Beyond Design

Time for Autodesk University 2012 proposals

Autodesk University 2012 might be a few months away but if you want to be considered as a Autodesk University 2012 presenter/speaker you have till May 22, 2012 to get your proposals in. 

I'm writing a proposal myself and hopefully I'll be there myself. Being a speaker/presenter at Autodesk University is a great chance to share your knowledge and get recognition from your peers at the largest Autodesk event in the world. Thousands of class proposals will be submitted but only a portion can be selected so be sure to put effort into your proposals including a catchy title and fresh powerful topics that will appeal to fellow Autodesk customers.

In the construction section we're looking for the ways in which you use our software and services in your BIM processes. Topics may include process workflows using software in the Autodesk® Building & Infrastructure Design Suites, techniques, case studies, tips and tricks, and implementation strategies. We're looking for topics focusing on workflows involving multiple technologies and parties and how they work together to create higher efficiencies, reduce risk and increase profitability in the industry. We're also looking for topics around the use of Cloud and Mobile applications for field execution and project management like AutoCAD WS, Constructware, Buzzsaw and Partner applications.

Dates for submitting your AU 2012 Class Proposals:

• Submission Deadline: May 22, 2012
• Classes Selected & Speaker Notified: June 27, 2012

Resources for AU Class Submissions:

• Visit the Call for Proposals website
• Review the AU 2012 Proposal Checklist.
• 10 tips that can help you write a winning AU 2012 class proposal. 

Autodesk University 2012 Date & Location: 
November 27–29, 2012 
Mandalay Bay Hotel 
Las Vegas, Nevada USA

Hope to see you at AU 2012! 

Reducing Risk when Being Innovative

Architects and Engineers love to be innovative, whether as part of a unique architectural design or part of a new engineering process. In many cases, a personal philosophy about innovation is what distinguishes one designer from another. But ask your liability carrier what he or she thinks about innovation and you might hear a very different opinion. Liability carriers don't want to discourage you from being successful, but they sleep better at night with "keep it in the box" solutions; those proven by others and those that have weathered the test of time (and the court system). The public loves innovation as well as your client, but your client will expect you to minimize risk and not experiment on his or her dime.

via autodesk.typepad.com

We thought you might be interested in this new blog started by Autodesk employees Erin Hoffer, Robert E Middlebrooks and Dominic Thasarathar. They will be exploring the business side of BIM, stories about how companies embracing BIM have been succeeding in difficult times and give a different voice on an interestic topic.

http://autodesk.typepad.com/businessofbim

Navisworks Help now also available online

There's a lot of information out there on the internet and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to find the answers you're looking for. With this in mind we recently published our product help online, meaning that you can quickly find all the answers that you're looking for.

You can access the product help using the following links:

Navisworks Manage

Navisworks Simulate

Navisworks Freedom

This online help contains comprehensive information on how to use all aspects of Navisworks, and gives you an understanding of both the features that you use regularly, and those that you may be less aware of.

You can use the Table of Contents to navigate your way through the topics, and find information about the features that you're interested in. Alternatively you can use the help books as tutorials, and work your way through them all to learn about the full functionality of Navisworks – why not teach yourself to be a super-user!

You can also use the Index and the Search tabs to find specific information that you're looking for.

The content is structured in a logical manner that fits in with your workflows. Overviews of concepts are detailed under the Concept tab. Click the Procedure tab and you'll be taken to a list of related procedures. The Quick Reference tab gives you information on items in a specific window, such as buttons, icons or context (right-click) menus.

Using the buttons in the top right of the online help as displayed in this image, you can show the topic you are currently viewing in the contents, save the topic to your favorites which can be invaluable if you use topics regularly, go back to the home tab, or email a link to a colleague.

Let us know what you think about the new online help by adding a comment below.

SMART board Integration with Navisworks

The team over at SMART Technologies have been working with IDS Engineering to create a plugin to use Autodesk Navisworks on their interactive whiteboards. They're a great tool for coordination meetings, and demonstrating design intent to clients. See the YouTube video below.

Find out more about SMART on their website.

http://smarttech.com/businesssolutions

Auditing a Navisworks model for very distant items

I'd like you all to try something, open a large Navisworks project you are working on, if you press 'Page Up' to zoom out to the entire model, and you can no longer see the model or it looks tiny then you should audit it for very distant items.

This is something we recommend you do as a simple check whenever creating an NWD, large or small, but there are symptoms of models which desperately need this, I've listed a few below: -

• When you render your model through Presenter, only the background shows, or you seem to get holes or triangles missing from a render
• When you navigate the model it looks like you have a section plane in front of you, as described here
• Jerky performance when navigating
• Model disappears when rotating around the model
• When you zoom out the model disappears
• Two faces seem to occupy the same space giving a jagged looking surface

When focused in on the model select an item (not the whole model) and save this as a Selection Set. You will use this in a minute to identify the location of the model in the view, or return to the model at any time.

