text:
January / February 2011 issue
January/February 2011 Also in this issue: A Q&A with David Harrington, AUGI President n Bootstrap Your AutoCAD Deployments n The Art of Sharing with eTransmit n Spaces in AutoCAD Architecture n Wood Framing Walls TableContents of Autodesk QTO � The Best Little Program You Aren't Using! 12 3 6 Editorial Editor in Chief David Harrington firstname.lastname@example.com Copy Editor Marilyn Law email@example.com Contributing Authors AutoCAD Jeff Bartels AutoCAD R. Robert Bell AutoCAD Architecture Melinda Heavrin AutoCAD Ron Lohan AutoCAD Beth Powell AutoCAD Civil 3D Christopher Fugitt Autodesk QTO Judah Jackson Autodesk Revit Architecture Felix Gonzalez Autodesk Revit Structure Phil Russo Building Information Modeling Todd Shackelford Building Information Modeling Darren Young Human Resources Tom Cipolla Art & Production Debby Gwaltney firstname.lastname@example.com Submissions We encourage prospective authors to contact our editors or publications@ augi.com to discuss article submissions, guidelines and processes. Advertising email@example.com AUGI Board of Directors, 2011 Bill Adams R. Robert Bell Shaun Bryant Donnie Gladfelter David Harrington Peter Jamtgaard Paul Kirill Melanie Perry Scott Wilcox AUGI Officers, 2011 David Harrington, President Bill Adams, Senior Vice President Peter Jamtgaard, Vice President Paul Kirill, Treasurer Melanie Perry, Secretary � Copyright 2011 � Autodesk User Group International. All rights reserved. Feature 22 26 AUGIWorld Q&A Big Room Drawing Health Bootstrap Your AutoCAD Deployments A BIM-less World The Art of Sharing with eTransmit One Man Shop: Consulting vs. Freelancing, Part Two Planned Plotting AutoCAD's Annotative (Adaptive Attitude; Leave Your Comfort Zone!) What's the Point of this Roof? Wood Framing Walls Own the Interface Spaces in AutoCAD Architecture 9 14 16 28 30 20 34 36 2 w w w. A U G I . c o m with David Harrington InJanuary,DavidHarringtontooktheleadasAUGI'snew president.Along-timeAUGIchampionandvolunteer,heplansto hitthegroundrunningwithaclearlistofobjectivesandavision forachievingthem.InthisAUGIWorldQ&A,Daviddescribesthe improvementsthatAUGImemberswillseein2011. I'mguessingthatmostAUGImembersareinterestedinmovingAUGI forward. Describe your top three (ormore)goalsfortheorganization in2011. This isn't your first stint at the AUGIhelm.Youservedaspresident in1999aswell.Besidestheobvious change in number of members, whatotherchangesdoyounotein themembershiptodaycomparedto adozenyearsago? We now have a more robust content management system (CMS), which allows us to better organize all of the information that is added to the website. We have a new component called the Library--a warehouse for articles published in AUGI media including AUGI AEC|Edge, AUGIWorld, and AUGI HotNews. This has great potential for members to really contribute to the masses. Not only can someone write and be published in a digital magazine, but also that content will have a life beyond that issue via HTML within the Library. AUGIWorld Q&A Well certainly a biggie is stability and growth in the website. With the new website and forums we have experienced some growing pains as we moved to a more robust content management system. Next for me is community, in all aspects. We know that members like to "group" into smaller common areas of interest. Some areas of interest are country specific, others locally focused, and others industry and product. I would love to see each unique grouping be empowered to do not only what they want, but also what helps one another. Lastly is the AUGI Volunteer Core. Did you know that nearly 100 volunteers are involved in all the work we do? From authoring, to moderating, to management, there are many opportunities to improve and grow. Frankly, in some ways the top level of AUGI management needs to properly empower and support the volunteer level and then "get out of the way." They know what they need to do and just need to be properly missioned to do it. Yeah, that is a flashback! There is almost nothing the same as before. Back then, Autodesk had a fully staffed department led by Lynn Allen. That staff was the muscle behind the curtain, making things happen for the organization. The membership itself is certainly different as well. Previously it was the annual event (AU) that drove membership numbers. The website was just a way to join and get information about AUGI. Now the forums contain most of the dayto-day activity, but we hope to increase other channels in 2011. Whatareyouplanstoincreasethe membershipin2011if,infact,that's onyourlistofthingstodo? AUGI recently revamped its website.Itclearlyhasanew"look,"but whatelseisnewaboutit?Whatimprovementshavebeenmadetothe underlying technology? What are somewebsitefeaturesthatweren't ontheoldsite? I'm a big believer in not targeting membership numbers. The membership numbers will be what the infrastructure of the organization will support. For example, if we had only ever made one forum for AutoCAD, it would be full of AutoCAD users and no others. Plus it would eventually reach a comfort level of activity. People join because they find value in membership. We have to provide that value by developing content and networking opportunities for each member. If we do that right, membership will increase accordingly. 3 Jan/Feb 2011 TowhatextentwillAUGItakeadvantageofsocialand/orprofessional networking such as Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn? We are currently providing many of those channels for our membership. We look to expand those in 2011 by keeping a close eye on this area for emerging channels so that we can ride the next wave. AUGI will work with the channels to provide the best value to our membership while maintaining the high standard of integrity our membership expects. Does AUGI have plans to refurbish long-time programs such as the Wish List and the AUGI Training Program (ATP)? What aboutothers? Yes, this is an area dear to my heart. The biggest change planned so far is that AUGI | AEC EDGE is increasing to bi-monthly publication. The tools used in the AEC industry have seen resurgence in recent years so there is a lot of interest and a lot to "say" by members. Now the other industries have been busy as well and as soon as we can find the authors we will produce special edition titles for Civil and Manufacturing. Now for AUGI HotNews. Functionally it is staying the same but the method to produce it has been dramatically changed. The addition of the Library has had a great impact on AUGI publications. even on these events. We are working on a model that will accomplish both and we hope to have some CAD Camps in 2011. Stay tuned! Change is often painful and AUGI hasundergonesomechangesinthe last year or two that have been, well, unpleasant at times. Clearly, theorganizationhasweatheredthe storm,butwhatdidyoupersonally learnfromtheconflict? We do have a number of programs, so let me stick to the ones you quoted. The Wish List System (WLS) will be totally revamped from what we had before. Not only will we be expanding to many, if not all, products, but the member interaction with the WLS will be much more lively and have immediate feedback. The quick answer for the AUGI Training Program (ATP) is that we plan to have at least one semester of classes. All of our programs require volunteers. The more volunteers we have, the more comprehensive our programs can be. In the case of the ATP, if we have more instructors, we can run more classes. Reflectingbackonthemostrecent Autodesk University, are there plans to make substantial changes to any AUGI-themed activities at the2011event? AU 2011 already? I haven't even gotten over the last one! I don't know if huge changes would be expected but we will certainly try to improve as always. We had changes this year as the HotNews Daily was not produced in paper and put out by email or web. Personally that probably should go back to paper to really serve the attendees it is created for. The Annual Meeting will be similar but might be a bit more *something* and I expect the AUGI booth to be very much the same. Oh yes, it has been painful at times. But you work through it because you see the vision on the other side. Personally, I have seen that many members cannot get too much information. I have seen a lack of information be met with negativity. But once fully informed, members understand why we do what we do and generally agree. So I'll work to help the Board be more open publically, but certainly will continue to personally be available to members who seek me out. Anythingyou'dliketoadd? Therehasbeentalkaboutchanges inAUGIpublicationslately.What will happen in 2011 with AUGIWorld, AUGI | AEC Edge, and AUGI HotNews? Are there plans to produce more magazines/newsletters in2011? Trying to get AUGI CAD Camp running again has been daunting, with some locations attracting muchlargergroupsthanothers.Are there plans to host AUGI CAD Campagainin2011and,ifso,what willAUGIdodifferently? I'd like to address the members directly. Why am I here? Simple� to help the organization at the highest level. You, the member, can help as well. There are many areas in which you can contribute to your organization--from authoring for a publication, teaching an ATP class, posting regularly in the AUGI Forums, or even helping as a program volunteer. The point is to do something, and you will find it has rewards for you personally and helps your fellow members. Take care, David Harrington AUGI President Our 2010 experience has proven if you build it, they still may not come. We find CAD Camps to be an exciting and enriching experience for our members. However, in this economy it is difficult to break w w w. A U G I . c o m 4 "What knocks me over about Siteworks: It creates roads, curbs and sidewalks by drawing single lines. This has been a toolset I have been looking for since 2001. Just that one feature alone is worth the purchase and why we became an Eagle Point Channel Partner." - Cyril Verley, RA, President CDV Systems, Inc. | Eagle Point Channel Partner Streets | Curbs | Parking Lots | Sidewalks | Berms | Retaining Walls | Building Pads SiteworksTM for Revit� provides architecture firms tremendous time savings when developing the preliminary building site design: � Shape the terrain with building pads, parking lots, streets, curbs, sidewalks, and retaining walls inside Revit. � Visualize the building site and quickly iterate through alternate concepts. � Convey design intent and facilitate collaboration with all project stakeholders including owners and engineers. Click here or call 800-678-6565 to learn more. "We're looking to Siteworks and LandCADD to smooth the transition to Revit and help us tap into the power of information modeling for all of our projects." - Matt Snelling, Senior Associate Landscape Architect HOK Toll-free 800-678-6565 � Phone 563-556-8392 � Fax 563-556-5321 � 4131 Westmark Drive � Dubuque, IA 52002-2627 � www.eaglepoint.com � firstname.lastname@example.com Big Room Drawing Health In this article, I'm going to describe a CAD management issue. Unlike most articles, I'm not going to just describe the problem and what needs to be done to correct it. Instead, I'm going to walk you through what I did, the order in which I didit,andevendescriberevisitingandredoing a working solution I found. You'll alsoseewhatobstaclesIencounteredand howIovercamethem. The rationale for approaching the articleinthismanneristonotjustdescribe a problem and solution, but also to shed lightonawayofapproachingthisorany problem because, let's face it, our problems and situations are always different andoftenrequiredifferentsolutions. shoulderedtheburdenoffilemanagement forthemsotheycouldfocusondesignor coordination.Orperhapsit'sjustaproject partnerwhousesathirdparty-application thatdoesn'tmeshwellwiththethird-partyapplicationsusedintheproject. This can lead to drawings becoming contaminated with things such as excess Registered Applications (RegApps) or ScaleList entries simply by Xrefing the dataofotherslive.Theysavetheirdrawingandsuddenlyyougofroma30second open/save to 10 minutes, simply because you referenced their drawing that has a half-million excess Regapps. And now yourdrawingiscontaminatedaswell. Recreate what works One big happy The elephant in the room The industry is full of buzzwords, one of which is "collaboration." A trend among a lot of larger construction jobs is the "Big Room" concept, otherwise knownas Co-Location,where staff from most major project participants share a commonoffice. Heremorethananywhere,peopleoften buyintotheconceptofeveryoneworking together in a collaborative environment. This is a great thing but can often have some undesired consequences. One such consequence is the concept of a shared server,oftenprovidedbythegeneralcontractor,owner,orarchitect.Here,allprojectparticipantspostorevenworkontheir drawingslive. Thissoundsgreatuntilyourealizethat the small specialty sub who has never done CAD or BIM before doesn't understandtheimportanceofpurgingdrawings. Or perhaps it's even the larger firm, very experienced, but whose staff is now isolated from their CAD/BIM manager who 6 Autodesk has a couple of utilities, CleanupRegAppandCleanupScales,that perform cleanup operations on DWG files. When manually running these utilities, an analysis of the reports often shows the issues are with the drawings of project partners who are co-located butnotthoseoffsite.Thisleadsmetobelieve that firms working off-site (just as we do) download project data andclean itpriortodistributingtotheirstaff(they consumecleandata).Whenit'sreadyto beshared,it'sagaincleanedbeforebeing senttoprojectparticipants(theydistributecleandata). Because this type of cleaning is often done by a CAD/BIM manager, it usually doesn't happen in a co-located environmentunlesssomeonelikethegeneralcontractor is performing this type of CAD/ BIMadministration.Oftentheyarereluctant(andforgoodreason),totakethelibertytocleanotherfirms'dataintheevent somethinginadvertentlychanges. Tocombatthisissue,Icanrecreatethe isolatedenvironmentwithintheco-located office with my own server, dedicated desktop, or even production system at night.Thefirststepwastostopusingthe sharedserverforproductionwork.There areseveralutilitiesandtechnologiesavailable to do this. One of the cheapest and simplest is a free utility from Microsoft called RoboCopy. This utility can sync a file structure from one server to another. RoboCopyisacommandlineutilitymakingittheperfecttoolforanold-styleDOS batch file, which we can easily schedule usingWindow'sbuilt-intaskscheduler.I won't get into all the details and options available with Robocopy, but in its simplest form the following code will mirror onefolderstructuretoanother. robocopy.exe "S:\Source" "D:\Destination" *.