We know that many of you are looking to improve productivity and access to your information models using the API. This new AEC DevBlog will cover Revit, Navisworks and other AEC and BIM technologies and their APIs from Autodesk.
So far there are already posts about the following topics:-
New features in the Navisworks 2013 .NET API
How to access the Revit SDK
How to get a primitive from solid of Navisworks
More details on the BIM Coordinator (we'll be featuring more on this blog soon)
Head to the blog and subscribe to the RSS feed for new posts: -
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Go back to the native CAD model, use the properties to identify the object
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.
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.
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.
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.
Get Administrator Permissions. If you don't have them then speak to your Systems Administrator.
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.
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.
If you have an intermittent, slow or problematic network connection, don't install from a network location, install from a local drive.
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.
Make sure your Operating System is up to date, any updates have been applied and the machine restarted.
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.
Late last summer in Sheffield in the UK, a number of us huddled around a computer screen for an early prototype of the ability to import Revit Grids and Levels into Navisworks. We knew then that this was going to be one of those enhancements that will save you Navisworks users, valuable minutes and hours trying to get to a certain location in the model, or plain just trying to understand where you are! This is the sort of thing we get excited by, the things that smooth out your workflows, allowing you to get on with the tasks that matter to you, without wasting time getting lost in a complex model, or painstakingly creating AutoCAD grids and overlaying them in your Navisworks scene.
The video below provides an overview of this feature:
For those of you that can't access YouTube here's some more detail about the feature…
Navisworks reads the Grids from your Revit models – either via opening the RVT in Navisworks, or NWC Export from Revit – and display the grid at each reference Level (also defined in Revit). We can bring them in from multiple Revit models, so if you're working with multiple disciplines, for example, and they happen to have a differing grid system, then you can select which grid system you want to work with in the View toolbar.
Here you can also choose whether to show the grid, or not, and define the way in which you view them. Using the Mode, you can view a single grid on the level above or below, both above and below, display at all levels, or have the grid fixed at a specified level – this is particularly effective when used in conjunction with a section plane (creating a horizontal slice through the building), as the grid can remain on the floor slab when you're orbiting above the services, for example.
You can modify how these grids are displayed through the Options on the main menu or by selecting the small arrow in the bottom right of the panel.
Here you can select the color of the level above and the level below which changes as your camera changes position, and the other levels if you have them displayed. You can also change the label font size and whether you want levels hidden behind other geometry to display by using X-Ray Mode.
Let's have a closer look at the grids and levels themselves, here we have 3 main things to look at: - A – The line references are displayed at the edge of the window meaning you will always know where you are. B – Hovering over a grid intersection will bring up the Grid Reference and the Level allowing you to quickly check the location of an item. C - The Head Up Display when switched on will now display the closest grid intersection and the closest level below the current camera position allowing you to quickly see where you are in the model.
These will only work in Perspective mode; in Orthographic you will only be able to see grids and levels when viewing the model in plan or elevation (i.e. selecting a face on the ViewCube).
As useful as it will be to know where you are in a model, I think the biggest value of this functionality is when going through Clash Results and grouping issues, as we now also bring the data of the level and grid reference for each Clash Result, allowing you to sort the results by level and grid reference - this will also come through to your reports.
We'd love to know what you think and any other questions you have about this release, please leave a comment or contact us using the buttons on the left.
I've been working with Navisworks products for 7 years, Paul even longer, and I'll be honest, this is the most excited I've been for a product release in that time. I think the features we've added to this year's Autodesk Navisworks 2013 release are the biggest leap forward we have had in all that time.
Here's a quick overview of the main highlights and we'll be covering all of these in more depth in the coming days and weeks with more blogs, tips, videos and more!
Improved Revit® Interoperability
Native RVT file support
Hierarchy representation
Category, family, type, instance
Improved level association
Subparts named by material
Grids & Levels Support
Display of Revit grids & levels in scene view
Hover-over intersection for grid reference
Head-up-display (HUD) position readout
4D / Scheduling Improvements
Drag-and-drop sets/selections/objects to tasks
Auto-add tasks from sets, respecting folder hierarchy
Export task hierarchy to Microsoft® Project XML
Editable task hierarchy
Improved user interface
5D / Cost Simulation
Associate costs with schedule tasks
Clash Detection Enhancements
Clash result locations by level and grid reference
Sort results by grid reference, level, proximity, etc.
Quick filter results by status, level, assigned to, etc.
Undo support
Improved user interface
Comprehensive API
Improved Selection Tools
New Selection Inspector Tool
Improvements to Sets window
Support for drag-and-drop
Additional File Format Support
Siemens NX
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks
Dassault Systèmes CATIA®
Microsoft Project 2010
Primavera® P6 v8
Graphisoft® ArchiCAD 14 & 15
Faro 4.8
Vault Integration Enhancements
Open & append all supported file formats via the vault
Most people who view this blog are current Navisworks users, but for a number of you we know you're looking for tips to get started, this set of videos should get you up to speed with the basics.
