows more fluid.

Below is a Movie by Autodesk on "Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 Design Enhancements" :

 

Revit 2011 New Documentation Enhancements

The following features can enhance your everyday documentation process by helping you make your drawings look the way you want and by enabling you to better organize your project sheets as well as your consultants’ sheets.

Custom Elevation Tags

Elevation tags are now fully customizable and can be designed according to your company standards. They can contain any graphics you want and can align to any number of orientations necessary for your project.

Text Notes and Leaders

Several enhancements have been made to text and leaders. These enhancements include the ability to display a border around text notes, control the Leader/Border Offset, control the vertical alignment of leaders and create lists with bullets and numbered formatting. In addition, familiar keyboard formatting shortcuts, such as Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+U can now be used in Revit, saving your time and improving usability.

Sheet Improvements

Sheets Lists (formerly named Drawing Lists) can now include placeholder sheet rows for sheets that have not yet been created or will never be created in your project. This is helpful when you want to include your consultants’ sheets, for example. So you can have rows in your schedule without actually creating actual sheets in the Project Browser.

Placeholders can be easily converted to actual sheets in the project and the conversion can be done as a batch operation. Simply click on the New Sheet button and you’ll see that the New Sheet dialog now lists all of the placeholder sheets, which can be selected as a group. When you click OK, you’ll see that all of the sheets have been created in the Project Browser. This workflow can save a lot of time and frustration when creating sheets

Sheet Guide Grids are a graphic option on sheet views which allow you create drawing alignments across multiple sheets. Extents and grid spacing can be easily adjusted for individual sheets, depending on the sheet layout. Reference elements in your views, such as Levels, Grids and Reference Planes can be
snapped to Guide Grids for better positioning of your views. If specific adjustments have been made to a named Guide Grid, those adjustments can be applied to additional sheets simply by selecting the named Guide Grid in the Properties Palette for that view.

Payoff (Small Enhancements – Documentation):
These additions and enhancements will greatly improve your documentation process by enabling more customization and providing tools that will assist you in making your drawings look the way you want them to.

Below is a movie by Autodesk on "Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Documentation Enhancements":

Stayed tuned to see Revit 2011 Family Editor Enhancements.

User Interface Improvements for Revit 2011

There is 100+ New Features in Revit 2011. There is 2000+ issues resolved. Autodesk also looked at the AUGI wish list and included 5 out of the top 10. Autodesk will be looking at the AUGI wish list again and will be including 7 of the top 20. This in Includes Revit Architecture 2011, Revit Structure 2011 and Revit MEP 2011.

In this post I will be showing the Interface Improvement for Revit 2011.

Payoff (User Interface Improvements):
These additions and enhancements will improve everyday workflows by providing access to the tools and settings you need at all times, without interrupting the design process.

1. Modeless Properties Palette

The Properties Palette is “modeless,” so you have constant access to both view and element properties, without having to interrupt your design workflow. When multiple elements are selected, filtering information, such as the number of walls or doors that are selected, can be easily seen via the Properties Filter dropdown. The element Type Selector is also available through the modeless Properties Palette.

The Properties Palette is dockable and resizable and supports multiple monitor configurations.

 

2. Quick Access Toolbar Customization

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) has been greatly enhanced with a new dialog for customization. This interface allows you to reorder your tools and add dividers, for better organization and grouping of commands. Additionally, a single QAT now supports both the project and family editor environments.

 

3. Keyboard Shortcuts

The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog provides a quick and easy way to assign or remove shortcuts to all of your tools, including tools that were previously inaccessible for shortcuts. Search and filter options are also available, so you can easily find the tools you need. Shortcuts are immediately available upon closing the dialog box, which means there is no need to restart the application.

4. Modify and Contextual Tabs

The Modify and Contextual tabs have been redesigned to reduce tab switching and mouse clicks, minimize ribbon flickering and provide consistent command placement. So, for example, you will see that as I select various building elements, the Modify tools always remain consistent and the element-specific
(or contextual) tools are appended to the right end of the Modify tools section of the ribbon.

5. Context Menu Tools

Several new tools have been added to the right-click context menu, including Repeat last command, Repeat Commands recently used and Select All Instances Visible In View. These options will improve efficiency and make it clearer when creating large, complex element selections.

6. Status Bar Tools

Lastly, Worksets and Design Options controls have been relocated to the Status Bar area, which means they are always available, no matter what you’re working on.

Play movie below made by Autodesk on User Interface Improvements:

Stayed tuned for next post for Revit 2011 Design and Documentation Enchancements.