* /MIR Using Robocopy from a nightly scheduled task, the data everyone else posts throughout the day is copied to a semiisolated environment controlled by us for our staff's use. There are cases where something gets posted that you need immediate access to, but that's the beauty of a co-located environment--the person whohasjustpostedthedatayouaskedfor caneasilyletyouknow,andyounowmanuallycopythatdatatoyoursemi-isolated environmentasanexceptiontotherule. The cleanup... Now that we're utilizing the data in a semi-isolated way, we might as well run Autodesk'sCleanupRegappandCleanupScalesutilities.Whileyoucouldrunthem manually,you'llhavetodoitrepeatedlyto w w w. A U G I . c o m catch new/changed files that are synced with your semi-isolated environment. Readingthehelpfilethatcomeswiththe utilities,itbecomesclearwecanrunboth of these utilities from a DOS command line, which allows us to include them in thesamebatchfilerunningourRoboCopy syncnightly. c: cd\ cd "Program Files\AutoCAD MEP 2011" CleanupRegapp.exe /c "D:\Destination" CleanupScales.exe /c "D:\Destination" When running these utilities from a batchfile,theyusethedefaultorlastused settings of the utilities. You can manually run these tools to set things like "Include Xrefs"oryoucouldchangethembyediting theminthefollowingregistrykeys HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\CleanupRegapp\Settings HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\CleanupScales\Settings Youcouldevenimporttheregistrysettingswithinyourbatchfilebyimportinga REG file you've previously exported from theregistry. regedit.exe /s "C:\Cleanup.REg" ...and then the roadblock Now that we're utilizing the data in a semi-isolatedenvironment,wealsogetthe opportunity to clean it prior to our use. However, we hit a snag. We've manually runtheseutilitiestotestourprocesswithout a problem. However, when running themfromabatchfile,somedataproduces astrangeerrorandhaltstheoperation. Here's where I call upon Subscription Support, knowing full well these are free utilities and likely "unsupported." I don't' expectsupport,butItryanyway. The person from Subscription Support can'tgetthecommandstorun,butit'sclear he'stalkingabouttheAutoCADcommand lineratherthanaDOScommandline,soI explain.I'mthentoldtheycan'thelpwhen usingtheminanon-intendedway.Ipoint out that it is intended functionality and point them to the help file. This process continues,andcontinues.Maybeyoursyntaxiswrong(ifitwerewrong,nonewould work, not some). You're running the 32bit version utilities on a 64-bit version of AutoCAD�(doingthisyieldsacompletely differenterror),andsoon.Irepeatedlykeep challengingthesolutionsandexplanations. Finally,thereplyIwasexpecting:It'syour Jan/Feb 2011 data.Thesetoolsaren'tpartofSubscription Supportanyway. We'renotdonehere.Okay,thesoftware "is" on subscription support and I can't argue that the tools aren't supported, so I askthemtotellmehowtomakethesoftwareworktonotcreatethe"bad"datain thefirstplace.Ialsoaskwhy,ifthedatais bad,thetoolsworkmanuallyfromtheuser interfaceandnotaDOSbatchfileandwhy isitjustnotmydata,butrandomdataon thefilesof20differenttradepartners.Ialso leverage the miscommunication earlier to suggest that perhaps a different support personwouldbemoreknowledgeableand requestassistancefromsomeoneelse. I've previously worked for an Autodesk resellerdoingsupportsoIknowhowtough it is--you can't recreate the environment the person likely hadn't told you everything, etc. The point here is to keep challenging them with "reasonable" questions. Don't just accept the first answer you're given. In the end, this process lasted over a month with several emails and finally a reasonablesolution(whichI'llcoverlater). Youhavea30percentchanceofgetting a different treatment option or diagnosis bygettingasecondopinioninhealthcare, whynottryitthisapproachwithtechsupport? Keep in mind, good support means youshouldunderstandandagreewiththe answer...even if you don't like it. I didn't challengetheinformationIwasgivenjust becauseIdidn'tlikeit.Ichallengedbecause Isawholesintheirlogic. tellittorunaprogram,then"wait"foradialogwithaparticulartitle.Thenitseesadialogwiththespecifiedtitle,youtellittoclick thebuttonwithaparticulartextstring.In mycaseItellittowaituntilthedialogwith thetitle"RegappIDCleanupUtility"exists, thenclickthe"SelectFiles"button.Ittooka littlecoaxingtogeteverythingjustright,but itworkedflawlessly....almost. Roadblock number two The detour Every roadblock usually has a detour. BecauseIcouldn'tcountonasolutionfrom Autodesk(perhapsitwouldbeabugthat hadnosolution),Icontinueddownaparallelpathofoptionswhilestillchallenging SubscriptionSupport. The obvious thing is that the utilities worked manually through the interface, butnotfromabatchfile.Soitseemedlogicaltoautomatethegraphicaluserinterface. Butisthatevenpossible?Absolutely!Iused a great little utility called WinBatch from Wilson WindowWare (http://www.winbatch.com). This utility has been around for years andisdesignedtoautomateWindows,includingdialogboxes.WinBatchcostsonly $99foraversionthatdoesn'tcompiletoan executable. It also has a 30-day trial with a 90-day money-back guarantee so I can makesureitworksbeforeIbuyit.Aquick install of the trial version quickly showed promising results once overcoming the shortlearningcurve. WinBatchcanautomatedialogsbyusing a scripting language. In this language, you While the CleanupRegApp Utility workedfine,theCleanupScalesutilityhita snag.WinBatchlooksfordialogswithcertaintitles.Whentheutilitiesrun,there'sa dialog that shows the progress, and when finished,aseconddialogthattellsyouit's doneandwherethelogfileiscreated.Those lasttwodialogsintheRegApputilityhave different titles so I can tell WinBatch to waitfortheproperdialogandcloseit.But thelasttwodialogsintheScaleListutility havethesametitlesoWinBatchcan'tdistinguishbetweenthetwo. TheseutilitiescomewithanEXEanda DLL. Doing a text search on the EXE and DLLforthetitletextofthedialogsshows that it exists in the DLL--that's where thosedialogsaredefined.Evenabinaryfile likeaDLLcontainssomereadabletext. To edit a binary file, a Hex (short for Hexidecimal) editor is needed. You can find free/shareware/commercial versions allovertheInternet.WhileIdon'tunderstand what I'm looking at, I can find the textstringofthedialogtitle.Becausetwo dialogs have the same text, I'm assuming the last dialog the utility displays would belastintheDLLfilesoImodifythetext tosomethingunique.Runningtheutilities againmanuallyshowsmygamblepaidoff. Now WinBatch can determine when that lastdialogisdisplayedanddismissit. Persistence pays off Now everything is in place and working properly. The data our staff consumes is copied to our environment nightly and cleanedbeforebeingconsumedthefollowing day. I could (and do) even clean our own created data this way. I could (and alsodo)usethesameRoboCopyutilityto copy our data back to the co-located offices shared server for others to consume. I'mnowconsumingandpostingcleandata whichultimatelyIfeelit'sourresponsibilitytodo. Despiteeverythingworking,IkeephasslingAutodeskSubscriptionSupport.Not because I'm difficult, but because there's likely a simpler solution and because I trulybelieveit'sabugintheirutilitythat should be corrected in the future. Persistencepaysoff. 7 Subscription Support has a different technicianonthecase.Thistime,myargumentsstuckwithhimasheunderstoodmy observations and took a personal interest infindingtheproblem.Itseemsthatsome of the data contained custom objects that causedtheutilitytoloadanincorrectDBX. Thesolutionwasassimpleasrenamingthe DBXbeforecallingtheutilities,andrenamingitbackwhenfinishedrunning. c: cd\ cd "Program Files\AutoCAD MEP 2010" if exist "AecModeler60.dbx" rename "AecModeler60.dbx" "*.dbxSAVE" CleanupRegapp.exe /c "D:\Destimation" CleanupScales.exe /c "D:\Destimation" if exist "AecModeler60.dbxSAVE" rename "AecModeler60.dbxSAVE" "*.dbx" At this point I abandon the working WinBatch solution and opt for this more simplified solution, believing simpler is better.Toarriveatthispointtookseveral guessesaswellasgamblingonacoupleoptions.Italsotooknotsettlingonfailure.If youputyourmindtoit,theseseeminglybig obstaclescanoftenbeeasilyovercome. tionthanwasdescribedhere.Forinstance, thelogsgeneratedbytheCleanuputilities arerenamedaccordingtothedatetheyare run,soIcancheckresultsfromanynight. Thisprocessalsodoesn'tcleanthedrawingsofunpurgedblocks,etc.This,aswell asmyprocess,couldhavebeendonewith anAutoCADscriptfile,butScriptfilesarea littlemorefinicky,nottomentionthelarge volumeoffilescouldn'tbeprocessednightly.EventheScaleListsnowhaveavariable inAutoCADthathelpsausercontroland limitthemsothispiececouldbeleftoutif needed.Otherthingssuchasexcesslayers, materials,andblockscanautomaticallybe purged when users open a drawing using someAutoLISProutines.Therearealotof options available and what you should do reallyisdeterminedbyyourneeds. While this article isn't long enough to teach DOS batch file writing orWinBatch scripting, I will gladly share with yousimplifiedversionsofthefilesI'musingandattempttoexplainthemasbestI can.JustemailmeandI'llgladlyforward themyourway. CleanupRegapp Utility for AutoCAD 2010/2011 http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13723477&lin kID=9240618 CleanupScaleList Utility for AutoCAD 2010/2011 http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13723349&lin kID=9240618 CleanupRegapp Utility for AutoCAD 2009/2008 http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=11807875&lin kID=9240618 CleanupScales Utility for AutoCAD 2009/2008 http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=11062617&lin kID=9240618 Darren Young is the Systems Integration Manager for Southland Industries, a design-build mechanical contractor in Irvine, California. An Autodesk Registered Developer, Darren has been automating CAD systems in the Manufacturing and Construction industries for nearly two decades. Summary Ididn'tgetintoagreatdealofallthedetails,ratherjustadiscussiononthemajor points.There'salotmoretotheactualsolu- The #1 Book on AutoCAD� Is Now Available for Mac� Too! No need to struggle with learning all of the new features on your own, let AutoCAD expert and bestselling author George Omura show you everything you need to know to master AutoCAD� 2011 on a PC or a Mac. Click here to get more information and to purchase your copy now. MORE INFO >>> Sybex is a registered trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 8 w w w. A U G I . c o m Bootstrap Your AutoCAD Deployments ThepowerofAutoCAD�isdueinlarge parttoitscustomizability.Companiescan addfeaturesthatmakeAutoCADperform thetasksthatareimportanttothatorganization. These added customizations make thecompanymoreproductive,whichisimportantinanyeconomy. Thepriceofcustomizationincludesthe question, "How do we reliably roll out these customizations when we deploy a newversionofthesoftware?"Thisquestion hasthetendencytoforceorganizationsto delay deployments or skip releases due to theagonyofsupportingcustomizations. Forget about walking around with a DVD installing AutoCAD.Ifyouhaveanetwork andaservertherearedistinctadvantagestousingnetworklicensing,anddeploymentisahugereasonforselectingnetwork licensing. Network licensing groups all yourlicensesunderoneserialnumber.This immediatelysimplifiesdeploymentbecause deploymentsdonotneedtobecustomized formultipleserialnumbers. network) Deployaprofilethat"sees"thecustomizationsfirst � Deploy a shortcut that launches AutoCADusingtherequiredprofile Thisapproachprovides"warmfuzzies" because all the required components are all neatly packaged together. But there areissues. � Donotforgetthatthereisthesecondary installer � Thesecondaryinstalleriswheretheprofilesarecreated/stored � To launch AutoCAD with the correct profile the user must use the provide shortcuts It is possible to provide a complete experienceonlywhentheuseristhesoleindividual ever using the computer and the userdoesnotneedtobequicklyswapped tonewhardwareandtheuserlaunchedthe initial administrative deployment. This is askingfortoomuch. � Deploying customizations The deployment process AutoCAD requires administrator privilegesforinitialinstallation.Ifthatwasthe limitoftheinstallation,therewouldbelittleneedforthisarticle.Therearegoodtools fromavarietyofsourcesforperforminginstallation of software with administrator privileges. The issue with deploying AutoCAD is that the software also launches a secondaryinstallerforeachnew userattempting tousethesoftwareonaspecificworkstation.Thissecondaryinstalleristhesource ofheartacheformanycompaniescreatinga deploymentstrategy. The launch of the secondary installer is outofthehandsoftheCADmanagerand/ orITdepartment.Itcanoccuratanytime during the lifetime of the software on the workstation. It can occur multiple times foraspecificuseriftheyloginondifferent workstations. Yet this secondary installer creates files and registry information that is critical to the operation of AutoCAD. Many of the customizations of AutoCAD are stored in the user's profile by default in AutoCAD. This secondary installer is the monkey wrenchinthedeploymentprocess. Abootstrapprocessrecognizeswhenthe secondary installer has just been run and AutoCAD started in a default, out-of-thebox condition. It takes over at that point andimportstheneededprofilestosupport thecompany'scustomizations. Jan/Feb 2011 It is possible to create a deployment packagethatcontainsalltherequiredcustomizationsforacompany.However,there areissueswithsuchanapproachthatmay notbeimmediatelyobvious. Packaging a static set of customization may be performed using the network deployment wizard. Yet how much customization is truly static? Is it realistic to expect that a deployment package's customizationswillnotneedmodificationfor thelifeofthedeployment?That'sjustcrazy talk. It may provide a sense of security to provide all needed customizations in the deployment, but the management of the deployments will be significant. How will updates be provided when all customization is tied up in the deployment? How willthedeploymentpackagebeupdatedto reflectchangestocustomization?Theprocessofupdatingthe deployment packagealoneistedious enough to make another approach desirable. Typical customized deployment The typical deployment scenario isthis: � Make sure the customizations are available (locally or on the Figure 1: Support folder in %ProgramFiles% 9 Bootstrap deployments The less modification that needs to be made to the deployment the easier it will be to maintain over the long run. That is the essence of a bootstrap deployment of AutoCAD.Abootstrapcanbeperformedwith theadditionofasinglefiletothedeployment. The bootstrap avoids secondary installer issues. The bootstrap will recognizewhenitisrunninginasituation that appears to be the initial launch of AutoCAD for a new user. This means that the user does not need to use a provided shortcut to properly launch AutoCAD. If the user chooses to use the shortcut, that's fine. But if the user launchesAutoCADbysomeunexpected approach, the bootstrap will still providethecorrectexperience. The key to the bootstrap is to leverage the AutoCAD startup sequence. One of the first customized files that AutoCAD loads is Acad.lsp, a user-created file. This file will only execute once per AutoCAD session, when AutoCAD is configured by defaultwithAcadLspAsDoc=0asitshould be. Each folder specified in the AutoCAD searchpathischeckedforAcad.lspanditis automaticallyexecutedwhenfound. The default