Customize and Save the Display Layout
This video shows you how to customize the ribbon, toolbars, and dockable windows, and save and reuse your preferred layout as workspaces, thus enhancing your productivity.
Combine and Manage Your Projects
This video shows you how to combine multiple files into a single Navisworks project.
Creating Intelligent Groups of Objects
This video shows you how to create intelligent groups of objects using search and selection sets. This makes it easier to review and analyze your project at each stage, and can save you a lot of time.
Creating Animations
This video shows you how you can create animations that record your movement round your project.
Using Viewpoints
This video shows you how you can set up and save multiple viewpoints of your project. This means you can jump to preset viewpoints without having to navigate there each time.
More and more people are working with big models, or models on large ground planes. On rare occasions there can be some odd behavior where the model doesn't display as you would expect.
Sometimes it may look like the model is sectioned in front of the camera, like this.
Sometimes objects in the distance may be cut out like this.
And sometimes you may not see anything at all
To optimize performance Navisworks doesn't draw everything at once. We will calculate how to draw as much of the model as possible needed for the view, versus not showing things you don't need to see, as they would be behind or below you.
The next image shows how we ideally draw the model, including as much as possible but clipping any objects that would be behind, below, or just in front of the camera that you would not see in your field of view, and cutting anything so far in the distance you would not see it. If you stand up and look straight ahead you would not see anything just in front of your feet, it would only be when you look down that you see the floor there.
So the model will have two clipping planes, a near one and a far one; the red dot signifies the camera position relative to the two clipping planes.
The reason why Navisworks doesn't draw everything level with your eyes is that a ratio (of 1000) is used to include as much of the model as possible, meaning if we bring the forward clipping plane closer to the camera, we also need to proportionally bring forward the far clipping plane, this results in objects in the distance not being visible. The ratio is limited to 1:1000 to prevent issues with faces displaying incorrectly.
Problems can start when there are spurious objects a long way from the model as in the next image, or there is a very large ground plane relative to the rest of the model.
Where this happens Navisworks will have to move the far clip plane much further out, meaning the near clip plane is also dragged forwards, giving the effect of a section in front of the model. In the worst examples this can mean the entire model disappears.
The three best ways to rectify this are
Delete the spurious object from the original CAD data and bring it through again
Hide the spurious geometry in Navisworks, you can use Page Up to zoom to the entire model, and the Select Box to look for any items you cannot see.
Manually modify the clipping planes, to bring forward the near clip plane, or force back the far clip plane. To access this you would need to open the File Options from the Home tab. In this example I have constrained the near clip plane to a set distance. As a general rule of thumb when I come across this, if the near clip plane looks wrong, I would divide the amount listed by 10, if the far clip plane looks wrong I would multiply it by 10, any changes you make could affect the other clip plane. We strongly recommend you only modify these if you are having problems.
In examples where a large ground plane causes this, you should look at modifying the ground plane to take account of the vanishing point, often very large planes are not necessary. Alternatively modify the clipping planes as above.
We calculate the clipping planes differently in certain situations depending on what you are doing, for example, collision detection and using an avatars. This can sometime affect the far clip plane, ensuring you are working to the correct scale, ensuring your avatar is at the correct size or modifying the clipping planes should resolve this.
Happy New Year to you all! I thought I'd start this year off with an article to help troubleshoot one of the rarer but most annoying problems some people have with Navisworks.
Most of the time Navisworks closes unexpectedly, a dialog appears asking you to send some details about what happened and an error report, to us at Autodesk. These are then used to improve the product so we strongly recommend you provide details whenever this happens of what you were doing at the point of the crash.
However there are occasions, particularly on start-up where an error report is not created. This blog post should help run through a series of steps to resolve the problem, or at least help us in support to narrow down the issue.
Delete the Cascadeinfo.cas file. A new one will be created when you start Navisworks again. On Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Adlm On Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Adlm
Delete your Navisworks user profiles under C:\Users\**YOUR USERID**\AppData\Roaming\ C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2012
A Reinstall of Navisworks (not a repair) through 'Add or Remove Programs' in the Control Panel and restart the machine as an administrator.
Turn off Hardware Acceleration in the Navisworks Options > Interface > Display, you can access these options through Programs > Autodesk > Navisworks Manage/Simulate 2012 > Options Editor. If this resolves the problem then the Graphics Card/drivers aren't interacting well with Navisworks. A first step here would be to update the graphics card drivers from the manufacturer's website and re-enable Hardware Acceleration.
If Navisworks still doesn't start after trying these steps then please post on the Navisworks forum or log a support request through the Subscription Center if you have up to date subscription explaining the steps you have taken, details of the machine this happens on, any error messages and if anything has changed on the machine since this last worked.
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