Nov/Dec 2004

How do you sum up a year? Our readers give their opinions on 2004: the best Autodesk product, their favorite feature, awards and accolades, best web resources, and lots more.

• What’s Behind the Curtain Wall? • This year’s new Autodesk-compatible applications • Autodesk Inventor 9: Stress Analysis

www.AUGI.com Traditional Deliverables from Point Clouds?

Leica’s HDS™ Software Converts 3D Laser Scans Directly to 2D Drawings - with Additional Benefits

By now, surveyors and measurement professionals are drastically reduced using Cyclone CloudWorx™, where familiar with the field-efficiency and completeness of users can extract linework, such as breaklines, directly High-Definition Surveying™, or HDS. Leica’s latest from point cloud data in the CAD environment. advances make it even easier and more cost-effective to HDS users experience many additional benefits without convert rich scan data to 2D deliverables, such as incurring additional field data capture costs: Added plan-views, cross-sections and isometric drawings. confidence. Reduced site re-visits. Real-time QA/QC. ™ Each Leica HDS system comes packaged with Cyclone , Panoramic digital images. 3D visualization. And more... considered by many to be the the industry-standard “field-to-finish” HDS software. The learning curve is HDS3000 It's easier than ever. It's better than ever. And it's from Leica Geosystems. To learn more about High-Definition Surveying visit www.hds.leica-geosystems.com. IMAGINiT puts it all together for you.

Purchasing software is just one piece of the puzzle. Highly With a complete line of design and engineering solu- successful companies increase the return on their invest- tions—including the AutoCAD® family of products— ment by calling on IMAGINiT’s knowledge and experience IMAGINiT focuses on your business success. And with a to boost productivity…and your competitive edge. global reach of more than 80 international sales and Look to the professionals at IMAGINiT for: client service centers, we’re there to help you open up • Technical training new design possibilities and revenue streams. • Design-process implementation Choose IMAGINiT as your design and engineering solu- • Software development tions partner and turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s • Consulting on business-critical requirements profitable solutions. Let us help make all the pieces • Data and document management work together for you. • Asset management to increase revenue potential

United States: 800-356-9050 • Canada: 800-461-9939 • www.rand.com/imaginit Knowledge, Experience, Linking Design and Technology TableContents of

Editorial feature Managing Editor Marilyn Law [email protected]

Technical Editor David Harrington [email protected]

Contributing Editors Doug Broad Dwayne D. Ellis Gil Hoellerich David Kingsley Bruce Madsen Alireza Parsai

Production Tim Varnau [email protected]

Advertising Dan Teeter [email protected]

Controller Larry Teeter [email protected]

Publisher Rich Uphus [email protected]

AUGI Board of Directors, 2004 Marv Muston, President David Kingsley, Senior Vice President John Moran, Junior Vice President Richard Binning, Secretary R. Robert Bell Michael DeGraw Yoshi Honda Jill King Subscription You can manage your AUGIWorld subscription, change preferences, mailing address, and other information online at www.AUGI.com/myaugi. If you need further assistance, please contact Donnia Tabor-Hanson at [email protected]. From new AutoCAD features to favorite AUGIWorld is a trademark of Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) www.augi.com. AUGI and Autodesk are registered trade- marks of Autodesk, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their training classes, from product tips & respective holders. AUGIWorld is published by Solidvapor, Inc., 19601 James Road, Noblesville, IN 46062. tricks to at-work accolades and the Publications Mail Agreement # 40733013 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to Station A PO Box 54 most-used key on your keyboard, here Windsor, ON N9A 6J5 Email: [email protected] BPA International membership applied for are your favorites this year. August 2002. 6 © Copyright 2004 Solidvapor, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 www.AUGI.com Table of Contents

4 The CAD 18 System Manager Variables Primer

20 Autodesk Inventor Professional 9 10 2004 In Review New Products

14 BIM, the 22 Realism Smart Way with Photo Textures

24 Wall Styles and Display Reps 16 What’s Behind the 28 On The Curtain Wall? Back Page The basics for creating curtain walls in Temporary Insanity Autodesk Revit

Nov/Dec 2004 3 The CadManager David Harrington

ince I began writing for this col- EXPLODE, TRIM, or EXTEND com- Passionate fellow users get together on a umn early this year I have mands can actually make it possible. regular basis and network. Now the odds focused on output problems and Now one can always learn by brute of having a problem the same day your offered suggestions for how to force. Try, try, try, get some coffee, try, try, LUG meets are not good, but hanging out Ssolve them. I have been reward- then exit. Not exactly proficient is it? I at these little functions and actually ‘net- ed with many emails stating “that is exact- have found several other methods that working’ will provide you with the buddies ly how I feel” and others requesting fur- really do kick butt! to call when the poo hits the electric air ther insight in the plotting and lineweight First up, talk to your neighbor! Get up mover. I do know I feel ‘lost’ when my topics. However, I believe I have milked out of your chair, swallow a little ego, and local AutoCAD buddy list shrinks because this theme for long enough. It is time for ask a question of someone in your office someone moves away. something different! who knows that answer. In the end your Next up, the Internet. Those that go company probably would rather you back a while remember CompuServe, that To learn or not to learn – finish your task than beat your head virtual land where geeks got together and that is the question on the desk for minutes or hours. If your bashed competing CAD packages! I can If you think this is a good question, then wise colleagues know the answers often even remember my old member number, you probably don’t use Autodesk products! enough, then your resource search may “75254,2534”. Scary, huh? Well after a few Sure, AutoCAD is easy (and fun) but just be over. years ol’ CI$ got replaced with the Inet knowing what to do and when to do it But maybe you are the brightest light in and its Newsgroups. These posting areas doesn’t come naturally. My natural instinct the room. What then? Well, congrats, you still rock today! You can ask a question, when I can’t fillet two polylines is to pick get to be the guru to the others you work wait a little while, and get answers. In addi- up a rock and bash the computer. But I with, but at some point you will probably tion to those are our own AUGI Forums, have learned—through training—that a need help. Kick in the LUG! Local Users similar in form, but a bit more sincere in a little investigation and use of the Groups abound across the world. desire to help you out.

4 www.AUGI.com Please don’t confuse reason users go, after all, and asking questions of your there is no substitute! Get resource, wherever it First up, talk to out there and learn, whether may reside, with getting that means pestering the real ‘rear in a chair’ train- your neighbor! person at the desk next to ing. Whereas your buds yours or making the trip to and newsgroup posts the MGM Grand in Nevada. may answer a question or Get up out of your Make an effort to improve twenty, learning a pack- your gray matter! age from the ground up chair, swallow a This edition of takes hours of full throt- AUGIWorld will be available tle instruction. If you little ego, and ask during Autodesk University need to, you can visit a 2004. If you are there (or community college for a a question of here I guess), please take the few hours a week. Want time to find me at the AUGI more? Hit up a local booth and let me know what authorized training cen- someone in your you think of my column and ter for day-long sessions the rest of this fine maga- on any Autodesk prod- office who knows zine. We are always looking uct. Still want more? Go for new topics and ways to custom and have the ven- that answer improve, and our best help is dor train in your office on you—the reader! exactly what you need. Looking for the extra edge? Perhaps you this time of year in Las Vegas, AU hosts David Harrington,Technical Editor for AUGIWorld, know most of the features about the appli- thousands of users of varied skills and works for Walter P. Moore and Associates in cation you use, but need a refresher for a experience levels meeting and sharing Tampa, Florida, USA. David is the author of Inside new release. Perhaps you need to dive into their experience about Autodesk software. AutoCAD 2005, Inside AutoCAD 2002, and ‘expert’ level concepts? I know of only one Of course there are the lectures, panels, original programmer for REVCLOUD. He can be place for that: Autodesk University. Held and hands-on-labs. They are the primary reached at [email protected].

Nov/Dec 2004 5 We asked and you answered (overwhelmingly). An AUGI survey sought your opinions on a wide variety of topics, from the serious to the silly. From new AutoCAD features to favorite training classes, from from Autodesk University highlights to at-work accolades and the most-used key on your keyboard, here are your high points from this year

