ASCENT Blog

Follow-up to Parcel Grading Webcast

By: Michelle Rasmussen

I want to personally thank everyone that was able to join my Parcel Grading webcast on February 7, 2014. For those of you that were not able to join the webcast, here is a link to the recording so that you can watch it.

  

As I mentioned, this material was all taught directly from the content that is available in Chapter 2 of the Civil 3D 2014 Grading  training guide. I thought I would use this blog to reiterate answers to questions that came into the Q&A panel during the webcast.

                                            

Q1: Surveyors would cringe at the thought of assigning elevations to 'parcels'.  Parcels in C3D are also used to delineate the legal boundary, tax lot, parcel, etc.  Which have no Z value.  How does assigning Z values affect the parcel segments for MapCheck?

A1: Adding a Z value does effect the MapCheck and error of closure. That is a key reason that I talked about the idea of copying parcels to another site or moving them to another site. Doing so will allow you to keep your survey information at elevation zero while allowing you to take advantage of linework you have already created to help you with the grading plan. I personally always create a site just for my survey information. Then I create another site that I will use for grading.

                                            

Q2: I think that she meant to go down -7' not up 7'

A2: You are correct. I did mean to go down 7’ rather than up 7’. Had I rotated my view 180 degrees, I would have seen my mistake rather than have to move to another drawing. Luckily, all the files that I had open come with the training guide so that you can open up directly to a file to refresh your memory on how to do a specific command rather than have to go through the entire book to re-learn something small that you have forgotten.

                                            

Q3: Is there a way to edit the wall height?

A3: Once you have created a wall breakline, you can adjust the elevation of the original feature line but you cannot adjust the difference in elevation from the top of the wall to the bottom of the wall. To make a change like that, you would need to remove the breakline from the surface, then re-create it with the new height.

                                            

Q4: The Road surface was brought into the file before setting parcel line elevations.  If we later edit our road surface, will the parcel line elevations update automatically?

A4: No, the parcel line elevation will not update automatically if the road changes. The best way to make sure that they are at the correct elevation according to changes you have made to the roadway is to re-assign elevations to the parcel vertices using the (Elevation form Surface) tool found on the Edit Elevations panel. Just be careful to only select the parcel vertices that fall directly on the road surface.

                                            

Q5: When pasting the surface data from the parcels to an overall surface does the order matter in which you paste them?

A5: Yes, paste order is absolutely essential to creating a final surface. The last paste wins so make sure that you start by creating a new surface and pasting in the existing ground. Then paste in the parcel grading surface. Finally, you will paste in the road corridor surface.

                                            

Q6: Michelle, what is the plan in terms of syllabus for Infraworks. Would be great to have a little insight into what will be available. Also, when will an overview be ready so we can being offering that course soon.

A6: The Autodesk InfraWorks 2014 Fundamentals book will be released this month. Instructor tools will also be available which provide instructors with slides similar to the ones you saw today, an outline of how long each chapter should take, and the answers to the end of chapter questions.

                                            

Q7: To create an overall proposed surface, how would you do that with the different surfaces you created? Do you combine them into one? Can you show me how. So just to create a surface on any type of parcel lot. You just need to add them as break lines to the new surface? Will you be doing one video on build pad, pk-lot ?

A7: This question has a lot of questions within it so let me take one at time.

As mentioned above, start by creating a new surface and pasting in the existing ground. Then paste in the parcel grading surface. Finally, you will paste in the road corridor surface.

To create the parcel grading surface, simply assign elevations to the parcel lines, then add them to a surface as a standard breakline. Then add additional breaklines as necessary to complete the lot grading as we did with the retaining wall breaklines during the presentation. (Just do not make the same mistake I made and create the offset in the wrong direction. If you start with a feature line at the top of the wall, then set a negative value for the wall height.)

We did do a video that quickly covers all of the grading that is done in the Civil 3D Grading book when it first came out. You can check that out at: What is in the AutoCAD Civil 3D Grading Book?

                                            

Again, thank you for attending and for all your positive feedback on this training guide. I love hearing from you on how things are working and what we need to do to improve the training guides we provide.

Schedules Inside and Out in Autodesk Revit – Webcast Follow-up Q & A

 By Martha Hollowell

Thanks to all those who joined me for the Webcast on Schedules in Autodesk Revit. As I mentioned I took the information from Chapter 2: Schedules in the Revit 2014 BIM Management: Template and Family Creation training guide. I didn’t cover everything by a long shot but I hope it was enough to help people through some of the rough spots in schedule creation and setup. A link to the webcast is at the end of the blog.

A few questions came up at the end so I thought I would cover these as they are not included in the webcast recording.

Q: There isn’t a Level field when creating a wall schedule. How do you sort by level?

A: It turns out that you cannot sort by level for walls. This is because walls frequently span levels. I was thinking about how this might be useful and what would be a work-around. I thought of the need to schedule interior walls on only one level for a tenant build-out. In that case one work-around is to create Phases for each level and then assign the walls to that specific phase. You can create schedules by phases as shown below.

 

Q: Can I export schedules? If so, to what formats?

