Lachmi Khemlani  from AECbytes provides a great overview of the 2nd Annual HOK BIMies, be sure to check it out! We really do love what we do at HOK. :-)

http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2012/HOK_BIM_Awards.html

From the Beyond Design blog post, “Why does my model look sectioned?”

If you are experiencing clipping issues in Navisworks – especially with large models – you may have a spurious object far away from the main geometry. Your best option is to delete the extraneous element in the source model and reload it. If your composite model is just that large (airport, neighborhood, city…) then you might need to adjust the Clippng Planes under the Culling tab in File Options.

Read the complete article on the Beyond Design blog for more info.

HOK’s own James Vandezande is the president of the New York City Revit Users Group (nyc-rug.com) and organizes popular monthly meetings around various BIM-related topics. The January 2012 meeting featured guest speaker Ian Atkins who shared some of his real-world experience in applying BIM to modular and prefabricated construction.

Feel free to watch the recording of the meeting (Ian’s presentation starts at 12:30 into the recording)…

Not too long ago, some in the industry thought that simply by exporting Revit models into Navisworks meant they were performing 3D coordination.¹ I firmly believe we are moving beyond this notion towards a more complete offering of coordinated inter-disciplinary model deliverables.

I was inspired to write this article from recent posts by Steve Stafford on RevitOpEd (“Designing Revit Content – What is Interference?”), and posts by Doug Bowers on Applying Technology to Architecture (“Clearance Zones in Revit Families – Part 1 and Part 2”). In their writings, Steve and Doug share some great tips and techniques for architects to generate more accurate clash detection results. Without reiterating their information on this blog, here are some of the key concepts:

• Overlapping windows will not generate a warning in Revit
• Know what families have 3D geometry and which consist of 2D linework
• The door swing shown in plan is only a 2D symbol, unusable for clash detection
• Clearance zones are not included in Revit door families because the rules can be different around the world

The main issue here is not necessarily about detecting interferences between 3D geometry, but one concerning model validation using implied spatial zones. I use the term ‘model validation’ because this type of checking has a range of uses including code compliance and maintenance clearance validation. Some facility owners are now starting to include such specifications in their BIM requirements. For example, writing the project execution plan for a recent project I found the following requirement:

“Clearances and access: All clearances and access to equipment, valves, etc. must be modeled in 3D and kept in a separate layer and labeled correspondingly.”

If your existing content library doesn’t include clearance zones, you might be in for some heavy duty family revisions as this project gets started.

As an alternative, an intelligent model checking platform can validate many of these rules (but not necessarily all of them). One such program in use at HOK is Solibri Model Checker (www.solibri.com). While this is worthy of future dedicated posts, the fundamental idea here is ‘intelligent model checking.’ What makes this tool intelligent? It utilizes IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) models that ‘understand’ the model parts. Navisworks does a great job in checking the raw 3D geometry, but the system cannot distinguish between various building elements - such as a wall and a door - without user interaction in the form of property search sets. In IFC, the data is generated from a compatible BIM platform and elements are classified according to international standards. As such, Solibri can understand a door and apply validation rules (ADA) to the door without the need to add them into the native door family.

Note 1: “3D Coordination“ is a defined BIM use in the “Project Execution Planning Guidelines.” Read more about BIM use definitions at the Penn State University website (bim.psu.edu). We also encourage you to follow a new blog by HOK’s Greg Schleusner: bimuse.blogspot.com

David Light HOK London explains how HOK has adapted Revit for touch screen technology.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=18396

I am proud to say that I received a copy of Disegno (E) in_Formazione today or DRAWING (S) in_form. I was contacted by Massimiliano Lo Turco earlier this year asking for an interview on HOK’s experiences with BIM; as always, I obliged. The book is bilingual Italian & English & includes a wealth of knowledge on BIM strategy & software deployment.