Best Autodesk product favorite, while others pointed to you used this year eTransmit, MText improvements, and AutoCAD 2005 software’s Publish com- Here are your 10 favorite Autodesk mand as standout features. products. AUGI’s got game 1. AutoCAD 2. Autodesk Architectural Desktop What AUGI resources were Tied for 2nd: Autodesk Land Desktop the favorites last year? The 3. Autodesk Inventor AUGI Forums ranked high on 4. AutoCAD LT the list, followed closely by this 5. Autodesk Map 3D magazine, AUGIWorld. Here 6. AutoCAD Mechnical are your responses. 7. Autodesk Building Systems 8. Autodesk VIZ 1 AUGI Forums 9. Autodesk Civil 3D 2 AUGIWorld magazine 10. AutoCAD Electrical 3 AUGI HotNews AutoCAD remains the clear favorite, by a large margin, among our survey 4 ATP (AUGI Training respondents. Program) 5 Autodesk University My favorite feature Channel We asked you to tell us which new 6 Revit Community AutoCAD feature you most like or to point out AutoCAD features that you’ve How do you like dents as was a variety of online webcasts just discovered. your training? and seminars. Without a doubt, the Sheet Set What was notable about this question Manager and Tool Palettes features By a wide margin, our respondents was the high percentage of respondents within AutoCAD 2005 were big voted Autodesk University “best” in the who responded “none,” as in they didn’t winners among our respondents. training category. Autodesk’s Go Further get any training this year. One respondent, Following closely behind are enhance- Tour garnered votes, as did online Revit in fact, answered, “I have never attended a ments made to Fields and Tables. training. Online training, overall, scored training class in my life.” Several of our respondents named the pretty well with our respondents. AUGI’s Apparently, training is still considered a Multiple Copy command as their new ATP was mentioned by several respon- luxury in some companies. Some of 6 www.AUGI.com the responses that lead us to that “invaluable,” and others. ✯ “The deadline is not really that impor- observation are: “Training? What training? And from the “This is a compliment?” tant. Nothing will happen if it’s not met. Who can afford training?” and “Training? category comes this gem: “My boss tells I still expect you to work five hours of What’s that?” me I’m lucky to have a job.” overtime a day until it’s met.” And this from a CAD Manager: ✯ “If it looks wrong, it is wrong.” Your third-party “LOL…AWARD? That’s funny!” ✯ “I don’t want the labor pains, just give applications choices me the baby.” And then my boss said… ✯ “If a mistake doesn’t reach six figures, it There are hundreds of commercially doesn’t really matter.” available third-party applications that com- We asked for the favorite quote from ✯ “I’m lost. It’s all [up to] you now.” plement Autodesk software. Our respon- your boss this year. We’ll let your words ✯ “The beatings will continue until morale dents mentioned about 50 by name. The speak for themselves. Here are some of improves.” products receiving the most mentions are: our favorites…enjoy! ✯ “I’d love to help, but my hands are tied.” ✯ ✯ AccuRender, from Robert McNeel “Let me know if they give you too ✯ “You want to go where? How much? & Associates much work.” Forget it!” ✯ ✯ Eagle Point Software (various products) “You got that done yet?” (this, and ✯ “Remind me what I pay you for.” ✯ Pushbutton PDF, from Bluebeam variations on it, were the most-quoted ✯ “You do great work…(pause)…just not Software boss’s comment) enough of it.” ✯ ✯ QuikPik, from ManuSoft “This shouldn’t take you more than ✯ Finally, this comment: “Nothing my ✯ SketchUp, from @Last Software five minutes.” boss says is EVER worth remembering!” ✯ ✯ AcroPlot and AcroPlot, Jr., from “Can you tell me when the next hard CADzation drive will fail?” And the AUGI Forums ✯ ✯ DocBar, from CADwerx “My monitor won’t turn on” (the power say… button was off) Clapping coconuts and ✯ “Your request to attend AU has been Top three AUGI Forums, according other AU highlights approved!” to respondents. ✯ “I believe we will have to agree to 1 Revit forum Okay, I guess we should have asked the disagree.” 2 Coffee Without CAD question this way: Q: BESIDES John ✯ “Don’t take too much time doing this.” Cleese and Lynn Allen, what was the best ✯ “You really DO know what you’re 3 ACAD 2005 Sheet Sets AU moment from the 2003 event? Once talking about.” again, Lynn Allen is always a favorite with ✯ “How long will it take to fix the undis- Most-used key on your AU attendees, and we believe the feeling is covered bugs?” keyboard mutual, by the way. ✯ “Would you share some of your CAD Autodesk’s closing night farewell—a skills with me?” Except for a few responses like this one: screening of Monty Python and the Holy ✯ “That’s wonderful! How did you do “Keyboard? We don’t need no stinkin’ key- Grail with a special guest appearance by that?” board (well almost),” most people star John Cleese—was the most- ✯ “You can go home early today.” answered this question earnestly. Here are mentioned highlight from the last ✯ “You are too hung up on accuracy.” four answers that appeared most often. Autodesk University. ✯ “Every time I think you can’t work any 1 Esc Lots of sadness (and did we detect a few faster, you surprise me!” 2 Space bar tears?) from respondents who have not ✯ Boss to employees: “How can you guys 3 Undo been to Autodesk University due to do this all day?” Employees: “What?” expense, inability to get away from work, Boss: Sit here all day!” 4 Delete and other factors. On the flip side are ✯ “This shouldn’t take very long.” those who will attend the 2004 event for ✯ Boss to client: “Sure we can have it done Least-used key on your the very first time. This crowd is pumped by then…no problem.” (Usually heard keyboard and ready to go. at 3:45 p.m. on Friday) ✯ “Can you just…” Virtually no one, it seems, sees any use Attaboys & attagirls ✯ “Nothing is going to change.” (During for the Scroll Lock key. Here are the top a merger) responses for the keys that remain more or We asked for the “favorite” work-related ✯ “I hate to do this to you, but…” less untouched. accolade or award you earned this year. ✯ “Don’t ask, just fix it!” 1 Scroll lock Your answers, boiled down to a single ✯ “You have aggressive mannerisms.” 2 ~ (or, as one respondent refers to it, phrase: Show me the money. That’s right, ✯ “A watched plot never boils.” “that tilde thingy”) nothing can motivate quite like dollars and ✯ “Can’t you just push a button?” 3 Windows icon key cents. One respondent put it this way: “A ✯ “I thought computers were supposed to nice raise was greatly appreciated. It’s bet- be quick.” 4 Pause/break (“Who has time for a ter than an award.” ✯ “Are you sure this thing knows what pause/break?” asks one respondent) But there were other awards such as it’s doing?” employee recognition certificates, literal ✯ “It’s just a small change…how long can pats on the back, being told you are it take?”

Nov/Dec 2004 7 So then I told my boss… ‘revised’ scheme, which put every- thing from the second floor on the (best excuse for getting first floor—but in a completely out of work) different arrangement.” ✯ There were a few respondents who “I was trying to clean up an engi- claim never to have used an excuse to neer’s project folder and accidentally get out of work, but most of you erased all their team’s projects for the came up with something. Illness, real or past two years. It took my server about imagined, remains the number one reason three hours to recover all the drawings for not coming to work. You’re sick, your and data files.” ✯ spouse is sick, your kids are sick, your “Sitting next to my boss for a 12-hour pets are sick—all were mentioned by the flight to South Africa… and he snores.” ✯ survey respondents. “Co-worker kept cancelling my plots.” ✯ People living in the Southeast “Closing AutoCAD – “Save Changes?” – United States got a real “break” recently, “No” – Day’s work lost!” ✯ citing “hurricane” and “no electricity” “Only worked at my current job one as their reasons for missing a day (or two, month…give me time.” or three…). Oddly, recreation was an excuse used by And when it was good… several respondents, one using “golf tour- Fortunately, there are good days. You nament” as an excuse and others saying, told us about the births of your children, similarly, “I don’t feel well so I need to go raises and promotions, getting that new golfing” and “I’ll be on a course tomorrow job you hoped for, and lots more. Here’s (a golf course).” A couple more said they a sample. used “I’m going fishing.” ✯ “Figuring out how to remove the Technical glitches, system crashes, and ‘Educational Version’ invisible plot other work-related problems were used stamp WITHOUT sending all of often by our respondents. the files to Autodesk.” (Refer to “bad Here are a few more of our favorites. The mother of all bad days days” above) Wow. We’re sorry we asked about your ✯ “Finishing for the day.” Animal-related most memorable “bad event.” Here’s what ✯ “When I was told I could go to Autodesk ✯ “I stubbed my toe on the cat.” some of you had to say. University!” ✯ “I haven’t used any, but I’m sure if I did ✯ “Controller failure on the RAID system.” ✯ “The day I knew we were upgrading it would have to do with my dog eating ✯ “When half of the office walked out to to AutoCAD 2005.” (Several similar something.” start their own firm.” responses.) ✯ “Hitting a bear on the highway my sec- ✯ “A set of drawings we worked on for ✯ “Completing my first training as a ond day of my new job.” (This MUST be literally hundreds of hours fell into a teacher.” legit; nobody could make that up!) large puddle.” ✯ “Had to recover a year’s worth of work ✯ “I need to feed my kitten.” ✯ “Getting a dwg from a client’s kid using after a crash. After days of searching, ✯ “The dog ate my computer.” “Educational Version” software and hav- the network backup had them in ✯ “My mare had a foal at 2:00 a.m.” ing this file inserted into several dozen the archives!!” files and they all had ‘Educational ✯ “The view from Table Mountain in Travel-related Version” stamped on all of the plots. South Africa.” (We’re guessing the 12- ✯ “Stuck in another state; planes are Nobody realized this until it went to the hour flight next to the snoring boss was not leaving.” client. Lots of explaining to do!” worth it…) ✯ “The FedEx plane carrying our docu- ✯ “Boss deleted a prototype by accident.” ✯ “Being a new employee able to keep up ments to Atlanta crashed on landing.” ✯ “LDT drawing file corrupted and with the ‘old timers.’” ✯ “The train.” ballooned to 753Mb… took a day ✯ “Something actually got manufactured ✯ “Going to the islands.” to recover.” as drawn.” ✯ “Going to training; going to AU.” ✯ “I had one very huge ‘Oh no!’ second— ✯ “After the company party I met this girl ✯ “The power was off and I couldn’t get that miniscule point in time that seems and, well, you know the rest....” my garage door open to get my car out. unending where you realize that you ✯ “Two job offers on the same day!” (I didn’t mention the emergency door just made a huge mistake and you can’t ✯ “Client called raving about my work to release I could have used.)” get it back.” ✯ the boss upstairs.” “Disneyland vacation.” ✯ “dwg files getting corrupted beyond ✯ “Car accident.” recovery by Backup Exec.” ✯ Gotcha! Finally, there’s this one: “I don’t use an ✯ “Network Server off-line for three excuse, I just sneak out.” days!!!” We asked you to describe the best CAD- ✯ “Hmm—probably finishing an entire related prank you played on a colleague preliminary floor plan just as the this year. This gives a whole new meaning architect came over with the to tips & “tricks.”

8 www.AUGI.com ✯ “I made it ‘rain’ in their drawing area.” ✯ “Changing the xref files to be on the defpoints layer.” ✯ “Put a small Post-it note over the optical mouse laser.” ✯ “Changed all the keys around on his keyboard.” ✯ “Turned random individuals’ QTEXTMODE on.” ✯ “I undefined the line command.” ✯ “Turn the cursor color to black. Special thanks to Lynn Allen.” (Several respon- dents tried this one.) ✯ “Switched “Z” key to Enter.” ✯ “Replaced all of their project drawings with dummy drawings.” ✯ “For April Fool’s Day, I created an AutoLISP routine that fired when the user tried to save his drawing. It said there was not enough space to save the drawing.” ✯ “This year for April Fool’s Day the CAD programmer and I wrote a LISP pro- gram called ‘Drawing Audit.’ It made up a random number saying you had so many spelling errors.” ✯ “I dropped a hyperlink to a “time for reformat.’ When the user selected OK, I retirement” website in his drawing.” brought up the Windows dialog saying, ✯ “Changed unit accuracy to 1/2" and he ‘Reformatting hard drive. You computer finished the drawing and the dimensions will have nothing on it in 5 minutes.’” were all wrong.” ✯ “Changed his cursor to give [an obscene ✯ “All the fun you can have with the rede- gesture] every 5 minutes.” fine command.” ✯ “Redefined the line command to undo.” ✯ “I created a desktop picture from a print ✯ “Installed a background program of a screen of his AutoCAD setup. He kept big bloodshot eye that looks at you and trying to click the X to close his screen. winks. The program is so fast that it He even re-booted.” (There were sever- leaves you wondering what you might al of these. Very clever!) have seen. Try explaining what you ✯ “Remapped a sheet set to point to bogus just saw to people. The program is so files that had rather humorous info con- random that it may only show once or tained within...wasn’t she surprised twice a day or several times over a when she printed that set of drawings!” few minutes.” ✯ “Set everyone’s AutoCAD to “Beep on ✯ “Used net send to send fake error mes- Error” and giggled as everyone’s com- sages that told them they were using puters beeped all day long.” AutoCAD wrong and would be kicked ✯ “Locked one of the five viewports on a out unless they shaped up.” sheet in a drawing belonging to the “I ✯ “I made a LISP with an alert that told a know how to do everything” person. He guy to hit “Esc” or the OK button to for- could not figure out what was wrong mat his hard drive now. It was good until with that one viewport.” he actually called the IT manager.” ✯ “Turned off the UNDO.” ✯ “This prank was played on me. My ✯ “Turned layers off while they were at friend who sits in the cube in front of me the plotter.” attached another keyboard to my CPU ✯ “Missing files…ha ha ha!” and was opening and closing windows ✯ “Used alerts to pop up and call people for about a week before they let me in names on certain commands.” on it. Drove me crazy.” ✯ “April 1st. When my users started AutoCAD I ran a VB app that brought So ends another fun year! Thanks to up a message box saying, ‘There was a everyone who participated in this survey. problem with AutoCAD. Click ok to We’ll do it again next year.

