Beyond Design: the Construction and BIM blog

Navisworks 2018 is here…

Annual product launch is always a busy time of year for the Navisworks team and this year has been no different. We've completed some interesting projects this year, so here we would like to introduce them to you in some detail. You've asked us to improve our connectivity and our interoperability and we heard you!  Navisworks 2018 continues to improve our BIM workflow integration, with a particular focus on Revit, Recap 360 and IFC. Underpinning this are three key themes that describe our approach to developing Navisworks:

Current

Making sure that Navisworks stays up to date with the latest file formats and data types (e.g. we recently added extensive IFC improvements; and added support for .vue format)

Integrated

Integrating Navisworks with Autodesk cloud solutions (e.g. Navsiworks integration with BIM 360 Glue), plus integration with other Autodesk desktop solutions and complementary suites products (e.g. we invested in Navisworks integration with Revit via the underlay feature for Revit 2018; integration with Recap 360 Pro).

Quality

Fixing blocking bugs and significant regressions.

Revit 2018 & Navisworks 2018 – together at last!

Two years ago, with the release of AutoCAD 2016, we introduced the ability to bring your Navisworks model directly into the design app. Ever since, we have been working closely with our friends in the Revit team to offer the same capability with the release of Revit 2018. Using the 'Coordination Model' feature you will now be able to open NWC & NWD files and import them using model origin or shared coordinates. Once in Revit you can visualise the coordination model in plan, elevation, section or 3D view.

This was a major project that required us to fold Navisworks components (aka Navisworks Core Engine) directly into the Revit codebase.. We think it was worth the effort - now you can bring all the 60+ supported Navisworks formats directly into your Revit projects, with the ability to work with the same huge datasets that you can in Navisworks. Best of all, this performs the same as Navisworks and wont cripple your working environment in Revit.

This workflow could fundamentally change how your project teams collaborate. Rather than the design team or supply chain working independently and then coordinating with other team members after they have produced their designs, the Revit user will now be able to design within the context of the whole project view. This is a big step towards the holy grail of 'clash avoidance' – project team members creating coordinated, clash free data as a seamless part of the design and detailing process.

Further to this, the Revit folks are very excited that this unlocks the "direct context" workflow, where huge models, such as the city of Berlin shown below, can now be used as context for your projects at a scale that was previously impossible!

Fabrication parts in Navisworks

Autodesk continues to invest in building out our fabrication and detailing capability on the Revit platform to extend design development through fabrication level of detail and coordination to installation on site. Navisworks is a key part of this workflow, and we introduced support for the new Revit Fabrication parts properties as part of the 2018 release.

IFC Interoperability Enhancements

IFC is an increasingly important format and there are some significant improvements wrapped into the 2018 release. A completely new IFC file reader is integrated within Navisworks, which leverages the work that the Revit team have done in support of IFC.

This doesn't mean that we now only support IFC from Revit (as some of you have asked). Now, Navisworks has the benefit of parity with Revit because we are using the same open source code to handle IFC files.  This translates to greater consistency for your workflows and illustrates our investment into the support of the open source format.

You still have the option of using the older Navisworks IFC reader, but from 2018, the Revit IFC reader is now the default. Direct benefits of this include support for additional IFC property and object types, such as IFCSpace and IFCZone, plus PSets and improved IFC hierarchy handling. In addition, more than 80% of our backlog of IFC bugs were addressed.

Some of you will know that we introduced this as in its first release as an update last year. Since then, we have worked directly with our customers and made improvements to the handling of property data and organisation. We continue to listen out for more, so keep the feedback coming!

Recap 360 and Reality Capture workflows

Bring your Navisworks model directly into the ReCap 360 Pro desktop product (see the reality capture team's blog here). This lets you visualize your as-designed data from Navisworks directly alongside your as built data in Recap 360 Pro 'Real Views', enabling a set of quality and progress-checking workflows by comparing planned and actual datasets. Alternatively, if you want to bring your ReCap models into Navisworks, the current integration will now support filtered ReCap points. This lets you work with a subset of the point cloud data, so speeding up review and verification workflows by importing just what you need for your process.

This video highlights the possibilities for construction workflows where progress scanning is blended with the as-designed data for immediate review and coordination purposes that will benefit the entire team.

General fixes, product stability and performance enhancements

We continue to invest in the stability, performance and quality of Navisworks – the new 'optimize on load' function has a dramatic impact on file size when working with previous versions of Navisworks as many of you still are. One customer reported that a Navisworks 2016 file of 4.7gb was reduced to just 200mb using this function– saving them several minutes every time the model was opened. We always encourage you to work with the latest versions, hopefully this is another reason why that's such a good idea!

