Inside the System

The Quest for Content

Our customers need more content to be successful in creating a complete BIM.  Simple as that.

In the Revit world we call content Families.  We know that there needs to be more Families available out-of-the-box (OOTB) in Revit MEP, we have a team whose sole purpose is to create and manage Families in Revit MEP, and I openly solicit requests for new content on our discussion forums as well as direct customer interactions.

Even with that infrastructure getting up and running, I know that there’s no way we can build all required content ourselves.  There’s just too much variety in the disciplines of the MEP market, and each country in the world.

To try and help with this issue in the MEP world, outside companies have cropped up to help our customers meet their content needs.  Companies like Broutek  and Revit-Lution, hope to help create the needed content.  While they will help to add to the pool of available content, there is a day coming when there will be lots of it available.  When that day comes, it will not be a question of creating a piece of content, but actually finding that content quickly, and ensuring its quality.

Sites like Revit City and BIMWorld already exist a clearing houses for content.  We at Autodesk just recently released a Technology Preview on Autodesk Labs of thing called Content Search.



What is Content Search?  In short, it is a search platform to locate content for use in Autodesk products.  Because there are disparate sources of content available today from; Autodesk, 3rd parties like Revit City, and in some cases manufacturers themselves, the search experience can be daunting.  We’ve even found that some customers just don’t bother looking and try and build it themselves.  Content Search exists to make this experience much simpler, akin to a Google search.

I’ve said it many times in discussions, but there’s just no downside to widely available content for our applications.  We do our part to add to this realm, but there is just so much we can do.  Many design software communities have a robust community that contributes to the greater good of more available content; our hope is that Content Search will help to progress this goal for our products.  For this reason I’m really excited about the potential of this search platform.

Content Search today offers two search experiences.

1. Traditional Search - The user enters in search terms and gets results based on those search terms.
2. Browsing Search – The user navigates through a taxonomy to get to the right content.  Today taxonomies like Master Format and UniFormat are embedded in the search engine.

As I mentioned earlier, this is currently an Alpha Technology Preview.  This means that you’re not seeing the finished product, just a work in progress.  We currently have only targeted the US AEC market, and have not aggregated all available content sources.  The goal here is to solicit feedback on the concept, and how it can be the best source possible for Autodesk customers.

For feedback you can e-mail the Content Search team, or post items on their discussion forum.  Enjoy.

Putting the Pieces Together

When Building Services are designed, they serve an important purpose for the building. Individual pieces work together as a system to meet the demands of the building. Revit MEP has a similar concept, the System, and it is a cornerstone of the application. Take at look at this video, and get a better understanding of the System concept in Revit MEP.

Note: The embedded videos below are actually 1024x768 resolution, so be sure to Right-Click->Zoom->Full Screen to see it in full clarity.  The links are also included if you want to download the video file for later use.

Creating Revit MEP Systems

It’s important to understand the purpose of the System, and why things need to be grouped in such a way. Let’s take a look at this in the next video.

Benefits of System Creation

You can see that there’s power in the System in Revit MEP today, and moving forward it will continue to play an intricate part of the capabilities we provide in the application. With this in mind, make sure to do this in your next project, and build out some Systems.

England Calling

Whew. I’ve never been to the UK until recently, and it sure is a lovely place. I was asked to support some Revit MEP events for the Reseller channel in Europe, so I figured it would be the time to travel to the land of Crumpets, Bangers, and Curries.

I was able to get some touring in London early in my trip, which was brilliant (UK influence), and I also caught a Rugby World Cup game in a local pub, good times. After that, my week turned into a blur of presentations and concept explanations.

It’s always an incredibly interesting conversation when I present the strategy of Revit MEP; what we’re trying to do, why we’re trying to do it, and how we think it fits into a larger change in the overall building industry. Not everybody always agrees, which really makes it a lively discussion. Nonetheless, I really look forward to forcing people to really think about why they feel strong about things, and how a change in process can change the industry.

I almost always end to going to a white board and drawing a graph to illustrate a point. When I first saw a saw tooth diagram, it struck me as a great way to illustrate the inefficiency of the way projects are completed today, and how a BIM process can make things better. It’s a simplified way to view a project’s life, but equally powerful.

In most projects today, each time a set of 2D documents are produced, the team downstream loses valuable information about that project, and the designed intent of the project. The downstream team then spends a whole lot of time putting the pieces back together, so they can understand then get on to doing their part of the project. If the information was passed more effectively between teams, we’d have an overall more efficient process.

That’s why we are so heavily developing software to support the BIM process, it allows for so much more information to be passed between project teams. It just makes more sense.