search path for AutoCAD includes %ProgramFiles%\ Autodesk\<AutoCAD>\Support(seeFigure1). Once the correct profile is loaded (see Bootstrap.lsp below) the search paths are changed so that the normal Acad.lsp file, locatedonthenetwork,isexecutedrather thantheoneneededbythebootstrap. Profiles should be created before deploymentandexportedfromAutoCADasARG files on the network to be used as part of thebootstrapprocess. "\n\nAutoCAD will be closed after dismissing this dialog box.")) (cond ((and (member "AutoCAD MEP (US Imperial)" allProfiles) (not (existProfile "Sparling MEP"))) (princ "\nExecuting Bootstrap.") ;; Add missing profiles (setq profPath "P:\\AutoCAD MEP 2011\\") (forceImport "Sparling MEP" (strcat profPath "Sparling MEP.arg") incPaths) (importProfile "Sparling MEP Metric" (strcat profPath "Sparling MEP Metric.arg") incPaths) (importProfile "ILAZ Legacy" (strcat profPath "ILAZ Legacy.arg") incPaths) (alert msgInfo) (command "._Quit")) ;; Vanilla AutoCAD deployments ((and (member "Initial Setup Profile" allProfiles) (not (existProfile "Sparling Vanilla"))) (princ "\nExecuting Bootstrap.") ;; Add missing profiles (setq profPath "P:\\AutoCAD 2011\\") (forceImport "Sparling Vanilla" (strcat profPath "Sparling Vanilla.arg") incPaths) (alert msgInfo) (command "._Quit"))) (princ) (load "P:\\Acad\\Code\\Utilities\\JTB Profiles") (setq allProfiles (getAllProfileNames)) Visual LISP profile functions Although you could spend time writing your own functions to control profiles, the code has already been written by Jimmy Bergmark of JTB World. His website contains many free examples of code that he has written. Visit http:// www.jtbworld.com Among the gems is some Visual LISP code for controlling AutoCAD profiles: http://www.jtbworld.com/lisp/profiles.htm Functions that are immediately useful include: getAllProfileNames returnsalistofprofiles inAutoCADforthe currentuser existProfile returnsTifaprofile exists importProfile importsaprofile forceImport importsaprofileand makesitcurrent Acad.lsp for starting the bootstrap The following is a line-by-line descriptionofthecode: LoadtheLSPfiledownloadedfromJTB Worldandstoredonthenetwork. UseafunctionfromJTBWorld'scodeto getalltheprofilesdefinedintheuser'sinstanceofAutoCAD. (setq incPaths 1) I advocate placing all customization on the network when possible. Therefore, the locally deployed Acad.lsp file placed in %ProgramFiles%\Autodesk\<AutoCAD>\ Support,shoulddonomorethanlocateanotherLSPfileonthenetworkandexecuteit. (setq fqn "P:\\AutoCAD MEP 2011\\Bootstrap. lsp") (cond ((findfile fqn) (princ "\nLoading bootstrap version of Acad.lsp... done.") (load fqn))) (princ) Profiles TheAutoCADprofilesplayanimportant roleinthepropersetupofAutoCAD.Itis easytocreateaprofileanddeployitviathe NetworkDeploymentWizard.Therealissueisthatyouhavenocontroloverhowthe userslaunchtheapplication. TheusersmaylaunchAutoCADforthe firsttimeusingseveralmethods: � Launch AutoCAD from the desktop shortcut provided by deployment (preferredsinceitwillusethecorrectprofile) � Launch AutoCAD from the Start menu which may have several options (bet theypickthewrongone) � Right-click on a DWG file and select theAutoCADDWGLauncher(allbets areoff) � Double-clickdirectlyonaDWGfile(did Imentionthebets?) Whatisreallyneededisawaytohave AutoCAD recognize, during the initial per-userlaunchofAutoCAD,thatthecorrect profile is not loaded or current. The powerofAutoCAD'scustomizabilityprovidesthesolution. 10 Defineaconstantthatmakeslatercode easiertoread. (setq msgInfo (strcat "Sparling's profiles have been imported." "\nAutoCAD must be restarted to update the support paths." "\n\nAutoCAD will be closed after dismissing this dialog box.")) (cond ((and (member "AutoCAD MEP (US Imperial)" allProfiles) (not (existProfile "Sparling MEP"))) (princ "\nExecuting Bootstrap.") The above code is straightforward. The firstlineisusedtodeclarethefullyqualified filename for the LSP file that is used to perform the bootstrap. The second line checks to see if the bootstrap file can be found.Ifso,thethirdlinepromptstheuser andthefourthlineloadsthefile.Thefinal lineisacleanexitfromAcad.lsp. Define a message used in multiple locationsinlatercode. Bootstrap.lsp The Bootstrap.lsp file performs the work of importing required profiles when AutoCADislaunchedwithoutusingtheprovideddesktopshortcuts.Thecodecanaccommodate multiple AutoCAD verticals in additiontovanillaAutoCAD,asshownbelow. (load "P:\\Acad\\Code\\Utilities\\JTB Profiles") (setq allProfiles (getAllProfileNames)) (setq incPaths 1) (setq msgInfo (strcat "Sparling's profiles have been imported." "\nAutoCAD must be restarted to update the support paths." This checks to see if AutoCAD MEP is the vertical version of AutoCAD that was launched. If so, then check if the primary profileisnotfound.Ifthetestspass,then provideamessagetotheuserthatthebootstrapisstarting. (setq profPath "P:\\AutoCAD MEP 2011\\") Definethepathwheretheexternalprofiles(ARGfiles)arestored. (forceImport "Sparling MEP" (strcat profPath "Sparling MEP.arg") incPaths) Use a function from JTB World's code toimportaprofileandmakeitcurrent,inw w w. A U G I . c o m cludingthepathsdefinedintheARGfile. (importProfile "Sparling MEP Metric" (strcat profPath "Sparling MEP Metric.arg") incPaths) UseafunctionfromJTBWorld'scodeto import a profile, but don't make it current andincludethepathsdefinedintheARGfile. Warn the user that AutoCAD will be closed because the new profile's changed support folders require AutoCAD to be relaunched. ((and (member "Initial Setup Profile" allProfiles) (not (existProfile "Sparling Vanilla"))) (princ "\nExecuting Bootstrap.") (alert msgInfo) CloseAutoCAD. (command "._Quit")) Figure 2: No default shortcuts on desktop This checks to see if vanilla AutoCADistheversionofAutoCADthat waslaunched.Ifso,thencheckiftheprimaryprofileisnotfound.Ifthetestspass, thenprovideamessagetotheuserthatthe bootstrapisstarting. Definethepathwheretheexternalprofiles(ARGfiles)arestored. (forceImport "Sparling Vanilla" (strcat profPath "Sparling Vanilla.arg") incPaths) (setq profPath "P:\\AutoCAD 2011\\") Use a function from JTB World's code toimportaprofileandmakeiscurrent,includingthepathsdefinedintheARGfile. Warn the user that AutoCAD will be closed because the new profile's changed supportfoldersrequireAutoCADtoberelaunched. (princ) (alert msgInfo) CloseAutoCAD. (command "._Quit"))) ProvideacleanexitfromBootstrap.lsp. Preventing bootstrap from executing After the correct AutoCAD profile is imported and set current there is no need to run the bootstrap again, unless the user's Windows profile has AutoCAD wiped from it. Preventing the bootstrap from runningissimplydonebymakingsurethatthe folders containing the necessary company customizations (including the "real" Acad. lsp file) are located before the default support folder in the AutoCAD support paths. AutoCADwillexecuteonlythefirstAcad.lsp filefound.Oncethecorrectprofileissetcurrent, AutoCADwillexecutetheAcad.lspfilelocatedonthenetworkratherthantheonelocated in %ProgramFiles%\Autodesk\<AutoCAD>\ Supportfromthedeployment. 1. Change the content packs to not install desktop shortcuts (see Figure 2). The hope is that the users may select the customized shortcuts on the desktop created in a later step. There is no need to provide the default profiles as desktop shortcuts unlessyouneedtoprovide access to those profiles for normal users which is atypical. The defaultprofilesarestill installed and can be launchedfromtheStart menu so there is little need for them on the desktopifyouaregoing touseyourownprofile. 2. AddAcad.lsptotheSupportfolder(seeFigure3). 3. Create custom desktop shortcuts that load the desired external profiles (see Figure 4). These are provided to give the users a way to launch AutoCAD with the correct profile, especially when multiple profiles may be required (such as Imperial or Metric.) These shortcuts will be installed to the %AllUsersProfile%\Desktop, which protects them fromaccidentaldeletionaslongastheusersarelimitedusers. users a seamless experience.Whenthebootstrap iscombinedwithlocating the user's customizations on the network the user no longer suffers as large aproductivityhitwhenhe orsheusesnewhardware. The bootstrap also makestheCADManager's and IT staff's life much easier because the complexity of dealing with thesecondaryinstallerhas beenmitigated. The bootstrap should make it easier to roll out newversionsofAutoCADinatimelymanner becauselesstimeneedstobespentconfiguringadeploymentapproach. Figure 3: Add Acad.lsp to deployment Figure 4: Create shortcuts for the desktop Conclusion Change the deployment with a wizard Jan/Feb 2011 Therearethreeareastochangeinthedeploymentpackage. Bootstrapping AutoCAD from the secondaryinstallerremovesagreatdealofthe complexity in deploying AutoCAD. The addition ofasingle filetothedeployment package can make deploying AutoCAD to R. Robert Bell works for Sparling in Seattle, Washington, USA, as Design Technology Manager. He has used AutoCAD since v2.18 (AutoLISP!). He has served on the AUGI Board of Directors. 11 Autodesk QTO � The Best Little Program You Aren't Using! Generally on any building project there software can cutthe amountoftime spent isafinelinethatisdrawnwhenitcomesto doingacountandtakeoffbymorethan60 technology.Ononeendofthespectrumyou percent,andtheaccuracyfactorisdramatihave architects and engineers who rely on callyincreasedaswell. technology to get their work done. On the WhatyouwillnoticefirstaboutQTOis otherendyouhavesubcontractorsandtrade thatitdoesn'trequireanyadditionalequipspecialists who use years of experience, menttouse.Someofthemorepopularoncommon-sense,andgoodjudgmenttoturn screentakeoffprogramscomebundledwith asetofplansintoalivingbreathingbuilding. digitizerpadsorrequirethepurchaseofinWhathasalwaysbeeninterestingtome teractive touch screen pen displays similar is that while those on the design portion totheWaacomCintiquetablets. oftheequationhavebeensodependenton WithQTOallyouneedisamonitorand technology to get their work done, those amouse.QTOisbuiltonAutodeskproprion the construction side of the equation etary DWF technology. This technology seemingly have very little use for advanced was originally aimed at keeping Autodesk technologyofanytype.Whenyouwalkthe customersfromhavingtopurchasesoftware hallsofadrywallorflooringcontractoryou from Adobe Systems (Acrobat) in order to invariably see construction plans rolled up communicatewitheachother.PersonallyI incornersorspreadoutondraftingtables. liketheDWFformat--ifitdidnothingmore Andusuallythereisapersonhuddledover forusthantopushAdobetopaybetteratthemwearingglassesandmanuallycalculat- tentiontotheneedsoftheengineeringand ingmaterialquantitiestodeterminewhatit designcommunity,ithasdoneenough. isgoingtocostthemtodothisjob.Thisisa But DWF also gives us the ability to toughgrouptoreachouttobecausetheyare communicate using precise vector lines or nottraditionallyCADusers. lightweight 3D models seeded with object Now that we are living propertydata.Thatmay in a world where IPD is When I received QTO, be the reason that a lot a reality, all parties need which I had heard of but ofpeopleshyawayfrom to take advantage of the never used, I decided usingit.Someofthefiles situation and leverage the generated look a lot like technology available to to load it up and take it AutoCAD DWG files make each job more prof- for a spin. What I found and there could be conitable. So now comes the was a pleasant surprise. cerns about file security. question: "Why aren't Some of those concerns theseguysusingAutodeskQuantityTakeoff arepartiallyjustifiedbytheeffortsrecently (QTO)?"Imeanthispieceofsoftwarecan to create programs that convert 2D DWF makelifeeasierforarchitects,engineers,and filesintousableDWGorDXFfiles.While subcontractorsandalmostnobodyseemsto Iamoftheopinionthatsomeonemayfigure beusingit. thatouteventually,Idon'tthinkthetechis Infact,myownexposuretotheproduct thereyet.MostoftheprogramsIhaveseen was somewhat accidental. Before I went fallshortofprovidingafilethatistrulyusintobusinessformyself,Iwasworkingfor ablewithoutrequiringalotofcleanup.So an Autodesk reseller when a nondescript while people are still unsure about DWF packagearrivedinthemail.Ihadreceived andthefreeAutodeskDesignReviewpackthesepackagesfairlyoftencontainingwhat age,itisthisfunctionalitythatenablesproarereferredtoasNFR(notforresale)cop- gramslikeQTOtoleveragetheDWFfileto ies of the software. So when I received makequantitytakeoffmucheasier. QTO,whichIhadheardofbutneverused, Asyouopentheprogramyouwillnotice Idecidedtoloaditupandtakeitforaspin. thatitisprojectbased.Thestartupwizard WhatIfoundwasapleasantsurprise.This asks you to select a name for your takeoff 12 project.Theprogramwillgroupallnecessarydrawingstogether,allowingthemtobe accessedinthefuturebysimplyopeningthe projecttowhichtheypertain.Nextyouare askedtoselectyoursystemofmeasurement, imperialormetric,andthecurrencyyouwill beusing.Yousee,whiletheprogramitselfis calledQuantityTakeoff,itcanbeusedtodo costestimatingaswell. After selecting the currency you get an opportunity to select an organizational modelforyourtakeoffproject.SeveralpopularformatsarepreloadedintothesystemincludingCSI16,48,andUniformatsystems. Youcanselectoneoftheseatthispointor selectnoneifyouintendtoapplyyourown organizationalstructureorifyouwillmake thedecisionaboutwhichtouselaterinthe project.Onthenextpanelyouaregiventhe opportunitytoselectthedrawingfilesthat willbepartofyourproject. QTO is based on DWF technology, but youcanselectdrawingsthatareinjustabout any commonly used format. Directly supported files formats include DWF, DWFx, DWG, PDF, and Image file types such as BMP,JPEG,GIF,andCAL.Youcanchoose anyoneoracombinationofseveralimagesto combineinthesametakeoffproject.While most other takeoff programs give you that capability,whatmakesQTOuniqueisthat it allows you to load not only sheet-based documents but also model files generated from programs such as Autodesk Revit. Though the RVT isn't supported for direct import,ifyouexportanRVTmodelasa3D Dwfxfile,itcanbeloadedintoyourproject while retaining the original object properties.Itisprimarilyinthiswaythatthisprogramisuniquelyvaluable.Noothertakeoff programonthemarkettodaysoseamlessly supportsbotha2Dand3Dworkflow. Once the individual drawing files have been loaded to create your takeoff project, it's time to get to work. If you don't have access to a 3D model of the project, you will probably be working from raster file formats,pdf,ordwffiles.Whileitdoesn't matter which file you are working with, I believethatyougetbetterdrawingfidelity w w w. A U G I . c o m whenworkingwithpdffilescreateddirectly fromtheCADfile.Whenyouplotdirectly topdf,asopposedto,let'ssay,simplyscanningaprintedsheet,yougetbetterlinequalityandthatcanhelpthetoolsinAutodesk QTOworkforyou.Butquantitytakeoffon projectstodayisprimarilya2Doperation,at leastfornow.Soitwasimportantwhenthis toolwasdevelopedthatthecurrentconditionbewellsupported. The next feature was so smart that I almost missed its true impact. You have the abilitytogointoafile,usedascalereference operationtosetthescaleofthedrawing,and then instantly