My AU2015 Wrap-up

The amazing, spectacular, and jam packed learning adventure of AU2015 is over.
As always there are a few stand-out classes that I had the privilege of attending.

The first was Marcello's Dynamo class, More Practical Dynamo.  I've been watching Marcello teach some amazing things for many years, and I'm happy to see that the Dynamo he is teaching this year is in fact Practical for a small scale project structural firm like ours.  I look forward to becoming a Dynamo HERO this year....

Second on my favorite list this year was a fun demo class on 3ds Max and Stingray.  This class, Interactive Virtual Reality for BIM Data sets and Simulation Using Stingray and 3ds Max, was by Alex Horst.  If you have the opportunity I highly recommend watching it online, it's quite an amazing look into virtual reality for us structural peeps. 

As for my class, Beautiful Structure Rendering Structural Revit Models with 3ds Max, things went splendidly and here's a clip from the class shortly before starting.  Also below, the Final Render Image for the class.

Bash to the future

So last night was the close out party for AU2015.  What a great time.   Everyone was treated to incredible food and drinks at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.   There was even an appearance from a couple of Stormtroopers who karaoked The Final Countdown and posed for pictures with a very tall Lady Vader!  I was lucky enough to partake in Stormtrooper photos as well! 

#AU2015 #nerdsgonewild

 

 

 

Yes AU has Robots

And they are serving drinks ....
 

 

And there are Stormtroopers hanging out with Lynne Allen....

 

 

 And Autodesk Expert Elites on the big screen....Hello AU2015!

 

Wood Framing - Parts Visibility 2

Continuing onward, we now have full visibility control over wood walls via Parts and they are displaying their openings correctly in an upward cutting plan.  As nice as this is, we can also see additional lines for each layer of the wall assembly in plan.

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Ideally to keep a cleaner plan, we will go ahead and filter out all the extra layers and linework of the wall assembly.

We'll use a filter so that it can live in our template and also be applied to our default framing plan view template.

Depending upon the wall assembly setup in the architectural model this can be accomplished with as little as one filter.  We'll start with a filter applied to the Core assembly elements.

Wood Framing - Parts Visibility 1

Now, via parts, I have a direct control over walls in the structural model and elements that automatically update with each new architectural model.  The only thing I don't have is doors and windows showing.  If you're very attached to seeing these then this is likely not your preferred solution.  However, it suits me just fine.   With this method there is a lot less architectural plan items interrupting the display of items in my structural framing plans.

A few notes about parts.  No type properties, they don't recognise they're beginning or starting level with their properties unless set by yourself.  While we've gained direct control over these items in our model, we also need to implement a few minor workarounds.  Beginning with visibility.

As I mentioned previously, there are no door swings in the parts setup.  But in actual fact, parts in an upward cutting framing plan, have no visible openings at all. 

CanBIM Calgary - BIM is Your Business

I have recently returned from the CanBIM session and AGM in Calgary.  Highlights of the event included the construction site tours, the AGM, the keynote speech, the roundtable panels and, of course, the networking with colleagues. 

The construction tours were one of my most favorite portions.  Residing on Vancouver Island means I don't have the opportunity to see and tour very many 56 storey buildings under construction like Brookfield place nor to hear and witness all the BIM collaboration from consultants through to sub-contractors taking place in a project of this scale.  The tour of Quarry Park Recreation centre was also terrific, though BIM was more of an after thought process on this one, the contractors will still able to reap considerable coordination benefits and savings through the collaborative BIM process with the consultant's models.  This was a great way to start the CanBIM session and was followed by the CanBIM AGM later that afternoon.

The keynote speaker, Patrick Saavedra, started the second day off with a very insightful look at York University planning strategies and buildings management from an owners perspective.  This was followed by many informational speakers including a terrific roundtable session with many of the team doing Brookfield place that we had toured the day before.  The second day finished off with a roundtable discussion on BIM as a Business Decision.  While I learnt a lot that day, I know I'll never forget Christian Proulx's roundtable response about the future of BIM being to challenge your BIM champions to teach to the younger colleagues, "like a virus, you actually want to spread".  Christian's point was further summed up by roundtable mediator, Allan Partridge as, "BIMfluenza".  :-)
Overall this was a wonderful CanBIM session.  Kudos to all the CanBIM board and volunteers who make it all happen.  If you missed it, note that all the sessions were recorded and will soon be posted to the CanBIM website for viewing and sharing at your workplace.  And while you're on the website, check out the membership and certification pages. 
BIM is not the future, BIM is here.

Wood Framing - Revit Links

Lets now examine the options for working with Revit links in a wood framed building project.

We will begin with using the architectural link directly for our purposes.  The main issue with the architectural link is the visibility of the walls in the structural views.  Specifically, it is typical practice for our local architects to model walls an non-load bearing and hence they are not visible in "structural" views. 

You could set your views to coordination and then these walls would be visible, but then the visibility of the structural items is disrupted.