Beyond Design

Join or start a BIM in Construction User Group

You've got the software, you've been to the training, but you want to learn more, you want to bounce ideas off others, and you have no one inside your company to speak to about them. This is where User Groups come in, we have hundreds of users of our different technologies starting and participating in groups across the globe providing networking opportunities, chances to learn about workflows, tips, 3^rd party plugins and new features run by some of our most knowledgeable users. We have set up the BIM in Construction User Group page to list as many worldwide user groups and communities as possible to allow you to easily find someone in your area to talk to. There's a range of ways to interact with other users, from forums and discussion groups, to monthly or bi-monthly phone-calls and webcasts, to live meet-ups.

Prominent BIM thinker, James Austin from BIM Technologies has recently decided to set up a Navisworks User group in London:-

"For me, user groups are the lifeblood of emerging technologies. When something new and relevant arrives on the scene, it must be driven forward, first by early adopters, and then by technology receptive organisations. User groups seem to appear and flourish when there is a healthy mix of these. At present in the UK, BIM is moving out of its early adopter stage, and we are seeing some pockets of growing maturity, coupled with enthusiasm. Amidst a healthy social media community, and several Revit User Groups across the nation, there are still relatively few user groups that focus on Navisworks, so I took it upon myself to see if there was interest in forming our very own Navisworks User Group in London. Response to date has been very good, and plans are now underway to set up a first meeting in London before we enter into the forthcoming Indian summer (!). The intention is to provide users with a source of high quality information, as well as an environment that will support genuine knowledge sharing and foster some of genuine community spirit that surrounds BIM in the UK right now."

Using online resources such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Meetup it has been possible for many of these groups to get set up with minimal cost and access to a wide range of users instantly than previously possible.

Scott Wood from HOK has been running the New York City Navisworks User Group for over a year, he has some advice for anyone looking to startup a user group:-

"The New York City Navisworks User Group is focused on the software, and third party extensions that enhance functionality. Our goal is to further the use and understanding of the tool, while feeding user requests to the software engineers. In addition to reviews and demonstrations, we also focus on process and uses for the tool. The benefits of this group are bidirectional, that is both the software vendors and the users can gain knowledge from the open interaction in our meetings.

Building a group does take some thought, and a little work to start. However there are a few tactics that I would recommend:

A) If the meeting is live, have food and beverages, and advertise that.

B) Attend other industry meetings to promote the group, and learn what might interest others.

C) Utilize http://www.meetup.com/

D) Utilize social media like Twitter and LinkedIn

E) Enlist the help of a few people, and give them a stake in the success of the group.

F) Even if the meeting is live, try to broadcast a Webex to get broader participation, of our 103 members, over 10% are from other cities, some as far as California."

If you have a user group we need to know about, email us and we'll update the BIM in Construction page, if you don't see one in your area, start one and let us know and we'll be happy to help promote it!

UPDATE: James Vandezande has sent us a link to some more practical tips for setting up user groups.

Keyboard Shortcuts (Hotkeys) for Autodesk Navisworks

One of the quickest ways to improve your productivity is to learn a few shortcuts, I don't know where I'd be without Alt tabbing through windows or Ctrl tabbing on my internet browser, hopefully some of these will leave you time for an extra coffee during your day!