apply that scale factor to all thedrawingsinyourproject.Correctscaling guaranteesaccuracyforspatialdataandthe project-based approach of Autodesk QTO savestimebyeliminatingredundanttasks. Once the scaling has been set you are readytobeginyourcountandwhatyouwill findisasimplesetoftoolsthatgivefastaccess to item count and spatial information withintheplanset. Items are easily identified with simple geometric shapes that can be color-coded foreaseofuse.Onceashapeisassignedto a particular object and its properties are established,acountiscreatedandupdated every time a new object is selected. This meansasimpleclickcanbeusedtoaddnew objectstoanoveralltotal.Inaddition,each itemcountedcanalsohavecostinformation appliedtoit.Theobjectselectionmodefor counting manufactured items (door, windows,andsoon)isveryeasytouseandyou willfinditextremelyintuitive. Butthatisonlypartoftheequation.QTO reallyflexesitsmuscleswhencountingsurfaces such as floors or walls in the project. Bothoftheseoperationsareassistedbythe factthatQTOhastheabilitytouseafunctionsimilartoObjectSnapinAutoCAD,to detect the endpoints intersections of lines onthepage.Floorareasaredetectedbyselectingtheircornersandapplyingauniform shading pattern to them annotated with squarefootdata. Wallsareeveneasierwiththeoptionto use a two-click (1 endpoint, 2 endpoint) operationtogetthewalllengthorasingleclickoperationnearthewallmidpointthat willallowitslengthtobeautomaticallydetected.Asvariousitemsareselected,acount workbook is created containing spreadsheetscustomizedforthetypeofobjectbeingquantified. Forexample,whendooritemsareselected a spreadsheet is created that contains a costfunctionthatallowsfortheinclusionof informationsuchasmaterialcostandlabor cost.Forwalls,thespreadsheetcostformula accounts for length, wall height, and construction.Thismeansthatifacontractoris Jan/Feb 2011 accustomedtohandcalculatingmostofhis costs,henowhasastreamlinedspreadsheet withinQTOtouseforcostingpurposes. As the count project develops, you can also choose to export the data in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Excel, or the Timberline estimating package by Sage. So no more juggling plans and packages of highlightersaroundandanchoringyourself toadraftingboardjusttohandleatakeoff. Autodesk QTO can keep the entire operationonthecomputerandstillgeneratereliablequantitiesand(eventhoughit'snotadvertised)reliablecostinginformationwitha slightlybettermarginoferrorthanapurely manualprocess. So even when it's merely replicating what other count packages are capable of, AutodeskQTOisanexcellenttool.Butjust thinkofwhatispossibleifyoucanactually get your hands on a 3D DWF model with exportedDWFsheetsfromaRevitRVTfile. WhenaRevitfilesetispublished,theQTO processincreasesinefficiencybyanorderof magnitude. First QTO is able to organize an established link between the 3D model and the planset.Asitemsareselectedonthemodel, you can instantly go to every point in the plan set where that item appears and the item will have a box around it letting you knowthatitemhasbeenselected. Propertyandspatialdataisincludedwith themodelwhenitisexportedsotheentire model--that's right--the entire model can becountedandsortedinasingleclick.The countsareagainpublishedintoaworkbook andfromtherethechoiceisyours.Youcan either use the internal spreadsheet to start costing or load the quantity information intothecostapplicationofyourchoiceusing your own customized costing data to generateestimatesinafractionofthetimeit wouldtakeperformingthisworkmanually. Whatoncetookdaysorweekscannow bedoneinminutesorhoursandforthemost part the design and construction communityisblissfullyunawarethisprogrameven exists!AndIfindmyselfcompletelybaffled by this. With an extremely cost-sensitive economic environment out there everyone should be interested in anything that can helpthemtoperformatakeoffonaproject. Thisincludesthearchitects,whoareexpectedtoknowmoreaboutthecostoftheir proposalsthaneverbeforeandwhoareconstantly being asked questions about cost andvalueengineeringthroughoutthecourse oftheproject. Construction managers should be interested in tools that would help them to quickly verify the accuracy of material and quantityestimatescominginfromsubcontractorstodeterminewhethertheyaretruly getting a good deal or merely dealing with someonewhocan'tcount.Andthesubcontractorsareconstantlyworkingonguaranteed maximum price projects and have to sufferaseachmistakemadeinamanualprocesserodestheiralreadythinprofitmargins. All this from a program that costs about as much as a decent laptop computer and whichwillpayforitself(inlaborcostalone) onthefirstprojectonwhichitisused. So why isn't anybody using this thing? When I recently pitched QTO to a design and construction firm in Atlanta, I found outonethingthatishamperingtheprocess. ThemodelworkflowinQTOrequiresthat thepersonusingthesoftwarehaveaccessto amodelfileofsufficientqualityfromwhich topullthedata. IactuallysatacrossfromaBIMmanager who, after months spent in BIM based designefforts,saidhewouldneverletthepreconstruction team use one of their models for estimating because the models weren't accurate. I seriously about fell out of my chair, but the guy was just being honest. AndthathighlightsapointthatIhavemade againandagain.NoonesavesmoneybyoptingoutoftraininginRevitoranyotherBIM application. In fact everything that you bought into when you decided to go to Revit is only made possible when you adequately train your staff. If your people can't accurately create a BIM model, BIM probably won't saveyouadimeontheprojectandinfactit willtypicallymaketheprojectcostmore--if notinactualtimeanddollars,thendefinitelyin the amount of frustration experienced whentryingtogetyourworkdone. Does your team have the right stuff to fully benefit from BIM? Find a consultant that you trust, send them a recently completedprojectandfindout.Ifyouneedsome helpfindingsomeoneshootmeanemailfor areferral. Software companies don't usually push products that people won't buy. And Autodesk has not seen the need to release AutodeskQTO2011.Sowhilethehandwritingmaybeonthewallasfarasthisprogram goes,Iurgeyoutogiveitsomethought.QTO isavitalpieceofthemosaicforanyfirmwho isseriousaboutworkinginBIM.Itwouldbe ashametoseeitdieonthevineduetolack ofinterest. Judah Jackson has 21 years of experience using Autodesk design solutions. Judah is a Revit Implementation Certified Expert and the Business Development Manager at Advanced AEC Solutions in Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact him via email at firstname.lastname@example.com. 13 AutoCAD Civil 3D / Navisworks NAVISWORKS 2011 CIVIL 3D 2010/2011 A BIM-less World InmypreviousAUGIWorldarticle,Iprovidedsomeofmyinitialviewsoncivilvisualizationforawatertreatmentfacility.This article will continue with my experience of creating an Autodesk� Navisworks� model for the project. Recently a submittalmilestonewasreached,whichincluded the model of the project to date compiled within Navisworks. So far the reviews of themodelhavebeenpositive.IwishIcould saythesamefortheprocessofbringingthe civilportionofthemodelintoNavisworks. Civil design objects The most glaring omission of the processisthelackofBIMobjectsthatmake up a typical civil site within AutoCAD� Civil 3D�. I felt like a castaway on Gilligan's Island. I could model almost any ground modeled object I wanted as long asitwasaTINsurface;muchinthesame waymostitemsfoundonGilligan'sIsland were made up of bamboo. Want asphalt pavement over aggregate base material? Well,yougettheTINsurfacewithamaterial applied. What about curb and gutter, landscaping, fencing, and concrete swales?Onceagain,aTINsurfacewiththe appropriatematerialapplied. Otherobjectsincludedinthemodelwere metalbeamguardrail(MBGR)andcement masonry unit (CMU) retainingwalls.Again,there aren't any of these commonly found real-world objects in Civil 3D. To modeltheseobjects,Iused AutoCAD� solids and beefed up on learning the AutoCAD EXTRUDE, IMPRINT, and PRESSPULL commands. While the process to model the retaining walls and MBGR was fairly easy thefirsttime,makingany changes to the model becametediousandscreamedforanaprocess that updated automatically with changes tothedesignsurfaces. a completed TIN surface and splitting it upintomultipleTINsurfaces:onesurface for each material type required. This process may lend itself to errors in updating thenumerousboundaries,creatinggapsor overlaps between the proposed and existingsurface.I'dexpectaBIMproducttoaccommodatethesetypesofissuesmuchlike inRevit,whereawalladjuststodoorand windowchanges. Other common objects are missing as well.Let'slookatchainlinkfences,forexample.Thereisn'tanintelligentfenceBIM objectwithinCivil3D.ThemethodIchose toutilizewastocreateasurfacecomprised ofbreaklinesforthetopandbottomofthe fenceandapplychainlinkfencematerialto itfromwithinNavisworks.Unfortunately, since the object is not smart, any changes tothedesignsurfacemeanIhavetogoin andadjusttheelevationsofthebreaklines. Changes to the fence location and grades happenedmorethanonceandtheprocess couldgreatlybeimproved. 14 Utilizing surfaces to modelasitewouldn'tbe that bad if Navisworks could import in the various surface masks applied to a surface in Civil 3D. Unfortunately, Navisworks can't, ensuring an efficiency killer exists in taking Surface problems Another surface problem is tessellation. WhenIfirstcreatedthenecessarypolyline boundariesandaddedthemtothesurface, I neglected to take tessellation value into consideration . After applying all of the boundaries and bringing in the model, I found considerable display issues caused by using the default tessellation values. It appearedasthoughIhadgapsbetweenthe curb surfaces and asphalt paving surfaces. To resolve the issue, the boundaries requiredremovalfromthesurfacesandreapplicationusingasmallertessellationvalue. Theproblemmakesmewishforacurband gutter object modeled as a solid. Unlike a TIN surface, this would be able to better modelareal-worldobject. Materials For the most part I'm able to createamodeloftheobjectsthat will be constructed based on the plans. My most challenging problem in creating the model is materials. Placing materials in Navisworks is accomplished by using Presenter, available in Navisworks Manage and Simuw w w. A U G I . c o m late.Asshown in the chainlink fence image, the application of materials can be problematic for a novice. The fence looks correct on the right, but on the left the fencelooksabitoff.Ittakesabitofexploring the Texture Space to adjust the materialtogetthedesiredlook.Inthelandscape patternimage,mymateriallookstoofake.I stillneedtoworkongettingittolookcorrect. As the project progresses, I hope to betterunderstandhowmaterialsworkand how to effectively modify them to get the desiredappearance. pected pan and orbit results. Turningoffthelayersprevented the objects from being brought into Navisworks, though there is an option to import turned offlayersinNavisworks. One oft-repeated comment wasthelackofahardhatforthe avatar. There are additional avatars that ship with the program and one has a hard hat (Human 2).Itwouldbeniceiftherewere adrop-downtochangetheavatar,butinstead the avatar selection drop-down is buriedwithintheprogram. Navisworksprovidestheabilitytocreate selection sets. Selection sets make it easy to group objects for easy isolation or hiding.Forinstance,thenumerouschainlink fencesdidn'talwaysneedtobeseen,soit providesaneasywaytoselecttheselection set and then right-click and hide the objects.Gettingtheobjectstounhideisfound ontheHometaboftheribbonintheVis- Viewing the model OncethemodeliscompleteinCivil3D, it may be brought into Navisworks for viewing and exploring. One issue I discoveredistheinabilityofNavisworksto bringindatashortcutswhenthedrawing file is appended to the model. While it wouldbemostbeneficialforNavisworks to recognize data shortcuts, it isn't that big of a deal since individual surfaces needtobecreatedfromthesurfacesthat are typically used via data shortcuts. If the NWCOUT command is used, the data shortcuts are recognized. However, Ihadtomakesuretoturnoffthelayerthe datashortcutwasontoavoidgettingthe missingdatashortcuttextfromshowing upat0,0.Withthetextat0,0theviewing ofthemodelbecamedifficultwithunexJan/Feb 2011 ibilitypane.AlsousefulistheSavedViewports,whichmakeiteasytozoomtoaspecificareaofinterestofthemodel.Forthis projectaviewwascreatedforeachgroupof processequipmentusedintheproject. ing process of pen and paper, neglecting the benefits of a different workflow with today's technology. Do we really need to cling to a TIN workflow of connecting pointstocreatecontourswhentheability tohaveactualsolidobjectsexists?Onthe other hand, Autodesk has been marketing Civil 3D as a BIM product, and as such I have certain expectations of what a BIM productisbasedonmyexposuretoRevit, Plant3D,andMEP.BasedonwhatI'veseen oftheotherproducts,Civil3Dhasalimited featuresetofBIMproducts. A major push Autodesk has given is thelifecycleaspectofBIM,whereanentirelifecycleofaprojectmaybetracked. I'd consider pavement one of the largest long-term investments a civil project encompasses. Civil 3D has no obvious way to connect the asphalt pavements composition, maintenance requirements, and condition over its useful life. With this information contained within the model, civilengineerscouldmakesmartdecisions on what pavement type touseandhaveamodel to provide to the owner tojustifythedecisionto usehigherupfrontmaterial costs for long-term savings over the pavement'slife.CanCivil3D becalledaBIMproduct without this and many otherfeatures? Please note this article does not focus on utilizing corridors in the design. Corridors dohaveadvantagesover using surfaces, in that the code set style assigns a material to the corridor. Due to the layoutofthesite,which hadnumerous90degree anglesandwasunsymmetrical,acorridor didn'tlenditselftothesitegeometry. Christopher Fugitt is a Civil Engineer and has spent the last eight years designing government projects as well as residential subdivisions. Before working as a Civil Engineer, Christopher worked for a General Engineering Contractor on subdivision and mining projects. Christopher earned his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Christopher maintains and authors the Civil 3D Reminders blog at http://blog.civil3dreminders.com/ 15 Final thoughts Overalltheprocessofgettingthemodel from Navisworks into Civil 3D has been achievable. The main issues are the lack of BIM objects in Civil 3D. While I could put all of the blame on Autodesk for not providingacivilproductthatprovidesfor aBIMmodel,partoftheblamegoestothe purchasersofCivil3Dwhoarenotactively requestingBIMfeatures. Most of the requests I've seen are for improvements in the design and model- AutoCAD AutoCAD 2011 Back in the "old days," exchangingAutoCAD�datawithotherswas asimplematterofemailingaDWG file. Today, projects can be much more involved, as AutoCAD drawings are capable of referencing images,PDFs,DWFs,DGNs,aswellas otherDWGfiles.Ifyouusesheet sets or data links, there are even morefilestoconsider. Does your client also need to print your drawing? If so you'll havetosendyourpentables,fonts, and custom shape files too. It doesn'ttakelongtorealizethatfile sharing can be a painful and time consumingprocess. Today,workinginAutoCAD2011, we can easily share our designs regardless of how many files are tied to our drawing. Using AutoCAD's eTransmit command, we can wrap up everything associated with a DWGfileintoasinglepackagethat our client can use to easily view or printourdrawings.Let'stakealook. setups. You see, there are many settings thatcontrolhowourdataispackagedand atransmittalsetupissimplya"name"giventoacollectionofthesesettings.Using transmittal setups, we can create custom "packagingrules"thatcanbeusedoverand overagain. After launching eTransmit, AutoCAD displaystheCreateTransmittaldialogbox. SeeFigure2. Ontherightsideofthedialogiswhere youcanselectatransmittalsetup.Initially only the Standard setup is available. We canuseStandardasastartingpointtocreateourownsetups. Before creating a transmittal setup, I'd like to define a goal. Let's say I'm workingwithaclientcalledArchTechConsulting,whichrequiresCADfilesinAutoCAD Figure 1: After opening the Application Menu, eTransmit can be launched by clicking at either location. 