Here’s to flattening the curve.

Great Sustainability Discussion

Got 20 minutes?

Well if you do, I wanted to point everyone to a Long thread that has been active on our Revit Architecture AUGI forum initially regarding Revit & IES (Integrated Environmental Solutions).  Like many threads on AUGI, this one has diverged into a larger discussion on Sustainability, and it's integration into the Revit BIM workflow through Building Performance Analysis (BPA).  If you read long enough people even managed to throw in some complaints about Accurender, a true AUGI classic!

There is all kinds of useful information there about how things work today, what doesn't, and what people want to see in Revit to support sustainability.

I know it's a long thread, but like many things; a little time and effort goes a long way.  Sustainability is something that's here to stay, and we all need to understand its convergence with the BIM process.

I encourage all to join the fray of the discussion too if you feel so inclined.

While I'm on the topic, I'd also point you all to the Interesting Articles section on the left frame of the page.  There's some good stuff on Sustainability there as well.

Shiny Objects

I am easily distracted by shiny objects. This probably stems from the fact that I’m a visual person, but nonetheless I gravitate towards things that are visually interesting. This applies to when I use Revit MEP.

As a BIM tool, I need to understand what’s going on in the Revit MEP model, so like to set things up so they are visually represent what’s going on. There’s a couple of ways that I do this; View Filters and Color Fills. I’ll cover Color Fills in a later post, but today let’s go over View Filters.

View Filters

For those of you new to the Revit Platform, a Revit model is essentially a database made up of a bunch of Elements. These Elements are things like Walls, Ducts, Floors, Lights and Pipes, and are the most basic “things” that exist in a model. At its most basic level, Revit handles graphics based on the Category of an Element. Those of you used to AutoCAD probably just fell out of your chair; “no Layers you say?” Yep, no Layers.

I can define the appearance of an Element throughout the model by defining the graphical settings of its Category. In the MEP realm, this poses a problem. We always have multiple different Systems of the same Element Category. In order to apply a difference in graphical appearance for these systems, I use View Filters. Check out the video below to see learn more about this important functionality in Revit MEP.

Note: The embedded video below is actually 1024x768 resolution, so be sure to Right-Click->Zoom->Full Screen to see it in full clarity.  The links are also included if you want to download the video file for later use.

View Filters for Revit MEP

I tried to capture the key points here about View Filters so you can achieve better graphical appearance of your Models inside of Revit MEP. I hope you found that information helpful. If you have feedback about how I can make these videos better shoot me a comment below.

Moving Pictures

Some of you might have interacted with me while I worked in the Autodesk Support team, specializing in our MEP solutions. If you did, you might have received a video from me as part of a solution to your technical problem. I like videos as a way to convey a concept in a software application, in fact, I love them. Maybe it’s because I am a visual person, but I think there’s no better way short of a 1-on-1 interaction. Numbered lists and dense text with the occasional image just doesn’t do it for me.

Because of this and the fact that broadband connections are commonplace these days, I will be using videos heavily as a component of my blog. So when I do, feel free to download and view at your leisure. I capture at 1024x768, so things will be easy to read as I move through concepts. I’m not going to spend all day making sure everything is perfect, or that I don’t throw in an “um” here or there, I’m just going to be posting quick videos to explain things. I hope you all enjoy.

Hello World

It’s been a long time coming, and after much planning and effort I am launching my Autodesk Blog, Inside the System. This blog will focus on the MEP industry, Sustainability, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and how new technologies help to meet the demands of today’s MEP projects. This means that I’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but ultimately I hope that this provides a diverse range of useful information for all of my readers.

Many of you already know me as Kyle B on both the Autodesk and AUGI discussion forums, where I frequently post. You can find me there helping customers with technical issues, discussing larger industry issues, and soliciting customer feedback. As you can see in my picture on the left frame of the page, I’m on the younger side, 26 in fact, and as such I’m part of the internet generation. Check out my bio if you want to know more about me.

I believe that communities like discussion forums, and media like this blog, are revolutionary ways to communicate on a global scale. No longer must information be passed along from person to person through seminars and conferences. I can write a helpful tip about Revit MEP, solve a technical problem, or ask for feedback on a future product capability, and anyone on the internet with an English skill can consume that information.  I encourage everyone to participate, a larger community means a larger resource of information.

This fills a critical need. As a Product Manager for Revit MEP, I am tasked with setting the year-to-year direction of Revit MEP, and working with others at Autodesk and our Reseller channel; ultimately making sure that our customers succeed with our MEP solutions. A critical component of that success is having the right information to succeed.

With that in mind, I set out on this journey through the blogosphere.