We held our Structural User’s forum last Friday at ARUP’s offices in central London which was very well attended by a wide range of our customers, and I have to say, was the perfect location for our event.

Nigel Rees and Peter Debney from Oasys kicked off our series of presentations with an in depth look at OASYS structural software solutions. Oasys Limited is the software house of ARUP and has been established since 1976 and are committed to providing high quality software and support.

Ralph Pullenger of Autodesk then gave a great presentation on the new and improved features of both Revit Structure 2011 and Autodesk Robot Structural analysis.

Alpesh Patel then gave the group a fascinating insight into some of the major projects that he has worked on and discussed the challenges and solutions to some analysis problems and 3D modelling challenges that he faced.

After lunch I showed some of the new subscription tools for Revit Structure including the Frame Generator.

Mike Hacker from Waterman Group then gave us a run through on his experiences with Revit Structure and again showed some fantastic structures that had been modelled and in particular showed how he had set up templates and family files to Waterman standards.

Ralph was up next to show how you can use AutoCAD Structural detailing to generate 2D RC drawings and how ASD links to Revit Structure and Robot.

It was then the turn of Pierre Vogal, one of our civil application specialists, who then showed how to create surfaces in AutoCAD Civil3D and then how to import these surfaces into Revit Structure.

The last presentation was conducted by myself and Johnathan Ward and focussed on tips and tricks whilst using Revit Structure.

The day was rounded off with some interactive conversations and ideas for future events.

A good time was had by all!

LawrenceH

Made specifically for P&ID process plant designers and engineers, AutoCAD® P&ID software enables faster and more efficient creation, manipulation, and revisions to P&ID drawings.

1. Industry-standard P&ID symbols

AutoCAD P&ID includes complete P&ID symbol libraries conforming to standards for PIP, ISA, JIS, and ISO/DIN. Easy-to-use tool palettes provide quick access to equipment, lines, and components needed to create P&ID drawings.

2. Easy-to-learn interface

AutoCAD P&ID is built on the most up-to-date version of AutoCAD® software and leverages standard AutoCAD features. The AutoCAD P&ID interface enhancements allow quick start-up time and increased productivity with little to no training. If you know AutoCAD, learning AutoCAD P&ID is easy and maintenance doesn’t require complex IT support.

3. Dynamic process and signal lines

Easy-to-draw process lines automatically snap to equipment connection points and intelligently reroute when connected equipment is moved. Lines automatically break and mend as components are attached or removed. Intuitive edit control grips make editing lines quick and easy.

4. Dynamic components

AutoCAD P&ID provides industry standard components that can be edited and moved using intuitive control grips. Components automatically align and snap into location when placed on process lines. When a process or signal line is moved or edited, components stick with the line, maintaining the right order, orientation, and relationship to the line.

5. Easy symbol creation and substitution

AutoCAD P&ID lets you customize and convert a group of geometric shapes or lines into distinct components or equipment to meet your company standards. Add new symbols to the project symbol library to increase drawing consistency within the organization. Substitute an existing drawing symbol with a new, similar symbol with a single click.

6. Report and list generation

The AutoCAD P&ID Data Manager feature makes it easy to generate, view, and print a variety of common reports for all drawings in a project. Reports include Instrument Lists, Line Lists, Equipment Lists, and Valve Lists. Use AutoCAD P&ID to create and customize these reports.

7. Import and export to Microsoft Excel

Many engineering teams across disciplines provide input on the information contained in the P&ID drawings. Share drawing data with other teams by exporting the drawing or project data to Microsoft Excel and then importing the updated information back into the drawings. Electronically transmit P&ID drawing files containing embedded information without the need to query and filter data from a database.

8. Review and approve data edits

AutoCAD P&ID makes it easy to identify all changes submitted when data is imported from Excel. Click on changes in the Data Manager to highlight both the suggested change and to display the relevant part of the drawing. Changes can be accepted or rejected individually or in groups―a feature that helps manage revisions made externally and maintains the integrity of the drawing files.

9. Tag generation and uniqueness

As you add objects to a drawing, AutoCAD P&ID maintains the uniqueness of the object across all drawings in the project, which helps prevent users from purchasing the same plant asset multiple times. Enter associated data properties for all symbols and drawing elements at any time throughout the project.