Press Page Up to Zoom out to the extents of the model. If the model is not zoomed out then the distant objects may be behind the model, rotate the model 90° and press Page Up again to Zoom back out.

Go to the Item Tools toolbar

Select the Move tool, a gizmo should now appear where the model is in the viewpoint.

Use the Selection Box tool to select the areas away from the gizmo and the model, in the image below I made four selection boxes, in the third selection box I found a single item, with the move tool still selected the gizmo shows where this item is. When items are selected, either follow the steps below for each item, or add them to a new selection set(s) for further investigation.

Use Page Down to Zoom in to the selected items.

There is a quicker route to do this by using the selection box to select the main model then inverting the selection, however this may miss multiple instances of the same item and will not give you as much control when looking for the distant items.

Once you have identified any very distant items there are several possible routes to improve the model quality.

1. The easiest method is simply to Hide those items, once they are hidden then the bounding box of the model will be vastly reduced, improving the symptoms listed above, the items however will still be in the model.
2. If this is a whole CAD file in a distant location you may need to apply a transform to place it correctly in the model or change the origin or coordinates in the CAD file so it comes into the correct location.
3. Go back to the native CAD model, use the properties to identify the object
   1. If it is distant from the model or at the origin coordinates in the CAD package then it should be placed correctly or deleted dependent on your model and practices. Save the model and refresh the Navisworks scene.
   2. If it is correctly placed in the model then you need to look more closely into why this part of the model has been translated incorrectly, check the options for reading the file in or look at alternate routes to bring the model into Navisworks. If you cannot find an obvious problem, log a support case with the model data and details of the very distant item (either on the Navisworks Forums or through the Subscription Center), we may also be able to use this to improve Navisworks file handling.
4. Check if the object has any transformation overrides placing it in the wrong place with Right Click > Reset Item > Reset Transforms.

Please let us know if this helps you out by leaving a comment below.

Free Revit File Upgrade plugin

You've upgraded Revit and Navisworks but all your files are 2012 version or earlier. Rather than loading each file individually and having to go for a coffee break whilst you wait for them to upgrade and see the message below, there is a plug available through Autodesk Exchange which will allow you to upgrade them all at once.

You can set this running overnight and come into work the next day to your newly upgraded files, it will also maintain you file structure if you have different disciplines in different folders.

It's a free application available from the link below. You need to load any file into Revit first then you will be able to access it through the Add-Ins tab.

Autodesk Revit File Upgrader

New release of Autodesk Constructware

With the release of the 2013 versions of the Autodesk products, there is also a new release of the Autodesk^® Constructware^® product. For those of you not familiar with Constructware^®, it's a web-based project management software that enables construction firms and owners to standardize and optimize business processes in order to deliver projects more efficiently.

London Blackfriars station, courtesy of Network Rail and Jacobs®

Constructware connects people, information, and processes to help streamline operations, manage change, and optimize execution in the field. Greater project transparency and accountability improve insight across projects of all sizes.

Gain more accurate near time cost visibility with the ability to exchange project data with accounting systems. And the configurable web-based software as a service (SaaS) platform can help to reduce costs associated with implementing and managing an IT infrastructure.

This release contains the following exciting changes to Constructware:

• Project Wizard – Ability to copy project level information: You can now copy project level information, such as Attributes or Routes, when creating a new project. With the 2013 release, a user creating a new project can copy the following information from an existing project in Step 2 of the Project Wizard: General Information, Attributes, Routing, View Options, Exhibits
  • Renaming Modules: With the 2013 release, the ability to rename modules has been added to the following modules.
    • Document Management
      • Architectural Supplemental Instructions (ASIs)
      • Design Review
      • Permits
    • Cost Management
      • Request for Change Order
      • Request for Quote
    • Risk Management
      • Safety Record
• Issues Module – Creation of Issues via API:  In a previous release, Constructware added the ability to exchange files within the File Director module via the WebDAV API (application programming interface) and an API for the RFI module.  Continuing this theme of enabling integration between desktop, mobile, or other applications, the Issues module now has been enabled with an API.
• Issues Module – Creation of Attached Files: As mentioned in the previous section, Constructware has added the ability to attach a file to an Issue via the API. The ability to quickly add an attached file has also been added to the standard user interface within Constructware. An attached file can only associated or attached to a singular document and cannot reside anywhere else within the application. Previously if a user wanted to add a file to an Issue they would have uploaded the file into File Director or the Documents modules as a supporting document.

Let us know if you want to hear more about Constructware, or what you think of the new updates by leaving a comment below.