More detail can be found here….

http://www.bimacademy.it/2011/10/disegno-e-in_formazione-disegno-politecnico

Victor Martinez BIM Manager at HOK New York says; if you are loading families and want to view the icons in detail mode, hold your CTRL key down and middle mouse scroll in the window, the view will go from this:

To this:

The more you scroll with the CTRL key pressed the larger the icons will appear:

David Light, BIM manager, HOK London gives an overview on HOK buildingSMART.

http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/BIM-Implementation_HOK-buildingSMART.asp

A request was made to me this week by one our project managers who wanted to know whether we where over or under our area requirements on one of our projects. We needed to show which rooms where providing more area than had been defined in the client brief & this needed to displayed graphically on plan. You would normally do this by setting up a Colour Scheme to display the results by a range.

However, on this occasion we just needed to display the results as either yes or no. I was able to resolve the problem which I explain in the youtube video below; it got us the result we needed. I am sure there must be a slicker way to do this, however this rather “rushed” video explains the steps I took.

Wanna know more about Citrix & Revit?  Then be sure to check out HOK’s John Bartolomi, Director of IT Services class. He will be giving a presentation at Autodesk University on the virtualization of Revit. Class detail & times are below.

• ID:                          AB4595
• Title:                     Autodesk Revit Virtualization Using Citrix® Technologies
• Date:                     Thursday, Dec 1, 2011
• Time:                    5:15pm
• Duration:             90 minutes

Find below Youtube Video with a few tips on how we use Room separation lines in projects. I can’t take full credit for the parking bay concept as I believe Joe Stott over at Revit Scratchpad came up with something similar first off.

Some will obviously freak out on how we add Room separation lines to a specific workset, but I can live with that. ;-)

The August 2011 meeting of the New York City Revit Users Group featured a presentation by Greg Schleusner of the firm-wide BIM leadership team at HOK. Greg demonstrates how the use of BIM-based program management tools such as dRofus can support and improve the project delivery process. The discussion focuses on the benefits of adequately documenting program requirements and then comparing those to an evolving design model.

NOTE: The featured presentation starts at about 12:00 into the recording.

Have you had issues where your Revit 2012 thumbnails have disappeared, even though Windows is set to display them?

This often happens after uninstalling older versions of Revit, in particularly Revit 2010. Therefore to resolve this, open up a command promote & copy & paste this line into the command line.

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit Architecture 2012\Program\Revit.Thumbnail.dll"

You will need to be a administrator to do this, but after you have done this, reboot your machine & you should find thumbnails will return.

Need to reuse details from project to project? (of course!) Did you know that you can directly copy views from one project to another? Simply select and copy them from the project browser. Then paste them (ctrl+v) into the work area of another project!

This works on:

• Drafting Views
• Schedules
• Empty Sheets
• Entire Sheets with only Drafting Views on them
• Legends will not work!

(Depending on your browser organization) the views will show up in the same position they did in the previous project.

Did you know there are two very different types of CAD backgrounds?

• Flattened “2D” backgrounds that are overlaid onto a view
• Model element “3D” backgrounds that have a physical location within the model

The easiest and preferred method to link in a dwg is as a 2D background.

How can you tell them apart?

Select a CAD background.. if you are able to specify foreground / background from the options bar, then it is a 2D background.

When would you want to use a 3D background?

3D doesn’t necessarily mean a dwg will be given depth; what it really means is that the dwg will be created as a model element

• 3D backgrounds will be visible in all views where they are within the view range. Therefore if you link a CAD plan in, all floor plan views will automatically show the background!
• If you want to see the dwg in a 3D Isometric or Perspective view
• If you want to see dwg elements that were modeled in 3D
• Because 3D backgrounds have a physical location, they can be obscured by other elements such as walls, ceilings or finish floors
• A 3D background is not flattened, so any linework that has a height (Z value) other than 0” may show in unexpected places or not at all.
• A 3D dwg linked into a floor plan will not show on an RCP even if you “copy/paste” it into the view UNLESS you give it a positive offset (such as 9’-0”) to bring it into the RCP view range
• The seemingly random, bulgy, coloured linework in an elevation is usually a 3D dwg being seen from the side. These can be easily hidden by turning off “Imported Categories” through VG.

Setting an Offset

CAD Obscured Hidden Line by Ceiling

Same CAD visible in wireframe

When would you want to use a 2D background?

