LOD Specification is Here!

After two years of dedication and hard work, the first draft of the BIM Level of Development (LOD) Specification is finally available for public comment. The work group responsible for this important document is a joint task force consisting of members of the AIA and the AGC of America’s BIMForum.

You might be asking, ‘what is an LOD Specification and why do I need one?’ The AIA’s digital practice documents defines 5 fundamental levels of model development, but offers only general definitions of what each level means. I offered some explanation of these in an older blog post.

This new document offers more detailed definitions of how model authors must create virtual components in order to satisfy the requisite reliability. Building upon the AIA’s original LOD definitions, the LOD Specification can be seen as a companion document – much the same way as a dictionary can be a companion to both an author and a reader.

The public comment period will be completed by early June 2013, but the work group will continue to revise the LOD Specification and publish it on an annual basis. Go to bimforum.org/lod to download your free copy today. You can also read a very detailed article about it by work group chair Jim Bedrick on the AECBytes website (“Level of Development Specification for BIM Processes”).

Gross Floor Area of a Mass

We had a good Revit question come in from our Dubai office this morning concerning the calculation of gross floor area in a mass. What could cause a mass object to not list any gross floor area in the Properties palette?

First, you must ensure that at least one Mass Floor is selected. You can access this setting by selecting a mass element and then clicking on Mass Floors in the contextual tab of the ribbon.

In this case, one level was selected – but the level was NOT intersecting the actual mass element.

This is a bit of a limitation if you are using Revit for urban design or master planning on a hilly site. You will need to create at least one level for each plateau of buildings in order to utilize the Gross Floor Area property.

Wire End Woes

If you have never seen this issue before and are an electrical discipline user, you are extremely lucky. When adding wiring to electrical or lighting fixtures built in a face-hosted template, sometimes wires jump around in a frenzy every time a fixture is moved. This is obviously unacceptable, but luckily there is a fix. Let’s break it all down.

Symptoms

You place fixtures, add wiring and all is well. Then you make a change and move some fixtures (because that’s what designers want), and the wire ends are sent off flying all over the place. You think about hurting someone, but keep your cool instead.

Analysis

So what causes this? Thanks to a tip from Autodesk Support and further digging, it turns out that there is a potential bug in the face-based Generic Model template, which is probably the one used for your families. When the internal origin of the family is in a different location than the ref. planes that define the family origin, you see the above behavior, where wire connectors jump to the “projected” location of the electrical connector.

Below we can see two instances of the Lighting Fixture above with a wire added between them. The wire end connections match up with those of the fixture, but the wire end graphics are goofy.

When the fixture is moved, the wire connects to this “projected” connector location and thus appears to disconnect and jump around.

The Fix

To fix the problem, make sure the origin defined by the intersection of two ref. planes is at the exact same location as the family’s internal origin. This way the true connector location is used to connect the wire end instead. The positioning of family geometry in relation to the origin is not important for this to work properly. Here is the proof:

Happy circuiting!

Bloated Revit central files

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take a look at a project that the team simply couldn’t open up. The file wasn’t giving any errors and the progress bar sat there at 99% and would not finish opening. To put things in context, this was an FF&E hospital project with about 12 floors and contained links to various other files that housed the building core & shell geometry.

Right off the bat I noticed the excessive file size (about 595MB). By closing the worksets that contained other linked Revit models (about 11 of them), the project finally opened. File size is typically one of the first things to look at when faced with projects that won’t open. In some cases the issue can be easily rectified through a purge of unused elements and a compaction during a sync with central, typically resulting in a reduction of 30% to 50%. Sometimes users fail to realize that if bloated files exist across the board in their project and they load these files as links, they can easily suffer serious performance issues as they run low (or out of) RAM. This is one of the most avoidable problems that BIM Coordinators should watch out for on their projects and can be easily prevented through regular file maintenance.

However in this instance, a purge and compaction only resulted in trimming about 90MB off the file (not bad, but not enough). So it was time for a much more in-depth analysis of the file contents.

My first suspicion was that the project might have contained imported CAD files. A quick search with Ideate Explorer did not reveal any so then I started looking at groups of elements with large quantities. A good troubleshooting strategy is to delete these large group of elements, save a new file (as a new Central) and see how much space is recovered. I took out all furniture families (about 16,000 instances) but the file barely lost 40MB. The families in question were very lightweight and contained mostly plan symbolic representations, which was a smart move for this project’s purpose.