Navisworks and BIM 360

Using Navisworks together with Glue, Field and Layout opens up real value for construction teams. By leveraging the power of 'connected BIM' – where the desktop and the cloud work in unison, project teams can realise great savings in time and cost through greater collaboration and anytime, anywhere access to the as-designed data you create in Navisworks. This year we further simplified that workflow, by integrating the Field connection directly into the ribbon interface for Navsiworks. Now its even easier to pull field data through your project by connecting to BIM 360, and bring in progress or commissioning data into your Navisworks model for your analysis workflows.

Final thoughts…

So, that's the Navisworks 2018 release. We hope you find the additions and improvements useful.

This year Amar spoke at Autodesk University about the Autodesk Desktop App, and showcased a new experience for updating our products, integrated into the desktop and providing a smoother way to access updates releases and the like. Navisworks 2018 is part of that, and as the business as a whole transitions into a subscription model as well, we're looking into delivering more frequent updates and less 'big bang' annual releases that we have traditionally done. Whilst this changes the way we deliver updates, hopefully you can see from above that we're continuing to work on the themes we've set out.

And of course in addition to our own work we continue to maintain our API.  Navisworks alongside BIM 360 has an extensive API and we have many customers and partners that are building on the core product. We've seen many partners realise many workflows this way, and the Navisworks app store has several examples of some great functionality that leverage the API for specific workflows.

As always, we look forward to your feedback. Thanks and enjoy this release.

For more information on Navisworks:

Visit the Product Center: www.autodesk.com/Navisworks

Visit Autodesk Knowledge Network:  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/navisworks-products

Dynamo for Construction

Dynamo is a visual way of doing complex tasks, it has been around for a couple of years now and it is certainly better known for geometry manipulation and form finding processes -

did you know that it can be of great help also in the construction as well?

Dynamo is an open source visual programming platform supported by Autodesk and available as a free Revit plugin. Dynamo is shipped along with Revit since version 2016 R2, but you can always download the latest version from dynamobim.org as well, where you will also find a plenty of tutorials, videos as well as a user forum.

Basically, Dynamo provides a direct access to the Revit programming interface for non-programmers among us. It is based on a library containing pre-scripted elements  which can be connected together visually in order to accomplish a certain task.

Collision management is one of the main benefits for the construction industry to move from 2D to 3D and BIM, and Navisworks offers some very powerful tools for tracking and managing these, which is surely nothing new for you. Dynamo can help you to create a very smooth workflow between Navisworks and Revit, as you can see in the following video:

This is a great use case that demonstrates the real power of Dynamo by giving you the full access to the Revit API without the need for programming skills. You can download the datasets used in the video above here.

In the future posts we will discuss collision management and other usecases for the Dynamo in the construction process in more detail.

If you are attending the AU Las Vegas in 2 weeks, make sure to attend CS21553 - Construction Dynam(o)ite—Explode Productivity with Dynamo (Nov. 16, 1:00-2:30 PM) by our colleague Dieter Vermeulen.  There is a more detailed workflow about the clash management with Dynamo on his Youtube Channel.

Class description:

The step from detailed design to construction in a Building Information Modeling (BIM)-enabled workflow is a challenge for many design offices and construction companies. In many situations, designs need to be changed after contractors have reviewed the models on constructability. In this class, you will discover how you can involve computational design in this process. You will learn how to use the Dynamo extension to automate all kinds of custom tasks in Revit software to make your design constructible. You will get inspired by the wide range of possibilities the Dynamo extension offers to create your own model check and to automate the creation of construction elements.This session features Revit, Dynamo Studio and Navisworks Manage

By the way, this year there will be 50(!) Dynamo sessions at the AU – which shows that this topic is getting more and more important for all areas.  

Innovation: Diagnose Before You Prescribe!

I recently had the pleasure of participating in the AEC Hackathon in Seattle, as well as attending the recent BIMForum in Dallas. At both Autodesk-sponsored events, I was inspired by the sheer amount of creativity and enthusiasm exuded by AEC professionals and software developers, looking to push BIM – and our industry – further ahead into the future with new tools and processes. Some tools drew a fair amount of excitement. In particular, drones and 3-D printing continue to ride a wave of hype, joined by a resurging interest in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, to extend and leverage today's BIM tools and processes. AEC Hackers and BIMForum presenters are definitely having fun, inspiring colleagues, and pushing the envelope!

