IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

NEW Home for the IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

We truly enjoy writing blog posts and sharing them. But that’s not all we do. Our new blog site lives on the IMAGINiT Resource Center. 

The IMAGINiT Resource Center offers a searchable index of our older posts, on-demand webcasts, tips and tricks, case studies, whitepapers, and more.

Content from our amazing technical team will continue! We hope you’ll join us: https://resources.imaginit.com/building-solutions-blog 

Trade In and Save 20% on Autodesk Software

For a limited time, you can trade-in your qualifying* perpetual licenses and save on any eligible Autodesk software including the Industry Collections, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, 3ds Max, and many more. Trade-in before October 25th.

*Qualifying licenses are perpetual licenses with release year 2014 through 2019 that are not on an active maintenance plan.

 

Trade-in and save 20%

 

Ready to upgrade? Let us help! Contact us here. 

Revit Origin and Exporting to AutoCAD

This week our own Jordan Mussett explains using the Project Base Point in Revit to export AutoCAD background drawings.

Many Revit users get themselves in hot water when it comes to providing consultants and sub consultants with AutoCAD Backgrounds. In the images below, the Project Base Point does represent the 0,0 point in AutoCAD.

At its simplest, Revit has a point that it doesn't tell you about. There is the Project Base Point, the Survey Point, and what I like to call the original origin. The original origin reveals itself in the following way. When the Project Base point is unclipped and moved, the 0,0 point in AutoCAD is now where the Project Base Point was. Another way to look at is, if the Project Base Point is unclipped and moved, the 0,0 point in the AutoCAD export is now different than where the Project Base Point is in Revit. This is going to be something that more likely than not, the consultants are going to point out to you by asking, why is 0,0 over here? In the pictures below, the Project Base Point was unclipped and moved. In AutoCAD, the 0,0 point stayed where it was.

So what is the safe practice? At the outset of a project, turn the Project Base Point on and use this point as your intersection of two grids preferably at the corner of the building and go from there. That way everyone linking origin to origin will be good to go and everyone receiving AutoCAD exports will be seeing a 0,0 point at the intersection of two grid lines.

So you think you know AutoCAD?

Test your AutoCAD knowledge with Heather Alley.

I have been teaching AutoCAD update classes a lot lately. I think it is because of Autodesk's push towards Subscription licenses, that many companies have found themselves "current" for the first time in years. Now that you own the latest version of AutoCAD 2015, do you really know the great new tools that have been added in the last 5 years?

 

I have created a little quiz, for all those users who "know" AutoCAD, Enjoy!

 

1. Do you know there is an ALIGN command? It will rotate, move, & scale, all in one command!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Do you know how to convert single line text to multiline text? The command is TXT2MTXT.

 

1. Do you know that there are TWO different Spline commands? Do you know the difference between them? Spline Fit and Spline CV (Control Vertices)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Do you know that you can now use the command line to search for blocks in the project?

 

1. Do you know that TRIM & EXTEND are actually the same command?

• For example, if you are TRIM-ing objects, hold down the SHIFT key to reverse the command, and EXTEND instead, and vice versa.

 

1. Do you know that you do not need to pick a cutting edge when using TRIM or EXTEND?

• After starting either Trim or Extend, if you simply hit ENTER at the prompt to pick a cutting edge, ALL LINES become the cutting edge!

 

 

 

1. 7. Do you send files to your consultants by dragging and dropping files into your email?

• There is a better way! It is called Etransmit, and it will save down to earlier versions, purge the drawing, attach all xrefs and images, and create a transmittal package of files, AUTOMATICALLY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Do you know that if you double click the mouse wheel, it ZOOM EXTENTS!

 

1. Do you know that the JOIN command is super powerful?

• It has two tremendous uses. First, it will JOIN coincident lines that you may have split apart. Second, if you have multiple lines on top of each other, JOIN will clean them all up and merge them to become one line

 

1. 10. Do you know that AutoCAD 2015 has a new TEXT ALIGN command?

• It lines up individual pieces of Mtext. (Note: this does not work for Multileaders, as they have had their own MLEADERALIGN command for years)

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let us know how you did on our little quiz, and if we were able to stump you with any of our DO YOU KNOW questions.

It’s March – That Must Mean New Software!

Yes, it’s that time of year again - time to see what sort of goodies we’ve got waiting for us in our latest release of Autodesk software! Let me set something clear from the onset of this blog post, that this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of “what’s new” in the software. We will have plenty of time through this and other venues to review the technical aspects of the new software releases. Instead, the purpose of this post is to keep a broad view of things. As you pour through all of the various software offerings (especially if you have one of the Suites) and look to see what it means to you, here are some thoughts to keep in mind as you work through the evaluation process:

• Cloud services are growing, but not at the cost of reduced desktop solutions. The foreseeable future of the Autodesk Solution consists of a blend of desktop solutions (especially Suites) AND cloud services. Autodesk 360 is intended to extend the desktop, not replace it.
• There is a stronger push behind interoperability and workflow between individual pieces of software in the Suites. If you have the Building Design Suite, you’ll have better integration between Revit and AutoCAD, between Revit and Inventor… if we have access to all of these tools, why shouldn’t we take better advantage of their capabilities?
• Windows 8 support. ‘Nuff said.
• IMAGINiT had a webcast a few months ago that was all about “Evaluating the Upgrade” It’s available in our webcast archive and is worth a view. If you haven’t been there before, you’ll need to fill out a quick form to get access, but access is free. http://imaginit.com/knowledge-resources/webcast-archive Look for the one a little less than a quarter of the way down in the list called, “[Building] Evaluating the Upgrade”.