Nov/Dec 2004 9 2004 In Review New Products

Autodesk third-party developer partners were asked to submit information about new software, hardware, and training materials introduced in 2004. Below are submissions from those who participated. Products are sorted into three sections: Software,Training Resources, and Hardware. Contact the developers directly and/or visit their websites for more information on these products

ARCHIBUS/FM V.14.3 offers a comprehen- reporting which can be sent to Excel spreadsheet Software sive repository of facilities and infrastructure or Access Dbase formats and auto routing ability. management data and drawings. With AutoCAD AEC Design Group 2D DESIGNER is a piping and plant design soft- 2005’s new features such as table formatting, www.cadpipe.com ware suite designed to maximize design efficien- ARCHIBUS/FM users can see enterprise data in cy to save time and money on every project, the context of their properties, buildings, floors, cartoManager improves the management of regardless of size or complexity. Purchase the 2D and rooms and turn this raw data into meaning- cartography by easing processes. Its main users DESIGNER product line as the Piping Suite bundle ful information. are the managers of cartography who need to for significant savings or choose just the applica- ARCHIBUS, Inc. work with a large amount of maps or need to tions you need: AutoFLOWS P&ID drafting, www.archibus.com repeat processes many times. Features: massive AutoORTHO-piping/structural/civil drafting, and plotting, massive change of attributes, and more. AutoISO-isometric drafting. ArchVision Composer makes it easy to add SGSmap PRO-CAD Software Ltd. RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) to your 2D ren- www.sgsmap.com www.procad.com derings and photographs. Composer works stand-alone or in conjunction with Adobe Copy Audit is a hardware tracking solution that 3D Helical Ramp enables users to build a com- Photoshop. allows users to track all of their walk-up photo- plete 3D helical ramp,including sidewalls,landing ArchVision, Inc. copying. Copy Audit is a seamless addition for bridge, and center shaft quickly. www.archvision.com/Composer customers who also use or wish to use Print Audit AFV Software 4 for print cost recovery. www.cadopolis.com/prod3DHelicalRamp.asp Atributai is an add-on for Autodesk Map with Print Audit functions that allow you view and edit objects www.printaudit.com 3DSMART is a 3D design solution that creates a data easier and filter objects by objects data. seamless, cohesive work environment that allows Functionality includes: view and edit object data DeliView is a DWG file viewer and preview departments to share information through a cen- of selected object data table using user interface; extractor that shows previews of DWG files from tral SQL database. This software comes standard select objects of drawing by using object data AutoCAD v13 to version 2004. with all the modules you need for 3D modeling, table editor; and select objects of drawing easily DeliCAD including Project Manager, Specification by creating filters for object data values. www.cadopolis.com/prodDeliView.asp Manager, Modeler, BOM Settings Manager, and InfoEra DWG Explorer is drawing explorer and pre- BOM Generator. www.infoera.lt PRO-CAD Software Ltd. view technology. It allows users to quickly and www.procad.com Autumn Color adds seasonal plant color to easily scroll through and visually scan directories architectural renderings. Red, orange, yellow, and of drawings. 3G.author 2004 Plus is Autodesk-certified golden hues are featured in this collection of 52 3rd DAY SOFTWARE design analysis software for simulation of photorealistic deciduous trees and shrubs. www.cadopolis.com/prodDwgExplorer.asp Autodesk Inventor-based models, including Realworld Imagery, Inc. DWG iFilter allows users to extend the parts, assemblies, sheet-metals and welding www.realworldimagery.com components.This dimension-driven FEA soft- Microsoft Internet Information Server, Microsoft ware offers an intuitive user interface with a Bluebeam Lite is a PDF converter designed SharePoint Portal Server, and all other Microsoft broad range of simulation capabilities that is specifically for AutoCAD LT and Windows Office Index Servers to look inside your drawings and ideal for design simulation and optimization. users.This application adds Bluebeam buttons to index all valuable information. PlassoTech, Inc. a user’s AutoCAD LT and MS Word, Excel, and CAD & Company Group B.V. www.plassotech.com PowerPoint toolbars for PDF creation. www.cadcompany.nl Bluebeam Software, Inc. EASYnat is a 3D photorealistic plant modeler AcroPlot Pro is digital CAD conversion soft- www.bluebeam.com ware with the capability to convert an extensive for AutodeskVIZ 2005 and Architectural Desktop list of file formats and the flexibility to create CADPIPE Electrical allows the 3D design of 2005.It enables architects to simulate a large vari- both the Portable Document Format (PDF) and cable trays, conduit, and electrical wiring. Also ety of plants at any age and season. Adjusting the Drawing Web Format (DWF). included are the symbols for single line and con- age,height and/or diameter of the plant launches CADzation trol drawings. CADPIPE Electrical includes an these simulations www.cadzation.com easy-to-use graphical user interface, collision Bionatics checking with any 3D objects including objects in www.bionatics.com Architectural Desktop, complete Bill of Materials

10 www.AUGI.com ADT 2005 FM:Systems andpreventive maintenance. nance; CMMS/Facility mainte- move planning, agement; assetman- management; lease&property ning, strategic plan- included for space management, Modules ations andstrategic decision-making. real-time access to criticaldatafor planning,oper- platform empowers theentire organization with FM:Interact’s web-based and facilitiesprocesses. assets space, ment andoptimizationofproperty, Safe Software Inc. Software Safe base system withoutany needfor conversion. from itsnativepublished directly format ordata- customer datacanbe Provider for MapGuide, WithFME from withintheapplication. directly them to access over formats 100FME-supported enabling integrated solutionfor users, MapGuide redrawn inthetarget system. have tois lostorbuildingparts becompletely information causes highcosts—either important Data exchange between different systems often www.fmsystems.com 6.2 FM:Interact www.safe.com FME Provider for MapGuide www.appliedspatial.com FM Desktop6.0 www.featurecam.com FeatureCAM 2005 www.safe.com Suite Feature Manipulation Engine(FME) www.electrical-designer.com www.aceri.com and ACERI pneumaticsengineeringprojects. ical,hydraulics,or mechan- for control schematics,panels,PLC,electro Designer ELECTRICAL Safe Software Inc. Software Safe withinAutodeskfrom directly Map. to access anadditional100+GISandCADformats FME Suite enablesAutodesk 3D2005users Map andagraphical transformation editor. translator, includingadataviewer, and Load (ETL)tools, www.inopso.com Inopso GmbH Architectural 2005. Desktop IFC2xdatawith Autodesk and export 2xforIFC-Utility ADT2005 canbeusedto import handle theseproblems inamore intelligent way. Applied Spatial Technologies ical andtabularformats. information facility inbothgraph- age andreport SQLman- Access,and such asAutoCAD,Microsoft components usesindustry-standard FM Desktop andMaintenance Management. Management Emergency Project Management, management, Space &Asset CAD/database program usedfor: SystemsFeatureCAM /EngineeringGeometry Autodesk Inventor filesare imported. part ing themachinableCADdatafor allholeswhen the machiningofholesby automatically recogniz- Version 2005alsoautomates smooth transitions. imum sothetool stays inthemetalandmaintains Interleaved Toolpath moves retract keeps to amin- The slots andtightcorners for more efficientHSM. Curly Corner Toolpath usesatrochoid paththrough enhancements.The (HSM) toolpaths andimporting improvements includinghigh-speedmachining Nov/Dec 2004 ossso aiyo xrc,Transform, consists ofafamilyExtract, defines an interface thathelps to defines aninterface provides tools for manage- sapoesoa-ee,32-bit is aprofessional-level, provides several CAD/CAM is acomplete solution IFC-Utility 2xforIFC-Utility provides an CAD Design Software Software Design CAD and Burn-InBoards. Boards, Interface Probe Cards / includingLoad Boards, gies, mates thephysical layout ofallIC Test technolo- design-specific IC Test designsystem thatauto- ahotEgneig&Euain Inc. Engineering &Education, Mathsoft ting capabilities. andnew2Dplot- units anddimensionshandling, greatly expanded engineering-critical values, to document newflexibility scalability, model, 12includesanopendata Mathcad information. manageandexploittheirengineering create, ware enablesorganizations to more efficiently CAD Design Software Software Design CAD andFlex (Polyimide). Film/Thin Film), RF(Microwave/Wireless), Hybrid/MCM (Laminate/Co-fired Ceramic/Thick PCB (Analog/Digital), nologies includingSchematics, also automates thephysical layout ofallPCBtech- PCBDesigner Master challenging PCBdesigns. ers cancreate mixed technologies for themost environmentseamless electrical inwhichdesign- design system thatfeatures anintegrated and www.mclarensoftware.com Ltd McLaren Software (ECM)platform.Management onacommon Enterprise Content use it, CAD drawings—and thebusiness processes that solution to manageengineering content—and provides acomprehensive ment applications, ed suite ofuserconfigurable content manage- Ltd. Formation Systems Design Pty. detailing process.design andconstruction range tools for ofsoftware allphases oftheship andshipbuilderswithacompletearchitects provides naval ofmarinevessels.Maxsurf all types of construction and analysis, ware for thedesign, IRISCO-Quebec includinguser-definedproperties. ponent, of alltheattributes and eachcom- “iProperties”of well asthecontents sub-assembly,as assembly,or composition ofeachAutodeskthe exact block, obtains It Inoneunattended session, documents. Desktop andMechanical AutoCAD Mechanical, Autodesk Inventor, materials from AutoCAD, McLaren Enterprise Engineer www.formsys.com Maxsurf www.mathsoft.com Mathcad 12 www.cad-design.com Master PCBDesigner www.cad-design.com Master IC Test Designer www.cad-design.com Master Foundry Designer www.irisco.com IRISCO 2005 ElmoBoM www.cadopolis.com/prodGCAECSchedule.asp ADTSchedule GlobalCAD CAD Design Software Software Design CAD Packaging technologies. mates layout thephysical andelectrical ofallIC layoutPackaging electrical system thatauto- GlobalCAD create schedulesandbillsofmaterials easily. is anintegrated suite ofCAD/CAMsoft- is calculationmanagementsoft- is acomplete PCB extracts billsof extracts enables usersto is acomplete IC is acomplete anintegrat- , CAD NovationCAD aboutthepagelayout.without worrying inModelSpace directly androtate objects resize, whichmeansthatuserscanmove, pro-reactive, is This MVPort object to thePaperSpace layouts. ModelSpace thatare dynamicallylinked Viewports userscancreate MVPort,AutoCAD dardization.With page setupprocess ofdrawings anddrawing stan- Design Systems Pty Ltd SystemsDesign Pty high risebuildings. structures,and houses through to bridges,mining ranging fromdesign structures simpleresidential and analyze, companies toconstruction model, isusedby engineeringand structures.Multiframe offramed the analysisanddesignofalltypes Microdesk and attributes you’d to collect. like features, Access to definethefeature categories, allows The you product to useMicrosoft values. tures inthefieldusingreal-time GPScoordinate automatically capturingpointandlinearfea- start loaded witheitherAutoCAD orAutodesk to Map NMEA-capable GPSreceiver into theirmobilePC CAD NovationCAD and otheressentialelements. thelayout settings, help withtheconfiguration, Numerous tools are provided to form to them. allows usersto consult thestandards orto con- User side your customers andsubcontractors.The to collaborate orexported better with imported The standards canbealso imposing any model. without els orread from template drawings, define theparameters by usingpredefined mod- can theAdministrator side,you the “User”side.On sideand the “Administrator” sisting oftwo parts: Multiframe www.microdesk.com/gps Autodesk Map for AutoCAD or Microdesk GPSExtension www.cadnovation.com Productivity) MEP (MultipleEnvironment of www.novapoint.com www.viasys.com or Viasys Oy demo versionworking available for download. andthere isafree full customizable, easy to use, is software save stillimagesandanimations.The modeland walk andflyfreely insidethevirtual usercan digital terrain andmappingdata.The models automatically from real-time 3Dvirtual Novapoint Map1.8 Virtual www.cadnovation.com MVPort www.munsys.com The www.quickparts.com MultiQuote www.formsys.com ucprscm Inc. Quickparts.com, andCast Urethanes. Modeling (FDM), Fused Deposition LaserSintering (SLS), Selective Processes includeStereolithography (SLA), processes side-by-side.multiple manufacturing ers to getaninstantprice quote andcompare Munsys Technologies Ltd. (Pty) tial information inadatabaseenvironment. to-use applicationsfor themanagementofspa- provides Munsys arange ofready- organizations. tial information andgovernment needsofutility grated setofapplicationsthatcater to allthespa- Munsys is anAutoCAD add-onthatsimplifiesthe product range consistsproduct ofaninte- sitiie graphical for software is intuitive, allows Autodesk design- product is aCADstandards solutioncon- enables usersto pluginany generates 11

