Onshape: Design. Fabrication.

Generally, I'm an Autodesk user. I've utilized Fusion 360 and absolutely enjoyed it in the past. However, at this point in time Fusion does not allow users to build sheet metal components. In the future, there is slated a launch in July and the details can be read here:

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/fusion-360-sheet-metal-status-update/

The downside is what do you do until an update that's been anticipated for months is finally released? Well, the answer is to find another solution! That's where Onshape comes in.

Onshape makes it easy!

Below is a case study of where Onshape came in handy for a prefabricated panel and awning for a tiny shelter.

Proud to be a part of this initiative for the HRDC Housing First Village of Bozeman, and grateful every day for the support Harvey's Plumbing and Heating has given me towards my education at Montana State University.
The panel below was fabricated using OnShape, a plasma cutter, and a folding machine. This panel is being installed in three pieces for the awning on the tiny shelter we are building for the community. Harvey's Sheet Metal fabrication shop is a full-service sheet metal fabrication shop that has generously donated their time and machines for the initiative of the project. Pacific Steel and Recycling of Bozeman donated the steel for the project. This is a great example of the community coming together for the intent of providing shelter to those who need it. This is a great example of the community coming together for the intent of providing shelter to those who need it.

Sheet Metal Fabricated Panel

3D ONSHAPE MODELS

Awning Piece 1 of 3:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a1e269cc07dd92e50172aab9/w/abcfb17de806e44f80fd24b2/e/d0320cec2b783d5198918e47

Awning Piece 2 of 3:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ef832278d6d80838786e6d37/w/6d0611c38a8209bb46da71d7/e/e6bc80bf1d48136e4c336552


Awning Piece 3 of 3:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8c1acc285653a1d5e7f83c1c/w/5244f885c8c5cc0b473ff8bc/e/d2533cb416fa58a49848ef80

Check out Onshape at this website.

https://www.onshape.com/

What Revit Wants New Web Location!

What Revit Wants new blog is up after being spontaneously removed by google through blogger. Below is the link for everyone's reference. It appears Luke was able to backup most of the blogs history! Thank you Luke!

http://wrw.is

Revit 2018 Extensions Available!

For anyone looking for Revit 2018 Extensions and Updates go to the "Updates and Addons" section of your manage.autodesk.com accounts and download to your hearts content. Thank you Autodesk for making these readily available, quickly!

Revit 2018 Student License is Now Available!

Head on over to students.autodesk.com and download your student license today!

Shared Coordinates - Slack Channel

http://bimthoughts.com/ has a new slack channel called Shared Coordinates! Message Bill Debevc for more information. You can reach him on linked in, twitter, or through his BIMThoughts website! Bill describes it's purpose below:

Section Cut: A Curated Collection of Design Culture Bookmarks

For anyone looking for a running collection of the greatest architecture resources on the web. Check out http://www.sectioncut.com/. This website has been a great resource for new ideas, technology, or virtually anything in relation to the profession of architecture for the past several years throughout my journey through architecture school. I thought my bookmarks collection was large, and this put mine to shame. A great way to save these bookmarks across all devices would be to install Google Chrome and to log in with your google account. Great way to ensure all the content of this website and all other interests are streamlined and accessible on the go. Below you can find a link to the Google Chrome installer.

Google Chrome Installer

Unifi Schedule Support - October 26th, 2016

How much time have you spent trying to recreate or build schedules?  What about trying to find or share a schedule?  With UNIFI’s newly released support of Revit Quantity Schedules, you can easily set up or retrieve a schedule in seconds and you don’t even need to open Revit to view it. Learn how this time saving, headache-free solution that will enable you to focus on what you do best – designing and building structures. 

