Revit MEP

Revit MEP

Friday, October 01, 2010

Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis software

Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis software can help architects and designers perform whole building analysis, optimize energy efficiency, and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process. With faster, more accurate energy analysis of building design proposals, architects and designers can work with sustainability in mind earlier in the process, plan proactively, and build better.
  • Whole building energy analysis software—Determine virtual building’s total energy use and carbon footprint
  • Design alternatives analysis—Consider alternatives to improve energy efficiency
  • Detailed weather analysis—Extensive weather data available for project site
  • Carbon emission reporting—Emissions reporting for nearly all aspects of the building
  • Daylighting—Qualification for LEED® daylighting credit
  • Water usage and costs—Estimated water use, in and outside building
  • ENERGY STAR® scoring—Scores provided for each design
  • Natural ventilation potentialSummarizes mechanical cooling required and estimates hours design could use outdoor air to cool the building naturally



Autodesk Ecotect Analysis includes innovative building energy and carbon analysis tools made available through the Green Building Studio web-based service. The web service provides a user-friendly front end to powerful building energy analysis software. All of the computationally intensive hourly simulations are carried out on remote servers, and the results are provided to you in a web browser. The web-based service will collect data from three sources:

  1. Your Revit® software model. All the building geometry comes from your model, including the number of rooms, the connections between rooms, and their relationship to the exterior, exposure, and aspect to the sun; and the shape and total area of built surfaces or openings.
  2. Your responses to a few basic questions. In order to explain the building’s use or context, you will need to select a building type from a drop-down menu and enter the project location. You will also have a chance to select a weather station for the project, although the closest one is selected to be the default.
  3. Regionalized databases. Based on the above information, the Green Building Studio web service will extract additional information about local weather conditions, construction, and materials. The service will automatically add any information you have not provided, so it can adapt to your requirements as your design evolves.
 
Autodesk® Ecotect™ Analysis 2010 software is a comprehensive concept-to-detail sustainable design analysis tool, providing a wide range of simulation and analysis functionality through desktop and web-service2platforms. Powerful web-based whole-building energy, water, and carbon analysis capabilities converge with desktop tools for visualizing and simulating performance of the building model within the context of its environment. Use the desktop tools and web-service functionality together to help create more sustainable designs. This document describes how to access your Green Building Studio web-service account and manage projects, and provides tips to help you get started.

The New “Revit Server”

Link to AECbytes "Revit’s New Server Extension" Article (September 28, 2010) by Lachmi Khemlani.  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.

The Autodesk® Revit® Server Extension helps geographically dispersed teams more easily collaborate on projects of varying size and complexity. Web-based services help keep teams coordinated as they work on a single project from separate locations.

The Autodesk Revit Server Extension helps you to:
  • Work more effectively as a single project team over a distributed wide area network (WAN) with higher performance and efficiency
  • Maintain a seamlessly integrated collection of Revit central models on a single server that team members can access from local servers
  • Easily manage products on Revit central server using the web-based Revit Server Administrator tools
  • Benefit from built-in redundancy in case of WAN connectivity loss
This Subscription Advantage Pack consists of two separate components: an application update, Revit 2011 SAP, and a server component, called Revit Server 2011. An installation of Revit Server may function as a local server or a central server. However this document does not draw any distinction between the two, as the installation and removal requirements are essentially the same for both.

Revit Server 2011
Systems hosting Revit Server 2011 must have:
    • Microsoft Windows Server® 2008, 64 bit (not 2008 R2)
    • Microsoft IIS 7.0
    • Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1
Refer to the Revit Sever Installation Guide supplemental documentation for more detail on system prerequisites.

Revit’s New Server Extension 2011 Video


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Revit MEP 2011 Update 2 – September 2010

Revit MEP Update 2 – September 2010

Important Note:
Update 2 is not a full install; rather it is using service pack technology similar to AutoCAD®- based products. Prior to installing the Update 2, please verify that you have already installed the First Customer Ship build of Autodesk Revit MEP 2011 which is available below.