10. Search and edit using a spreadsheet interface

The Data Manager functionality―a dedicated utility within AutoCAD P&ID―applies a spreadsheet interface to all the objects on a drawing. Use the Data Manager to sort, filter, and find components in P&ID drawings and quickly enter data properties specific to those objects. Line numbers, component values, and other data edited in the Data Manager are instantly updated in your P&ID drawings. Zooming features within Data Manager instantly zoom your drawing window to the appropriate drawing object or record in the Data Manager.

A couple of weeks back I blogged about the continued connectivity between Autodesk 2011 products (click the link if you missed this!) http://www.technology4design.com/?p=805. To further expand on this I wanted to take a look at the adsk file transfer from Inventor 2011 to Revit MEP 2011. The model below has been designed within Inventor and contains a huge number of components (2740 parts!) with a high level of detail. This is great for digital prototyping and manufacture but not so good for AutoCAD and Revit MEP as the model would be far too complex.

The first stage is to run the Inventor assembly through the shrinkwrap process. This will remove all components of a certain size and cap holes within the limits you specify. Inventor will then create a single part which remains linked back to the assembly so the shrinkwrapped file can update if your design changes.

Once this is done we then use the AEC Exchange tools within Inventor to prepare the model for consumption in Revit MEP. Inventor can output files to Revit Architecture, Structure and MEP and also AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.

Within the AEC Exchange tools you define your various connectors such as pipe, duct, Cable tray etc. You also specify the component type and information that you want to transfer to Revit MEP.

The model is then transfered as an adsk file. Notice that all the materials have been mapped from Inventor to Revit using the new Autodesk Materials library. I have then used the compoent tool in Revit MEP to place the Chiller on the Roof as shown below. This is an exciting workflow which will enable manufactures to publish models quickly and effectively and start to create a large library of up to date equipment for Revit and AutoCAD MEP.

The next blog will outline transfers to Civil3D.

Lawrence

As part of a planned series of User Groups and technical Forums, Excitech held an Infrastructure User Group meeting in Enfield on May 11th, 2010.

The purpose of the User Group was to bring together engineers and technicians who work in Infrastructure Design in order to show the latest software solutions and for everyone to share their experience of using the solutions in practice.

The day was kicked off with an overview of the latest 2011 versions of AutoCAD Map 3D and Civil 3D, with Jack Strongitharm of Autodesk showing off his Civil 3D skills once again!

Robert Issott of Arups presented the user case study, and judging from the feedback we received everyone was really impressed with what he has been doing with Civil 3D.

Particularly impressive was the Bradford Mirror Pool project which shows just how versatile Civil 3D can be with a bit of lateral thinking. Our thanks to Robert for stepping up to the mark to give this presentation.

We finished the morning off with a look at some complementary solutions, such as Autodesk Dynamite VSP, Navisworks and the Civil 3D bridge modelling toolkit.  Steve Rudge, who has recently joined Excitech as our Senior Consultant for MEP and Plant solutions, gave an overview of Plant in the Environment using Plant 3D. This was an excellent presentation and served to highlight the fact that there are other solutions that could be considered for designing utility plant in conjunction with Civil 3D.

After a brief lunch, we started the afternoon with a look at Autodesk LandXplorer, a great product which entered the Autodesk portfolio last year, and is used for developing and presenting Digital City models

.

Lawrence Hooker, our resident structural and mechanical guru gave another great presentation on Collaboration and Design Data workflow. Here he looked at how we can better integrate some of the Autodesk products, sharing data between Civil 3D and Revit, and Civil 3D and Inventor.

Jack Strongitharm once again took the stage with some really useful Tips and Tricks, showing how Civil 3D can link dynamically with MX using the Genio import/export tool and data shortcuts. He then showed off the new borehole import tool, and ended with a look at creating surfaces for visualisation.

After coffee it was the turn of Pierre Vogel, one of our Application Specialists, who showed off his expertise in Civil 3D and all things Google. He showed us how to use Google Earth with Civil 3D, exporting Civil models and importing Google Earth images and surfaces. He followed that up with a stunning presentation on using Google Earth as a mapping and GIS tool, which really showed what can be achieved with this free mapping service.

To round the day off there was a brief discussion and feedback session, where we discussed what was shown and what users would like to see in the next event.

I’d like to thank everyone who take time out of their busy schedules to attend this event. I hope that you found the day interesting and worthwhile, and we look forward to seeing you all again at the next one.

Excitech held their MEP Solutions forum at Arup’s offices in London yesterday and were delighted with the turnout and level of participation from those who attended.