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
PgUp	Zooms to view all objects in the Scene View.
PgDn	Zooms to magnify all selected objects in the Scene View.
HOME	Takes you to Home view. This keyboard shortcut only applies to the Scene View windows. This means it will only work when this window has focus.
ESC	Deselects everything.
SHIFT	Used to modify the middle mouse button actions.
CTRL	Used to modify the middle mouse button actions.
ALT	Turns the keytips on or off.
ALT + F4	Closes the currently active dockable window when it is undocked, or exits the application if the main application window is active.
CTRL + 0	Turns on Turntable mode.
CTRL + 1	Turns on Select mode.
CTRL + 2	Turns on Walk mode.
CTRL + 3	Turns on Look Around mode.
CTRL + 4	Turns on Zoom mode.
CTRL + 5	Turns on Zoom Window mode.
CTRL + 6	Turns on Pan mode.
CTRL + 7	Turns on Orbit mode.
CTRL + 8	Turns on Free Orbit mode.
CTRL + 9	Turns on Fly mode.
CTRL + A	Displays the Append dialog box.
CTRL + D	Toggles Collision mode. You must be in appropriate navigation mode (that is, Walk or Fly) for this keyboard shortcut to work.
CTRL + F	Displays the Quick Find dialog box.
CTRL + G	Toggles Gravity mode.
CTRL + H	Toggles Hidden mode for selected items.
CTRL + I	Displays the Insert File dialog box.
CTRL + M	Displays the Merge dialog box.
CTRL + N	Resets the program, closes the currently open Autodesk Navisworks file, and creates a new file.
CTRL + O	Displays the Open dialog box.
CTRL + P	Displays the Print dialog box.
CTRL + R	Toggles Require mode for selected items.
CTRL + S	Saves the currently open Autodesk Navisworks file.
CTRL + T	Toggles Third Person mode.
CTRL + Y	Reverses the last operation performed by the Undo command.
CTRL + Z	Reverses the last performed operation.
CTRL + PgUp	Displays the previous sheet.
CTRL + PgDn	Displays the next sheet.
CTRL + F1	Opens the Help system.
CTRL + F2	Opens the Clash Detective window.
CTRL + F3	Toggles the TimeLiner window.
CTRL + F4	Toggles the Rendering window (Autodesk Rendering or Presenter depending on graphics system).
CTRL + F5	Toggles the Animator window.
CTRL + F6	Toggles the Scripter window.
CTRL + F7	Toggles the Tilt window.
CTRL + F8	Toggles the Quantification window.
CTRL + F9	Toggles the Plan View window.
CTRL + F10	Toggles the Section View window.
CTRL + F11	Toggles the Saved Viewpoints window.
CTRL + F12	Toggles the Selection Tree window.
CTRL + HOME	Dollies and pans the camera so that the entire model is in view.
CTRL + Right Arrow	Play selected animation.
CTRL + Left Arrow	Reverse Play selected animation.
CTRL + Up Arrow	Record viewpoint animation.
CTRL + Down Arrow	Stop playing animation.
CTRL + Space	Pause playing animation.
CTRL + SHIFT + A	Opens the Animation Export dialog box.
CTRL + SHIFT + C	Opens the Export dialog box and enables you to export current search.
CTRL + SHIFT + I	Opens the Image Export dialog box.
CTRL + SHIFT + R	Opens the Export Rendered Image dialog box.
CTRL + SHIFT + S	Opens the Export dialog box and enables you to export search sets.
CTRL + SHIFT + T	Opens the Export dialog box and enables you to export the current TimeLiner schedule.
CTRL + SHIFT + V	Opens the Export dialog box and enables you to export viewpoints.
CTRL + SHIFT + W	Opens the Export dialog box and enables you to export viewpoint report.
CTRL + SHIFT + HOME	Sets current view as Home.
CTRL + SHIFT + END	Sets current view as Front.
CTRL + SHIFT + Left Arrow	Takes you to the previous redline tag.
CTRL + SHIFT + Right Arrow	Takes you to the next redline tag.
CTRL + SHIFT + Up Arrow	Takes you to the first redline tag.
CTRL + SHIFT + Down Arrow	Takes you to the last redline tag.
F1	Opens the Help system.
F2	Renames the selected item, when appropriate.
F3	Repeats the previously run Quick Find search.
F5	Refreshes your scene with the latest versions of currently loaded model files.
F11	Toggles Full Screen mode.
F12	Opens the Options Editor.
SHIFT + W	Opens the last used SteeringWheel.
SHIFT + F1	Enables you to get context-sensitive help.
SHIFT + F2	Toggles the Sets window.
SHIFT + F3	Toggles the Find Items window.
SHIFT + F4	Toggles the Find Comments window.
SHIFT + F6	Toggles the Comments window.
SHIFT + F7	Toggles the Properties window.
SHIFT + F10	Opens a context menu.
SHIFT + F11	Opens the File Options dialog box.
With the Measurement tool selected.
X	Lock to the X axis
Y	Lock to the Y axis
Z	Lock to the Z axis
P	Lock to a point perpendicular to a surface
L	Lock to a point parallel to a surface
ENTER	Quick zoom to measured area
+	Use with Enter key to zoom in to measured area
-	Use with Enter key to zoom out of measured area
With the Timeliner tool selected.
ESC	Cancels the current edits.
F2	Starts editing the selected field.
ANY CHARACTER	Starts editing the selected field.
RIGHT ARROW	Moves the selection to the next right field, unless the current field is in a tree column that can be expanded. In this case, it expands the row.
LEFT ARROW	Moves the selection to the next left field, unless the current field is in a tree column that can be expanded. In this case, it expands the row.
UP/DOWN ARROW	Selects the row above/below the current row
SHIFT+UP/DOWN ARROW	Extends the selection to the row above/below the current row.
CTRL+UP/DOWN ARROW	Moves the current row up/down without changing selection.
HOME	Selects the first row.
SHIFT+HOME	Extends the selection from the selection anchor to the first row.
CTRL+HOME	Moves the current row to the first row without changing selection.
CTRL+SHIFT+HOME	Adds the rows from the current row to the first row to the selection.
END	Selects the last row.
SHIFT+END	Extends the selection from the selection anchor to the end.
CTRL+END	Moves the current row to the last row without changing selection.
CTRL+SHIFT+END	Adds the rows from the current row to the last row to the selection.
PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN	Selects the row one page above/below the current row.
SHIFT+PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN	Extends the selection one page up/down.
CTRL+PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN	Moves the current row one page up/down without changing the selection.
CTRL+SHIFT+PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN	Adds one page up/down from the current row to the selection.
*	Expands the entire subtree, starting from the current cell.