2004 In Review – New Products 2004 In Review – New Products 12 DeltaCADD Solutions Solutions DeltaCADD Voltage andHigh Voltage). Medium for (Low panelmanufacturers Voltage, BOMgenerationautomation andlinked solution www.pacificsoftsolutions.com www.pacificad.com and LLCPacificSoft lots. and/orparking pads, building lotparcels, between multipleroads, parameters whileoptimizingexcavation factors Allows operators to preset project development. tion for commercial andresidential site land fill excavation balancingandvolume optimiza- Okino Computer Graphics file formats andanimationpackages. tooptimized allmajor3D andthenre-exported orhave the data scene composition ofthedata, quently provide high-endrendering,viewing,and a runningcopy ofAutodesk Inventor andsubse- native disk-based Autodesk Inventor filesorfrom andmaterials (assemblydata)from hierarchy, Limited Latimer CAD the designprocess. the PCBdesigncanbeverified atany stageof of mechanicalintegrity for AutoCAD,the interface usingthePCB By tem astheyare completed. system inthePCBsys- withthechangesreflected design to bemodifiedwithintheAutoCAD laoeRsac t.(ARL) Albacore Research Ltd. HVAC andequipment. pipe, for 3Dmodelingofstructure, functions ShipConstructor2005 alsofeatures AutoCAD. into directly functions technology andlofting whichbringscomplex surfacing Hull module, features the for shipsandoffshore structures, Inc. Trix Systems, be reused andedited inAutoCAD. enables thelinework inAcrobat andtext filesto This vector PDFandPostScript filesto DXF. ShipConstructor2005 www.realworldimagery.com Professional Trees &ShrubsIII www.okino.colm Visualization System PolyTrans 3DData Translation & www.trixsystems.com Pdf2vector www.latimer-cad.com The bi-directional www.deltacadd.com Panel Suite SITE Optimizer www.cadopolis.com/prodSimonView.asp SimonView www.ShipConstructor.com SimonSoft original files. without usingtherelated applicationsofthe includingthemostrecent DWG, them fast, drawings to display andimagesthathasability AutoCAD elol mgr,Inc. Realworld Imagery, maps. mat withopacity This CDhas163imagesin32bit TIF filefor- tion. shrubsfor architectural visualiza- trees,palms,and thru 12are photorealistic imagesofevergreen enables the physical aspects ofaPCB enables thephysical aspects sacmlt siain drawing is acomplete estimation, software automaticallysoftware converts is adedicated viewer for CAD provides automated cutand PCB interface to PCB interface , a software program asoftware , imports geometry,imports - Zones 8 Steltman Software an alignmentonto CLprofile. andpipesize from 3Dlinesthatcross offset, tion, TEDCF solidmodels. single part ways ofusingallthecommands required to make your computer’s CDplayer to show you efficient movies you This watch course from usesshort 8. dia training course for Autodesk Inventor Release Tahl Inc. for AutoCAD 2004and2005. works withversion 2000through 2002andone isaplug-inthat grams rightfrom AutoCAD.There Training VisionREZ www.steltman.com Utilities toProfile www.latimer-cad.com TheoContour www.cadcompany.nl Tahoe 2005 www.tahlcam.com TahlCAM www.ASCENTed.com ASCENT Architectural Desktop. understandthe3DcapabilitiesofAutodesk ules; andsched- tags, dimensions, addmarks, sections; generate elevations and androofs; stairs, grids, column &ceiling like create objects specialty equipment; Content to addfurniture,fixtures,and useDesign and windows; doors, including walls, enables studentsto create basicfloorplans, Architectural Desktop 2005Level 1 www.trainingtutorial.com Accelerated R8 Productivity Latimer CAD Limited Latimer CAD contours orproduce arendered surface. This meshmay beusedto generate the points. meshfrom buildingatriangulated surface ties, uponAutoCAD acts pointenti- tion.TheoContour vides acost-effective contour generation solu- CAD &Company GroupB.V.CAD SharePoint 2003. Office Microsoft Portal Server Microsoft Windows SharePoint and Services The solutionuses ings andrelated designdata. storage and Web publicationofAutoCAD draw- use andeffective middleware solutionfor central offers aneasy-to- It to share AutoCAD drawings. SharePoint 2003thatenablesfirms Portal Server www.visionrez.com Inc. 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ASCENT dimensioning andprepare to plotthedrawing. andbasic addtext drawing onlayers, objects organize to usebasicdrawing andeditingtools, TEDCF withbendtablesandk-factors. working unfolding flatpatterns, ating custom punches, atcre- are editable.You’ll become anexpert parts andwillassure thatyour sheetmetal efficient, yourlearn techniques that willmake work more mands required to create sheetmetalparts.You’ll designed to show you how to useallthecom- www.cadcim.com R9 Autodesk Inventor for Designers, www.trainingtutorial.com Solid SinglePart Modeling Productivity: Autodesk Inventor 9Accelerated www.trainingtutorial.com SheetMetalDesign Productivity: Autodesk Inventor 9Accelerated www.trainingtutorial.com Concepts AssembliesandAdvanced Productivity: Autodesk Inventor 9Accelerated www.trainingtutorial.com and 2DDrafting Customization Productivity: Autodesk Inventor 9Accelerated www.agtcad.com Autodesk Hydrology Personal Trainer www.ASCENTed.com AutoCAD LT 2005Level 1 TEDCF produce presentations. You’ll also andtemplate files. learn how to animate your assembliesand styles, text, andcustomizing creating iFeatures andiParts, withassemblies,tasks suchasworking CADCIM TechnologiesCADCIM modules ofAutodesk Inventor. andcoverage ofall step-by–step explanation, mately 55real-world with tutorials andprojects Autodesk Inventor tools andcommands,approxi- adetailedexplanation of technical support, The includesfree textbook Inventor Release 9. thatintroducestextbook thereaders to Autodesk TEDCF solid models. the commands required singlepart to make CD player to show you efficientways ofusingall movies you watch fromshort your computer’s This course uses Autodesk Inventor Release9. Inc. AGT, media tutorial. isacomputer-based training It multi- Design. the Hydrology routines inAutodesk Civil a training seriesthatshowcases thefeatures of Nov/Dec 2004 shows you advanced how to perform is amultimediatraining course for is amultimediatraining course enables students is a is is Industrial PressInc. 400pages. mands learnedwithinthelesson. by exercises designedfor thecom- practicing lessons withstep-by-step followed instructions itincludes30 you needwithoutallofthejargon, onlywhat tion orasaself-studytutorial.Providing ASCENT 2D drawing. program works andbeableto create abasic the studentwillgainasolidgrasp ofhow the tools are enoughkey covered sothat However, drawing command oreditingcommand. AutoCAD LT. We donotattempt to present every concepts andtechniques of2Ddrawing in studentsfamiliarwiththebasic designed to make ASCENT users willneedto work withRevit. class focuses of onbasictools thatthemajority The drawings. els andsetthemupinworking dents to create mod- full3Darchitectural project Autodesk Revit 6.1Level 1 rf trbts Ordinate Dimensioning, Industrial PressInc. 400pages. Attributes, Geometric Tolerances andmore. Xref, DesignCenter, Isometric drawings, page setups, titleblocks, how to create customized borders, includesstep-by-step on It instructions fields. andMechanical Electro-mechanical, Architecture, in low projects lessonsandthree on-the-jobtype includes20easy-to-fol- workbook workbook.This cation withthiscompanion to the “Beginning” AutoCAD 2005 ExerciseAdvanced Workbookfor www.industrialpress.com AutoCAD 2005 Exercise Workbook for Beginning www.cadapult-software.com Inc. Solutions, Cadapult Software Formats. Datato Other andExporting Sets, Map Points, Plotting Thematic Mapping, Topologies, Save Backs, Surfaces, Queries, Images, Raster Shapefile orArcInfosuch asArcView Coverage, Sources Datafrom Other Importing Tracking, Coordinate COGO, Feature Classes, Databases, External Annotation, Data, Object Cleanup, Topics includeDrawing using Autodesk 3D. Map thereader throughtakes acomplete project Digging Into Autodesk Map3D2005 www.cadapult-software.com 2004 Digging Into Autodesk LandDesktop www.ASCENTed.com www.ASCENTed.com toAutoCAD LTIntroduction 2005 www.industrialpress.com aautSfwr ouin,Inc. Solutions, Cadapult Software andVolumes. Sections,Templates, Parcels, Profiles, ExistingandFinished Ground Labels, COGO, Alignments, Contours, Surfaces, Breaklines, Point Groups, Keys, Description Points, GISData, Importing include Project Setup, Topics andAutodeskDesktop CivilDesign. through acomplete usingAutodesk project Land many thereader common taskswhiletaking provides step-by-step procedures for continues your AutoCAD edu- is idealfor classroom instruc- enables stu- is TEDCF and2Ddrafting. mations, presentations andassemblyani- and iFeatures, iParts way to learnhow to work withassemblies, Afast ing course for Autodesk Inventor Release8. Matrox Graphics Inc. answering points. simulationand publicsafety data walls, mission-critical environments suchasmilitary unprecedented multi-display capabilities to theQIDPro graphics card brings expandability, for workstation andaPCIinterface memory 256MBofDDR tal outputfrom asingle-chip, www.trainingtutorial.com TEDCF andmore. bend tablesandk-factors, with working unfolding flatpatterns, punches, You’ll atcreating custom become anexpert Autodesk Inventor’s sheet-metalcommands. course shows you thedetailsofhow to useallof This ing course for Autodesk Inventor Release8. Roland DGA scanning resolution. witha0.0039inch scan3Dobjects to quickly usesanadvanced lasersensor It non-contact ing. canal moldfor custom hearingaidmanufactur- sculpted alienfor feature animationoranear a hand- and/oraccessories, blister packaging The LPX-1200canscanamobilephoneto design andanimationapplications. CAM, popular CAD, Sheet MetalDesignR8 www.trainingtutorial.com Mechanical DesignR8 www.ASCENTed.com ASCENT any 3DmodelingorCADsoftware. of itdoesnotassumepriorknowledge class, tory modeling withAutodesk anintroduc- Inventor.As introduces theconcepts andtechniques of 3D Inventor R9 Millennium P650low-profileMillennium PCI www.matroxcad.com Matrox QIDPro www.roland3d.com The Hardware www.matroxcad.com Matrox Graphics Inc. ing stationsandsmallform PCs. factor itisasuitablegraphics card for laptop dock- face, andaPCIinter- 64MBofDDRmemory, outputs, Featuring fully-symmetricdual-display drivers. dual-RGB anddual-DVIcapabilities androbust gainsthrough itsadvancedtangible productivity 5.2-inchlongboard designandoffers compact, LPX-1200 3D Introduction to SolidModeling Introduction features quad analogordigi- laser scannerisidealfor all is amultimediatrain- is amultimediatrain- has a 13