Next I noticed there were almost 7,000 rooms, but did not suspect these would be the source of the problem. After all, they just contain some data, right? Well, it turns out rooms were to blame for this bloated file but I couldn’t figure out how to get this excess amount of bits and bytes released.

After filing a Support Request with Autodesk, I did some more testing based on their recommendations and saved a series of files after deleting rooms by floor (about 8) to try and identify if rooms on a certain floor were consuming more file space than others. Averages revealed that rooms on some floors were using a bit less (ex: 20KB/room) when compared to others (65KB - 83KB/room). However this analysis still led to nowhere and I did not receive further suggestions. Usually Autodesk is eager to take a look at the project file itself but this was not the case this time, even though the SR was filed as Urgent. We were running out of time, so it was time for some drastic measures.

After a purge and deletion of all rooms, the file went down to a very reasonable 65MB. That gave me a goal to work towards. Rooms were consuming about 300MB and if placed rooms were copied and pasted into a new project, they resulted in a 100MB file, which is about 17KB/room. Deleting 800 unplaced rooms from a room schedule did save 23MB, but somehow, about 200MB of space was being held hostage by the remaining 6,160 placed rooms.

Here are the steps taken to fix the file:

1. Opened a detached copy of the original project and deleted all rooms. The file was saved as a new central, no purging (155MB);
2. Opened a detached copy of the original project and deleted all model elements, links, families, sheets and views, leaving just placed rooms. The file was saved as a new central, no purging (108MB). Note that deleting model elements is easier to accomplish by going through the Family tree in the project browser. Since Revit does not let you delete the last type of a system family, you need to create a duplicate of the family and then delete the original one. This ensures that if any elements exist in the project with that type, that they are deleted. Sheets and views are easily deleted through a sheet schedule and view list respectively, both set to not itemize every instance. This allows you to pick the single displayed row and delete them all at once;
3. Opened the central file created in step 1, created workset “Rooms” and set as Active;
4. Linked the file created in step 2, Auto – Origin to Origin;
5. Selected the link and bound it, turning it into a group (did not select levels and grids to be inserted). When prompted, removed the original link as no instances were now placed;
6. Selected the resulting group and ungrouped it. All rooms were now placed exactly in their original location, with the exception that their workset was now “Rooms”.
7. The new central file was saved (255MB) and those 200MB were finally released. By purging, this file should ultimately end up as a 170MB project, which is much more reasonable.

You might not be faced with this exact same problem on any of your projects, but I hope it outlines the systematic approach to troubleshooting and resolving issues with bloated files.

Grids Don't Phase Me

We are dealing with a project that has an existing building, demo, and new construction requirements. There is a need to control the visibility of existing grids, grids that will be removed during the demo phase, and new grids.

There are a major limitations to grids that everyone should be aware of. You cannot control the grids by phase; therefore you cannot demo a grid or use phase filters to show/not show specific grids.

In a post by Steve Stafford from 2008 in the Augi Forums it was suggested that you can use worksets, design options, or Scope Boxes to control the visibility of grids. Thanks for highlighting this 5 years ago Steve! And this is still true today.

If your project is not workset enabled you are down to two options, scope boxes and design options.

I looked to explore this in greater detail. I found another limitation, that is related to a new “feature” in 2013. Grids that are created as multi segmented cannot be assigned to scope boxes (#FAIL). So if you have any grids that are multi segmented you will not be able to use scope boxes and your only options would be design options or worksets.

So, how do you use scope boxes to control grids?

1.       Draw your grids
2.       Draw your scope boxes
3.       Name your scope boxes
4.       Assign your grids to the scope boxes
5.       Set the visibility of your scope boxes per view (Overwrite to Invisible the ones you do not want to see)
In this example we start with an existing wall, a few columns and grids all on the existing phase.

(and in this example you will see that Grid 2 and B are multi segmented and will not work)

We then created a scope box.

   

 

 

The Scope Box is called “DEMO”

 

The next step is assign a scope box to each grid.

Grids 1 and A will not be assigned a Scope Box. It will show as None.

We do this so the those grids will always show up. We are not touching them.

Grid 2 and B cannot be assigned since these are Multi-segmented Grids - ask Autodesk why?

Grid 3 and C to be assigned to the DEMO scope box we created earlier.

  

Now we can demo a few columns (I set the visibility overwrite to RED so you easily see what is being demolished) I also changed the Phase Filter to show the Previous Phase (Existing) and Demo.

Now the new grids need to be added. I added NEW 2, NEW 3, NEW B, and NEW C. Created a new scope box called NEW. I then assigned these new grids to this new scope box. I also added a few columns to the new grid intersections. I quick feature to do this is select the All Grids feature first, then select the grids - the columns will drop at the intersections of the grids.