The day started with some networking and then commenced with an overview of the new functionality in the 2011 versions of the Autodesk solutions for building services design, AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP.  This was followed by a session delivered by Dave Shepherd of Excitech that focussed on the best practices for modelling for thermal analysis in Revit MEP.  The next session saw SOLAR-UK introduce their impressive integrated design calculation software for AutoCAD MEP, which was extremely well received.  Following this, we had Autodesk present a session on their strategy for identifying and developing content for their MEP solutions; as well as a session on the use of Revit MEP for electrical design and production in the UK using the new functionality and an explanation of some of the settings required to ensure relevance to UK standards.

After a networking lunch, the afternoon kicked off with a presentation on the management of large collaborative projects to BS1192:2007 by Steve Rudge of Excitech.  This was followed by an overview of the EastCoast fabrication module for Revit MEP and a call for volunteers to participate in their summer beta testing programme.  The penultimate presentation of the day was a fantastic insight into the challenges of implementing Revit by the team at Scott Wilson; and this included some examples of projects they had used to pioneer the delivery of comprehensive integrated projects.

The feedback from the day was fantastic and the group continued their ‘networking’ afterwards in the pub for several hours!  I’d like to thank Arup for providing such an excellent venue, all the presenters for their valuable contribution and of course, to everyone that participated for making it such a worthwhile day!

The “It’s alive in the lab” team have just updated their Solar radiation technolgy preview to take advantage of the new Revit 2011 API features. I’m off to download it now. Follow the link for more information

http://labs.blogs.com/its_alive_in_the_lab/2010/05/solar-radiation-technology-preview-for-revit-2011-now-available.html

Welcome to this new section on the Excitech Consultant’s blog, for those active in design of process and plant systems.

Despite the coincidental timing of the UK general election, yesterday saw an excellent turn-out at the Excitech Revit Architecture Forum, which was held at the America Square Conference Centre in London.  This proved to be an excellent venue and the day was packed with a mixture of technical sessions, case studies and plenty of networking.

Angus Brown of FBM and Dave Light of HOK both presented excellent case studies on the advanced use of Revit in the architectural space. Simon Gillis of Autodesk presented on the merits of the Revit platform for sustainable design and renovation, which included a look at Autodesk ImageModeler and some examples of point cloud data being integrated from laser surveys.  There was also a session on the use of design brief data within the Revit environment and Peter Mann introduced the new Codebook integration while Johnathan Ward of Excitech provided an overview of the ADB interface for Revit.

I’d like to thank everyone that attended and contributed to make this day such a success; and in particular the guest speakers who gave up their time to share their experiences with the software!

In case you’ve missed it, Autodesk have now released a Design Visualisation solution for Civil 3D. The solution is available for download from the Autodesk Subscription Centre and is based on Dynamite VSP and 3D Studio Max Design. If you have either Civil 3D or 3D Studio Max Design on subscription then you are entitled to download the solution for free. If you have Civil 3D but not Max Design and you want to give it a try then you can download a 30 day trial.

Dynamite VSP is a plug-in for 3D Studio Max Design 2010 (32-bit only) or 2011 (32 or 64 bit), and will enable you to bring in Civil 3D design information to quickly create a model in Max Design. The solution comes with an exporting tool (Autodesk® Dynamite VSP Exporter for AutoCAD Civil 3D) that plugs into Civil 3D and exports model data in a more efficient way than linking in drawings. Using Dynamite VSP you can configure which data is needed for your model (alignments, corridor feature lines, surfaces etc) and create it with automatic assignment of materials. Aerial images can be draped onto surfaces to give the model real-world context. Additional tools quickly populate the model with road markings, road signs and gantries, street furniture, barriers, vegetation and even custom structures such as bridge decks. Vehicles can be added to the model with the ability to include random vehicles and colours, and these can be animated to drive along the roads. Traffic flow data can also be imported and used to control the vehicle movements.

Should the Civil 3D model need to be changed, it can be re-exported to the same link file and the model in 3DS Max Design will be able to update automatically without the need to delete and recreate anything. Dynamite VSP will automate the process of creating drive-through or fly-through animations, and of course because this is 3D Studio Max you can render your animation to an extremely high quality.

What I like best about this solution is you don’t need to be a 3D Studio guru to create stunning visualisations – and you won’t be spending weeks doing it either – this is fast!