Select Products Exhibited at Autodesk University 2003

In This Issue:

• The SketchUp Plug-in for ADT
• DWF and PDF Solutions
• 3D Design Publishing and Review
• A 3D Solution for 2D AutoCAD Users

Happy New Year!

In the last issue of the AECbytes newsletter, I discussed two of Autodesk's key announcements relevant to the building industry that were made at the recent Autodesk University event: the elaboration of its building information modeling (BIM) strategy, and the positioning of DWF as a strong competitor to Adobe's PDF for electronic distribution and viewing of drawing files. In this issue, I will describe some of the AutoCAD and AEC related products by other vendors that were on display in the Exhibit Hall at Autodesk University.

The SketchUp Plug-in for ADT

One of the critical shortcomings in current building modeling solutions is their lack of support for conceptual design tasks such as programming, space planning, conceptual sketching, and massing, as I discussed in my recent A-E-C Automation Newsletter article. One step towards a solution to this problem has come with a new SketchUp plug-in for Autodesk Architectural Desktop (ADT), which was unveiled at Autodesk University by @Last Software. SketchUp is an easy, intuitive, and fun to use application for 3D design exploration, which has continued to gain in popularity in the architectural design community since its release in Fall 2000. (See my previous articles on SketchUp in Cadence AEC Tech News #102 and #80.) The availability of this plug-in should be welcome news to those using ADT for building modeling-the 3D design concepts they develop using SketchUp can be intelligently imported as building objects into ADT, giving them a head start on design development.

The plug-in allows SketchUp data to be translated into ADT in different ways, depending upon the configuration and complexity of the SketchUp geometry. The simplest mode is automatic, in which all vertical surfaces become walls, all horizontal surfaces become slabs, and sloping surfaces become roof elements. Windows and doors also translate directly into ADT objects. If the 3D model configuration doesn't allow for a good translation using this method, specific surfaces can be differentiated with materials and an exact method of translation based on material can be specified. For a complex model for which neither of these methods works well, another more roundabout method is available: it uses section slices from SketchUp to convert lines to walls or curtain walls in ADT. While the plug-in does not guarantee a perfectly seamless and flawless translation for each model, it works well enough to save the time and tedium involved in developing the ADT model from scratch. More importantly, it is a great example of integrating diverse applications and workflows into a more coordinated design process.

DWF and PDF Solutions

With Autodesk pushing DWF as an alternative to Adobe's PDF for electronic documentation, this aspect is gaining in importance and the choice between the two formats can become as critical to a design firm as the choice of a CAD or modeling solution. There are other DWF and PDF solution providers in addition to Autodesk and Adobe, and two of these were exhibiting at Autodesk University: CADzation and Bluebeam.

CADzation happily circumvents the PDF versus DWF debate by providing solutions for both formats. It has four different products for different kinds of CAD documentation needs: AcroPlot, the company's flagship product, converts AutoCAD and Microsoft Word files into PDF files that are fully text searchable; AcroPlot Pro converts all major office, CAD, and graphics formats into both PDF and DWF files; AcroPlot Matrix allows viewing, printing, markup, and editing (page insertion, deletion, reordering, etc.) of PDF and DWF files; and finally, AcroPlot Auto converts entire drives of drawings, including legacy data, to PDF and DWF, and can be set to run nightly or continuously.

The other electronic documentation solution on display was a PDF-only solution, Bluebeam Pushbutton PDF. When installed, it appears as a three tool palette in AutoCAD and ADT. The first tool creates a single PDF of the current drawing; the second has various customization options; and the third allows multiple PDFs to be created in a batch. Hyperlinks and block attributes from the drawing are automatically transferred to the PDF files, along with layout size, orientation, and plot style table. In addition, text stamps and external files can be attached to the PDF file. Since the application is customized for CAD documents, it does a better job of maintaining the scale, line weights, color, and resolution of the drawing in comparison to a general-purpose PDF creation application.

3D Design Publishing and Review

As discussed in the last issue, Autodesk plans to eventually extend the capabilities of DWF to include 3D information as well, when exported from applications such as Revit and ADT. One solution already available for 3D design publishing and review is NavisWorks, which includes a suite of different applications. The entry level solution is Roamer, which quickly opens 3D design files in the most popular file formats, allowing review of geometry, object information, and materials. The other NavisWorks applications are available as plug-in components for Roamer: Presenter is an authoring application that allows textures, materials, and lights to be applied to the 3D model and creates both still and animated photorealistically rendered output; Publisher creates compressed and secure review files for sharing with other team members and clients, which can be viewed and navigated with Freedom, a free 3D viewer; Clash Detective allows the geometry created by different 3D design applications to be reviewed together and checked against each other for interferences; and finally, TimeLiner allows task schedules to be linked to 3D model data for performing 4D construction simulation.

While other 3D viewers are available to navigate through compressed 3D design files (for example, see my review of o2c_Interactive! in Cadence), what makes NavisWorks compelling is the additional functionality that goes beyond just viewing and navigating. As electronic publishing takes off in the AEC industry, solutions like NavisWorks will become significant as alternatives to DWF and PDF.

A 3D Solution for 2D AutoCAD Users

An interesting new product I came across at Autodesk University was 3D Metrix, an easier way to do 3D modeling within AutoCAD without leaving the comfort zone of the 2D AutoCAD drawing environment. It integrates with the user's existing AutoCAD system, activating only when required. The user defines the basic geometry of a design using AutoCAD's 2D tools; 3D Metrix then generates additional information such as hidden lines, multiple ortho views, iso views, and pictorial views, all within the same AutoCAD drawing. As more 2D geometry is defined, 3D Metrix automatically updates and maintains all the views, and tracks all the geometry in a browser window. Individual objects or groups can be edited, moved, and copied in the drawing, with the results immediately visible in all views. The application can be detached at any time, leaving standard AutoCAD drawing data as the basis for further detailing.

Considering the complex and non-intuitive 3D interface of AutoCAD (see my review of AutoCAD 2004 in Cadence), 3D Metrix seems to have touched a chord, and should be useful to many users who want to extend their 3D visualization capabilities without grapping with the complexities of a full-blown 3D modeling application. It is also heartening to find that innovation is still alive and well in the CAD industry, and startup solutions addressing pain points continue to emerge.

The next issue of the AECbytes newsletter will feature the Macworld 2004 show currently being held in San Francisco. Look out also for the inaugural Viewpoint article by Dominic Gallello, CEO of Graphisoft, and the inaugural Product Review featuring the new Revit 6.0 release.

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.

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