Which ones do you use most in a day? Or have you learnt any new ones? Or do you want to tell us what you're doing with your extra few minutes in the day? Leave a comment below and tell us.

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.

Autodesk AEC DevCamp – Calling anyone interested in using the API to develop for Navisworks, Revit and Civil 3D

Are you interested in customizing, extending or integrating with Autodesk® Revit^®, AutoCAD^® Civil 3D^®, Navisworks^®,  technologies around Autodesk's BIM 360 vision, including Vault Collaboration AEC and Revit Server, new Autodesk web services and mobile technologies, and more?

If yes then the Autodesk AEC DevCamp is for you!

• When: June 6-7, with a DevLab on June 8
• Where: Boston, Massachusetts -- near Autodesk's AEC Division headquarters
• Cost: early bird discount fee of US $500 valid to April 30, 2012, thereafter US $600

The 2 day DevCamp offers training for beginners and experts on the APIs of each of the products listed above. You get to talk to Autodesk product management and engineering staff, and to meet fellow developers like you. There is also a Business Development track for those steering their company's strategic direction and investments as well as Autodesk specific sales and marketing topics. 

Following on from the DevCamp we are holding a day long DevLab. The DevLab has no agenda as it's all about spending quality time working with you on your specific needs and challenges. ADN DevTech engineers covering Autodesk technologies – Revit, Civil 3D, Navisworks and more - are available to help you – 1 to 1. Bring your laptop and work on your code as you'd normally do in your own office. With DevLab you have a team of experts available to review your code, answer your questions, and make suggestions.

CALL TO ACTION – let us know you're interested!

To receive more information on the DevCamp and DevLab, including the detailed agenda and registration instructions, please send an email to Melrose Ross on email address melrose.ross@autodesk.com giving your full name and company name.

Quantity Takeoff 2012 – Hotfix 2 now released

Quantity Takeoff 2012 - Hotfix 2 has been released and is available for download from the Autodesk Website.

Please note: This installer requires that QTO Hotfix 1 is already installed on the system.

This hotfix is designed to resolve some specific PDF file related issues:

• Large PDF sheets consuming too much memory
• PDF sheets not displaying after the project is reopened
• Error message "There was a problem displaying the page"

  

• QTO shutting down after switching sheets

The hotfix can be downloaded from here: -

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=18403022&linkID=10381885

I've never seen so many iPads in one place

At the end of last week I got back from the Construction MobileIT 2011 Conference in London in the UK, it was a great one day discussion about how mobile devices can be best used in the construction industry. With fascinating insights from Transport for London about how BIM models are helping with Emergency Service planning on London Underground after the 7/7 terrorist bombings in 2005, discussions about the safety of putting data in the cloud, using QR codes in versioning of drawings, use of point cloud technology by surveyors across the life cycle of a building project and whether social media has a place in construction for resolving RFI's.