Notice that you do not see two scope boxes in my views.  That is because these scope boxes have specific views set to show or hide based on the Views Visible Settings.
When you have a scope box highlighted you can control the views via the Views Visible “Edit…” button.
In this case I selected the NEW scope box and used the settings below – I do not want the NEW scope box or the grids related to it to show in the EXISTING or DEMO views.

The DEMO scope box is set to show everywhere except the NEW view

In conclusion, using scope boxes to control your grids is a great method, but until Autodesk change the ability to control multi segmented grids you might need another option like design options or worksets.
If you would like to download this model to explore further, use this link.
Good luck out there and don't let grids phase you. :)

Autodesk FormIt 2.0

Back in November, we reported on a new iPad app published by Autodesk called FormIt. I installed the free app and did a few form studies with it, including gross floor area calculations, shadow studies, and incorporating a satellite image of an existing neighborhood. Synchronization with my cloud account on Autodesk 360 was pretty seamless and I was able to download my design form in SAT format, and then use that as a basis to create an in-place mass in Revit.

Some of my colleagues claimed they would wait until FormIt would translate directly to Revit before they tried it. Well…that wait is over! FormIt 2.0 is now available and has some really interesting enhancements. Obviously, it now converts automatically to RVT…but it’s a little hard to find.

In your Autodesk 360 account, you need to click on Documents at the top of the page and then go to the folder named FormIt. In that folder you will find RVT files with the same file name as the sketch you created in the FormIt app. Download the file, open it in Revit and you will see an in-place mass based on the forms you created.

In version 2.0, there are many other enhancements around snapping to a grid, using active dimensions, and creating sketch-based shapes. One problem I experienced was when I attempted to draw a curved line on the surface of a shape in order to sub-divide it for additional extrusions (ala SketchUp). This operation wasn’t as simple as drawing one line that bisects a surface. Instead I had to create a fully enclosed polygon that mimicked the shape I was intending to cut. Note that this works as intended with straight lines.

Here’s a short video from Autodesk that highlights the new features in version 2.0. They have also established a support forum on GetSatisfaction (my favorite support tool!)

Please feel free to share your thoughts or experiences with us on how you might use FormIt in your design process.

Color Schemes in Reflected Ceiling Plans

 

Color schemes are a great analytical and visualization tool which can be used in floor plan, section and elevation views. Sadly, this functionality has been left out of reflected ceiling plan views. So how do you go about creating a colored ceiling plan?

There are a few of options at your disposal and each has its downfalls.

A) Overlaid Views on a Sheet

Create a floor plan view and turn off everything except rooms, then apply your color scheme. Create a reflected ceiling plan view and set ceilings to 100% transparent. Finally, overlay these views on a sheet.

The main drawback with this solution is that you are unable to work in a composite colored RCP view since the final result only exists on a sheet. Activating the RCP view and editing directly on the sheet results in the other view appearing half-toned, so it’s still not a perfect solution.

B) Plan View with RCP Underlay

Create a floor plan view and set the Underlay to Reflected Ceiling Plan orientation for the same level as your view. Set the Color Scheme as desired…

…and uncheck the halftone option for Underlays.

(Manage>Additional Settings> Halftone / Underlay)

The result is similar to A) above, but now you can work directly in the colored view since there is no required compositing of views on sheets.

The main drawback with this solution is that you are not truly seeing an RCP view, so some features that occur above the cut plane might not show up properly or not at all. For example take a look at the door: the frame should show up at the head in a true RCP view such as in A) above, and is thus incorrectly represented in this “hacked RCP”. Please also note however that Revit represents cut families based on the representation stored in the family itself, so you have to be very careful with object representation even in a regular RCP view (ex: the window has an extended sill, yet that sill shows up incorrectly in RCP views too).

As with all workarounds, there are no perfect solutions, so make sure you understand all the issues before choosing the option that works best for your project. Hopefully the Factory will eventually enable Color Schemes for Reflected Ceiling Plans as well!

3rd Annual HOK BIM Awards

Since 2010, HOK has hosted an annual Building Information Modeling (BIM) Awards competition that celebrates projects exhibiting exemplary and innovative use of technology and integrated design. We continue that tradition into 2012 with our 3rd annual competition we like to call “The BIMies.”

Last year, one of our jurors – AEC industry analyst, Dr. Lachmi Khemlani – published a highly detailed article about the internal competition.