The Value of Schedule Support Inside UNIFI
Schedules are data-centric views of a BIM model and are critical to a firm’s documentation workflow.  The manner in which firms create and deploy schedules is similar to how content is managed, since schedules are the tool for the reporting of quantities and attributes of content.
UNIFI built our Schedules feature based upon input from our user community and we focused on what mattered most to our users - ease of use, efficiency and business value:

• Hassle-free set up - While other folks still debate how to best organize, maintain and distribute schedules inside of Revit project files (optimal balance of quantity, organization, etc.), UNIFI allows you to free your schedules from these painful workflows! Set up is extremely easy and matches the familiar upload process, versioning and revision process used for other elements, saving considerable time.
• Easy access - Individual schedules are immediately indexed and accessible through our powerful search system without any extra effort to manually meta-tag or parse data out. Our analytics show us that 80% of inserts made by customers were displayed in the top 10 search results.
• Fast - Don’t bother anymore with the time consuming task of opening a container Revit project file every time you have to access a schedule! With UNIFI, schedules are stored as small, individual, versionable elements – fast to preview and fast to add to your project.
• Instant Previews - In UNIFI, you can immediately preview the schedule.  Our platform does the heavy lifting for you by analyzing the schedule structure, then rendering the schedule header for you.  You can even cycle through previews for each base file.

Customers will now enjoy storing all of their schedules in the cloud, ensuring they have access to them anywhere, anytime, on any machine.  One customer we recently spoke with has over 400 schedules already planned to utilize this new feature and give their users access.
Schedules support is a great addition to UNIFI’s already supported Revit element types of Families, System Families, Drafting Views and Groups.

How Does this Feature Work
Uploading: 
Schedules can be added to UNIFI by opening a project and then opening the ‘Batch Export’ dialog. Schedules will appear there as a parent type and expanding this will reveal all of the available schedules.  Choose the schedules you want to store in UNIFI and click “Export”.  This will queue them up in UNIFI for upload – just like any other element, you can choose your tags and libraries before uploading and following upload they follow the same approval process that you’re familiar with already.
Accessing:  
In Browse mode, schedules will appear as their own folder after choosing a library.  Schedules will also appear in your search results if your search term matches against tags, the category of the schedule and of course, the name.  You may also apply a filter for ‘Schedules’.  Inserting schedules works like other elements; simply click ‘Insert’ to load into your project.  To assist you in making a selection, a view of the column headers is even conveniently located on the Details page.
Managing:  
Schedules are managed like every other element type.  Tagging, renaming, library management, custom preview images, revisions, etc. are all handled the same way.

UNIFI’s new Schedules capabilities provide even greater value to leading architectural, engineering, construction firms who use UNIFI to create and manage their building content.

Find out more information here: http://unifilabs.com/seamlessly-create-find-share-schedules-cloud-unifi/
Sign up for the informational webinar on the 26th here: Unifi October 26th, 2016 Webinar Signup

Revit 2017.1 - Revit Listens

This was originally posted here.

This may be one of the greatest updates yet, especially for the MEP world of BIM. Major enhancements and functionality has been added to the fabrication content. HUGE enhancements and functionality. Don't wait to install this. It's an amazing new release, and a step forward for our AEC community.

Thanks to Luke Johnson for getting this posted up for everyone!
Direct Download Links - Thanks to What Revit Wants!

October 12, 2016

Announcing Revit 2017.1

It’s been a while since our last post from Inside the Factory, but believe us we’ve been busy.  Today, we’re excited to announce the availability of Revit 2017.1.

You may wonder whether “.1” is the same as the “R2” releases you’ve seen in previous years, and the answer is yes. With no file format change, Revit 2017.1 includes new features and functionality and is available for access by Revit subscribers and current maintenance subscription customers from Autodesk Accounts or via the Autodesk App Manager.

Revit 2017.1 is dedicated to enhancing user efficiency by making it easier to capture and document design intent and better supports high detail, complex modeling. We want to free you to focus on creating better designs and working more productively, relying on Revit to automate tedious workflows. The newest update to Revit also features multiple user-requested enhancements that reflect a continued focus on making better software.  

But because what you really want to know is exactly “what’s new in Revit 2017.1”, here’s the list of everything new that you’ll find in the latest version of Revit.  We think you’ll like it.