2004 In Review – New Products what stage of design, is a decided benefit. Adding nice touches of realism or “pretty- ing” up the design, help as well. There are a number of software companies that pro- vide the 3D content that helps clients see the design more clearly. ArchVision (www.archvision.com) is one of the compa- nies providing 3D content. Its RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) technology and content solutions are a means of adding realistic entourage to design visualizations. ArchVision’s RPC content is available in packaged libraries; the contents are then incorporated into the 3D models. The com- pany offers diverse collections of trees, peo- ple, cars and other objects. In addition, product manufacturers are teaming with ArchVision to make their own product infor- mation available using RPC technology. Getting there from here So if BIM is the wave of the future, when can we anticipate full-scale accept- ance and use of products such as Autodesk Revit? “It’s an evolution, not a revolution,” 〉〉 Thinking of adopting intelligent suggests Randall Stevens, president of modeling as a design tool? Here ArchVision. He cites four key factors that are impeding the progress toward full- are some things to consider scale adoption. First, there is hardware. Simply, it takes Looking for “better ways to do what we easier and less expensive to address. If a more horsepower to efficiently process in do” was part of the motivation behind the client can see the design in a more com- 3D. ArchVision’s Stevens notes, rightly, adoption of Autodesk® Revit® by Wimberly prehensive way, so much the better. But that this “problem” is minimized over Allison Tong & Goo, a worldwide architec- trying to resolve too many things during time. “The good news is that Moore’s Law ture, design, planning, and consulting firm. the early stages of design can be problem- remains in full effect and computing WATG had been looking at various intelli- atic, suggests Balding. power doubles approximately every 18 gent modeling solutions for about seven “Let’s use a complex roof as an example,” months,” he says. years prior to choosing Revit, says James he says. “In Revit, you have to make that While WATG didn’t have to make signif- Balding, manager of the Revit implemen- roof work. In AutoCAD, on the other hand, icant investments in new hardware to tation. “WATG is always looking for ways where the elevations and floor plans and accommodate Revit initially, as the firm of delivering better design solutions to our roof plans are all separate, they don’t have to upgrades hardware, it is careful to buy clients,” he explains. Better design solu- necessarily work. In Revit, they do.” Balding more powerful machines than perhaps it tions, in WATG’s estimation, includes notes that having to work out such problems would otherwise to meet future needs, choosing and using tools that are created ahead of time can present issues. notes Balding. specifically for the building industry when- One of the ways WATG deals with these The second factor that has held back the ever possible. Autodesk Revit is one of issues is simply not doing full BIM during adoption of 3D, according to Stevens, is those tools. the early stages of design on some projects. the core software. “The benefits of using “On a lot of projects, we’ll wait until we get 3D modeling techniques have to outweigh Clear communications into full design development before we’ll the pain of changing the current produc- Having used Autodesk Revit for the last start modeling the third dimension,” tion process,” he says. “As innovative soft- three years, Balding is able to quickly point Balding says. “We get a lot of value out of ware companies make the tools easier to out one of the top benefits of using a tool using Revit for the development of plan use, more people will find enough advan- such as Autodesk Revit for building—com- views without the commitment of working tages and begin making the switch.” munication. “We can communicate our out a full three dimensional model. Autodesk is rolling out new releases of ideas more clearly to clients, consultants, Though, on projects with complicated Autodesk Revit about every 12 months, and our internal team,” he says. sites, using a full 3D BIM during the early which is key, notes Stevens. “Autodesk Balding’s take on the communication stages is extremely helpful in eliminating understands that the software needs to benefit is the one most often cited by both big changes down the road,” he adds. evolve quickly. They are addressing the users and developers when discussing need for better tools and are getting those Building Information Modeling (BIM). If Seeing it is key changes into the market on a timely basis.” your internal team can discover design Balding’s caveat aside, being able to Stevens notes that the availability of 3D problems earlier in the process, they’re “show” the model to a client, regardless of content is the third factor that will eventu-

14 www.AUGI.com ally lead to a thriving 3D modeling market. “There’s no substitute for good plan- His firm, ArchVision, has a vested interest ning,” Balding says. Take the time to set in this, obviously. “We believe that if more out what you want to accomplish, set clear, pre-built 3D components were available to conservative goals, and try to make sure incorporate into a 3D database, you lower that you achieve them. the barrier to entry and thus increase the “Get an implementation plan and com- number of people who could use the tools. municate it to everybody in your office,” What’s the old saying? ‘It’s easier to be an he says, describing the second critical suc- editor than a writer.’ This holds true in 3D cess factor. Moreover, he suggests tailoring modeling. It is much easier to edit a pre- your communication in a way that is mean- built 3D component than it is to create it ingful to the specific group you’re address- from scratch.” ing. “Your message to upper management At WATG, most BIM content is current- is ‘delivers a better product, with less ly designed in-house. And while Balding expense.’ Your message to project man- says that such content is fairly simple to agers is ‘better product, less people, more design in Revit, he agrees that the efficient product out the door.’ And your availability of “brand name” content would message to architects is ‘more fun to work be something his firm would be interested on, it’s easier, does a lot of the work for in acquiring. you, promises better coordinated sets, and ArchVision, which is developing RPC so on.’” Creation tools that will enable companies Training is crucial and, at WATG, is per- to quickly build their own content, also formed largely by Balding himself. works with manufacturers such as Currently, nearly 60 WATG employees Steelcase, for example, to help get their have been trained on Revit. Balding notes 3D “branded” product content into the that his firm now handles training on what hands of designers. he calls a “just-in-time” basis. When a new Revit project begins, Balding will sit down Design Study for Tower Hotel with team members, train them on some ini- Management Buy-in. It’s critical to have tial steps, let them management and upper management apply their knowledge understand the issues and lend support to at the project level, the projects and users. then they’ll sit down Partial projects. “Consider the ‘horizon- again and tackle some tal’ approach,” Balding says. “Use Revit to other phase of the design and document the plan view and project. He admits that scheduling while using CAD to document it works well for them. the vertical drawings such as sections, ele- “You can adapt the vations, and perhaps the details.” training to the project,” Small projects with experienced users. he explains. “It may seem obvious,” says Balding, “but Balding stresses the overloading the first few small projects importance of support, with experienced users works well and the fourth key to suc- serves purpose down the road. The theory cess. WATG has a glob- is that these users will gain real-world al support mechanism experience and confidence. The users can Screenshot of Quinta do Lorde Hotel and Resort in Madeira, Portugal in place, giving Revit then go on to work with others and spread users ample access to the knowledge.” Finally, according to Stevens, and web-based support, internal Revit experts, If you’re thinking of implementing BIM maybe the most important is the need for Autodesk help, and others. Balding person- technology such as Autodesk Revit, it pays adequate training. “Making the switch to ally conducts weekly telephone calls with all to plan your strategy ahead of time. In fact, 3D involves not just learning a new piece WATG offices worldwide to cover training, it’s imperative that you do so. Balding’s of software, but more importantly learning support, and other implementation issues. advice comes from years of experience, a new process.” He says, simply, “Make sure people have probably a good bit of trial and error, and, support, know where it is, and don’t just sit perhaps, even a few missteps. He presents Keys to success and ‘brew’ when a problem arises.” some of this information in a popular Lots of experience with the Revit imple- Autodesk University class. If you’re plan- mentation gives WATG’s Balding a solid More good advice ning to attend AU, it would serve you well perspective on what to do (and what not to In addition to his four key success fac- to check it out. do) when adopting BIM technology. He tors, Balding recommends taking other cites his firm’s four keys to success: plan, steps to help a Revit implementation pro- Marilyn Law is managing editor of communicate, train, and support. ceed well. AUGIWorld.

