Revit on Android Part II

Not long ago, I wrote about running Revit on android devices. The secret's out now that Revit 2012 is available and I can share this information with you. Our good friends at Autodesk have enabled Revit to run on a Citrix xenapp server and it works pretty flawlessly if you have a decent internet connection. A Citrix xenapp server is very cool in that it enables you to access many different Desktop applications such as Autodesk Revit, Autocad, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Adobe Photoshop and so on, from mobile devices. All your mobile device needs is the little Citrix app available from the app store if your an Apple fan or the Android Market if your on Android. What the server does is essentially runs the software using the server's hardware/resources and transfers the appearance of the interface of the application to your device. I hope I am making sense. This setup allows you to be extremely flexible in how you work and access models on the fly and on the job site even.

Because the Server is doing all the work, you can even render a model, even on 'High' and see the results on your device. It's pretty fantastic so feel free to geek-out over it. Your server's specs have a lot to do with performance but in our initial testing, we used a 2007 Dell Precision 490 workstation with 8gb ram and it worked great even for 3D Max. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Craig Barbieri

Read More

Hively

This is Revit-support related for within a firm, and thought I'd share. Check out Hively, it's a cool & easy way of encouraging positive support and communication in your company. It's also pretty cheap!

Read More

Advice

When I'm looking for design advice, this is where I go:

http://www.goodfuckingdesignadvice.com/
Full of only the top quality advice you'd expect.
Cheers

Read More

Phasing and Revit Ceilings

Revit has some fantastic "Phasing" features that can simplify working in renovation projects and other projects that have multiple demolition and/or construction phases. Today I came across a request that surprisingly enough, I have never heard before. ACT Ceilings in Revit will demo but the fill pattern that they use is not overridden like model elements are. When a ceiling is demo'd in Revit, the ceiling pattern stays the same(non-dashed) and so the request that was made was for an ACT ceiling pattern that represented itself as demo'd (dashed).
Ceiling patterns in Revit are fairly straight forward and follow simple rules. You can make your own with a text file. I created two "Demo" ceiling patterns and have placed them in our Revit Standards Library. If you are interested in making your own patterns, take a look at this blog post on iRevit.com.
If you need the 2x4 or 2x2 demo ceiling pattern, there they are.

Read More

Revit on Android

We are looking at various ways of delivering Revit to our people at KlingStubbins and our partners. I'm geeking out over this one... running Revit on an Android phone. I should have had 4G turned on and I would have gotten better performance but maybe next time. Yes, I'm rendering the model. The multi-touch is a little difficult to work with in Revit so I don't recommend you running out and replacing your desktops with iPads but if you are in a pinch and need to check a model in the field, there's no stopping you now!
Details huh? Well there are actually several ways you can accomplish this and one of them I can't mention yet but suffice it to say it's my favorite. The other methods are by using remote detop of some sort, androidVNC works. the other is Citrix Xendesktop, which is essentially running a windows deskop virtually from a server. I'll post more when I can!
Cheers,
Craig Barbieri

Read More

BIM Apps

Is this the year of Leveraging the BIM? Now that many of us are darn good at designing and building in Revit, new tools and companies seem to popping up everywhere offering new ways of making use of the mass of information in the BIMs. This is a major focus of mine this year and a focus for which the time has come. There is much efficiency and productivity to be gained from leveraging or making use of the information in Revit models. Many aspects of our industry are effected by the switch to BIM. Contractors are becoming true partners in the building paradigm we know as IPD, providing new avenues and methods of information flow and new opportunities for tools that enhance what we do.

A new blog has started and it addresses the topic of add-on tools, now referred to as “Apps” and which generally are making use of the Revit API to perform their magic. The blog is “BIM Apps” and it’s located here.

I first came across the author,  Emile Kfouri more than several years ago while I was working on a 2.1 million square-foot resort in Revit Architecture. I believe at the time he was the Revit Platform Product Manager. He’s moved on to bigger and better things at Autodesk and I wish him luck with his new blog. Join me in subscribing.

Cheers,

Craig Barbieri

Read More

Unusual things

Often I come across some unusual things here at KlingStubbins. Today it was a generic floor that was modified to represent a topo surface. This file was given to use from outside the firm and our site group is tasked with reporting on site drainage. Naturally I was asked if it was possible to show contours on a floor slab, or to convert a floor into a toposurface.

Well of course you can….and this is how…

1. Isolate the floor and export it as a dwg.

The default settings are fine, just click through OK.

2. Then Import it back in (with default settings again) and it should land in the same location.

3. Now click the Massing & Site tab and click Toposurface. Select ‘Create from import’ button and select the import, then finish. In this case, because it was a generic floor, it was totally enclosed, having a bottom as well as a top, so I deleted the points on the bottom half.

 

4. To show the contours on the newly created toposurface or adjust the contour settings, click the Site Settings button. In this case I had to adjust my contours to be 1”.

And that’s all there is to it.

Happy New year!

Craig Barbieri

Read More