Errors encountered when opening a Revit model in Navisworks

One of the biggest features in the new release of Navisworks 2013, is that you can now directly load Revit .RVT files into Navisworks in addition to exporting .NWC files from Revit.

We will support the loading Revit files from three previous releases, so we will load files created in Revit 2010, 2011 and 2012 as well as the current release 2013.

Most of the time these will load correctly into Navisworks with no further work required; however there will be occasions where you receive the message "There were errors encountered while opening the Revit model. Please open the file in Revit and fix the errors".

This means you will need to fix the file in Revit 2013, this fixes parts of the model that cannot be converted inside of Navisworks. When you save the file in Revit 2013, Navisworks can then load those elements.

If you do not own a copy of Revit 2013 then you can still export NWC files from the version of Revit you have installed on the machine. Just install the Revit Exporters through 'Add or Remove programs' if they are not already installed then you can go to Add-Ins > External Tools to export a Navisworks 2013 NWC file.

Installation of Autodesk 2013 products, things to remember

I've been getting round to installing the Autodesk 2013 products on my main machine and I wanted to put up a quick post to remind you of a few things to check before going ahead with installation and reduce the likelihood of problems further down the line.

1. Get Administrator Permissions. If you don't have them then speak to your Systems Administrator.
2. Check the System Requirements, can your machine cope with the new software, do you need upgrades, do you need to clear some space. Suites provide lots of useful tools but will need quite a bit of memory. Look at Autodesk System Requirements for more information.
3. If you have beta versions of the software on your machine, UNINSTALL THEM. It's amazing how often problems revert back to this. Beta versions are never intended to be used on production machines; we'd hope that you completely clean your machine first to avoid unintended problems.
4. If you have an intermittent, slow or problematic network connection, don't install from a network location, install from a local drive.
5. Switch off anti-virus whilst installing. This might seem like an odd step but many antivirus packages are constantly monitoring changes to the machine, these can prevent registry keys being registered or files being placed in the correct directory.
6. Make sure your Operating System is up to date, any updates have been applied and the machine restarted.
7. Last but not least, read the documentation. We hope the installation process is easy and intuitive for you, but it's always worth checking the documentation to familiarize yourself with the process and the readme files for issues that may affect you, this is available in the installer and on the relevant product support site.

For more help when installing your software including video guides and lots more detail about deployments and licensing go to the Installation and Licensing support site and the Installation and Licensing forums.

Autodesk AEC Live Tour

To coincide with the new 2013 releases there's going to be a series of free events in the coming weeks starting with these dates in the UK and Ireland. I should be at the Leeds date on the 18th April, hopefully I'll get to meet some of you there.

Autodesk AEC Live Tour

Myself and the Autodesk AEC techies are going on a road trip to bring to you the latest and greatest with the new 2013 releases.

The first leg of the tour is in the UK and Ireland, with more to follow throughout Northern Europe that we cover.

 

The events are free, so please come and join us.

Dublin 12th April - Guinness Storehouse, St James Gate, Dublin 8 Dublin (Ireland)

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8323/registration

 

Glasgow 17th April - Oran Mor, 731-735 Great Western Road, G12 8QX Glasgow

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8324/registration

 

Leeds 18th April – Leeds United Football Club, Elland Road, LS11 0ES Leeds

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8325/registration

 

London 19th April - Dominion Theatre, 268-269 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7AQ London

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8326/registration

 

Outline Agenda

10.00 Registration
10.30 Welcome & Autodesk Update
10.45 Housing Workflow
11.30 Guest speaker (to be confirmed)
12.00 Lunch
1.00 Transport workflow
2.00 Construction workflow
3.00 Summary
3.15 Close

Will be great to see you!

Jack Strongitharm

via fromthegroundup.typepad.com

Myself and the Autodesk AEC techies are going on a road trip to bring to you the latest and greatest with the new 2013 releases.

The first leg of the tour is in the UK and Ireland, with more to follow throughout Northern Europe that we cover.

 

The events are free, so please come and join us.

Dublin 12th April - Guinness Storehouse, St James Gate, Dublin 8 Dublin (Ireland)

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8323/registration

 

Glasgow 17th April - Oran Mor, 731-735 Great Western Road, G12 8QX Glasgow

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8324/registration

 

Leeds 18th April – Leeds United Football Club, Elland Road, LS11 0ES Leeds

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8325/registration

 

London 19th April - Dominion Theatre, 268-269 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7AQ London

http://uk.event-publisher.autodesk-service.com/8326/registration

 

Outline Agenda

10.00 Registration
10.30 Welcome & Autodesk Update
10.45 Housing Workflow
11.30 Guest speaker (to be confirmed)
12.00 Lunch
1.00 Transport workflow
2.00 Construction workflow
3.00 Summary
3.15 Close

Will be great to see you!

Jack Strongitharm