Revit Architecture India

Convert Point Clouds into Real Geometry in AutoCAD 2011

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:10:12 +0000

Convert Point Clouds into Real Geometry in AutoCAD 2011

is originally published on

Between the Lines

Shape Extraction, not to be confused with “Shape Shifting” which is a completely different thing, but perhaps Autodesk Labs is also working on that for the future.

There is a new Autodesk Labs Technology Preview released just one week after the mind blowing project Photofly was released where you could use photographs to generate a point cloud. This weeks Autodesk Labs release is the Point Cloud Shape Extraction for AutoCAD Plug-in for AutoCAD 2011.

The Point Cloud Shape Extraction Plug-in is a point cloud shape extraction solution which allows you to import, load, and extract shape and geometry information from point cloud data in AutoCAD 2011 and a few other AutoCAD 2011 based products. This plug-in allows you to take a point cloud and extract primitive geometry like flat planes, cylinders,l and more from the point clouds points. You can also generate cross section through the point cloud and have the result in splines or plines and then use those to create derivative geometry such as a 2D drawing or perhaps a 3D model.

After you install the Point Cloud Shape Extraction for AutoCAD Plug-in you will have a new Point Cloud Ribbon Tab.

Here I have a point cloud of the Mandalay Bay Arena where we hold Autodesk University.

First I want to zoom into an area that I want to work on and then crop it out of the point cloud to limit the number of points I am working with and improve performance.

Now using the ribbon I can start to select area that are planar or cylindrical and derive geometry from them fairly easily.

I even used a point cloud of a football to explore shape and form using surfaces and meshes built from the splines of a multiple slice of the point cloud. Imagine using an existing building or organic shape to be the base shape of your creation.

Best results are accomplished with the use a high resolution laser scan instead of a loose or low resolution point cloud created from alternate means like photogrammetry.

Check out the the sample point cloud data and the great tutorial videos by Guillermo Melantoni at http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/shape_extraction_autocad/overview/

Check out Scott Sheppard's posting http://labs.blogs.com/its_alive_in_the_lab/2010/07/shape-extraction-for-autocad-now-available.html as he included Guillermo’s videos in a download link for those without YouTube access.

And Kean’s Post
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2010/07/another-point-cloud-technology-on-autodesk-labs-shape-extraction-for-autocad-2011.html

The technology previews on the Autodesk Labs are free, all you need to do is provide some feedback so we can evolve the ideas to potential products and solutions.

Cheers,
Shaan

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Convert Point Clouds into Real Geometry in AutoCAD 2011

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:10:12 +0000

Convert Point Clouds into Real Geometry in AutoCAD 2011

is originally published on

Between the Lines

Shape Extraction, not to be confused with “Shape Shifting” which is a completely different thing, but perhaps Autodesk Labs is also working on that for the future.

After you install the Point Cloud Shape Extraction for AutoCAD Plug-in you will have a new Point Cloud Ribbon Tab.

Here I have a point cloud of the Mandalay Bay Arena where we hold Autodesk University.

First I want to zoom into an area that I want to work on and then crop it out of the point cloud to limit the number of points I am working with and improve performance.

Now using the ribbon I can start to select area that are planar or cylindrical and derive geometry from them fairly easily.

Best results are accomplished with the use a high resolution laser scan instead of a loose or low resolution point cloud created from alternate means like photogrammetry.

Check out the the sample point cloud data and the great tutorial videos by Guillermo Melantoni at http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/shape_extraction_autocad/overview/

And Kean’s Post
http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interface/2010/07/another-point-cloud-technology-on-autodesk-labs-shape-extraction-for-autocad-2011.html

The technology previews on the Autodesk Labs are free, all you need to do is provide some feedback so we can evolve the ideas to potential products and solutions.

Cheers,
Shaan

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Ideate Explorer 2011 released

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:10:11 +0000

Ideate Explorer 2011 released

is originally published on

Revit

I had an email from Ben Bishop from Ideate yesterday to say they have released an updated version of their successful Ideate Explorer Application for Revit 2011. If you haven’t seen Ideate explorer take a look here….

http://www.ideateexplorer.com/index.php

A trial version can be downloaded from:-

http://www.ideateexplorer.com/trial.php

By far the coolest feature is the ability to export your saved searches to Microsoft Excel.

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Mac Attack

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:39:08 +0000

Mac Attack

is originally published on

Between the Lines

I am simply curious who else is using AutoCAD and uses a Mac either at work or home.

If you are a longtime reader of this blog you may have seen the debates in posts and hundreds of comments, surveys, and requests/demands from many users for native Mac solutions when I mentioned we supported Apple Boot Camp and virtualized solutions like Parallels and VMWare Fusion.

You may have noticed my transformation from a PC only user to a mixed platform user using Microsoft Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux and Apple Mac OSX.

I absolutely love my Mac hardware and now have 2 MacBook Pros. I consider myself as a multiple platform gypsy. Yes, I really do believe when I walk into a room with my MacBook Pro aluminum unibody laptop everyone looks at me like I am much more cool, than I really am. After a few years I realized there is no single perfect platform, yet having a Mac and PC allow me to use the best of both.

Question: Have you made the jump to the sexy, shiny, sleek Apple hardware? Why did you switch? Are you running AutoCAD for Windows on your Mac in a virtualized or Boot Camp solution?

Some of the past posts on Mac going back a few years.