At this point, let’s go ahead and violate the statement I made earlier and mention a couple of features that I think stand out in some of the new releases – and even though this list is only a tiny fraction of everything that was put into the software, take a look at them within the context of the statements above – how do they help bridge the gap between individual pieces of software, how do they utilize both desktop and cloud technology, and perhaps most importantly – how do they matter to you and your firm when evaluating the upgrade process?

AutoCAD 2014

• Live map and geolocation in all suites
• Enhanced point cloud tools and features

Revit 2014

• Non-rectangular crop regions View this photo
• Alternate dimensions View this photo
• Building element energy analysis View this photo
• Enhanced point cloud tools and features View this photo

Autodesk ReCap (new software)

• Create 3D models from laser scans and captured photos – built into all 2014 suites

There are a few things for you to chew on – we’ll keep this blog going along with other webcasts to help your investigation and analysis of what is new and what it means to you and your firm.

As always, post any questions below or reach out to your local IMAGINiT office for assistance in this migration process!

Have fun!

joe

New Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Blog

If CFD means anything to you (and it should!) take a moment to pop over to our new CFD Blog, run by IMAGINiT's own CFD team - Ryan Stamm, Jason Pfeiffer, Rob Taylor, and Tommy Mello. Add it to your list of super-awesome-cool blogs to follow!

If you're not sure where and how CFD fits into your business or workflow, give us a call and we can help you get a better understanding of where it might improve your design process and building quality.

http://blogs.rand.com/cfd-analysis-consulting/

have fun!

joe

Windows 8 and Autodesk 2013 software

How many of you have already downloaded the Windows 8 Release Preview and made your computer screen look something like this?

Well, over the weekend I decided to spin up a virtual machine and see what would happen if I got the Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview installed with (hopefully) some Autodesk software. I have to say that the installation of Windows 8 went quite smoothly (I just had to avoid some auto-installer features of my VM system) and the installation of Revit 2013 and AutoCAD MEP 2013 along with some supporting applications (Sketchbook Designer, Inventor Fusion, etc) went without a hiccup as well.

I have my VM running with 2 processors / cores and only 2 Gig of memory, so I'm not going to test anything for speed, but from a general usability standpoint, it all looks positive so far. It takes a little to get used to the new Start screen, but that part went reasonably quick for me after a short perusal of the Microsoft Windows 8 FAQ.

I'll keep poking around at this from time to time, but if you have anything in particular that you'd like me to review, leave a comment and we'll see what we can do to help out!

Have fun!

joe

A rare occurrence of a virus for AutoCAD

Our IT staff passed this one along - hopefully it has no affect on you and your business (it seems to have been mostly infecting Latin America):

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/21/autocad_worm/

As stated in the article,
"The worm, dubbed ACAD/Medre.A, steals files and sends them to email accounts located in China. ESET said it had worked with Chinese ISP Tencent, the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and Autodesk – the creator of AutoCAD – to stop the harvesting of drawings by blocking email accounts associated with relaying stolen data... ESET has released a free stand-alone cleaner utility to aid in the clean-up of infected systems.

AutoCAD malware strains are rare but not unprecedented. For example an AutoCAD virus surfaced in 2009.

More details on the AutoCAD worm attack can be found in a blog post by Eset"

Here is that more detailed blog post:
http://blog.eset.com/2012/06/21/acadmedre-10000s-of-autocad-files-leaked-in-suspected-industrial-espionage

-joe

Know It All... On Demand

Did you get a chance to attend our Know It. All. event last week? If you were there, were you able to attend all of the sessions you wanted? If you signed up and were not able to attend, did you know that you are still able to view all of the sessions on demand now? Click here to head over to the virtual event site, fill in your login and password, and have at it!

Did you know that even if you did not sign up for the event, you can still view all of the session recordings on demand?

http://imaginit.com/lp/know_it_all/index.html

Registration is still required, but once you're in, everything is there for you! The site will only be up for a little under 90 days (technically, 90 days after the event occurred last week), so don't dawdle.

Enjoy!

joe

2013 Subscription Software Download

Can all of you stop downloading so I can get my stuff? :) When I go to my Autodesk Subscription site to download the new Building Design Suite software, I see the following notice:

Back in reality now, it's nice to see that there are a lot of people eager to get to their new 2013 software from Autodesk. Come on around to meet with us virtually at our Know It.All. event on May 2nd for some good information on these new products!

In the meantime, make sure you have some fun!

joe