Yet, despite the exciting advances for our industry, I was also equally frustrated by the way new (or in the case of VR/AR, new again) technologies were positioned, pitched, and presented. All too often, new technologies were touted as game-changing, with barely a nod to the game they purportedly change.

All too often, "innovators," seduced by shiny technology, leap into technical details and features and functionalities without thoughtful exploration or explanation of the context of real-world business problems. Simply put: too much sizzle, not enough steak. AEC professionals, supposed benefactors of innovation, are left wondering, "What's in it for me?" Unfortunately, this is all too common in innovation, and this oversight when developing new technologies casts a pall on valid R&D when observed by the conservative AEC industry. To claim a new technology is a solution, or the solution, without clear analysis of the problem to be solved, relegates these potential "tools" to the mere status of "toys" in the eyes of practitioners who could likely most benefit from them.

Taking a cue from "Solution Selling"® methodology, I offer to the hopeful envelope-pushers and dynamic pitchmen of new technology: To be successful with your innovation, diagnose before you prescribe!

You wouldn't go to a doctor and expect a prescription handed to you for medication before you can sit down with a medical professional and describe what's ailing you! Why would an AEC "innovator" attempt to do that?

Before experimenting with and applying a solution, and long before touting it as a heroic fix, you need to understand the pain faced by real-world AEC professionals. Be specific, and describe who has this pain, and when. Analyze the underlying reasons for the pain, and dig further to find the reasons behind those reasons. Further, study and document the impact of this pain in an organization, across a project team, or between firms: what bad things happen to others because of it?

If possible, try to quantify the pain and its impacts in real monetary value. Ask specific "MOM" questions, like how much, how often, or how many times the pain occurs. Document this estimated pain, because if you arrive at a successful solution, this is what you can use to calculate a return on any investment in your innovation.

Finally, only after having documented the pain, reasons, impact, and value, try to document a vision for new and extended capabilities from real-world professionals expressing their pain. If they were in charge, what would they want done, and how would it address or mitigate their pain?

Then, and only then, are you ready to brainstorm, hack, experiment, research, develop, pitch, demonstrate, differentiate, present, and ride a wave of success that cannot be mistaken for empty, irrelevant hype.

The split between those who grasp this and those who don't was clearly evident at recent BIM events.

As an AEC Hackathon judge, I was sincerely encouraged by teams that developed their "hacks" in the context of real-world problems. Winning teams were handsomely rewarded, with two top prizes going to teams that focused on solving pain faced by contractors in the field. Their solutions weren't crowded with shiny toys, but were attractive to AEC practitioners because they were relevant and useful. By contrast, other teams enamored with new technologies who didn't articulate their solutions in the context of a business case were summarily dismissed. Their ideas may have been fun to explore, and amusing to watch, but so are circus clowns; ultimately and rightfully they took a back seat to serious teams sincerely mitigating pain to move our industry forward.

This dichotomy between the true innovators and the pretenders was also clear at the BIMForum. The most successful presentations weren't the ones who discussed new technologies simply for the sake of being "new" or "better;" the best ones were those that described their work by thoughtfully including discussion of the problems faced by designers, builders, and owners.

There is certainly nothing wrong with experimentation and exploration for its own sake. But when it comes to developing innovative tools and processes for the AEC industry, where real pains exist and real dollars are at stake, successful solutions can't just be pretty to look at; they must prove themselves to be relevant. The solutions prescribed by innovators must follow a careful diagnosis of the problem.

Autodesk® Exchange Apps Hackathon September 20-21

You may have noticed in the top right corner of most of your Autodesk applications a little X, ever tried clicking it? It'll take you through to the Autodesk Exchange App Store for your product, this year we launched our Navisworks App Store, where developers from all over the world can upload their apps and make them available to the world.

For example currently on the newly released Navisworks 2015 App Exchange there are free apps like Properties+ to summarise which properties you see in your view, a PDF reader for Navisworks, allowing you to add many more drawings to your Quantification project, Prokon Timeliner Wizard to help create Timeliner entries, to a trial of Surveyor which can be used to report on properties in the model and from a database.

We know quite a few of you have built little plugins, and used the API to extend the use of Navisworks, Revit and AutoCAD over the years, we're encouraging you to join our online Hackathon on the 20^th and 21^st September. Allowing you to publish these apps and be in with a chance of receiving up to US$100 per app published and win one of eight iPad minis!

The Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon will run from 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on Saturday, September 20 to 4:00 p.m. September 21.  Anyone can participate from anywhere in the world and at any time both before the event and during the Hackathon days.  The Hackathon is a free event and offers a cash reward for apps published (up to 5 apps).  You can also participate in the "Cloud App" and "Sustainability App" competitions for a chance to win an iPad mini. Autodesk has assembled a great line up of industry and product app development specialists to lead interactive discussions and sessions on architecting apps for the Exchange store as well as how to use a new Autodesk API such as one of our web service APIs. Great for those looking at extending the use of BIM 360 Glue and Field, more info on those API's can be found on the 360 View Blog.

For full details and registration and visit the Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon event pages.  

Google Glass, the future of construction?

As a bit of a tech geek, I was pretty excited to get my hands on Google Glass for the first time. As probably the most well-known of wearable technology that hasn't even been put on general sale (properly) yet we like new toys, Google Glass is essentially a voice and touchpad controlled computer in front of your eye with internet connectivity, cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes, sensors and a teleporter (that last one may be a lie!). Chatting to a company called 3Squared who do software consultancy for construction firms amongst others, based just a few hundred meters from Autodesk's Sheffield office in the UK, a plan came together to try and link this very portable technology with BIM 360 Field, our construction management application to get information out to, and back from workers on site, whether that be issues, tasks, drawings, models or commissioning data.

Now we are aware that Google Glass isn't in its current state the perfect device for the construction site, there are obvious health and safety and connectivity issues to think about but it is indicative of the sort of technology that many people including me think will be common place in the next 5/10 years. Whether this is through safety protected glasses, watches, or gloves, information on site to workers who want to work hands free is surely only a matter of time.

This video shows a proof of concept of Google Glass looking through existing issues, creating new issues and updating others as shown by the web interface to Field. There's plenty of places we could take it next, but really this is just the start to show that the API can be used to connect into the BIM 360 platform backend to produce new ways at looking at, creating and harnessing this project information. We know we've only just scratched the surface and know some of you out there can take it even further!

You can learn more about how to use the BIM 360 API's at the 360 View blog. Your best route to using the API's however is to join the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) which gives you access to our experts, community and software for the purpose of creating apps that help your business, or be a springboard for a whole new business of your own!

If you want to know more about the prototype, have ideas of what else it could be used for, or you are looking at other wearable technology for the construction site, please do contact me on [email protected] or 3Squared at [email protected]

14 things you’ll be shocked you never knew about Autodesk Navisworks!

I've been travelling around a lot in the last year and met a huge number of you guys and girls at various events, we chat a lot about workflows, features of the program and how you first came to use it. However even now I find it surprising that I can show something new to even expert users that help with their day to day work. So in typical Buzzfeed style, here are 14 things you'll be shocked to know you can do with Autodesk Navisworks!!!!

1. Forget 3D, 4D, 5D 6 and 7D, did you know there's 2D support in Navisworks?

   It still shocks me that people don't know about this, so I'll shout it:- 
   NAVISWORKS HAS 2D SUPPORT!!!

   Now why is that important? Viewing a 3D file is great! It's revolutionised the way people work and coordinate with each other! However in the majority of cases, the main deliverable to the construction team on site is a set of 2D drawings, they provide additional detail you can't always get into a model, they're also a way of conveying information in a way familiar to that team. It's possible to save 2D sheets with a NWD alongside the 3D files with review, markup, viewpoints, sections, Timeliner animations then pass this to the wider team. One of the nifty features with 2D support is the ability to find the same item across other 2D sheets and the 3D models by using the 'Find Items in Other Sheets and Models' when right clicking an object. This has become even more important with 2D Quantification now in Navisworks, more on that soon.

   

2. You can create very quick quantification for building out resources and tracking changes in models.
   
   This video shows a quick workflow on how to do this, if you're an estimator you may want to do a more thorough takeoff using a preconfigured catalogue, but if you just need access to some quick quantities, Navisworks is also perfect for that.
   
   
   
   
3. You can colour up anything in the model based on properties using the Appearance Profiler

   In this case we have some Construction Progress Fields from BIM 360 Field that can be used to color up the latest state of the project before running Timeliner, allowing you to identify any problems on the critical path

   This could just as easily be used to quickly color up the different MEP systems for clarity, or phases of a project. Profiles and Search Sets can be moved from one project to the next saving time with set up.

4. You can load BIM 360 Glue projects straight into Navisworks

   It's simply a case of opening or appending the file from the BIM 360 tab in Navisworks 2015, meaning you'll always be using the latest coordinated file and able to run your latest advanced construction tasks without worrying about using the wrong version.

5. There are different ways to select items in the model

   My favourite is to use the Properties section of the Selection Tree, I also use this method to create quick searches and Search Sets, this video shows some more detail.
   
