Inside the Factory

Project Vasari Tech Preview 1.1 is now available

We are happy to announce that, just after three months since the initial release, we have an update to Project Vasari on Autodesk Labs. We have been working hard to deliver on some features that we were unable to get to back in November, fixing bugs, and more importantly: delivering some new experimental analysis features. So text annotations, metric templates, and STL export are now available. We have also further isolated Vasari from potential Worksharing badness by automatically detaching a work-shared RVT file upon open.

Now on to the fun stuff.  We have had the distinct pleasure of working with Dr. Andrew Marsh of Ecotect fame for this release. He has developed two prototype analysis features based on Ecotect technology. The Wind Rose tool allows you to visualize wind speed and direction data in your models for different seasons and times of day. The Planar Solar Radiation tool lets you perform solar radiation analysis in the external spaces within and around your site. Both of these tools continue the trend of visualizing analysis data directly inside a BIM. We also had the pleasure of working with an excellent team in our Shanghai office that has been porting over the Maya "Nucleus" physics engine to work with native Revit masses. In what I believe is an Autodesk Labs first, we have a coordinated launch of two Labs tech previews with one integrated in another. So now inside Project Vasari you can play around with applying real phsyical forces such as gravity and wind to mass surfaces!

Have you been using Project Vasari since the initial launch? Did you pass it along to some of your colleagues not yet initiated into Club Revit? One of our goals with Vasari is to introduce the concept of BIM and parametric modelling to a new audience that may be intimitated by Revit. I am curious to hear your about your experiences with this. Did this spur a larger conversation about BIM and analysis in your office?

_tom

View Templates

While conducting some research on view I am reminded of some behavior regarding view templates that is worth sharing.

View templates are located in the ribbon View tab.

A template is a set of view properties saved off under a name much like a type in a family.

The commands:

Apply Template to Current View: Allows you to choose a saved template and apply its properties to the active view.  This is also available in the project browser view context menu.

Apply Default Template to Current View: Each view has a property "Default View Template".  This can be set to a saved view template or "None" the default.  When one runs this command the template is applied to the active or selected view.  This is often used to enforce certain visibility in a set of views. The command can be issued from the project browser view context menu while multiple views are selected.

Create Template from Current View: This makes a new template.  On running the command the values from the current view are copied to the template after you specify a name.  Once the template is saved you can edit its settings from the View Templates dialog.  Future edits to the source view can not affect the saved template - its a one-time copy

ViewTemplate Settings: This is where all the templates are stored.  You can rename, delete and duplicate saved templates as well as edit their settings.

Tip: One non obvious feature can be seen when applying a view template to a view:

Here we see a choice to "automatically apply this template to views of the same type".  To say this another way the option allows you to specify this template as the default settings for new views of the same view type as the one you are applying the template to.  e.g. If you are applying the template to a plan view then the next time you create a plan view it will start with this settings.  ...a bit subtle if you ask me.

This brings up a question for me.  When creating new views how do you desire to specify the view settings?

• The current behavior
• A setting dialog that allows you to specify a default template for each view type
• Ask if you want to apply a template at view creation
• Something else?

Currently most views are created by placing symbols and the scale or other options use a default that can be changed in the option bar.  Only 2D views like Legend or Drafting views ask for a name and scale during creation. In a multi-discipline environment it might be nice to choose a view template at creation but it might also be more interruptive.  The view settings in a MEP or Structure Plan view differ greatly from an Architectural plan view.

Curious to hear everyones' thoughts on this matter.

_erik

 

 

User Performance Roundup

I'm going to revisit a topic that was posted a while back here.

User Performance measures the time it takes you to understand and respond to a machine signal. This often means reducing clicks but can also come in the form of the system conveying information in an easier to digest manner so you can more quickly make a decision toward completing a task.

Below are some areas I have gathered and categorized.  I'd like feedback on this and I hope they spark other thoughts.  Take a look and keep these in mind as you perform some tasks over the next few days.  Are there other minor things you see that if addressed could improve your speed?

CONTROLS

1. Allow clicking on any column header to sort by that header
2. Ensure all lists in dialogs have a meaningful default sorting
3. When names include numbers use a smarter sorting algorithm that accounts for units. (e.g. 1'-0”,1”, 12’, 21”, 4”, 5” - bad,  1”, 4”, 5”, 1'-0”, 21”, 12’ - better
4. Make the offset text input field wider to display larger numbers
5. When moving items up or down in the schedule field order automatically scroll when an item reaches the bottom of the list
6. Display the drop down control so one does not have to first activate the field
7. Ensure the selected value of a drop down is placed at the middle of the list so one can see values above and below without scrolling
8. Increase the length of all drop down lists

NAVIGATION

1. Ensure orient to view on the view cube and steering wheel has scroll bars on the view list
2. Constrain the Zoom drag preview box so its proportioned to the active window aspect ratio to better preview the zoom results
3. Double-click on middle mouse wheel button to perform a zoom extents
4. Double-click on a sheet viewport to activate the viewport
5. Double-click to edit a family
6. Enable middle mouse wheel scrolling in all drop down lists

CLICK THROUGH UI

1. Add <New…> and/or <Load…>  to the drop down where one specifies another family (such as a profile) so the one can continue with their workflow rather than exit the dialog
2. Add a button to the right of the selected family/type that takes you to the properties of that type (to alter, duplicate etc) and then return to the original context when that dialog instance is closed
3. When overriding an object if a Fill or line pattern doesn’t exist, you have to exit, create, and start all over again.  Provide a way to access these UI areas to create new styles that can be used in the overrides dialog. (similar to material parameter)

MATERIAL UI

Ability to delete material

GROUP EDIT MODE

Unable to duplicate a wall type or something else when in group edit mode, except from the project browser.  Allow type duplication in this context.

WORKSHARING

To change the workset of an existing object you have to deselect the object and then reselect it before the workset field on the properties dialog is enabled.  Simplify the steps here.

MASS PLACEMENT

Difficult to place a mass because the mass is work plane based and the placement option is not set to default to the workplane placement option.

More examples?

_Erik