Exhibit Hall Highlights from Autodesk University 2006

This month's issue of the "Building the Future" series provides an overview of some of the products that were on display in the Exhibit Hall at the recently concluded Autodesk University 2006, where over 100 exhibitors were showing hardware and software solutions that work with Autodesk products. It is a follow-up to AECbytes Newsletter #28 published last week, which captured the highlights of the general and building industry sessions of Autodesk University.

BIM and Energy Analysis

Recall from last week's newsletter that one third party application that was featured in both the general session as well as the building industry presentation was IES, an advanced building performance assessment solution that integrates with Revit Systems, allowing building performance and LEED analysis to be carried out with the building data captured in the BIM model without having to recreate it. I visited the IES booth in the Exhibit Hall to find more about this prototype, and learnt that IES is actually the name of the company, short for Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd., and that the name of its building performance software suite is <Virtual Environment> or <VE>. The company was established in 1994 and is headquartered in Glasgow, UK, with offices in Boston, US, and Melbourne, Australia. The IES <VE> ranks as the world's first commercially available software system for integrated building performance analysis, providing tools for thermal analysis, value engineering, cost planning, lifecycle analysis, airflow analysis, lighting, and occupant safety, all in one unified system. Given its long history and development roots in the UK, <VE> is in widespread use there; it is also starting to gain traction in the US, with adoption by firms such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Stantec, Henderson Engineering, BNIM, Arup, Cohos Evamy and Jaros, Baum & Bolles.

At the heart of the <VE> suite is its Integrated Data Model or IDM, which captures all the information about the building that is needed to carry out the various analyses. <VE> includes a ModelBuilder module for actually creating the model geometry that constitutes the IDM, but with the new ability to work with BIM data, this step can now be skipped. <VE> works directly with Revit Systems using API level integration; this may be also available in future versions of Revit Building. For other BIM applications, the data can be brought into <VE> through the use of the gbXML format. <VE> also includes a compliance module designed to automate performance based building regulations and energy codes compliance analysis for various environmental rating systems. This currently works for UK Part L regulations and LEED daylighting in detail, with partial support for LEED Thermal and Greenstar, a rating system used in Australia. IES is actively working on developing automated support for more regulations and rating systems in use in different countries.

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Integration of Building Product Manufacturers' Content with BIM

In my article capturing the highlights of the AIA National Convention and Expo held earlier this year, I envisioned BIM spawning a whole new generation of what I referred to as "supporting technologies"—applications that extend the core capabilities of BIM applications to cover many different aspects of building planning, design, and construction. The IES <VE> just described qualifies as one such example of a supporting technology. Another example of a supporting technology in the critical area of "BIM objects" is ADSymphony, which integrates product selection, schedule generation, specification generation, and organizing and managing object information. ADSymphony, developed by Architectural Data Systems (ADS), has an online version that can be used without CAD or BIM, where the user specifies the products and materials for the project manually, using pull-down menus and entering data in forms. It also comes with a CAD interface that has, until now, integrated only with AutoCAD and ADT, allowing the specs and schedules to be created as you add objects or keynotes to your drawings.

At Autodesk University 2006, ADS showed the upcoming integration of ADSymphony with Revit, a promising development that should help to bridge the critical gap between BIM applications and actual building products. This is how, in brief, the integration works. When the user drags an object from the Revit Project Browser into the model, ADSymphony recognizes that action and starts the appropriate worksheet. The user then selects a product from a catalog and that information populates the ADS worksheet (see Figure 2-a). Upon save, those attributes get attached to the Revit object. The user can change the name of the original family type or choose to have a new type created (see Figure 2-b). If a new type is created, it appears in the Revit Project Browser (see Figure 2-c), and the user can subsequently start with either the generic Revit family type or the specific ADS-created family type to create a new object. Product selection can take place from the growing ADS library of over 700 manufacturers' catalogs, or from company-created custom data. Once product selection has been completed, specifications can be created from ADS masters that have been written by independent spec writers. The choice of creating specs using the MASTERSPEC Short Form library or the company's own masters is also available. Specs are created in Word and schedules in Excel or DWG format.

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BIM Customized for a Specific Building Type

Last summer, I reviewed version 3.0 of VisionREZ, a BIM application customized for residential design that is available as a plug-in for ADT (Autodesk Architectural Desktop) or as a stand alone product. It features drawing extraction, automatic framing, built-in cost estimation, intelligent objects, and many other smarts specific to residential design, along with VIZ Render integration that allows high-quality visuals and animations to be generated from the model. At Autodesk University 2006, Ameri-CAD Inc. showed a sneak peak of some of the new features in the upcoming version 5.0 of VisionREZ. In addition to the existing floor and roof framing capability, VisionREZ 5.0 will also feature automated wall framing using different styles that can be established by the user, such as interior stud style, size and spacing; number and style of horizontal and rake top plates; number and style of bottom plates; and opening spans including number of jack studs and header size. Once the styles are established, a whole level of the model can be framed at once using ADT structural members, also providing for accurate material takeoff of the framing (see Figure 3-a). Another new feature is the ability to create a 3D DWF and a VisionREZ Bill of Materials and integrate them into one file, so that the user can select an item in the Material List in the 3D DWF and see where it is used in the model or select an item in the model and see it in the Material List. Many additional smart objects specific to residential design will become available, including doors, fireplaces, appliances, cabinets, railings, and accessories (see Figure 3-b).