Multi-Discipline Enhancements

Dynamo Player:  Use the new Player to run Dynamo scripts in Revit with just one click—no programming ability required.  Now even users unfamiliar with Dynamo can use scripts to automate tasks or standardize processes.

 

Updated Dynamo: The Dynamo software that installs with Revit has been updated and now accesses even more Revit functionality with new nodes and improved list management tools.

Import 3D shapes (Rhino/SAT files): Import RHINO and SAT files as high-quality 3D models, assign them to a Revit category, which lets them appear in schedules and be filtered in views. Use dimensions on elements in the import, and even use imported elements to create room boundaries.

Corruption Data Loss Prevention: Use the Repair Central Model tool to fix the corruption in a central model and create a new central model.

High-Resolution monitor support:  Revit fully supports 4K monitors with properly rendered icons, buttons, dialog boxes, and interface elements

Collaboration for Revit Sync Progress Notification: new dialog provides feedback on the progress of synchronization in C4R

Insight 360 Integration: Get easy and intuitive access to powerful Insight 360 tools installed natively directly on the Revit Analysis tab.

Architecture

Model in perspective views: Add, move, copy, rotate, or align elements in a live 3D perspective view, and see the impact of your modeling decisions in real time. Reduce the need to switch views for everyday modeling tasks, and work in the view that best supports your workflow.

LED Light Fixtures Content:  LED lighting fixtures content included and ready to use in models and renderings.  Renderings will take advantage of accurate LED IES files to give high quality realistic results from the LED lights in the scene

Sketch on Level: The sketch’s work plane will stay with the work plane of the element giving a more predictable and consistent editing experience – even when you move or copy elements.

Railing Type UI Usability:  Access Top and Bottom Rail properties from directly within the Railing Type Properties dialog.

Stairs Parameters Tooltips:  New detailed tooltips include illustrations and helpful hints for stair elements settings and controls.

Structural Engineering

Split Columns & Framing Elements: The Split Element tool includes new features for structural framing and column elements. The Split Element tool respects joins, justifications, and the location of hosted objects. Openings, details, attached elements, and joins maintain their geometry and locations.

AISC Connection Code Checking for Steel Connections: The code check in Steel Connections for Revit has been updated to the 14th edition of the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)

New Steel Shapes Content: Revit comes with Chinese and Japanese steel content, making designs more easily transferrable to Advance Steel without advanced mapping required.  Content includes the 20 most common used sections according to the latest Chinese and Japanese standards.

MEP Fabrication Modeling Improvements

Resize Connected Parts: Resize runs of connected fabrication parts using the Properties palette or the Edit Parts dialog.

Change Service: change the service on MEP Fabrication parts in a model using the Properties pallet. 

Exclude FAB Parts from Auto Fill Tools: Model more effectively with ability to exclude fabrications parts when using auto fill tools.

Add or Modify a Damper:  On MEP fabrication ductwork parts that accommodate dampers, you can add, remove, or rotate damper blades using damper specific in-canvas controls.

Split Fabrication Elements; split fabrication straight segments with the Split Element tool and Split with Gap tool.

Hanger Support Rod enhancement:  change the size (diameter) of a hanger support rod while maintaining accurate costing data.

AWWA Valves and Pumps Content:  Revit includes an expanded library of wastewater-system content based on the American Water Works Association (AWWA) standards

Space Naming Tool Integration: space naming tool installs with Revit.

Stay tuned here and on Facebook and Twitter for more information about these new features and what the Revit road-map holds.

Want to get involved? We invite you to share your suggestions for Revit features and improvements with us via the Revit Ideas page in the Autodesk Community.  It’s the best way to get your ideas in front of the Revit team and influence the evolution of Revit.

You might also like:

• What’s new in Autodesk Revit Sunrise
• Revisiting the UI
• A message from the Autodesk Building Industry Director about the Revit 2010 release

September Application of the Month: Slack Team Integration

For anyone looking to ignite their productivity in their offices I highly suggest Slack. Slack is a team based communication system that allows users in any office to collaborate live through a messaging platform that is incredibly dynamic and user friendly.

