IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

Autodesk University and IMAGINiT

If you haven't heard yet, the preview version of the AU 2011 class catalog is now available. Take a look at it and see if you can start making plans for what classes you'd like to attend or lobbying for the ability to attend. :) Once again, IMAGINiT will be teaching a number of classes this year - please pardon the self-promotion...

I'll be co-presenting with Lonnie Cumpton and a few others on these classes: 



BO4423 - Super Size Me: An Owner's Guide to the Real Cost of a Mega Autodesk® Revit® Project

CM4400-U - Super Size Me: A Guide to Autodesk® Revit® and BIM Management on a MEGA Project

LF4432 - Supersize Me: A Design Professional's Guide to Integrated Design on a Mega Autodesk® Revit® Project

Jeff Bowers from our Richmond, VA office will be presenting AB3725-L, Multiple Discipline Scheduling in Autodesk® Revit®: It’s Possible to Schedule Anything with Revit!

Scott Buchanan (Indianapolis) will be teaching MP5463, Get a Load Outta Autodesk® Revit® MEP

and Ken Flannigan (Dallas) will be teaching MP5672-U, Leveraging an Architect's Model in Autodesk® Revit® MEP

We look forward to seeing you there!

joe

Holy Crap Moments in Software History

So Chuck Jolin, co-contributor to this blog, came in this morning to do an overview presentation of Plant 3D 2011.

was.

He tried to start the software and could not get it to work (haven't gone through troubleshooting yet to see why it is having problems).

Solution?

Yesterday he downloaded and installed AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012. Today he opened it for the first time and was able to complete the client presentation!

So that leads to a question for anyone following this blog on a Friday... Do you have any stories to share of similar software gotchas and how you were able to overcome and achieve success anyway? Post a comment below and share!

joe

Plant 3D Nozzle Alignment

Aligning Equipment Nozzles in Plant 3D   

Nozzle placement on 3D equipment in Plant can present challenges when trying to align them with other equipment to optimize pipe routing.    

This video illustrates using an AutoCAD Line and Rotate command along with the Nozzle editing tools in Plant to easily create the desired alignment.

    

   

   

P&ID Tool Palettes

Can you tell what I have been working on lately? J   

Plant 3D tool palettes are created and controlled through the project specifications. They are relatively easy to modify and maintain...not so for P&ID palettes.   

P&ID workspaces and tool palettes for all standards P&ID PIP, P&ID ISO, P&ID ISA, P&ID DIN, and P&ID JIS/ISO are available within all projects. The tools located on each palette in these workspaces are defined in the P&ID Class Definitions of the Project Properties.   

While many of the tools on these tool palettes can be used in any project, the P&ID Class Definitions for each standard are slightly different. This will result in the error "symbol could not be found in the current project" when trying to add these P&ID objects to a project drawing.   

To add this content to the project you are working on, create a new project using the P&ID standard containing the Class Definition. Create a P&ID resource drawing in this project and add any of the tool palette objects that generate this error into the drawing. Save and close this project.

Open the desired target project for these P&ID class objects and use Link to Drawing to add the reference drawing to this project. Open the drawing you just added and use copy to clipboard CTL+C to copy the objects into a P&ID drawing created within the project you are now working in.

Note: Copying the file into the project does not update the P&ID Class Definitions, but copying the objects from one drawing to another does. Adding the drawing to the project allows you to have both drawings open simultaneously and simplifies the copy/paste process when you are dealing with multiple items.

Although the P&ID Class Definition is created for us in our target project it is not complete. The Symbol information is incomplete and we cannot use it to add the tool to another palette. You can however copy palette tools from one P&ID workspace to another.

Create a project template in this manner to use when starting new projects to automate and standardize this configuration in the future!

Migrating Revit Project Templates to the Next Version

If you have ever upgraded a Revit project to the next version you have probably experienced some issues or inconsistencies in that project. Consider then that upgrading a Revit project template can often literally infect future Revit projects with similar performance impeding abnormalities.   

I have experienced this first hand with one of our own customers, which is why we prefer to migrate project template setup into a new Revit version template instead of upgrading your old templates. Autodesk's Revit Performance Technical Notes have not addressed this subject, but recently the 2012 certification testing undertaken by Autodesk VAR Technical Resources discouraged upgrading Revit project templates to the next version. I learned my lesson and have since recommended migrating Revit templates as opposed to upgrading them as a "Best Practice" in Revit or any Autodesk product for that matter.   

