This is it folks! The new 7.1 Release is out and available for download. You would have noticed this when you opened SketchUp over the last couple of days. Remember if you download and Install the new version it will OVERWRITE your version 7, that means you now have lost the ability to IMPORT .DWG files. As discussed in my previous post you will see that SketchUP now supports .KMZ and .DAE file formats. So if you need to import .DWG you will now need to upgrade to the PRO version. There are some downloads that are available to help you import .dwg files but will only exist for a short period of time. 

Lets look at some of the benefits for upgrading to the new release!

SketchUP 7.1 Free version

Improved support for large models

Crossing lines break automatically

Photo Textures

Use Google Street View imagery to add real-world photo textures to your geo-located SketchUp models.

Custom Templates
You can include all of your organization’s proprietary Styles, Watermarks and components in a custom Template so that every member of your team has everything they need, right from the start. In SketchUp 7, saving custom templates is a breeze.

And that’s not all!

Improved inference locking to make them more visible and easier to use. There’s a new area of the Status bar that tells you more about your model. The VCB is now called Measurements, and you can change its location on your screen. You can make textures unique, and choose to edit them in the photo-editor of your choice. You can apply anti-aliasing to textures to make them look better from a distance.

SketchUP 7.1 PRO

Build components that know what they are

Custom attributes

Generate reports

LayOut 2: Create professional presentation documents, fast

Dimensions

Yes you can now add dimensions to your Layout models. Don’t forget to customize your workspace to see the DIMENSION STYLE TRAY. Lets take a closer look together.

To add the Dimension Style Tray simply go to the Layout menu bar,

expand Window and click on the Dimensions Style box.

This should dock the Dimension Style Tray.

You should pre-configure the dimension style before dimensioning, but with the added benefit of Grip editing and using the ALT key to constrain while doing dimensioning you will now be able to quickly create Engineering type drawings in no-time!

I would have loved to see a Diameter or Radius dimension tool added to this dimension style but it will have to do for the moment.

Snap to SketchUp model

Improved Freehand tool

Lists

Improved Grids

To get the full story simply click on the link below, this will also give you access to some videos and in depth discussions:

http://sketchup.google.com/product/newin7.html

Within the Robot Structural Analysis extensions is a very useful tool called Load Takedown. This module allows you to perform a simulation to determine the vertical forces or stress within your Revit Structure model. To obtain the correct results it is important to make sure you have a valid analytical model. You can use the tools on the Analytical tab to make sure you have connectivity within the analysis model or verify the structure within the Load Take down tool. The module is then able to pass the results back into Revit Structure so you can tag the loading on the foundations.

Start the Load Take down command from the Add-Ins ribbon as shown below.

The Load Takedown tool will then ask you to specify the load case that includes the self weight of the structure.

You will then see the dialog box below. The first thing to do is verify the structure.

Next you are given the opportunity to model in supports.

The supports are taken from Revit Structure but you can add or remove additional supports from this dialog box and control if the support is pinned or fixed.

On the Loads tab you can review and check the loading added to the Revit Structure model.

Next you are able to choose the load case, in this example DL1, and then click the Calculate command.

I have also selected just the first floor to be displayed. You are then able to see the tributary areas.

With the check boxes in the lower window you are able to review other information such as the axial forces shown below.

I have then been able to pass the foundation loading back to Revit Structure and tag the results as shown below.

These are added as Internal Point Loads.

A fairly handy tool.

Lawrence

Autodesk have now released Update 2 for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010.

The update can be found here.

Update 2 contains all previous updates for Civil 3D 2010.

This update includes the resolution of over 40 issues. This section of the readme documents the resolved issues that previously caused loss of data, unexpected failures of AutoCAD Civil 3D, or reflect a change in functionality. You can view the issues resolved in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 1 in the Update 1 Readme.

General

Alignments

API

Corridors

If you are using Windows XP and have set your display settings to Large DPI, you may find that certain dialog boxes in AutoCAD don’t display all the options. Here in this example I am using Civil 3D and trying to import a LandXML file into the survey database. Unfortunately, I can’t select the file I want to import because the right hand side of the dialog just won’t display, no matter how I try and re-size it.

If you edit your display settings, you can click on the Advanced options….

…and you’ll probably find you have Large Size set for your screen resolution.

In the DPI settings, select Custom, and then you can manually tweak the settings. With a bit of trial and error I found that setting this to 128% worked for me.

You’ll probably have to reboot your machine, but now when you go back into AutoCAD you should find the dialogs work as expected. Now I can see the Browse button and pick my file!

If you have Map 3D 2010 on subscription, you can download a nifty add-on that will enable you to create ground model surfaces from points.

The Map 3D Surface Creation Extension is available for download from Subscription Centre.

After installing the extension, the application can be found on the Feature Map tab of the Task Based ribbon, or on the Create tab of the Tool Based ribbon.

Creating your surface is driven from a dialog box that gives you all the options for importing or selecting point data, and creating a Raster surface as a GeoTiff and adding the surface to a Map Layer.

Source options are points from a file, a database or data source connection (ODBC, SDF, Shp, Oracle etc), or selecting points or blocks in the drawing. If selecting the file option, you can choose a comma  or space delimited text file containing XYZ co-ordinates, or you can import a surface (but NOT points) from a LandXML file. If you need the points to be displayed in the drawing, then import them into the drawing first using Map 3D’s Survey tab, then select the points from the drawing. For data source connections, you must first connect to the data source using the Data connector in Map 3D.

After importing the data, Map 3D will create a GeoTiff of the surface, connect to it and create the display layer. You can then style the data, and create a contour layer.

Completed surface with contours….