Nov/Dec 2004 15 The last step is to assign mullions to grid lines. Select the Mullion tool from the Modeling panel. Then select the mullion type from the drop-down list. The Option What’s bar provides three choices to improve pro- ductivity in assigning mullions. • Grid Line Segment – applies mullion type to segment selected. • Entire Grid Line (default) – applies Behind the mullion type to entire wall. • All Empty Segments – applies mullion type to all segments without a mullion. Curtain Wall? Unusual curtain walls Curtain walls can be drawn to fit open- ings in walls, unusual placements, non-rec- The basics for tangular shapes, and in non-vertical planes (see Figure 1). To fit these situations takes a different approach. creating curtain walls First, draw model lines representing the top and bottom of the “wall.” These can be curved or straight and do not in Autodesk Revit have to be parallel. Next select the “Ruled Curtain System” from the Modeling menu and pick the top and bot- We most often think of curtain walls for third-points as well as levels, reference tom lines. A temporary panel is created high-rise office buildings. But curtain walls planes, etc. The Option Bar provides between the lines, and it is likely it will are also used in multi-unit residential, additional tools, described below. look incorrect. Don’t worry. health care, retail, and ecclesiastical proj- • All – draws grid across entire wall Add grids to the curtain system using ects. Even traditional, single-family resi- (default). the Curtain Grid tool. As vertical grid dences use curtain walls for greenhouses • One – draws grid across one segment. lines are added, the “wall” forms smaller and sunrooms. • All Except Picked – draws grid across panels, defining the shape. Horizontal Our purpose here is to provide a basic entire wall except user-picked segments. grids can be added as well. Finally, assign understanding of curtain wall creation in To remove grid lines, click on a grid line mullions to the grid lines using the Mullion Autodesk® Revit®. and a button appears on the Option tool as before. Bar, “Add or Remove Segments.” Just Curtain wall creation click on the button and select segments to Modifying curtain walls The simplest way to create a curtain wall be deleted. Curtain walls can be modified as walls. is to use the wall tool. The four-step Step three is to modify the panels to This means it is easy to switch the face, process is easier than it sounds: 1) Create match the design. Each of these changes is stretch the length, or change the height. the wall; 2) Adjust grid layout to your completed by selecting a panel to change, Curtain walls can also be attached to floors design; 3) Modify panels as needed; and 4) then selecting the new component from and roofs, including curved roofs. Convert grid lines to mullions. the component drop-down list. If not Probably the most common modifica- First, start from a plan view of the build- already loaded in the project, curtain tion will be to change the mullion connec- ing model. From the Modeling- wall doors/windows are in the tions. Mullion joins can be modified by panel/Wall-tool, select Curtain Wall. respective door/window component clicking on a mullion and then clicking on Choose the type from the drop-down list library. To create either a solid or empty the appropriate icon that appear near the in the option bar: Curtain Wall: Curtain panel, select “System Panel Solid” for mullion ends. This changes the solid/cut Wall-1/Curtain Wall: Exterior “System Panel Empty” from the compo- orientation of the join (see Figures 2a Glazing/Curtain Wall: Store). The nent drop-down list. and 2b). “Exterior Glazing” type has fixed distance grids of 6'x12'. The “Store” type has fixed-distance grids of 5'x8'. The “Wall-1” type has no grids allowing the greatest flexibility in design. We will discuss how to modify these default walls later in this article. The second step is to modify (or draw) your grid layout. To add grid lines, select the Curtain Grid tool from the Modeling panel. Autodesk Revit provides tools to assist capturing the design intent. Figure 1: Ruled Curtain System Figure 2a: Horizontal Joined Mullion Grids snap to logical places like mid- and 16 www.AUGI.com current project; and 4) Assign mullions Corner Mullions from the newly imported system families. Tagging and scheduling As with other doors and windows, it is possible to tag curtain wall windows and doors. The easiest way to add tags is to use the “Tag All Not Tagged” tool on the Drafting panel. It is also possible to tag the components individually. Select the Tag tool and hover the cursor over the appro- Figure 3a: Trapezoid Mullion priate panel until it highlights, then pick. Figure 2b: Vertical Joined Mullion The powerful scheduling features of Revit provide many useful tools. Curtain As mentioned above, individual panels wall windows and doors will appear on the are modified by selecting the panel and usual window and door schedules, or fil- choosing a different type from the drop- tered onto their own curtain wall schedule. down list. Available choices for simple The mullion schedule can tally up counts panel are Glazed (default), Solid, and as well at lengths of various types. The Empty. Also, individual panels can be con- panel schedule can report counts and total verted to doors or windows. Figure 3b: V Mullion area for each type. Pre-defined curtain wall doors are Single Glass, Double Glass, and Store Tips & tricks Front Double. The only pre-defined win- A comprehensive discussion of curtain dow type is Awning. It is almost certain wall tools would take a much longer article that a commercial project will require than this format allows. Let’s just end with more options than this. If the model is a few tips and tricks. intended to match a particular manufac- • To create exterior curtain walls with the turer’s doors or windows, it is essential to correct orientation, draw the walls in a create types with a similar appearance. counter-clockwise direction. With this Autodesk Revit provides a way for adding Figure 3c: L Mullion method, the glazing will be on the exte- more types. Yes, it is the all-important rior surface. Family Editor. • For single-level curtain walls, it is easiest to place corner mullions from the plan Curtain wall components view. Visual confirmation that the cor- The Family Editor comes with three oddly rect mullion has been selected is provid- named curtain wall component templates: ed by on-screen graphics. • Curtain Wall Panel • To select panels, hover over a grid line • Door – Curtain Wall and tab through the available object • Window – Curtain Wall Figure 3d Quad Mullion selections. Using these special templates ensures • Delay converting grid lines into mul- that the components will modify them- lions until the building design is well selves to fit into the established grid (with cific wall system is required. Being pro- developed. Mullions add to the model certain limitations). Autodesk Revit also ductive in this environment requires pre- size and can affect performance. Also, provides for in-place family editing for made mullions matching the manufactur- making grid changes is more complicat- panels, where you can add solids and voids. er’s dimensions. Since mullions are system ed after mullions are assigned. Details of using the family editor in this families, they cannot be added to the way are beyond the scope of this article. external family library. So how do we cre- Powerful element Mullions are modified by selecting the ate a reusable library of manufacturer-spe- In the world of building design and con- mullion and choosing a different type from cific mullions? struction, curtain walls are a flexible and the drop-down list. Pre-defined mullion One way to create a “standard mullion powerful design element. In the virtual types include Circular, Square, and library” is to create a “Curtain Wall Project world of Building Information Modeling, Rectangular. Pre-defined corner mullions Template.” Within a new Revit project, Autodesk Revit provides flexible and are “L,” “V,” Trapezoid, and Quad. Mullion create a sample curtain wall. Create all the extensible tools for productive design and parameters allow modification of offset mullions needed and assign all of them to documentation. from panel center-line, thickness (or a sample curtain wall. Save the project as radius) of the mullion, and width (or “Curtain Wall Project Template.” Bruce Madsen is a project length) of the mullion legs (see Figures 3a, When a current project requires the set leader at aecContent 3b, 3c and 3d Corner Mullions). of standard mullions, you can copy the (www.aecContent.com). For some designs, the “generic” mullion mullions from the template project into He can be reached at models will be sufficient for presentation the current project: 1) Open the template 415-321-1117. images and construction documents. In project; 2) Copy the curtain wall to the other cases, matching a manufacturer-spe- clipboard; 3) Paste the curtain wall into the Nov/Dec 2004 17 My previous two articles in AUGIWorld have probably appealed more to experi- enced users of System Variables than to novices because the articles described the additions and changes to the System Variables in AutoCAD 2004. So this article is intended for the AutoCAD novice and ‘system variable illiterate’ operators. If you are past this stage in your education but know someone in your organization that is at this stage, please get this article to your colleague. Instead of starting with long descriptions, I will start with a working knowledge and fill in the needed descrip- tion as I proceed. There are a few very minor assumptions in this article. That you know: 1. the location of the command line, 2. how to enter commands there, and 3. how to draw and dimension a line. We will use two simple commands there which concern system variables: getvar and setvar. As you can probably guess by the words, getvar is the command to get the present value of a system variable while setvar is to change the present set- ting to a new value. As life is full of excep- tions, the ones here are: 1. that setvar ? will display a list of all the variables to which that release of AutoCAD will respond and 2. that getvar also allows you to change the value. There are more than 360 system vari- ables, which I have divided into 25 cate- gories in my topical index available at www.afralisp.com, but we will discuss only four in depth. Since those which concern dimensioning are probably of most inter- est to the novices, we will narrow our

18 www.AUGI.com attention to that category. We will start instead of entering the period, you should Challenge with DIMSAH; this variable has two enter the string “_archtick” (don’t forget Can you dimension a line without a options: 0 or 1. Check for its present value the quotes) and this should produce the termination at both ends? by entering at the command line getvar architectural tick as shown in Figure 2 at dimsah. You should receive the response both ends. of : Enter new value for DIMSAH <0> : By this time you should feel more com- Caution: Remember or Record the fortable with system variables, so you value you find at any of the system vari- should be able to do an exercise on your ables during these exercises and then own. Can you put a filled arrow at one end restore those values when finished with and an arch tick at the other? Start by set- the exercises in this article. ting the DIMSAH to the value of 1, which If not, enter 0, and remember to restore means that the two ends will be different. Figure 4: With no terminations it to 1 at the end of these exercises. Now you will need two different values, so As you know a dimension line is usually we will use DIMBLK1 and DIMBLK2 Caution: Remember to Restore terminated in arrows at both ends. instead of DIMBLK; DIMBLK1 for one the values you found in the system However, the line may be terminated in end and DIMBLK2 for the other end. If variables before you started the many other ways; even with different you prefer you can use no termination exercises in this article so that manage- terminations at the two ends or left instead of the architectural tick by using ment will not be unhappy. unterminated at both ends. Option 0 for the string “_NONE” for either DIMBLK1 Would you like to explore system vari- DIMSAH will produce the same termina- or DIMBLK2. ables further? If so, let me hear from you! tion at both ends! So press the enter but- Does your result look like this? ton since that is the present value as indi- Gil Hoellerich is a former cated by the <0>. telephone company pro- Now lets examine the variable DIM- fessional and teacher. He BLK; this has several different options but frequently writes about for now we would like to keep the default AutoCAD and related top- of filled arrows. So use getvar command to ics. Gil can be reached at find the present value. As you will recall [email protected]. from the previous example, the present Figure 3: Two differeint terminations value is displayed within the < > brackets. In this case you will probably see <” “>; if not record the value and remember to restore that value at the end of these exer- ™ cises! Regardless of the value you see Manage Your Files with AutoEDMS between the brackets, enter a period (.) and press the enter key. Now draw a horizontal line and use the command DIMLINEAR to dimension it. The terminations at both ends should look Simplify Teamwork like Figure 1. . When it’s mission-critical, you need Our next task will be to change the ter- all the pieces to come together minations at both ends. We will change perfectly, and fast! AutoEDMS offers this to the architectural tick next. So this time when you enter getvar dimblk, automated revision control, redlining and custom workflow routing for file editing, checking and approval of your AutoCAD® drawings at a streamlined pace. As the deadlines become shorter, it allows your team to work at their top speed. In a world

Figure 1: Filled Arrow of higher and faster demands, AutoEDMS will be at your fingertips and growing along with you.

