The Revit Clinic

Autodesk Sustainability Workshop

A new site went live a few days ago in the Autodesk Education Community called the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop.

 
 
The site features free videos and tutorials on on net-zero energy building concepts like passive heating and cooling, efficient HVAC design, lighting, and daylighting. The videos are short and entertaining - I've watched a few of them already and they're worth checking out!

2 New Autodesk Labs Downloads

There are 2 new Autodesk Labs downloads available, which I have included below:

Project Vasari 1.1

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/vasari/

Project Nucleus

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/nucleus/

Project Vasari 1.1 Trailer

If you have not seen it yet, there is a new preview for Autodesk Project Vasari 1.1 available here.

Exported Solar Study Frames appear to jump around in Revit 2011

You may have noticed when exporting a solar study animation in Revit 2011, depending on the shadows and view size some of the resulting animation frames appear to jump around.  For example, the building location may appear to move from frame to frame.

If you have come across this behavior, the approach below should correct the resulting animation when you export a new study:

1.  In the solar study animation view, verify that the Sun Path is OFF.

2.  Export the solar study normally under Export > Images and Animations > Solar Study.

Even though the sun path is not included in the animation if visible, it can interfere with the extents of the view causing inconsistencies from frame to frame.

Thanks to Tobias Hathorn for the above approach.

Conceptual Energy Analysis Construction Materials Round 2

Special thanks to Jeff Hanson for the information included below; this documentation expands on yesterdays post:

Construction Type Materials

Each of these Construction Types are defined when the energy model is first created.  To locate these materials, navigate to the following location:

Project Browser > Mass > Conceptual Constructions

You should see categories for Mass Floors, Mass Opening, Mass Roof, Mass Shade, Mass Walls & Mass Windows and Skylights:

To edit the associated material, right-click over the construction type in the Project Browser > Type Properties > Graphical Appearance.  Here you can change the material as needed.

You can see the default assignments under Analyze > Energy Settings > Conceptual Constructions

On a related note, materials containing a surface pattern do not display the pattern when assigned to a conceptual energy mass model.

Conceptual Energy Analysis Material By Construction does not display

Quick tip should you override any of the surface materials of a conceptual mass face using Conceptual Energy Analysis…

When you have Conceptual Mass > Show Mass Surface Types set active, you can TAB select individual faces and override the Graphical Appearance; which can use any of the available materials in the project:

Should you change Graphical Appearance from the default <By Construction> to a material and back to <By Construction>, you may notice the material does not update to the original appearance.

Should this occur, there are two options to restore it back to the default graphical appearance:

1.  Highlight the face > Identity Data > Subcategory > toggle the type to another subcategory and then back to the original.

2.  Analyze > Energy Settings > Energy Model > un-check Create Energy Model > OK > then re-check Create Energy Model.

**Please keep in mind approach #2 should only be used if there are no additional overrides throughout the model, as all overrides will be reset**

Quick video [no sound] showing the 2 approaches above:

Video Example

Hope this helps!

Project Dasher

Interesting Autodesk Research project for Revit models involving real time web-based lifecycle management…

Read more here…

Project Vasari

Word is out about Autodesk Project Vasari.  If you haven’t read about it yet, David Light has a great post on Vasari over at his blog that I encourage you to go and read.  

You can go ahead and give it a try for yourself and Download Project Vasari via Autodesk Labs.

Project Vasari is a design tool with analysis capabilities available via the cloud. Vasari gives you the power of Revit parametric change engine with conceptual modeling and adaptive components.  There isn’t even anything to install!  

You can simply download the EXE from labs, double click on it, and get started. Throw it on a thumb drive if you want and give it to those designers.

It looks a lot like Revit, so if you know Revit, you will know Vasari.  If your new to Revit, it does includes a number of great videos to get you started.   

Project Vasari includes the conceptual Energy Analysis tools that were part of the Autodesk Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack, but Vasari also includes a solar radiation tool as well.  Pretty cool stuff.  

Oh – Vasari files are compatible with Revit 2011.  You can open your Vasari file in Revit 2011 and open a Revit 2011 file in Vasari.  

Check it out, its FREE!   

 

 

 

Capturing the Revit Sun Path

Quick tip for Revit Architecture 2011 and the Sun Path.  By default the Sun Path is for an on-screen visual representation.  So while you can see and interact with it in the view, it will not print, render, or export to formats such as DWF or Solar Studies.

However, you can capture the sun path in images should you wish to utilize it for solar studies.  The trick is to export to an image format, which will include the sun path.

For example, enable the Sun Path in the view and set the date\time as needed.

Then right-click on the view in the Project Browser > Save to Project as Image.  

Specify the name, options and image quality. After you click OK the view will be saved as a new image under the Project Browser > Renderings.

Adjust the Date\Time as needed and repeat the process to save additional views.
These image views could then be dragged to a sheet to organize a solar study:

Alternatively, you could potentially create an animation should this be the desired end result.  Instead of saving to the project as an image, you could Export > Images and Animations > Image. Once you have the still exported images you could combine them in an application such as Windows Movie Maker.

Just to recap, this process would only be necessary to capture the sun path.  
Otherwise the standard Revit solar studies and animations would capture everything else.

Subscription Advantage Pack for Revit 2011

If you haven't heard it already, the Subscription Advantage Packs for Revit 2011 products are available on the Subscription Center.

The Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack enhances the building information modeling (BIM) process with tools that support early-stage conceptual energy analysis for sustainable design, collaboration within geographically dispersed teams, and design productivity.

The tools are for Subscription customer only and give you early access to new tools. 

 

The Conceptual Energy Analysis tool gives users the ability to evaluate design options side-by-side based on reports that compare energy use, lifecycle costs, and breakdowns of consumption and loads. This tool is available for Revit Architecture and Revit MEP 2011.

The Revit Server Extension, for all three Revit products, enables users to work more effectively as a single project team over a distributed wide area network (WAN) with higher performance and efficiency by maintaining a seamlessly integrated collection of Revit central models on a single server that team members can access from local servers.

 

The Revit Extensions have also received an update.  Revit Architecture now has access to the Frame Generator.  Revit Structure gets a number of new extensions including Floor Vibration Analysis, Gravity Column Analysis, and the ability to import or export the SDNF file format.  All the products get updates to the existing extensions as well. 

I wanted to make sure to give you some  great resources for additional information about the Subscription Advantage Pack as well. 

First, check the download information and some overview videos for each product:

• Revit Architecture
• Revit Structure
• Revit MEP

Next, check out the online tutorials available for the Conceptual Energy Analysis.  Our good friends on the documentation team created some very good videos walking through the functionality.

Last, but not least, check out the Support Subscription Advantage for Revit 2011 videos.

In the Support videos, I walk through setting up Revit Server and in the videos about Conceptual Energy Analysis, give some additional details about using Green Building Studio along side the tools within Revit. 

Check out all the resources.  I'd love to hear your comments and feedback about the Support videos.