This extension is not intended to rival the tools in Civil 3D, and there are no tools available for editing the surface or adding breaklines. The extension works best with areas of data that have points which are regularly spaced – Lidar data is ideal. It is not good for creating surfaces for linear routes as the method employed will create a lot of erroneous joins along the edges of the data. However, that said, it is very useful for creating a raster surface when all you have is a list of XYZ values in a file or database.

I thought I would share with you some of the events that are coming up in the next month or so…

Drop In Day

Firstly, we are planning a Civil 3D Drop-In Day on Thursday, 15th October.  This will be held at our Enfield office, and is a bit like a doctors surgery (the day, that is, not our office!).

You can come along and see Civil 3D in all it’s glory, or perhaps you just want to ask some specific questions or get some informal help with issues you have been having. Whatever you need, you can book a slot (up to 90 mins) with yours truly, and it’s completely free!

For more information and to request a time slot, please visit the following link…

http://www.excitech.co.uk/news/civil_3d_drop_in_day.asp

Civil 3D User Group – Wednesday 28th October

If you have been to any of our User Group events you will know what this is all about – except that this time the event is being hosted by Autodesk at their Farnborough office. As you can see from the agenda below, there is a lot to see. If you use Civil 3D then I would urge you to try and attend this event, as there are some important and useful new additions to the application that will be available for subscription customers. To find out more and register for the event, please visit the following link…

http://www.excitech.co.uk/news/civil_3d_user_day.asp

I look forward to seeing you all there.

Agenda

9.00 –   Arrival and coffee

9.30 -    Introduction

                  Civil 3D Subscription Advantage Pack – Jack Strongitharm / Dave Simeone (Autodesk)

10.30 -  Leica Laser Scanning – a presentation from Steven Ramsey (Leica)

11.00  - Coffee Break

11.30  - Drainage discussion – a presentation from Ian McGregor (Autodesk)

12.00  - Dynamite VSP – a presentation from Bruce Harfield (3AM Solutions)

12.30 -  Lunch

13.00 -  Tips and Tricks – Out of the box tips from Jack Strongitharm (Autodesk)

13.30  - Beyond aerial photography – A presentation from Mat Day (Bluesky)  

14.00 -  LandXplorer – a presentation by Neil Brooker (Autodesk)

14.45 -  Coffee Break

15.00 -  AutoTRACK in 3D – a presentation by Savoy Computing

15.30 -  Civil 3D User project presentation

16.00 -  Project clinic – Users to submit questions and drawings that they need some help explaining

17.00 -  Close 

Autodesk’s top selling 3D mechanical design software, Inventor, is soon to be available as an LT version that is bundled with AutoCAD LT. Autodesk Inventor LT will deliver powerful 3D parametric part design, automated DWG drawing views and the ability to import and export to a variety of file formats such as CATIA, Solidworks and Pro Engineer as well as full DWG support. The AEC exchange capability is also included for transferring models to Revit and AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.

This will provide a great opportunity for those of you that want to explore the capabilities of parametric single part design and others who already have Inventor and need a cost effective method of creating and editing parts and producing drawings.

For more information check the following link from Autodesk

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/invlt10_broch_overview_us.pdf

Civil 3D’s Plan Production tools are a great way of automatically laying out plan and profile sheets along your route design. You can create your own template for the plans that include fields you can update automatically on all the sheets, such as the project name, client etc. This post explores how to create a template with the fields you want using Sheet Set Manager.

The first step is to set up the sheet template. There are sample templates you can use as a guide, or you can set one up from scratch. In an empty drawing, create a new layout tab and name it appropriately, e.g. “A1 1to500 plan and profile”. Set up the paper size and then create the viewports. For each viewport, set the viewport type in the viewport properties (either Plan or Profile). Civil 3D uses this to determine which viewport will be used for the plan view and which for the profile view. Also set the Annotation Scale for the viewport.

Create attributes for the fields you want to have update automatically in the Title Block, using the attdef command.

Define the Tag and Prompt, but for the Default value, click on the Insert Field button.

In the Field dialog, select SheetSet as the field category. You could use any other field type as well if you wish. Select the field you want to insert – for example, pick CurrentSheetSetProjectName for the Project Name. If the field you want is not listed - in this case we want a Client Name field – then select CurrentSheetSetCustom, and create a Custom Property Name.

Add the attribute to the drawing frame, as below..

Save the drawing as an AutoCAD drawing template (.dwt).

When you create sheets using the Plan Production tools in Civil 3D, select the appropriate template…

During the Create Sheets phase, define the Sheet Set name and location.

Initially the fields may not be populated.

From Sheet Set Manager, click on Properties….

Add the properties required to the Sheet Set…

For any Custom Properties you defined, click on the Edit Custom Properties button. Add the custom properties using the same names that were used in the template.

The updatefield command can be used to update any fields in the drawing.

If you are using the FREE Google SketchUP version on a daily basis and and you do consider yourself a PRO user then you should perhaps consider upgrading to PRO. That is if you depend on CAD products in your daily work and currently use the Free version to import .DWG/.DXF files. Google has decided to make the trade off as there are just too many fiddly settings on both sides of the file exchange to get  everything working just right.

Google SketchUP have announced the new release will not support the .DWG/.DXF Import facility within the FREE version. Their Pick for the new format is COLLADA. COLLADA is a COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an open standard digital asset schema for interactive 3D applications. You can read more on this topic if you follow this link: https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/COLLADA 

I have been following the blog since their announcement and there are many that disagree with their move, but equally as many that agree and seem to think they are heading in the right direction. I suspect we will see SketchUp move into some areas like GAMING as COLLADA supports Kinematics that allot of 3DS MAX and MAYA users already use.

To read the full Google SketchUp article you can follow this link: http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2009/08/coming-soon-in-google-sketchup.html