It's a growing area revolutionized by the iPhone, iPad and App Store by Apple, but there's Android and Windows platforms amongst others in the marketplace and more rugged tablets designed for field use on construction sites. We've heard of people who use their tablets to remotely connect to their work machine to view their Revit and Navisworks models, but more and more developers are using our APIs to create apps such as CadFaster to let you view and markup Revit models on your iPad and Vela Systems to bring data from the field back into your information model.

With the mobile applications we already offer such as the newly released Constructware Field app to help manage projects from the field, Buzzsaw for managing files, AutoCAD WS for editing files and Bluestreak to help collaboration, there's a growing list of apps to help with your workflow and no doubt there'll be more to come in the future.

We just have one question for you, if you could take one app into the field with you tomorrow to help with your day to day work, what would it be?

‘One Size Fits All’ Quick Properties

We know you work with models from various disciplines and CAD applications, we also know that they come with a multitude of different properties and property names, which can make setting up Quick Properties (formerly Smart Tags) for each model you load in a real pain point. For those that haven't seen them before, Quick Properties when switched on, appear when you hover over an item with a list of pre-defined properties for that item.

As you can see, there's a long list of possible properties that can be used, and a smart tag in action. They can also be used in 2D sheets as below.

To set these up you need to load a model and go to Options > Interface > Quick Properties > Definitions. You will then be able to add Quick Property Definitions dependent on the properties available in the model.

You can save these for use in other models by going to Export and selecting Quick Properties > Definitions, which will save an XML with those saved properties.

Opening the XML you can see the file structure comprises of an Optionset, Option Name, Data Type and Internal Name, before moving on to the next option.

The problem many people now come across is that the majority of (in this example) DWF properties, will be completely ignored by models from other applications such as Revit, Civil3D, Inventor, AutoCAD. This is where you might want to create a 'one size fits all' Master XML file that can be imported into any project that will contain the relevant properties from each model type.

You will need to open example models from each discipline (Revit MEP, Revit Architecture, AutoCAD, Civil 3D) and create Quick Property Definition XML files containing Properties for each type of model.

Then open the XML in Notepad or other editing application and copy the relevant properties from there to a 'master XML' file. Just ensure you don't copy across duplicates, otherwise they will later appear multiple times when available in the model.

You will then be able to Import this Master XML to each users machine and it can be used in multiple projects.

Now when hovering over an item when Quick Properties is switched on, Navisworks will ignore all the irrelevant Properties for that model and only display those available.

Let us know how you get on and Submit a Tip if you have any other ways you manage to repurpose data and settings between projects.

Free Excerpt from new "Mastering Autodesk Navisworks 2012" book

We know you love freebies; we saw how many of you downloaded the free ground planes we offered a few weeks ago. Well here's another one, a few pages from the newly released 'Mastering Autodesk Navisworks 2012' book by Jason Dodds and Scott Johnson. Both these guys have years of experience working with Navisworks in the field with you guys, implementing workflows, pushing the limits of the product and doing things we didn't even realize Navisworks could do!

We've saved an important part of the book for you. Lots of people ask how they should work with NWC, NWD and NWF files for their workflow, these pages explain a little more about what each file format is, how it is used and a more detailed typical workflow, something many people would pay thousands of dollars for a consultant to do for them! Download these pages here

Now if you think that's a valuable bit of information then you should get yourself a copy of the book from here: -

Mastering Autodesk Navisworks 2012

I've got a copy sat here next to me and just picked up a couple of handy things about Timeliner I never knew, I'd tell you what they are but you'll have to get the book to find them out yourself!

Working with the Navisworks Project Browser

As I was writing the article about cross-referencing NWC models with 2D DWF sheets, I started thinking about the new workflow that this introduces around the Project Browser, and thought that you may find this of interest.

For long standing Navisworks users, you'll be familiar with the Selection Tree, which provides a hierarchy of all the models you've appended into the scene.

However you're probably less familiar with the Project Browser, introduced in the 2012 release.

On the surface these may seem conceptually similar - a window that shows you what files you have in the Navisworks project. But with the introduction of 2D support, there's a big difference, as you no longer have everything loaded into the same scene. The project can now contain any number of 3D models and 2D sheets, and whilst these can exist in the same project, they cannot exist in the same scene, as the 3D and 2D scenes use different engines to display them.