This is a more time consuming process...but compared to the productivity it can save your staff it is time well spent. However, if you long for the days when you could easily upgrade you templates...I have a set of mechanical pencils that I will let you have cheap!   

• Protect your Data
  • Backup the current Project Template before starting this process
• Transfer Project Standards
  • Transfer project settings, system families and related component families from your project template into a current version project template.
• Component Families
  • Identify component families in your project template that need to be added to the new project template you are creating. Save those families to a temporary folder. In the new version project template you can load all of these component families from that temporary folder.
• Views
  • Create a new project with your existing project template and save it to the temporary folder. From the Insert tab use the Insert from File>Insert View from File option to load Views, Schedules and Sheets into the new version project template.

    (Sheet Views cannot be inserted if they have views referenced to them...open the project and remove the references first and then re-place the views in the current project template.)

• Legends
  • These views cannot be inserted from one project to another. Create new corresponding legend views in the current version template you are defining and copy/paste the information from the same legend views in the temporary project to the new view.
• Datum Annotations
  • Review Grids, Levels, Section, Elevation and Detail view settings in the current version project template to verify the component family assignments for proper display of these items.
• Clean Up
  • Review the current version project templates family list in the project browser to identify and eliminate duplicated or other unwanted family definitions.
• Save As
  • Finally you want to use the Save As command to overwrite your original default project template with this newly migrated project template for the current version.

   

IMAGINiT Bim Spectrum - coming to a computer screen near you!

Did you want to learn tips, tricks, and best practices, or do you want to know how your peers are engaging with BIM in their practice? If so, BIM Spectrum is for you!

If not, we need to talk. Really. Leave a comment below and I’ll see it.

BIM Spectrum is not “just another disguised software sales pitch”, but is a series of informative and educational presentations from people like:

Arthur G. Theusch, LEED® AP | The Christman Company
Robert A. Glover | Wiley Wilson
Stevens Williams, AIA, LEED® AP, Cesar Escalante, AIA, LEED® AP | Flad Architects
Simone Brogini LEED® AP, Bernie Christopher, Dusty Ramsey | Kleinfelder / SEA

If you attended our previous  virtual event, you know the value that this can be! So why should you attend this year’s event? Well, I’ll tell ya…

Top 10 Reasons to attend IMAGINiT's BIM Spectrum Virtual Event

1. See What Small Steps Can Be Taken To Drive More Value Out Of Your Existing Model
2. Understand the tradeoffs necessary when using BIM to maintain profitability
3. Learn How a General Contractor Uses Your Building Information Model
4. Learn How Architects Deliver Sustainably Designed Spaces Using Parametric Modeling 
5. See How Real Multi-Discipline Models Are Coordinated, Including Civil Information
6. Discover How Modeling Can Be Used To Benefit a Historical Renovation
7. View On-Demand content for in-depth product demonstrations in addition to live sessions focused on higher level topics
8. Chat with other attendees, presenters, and industry experts throughout the event
9. It's free!
10. It's Virtual! (and no web cams) That means no dress code.

To see the event agenda, click here:
http://imaginit.com/lp/bim_spectrum/index.html#Agenda
To see speaker bios, follow this link:
http://imaginit.com/lp/bim_spectrum/speakers.html
To register for the event (to be held on Wednesday, August 17), click here:
https://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/IMAGINiT/8-11/Registration/registration.html

 I look forward to virtually seeing you there!

joe

Wayward Dialog Boxes in Plant 3D

Occasionally I will plug my laptop into a secondary monitor while working to provide additional screen space for all the applications that I have running. Recently I was working in AutoCAD Plant 3D while plugged into that monitor and I was moving some of the dialog boxes to that screen while I worked.   

As it happens I was doing some Plant 3D training recently and many of the dialog boxes were not displaying when I selected commands. At first I thought my installation had become corrupted and then I remembered that second monitor!    

It seems that the AutoCAD Plant 3D does not recognize the absence of that extended monitor and reset the UI to bring the dialog boxes back into visible screen space. :-( Luckily for me there is a keyboard shortcut combination that will allow you to move those dialog boxes back into the visible screen area without having to reconnect to the extended monitor.    

Press ALT+SHIFT+SPACEBAR in combination to activate the dialog move menu. Select the move command and then press one of the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the dialog box back into visible range.