In our firm we've implemented slack to communicate design intent, ideas, and details back and forth to other key players in other offices in our building without having to lose productivity getting up and walking back and forth between each others offices.

We've also created a link within Revit that allows us to open slack from within Revit allowing our users to not have to leave their Revit application. This increases productivity ten fold for new users in the office to not worry about asking questions.

Please go check it out!

https://slack.com/

Harvey's Evaluation of Processes: Fabrication Parts vs. SysQue

The most important part of this post is to share our workflow behind the entire Autodesk MEP Fabrication Suite released in April 2017, and why we have come to the conclusion to adopt this software for our future processes and success of our fabrication processes as a plumbing and mechanical contractor.

Background

This process initially began relying heavily on SysQue (http://sysque.com/) and Building Data (https://www.building-data.net/) because Autodesk had not implemented all the right steps for our firm to be able to adopt fabrication parts, nor a method for creating efficient content. Some of the problems have been fixed with the most recent release of the Autodesk MEP Fabrication Suite (http://www.autodesk.com/products/fabrication-products/buy). I am going to initially state that we wouldn't have been able to get as far as we have today as a company without SysQue's Building Data Content. When we began using Sysque's tool in 2016, we had quite a few problems with it. Certain things were effective, but others were lacking or non existent. Building Data's content was our main reason for purchasing the license, as it offered most of the pieces we needed to work on 3D design. Sysque has been working to improve their tool to continue to compete in the MEP software economy. The software competing with Sysque and Building Data is coming directly from Autodesk. This software is called Autodesk MEP Fabrication Suite, which focuses on the use of CID patterns which guide the user to creating effective content, as well as some out of the box content which starts the user with fabrication level parts. The MEP Fab Suite is fairly new, but has been developing quite efficiently since its creation. Due to its
infancy as a software, there are also a few issues that come with the benefit of standardizing fabrication pieces. Both hold positive and negative aspects, and the main purpose of this post is to discuss those pros and cons, and how that led to our decision in software.

Before I go any further in depth with this I would like to state that when the MEP Fab Suite first came out, Sysque created a comparision video. The video link is here, and I highly advise people to note while watching this video that a lot of corrections have been made more than likely thanks to the concerns of this video in the MEP Fabrication Suite that launched in April this year and that this video holds a bias for the company who created it.


SysQue's Fabrication Video for Revit 2016's initial launch of fabrication parts versus their use of the tool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQU_1Rvs99c

Harvey's Evaluation of SysQue vs. Autodesk's MEP Fabrication Suite

Now that you've watched the video and that you understand this is prior to the release of Revit 2017 and the new enhancements to fabrication parts we can continue our discussion of our process using fabrication parts in our workflow. First we will list the Pro's and Con's of each. These pro's and con's have been compiled from a year and a half of use of SysQue leading up to Autodesk's improving updates implemented to it's initial failed integration of fabrication parts in Revit 2016 through the release of the MEP Fabrication Suite in April 2017.

The Pros and Cons (SysQue)
 
Pros and Cons of SysQue

Pros:

• Building Data has done an exceptional job creating accurate content. This content has led to our ultimate success of rapid production through the utilization of Revit Families.
• Native Revit Workflow
• One software and one tool workflow (all integrated inside of Revit)
• Due to its nativity to Revit, when Revit updates system families related to Sysque's software assist the add-in
• When content created by Building Data has errors, response has been fairly quick to correct the problem.