2004 format. Let's also say they'd like to makeprintsofmydrawingsusingmypens, fonts,andsoon. It's all about the transmittal To create a transmittal setup, I'll click setup theTransmittalSetupsbutton(highlightOverview of eTransmit Thekeytoefficientfilesharingisknow- ed in Figure 2.) When the dialog box apTheeTransmitcommandhasbeenapart ing how to take advantage of transmittal pears,I'llclickNew.Iwillthennamethe of AutoCAD since release 2000i when it setup "ArchTech wasaddedasareplacementforthe"PackConsulting" and and-Go"bonustool.OvertheyearseTransclickContinue. mit has evolved to become a "must have" At this point toolforexchangingfileswithothers.The AutoCAD displays powerbehindeTransmitisinitsabilityto the Modify Transconsolidate everything related to a drawmittal Setup dialog ing--xrefs, images, shape files, pen tables, box (see Figure 3). data links, and so on--into a nice neat This is where I depackagethatcanbesentviaemail. finetherulesformy The command itself (after some initial transmittal. setup)isaseasytouseastheSAVEcomAs you can see, mand, meaning you can easily share your there are several mostcomplicatedprojectdrawingsinjust settings, many of acoupleclicks. which are self-exThe eTransmit command can be found planatory. If you on the Application menu inside the Send have questions collectionoftools.Asashortcut,eTransabout a specific mitcanalsobelaunchedbysimplyclicking setting,youcanal"Send"inthemenu.SeeFigure1. Figure 2: Use the Transmittal Setups button to create, modify, or delete ways "hover" over custom transmittal setups. Creating a transmittal setup 16 w w w. A U G I . c o m I'll click OK to complete the ArchTech Consultingtransmittalsetup. At this point, AutoCAD returns me to the Create Transmittal dialog box where I can click OK, give my Zip file a name, andbetakendirectlytomyemailprogram whereIcanentermyclient'semailaddress andclickSend. Workflow for sharing files with clients Figure 3: The Modify Transmittal Setup dialog box is where we control how our data is packaged. itwithyourcursorforamoredetaileddescription,oryoucanclicktheHelpbutton at the bottom of the dialog for more information. Whilethisdialogboxmayappearalittle daunting at first glance, we have to go through the settings process once. After a transmittal setup has been defined for ArchTech Consulting, I can easily share drawingswiththeminthefuturebyselectingtheirsetupfromthelist. Defining the settings for a transmittal setup I'mafraidacomprehensivediscussionof allofthetransmittalsettingsisbeyondour scopeinthisarticle.Instead,I'mgoingto talk about the settings you'll be adjusting mostoften. A. File Format: Using the menu I can choosetohavemyDWGfilespackagedas anolderrelease.(IfI'maccessingeTransmit from a vertical product such as Civil 3D or AutoCAD Architecture, I can also havemyAECobjectsexplodedtoanonymous blocks when they're added to the Zipfile.) SincemyclientneedsAutoCAD 2004 drawings, I'll select AutoCAD 2004 fromthemenu. B. Transmittal file folder:Thisiswhere I choose a default folder to store Zip files created for ArchTech Consulting. As you Jan/Feb 2011 canseeinFigure3,I'vecreatedanArchTech folderwithintheTransmittalsfolderonmy harddrive. C. Path options: Typically I select "Placeallfilesinonefolder."Thisconsolidates all transmittal items into a single directory. D. Actions:Checking"Sende-mailwith transmittal"willautomaticallylaunchmy default mail program when the transmittal is finished and load the Zip file as an attachment. E. Include options:Checking"Include Fonts" will ensure that all fonts used in the drawings (AutoCAD - .shx or TrueType - .ttf) are added to the transmittal. It will also ensure that any shape filesusedincustomlinetypeswillbeincluded.Becausemyclientwouldliketo createprintsofmydrawings,I'llbesure tocheckthisboxsothattheyhavewhat theyneed. Warning: Including copies of certain TrueType fonts may be considered copyrightinfringement.All.shxand.ttffilesincludedwithAutoCADcanbefreelytransmitted. F. Transmittal setup description:Addingadescriptionisoptional,however,the more transmittal setups you create, the morehelpfulthesedescriptionsbecome! WhenI'mfinishedadjustingmysettings, Once a transmittal setup has been defined, emailing drawings (even complicatedonesinvolvingmanyreferences)canbe doneinjustacoupleclicks.Forinstance, inthelastsectionwedefinedatransmittal setup to be used when sharing files with ArchTechConsulting. Let's assume I've made revisions to my Site_plan.dwg file and several of its references. Let's also assume I would like to sendArchTechtheupdatedfiles. AllIhavetodoisopentheSite_plan.dwg file, launch eTransmit, and when the Create Transmittal dialog box appears, I will selecttheArchTechtransmittalsetupand click OK. That (generally speaking) is it! Myemailprogramwillopenautomatically withthezipfileattached,readytobesent onitsway. I have just sent my client the revised site plan drawing, plus all of the referenced files, (automatically saved back to AutoCAD2004)nottomentioneverything elsetheyneedtoreproducemydrawing,in aboutfiveclicksofthemouse. Adding and removing data from a transmittal Butwait,there'smore!Let'ssayIneeded tosendyetanotheremailtoArchTechConsulting. (It's the last one, I promise!) We'll assumeI'vejustlaunchedtheeTransmitcommandandselectedtheArchTechtransmittal setupinthedialogbox(seeFigure4). Now,takealookatthe"Files"window ontheleft.Basedonthetransmittalsetup I'veselected,thiswindowdisplaysthecontentsofthetransmittal"package." The files in this window can be viewed intwoways,Treeview(shown)andTable view,(similartoMicrosoftExcel).Ineither view, files can be added or removed from thetransmittalbyusingthechecksnextto thefilenames. Initially,thefilesshowninthewindow are the ones directly tied to the current drawing.ClickingtheAddFilebuttonallowsyoutoincludeotherprojectfilesifdesired.Collateralfilesmightincludehydrology calculations, cost estimates, database files,projectphotos,andsoon.Usingthis windowwehavecompletecontroloverthe contentsofatransmittal. 17 Wecantakethisconceptonestepfurther. Do you include some sort of standardizedtextinthemajorityofyourCAD emails?Forinstance,manyfirmsinclude a legal disclaimer in the form of a "CAD DataTransferAgreement." Rather than copying and pasting that verbiageintotheboxorintotheemailitself,pastethetextintoNotepadandsave thefileonyournetworkasetransmit.txt. Next, go to OPTIONS, and on the File Tab,insidetheSupportFileSearchPath group, click the Add button, and add a pathtowhereyousavedthetextfile. Now,eachtimeyoulauncheTransmit, thecontentsoftheetransmit.txtfilewill automatically be added to the transmittal,andbeincorporatedintothebodyof youremail(seeFigure6). eTransmit can be used for more than justemails.Imaginecreatingatransmittalsetupthatkeepsfilesintheiroriginal format, includes all possible associated Figure 4: Using the files window on the left, we can easily add or remove data from a transmittal. files, and places everything into a single folder. This setup could be used to arLikewise, if your transmittal setup inDocumenting a transmittal chiveprojectdata,orcreateasnapshotof Asacourtesy,AutoCADcreatesawrit- cludesthe"Sende-mailwithtransmittal" aparticularmilestoneinyourproject. ten report that fully documents the con- setting, this text will become the body Ifyouutilizethesamedirectorystructentsofatransmittalpackage.Thereport of your email! This means that you can tureatmultipleofficesinyourorganizaiscalledfilename.txtwherefilenameisthe takecareof99percentofyouremailwork tion,youcouldcreateatransmittalsetup nameofthecurrentdrawing.Itisautomati- righthere. that "Keeps callyincludedinthetransmittal.Thisdocufiles and foldmentismuchlikethestorereceipttheclerk ersasis."This givesyouwhenyoumakeapurchase. setup could be Not only does this report catalog all used to install of the files included in the transmittal, it your project alsoidentifiesthefilesthatwereexcluded. onto another Better still, it contains instructions for system. your client that detail where they should In the event putpentablesandfontsontheirsystemso a font used in thatAutoCADcaneasilyfindthem. your drawing To view the report, click the View Rebecomes corport button at the bottom of the Create rupt, eTransTransmittal dialog box shown in Figure mit takes the 4.Intheviewerthatpopsup,youcanuse guesswork out theslidertoscrollupanddownandreview of which font theinformation,oryoucanclickSaveAsto file you need to save a copy of the report to your network extractfroman(seeFigure5). other machine ClickClosetodismissthereportviewer. in the CAD deConsiderusingthisreportasaneasyway partment.Simtologthefilesyousendtoclients. ply open the drawing on a Including notes with a "good"machine, transmittal eTransmit the AtthebottomoftheCreateTransmitdrawing, and tal dialog box is an area where you can remove everyaddnotestoyourtransmittal(seeFigure thing except 4).Anythingenteredinthisboxwillbe the font file includedinthetransmittalreportthatwe from the transFigure 5: The report viewer displays everything you need to know about a discussedintheprevioussection. mittal. transmittal. Taking eTransmit to the next level 18 w w w. A U G I . c o m Note: When launching eTransmit fromtheSheetSetManager,youwillselectfromadifferentgroupofTransmittalSetups. Onethingiscertain--usingtheeTransmit command ensures that you'll be spendingmoretimeonyourdesignsand less time preparing drawings for email. Whoknows?eTransmitjustmightmake filesharingenjoyable! Jeff Bartels is the Sr. Engineering Technician at Wills Burke Kelsey Associates where he works with Civil 3D and AutoCAD. He is the author of eleven AutoCAD video training titles for Lynda.com. Jeff is also on the faculty at Elgin Community College in Illinois, where he teaches the Advanced AutoCAD courses. Jeff can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com Follow him on Twitter � @JeffBartels where he regularly posts AutoCAD tips and shortcuts. Figure 6: etransmit.txt file is automatically incorporated into the body of the email. Thewaytoknowyou'vemasteredany feature is when you start using it for a purposeforwhichitwasnotintended. Conclusion I wish I could say that we've seen everything that eTransmit can do, but thereisstillmuchtoexplore.Takesome timeandreviewallofthesettingsassociated with Transmittal Setups. You'll find that you can automatically purge or bind references before packaging, or evenapplypasswordprotectiontoyour transmittals. If you use sheet sets, eTransmit will package the sheet set data as well. In theSheetSetManager,right-clickonthe project name and select eTransmit from themenu. Jan/Feb 2011 19 One Man Shop: Consulting vs. Freelancing Part Two This article explores some of the elements that make up a successful oneperson visualization operation. In the lastissue,wediscussedthebusinessside ofmakingagoofitandgettingarunning start.Thisarticlewilladdresssomeofthe detailsofworkingwithclientsyoualready have,includingclientrelations,communication, working with other consultants, and planning a project's workflow. We willalsotouchonsomeofthepsychologicalfactorsinherentinselfemploymentas a3Dartist. Communication--easy does it Quantity vs. quality Whenitcomestoclientele,moreisnot always better. Typically you will find that you can do well with fewer clients iftheirprojectsaresizableandtheyhave cometorelyonyou.Foursmallone-time jobs can turn out to be more work and stressthanonemedium-sizedprojectfor areturningclient. Developingaproventrackrecordofsuccessful work with a client is essential if youaretobecometheir"goto"consultant. This extends beyond the delivery of what isneeded;surpasstheirexpectationswhen possible--this includes technical and personal ingredients that make the relationshippositiveforeveryone.Thebestclients aretheoneswhospecificallywanttowork withyou. 