Autodesk is adding new native Mac solutions each year and details are always available at http://www.autodesk.com/mac. Autodesk really is platform agnostic from Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, and cloud computing. We go where it makes sense from a technology and market standpoint and fulfills our customers needs and requests.

Happy Friday to those on the other side of the International dateline such as Aussies and Kiwis, happy Thursday for us on this side.

Cheers,
Shaan

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Mac Attack

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:39:07 +0000

Mac Attack

is originally published on

Between the Lines

I am simply curious who else is using AutoCAD and uses a Mac either at work or home.

You may have noticed my transformation from a PC only user to a mixed platform user using Microsoft Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux and Apple Mac OSX.

Question: Have you made the jump to the sexy, shiny, sleek Apple hardware? Why did you switch? Are you running AutoCAD for Windows on your Mac in a virtualized or Boot Camp solution?

Some of the past posts on Mac going back a few years.

Happy Friday to those on the other side of the International dateline such as Aussies and Kiwis, happy Thursday for us on this side.

Cheers,
Shaan

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Driver Version xxx.xx stopped responding and has successfully recovered

revit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:39:07 +0000

Driver Version xxx.xx stopped responding and has successfully recovered

is originally published on

Revit

I have been receiving this message a lot when running Revit 2011 on a Dell Latitude with 8gigs of ram, Windows & (64bit) and a Nvidia v3100m graphics card.

Display Driver Nvidia Windows Kernel Mode Driver Version xxx.xx stopped responding and has successfully recovered

What normally happens, is that I will be happily working away in Revit 2011 then suddenly the screen with go black; a little disconcerting; next a message box will appear in the bottom left had corner of the screen with the above message. Revit doesn’t crash, but you do notice that the graphics will be rather sluggish. A save and restart of Revit resolves the problem. It would seem that this crash is as intended, even though very annoying, this statement refers to something called a TDR. A TDR or Timeout Detection and Recovery is a feature that attempts to detect problematic situations and recover to a functional desktop automatically. This feature first appeared in Windows Vista, but it tries to keep the OS going without freezing the PC and forcing a restart.

One issue is that this particularly laptop does not have certified graphic card drivers, it certainly doesn’t appear on the Autodesk graphic card list. I have tried drivers from the Nvidia website, but this hasn’t helped. So after a bit of digging around on the internet last night, it was suggested that if you turned off the Windows 7 icandy and actually run in Windows classic mode it would stop the issue. I have been trying this for the 12 hours now and so far……the issue hasn’t returned.

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Mastering Revit Architecture 2011 arrives

revit — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:33:08 +0000

Mastering Revit Architecture 2011 arrives

is originally published on

Revit

My copy of Mastering Revit Architecture 2011 arrived this morning ( a big thanks to James, Eddie and Phil as well as Peter at Wileys). If you have not seen this book and you are new or even a seasoned Revit user, you need this book! What Eddie, Phil and James have included in terms of depth and breath of knowledge makes it an essential book to have on your desk. What makes this book even more important is that it is Official Autodesk Training material and it will prepare you for everything you need to undertake the Autodesk Certified Associate and Professional level exams.

James approached me a few months back to contribute to this publication and has been a honour to be able to do so, to what is by far the best Revit book ever. Don’t believe me? Get a copy, you will not be disappointed.

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New Revit Utilities – PKH Lineworks

revit — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:59:38 +0000

New Revit Utilities – PKH Lineworks

is originally published on

Revit OpEd

Phil DeBrandt announced at AUGI that he has made several utilities for Revit available at his web site. The utilities are branded as ReVVed.

The utilities are comprised of the following functions:

Merge Text – merge multiple text notes into a single note.
Change Case – changes the case of selected text notes to a user specified case.(Upper, lower, mixed)
Upper Case – changes the case of notes to all upper case with a single click or hotkey.
Web Link – opens a web browser to the URL stored in Revit components.
Polyline – adjust the total length of end-to-end lines. (Like travel distances)

You can download the utilities from his site.

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Awesome Technology Makes Greater Horsepower

revit — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:29:21 +0000

Awesome Technology Makes Greater Horsepower

is originally published on

Between the Lines

My friends down at Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/ have been using a FARO six axis laser scanning arm and Autodesk Inventor to rebuild a seriously wicked motor.

They frequently have to build parts for one of a kind collector vehicles in Jay’s collection. With this workflow they can capture geometry of some existing parts with the laser scanning arm and then model and modify the parts in Autodesk Inventor for final machining or print a prototype. The casting forms and core boxes were also modeled in Autodesk Inventor, printed with a Dimension 3-D printer and then finally machined on their CNC mill.

These photos show what they have been working on, a pair of intake Merlin-Weber manifolds for a 1945 Rolls Royce Merlin Aircraft engine.

Cheers,
Shaan

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What Blogs and Social Media do you read or follow

revit — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:29:21 +0000

What Blogs and Social Media do you read or follow

is originally published on

Between the Lines

What Design, Visualization, Technology, CAD, and Hardware Blogs do you read, and why? Worldwide and all languages. Are they customers or users of the software or technology they write about?

What are your top 10 or 20 that in your opinion are the most influential, cutting edge, and a must read?

Please post your favorites from around the world in the comments to this post. I am always looking to make sure I am following and learning from the best out there as well as engaging them for any Autodesk special opportunities like the AU Bloggers Social and more.

Thank you,
Shaan

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