Call us at 800-325-0425 Fax: (310) 755-6050 2463 208th Street, Torrance, Ca 90501-6238 USA Email: [email protected] Web: acssoftware.com © 2004 ACS Software, Inc. All rights reserved. AutoEDMS is a trademark of ACS Software, Inc. AutoCAD® is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. Figure 2: Tick Arrow Nov/Dec 2004 19 Autodesk Inventor Professional 9

utodesk Inventor Professional or AIP is a powerful soft- ware application that signif- icantly extends the core A ® Autodesk Inventor capabilities. In its lat- est release, AIP 9 offers four powerful fea- tures: IDF board data translator, tube and piping, cable and harness, and stress analy- sis. The latter is new to AIP 9. AIP is an extended version of Autodesk Inventor that is fully compatible with the core Inventor software. When you start Figure 1 AIP you encounter an interface similar to Autodesk Inventor. This makes your job package is accompanied by AutoCAD The analysis easier. You may even view models created Mechanical and Mechanical Desktop. In The stress analysis feature, powered by with AIP in the core Inventor and vice this article, we will focus on the new stress ANSYS technology, enables the user to versa. Just like Autodesk Inventor, AIP analysis feature. analyze Inventor parts from different

20 www.AUGI.com useful report including graphi- cal presentation of stress, dis- placement, factor of safety, and frequency modes. Some tables provide information about part, material, stress, strain, frequency modes, and so on. The report is in HTML for- mat and a table of contents introduces the name of rele- vant images files to locate and distribute them if necessary. The following figure displays a screen capture of a sample report. Figure 2 shows the report title and a sample table. Interaction with ANSYS ANSYS DesignSpace is a Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) application that enables users to analyze parts and assemblies. Since the AIP 9 stress analysis feature is pow- ered by ANSYS technology, Figure 2 you can easily export analysis data from Autodesk Inventor aspects. In general you can analyze stress, specific loads. However, you usually need to an ANSYS DSDB file. You can import displacement, and factor of safety. You may to know about displacement, or rather, such files in ANSYS DesignSpace for fur- also view different frequency modes. deformation values. Fortunately, AIP 9 ther analysis such as heat transfer and The approach to solving problems is really provides you with such information. A thermal/stress results. easy. You need to follow some simple steps to graphical representation of displacements apply proper loads to the part and start analy- along with the maximum displacement Benefits sis. Inventor allows you to apply force, pres- value helps you to have a better under- AIP 9 stress analysis feature is so easy to sure, bearing load, moment, and body loads. standing of the effect of loads on the part. use that you can initiate analysis in a few min- You can also define fixed constraints. Inventor Factor of safety is an important parameter utes. However, depending on the complexity of the part and loads and computer calcula- tion speed, it may take some time to get the results. For the part shown in this article, it AIP 9 stress analysis takes a couple of minutes to get the analysis result with a Pentium 4, 2.66 MHz processor. feature is so easy to use that On the other hand, AIP 9 stress analysis feature is easy to learn. If you are familiar you can initiate analysis with Autodesk Inventor, you can learn this in a few minutes feature in a few minutes. More information builds Finite Element Analysis (FEA) meshes in such an analysis. AIP calculates factor of For more information about AIP 9, automatically and calculates stress, displace- safety throughout the part based on the part visit www.autodesk.com/inventorpro. You ment, and factor of safety throughout the part. material. The minimum value appears on can also find more information about Figure 1 displays a sample analysis on an off- screen to ensure that part does not fail under ANSYS and Inventor Professional at set bearing. As shown in the figure, a graphi- existing loads. You can easily change the part www.ansys.com/autodesk. cal representation of the part accompanied by material and recalculate factor of safety. a color bar makes the analysis result clear. If you wish, AIP creates graphical pre- Alireza Parsai, founder of AIP not only shows stress distribution sentations of one or more resonance www.cadpanel.com, is a throughout the part but also displays the modes. The relevant frequency to each mechanical engineer with location of minimum and maximum stress. mode appears on screen. more than 13 years of The value of maximum stress appears on AutoCAD experience, an screen as well. The report author, and an instructor. Stress distribution is useful to know Analysis without proper reports does not He can be reached at more about the behavior of the part under seem to be very useful. AIP can create a [email protected].

Nov/Dec 2004 21 Realism with Photo Textures

When your computer- generated images have to become seamless with the real world, photo textures will help you bridge the gap. Photorealism in com- puter-generated images is, at its core, about believ- ability. It’s about creating an image that suspends our disbelief and allows us to process what we are seeing as real

Photos and post process There are two key elements to obtaining believable photo textures. The first ele- ment is taking good photos with consistent lighting and minimal signs of perspective. This means shooting surfaces as close to perpendicular to the camera as you can manage. The second element is post pro- cessing the photos in a paint program, such as Adobe Photoshop, for color correction and other useful image editing such as generating other important types of sur- face maps besides the diffuse channel. Bump maps, displacement maps, and specular maps all add an amazing amount of detail to the final image. Post process- ing also allows you to remove blemishes and other unwanted things in the image such as specular highlights that may not match the lighting scheme in your scene.

22 www.AUGI.com Texture map placement helper objects to snap to the surface and taken for texture maps becomes pretty Texture map placement is one of the measure the object in the texture directly. easy. A high-resolution-capable digital trickiest parts of creating photorealistic Third, the measure distance tool can be camera is an integral part of this process images. There are tools built into the core used to obtain distance measurements and is an indispensable tool. It really of 3ds max and there are also many third- simply by clicking a beginning and end speeds up the workflow if you keep the party plug-ins, which all essentially do the point from within the viewport with the pipeline all completely digital. You can use same thing…unwrap the UVW coordi- result printed to the Maxscript mini listen- a 35mm film camera, but then you will nates into a flat 2D representation of the er at the bottom left of the screen. Fourth, need to do all the added work of scanning. when attempting to scale photo textures 3D object. This 2D representation can be The end game used as a guide for editing the UV coordi- such as basic concrete or stucco, which In the end it really depends on your end nates into place, but can also be exported isn’t always easy, it is generally a good idea goal for the images. Whether you are inte- as a raster image for importing into a paint to take physical measurements before you grating 3D with a live-action plate or cre- program for direct image placement and take the photos so that you can reference ating architectural visualizations or even additional painting. them later. Lastly, you can use one of the best tools of them all…your eyes. If it creating virtual set extensions, photorealis- Measure and verify looks like the scale is off, it probably is. tic textures will help you get that much There are a few methods we can use, Correct scaling is essential to creating pho- closer to believability. The challenge is to inside 3ds max, to verify that our photo tex- torealistic images. take something that was computer-gener- tures are at the right scale for our scene. ated and make it look as though it weren’t. First, we can draw a spline shape or import Suggestions Good luck. one from AutoCAD that represents the Although there are many great texture actual dimensions of the object in the tex- libraries available on the Internet, creating Dwayne D. Ellis is the lead ture map. For example, a rectangle shape a custom, photoreal, texture library of your 3d computer animator at could be created for a brick or pavers own is essential. It’s not practical to shoot Hrycay Consulting stone, and so on. In one of the orthogonal every texture for every object in your scene Engineers, a firm specializ- views, with textures turned on in the view- but you should customize the images from ing in motor vehicle acci- ports, you can place the spline shape next the commercial libraries to make them dent reconstruction. He is to the surface to do a visual check between more unique. It loosely requires you to be also the founder of the two. Second, you could use the tape a photographer, but with practice, images Lifeseyes Studios and can be reached at [email protected].

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Nov/Dec 2004 23 WallWall StylesStyles andand DisplayDisplay RepsReps

