Inside the System

Integrating Building Energy Performance and BIM

Want to see a demonstration of the integration of building energy performance and BIM software? Then sign up for the upcoming gbXML webcast.

Autodesk Revit Model Review 2013

If you subscribe to the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2013 Premium edition, Ultimate edition, or AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite, you can download Autodesk Revit Model Review 2013 from the Subscription Center.

Automate the process of reviewing and auditing building information modeling (BIM) projects in Autodesk® Revit® 2013, Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2013, Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2013, or Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2013 software with the Autodesk® Revit® Model Review plug-in:

• Check the accuracy and consistency of a Project or Family against standards set by your firm, your clients, or industry best practices.
• Correct inconsistencies with a single click or
  with instructions provided when manual fixes are required.

Globe Link for Autodesk Revit 2013

If you subscribe to the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2013 Premium edition, Ultimate edition, or AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite, you can download Globe Link for Autodesk Revit 2013 from the Subscription Center.

Globe Link for Revit 2013 platform products helps users streamline preliminary project planning by enabling them to present conceptual designs in the context of the project site.

With Globe Link, users can publish 3D building information models directly from Autodesk® Revit® 2013, Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2013, Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2013, and Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2013 software into Google Earth™ mapping service. Users can also acquire site information from Google Earth mapping service and import it into Revit 2013 software applications for building and site layout purposes. Globe Link is optimized for Google Earth version 5 mapping service.

Globe Link is compatible with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Revit 2013, Revit Architecture 2013, Revit Structure 2013, and Revit MEP 2013 software.

Content is currently available in English only.

Space Naming Utility for Autodesk Revit MEP 2013

The Space Naming Utility for Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2013 software is an intuitive tool that automatically assigns the names and numbers from architectural rooms to Revit MEP spaces. By downloading the Space Naming Utility for Revit MEP 2013 software, you can eliminate the need to manually assign names to the spaces, helping save time and simplifying your workflow. If you subscribe to the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2013 Premium edition, Ultimate edition, or AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite, you can download the Space Naming Utility for Autodesk Revit MEP 2013 software from the Subscription Center.

Upgrade Your Project from 2012 and Get Loopy!

Revit 2013 introduces a new Arrow Style for Loops, though it may not be immediately obvious how to use it in an upgraded project.

1. On the Manage tab > Settings panel > Additional Settings > select Arrowheads
2. Select any of the types, and click Duplicate...
3. Name the duplicate Loop, or something suitable, and then click OK twice.
4. Now, select a tag with a leader in a view (such as the Pipe Size Tag).
5. On the Properties Palette, click Edit Type.
6. Click Duplicate...
7. Name the new type 'Pipe Size Tag with Loop', and click OK.
8. Set the Leader Arrowhead to Loop (or whatever you named it in step 3.)
9. Click OK.

Your pipe tag now has a loop leader.

Solar Computer now supports Revit MEP

Solar Computer recently announced their ability to import and export information from Autodesk Revit MEP for building, radiators, heat piping, ventilation, drinking water, and waste water. It includes automatic resizing of pipes, ducts, and fittings, as well as automatic placement of radiators underneath windows.

Solar Computer provides building HVAC and energy efficiency calculations for AutoCAD MEP and Autodesk Revit MEP software. You can find out more about Solar Computer and check them out at http://www.solar-computer.co.uk/.

How to Identify Uncircuited Connections

You can quickly find uncircuited elements using System Browser.  Under the Unassigned > Electrical section, you can find connections that are not circuited.

Under the Electrical section, you can find connections that are circuited, but not connected to a panel... these will have the circuit indication of <unnamed>.

Connections that are circuited will show the circuit number.

You can select any connection in System Browser, right click, and select Show to 'zoom' to the associated object in the model.

If you want to visually identify this in the model canvas as you are working more dynamically, you can use View Filters to color these conditions.

On the ribbon View tab, Graphics panel, click Filters.

I've defined three filters for three conditions as shown below.

Uncircuited

Circuited

No Panel

With these filters defined, you can now apply them to a view as shown below.

The resulting view will look something like that shown below.

The System Browser can reliably be used to find uncircuited connections, however, since only the primary electrical connector in the familly is tracked by the Panel / Circuit properties of the instance, the View Filter may not accurately show the circuited color state of all connectors for elements with more than one connector. 

Happy circuiting!

Adjusting the Elevation reported by an element in AutoCAD MEP

"I have a question, if I draw pipe at 10’ elevation, but I want to tag it to sea level elevation of say 925’, is there a setting I can change that will allow my new 0 elevation to be 915’ ?"

The 'built-in' way to do this is to use Project Browser, and associate your Construct drawing with the appropriate level.  Once you have done so, you can modify your elevation properties in the pipe property set to add the elevation from the level.

  

An alternative way to do this if you are not using Project Browser is to use a location property from a Space.  To do this, add a manual elevation property to the Space... then add a location property to the pipe's property set to read the elevation property from the space.  When the pipe is in the space, it can read the space's elevation.  Now, you can add this elevation to the pipe's elevation properties to achieve the desired result. 

  

Adding Conduit Sizes for PVC in AutoCAD MEP

You may have noticed that the Plastic conduit catalog in AutoCAD MEP only goes up to 2".  You can add sizes using the Catalog Editor.

1. From the Manage tab, MEP Content panel, click Catalog editor (or, enter command: LAUNCHCATALOGEDITOR)
2. In the catalog editor, open C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\MEP 2012\enu\MEPContent\USI\Conduit\Conduit (US Imperial).apc (or wherever you happen to have the content installed)
3. In the Catalog Editor, browse to Plastic > Glued > Conduit Plastic Glued (these represent the conduit ‘segments’) > Basic Table
4. In the table on the right, add the rows for the missing sizes (D1 is for the actual diameter, ND1 is for the nominal diameter)

5.  Now, do the same for the Bent Conduit and the Conduit Elbow (depending on which you use).  LenA1 and R1 are detailed below.

6.  When done, save the file in Catalog Editor, and close Catalog Editor.
7.  In AutoCAD MEP, enter the command CATALOGREGEN
8.  Select the conduit (O) option.
9.  Modify your PVC/Plastic Routing Preference as detailed in this post.

Don't forget, the Routing Preference is stored in the drawing... so make sure after you restart AutoCAD MEP that you open that same drawing again to verify that you can now route the additional conduit sizes.

 (adding these sizes has been logged as a request for a future release)

 

Defining a Type Catalog File

When defining a Type Catalog File (.txt) the first row is formatted to tell Revit the parameter name, the parameter type, and the units... such as:

<paramname>##<paramtype>##<paramunits>

However, it is not always obvious what to use for the type and the units.

Instead of trying to remember where this is documented, you can export the family types, and the file will be created for you:

From within Family Editor, click:  Application Menu > Export > Family Types

The following definition will generate output similar to the following:

,SomeText##OTHER##,SomeTemp##HVAC_TEMPERATURE##FAHRENHEIT,
SomeNum##OTHER##,SomeDensity##HVAC_DENSITY##POUNDS_MASS_PER_CUBIC_FOOT