A: Yes, you can export schedules to a Delimited text file that can then be imported into a spreadsheet or other program. To do this open the schedule view you want to export and, in the Application Menu expand, Export, scroll down in the list and expand Reports and select Schedule. Then you navigate to the folder where you want to save the schedule and specify the appearance and other output options as shown below.

 

Q: How "deep" can embedded schedules go? That is, can you embed a schedule into an embedded schedule?

A: Embedded schedules can only be one deep. They are also only available in MEP for spaces (the example I showed in the webcast specifying the air terminals in each space), duct systems, piping systems and electrical circuits.

 

Q: What is the appearance implication of "sorting"?

A: The options on the Sorting/Grouping tab give a wide amount of latitude to the appearance of the schedules. Here are three different examples (based on a very simple phased Wall Schedule).

• Sorted by Type Mark with Itemize every instance selected.

• Sorted by Type Mark with Itemize every instance off.

• Sorted by Type Mark but with Header selected and the Type Mark column hidden.

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Q: How do you get the ceiling height into a Finish Schedule?

A: Finish Schedules are typically Key Schedules which we didn’t have time to cover in this webcast. Key Schedules are not built on Building Components such as ceilings or ceiling fixtures that could give you the ceiling height and therefore do not have such parameters with them. If anyone has a work-around for this feel free to post it in the replies to this blog to share with the rest of us.

 

Q: I want to use our company standard schedules? How do I get them into a new project?

A: Typically, schedules are saved in template files and therefore are available when you start the project based on one of these. But, if you don’t want to include all of your schedule styles in a template or otherwise do not have it in a project you can insert one from another project. Make sure you are in a non-schedule view and, in the Insert tab expand Insert from File and click Insert Views from File. In the Open dialog box navigate to and select the project that holds the schedule you want to use. In the Insert Views dialog box you can select the schedules you want to import as shown below.

 

 I hope everyone enjoys working with schedules in Autodesk Revit. It is a very powerful tool for creating construction documents, takeoffs, and testing the project.

To view the full webcast click here.

Joint Connections - WebCast Followup

By Jennifer MacMillan

Thanks so much to all of you that joined me for my latest Webcast on Joint Connections. As I mentioned, this material was all taught directly from the content that is available in Chapter 17 of the Autodesk Inventor 2014 Introduction to Solid Modeling training guide. From the feedback that I received after the session many of you are excited about this new tool in 2014 and see it as a great step for Autodesk Inventor. Hope you enjoy it!

I thought that I would summarize some of the Tips that I mentioned and repeat some of the questions that were asked. I also posted the link to the recorded session at the bottom of this blog.

Tips

• The Mini-toolbar is great for defining the Joint type and its placement references however you will need to use the Place Joint dialog box to assign Limits to any of the Joints using the Limits tab. The dialog box is also required if you want to replay the preview animation that displays on Joint placement.
• All assigned Joints are listed in the Model Browser within the Component as well as in the Relationship node at the top of the Model Browser.
• Assign names to your Joints to describe their use in the model. This is especially helpful when looking at the Joints in the Relationship node of the Model Browser. Without names you will have little idea of where they are used in the model. A descriptive name helps. You can rename in the Model Browser or in the Joint dialog box (not the mini-toolbar)
• The Automatic Joint type allows the system to assume the type that you require based on the Connection points that are selected as references. If the assumption is not correct you can select the appropriate type from the drop-down list.
• The Align area is optional. It may or may not be required to orient components when the Connection points are selected. It enables you to further refine the orientation of the two connected components if the assumed orientation is not correct.
• Limits on a Joint connection can be assigned for linear or angular motion.
• Use Constraints in conjunction with Joints to lock down any degrees of freedom that remains after a Joint is added.
• When assembling components using Joints, a component within the models must be grounded to appropriately test the dynamic function of the components. Consider temporarily grounding components to ease testing.

 

Q&A

Q1. How do you define the references for motion limits?

A1. The motion limits can only be defined using the Place Joint dialog box (not the mini-toolbar). In the dialog box, select the Limits tab. On this tab you have the ability to set limits using linear or angular values. Enter start and end values to define the allowable range. This range is measured from the connection point reference that was selected to connect the components. Limits can be added after the Joint has been created by Editing the Joint.

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Q2. Are joints the future for Inventor and should we be using them rather than constraints?  I understand that joints translate better for simulation environments.

A2. I wish that I could tell you the answer to this! Unfortunately this type of information is something that Autodesk doesn’t share. Over the last few releases Autodesk has being focusing on ease of use. This enhancement falls in line with this strategy. It is a great way to assemble components with intuitive easily understood industry standard connections.

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Q3. Can joints be converted to constraints at a later date?  Or must they be deleted and constraints applied?

A3. Unfortunately existing constraints must be deleted and recreated as Joints. 
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Q4. Is there a Joint Connection Type that allows me to move in 2 translational directions on a plane?

A4. The Planar Joint type enables two translational and one rotational DOF on a plane. Once you define the connection to the required plane you will have to add an additional Constraint using the Constraint tool to lock down rotation if you don’t need this DOF

 

Hope that this Webcast and notes helped you learn how to incorporate joints in your assembly models.

To view my full webcast recording visit: http://youtu.be/jaTVJQkNKSI