20 On the technical side, it is important to make communication as easy as possible.Transferringdatacanbeachallenge whetherworkinglocallyorremotely.Some clients may have an ftp site for large file transfers;othersmaynot.Itisnotdifficult tosetupasecureftpsiteforyourself,with clientorconsultantlogins,tokeepprojects readily available and accessible to specific peopleontheproject.Investigatewaysto makethe site as simple to useasyou can, preferablywithadrag-and-dropinterface. This will go a long way toward keeping work moving smoothly. It will also lend credibility to your organization as a whole.InthepastIhaveusedafreeonline file transfer service which proved to be morereliablethatsomeofmyclients'own ftpsites.Still,creatingyourownftpsiteis thebestwaytogo. Fileformatcansometimesbeanissue,so be sure you can read a client's files. In the right circumstances you might make them aware of best practices when exporting drawingsormodels,whichcansaveyoutime andworkandsavethemmoney.Fairlyoften you'llbegivenamodeldoneinSketchupor Autodesk�Revit�thatwillneedsignificant preparationonyourparttomakeituseful.In thepast,Idevelopedahabitofgettingmodels fromBIMintwoformats;.fbxand.dwg.The new .fbx file link in the newest Autodesk� 3ds Max� may change this. For Sketchup I prefertousetheConnectionExtensionaddonandimportstraightinto3dsMax.Nomatterwhatyoumayhearorwanttothink,you'll alwaysneedtocleanupthemodelin3dsMax. It'suptoyoutodevelopanefficient,reliable workflow. The same is true for third-party rendererswiththeirownmaterialtypes. Stay neutral On the personal interaction side of things remember that personalities are at thecenterofmaintainingaprofitablerelationshipwithaclient.Oftenaprojectwill be well-planned and go smoothly because itisrunsensibly,efficiently,andtransparently.Inthesecasespersonalitydifferences don'tclouddecisionmaking. Othertimesajobmaybepoorlyrunand meetingscanbeuncomfortablebecausethe design team is at odds. Be careful not to takesides.Ifaprojectteamhastensionsit's wisesttoavoidbeingperceivedaschoosing onecampoveranother.It'suptotheclient topresentaunitedfronttoyouandtoall consultants.Fromyourposition,basicHumanInteraction101willgetyouby. Keep the balance From a psychological standpoint it's wise to see the larger picture to maintain thelongevityofyouroperation.Stayingfocusedmeansstayingsane.Wegotinto3D inthefirstplacebecauseit'sfun,butitcan w w w. A U G I . c o m specificstrengths.Forexample,somearebetternurbsmodelersthanothers;somemaybe neededinordertoworkwithaspecificclient. Whateverrouteyouchoose,intheenditis theartistandnotthetoolthatcounts. Lastly, remember the concept of Mutability the future can be unpredictable -- and work will ebb and flow. For example, atoneendofthescaleyoumightbesobusy thatyou'llneedtohireotherstohelpwiththe volume of work. On the opposite end things might slow down enough that you need to takeonotherworktogetby.Myownfallback turnedouttobewebdevelopment,whichhas madeforagoodbalance.Fromtimetotime I'vedonesometrainingsessionsandeventutoredafewarchitecturestudents.Allinall,the mostimportantthingtokeepinmindisthat youcansucceedinbusinessdoingsomething youlovebykeepingthebalanceright. Tom Cipolla is a digital artist specializing in architectural visualization. Born in New York, he trained as a sculptor and transitioned to working digitally in 2000. Tom has taught foundry practice, sculpture, drawing, and 3D software. His company, Onion3d, is a consulting and animation studio located in South Boston, Massachusetts. be possible to lose sight of that when the pressure is on and deadlines are looming. Paceyourselfandscheduleyourtimerealistically to avoid burning out. When you have extra time, continue to do your own creativework.Stepawayfromthecomputeronceinawhileandtakeawalkorread abook. Rememberthattogrowasapersonisto growasanartist.Learningisaprocessthat shouldn'tend,soabsorballyoucan.Staycurrentwithboththetoolsandtrendsin3Dand visualization. Take advantage of demo versions and absorb the vast sea of knowledge available online. Don't hesitate to explore newsoftware.Mostpackageshavetheirown Jan/Feb 2011 21 It'sasafebetthateveryonereadingthis article knows how to plot. So why even consider writing about plotting? Well, justbecauseyoucanplotadrawingdoesn't meanyoucan'timprovetheprocess. Whatdoyoudo?Youissuetheplotcommand,butthere'sfarmoretoitthanthat. The plot command has been around as long as I've been using AutoCAD� and before that. After all, when you create your design, at some point you want to share it and the most common method is a plotted sheet. The plot dialog box layout has changedsomeovertheyears,butthesame commonelementsstillapply.Whatareyou plotting(extents,window,view)?Towhat hardwareareyouplotting?Whatsheetsize will you be choosing? To what scale will yoursheetbeplotted?Whatplotstylewill beused? Let'sstartwithhardware.Lookatthese- lectionfromyourpull-downlistofplotters first. Does this plotter have a name with .pc3includedinit?Whatisthis? A .pc3 file is a customized file with the printer settings. What I've found is that many users aren't able to how to set up plotters with the properties they want, so when they plot from AutoCAD they choose the plotter from the drop-down listandthenselectthePropertiesbutton totherightoftheplotter.OftenthisisbecausetheITdepartmentdoesn'thavethe plotterpreferencesorpropertiessetonthe server,soeveryonehastorollthroughthis inAutoCAD. Choosing the properties button allows you to change the paper size and many other printer properties. I'm showing the DWG to PDF custom properties in the figurebelowtoillustratesomenon-plotter specificoptionsthatcanbechanged. Onceyoumakechangeswiththismethod,youcansavethosechangestoyourlocal computerasa.pc3file.ChoosetheSaveAs buttoninthePlotterConfigurationEditor before you exit back to your regular plot dialogbox.Ifyoudon'tchoosethisbutton and attempt to return to plot, you will be promptedwiththefollowingmessage. Ifyouwantthesechangestobeforthis plotonly,thenthedefaultof"Applychangw w w. A U G I . c o m 22 "Laser."Imighthaveacompletelydifferent pagesetupfor"Plotter"or"PDF." Ratherthanchoosingpapersizes,scales, plotstyles,andplotterseachtimeyouplot, you only need to use the drop-down box from the Page Setup Name at the top left handsideofthePlotdialogbox. esforthecurrentplotonly"wouldbefine. Using these changes for every plot to this device would require you to select Save changestothefollowingfile.Youcanthen name the file whatever you like or accept thenameprovidedforyou. Thereisadrawbacktothismethodand itiswhyI'mnotamongthegroupinfavorof .pc3files.Eachoftheseissavedonthelocal users more consistentaswell. Sayyouhavea laserprintertowhichyousendproofplots in black and white. You can choose the laser printer, paper size of letter, scale of plottofit,andplotstyleofmonochrome. OnceIseteverythingthatIamaboutto plot,IchooseAddandnamethispagesetup I'venoticedthatusersaren'talwaysaware of two other plot-related items. One is the plot stamp. When the box under Plot optionsisuncheckedyouwillnotseeanyway tosetthis.Ifyouselectthe"Plotstampon" optionthenyouwillseeabuttonappear. Aplotstampisastringoftextthatplots alongthemarginofyourdrawing.Itcanbe customizedwithvariousbitsofinformation. The most common use it to place the date andtimeoftheplot.Whywouldyouwant todothat?Well,imaginethatyouhaveseveralsheetsonatable.Theyareallofthesame drawingandallhavethesametitleblockinformation.Howwouldyouknowwhichone is different? How would you know which oneistheoldestorwhichoneisthenewest? Asimpleplotstampwouldtellyouthat. computer; therefore, there is no standardization within your company. Granted, if youareathesoleemployeemaybeit'snot asbigofanissue.Ifyouhavetwoormore workstations,however,theneachofthese filescouldbeslightlydifferentandnamed thesame.SopurelyfromaCADstandards ormanagementstandpoint,Idonotrecommend.pc3files. One method for streamlining and standardizing plotting is to use named page setups.WhileyoucanusethePageSetup Manager, I like to do this right from the plotdialogbox.Namedpagesetupscanbe setinyourtemplatesotheyareavailablein allnewdrawings. Whatisanamedpagesetup?Itinvolves taking the same steps as you do to plot a drawing,butallowsyoutonamewhatyou justdid.Soifyouplottodifferentplotters, usedifferentsizesofpaper,ordifferentplot stylesthiswillsaveyoutimeandmakeyour Jan/Feb 2011 23 SimplyuncheckthePlotstamponboxand noplotstampwillbeused. The last plotting area that I want to point out is one that is saved in Options. GotoOptionsandthePlotandPublishtab. You will see in the middle of the lefthandsideofthistabBackgroundprocessingandPlotandpublishlogfile. Bydefault(dependingontheversionof AutoCADthatyouareusing)one orboth ofthecheckboxeswillbechecked.Igenerallyuncheckthese.Thisisafeaturethat allows you to immediately begin working againafterplotting.AutoCADplotsinthe background,whichisgreat,butIgetcomplaintsofittakinglonger.Also,ifyouopen afiletoplotandthenopenanotherfileto plotyouwillbepromptedthatbackground plotting is happening and you'll have to waittoplot. Unless you are using a plot log to keep track of costs, I recommend unchecking thisboxsothatyoudonotendupcreating ahugelogfileofallyourplots.Theseare justmypersonalpreferencesandonesthat IuseasastandardwhensettingupAutoCADforotherusers.Ifyou'vefoundeither ofthesefeaturesusefulinyouroffice,byall means use them. Write and let me know aboutitaswell. Yes,wehavehadplotstampsfordecades now, but the newer generation of users haven'tseenthisfeature,whichiswhyI've startedpointingitoutagain. Idorecommendtestingitonyourplotter. Different plotters have different margins. The idea is that you want your plot stamp on the edge of the page, not inside your drawing or titleblock border. The height is the plotted height so you might want it .0625 [1/16"] high or .125 [1/8"]. YoumightwantasimpleRomansfontfor it.Giveitatryandseeifit'sahelptoyou. Andrememberyoucanalwaysturnitoffon yourfinalplotsifyourbossdoesn'tlikeseeingitonthedrawingsgoingoutthedoor. Beth Powell owns CAD Fuel Design. She produces drawings for the fueling industry and provides training and support for AutoCAD and AutoCAD MEP. Her blog is http:// bethscadblog.blogspot.com/. She can be reached at email@example.com. 24 w w w. A U G I . c o m Keeping Technology Within Reach Companion Solutions | Implementation Services | Training | Support " We recently worked with Eagle Point to effectively implement AutoCAD Civil 3D. After many frustrating attempts and wasted hours, we turned to Eagle Point to help us plan a successful deployment for implementing Civil 3D. By combining, Eagle Point's Task Navigator, product training, and customized workflow creation, we are now moving in the right direction and becoming more efficent. Whether you are new to Civil 3D, migrating from Land Development Desktop or, like us, want to improve your productivity, we believe Eagle Point has the right solution for you." - Andrew Gulden CADD Department Manager Robinson Engineering, LTD Technology is evolving at a faster rate than ever before. Users are looking for ways to maximize the time, money and resource investments they have made in technology, not just more features. And the biggest challenge companies face is adapting their business and processes to new technology. Gone are the days where you can take your old way of designing and plug it into today's technology and hope for the same result. Learn how we can help... � New to AutoCAD� Civil 3D�? Click here. � Have AutoCAD� Civil 3D�, but falling back on legacy design software? Click here. � Want to maximize your proficiency in AutoCAD� Civil 3D�? Click here. For more information on our solutions, contact Eagle Point at 1-800-678-6565. Toll-free 800-678-6565 � Phone 563-556-8392 � Fax 563-556-5321 � 4131 Westmark Drive � Dubuque, IA 52002-2627 � www.eaglepoint.com � firstname.lastname@example.com AutoCAD's Annotative (Adaptive Attitude; Leave Your Comfort Zone!) 26 w w w. A U G I . c o m AsIwritethis,Icouldn'thelpthinking over the past quarter-century when I was firstintroducedtoAutoCAD�.Iknewfrom thebeginningthatthiswasgoingtobethe future;evenasIwasanaccomplished,pencil-laden Senior Draftsman/Project Manager.Frightening?Youbet!Alotofreading and late-night experimenting (sleepless nights,too),typingcommandstoseewhat itcando!Manyofushavebeenthere,right? Today,Ilooktothefutureandcan'thelp helpthinkingwheremyprofession(architecture) is going and who is coming up throughtherankstoleadtheway.Thistoo isfrighteningwhenIthinkthatourfuture leadersareindividualswhoweretaughtby friends, classmates, and even a company thatisnotAutodeskregistered.Thatsends achillupmyspine!Itisthe"blindleading theblind"syndrome. A few months ago a former employer asked me to come in and evaluate his AutoCAD team. A small firm and a good one. Their AutoCAD output has a lot of room to facilitate additional speed and profitability,whichIsincerelyhopeitdoes! Here's the kicker. To this day, I don't know what it is that drives the attitude in AutoCAD professionals. Is it religion? Ethics? Ignorance? Arrogance? I am not an attitude expert, but I've heard it said: The individual's attitude drives the projectsprofitabilityorlackthereof.Thisalso equates to an individual's longevity with thefirmaswell. A case in point One weekend, I created a floor plan, includingaspecial(file)toolbarforeitherdragand-drop referencing or blocks to be added toaninformational,after-hours"debate"that was scheduled. Annotative was discussed and became the debatable issue for about week,becausenoonewaswillingtoleavehis orhercomfortzonetolearnmoreaboutwhat AutoCAD�Architecture2010hastooffer. Tobefair,Iwantedfirsttofollowtheiroffice's practiced procedures with this layout. ThenIwouldshowthemthecapabilitiesof Annotative(Visibility,Scaling,Text,Dimensions, and so on) to simplify their process. TheofficewasgoingbeclosedFridayandthe showdownwasscheduledforThursdayafter hours--pizza,salad,anddietdrinksprovided.(Sadly,nobeer!) IaskedJohn(nothisrealname)todemonstratewitheveryonewatching,addingRoom NameBlocks,Dimensions,andTextforthree differentscalesthatwouldnormallybeused totheFloorPlanandwiththeBlocksthatI provided.Afterworking52minutes,adding layers,settingupLayerStatesManager,atoilet room blowup with additional notes and dimensionsforclarity,hewasfinished. Next,inaseparatefile,Iproceededtodemonstrate the use of AutoCAD's Annotative Attributes.Within17minutes,Ihadalayout identical to John's. I heard a lot of "Wow, that's neat!" or "How did you that, again?" Whatamazedthemmostwasthatnoadditionallayerswererequired.JusttheuseofAn- notativeVisibilityandScaling.Icouldseealmosteveryone'seyessparkle!Buttherewere otherswhodidnotwanttochangewhatthey arealreadyfamiliarwith,claimingitwouldbe "toocomplexandtimeconsuming."Huh? Fortunately,theofficeadoptedthesenew techniques to help produce projects faster. AndIturnedouttobethebadguy,whichI knewwouldhappenanyway! With regret, one individual is no longer workingwiththisfirmbecauseofhis"refusal"toadapt.Iasked,"Whynotadapttothe new techniques?" This individual's answer shockedme."ItwasthewayIwastaught.It iseasierformeandthisisthewayIwillalwaysdoit." Ifyouhaven'tsaid"Wow"bynow,think about this. If this is the attitude in year 2010, I wonder what the year 2020 will bring?Staytuned. Ron Lohan is an architect who practices in multiple states (California, Arizona, and Texas) providing Planning, Design Consulting and Construction Management for Hospitality, Institutional, Educational, Industrial, Commercial, and Custom Residential projects. Lohan Design Group, Inc., provides a variety of AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, Revit Architecture and Sketchup Pro Services, depending on the clients' requirements. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Jan/Feb 2011 27 AUTODESK REVIT Many of the seminars, books, and tutorialsthatdiscussthesubjectofroofsshow examplesofslopedroofsorextrudedroofs. Yet in many commercial and institutional projects, we need to create roofs that requireroofdrainsandcricketsforthewater torunoffthatarenotthesimplestraightforwardslopedroofsshownindemonstrations.Thisarticlewilllookatmakingaroof with a shaped surface to create crickets using the roof shape editing tools and explore some of the situations that you may encounterwiththeseroofs. What's the Point of This Roof? the roof. Notice that in the Edit Assembly window (Figure 3), one of the roofmaterialshastheVariableproperty checked. This allows material thicknesstoincreaseordecreasesotheroof to be shaped with ridges and valleys. Any other materials above the variable onewillfollowtheslopeofthevariable material. Click OK to close the Edit Assembly dialog and then click the big green checkmark button in the Modify/Create Roof by Footprint tab to finish the roof.Thisiswherethefunbegins! Figure 2: Uncheck Define Slope to create a flat roof. Drafting the roof Figure 1: Roof tools Take a look at your roof and think abouthowtheroofwillslopeandwhere you need to place crickets. Then, using detaillines,drafttheroofslopelines.BelievemewhenIsaythatthisstepisgoing tosaveyoutimeandfrustrationbecause youwillhaveapatterntogobywhenusingtheroofshapeeditingtoolstocreate theslopes. FirestoneBuildingProductshasaroof taperedinsulationdesignguideavailable online that I highly recommend. This guide will show you actual configurationsofcricketsusingtaperedinsulation. Creating roofs Creating a roof is fairly simple, particularlyifitisflat.Itisnotthatmuch different than making a floor slab. The roof creation tools are located in the BuildpaneloftheHometabintheribbon menu. Use Roof by Footprint tool tocreateaflatroof(seeFigure1). If the open view is not the top plan viewAutodesk�Revit�willaskyouto select the level in which to draw the roof.Keepinmindthataflatroofisjustified at the bottom face, meaning that the level you select will be the bottom ofyourroof. Onceyouareattheappropriatelevel, Revitswitchestosketchmodeandyou can start drawing the outline of your roof. The pink lines in Figure 2 above indicate the boundary lines of the roof that follow the building footprint. Make sure the Define Slope option is not checked in the Options Toolbar whencreatingtheroofboundarylines. In the Element Properties dialog, click the Edit Type button to select and define the type and properties of 28 Figure 3: Define a variable thickness material. w w w. A U G I . c o m Figure 4: Roof Shape Editing Tools (http://www.mwacrs.com/Files/MWA_ Guide/MWATaperedGuide.pdf). Onceyouhavedraftedtherooflines,selecttheroofobjecttodisplaytheroofshaping tools in the ribbon bar (see Figure 4). These tools are only available for editing flat roofs and floors. If you slope the roof bydefiningslopededges,theshapeediting toolswillnotbedisplayed. Modify Sub Elements:Usethistoolto editpointsandedgesoftheroof. Add Point:Usethistooltoaddnewshape controlpointstothesurfaceoftheroof. Add Split Line: Use this tool to add new ridge and valley lines on the surface oftheroof. Pick Supports: Use this tool to shape theroofbasedonselectedstructuralmembersandwalllocations. Reset Shape: Use this tool to remove allmodificationsandrestoretherooftoits originalstate. UsingtheAddSplitTools,youcannow draw the actual roof slope lines following thedraftedlinesdoneearlier.Asyoudraw the lines, new roof shape control points willbeinsertedattheendsofeachline. Uptothispointyoustillhaveaflatroof because all the control points have the sameelevation. Youmaywonderifyouhavetocalculate all those points all over your roof. Don't sweatit,becauseyoudon'thaveto.Before youstartpullingpointsupanddownand calculating elevations, let me give you anothertip. 1. Createatleasttwosectionviewstosee the roof section at the edges and at the roofdrainlocations(seeFigure5). 2. In section view, draw a reference line from the lowermost point of the surface of the roof, usually the roof drain, and extend it past the outeredgeoftheroofatanyangleabove the surface. You will use this reference planeasaguidetoadjusttheroofshape controlpointelevations. 3. Create an angular dimension from the roofsurfacetothereferenceline. 4.Select the reference line and enter the following in the dimension text box: =atan[1/4"/12"] (Thisexampleformulacalculatestheangleofa�"perfootslope.) Repeatthesestepstoestablishtheslope line reference of your roof for the other roofsides. Figure 5: Use Section Views to adjust roof elevations. Pleasekeepinmindthattheroofshape editing tools are only available for flat roofs.Butwhatifyouhaveaslopingroof structure and yet crickets are required for roof drains as is common in many office buildings? In that case you need to slope the roof by defining a roof edge with a slope when creating its boundaries.Thenusemoreroofobjectstocreate eachcricketasneeded.Theadvantageof defining a slope edge is that regardless oftheshapeofthebuilding,theedgesof theroofwillshowthecorrectsloperelationship, particularly with curved walls. Curved walls are difficult to work with usingthemethoddescribedearlier. If that's the case, why use the control point method at all? If the building structureisflatandyouuseaslopedroof object, you will need to modify the roof in section to display the roof layers correctly. For example, the roof insulationlayershould show thicker or thinner depending on where the wall section is cut without having to modify every section. This could amount to some significantamount Figure 6: Drag roof control point to the reference line. of work. On the other hand, if the roof structure slopes, then you have no Shaping the roof otherchoicebuttouseaslopedroofand Nowcomestheeasypart.Withallyour create your crickets with more roof obreference lines established, all you need jects.Thismeansthatyoumayhavesome to do now is dragthe roof surfacecontrol editingtodoinsectionlateron. pointstothereferenceline.ToedittheconTakeasmallbuildingliketheexample trolpointsyoumustselecttherooffirstand inthisarticleandtrycreatingroofsusing then click the Modify Sub Elements tool. both of these methods to see which one Using the point's directional arrows, drag youfeelmorecomfortablewith.Thenyou thepointuntilitsnapswiththereference will have a better feel for the effort and line(Figure6). time required to create roofs with each Itisimportanttokeeptrackofthepoints approach. youarechangingtoavoiddraggingpoints fromadifferentsideoftheroofassomeof Felix M. Gonzalez is the them will be visible as well. Make use of Senior Project Coordinareference lines in plan to guide you to the tor and Medical Equipcorrectpointlocationsifyouneedthem. ment Planner for HuntonThebenefitsofusingthismethodofroof Brady Architects, PA. in creationareasfollows: Orlando, Florida. He has a � Depending on the complexity of the bachelor's degree in combuildingfootprint,theentireroofcanbe puter programming and has been working madewithoneobject. with Autodesk products for 20 years. Felix � No calculations are required to get the can be contacted at fgonzalez@huntoncorrectslopesandpointelevations. brady.com. � The roof layers will display correctly in sectionwithouttheneedforfurtherroof modification.Thiscouldbeabigissueif youhavealotofwallsections. 29 An alternate approach Jan/Feb 2011 AUTODESK REVIT STRUCTURE When you embark on your first project in Autodesk� Revit�, there is a desire to push the software as far as possible. Whetherthisprojectisasinglefamilyhome or a large commercial project, once you start modeling you may find yourself wanting to add more details or schedule more objects. This article will explore the Wood Framing Walls extension inside AutodeskRevitStructure.Thisisoneofthose toolsthatcanquicklyaddmoreinformation intoyourmodelwithoutalotofeffort. Figure 2: Sample Wall Layout Figure 1: Wood Framing Walls found in the Extensions Manager Navigating the tool To take full advantage of this exercise-driven article, I suggest you sketch outafewwallswithadoorandwindow opening. The image shown in Figure 2 canbeusedasanguide. The key to launching the Wood FramingWallstoolistofirstselectthewallsto whichyouwanttoapplyframing.Oncethe wallsareselected,youcandouble-clickon theWoodFramingWallstooltoenterinto the dialog box. The dialog box is shown belowinFigure3.Thedialogisthekeyelementindefiningtherulesthatwillapply thewoodframingtoyourselectedwalls. The Wood Framing Walls dialog box has three main sections as shown in Figure4.Sectiononeinthetopleftisusedto navigatetothedifferentelementstosetthe framingrules.Sectiontwointhetopcenter isthegraphicdisplayofthewallsyouhave selected.Belowisalistoftipstohelpcontrolthedisplay. Youcanindividuallyselectawallbyhovering over the wall and selecting with the leftmousebutton. IfyouhaveaMicrosoftwheelmouse,you canholddownthewheeltopanaround. 30 Figure 3: Wood Framed Walls dialog box Figure 4: Three Major Sections of Wood Framed Walls Dialog Box w w w. A U G I . c o m Holding down the right mouse button willallowyoutoorbitaroundthedrawing togiveyourselfabetterview. Sectionthreeonthelowerhalfofthedialog box is where you specify your componentstobeusedforframing.Hereyouwill seetwotabs,onelabeled"Walls,"whichis a global setting for all walls you have selected.Theothertabisfor"CurrentWall." Figure 8: Specifying Studs and Blocking Thistaballowsyoutodefinespecificrules thatwillapplytoonewallselected. Applying your settings Figure 5: Geometry Sectiononeinthedialogboxallowsyou lookatthegeometryoftheselectedwalls. AsyoucanseeinFigure6,theGeometry section shows a unique name that identifiestheselectedwall.Allothervalues are grayed out in the lower section of the dialog box. The grayed out values are the geometric properties of the wall. If you need to make any changes to the geometry of the wall, you need to exit out of the Wood Framing Walls dialog boxtomakeyourchangestothewallsin themodel.Oncethegeometryischanged, Figure 9: External Framing Figure 6: Geometry of selected wall Figure 12: Specifications for bottom plate Figure 10: Specifications for Left and Right Stud Figure 7: Studs and Blocking Figure 11: Specifications for top plate Figure 13: T-connections Jan/Feb 2011 31 Figure 15: Door King stud specifications Figure 14: Default T-connection enterbackintotheWoodFramingWalls extensiontocontinue. StudsandBlockingisanothersettingin Sectiononeofthedialogbox. The bottom of the dialog box remains grayed out until you select a wall or all wallstowhichyouwanttoapplyframing rules.SelectallwallsasshowninFigure2. Onceyouhaveallthewallsselected,verify that your settings match those shown below in Figure 8. You will see that each valuehasanidentifierthatcoincideswith theimageinthelowerrighthandcornerof thedialogbox.Inthe"Stud"section,verify that"Applytoallwalls" is selected. Next, set the length value to 4'-0", the distance between two studs. In this example the distanceof4'-0"mayrepresentthewidthof asheetofgypsumwallboard.Thenumber ofintermediatestudsneedstobespecified. One intermediate stud would represent 2'-0" on center spacing. Two intermediate studswouldrepresent1'-4"oncenterspacing.Setthenumberofintermediatestudsto two.Thelastitemtospecifyinthissection isthesizeofourstuds.Settheheightto3 4/8"andthewidthto14/8".Inthisexercise wewillnotbespecifyinganyblocking. Next we will move into the External Framingsection. WhenExternalFramingisselected,you will notice the bottom half of the dialog boxchanges.Therearefourtabsallowing us to specify the four outside sections of our walls--the left stud, right stud, top plate,andbottomplate.Onlyonewallat a time can be done when specifying the left and right stud. Select each wall individuallyandspecifytheleftandrightstud for each wall as indicated in Figure 10. Thereisatypedrop-downthatgivesyoua choiceofvariousendconditions.Forthis Figure 17: King stud specifications Figure 16: Door Header specifications Figure 18: Header specification Figure 19: Sill specifications 32 w w w. A U G I . c o m exercise,wewillkeepitbasicandjustuse a single stud for both the left- and righthandconditions. Thetopandbottomplatecanbespecifiedforallthewallsatonce.Selectallthe walls, then set your top and bottom plate according to Figures 11 and 12. Specify a double2x4topplateandasingle2x4bottomplate. Next we will move into the specificationsfor"T-Connections."T-Connections default as shown in Figure 14. After the Wood Framing Walls tool is complete, manualadjustmentscanbemadeattheTconnectionsasneeded. The framing rules for openings such as doors and windows will be set next. This willbedoneoneopeningatatime.Witha wallselectedthatcontainsopening(s),the drop-downmenuallowsyoutodefineyour framingrulesoneopeningatatime.Ifyou haveadooropeningselected,youwillspec- ifykingstudsandtheheaderframingrules. Ifyouhaveawindowopeningselectedyou willspecifythekingstuds,header,andsill framing rules. Select the wall containing thedooropeningandspecifythekingstuds andheaderasshowninFigures15and16. With the wall which contains the windowselected,specifythekingstuds,header andsillasshowninfigures17,18,and19. The last section is "User defined elements." This is used if you need to place anyadditionallumberatspecificlocations. This may be for some additional blocking supportforwallmounteditems.Figure20 isasnapshotofthisdialogbox. Now that we have specified all of our framing rules, select OK to perform the operation. Figure 21 shows the framing complete. Displaying your results Figure 20: User defined elements Ifyouneedtocreateaviewthatdisplays onlyyourframing,usethevisibilitygraphic settings for your view. These components fall under the category of structural framing. Because these components are structural framing members, you can turn off walls in the visibility graphics settings. Forpresentationreasonsyoumaywantto adjust your material settings as shown in Figure22todisplaytheframing. Additional information Figure 21: Sill specifications Onedownfalloftheframingisthatonce it is placed in your model it is not associatedtothewall.Ifyoumoveyourwallthe framingdoesnotmovewithit.However,if yousimplyselectallyourwallsandlaunch the Wood Framing Walls extension, all yoursettingsarestored.Thiswayyoujust selectOK,andallyourspecificationsarereappliedtothewallsandyourframingwill beupdated. Youalsomaywanttoconsidercreatinga worksetforyourwoodframing,whichwill allowbettervisibilitycontrols. Phil Russo began with AutoCAD version 2.5 in 1986. Through the years, he has held positions in the CAD industry as CAD draftsman, CAD manager, applications engineer, and Autodesk Certified Instructor. Lately Phil's focus has been on the development and implementation of standard practices for the Autodesk Revit product line including Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, and Revit MEP. He currently works at Lindemann Bentzon Bojack, an architectural and engineering firm located in Clermont, Florida. He can be reached at email@example.com. 33 Figure 22: Shaded display Jan/Feb 2011 AutoCAD AutoCAD 2011 While sitting around reflecting on AutoCAD� (yeah, I do that), I had a thought.Thereseemstobemoretoolsfor customizing the interface than there are forcreatingandalteringgeometry.Thisis oneofthethingshard-coreusersloveabout AutoCAD,butnewusersmaynotyethave takenadvantageof. The interface can be as individual as theuser.AutoCADhasasuccessionofoptionsthatgivesusersthecomfortofliving in their personal space as opposed to the "livinginahotelroom"feelingthatyoucan getfromothersoftware.Ifyoueverhadto work on someone else's workstation, it is kind of like driving their car. You need to adjusttheseatandmirrors,andchangethe musicbeforeyouevengetgoing.Inthisarticle.AutoCADwillgetanextrememakeover.Themanyoptionstocontroltheinterfacewillbeexploredandaltered,leavingan AutoCADthatis,perhaps,unrecognizable. Starting at the top of the default interface,theQuickAccessToolbar(QAT)has optionstoaddorremovethestandardQAT tools, but any defined command (custom and otherwise) can be added to the QAT byselectingtheMore Commands... toolfrom theflydownfoundattheendoftheQAT. Itcanalsobeplacedaboveorbelowtheribbonfromthatsamedrop-downmenu. Own the Interface The Application Menu (also know as the Big Red A) has a little-used option to displaythefilescurrentlyopenratherthan the recent files list. This is a great way to navigatebetweenopenfileswhenthereare manyopen.Thedisplayofthefilescanbe changedfromsmallorbigiconsorimages byselectingthetoolatthetopofthelist. RightclickontheViewCubeandselect View Cube Settings. The dialog that appears isusedtochangetheviewcube'slocation, size,opacity,andothersettings,forturning onandoffthecompass,andtheUCSmenu aswellaschangingotherthezoom,orientation,andtransitiondefaults. The Navigation Bar, which contains thesteeringwheel,pan,zoom,andother