If you aren't working with 2D data in Navisworks, then you probably don't need to use the Project Browser at all, at this stage at least – and you can probably stop reading this post too, unless you're:

a. Curious

b. Thinking about using 2D data

c. Paranoid that I might be talking about you whilst you're not looking J

As soon as you start using 2D data, then you will need to become acquainted with the Project Browser, so let me give you some tips and info to help you out.

• The moment you start Navisworks (or click New), there is no concept of a project – you need to Open (or Append) a supported file (see image below), which will effectively create your project, and populate the scene.

  

• The file you open will appear in the Project Browser:

  

• To add your 2D sheets into the project, rather than using the Append
  button (which you would have previously used to add additional 3D files to the project), you will need to use the Import Sheets and Models button in the Project Browser:

  

• You can then choose your DWF file containing your 2D sheet(s). So your project now contains (in this example) a structural model and 230 associated 2D views, sheets, elevations, sections and plans:

  

• Next I'm assuming that you'll want to add files for other disciplines. Again the Project Browser's Import Sheets and Models button can be used. In this example I'm importing Architectural, MEP and Site models in the NWC format (each exported from Revit).

  

  What we've done at this point is merely import them as separate models into the project, and you can review each of these models in isolation, simply by double clicking any one of them (the same as you would do to view any of the 2D sheets). You can also repeat this step to import any of the 2D DWF files that correspond to these additional disciplines too.

• When you view any of these models, notice the Selection Tree - it changes! Each model/sheet in the Project Browser is in effect its own scene, hence when you double-click on any of them the scene that you're viewing updates and in turn so does the Selection Tree (as it provides a hierarchical representation of the scene).

  

  

• This is great for quickly reviewing any of these in isolation, but I'm also guessing you'd still like to see the project model as a whole. You can do this easily using the following procedure:

1. Double click on one of your models in the Project Browser (loading it as the current scene) - in my example, this is the Structural model
2. Select all of the other models in the Project Browser that you want to combine (e.g. Arch, MEP, Site)
3. Right-click on the selected models and choose, Append to Current Model

   

   Again in my example, this results in the Arch, MEP and Site models being appended into the Structural model

   

   So now whenever I view the Structural model, I will no longer see the Structure in isolation, I'll see this integrated scene. As a result of this, I'd recommend an additional couple of steps:

4. In the Project Browser, right-click on the Structural model (or whichever model is now your integrated model) and choose, Rename. You can then rename this better identify it as the integrated, or project model.
5. Use the Import Sheets and Models button again to import the Structural model file again (i.e. the original model you've just renamed), so that you again have access to this discipline model in isolation.

In my opinion, this is a giant leap in the right direction for Navisworks and Autodesk – we're not dealing with files, we're dealing with projects and information. Models and sheets are representations of the project information, and different users will need to see that data in different ways. So the fact that these can now be found in one place, with components cross-referenced between representations can only be a good thing, making it easier for team members to see what they want, when they want. Let us know what you think.

Cross-referencing NWC models and 2D DWF sheets

In an earlier post I wrote about the introduction of 2D support in Navisworks 2012. In this release 2D views and sheets are supported through the DWF format. These can be individual DWF files, or a multi-sheet DWF file – a single DWF containing multiple sheets, sections, plans and elevations.

I also mentioned the ability to cross-reference items in the 2D sheets with the corresponding items in an NWC model. Håkan Norberg requested further information on this, so I've created this quick video tutorial:

The key steps are:

1. Export your Revit project model to NWC
2. Export the corresponding 2D views and sheets to DWF
3. Load the NWC in Navisworks
4. Use the Navisworks Project Browser to Load the DWF file(s)
5. Right click on any item in a 2D sheet or in the model, then select Find Item in Other Sheets and Models
6. Click on any of the results to view the item in the selected model/sheet

Remember, if you see the exclamation mark icon at the bottom of this window…

…then you're only seeing partial results. To search All sheets and models, click the Prepare All button:

How does it work? It's based on the Revit GUID, a unique internal identifier for each item in the project. For each item, the GUID is the same in the DWF file…

…and in the NWC:

Navisworks searches for this GUID in all prepared sheets and models and provides you with the relevant results.

As a reference tool this is great, as you can navigate through the model whilst reviewing the project, and then for any object you can view it in another representation, such as a sheet or section with additional information.

Thanks for the feedback Håkan, be sure to let us know how you get on!