In most cases a 2D background is the easiest to work with because they cannot be obscured by other elements

• A specific background (such as furniture) that does not need to automatically show in all views
• RCP backgrounds
• Elevations, Sections or other views where there is no real workplane for the dwg to be placed on
• Sending the dwg link to foreground will show the CAD on top of all model elements. Sending the dwg link to background will place it behind model elements.
• 2D views WILL NOT show up in all views automatically, however they can be copy/pasted into other views (the link will still update)

So how do you choose to link a dwg as 3D or 2D background?

Actually it doesn’t specifically say annotation or model, 2D or 3D… the option is found in the dialog box when you are first linking the background as “Current view only”

• Checked will create a 2D background
• Unchecked will create a 3D background

Kevin Shumbera explains how the underlay feature can assist when generating a reflected ceiling plan & then coordinating with the furniture layout.

Kevin says – “When working in a reflected ceiling plan, it is helpful to know where the furniture occurs”.

Revit provides UNDERLAY tools to make this easier.

You can work in the Ceiling Plan while viewing the Floor Plan as an Underlay.

NEW – You can work in the Floor Plan while viewing the Ceiling Plan as an Underlay.  (this can be useful for MEP tasks).

The examples below, show a floor plan and a reflected ceiling plan

To see the furniture in the RCP, turn on the UNDERLAY in the VIEW PROPERTIES, as shown below:

What is new is that it is possible to see the Ceiling in a Plan view.

Turn on the UNDERLAY and change the UNDERLAY ORIENTATION from Plan to REFLECTED CEILING PLAN:

Note:  It is also possible to see an underlay from a level different from the current level, if needed.

Kevin Shumbra from HOK’s Houston offices shares some wisdom on “stuff” which goes missing in Revit. Revit likes to play hide and seek… here is the process I use to find missing elements (beginning with the most likely cause)

General

Element is visible in other Views

Open another view or draw a new one.. If the element shows up, it may be one of the follow settings:

Workset
What Workset is the element on? Check the setting in element properties from a view where it is visible and  then check the VG settings in the view where it isn’t visible. Or turn on ALL Worksets through VG.

Wireframe
Elements can be covered up by other elements or even masking regions, change the view to wireframe to make sure this isn’t happening. If so, is the element at the right elevation? The family may need to be modified to show correctly, or the covering element can be made transparent.

Reveal Hidden
The element may be hidden in the view, or by VG category. Turn on the light bulb to shows elements hidden one at a time or by category.
*Elements hidden by Workset will not show up in this mode.

Visibility Graphics
Check the VG settings to make sure the category isn’t turned off.

Visibility Graphics II – Revit Link
If the element is coming from a linked model, you may need to check the custom VG settings in the Revit Links tab. If a link is set to custom or “by linked view” then it’s VG settings won’t come from the regular view settings.

View Range
Is the element within of the view range? Draw a section where the element should be and see what elevation the element is at. The default cut plane is at 4’-0”, so elements above this will not show, nor will elements below the view depth. You may need to reposition the element, change the view range, or modify the family to make it show.

Design Options
Is the project using Design Options? Cycle through each of the options in the VG Design Options menu.

Phasing
Is the project using phasing? In View properties set the “Phase Filter” to none, this will ignore the phase of an element and show everything. If the element reappears, it may have the wrong phase or the view properties may be set incorrectly.

Filter
Does the view have filters applied? Check in VG and turn on ALL of the filters.

Family Properties
Edit the Family and go into the view that you are trying to see the element in (Plan, Front or Side Elevation etc.. ) Select a single part of the element and go to the “Visibility Settings” button from the toolbar. These settings can turn off any element in plan or elevation views and coarse, medium or fine detail levels. Within the project you can also change the detail level of the view between coarse, medium and fine.

Element is not visible in other Views

Workset
Is the element on a Workset that is turned off by default? Turn on all Worksets on in VG

Worksets II
Go to the Workset manager from the Collaborate menu and check that the Workset is open and not closed. Closed Worksets are unloaded from all views in the model.

Detail Lines
Element drafted with details lines, symbols or detail components will only exist in the view where they are drawn.