The HOK BIM Award trophy is a 3D print representing a concept design for one of our tower projects. The trophy and case were created by Ideate and donated to our innovative annual program.

There were only 4 trophies made, so teams must compete to obtain the prestigious award for each year. This makes the HOK BIMie quite the coveted artifact…

NOMINEES

This year 20 entries were received from 19 different project teams (one entered in multiple categories) and from 7 different offices. The mix of project types was also quite diverse: 4 - Commercial, 2 - Aviation & Transportation, 6 - Healthcare, 1 - Interiors, 2 - Justice, 1 - Retail and 1 – Urban City Center.

From the 20 overall entries, the firm-wide buildingSMART team selected three finalists in three different categories. The finalist teams then presented their projects to a panel of industry experts who then deliberated and selected one winner per category.

JURY

Our guest jury for the 2012 BIMies included a fantastic mix of industry experts from construction, engineering, education, software, and research.

From left to right:
James Barrett, Turner Construction - National Director of Integrated Building Solutions
Dr. Semiha Ergan, Carnegie Mellon University - Assistant Research Professor
Erleen Hatfield, PE, AIA, LEED AP, Buro Happold - Partner
Matt Jezyk, Autodesk - Senior Product Manager, AEC Conceptual Design Products
Jeff Yoders, ZweigWhite - Technology Editor

FINALISTS

The competition assessed projects on the use of integrated and interoperable building information modeling in the following categories:

Design Process Finalists

Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, Office: Los Angeles
Incheon International Airport Competition, Office: San Francisco
Sengkang General Hospital Competition, Office: Houston

Delivery Process Finalists

GHSU Medical Commons, Office: Atlanta
Shell Woodcreek Phase 3, Office: Houston
NY Project (withdrawn)

Collaboration Process Finalists

Marina Mall, Office: London
Msheireb Downtown Doha Phase 4, Office: Washington DC
Wishard Replacement Hospital, Office: St. Louis

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Best Design Process:

Best Delivery Process:

Best Collaboration Process:

Best Visualization Process (2011 winner):

Because no projects were submitted in the Visualization category this year, the BIMie trophy will remain in Chicago until another winning project is selected in the 2013 BIM Awards. Congratulations!

Thank you to all who participated in this year's awards. Every project submitted was worthy of recognition and once again, our guest jury had a difficult time selecting only one winner in each category!

SmartMarket Report on BIM 2012

McGraw Hill Construction has released their latest SmartMarket report on the “Business Value of BIM.” This year’s report builds on the past 5 years of extensive industry research of building information modeling and how it affects various stakeholders in the construction industry.

Of personal interest, the cover image is from HOK’s Francis Crick Institute – a highly collaborative project in London that also included PLP Architecture, AKT II and Arup among others.

This SmartMarket report is unique in that the research illustrates the cumulative data of a multi-year trend analysis and user ratings. You can observe how perception of value and the implementation of various BIM uses have changed in recent years. The report also contains some project case studies and interviews with industry thought leaders including HOK CEO, Patrick MacLeamy.

I also contributed to an article in the report on the development of BIM standards including Levels of Development (LOD). You’ll find that starting on page 46! Download this FREE report now and share your thoughts and comments.

BIM Software Updates

Depending on the product, software updates from Autodesk can come with a variety of terms.  SP#, PU#, UR# and U# are the abbreviations used for Service Packs, Product Updates and Update Releases and Updates.  There are also Hotfixes.  In this post we provide a brief history and the most current update/fix/release.  Are your installations up to date?

Revit 2013

Since the 2013 release, Revit has had UR1, a Hotfix, SP1, another Hotfix and UR2.  The current Update Release 2 is dated December 04, 2012.

Navisworks Manage 2013

Since the 2013 release, Navisworks Manage has had a Hotfix, SP1, another Hotfix and SP2. The current Service Pack 2 is dated November 21, 2012.

3ds Max Design 2013

Since the 2013 release, Max Design has had U1, U2, SP1, PU3, PU4, PU5, SP2, a Hotfix and PU6. The current Product Update 6 is dated November 20, 2012.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013

Since the 2013 release, Civil 3D has had four hotfixes, next Hotfix 2, then Hotfix 1, SP1, three more hotfixes, then SP1 (NOT the same as the first SP1). The current Service Pack 1 is dated November 29, 2012.

Showcase 2013

Since the 2013 release, Showcase has had SP1, SP2, a Hotfix, SP3, Service Pack 1 (NOT SP1), another Hotfix, and a third Hotfix  The current CATIA CATPart Hotfix is dated October 11, 2012.