VisionREZ is an interesting application to keep track of, as it is one of the best examples of a likely future technological trend in AEC: BIM applications customized for specific building types with many smarts and rules specific to that type built in, making BIM technology more intelligent and easier to use.

Other Software and Hardware Solutions

Moving away from BIM applications and supporting technologies, I had the opportunity to learn more about Synergis Adept, an enterprise data management solution that provides AEC firms with a system to organize, manage, secure and share technical information throughout the lifecycle of their projects. With hundreds or thousands of drawings and documents being created, edited and reviewed for each project across various disciplines and geographic locations, data management is an essential tool to ensure project quality and to meet project timelines and budgets. Adept provides controlled corporate access to documents and drawings through a centralized database. It is tightly integrated with AutoCAD and AutoCAD-based products including ADT and ABS (Autodesk Building Systems), enabling attributes in drawing blocks to be automatically "synchronized" or populated into its SQL-based database, so that information can be accessed with Adept's searching and reporting tools. Adept also understands and manages XREF file relationships, ensuring they remain intact as files are edited, routed, moved, copied or replaced. The integration allows users to maintain good document management practices without hindering design productivity. Adept includes Cimmetry Systems AutoVUE that provides visualization, mark-up, and printing of several file formats, including DWG, DGN, DXF, PDF, Word, and Excel.

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CADzation is a regular exhibitor at Autodesk University, and this year, it used the show to release the next version of its popular conversion application, AcroPlot Pro, which can batch convert all major office, CAD, and graphics formats including Word, Excel, AutoCAD, DWF, CALS, JPG, GIF, GP4, TIFF, and PLT files into both PDF and DWF files. The new 2007 version of AcroPlot Pro features 64-bit compatibility; the ability to add text or image stamps to DWF files, both when batch converting to DWF or reprocessing existing DWF files that only need a stamp added; the ability to combine different file types at the time of conversion; easy modification of plot settings prior to conversion; and the ability to easily create both full size and half size drawing sets. AcroPlot Pro 2007 runs as a separate Windows application, and also includes the ability to convert DWG to PDF from within AutoCAD, as well as a Windows system printer driver that allows PDF files to be created from any software application. It has several advanced capabilities compared to other applications that create PDF or DWF files, such as the ability to create highly compressed PDFs without compromising on drawing fidelity; accurate conversion of True Type fonts leading to fully searchable text; simplified batch conversion with the ability to select specific layouts from AutoCAD files without first opening the AutoCAD DWG (see Figure 5); support for "lines merge" that allows line-work with overlapping intersections to be displayed and printed transparently in PDF; automatic creation of bookmarks and file names; sheet set and project management for all versions of AutoCAD; and API controls that allow the application to be customized by the user.

On the hardware front, I checked out 3Dconnexion's new product line-up of 3D navigation devices for 3D design and visualization that was launched at Autodesk University. A 3D navigation device features a ball or cap which rotates in 6 directions to control 3D imagery. It also has programmable buttons that can be mapped to application shortcuts and modifier keys for one-touch access, allowing execution of a command sequence that could otherwise take many trips to the keyboard or many clicks on the menu bar to accomplish. The controller cap allows a user to pan, zoom and rotate models and objects simultaneously and seamlessly and precisely position a model or scene in 3D space. This capability, along with the programmable buttons, allows 3D designers to greatly increase productivity when using a 3D navigation device for the non-dominant hand in conjunction with the use of a mouse. 3Dconnexion's product lineup includes SpaceNavigator, an entry-level solution for home, school and work that has two preprogrammed buttons; SpaceExplorer, a fully featured mid-range device with 15 pre-configured keys and advanced ergonomic design; SpaceTraveler, a portable solution with 8 buttons; and SpacePilot, the top-of-the-range device with over 21 programmable function keys, an LCD display, and other advanced capabilities. The devices come with 3Dconnexion's software which allows them to work with several design, visualization, and viewing applications including 3ds Max, Autodesk Design Reviewer, Autodesk DWF Viewer, Google Earth and Google SketchUp. I was treated to a Google Earth flythrough of Paris using just the basic SpaceNavigator device, and compared to my previous experience with navigating the application using the mouse—which was very interrupted and disjointed—it was amazingly smooth and seamless with SpaceNavigator. It was even possible to "fly" right into the model of the Eiffel Tower and "see" the view of Paris from any level and from any angle. As 3D takes off both in the design and visualization of buildings as well as cities—as witnessed from the examples in the opening general session of Autodesk University that I described in the last newsletter—3D navigation devices such as 3Dconnexion's will become invaluable for navigating 3D content more intuitively and effortlessly.

Figure 6. The 3Dconnexion product line of 3D navigation devices, which allow intuitive and seamless navigation in applications such as Google Earth. (Courtesy: 3Dconnexion)

While there were a lot more exhibitors displaying products relevant to the AEC industry at Autodesk University 2006, the products described here were the only ones that I had the opportunity to check out in detail. The complete list of exhibitors can be seen here.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.