   

6. You don't even have to click on an item to view the properties of an item using Quick Properties

   You can view any properties in the model by hovering over them in the model, you just need to switch on Quick Properties and decide which properties you want to see.

   

7. You can select a number of items and just export their properties using the Selection Inspector

   If you haven't seen the Selection Inspector before, click on the icon on the Home tab, select a few objects and view the properties, again you can use the Quick Properties to decide which properties you need and then just export out a CSV of all those properties.

   

8. Navisworks now has an App Store!
   
   In Navisworks 2015 you can now start taking advantage of Autodesk's huge network of API developers who will be posting a series of free and paid extensions through the Navisworks App Store. Are you a developer yourself? You can upload your own apps and make them accessible to a wide user base, just head to the Autodesk® Exchange Apps Developer Center. A current favourite of mine is Properties+ which came about as part of customer feedback asking if there's a quick way to just view the properties you need rather than the multiple tabs of all the properties, this is the result, try it out, it's free!
   
   
9. Render Navisworks files in The Cloud
   
   For those of you using Revit, you will already know cloud rendering is easy, quick and gives amazing results, now it's available in Navisworks, meaning you can pull together all your files, no matter which application they came from and produce amazing renders. For example I'm no rendering expert but this Panorama took around 20 minutes to drag and drop some materials, send to the cloud and receive this impressive rendering back. You can also do illuminance studies in the cloud too!
   
   
10. Did you know you can create cache files automatically overnight?
    
    What's the best way to save time whilst files are loading, get them to cache whilst you're asleep! It'll save you time and money every morning! You can automatically create an NWD every week to give a snapshot of where the project is up to. Make sure you run Navisworks as an Administrator and run the Batch Utility, you can then set up your automated tasks using the Windows Task Scheduler.
    
    
11. You can create Time based clashes to ensure you have enough clearance on site for moving objects

    This would help with getting large machines or loads through a site, for example this video shows how moving an escalator through a 3D model would allow you to identify problems before you get to site. More information on linking animations to Timeliner Tasks can be found in this blog post

12. You can see your model with 3D glasses!

    If you have supported hardware you can enable Stereo viewing. More information on Stereo Viewing in Navisworks can be found on the blog.

13. You can link to a database or spreadsheet if you ever need more properties

    There's more information on how to do this in an older blog post How to Link a Database using Navisworks Datatools

14. Autodesk has great IFC Support

    In fact we have huge support for the IFC file format across Autodesk, look at our Interoperability page at www.autodesk.com/ifc for more information about our IFC certifications across Autodesk products and support of COBie with a COBie exporter from Revit which completed the COBie challenge with top honours in 2013 and 2014.

Cue shocked Taylor Swift photo

And a cute animal picture for no reason whatsoever

Via cute-baby-animals.tumblr.com

If you want to see anything in more depth, send us an email on [email protected]

 

Vela Systems acquired by Autodesk to help transform the construction industry

Vela Systems are an exciting company that we have been working with for some time as a partner organization, and late last week it was announced that Vela will be joining the Autodesk team.
This video, posted just a few weeks ago explains in more depth the integration between Vela's products and Autodesk Revit and Navisworks.

Amar Hanspal, the Senior Vice President, Information Modeling and Platform Products Group say "BIM has tremendous value in the planning and design aspects of construction projects, but if you can't get that rich data into the field, at the point of construction, you are leaving out the critical 'last 100 yards' in the process. Integrating Vela Systems and its cloud and mobile products with the Autodesk BIM portfolio transforms the business of construction, delivering valuable information to job sites anywhere in the world".

Read here for the full press release.

API wishlist survey for Revit and Navisworks

One of the things that ADN team does together with various product teams is API wishlist survey. This year's wishlist survey is now open for Revit and Navisworks from the following links:

Revit

Navisworks

Please take a moment to complete these surveys and give us a feedback.  It will take less than 5 minutes to complete each survey. Our engineering teams use this feedback to help prioritize the areas of API enhancements in coming releases. If you leave your e-mail address, we will send you the final results after it is concluded. 

The deadline for the survey for Revit and Navisworks API is June 1st, 2012. We look forward to receiving your feedback!

The wishlist surveys for other products will follow shortly.

via adndevblog.typepad.com

We know you're pushing Revit and Navisworks to their limits, use this opportunity to give feedback on how you can push them even further.

New AEC API Developer Blog

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 

Head to the blog and subscribe to the RSS feed for new posts: -

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/

You can also ask API related questions through the Navisworks API forum.

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