Family Properties
Edit the Family and go into the view that you are trying to see the element in (Plan, Front or Side Elevation etc.. ) Select a single part of the element and go to the “Visibility Settings” button from the toolbar. These settings can turn off any element in plan or elevation views and coarse, medium or fine detail levels. Within the project you can also change the detail level of the view between coarse, medium and fine.

Design Options
Is the project using Design Options? Cycle through each of the options in the VG Design Options menu.

Phasing
Is the project using phasing? In View properties set the “Phase Filter” to none, this will ignore the phase of an element and show everything. If the element reappears, it may have the wrong phase or the view properties may be set wrong

Social media tools such as this blog, Life @ HOK, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and others are important parts of our firm’s dedication to open communication and collaboration. Our CIO, Ken Young, discusses this evolving practice at the KA Connect 2011 event…

Tip submitted by Stan S. in San Francisco

If you are a regular user of Navisworks to perform 3D coordination or 4D simulations using model data from Revit, you may have encountered a problem with updating the NWC files exported from Revit. Navisworks can directly open or append models from a number of formats including DWG, DGN, IFC, and so on. It does so by creating temporary files called cache files (NWC). Because Navisworks cannot directly open a Revit project file (RVT), Autodesk provides a free exporting tool to create NWC files directly from a Revit model; however, if you have a Navisworks file set (NWF) open when you try to export from Revit, you will see this error:

To solve this, go to the Navisworks Options Editor (under the Application button) and examine the Model options. You may have to scroll down to find this option, but make sure the setting for “Close NWC/NWD Files On Load” is checked as shown below. This will allow you to overwrite the NWC files while Navisworks is running.

With this setting enabled, you must remember to refresh your file set when an NWC file is overwritten. Found on the Home tab (or by pressing F5), this is the usual method for updating when an original model of another format (DWG, DGN, IFC…) is received.

The folks over at Andekan – a company “focused on the creation of manufacturer-specific product familes” – recently posted a detailed article on how to use reference planes in the Revit Family Editor environment. Definitely worth a read if you are creating content.

Read “On Strengths and Weaknesses (in the Revit Family Editor)” by Jose Fandos

1. Create a “Number” type parameter for the offset dimension
• “MyOffset_Inches”, in this case
• The formula will assume inches, so we added “Inches” to the name
2. Add a formula to control the Variable Length parameter
• In words, to calculate the Variable Length;
• If the Offset is negative, subtract the absolute value of the Offset from the Base Dimension
• If the Offset is zero or positive, add the value of the offset to the Base Dimension
• In the formula, note the multiplication by 1”.  This is to convert the Offset (Number) parameter to a distance.

Bruce Madsen from our SF office highlighted this problem recently. It relates to issues when demolishing light fixtures when using phasing in Revit.

THE PROBLEM

THE CAUSE

Since the ceiling is NOT demolished, the light-fixture hole edges remain as existing

THE WORK-AROUND

Use the Linework tool to change the lines from Solid to Demolished

David Light, Revit Specialist for HOK London explains how to use different family categories so you can develop detailed deliverables from families placed within your project environment.

This question has come up a number of times recently, but understanding how Revit cuts geometry is particular important if you trying to generate deliverables off your model. Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to do this.

In the example below, the requirement is to generate a number of different plans representing a reception desk. But the prerequisite is to show these at various level, ie. Top View, View below sign-in counter,  a view indicating how the millwork is developed.

You first just need to know what families are cuttable and which families are not, the Autodesk Revit help file actually explains this very well. Then you need to understand how to use plan regions to control the different plan depths you require.

Start by changing the family category to “generic model”. This ensures that the geometry is cuttable in plan as well as section.

Replicate the plan views as required, for each plan you are trying to develop.

Then pick one of the views, then go to view and “plan region” and sketch around an area where you need to see a different depth.

Select the plan region and adjust its Cut plane as required, in the case of below I have dropped this to 500mm.

The resulting geometry will now look like this.

If you need to provide different areas at different heights, pull back the plan region or sketch around what needs to be shown at a different height and alter the cut plan.

In the image below; the resulting views with different plan regions added to represent how the reception desk will need to be shown on the drawings.