Cons:

• Content creation (requesting content) often yielding no results or takes a very long time.
• Several pieces of content contain errors.
• The process to submit content is time consuming.
• The tool consistently throws application errors. However it is constantly undergoing updates to mitigate these updates (which can often being annoying and slow production)
• The content is not easily accessible, and is a process in itself to download and install due to regulations and fear on Building Data's side of a security breach. (understandable)
• The tool is a third party addin that is not updated with Revit; therefore, your office becomes dependent on when they want to release the updates (typically three months out of the initial release of the new Revit software sometimes longer), and this could easily set a firm back in terms of collaborators they are working with.
• Very difficult to successfully tie to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. i.e. Product ID's and Aliases.
• Tool requires extensive training that is influenced by SysQue to be done on-site which is an additional fee to the cost of the software.
• Almost all content is created initially as an ITM; therefore, impeding on the Revit family creation time.
• The price (comparatively) is incredibly high.
• The Sysque workflow must be adopted and followed to a tee.
• Licensing issues (sometimes the license is dropped, and a representative must be called to assist in confusing computer work arounds)

The Pros and Cons (MEP Fabrication Suite)



Pros and Cons of ITM Content and the MEP Fabrication Suite

Pros:

• Issues with families being "broken" is mitigated by a rigid part with rigid connectors.
• Very good response to customer support and suggestions.
• The price (comparatively) is incredibly good.
• Allows for a slightly more customizable workflow for companies.
• The company who purchased the software is in control of product lists and content
• CIDs for parts that allow for accurate and consistent content across the boards.
• Ability to centralize a database and control access.
• Ability to tie an ERP system to Revit elements.
• Autodesk Software. First year of their seven year plan; therefore, many years and the financial backing to be upgraded, and between their first failed integration (as pointed out by SysQue) to their second release demonstrates a dedication to the software.

Cons:

• The initial launch of fabrication parts was broken and didn't prove to be useful until the latest release of the Revit 2017 platform.
• Updating content on a shared file is difficult and often creates disconnects in multiple systems.
• Colors and materials cannot be applied. Only projection line color can be changed, limiting system diagramming abilities.
• Absolutely no tutorials even after receiving the software, and parts of the software is not very intuitive.
• No training available online. Similarly to Sysque you must hire someone to come train an office.
• A lack of content compared Building Data
• Lack of methods to suggest content / CID patterns (a clean, easy way to suggest new patterns would be nice)
• An inability to edit systems (through system families) often creates the need to duplicate content exactly in order to have two different systems (ie Hot and Cold Pex Pipe)
• Geometry is a referenced CAD File; therefore, there are currently some filtering restrictions with Revit view filters. 
• Three - Four Step Process with multiple pieces of software. Need to learn the workflow and invest times in understanding each tool, and how they communicate with one another.
• Some of the pieces to the Three to Four Step process seem as though they could be integrated to create less steps.

    After evaluating both of these softwares, we have chosen to move forward with Autodesk's MEP Fabrication Suite. As a small company, some of these factors effect us more than others, while some larger companies hold different levels of concern on each of these matters (as well as other concerns). The main concerns for our company are the large cost difference between softwares and ability to tie our E.R.P. system into the MEP Fab Suite. The most important goal for our company is to trust the software we have implemented and to ensure the software is going to benefit our overall long-term goals. Autodesk has given us this trust by continually listening to our interests on their idea station forums (I will post these at the bottom of the article).

Harvey's Workflow with the MEP Fabrication Suite

Where to start in your learning process:

Step One: CAMduct Database

Step Two: ESTmep Integration

Step Three: Revit MEP Fabrication and Production


Suggestions for improvement on both tools and the ultimate goal of this post.

The primary intention of this article is to stimulate a discussion on the future of each product to benefit the industry, and to effectively communicate our concerns with each so that these concerns are addressed in future releases. This is not intended to insult one company over another or to form a bias, but to effectively communicate why our company is relying on one over another, and listing out reasons or ways that each could benefit their customers through a software upgrade through future releases. All feedback is accepted. This is encouraged to create a professional discussion that is intended towards a positive direction in our industry.

It's also important to note that having both tools in our industry will ultimately push the direction of our industry in the right direction by creating professional competition and development.

Link to Autodesk Idea Station Forums List:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/Ideas-Page