tools, is sometimes linked to the View Cube. Click the down arrow located at the end of the navigation bar to turn on and off elements of the bar or select the Docking Positions fly to change its attachmenttotheviewcubeorrelocateitsdefaultlocation. The Ribbon is the Swiss army knife of interfacetools,andmostofitsoptionsare availableonlybyeditingtheCUI.Thereare optionsthatonecantakewithoutopening theCUI.Thebuttonsattheendoftheribboncanbeusedtocyclethroughshowing the whole ribbon, or just the Tabs, Panel Titles,orPanelButtons. Theribbonitselfisreallyjustanextremelycoolpalette.Right-clickinanunoccupied spaceontheribbonandchoosetheUndock commandtoreleasetheribbonfromthetop ofthescreen.Itcanfloatorre-docktothe sides or top of the screen. It will not dock atthebottom.Individualribbonpanelscan bereorderedbydraggingthemtonewlocations in the ribbon. Panels can be removed fromtheribbonandplacedanywhereonthe screen.Apanelthathasbeenremovedfrom tab "A" will remain visible when tab "B" is currentlyopen.Thisisgreatforapanelthat getsalotofuseduringanarrayofactivities. w w w. A U G I . c o m 34 Palettes can be docked to the edge of thescreen,meaningthat'swheretheywill stayuntilmoved,ortheycanbeanchored, meaning they pop out when the curser touchesthem.Whenanchored,right-click onthebarintowhichtheyareanchoredto selectIconsorText.Havingiconsinthebar reducesthenumberoftimesthepaletteis accidentlyopenedbecausetheiconsareso muchsmallerthanthedescriptivetextthat wouldotherwisebethere. Ortho, etc. and the traditional words that graced our screens back in the 1900s. Just click the Use Icons tool on the right-click menutoswitchbackandforth. TheOptionsdialogcanbeusedtocustomizethecolorsandfontsusedbytheinterface. Invokeoptionsbytypingitonthecommand lineorselectingfromthebottomoftheapplicationmenu.TheDisplaytabhasaWindow Elementssectionwhichcontainsbuttonsto opentheColorsandFontsdialogs. SavingaProfileisagreatwaytosecure the options that have been created. Go to theProfiletabintheOptionsdialogandselecttheExportbuttonontherighttosave theconfiguration.Thatprofilecannowbe imported into any AutoCAD session and used to easily make the interface changes current.SomeCADmanagershaveahabit offorcingaprofilewhentheAutoCADicon on the desktop is double clicked. This is donebyaddingaswitchtotheIcon.Right clickontheAutoCADiconandselectProperties.IntheTargetboxadd"/P."Thistells AutoCAD to use the profile found at the paththatcomesnext.Thenaddapathenclosedinquotationmarks. Somepalettesallowtransparency.Rightclick on the edge of the Properties palette andselecttheTransparencytool.Thisopens theTransparencydialogthatcanbeusedto changethispaletteorallthepalettes. TheApplicationStatusBarisatthebottomofthescreen.Atthefarrightisatiny blacktrianglethatpopsuptheApplication StatusBarmenu. Forthemostpart,thefonttoolcontrols only the command line. This is great for makingthecommandlinelooklikeaclassicDOSprompt.Thesizeofthecrosshairs and the display of other default elements can be changed in the Display tab of the Options dialog box. Anything changed in theOptionsdialogwithaDWGiconnext toitwillonlyaffectthecurrentdrawing.If noiconispresent,thechangesapplytoall drawingssystemwide. Every time the icon is used to start AutoCAD,thesavedprofilewillbeloaded andused. Using the options discussed in this article to change AutoCAD, the following screen shot of an extremely made over AutoCAD was generated. Yeah, it's still AutoCAD.Nowgomakeoneforyourself. Todd Shackelford is the BIM Manager for Alvine and Associates, the president of the BIM Board of Omaha, and an instructor for the University of Nebraska. He authors three Blogs; CAD Shack , The Lazy Drafter and Revit Basics. Todd has been a featured speaker at Autodesk University, AUGI CAD Camps, CSI, IEEE and AIA events. Contact Todd at email@example.com Outofcuriosity,Iturnedeverythingon.It fit,butjustbarely.Abetteruseofthismenu is getting the items that aren't used out of the way. Be careful, though sometimes -- itisusefultohaveatogglefortoolsjustto turnthemoff.TheDrawingStatusBarcan bedetachedfromtheApplicationStatusbar inthesamemenu.Alittleknowngemisthe ability to right click on the Status Toggles toswitchbetweenthenewiconsforSnap, Jan/Feb 2011 35 Spaces are style-based architectural objects(2Dor3D)thatcontainspatialinformationaboutabuilding.Thisincludes floor and wall area, volume, surface information,andmuchmore.Spacescanbegin to define the layout of a building's internalroomsandareas.Theycanalsodefine rooms and areas for scheduling purposes andforareacalculationsandevaluations. Space types Thereareafewdifferenttypesofspaces that can be modeled in AutoCAD� Architecture.Let'stakealookateachone. Associative spaces are generated from boundary objects. The space will update accordingly when the boundary objects change. In addition to associative spaces, non-associative spaces with user-defined geometrycanalsobecreated.Youcanuse anon-associativespacetogeneratecalculationsjustlikeyouwoulduseanassociative space or it can standalone in a drawing. Non-associative spaces can be connected to boundary objects after their creation. Inthesameway,associativespacescanbe disconnectedfromtheirboundaryobjects. 2D spaces can display spatial informationin2plandimensions.TheZdirection is set to 0 by default and is ignored during creation, editing, and scheduling the space.2Dspacescanbepolygonalorrectangularandassociativeornon-associative. A 2D space can be bounded by linework and 3D objects. 2D spaces are typically usedwhere3Dinformationisnotneeded, suchasPlanview. Anextruded3Dspaceissimilartoa2D space;however,ithasauser-definedextrusionheight.Extrudedspacesareusefulfor regularly shaped 3D spaces; for example, uniform-height rooms in a building. Extruded spaces can have ceiling and floor componentsaswellasspaceabovetheceiling and below the floor. The space above the ceiling is often used to place cables, ductwork, and electrical installations in a room.Extruded3Dspacescanbeassociative to linework and 3D objects; however, theyareboundonlyintheXandYdirections.TheZdirectionisdefinedbytheextrusionheight. 3D freeform spaces are generated from boundary objects and are associative to them.Associative3Dfreeformspacesmust be bound in all directions to form a valid boundary shape. A 3D freeform space is a complex 3D geometry with any number of surfacesneededtogeneratethespaceshape. style.Thishelpstomaintainaconsistent namingsystemacrossabuildingproject. � Boundary Offsets � You can specify the distance that a space's usable, net and gross boundaries will be offset from its base boundary. Each boundary has its own display components, to which you cansetaccordingtoyourneeds. � Target Dimensions � You can define a targetarea,length,andwidthforspaces thatareinsertedwithaspecificstyle. � DisplayingDifferentSpaceTypes�You can draw construction spaces, demolitionspaces,andtrafficspacesthateach utilizesdifferentdisplayproperties. Creating space styles Space styles Aspacestyleisasetofparametersthat determinestheappearanceofthespaceobjecttowhichitisassigned,aswellasother characteristics. You may want to create differentspacestylestorepresentdifferent typesofspaces,dependingonthescopeof the drawing. For example, you may want a space style for office space, another one forcommonarea,anotheroneformechanicalspace,andsoon.Youcanusestylesfor controllingthefollowingaspectsofspaces. � NameList�Youcanselectfromalistof allowednamesforspacesofaparticular To create a Space Style, begin by clickingtheManagetabontheribbon,selectthe Style&Displaypanel,andthenselectStyle Manager(seeFigure1).TheStyleManager will display with the current drawing expandedinthetreeview.ExpandArchitecturalObjectsandthenexpandSpaceStyles. You can create a new Space Style by right-clickingonSpaceStylesandselecting New(seeFigure2).Youcanalsocreatea SpaceStylefromanexistingstylebyrightclickingtheSpaceStyleyouwanttocopy and selecting Copy. Next you will rightclickandselectPaste.Enteranameforthe new Space Style and hit Enter. Now you will need to edit the new Space Style accordingtohowthespaceshouldappear-- itssize,andsoon.Oncefinished,youcan addthenewSpaceStyletoyourtoolpalette foreasyaccess. Figure 1: Ribbon 36 w w w. A U G I . c o m YoucanalsocreateSpacesinyourdrawingbyconvertingpolylines,objectoutlines, and profiles to spaces. Simply open the Space tool palette and right-click on the Space tool you wish to use. Next, select Apply Tool Properties To and then select LineworkAndAECObjects(seeFigure5). Selecttheobjectsand/orpolylinesyouwish toconvertandhitEnter.UnderCutPlane HeightontheConverttoSpaceworksheet, entertheheightatwhichtheobjectshould be cut to generate the profile of the new space.SelectOK. Space boundaries Figure 2: Style Manager Creating spaces in your drawing Figure 3: Space Tool Palette AutoCAD� Architecture provides tools that allow you to quickly place spaces by selectingaspacetoolwithaspecificspace style as well as other predefined properties.Youcanusethetoolasiswithitsdefaultsettingsoryoucanchangeanyofthe propertiesthatarenot controlledbythestyle. Youcanalsousespace tools to apply tool properties to existing objects to create new spaces. Space tools can be found on the space tab of the tool palette (see Figure 3). To begin creating spaces in your drawing,draganddropthe desiredspacefromthe tool palette to your drawing and begin. Youcanalsofindspace toolsintheStockTool Catalog, the Sample Palette Catalog, and the Design Tool Catalog. Once you are in the Space command, the Space tab will appear in the Ribbon (seeFigure4). Spaces have four different boundaries thatcanbeusedtodisplay,edit,andscheduledifferentaspectsofthespace.Youcan turnoffthedisplaycomponentsfortheadditionalboundariesifdifferentboundaries arenotneededforthesamespace(seeFigure6).Someusesforindividualboundaries arelistedbelow. � Base Boundary � This normally represents the inner area of a room covered byaspace.Thisistheareageneratedby boundaryobjectsinanassociativespace. � Net Boundary � This boundary can be usedfordetaileddesignaswellasplanning.Thenetboundarycanalsobeused Figure 5: Apply Tool Properties Figure 4: Space Tab Jan/Feb 2011 37 Figure 6: Space Display Manager forspecialapplicationswhenthecalculated area of a space is smaller than the baseboundary. � UsableBoundary�Thisboundaryisused fordetaileddesignandplanning,maintenance,pricing,rentingcalculations,and muchmore.Usableboundariestypically extend from the inside of the exterior wallstothemiddleoftheinteriorwalls. � GrossBoundary�Thisboundarycanbe usedinconnectionwithcostcalculation, price estimates, key numbers for the buildingorfloor,andmuchmore.Typically, the gross boundary is measured fromtheoutsideoftheexteriorwallsto themiddleoftheinteriorwalls. Spaces, then and now I have received many comments and questions from people who are upgrading from an earlier version of Architectural Desktop (around 2005 or 2006) to AutoCADArchitecture2011concerningdifferencestheyareseeinginthespacetools. They are correct, as there are a number of changesinthespaceplanningfeatures. In AutoCAD Architecture 2011, spaces, space boundaries and areas have all been unified into one space object. This space object contains the properties that were 38 formerly associated with these other objects,aswellasseveralnewandenhanced features.Let'slookatafewofthese. Spaces now contain the properties that wereassociatedwithspacesandareasprior to AutoCAD Architecture 2011. These spacescanbegroupedintozonesandthen processedasspaceevaluations. Space boundaries are now a part of the space object, whereas these were previously separate objects. If you have space boundaries that were created in previous versions, they will be converted to walls when the drawing is opened in AutoCAD Architecture2011. Areasarenowintegratedwithspaces,includingpropertiesthatwereformerlyspecifictoareas.Whenadrawingisopenedin AutoCADArchitecture2011thatcontained areasinanearlierrelease,theareasareautomatically converted to spaces. When this happens, all area properties are converted to the corresponding space properties. Area groups, however, are converted to zones. Both area tools and area group toolsarenolongerneededinthesoftware and,therefore,havebeenomitted. The area evaluation feature has now been converted to the space evaluation feature. Space evaluation is a documentationfeature.Itcalculatestheareaandperimeterinformationtobeusedinafinished floor plan. This information is displayed as a separate file that you can export to a spreadsheet.Spaceevaluationcanbeused for submitting floor plans to building authorities,costestimates,organizingfacility managementofbuildings,andmuchmore. There are several more changes not discussedhere,sofeelfreetogetinthere andexplore! Conclusion Spaces are an essential part of the AutoCAD Architecture software. They help you to extract data contained in the drawing for use in scheduling, tagging, and analysis. Spaces are an integral part in enhancing your productivity for facility managementaswellastheworkingdrawingphaseofyourproject.Iencourageyou toexplorethepossibilitieswithspacesand seehowfaryoucango! Melinda Heavrin is a CAD Coordinator for Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky. She can be reached for comments and questions at email@example.com. w w w. A U G I . c o m I Been to the Library? A UGI, throughthe contributionsof members,produces monthlymagazinessuchas AUGIWorld.Wellthearticles inthesemagazinesdon't growontrees!Thecontent comesfrommemberswillingtocontribute. IfyouareanAUGImember,youprobably useanAutodeskproduct.Doyouknowyour productprettywell?Haveyoueversatdown withsomeoneelseto explainhowPaperSpace works,orhowtoexplode polylines,orcustomize theCUI?Thesemessagesyousharecasuallywithothers arethesamemessagesthatothersoutsideofyourareaneed tohear.Justimagine...eventhoughyouhavebeenusing AutoCADsinceR9,today,somewhereintheworld,someone startedusingAutoCADforthefirsttime.Andthatexpert levelchangeyoumadetoyourCUItoworkbetterwithyour Are you ready to write? fyou'vevisitedwww.AUGI.com recently,thenyou'veseenahighly visibleimprovementinAUGI's memberinterface.Butoneofthemost excitingfeaturesisstillflyingunder theradarandthatistheLibrary. TheLibraryisthehomefor articlesandwhitepapersthat themembershipcontribute totheorganization.Thereisa tremendousamountof materialgeneratedby membersanduntilnow thatcontent `shelflife' waspretty short.Since magazines comeoutmonthly,anarticle'stimein thespotlightisbrief.Well,nolonger! AsissuesofAUGIWorld, AUGI | AEC EDGEarereplacedbynewones,the staffatAUGIwillbepostingarticle contentonthewebsiteinHTML.The magazinePDFswillstay,ofcourse. ConsidertheAUGILibraryanewarea toreadsomegreatcontent.Finding articlesfrompastissuesisabreeze, becausesearchingandcategorization cannowbeappliedtothesearticles.In addition,theLibraryistherealhome forAUGI HotNews,anemail-based monthlypublication. PGPtoday?Tomorrowsomeoneelse willbeginthatexerciseaswelland youcouldsavethemsometimewith yourinsight.So,getoutthereandjoin thefun�contributetoyourmagazines andyourfellowmembers.Share yourknowledgeandexpertisewith beginnersandadvancedusersalike. Peoplearereadytohearwhatyouhave tosay.Formoredetailscontact email@example.com