Update Enhancement List
Improvements made in Update 2 build (20100903_2115):


Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2011 Enhancements
  • The list of supported video cards and drivers has been updated.
  • Improves stability when opening a recovery file.
  • Improves the selection of the proper fire damper size when inserted into an oval duct.
  • Remembers the last justification when adding duct from the draw duct option within the right click menu.
  • Corrects the creation of a small duct segment when a reducer is inserted due to a change in duct size.
  • Improves stability when dragging a duct end to the connection point of hosted equipment.
  • Improves the automatic joining of Cabletrays.
  • Corrects the value produced for a calculated value column within Panel Schedules and Demand Factors.
  • Allows the load value of a spare within a panel schedule to be editable.
  • Corrects the display of Wire Size and Type properties to be “—“ for spares in panel schedule.
  • Corrects the unit formatting of cells within the Load Summary of a Panel Schedule.
  • Corrects the display of circuit number on wire tag when using circuit naming By Phase.
  • Improves snapping an adapter to sprinklers when inserted from the project browser.
  • Corrects the Air Changes per Hour calculation when running a heating cooling load analysis.
  • Improves the connections produced by Routing Solution layouts of pipe or duct.
  • Improves consistency of adding pipe, duct, conduit and cabletray when snapping to non-MEP elements.
Autodesk® Revit® Platform 2011 Enhancements

  • Improves stability when locking of constraints within families.
  • Improves stability when modifying the properties of an element.
  • Ensures „Select All Instances‟ when used on viewports within a sheet does select all the viewports.
  • Improves stability when using the “Create Form” tool when In-Place edit a mass.
  • Improves stability when using “Complex” complexity mode during gbXML Export.
  • Corrects glazing area when using “Simple” complexity mode during gbXML Export.
  • Improves stability when editing element Phase inside a group.
  • Improves consistency of the ifcflowsegment and ifcflowfitting properties during a re-export to IFC.
  • Improves stability when exporting to AutoCad 2000 DWG files.
  • Improves stability during export to DWG files when exporting a view with a linked DWG in "new layers for overrides" mode.
  • Improves stability after switching location within the InfoCenter settings
  • Improves stability of InfoCenter when logged into Revit with a double byte username.
  • Improves stability when selecting materials from within the materials dialog.
  • Improves stability when switching between views
  • Improves visibility of manually applied hidden lines during printing and exporting of Structural Hidden Lines views
  • Improves performance when using spinner control in the Decal Types dialog.
  • Improves stability when selecting array elements from within the Reveal Hidden Elements display mode.
  • Improves stability when finishing Sketch mode.
  • Improves stability when selecting a reference plane within the conceptual mass editor.
  • Improves stability when launching multiple sessions of Revit.
  • Corrects shadow casting of linked RVT files when in realistic display mode.
  • Improves stability when dragging sun.
  • Improves stability when upgrading Revit 2010 project file.
  • Corrects color of masked regions when rendered in Consistent Color display mode.
Autodesk® Revit® 2011 API Enhancements

  • Setting formula for Manufacturer/Type Comments as string no longer throws an exception.
  • Improves consistency between User Interface and API when using Family Type count
  • Improves the consistency of maintaining the preview image when Save/SaveAs.
  • Improves the consistency of creating the detail curve when the view’s detail sketch plane is not located where expected within the database.
  • Improves detail curve creation when the view does not have an implicit sketch plane.
  • MEP API: Cabletray Connector Angle property no longer throws an exception when rotating a cabletray.
  • MEP API: The following Electrical Parameter Types have been exposed to DB.ParameterType:
    • CABLETRAY_SIZE
    • LOADCLASSIFICATION
    • ELECTRICAL_TEMPERATURE
    • ELECTRICAL_DEMAND_FACTOR
    • CONDUIT_SIZE

Monday, August 16, 2010

NIBCO and CADworks Partner to Deliver High-Quality BIM Content to AEC Firms


From: http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=460131&Itemid=33

NIBCO and CADworks Partner to Deliver High-Quality BIM Content to AEC Firms


NIBCO and CADworks, a leading Autodesk® Revit® content-solutions provider, have collaborated to provide NIBCO® specified valves to the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) community through the Autodesk® Seek Library (http://seek.autodesk.com) (type 'NIBCO' in the search bar for full product listing).
"NIBCO takes an active role in staying abreast of emerging trends and technology," said NIBCO's Chairman and CEO Rex Martin. "Our alliance with CADworks allows design professionals to easily download and integrate data-rich 3D models of NIBCO specified valves directly into their digital building information models (BIM)."
As a part of its BIM initiative, NIBCO's family of bronze ball valves and ductile iron butterfly valves are now available for download from the Autodesk® Seek Library. The remainder of NIBCO® specified valves will be made available over the next six to 12 months.

CADworks' expertise in content creation will enable users to download NIBCO® products as 3D models, 2D drawings, and critical product and data specifications from Autodesk® Seek so that Revit® users can design an accurate BIM model.