What is the display system? The Autodesk® Architectural Desktop display system is the key to a flexibility that allows the designer to use the same objects for preliminary design, presentation design, construction document floor plans, and reflected ceiling plans and renderings. The display system is organized into configurations, sets, and representations by object. Drawing display defaults can Figure 1 Display Configurations be inspected and changed by using the AECDisplayManager command (Format -> Display Manager). A configuration is a collection of sets. If a configuration contains more than one set, it is “view dependent.” For example, in Figure 1, Medium Detail is “view depend- ent,” whereas Diagnostic is not. The current configura- tion is bold and has a unique icon. The current configu- ration also appears on the status line. A set is a collection of representations for individual objects for a single view direction category and level of detail. Sets that are used have a check mark on their icon. (See Figure 2). When a particular set is selected, the right pane displays a matrix schedule, which indicates the display reps with which each ADT object is displayed. See Figure. 3. The Representations by Object folder offers a version Figure 2 Display Set Descriptions of this matrix schedule. Each ADT object has its own set 24 www.AUGI.com of display representations (See Figure 4). To add a repre- sentation, right click on a representation row that you wish to edit or duplicate. Why adjust display representations? Display reps are built into all of the OOTB ADT objects but sometimes individual objects, need their display rep- resentations tweaked to serve particular purposes. Cut planes for example may need to be adjusted. Changes made in the display manager affect the drawing defaults for generic AEC styles. Where are display settings stored? Display system settings are saved in the current draw- ing. To be available for new drawings they should be exported to template drawing files. Project template files Figure 3 Display Set Matrix Format may be a good place to store settings unique to a project. New object styles should be saved in style drawings in the content\styles\imperial or content\styles\metric directo- ries. Object styles placed on tool palettes can come from any saved drawing however. How can display settings be imported? Right clicking on the configurations folder of the dis- play manager allows one to import or export display set- tings from or to other drawings. It is possible to overwrite configurations with the same name. What objects must be controlled by display manager Since there is no style control for openings, the display of openings display is controlled by the display manager. Figure 4 Representations by Object Can Be Added The display manager also controls any other objects that don’t have styles, such as anchors and layout curves. How can wall display representa- tions be controlled? First, consider whether the changes affect all wall styles. If so, then use the display manager to edit the draw- ing defaults. If the change should affect a particular wall style, use style overrides (right click on wall and choose “edit wall style”). If the change should affect only a few walls, then add an object override (shortcut menu “Edit Object Display”). If possible delay object overrides until the project nears completion. Developing a foundation wall style To get used to the display system for walls, let’s make a new foundation wall style and adjust the display settings. Use “Wall Style” to launch the style manager and set Figure 5: Wall Style Orientation focus to walls. See Figure 5. Figure 5 Notes 1 Wall styles opened via the style manager When should layers be used? 2 The current, as yet unnamed drawing. 3 A wall style dragged from the stock tool palette. Double click here for wall style Use layers whenever you would like to control the dis- properties. play of an individual component by layering. It is debat- 4 An example of an unoverridden display rep that is not current able whether layering is better or worse than adding a dis- 5 Checking this box sets a style override for the current display REP and launches a dialog. play representation. Notice that most of the components 6 The below cut plane component is visible. Notice that it can’t be controlled by shown in Figure 5 are drawn on layer 0. This makes it pos- material. sible to turn off all of the wall components by turning off 7 For the foundation wall, set the linetype to hidden.This will affect the footing 8 Hatch is usually best left with material definition controlling. the layer of the parent wall object. The sole exception is 9 This wall has two components. For some views, one or more of the components is the Defect Warning, which should never be plotted. This best hidden. is the recommended method. Nov/Dec 2004 25 Finishing up the foundation wall The resulting foundation wall shown in plan view in Figure 8 has a dashed footing. Number 1 shows the foot- ing; number 2 shows the shrink-wrap, which happens at the cut plane; and number 3 shows the hatch. The final step is to adjust the cut plane for the wall style. Since res- idential crawl spaces rarely exceed three feet high, the cut plane should be set to 18-24" high. Cycle through each display configu- ration and look at each standard view to inspect the results before assuming the Figure 8 Resulting Foundation wall style definition Figure 6 Creating a Wall Style by Dragging Components Wall Style is finished. Do not Figure 6 Notes 1 The new foundation wall created the upper left “new” button.Then name it and rely on the object viewer in the style manager to inspect double click. the results. In some cases, the object viewer gives a false 2 All the action here is on the components tab. rendering of the wall display. 3 Wall styles must have at least one component, here unnamed. It will be deleted later. 4 A most important button,“browse wall styles”. Use this whenever possible to Best practice preserve standard component priorities and material and display settings. Use the style manager to control the display of objects 5 A source wall style (must exist in current document). 6 Shows relationship between browser window and main style manager window. that have styles. Set style overrides when there is some- 7 Components to be dragged into new wall style. thing unique about a style. Set object overrides only when 8 Location where source wall component settings is copied. necessary to meet exceptional conditions. Walls that have object display overrides, for example, will ignore any later changes made to the display of a wall style. Control the display of objects that do not have styles with the display manager. Adjust drawing defaults for ADT styles either with the style manager or with the display manager. Affecting a particular style is only possible with the style manager. Import materials definitions and use standard wall com- ponents whenever available. Save display settings to templates if they are to be reused. Import or export display settings by right clicking on the display manager configurations folder. Save drawings before adding wall styles to the tool Figure 7 Component Tab of Wall Style Properties palettes. Consider adding the new definitions to one of Figure 7 Notes the wall style drawings. 1 Object viewer window showing positive and negative direction. This display Save archival copies of the OOTB style drawings before changes as components are added, deleted, or moved. Notice the left face of the wall is on the baseline. This is best for foundations. changing to allow for reversion to those styles. 2 Index number is not important, but when associating endcaps it is best to organize them left to right. Put special components last. Caution! 3 These buttons can be used to change a components index number. 4 Use this button to delete a component. • Changing the display system has serious implications. 5 Use this button only as a last resort. All display, priority, and material settings • Consult with those in authority in your office and coor- must be manually entered. Use standard components whenever possible. dinate with others working on the project prior to mak- 6 Component names. Change concrete to footing to be more descriptive. 7 Standard priorities are important. Lower numbers represent higher priorities. ing changes to the display system. Document changes High priority components cut through lower ones. made. 8 AEC dimensions do not use negative component widths. Unless you want the AEC dimensions to work on individual components, use negative widths. • Test your new styles thoroughly before assuming they 9 Notice the start and end settings for the various components. are ready for distribution. 10 A convenient way to slide components left(-) or right(+).

Doug Broad is a registered architect and Foundation Wall Component Settings instructor at Nash Community College. He Bottom Elevation Top Elevation has used AutoCAD since v2.6 and currently Index Name Priority Width Edge Offset Offset From Offset From uses Architectural Desktop and does cus- 1 Brick Veneer 810 -4 0 8 Wall Bottom 0 Wall Top tomization in AutoLISP and VBA. He can be 2 Brk.Vnr. Struct. 800 -4 -4 8 Wall Bottom 0 Wall Top reached at [email protected]. 3 Footing 200 -16 4 0 Wall Bottom 8 Wall Bottom

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Nov/Dec 2004 27 On TheBack Page David Kingsley

I’ll Enter a Defense of Rafael. Carol also joins the Board for lunch 56K in contrast to today’s widely available Temporary Insanity whenever our schedules match up. There is 1,544K connections. Technology marches on. no doubt in my mind that AUGI has her As you can see, this article would run very In my previous column I stated that this unwavering support. Over the years she also long if I tried to cover everything, so I advise would be my final On the Back Page col- has counseled, scolded, funded, and you to read dave espinosa-aguilar’s excellent umn. In the ensuing weeks I reconsidered inspired us. I thank her for her continuing and detailed AUGI History on the website this and have decided to continue writing and future support of AUGI. by clicking “About AUGI >> History.” the Back Page. Thanks for your feedback and support. I promise this is not just a Let’s get back to the meeting To sum it up cheap election-year ploy. I had come to know a few of the AUGI There are two things that I consider to be My third and final term on the AUGI folks through my NAAUG and AU experi- my AUGI legacy. I introduced the concept Board will end, per the bylaws, at the end of ences, so I wasn’t in a room full of strangers. and politicked heavily to implement the 2004, but all my official business will be Strange people yes, but not strangers. We Forums. I did not perform the selection, wrapped up at the end of Autodesk went through the meeting ritual of going installation, and configuration of the soft- University. A lot of water has flowed under around the table and introducing ourselves. I ware, but as administrator, I laid out the user the bridge in six years, so I’ll give you my said that I had been married for 23 years, and interface structure of both the pre-and-post- brief personal perspective on that here. Lynn said, “Wow, that’s wonderful.” I said, worm versions. There was some serious My first AUGI board meeting “Well, there were seven different women, but opposition to change involved in that transi- I attended my first AUGI Board meeting it adds up to 23 years” (Henny Youngman, tion, but I think that now most AUGI mem- at Autodesk’s San Rafael headquarters in circa 1956). The next day we were at our exec- bers can see the power of the technology January 1999. I had seen the address 111 utive luncheon, the one Carol Bartz attends, and the diversity of subjects that can be cat- McInnis so many times, and here I was, and once again doing the introduction ritual. I aloged and retrieved. Just go to “Coffee signing in at the front desk! To me this place was a little nervous, yes. I thought I was Without CAD” and search on any old word; embodied the heart of the product that had through it, but Lynn chimed in with… “Dave, chances are good you will get a hit. driven my professional life for so many how long have you been married?” The other legacy item is the design of the years. I was 47 years old at the time, so I had David Harrington was presiding over his new ATP. When I learned the administra- been around the block a few times. I must first meeting as president. dave espinosa- tion capabilities of the forums, I quickly saw admit that my heart fluttered as I passed aguilar was present as LUG Representative, as how we could meld the structure of the old through the big glass doors leading to the was yours truly as the Mechanical Group Chair ATP paradigm with the technology of the Executive Briefing Center of the fourth Person. Three Daves (or two Daves and a new forums. I wrote a spec calling for the largest software company in the world. Then lower-case dave), three beards, and one head ATP Course Catalog, a one-click registra- Lynn Allen walked in. of hair. At one point, someone called “Dave,” tion, and the My ATP page to let users man- then reconsidered and said, “the bald Dave” age their own class registrations. I think we And on that subject… (in case you’ve lost track, we’ve eliminated only have developed a powerful training medium You all need to know that Lynn is the all- one Dave). Then they thought again and said, that will only improve with maturity. time champion of AUGI. When we incorpo- “the old bald Dave.” Fortunately that moniker A lot of people have donated a lot of their rated, she could no longer officially serve on didn’t stick for too long. time to make AUGI what it is today. Just the AUGI Board, but we all agreed that she That meeting is when dave e-a proposed look in dave e-a’s AUGI history at the people needed to maintain a title. Her official title is the first AUGI website. To put things in per- who have served on the AUGI Board, and “AUGI Sweetheart,” which she will hold for- spective, the first commercially available note how many of them are still serving ever. I cannot begin to list here all the things web browser, Mosaic, became available today. They all deserve your support. she does for the Board. She counsels us, cov- about 1994, so in 1999 the Internet wave All in all, I’d say it has been a great six ers for us, pairs us with the right Autodesk was (and is) still building. For small organi- years. It has enriched my life professionally execs for meetings, works the Autodesk sys- zations, building a website was still a rela- and provided a lot of fond memories and tem for us, makes sure we have cookies and tively complex, expensive, and leading-edge friends for life. I would advise anyone who is coffee and pizza, cooks us big dinners, takes proposition. The initial budget was $25,000. so inclined to step up to the plate and serve us out to nice restaurants (and lets me select We approved it within minutes. on the AUGI Board. You won’t regret it. the wine). Without her leadership, AUGI How many of you remember our first I’ll see you at AU. would be only half of what it is today. I sin- augi.com home page that took five minutes to David Kingsley served from 1999-2004 cerely thank you, Lynn. load? We quickly learned about “lightweight” on the AUGI Board of Directors and is It is a tradition that the president of web graphics. Most people still had 28K the Director of Electrons at CADPlayer AUGI has a private meeting with Carol modems and wanted a 56K connection. For Web Courseware. He can be reached at [email protected]. Bartz at every Board meeting held in San you who have known only broadband, that is 28 www.AUGI.com Design from a better point of view

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