The Building Coder

Self-Organising Architecture, Voxel-Based Energy Analysis

I had an interesting chat last week with a group of students from the University of Augsburg on how to perform energy analysis on a bunch of autonomously assembled small building blocks, such as a colony of ants might put together. How can the resulting small building blocks be converted to a valid Revit BIM that can be used for building performance analysis? – BPA is now Insight360 – Self-organising construction and architecture – Back to the ants – project summary – Q & A – Two different energy model types... Read more →

More on Wall Opening Areas per Room

Håvard added some clarifications and background information on his sample code to determine wall opening areas per room: I have some questions on Håvard's initial approaches. Using a Boolean subtraction between transient solids from the actual wall and the family symbol sounds like the right track, but I don’t understand the need for the family instance, because the wall already provides the net geometry... Read more →

Determining Wall Opening Areas per Room

We continue the rather exhaustive exploration of calculating net and gross wall areas per room, and two other announcements, pointers to interesting sources of information – Why Autodesk has a Labs – Dal BIM in poi – Italian BIM – Determining wall opening areas per room – Håvard's SpatialElementGeometryCalculator enhancement – External command mainline – Test run... Read more →

Era of Connection, Families and Data Handling

Let's end this week by taking a look at two new AEC and BIM related publications: a new Autodesk eBook, Era of Connection, and a Dutch architectural design student project exploring Revit families and data handling – Era of Connection – Revit Families and Data Handling... Read more →

Happy New Top CAD Blog, Public Models and Forge

Happy New Year! I had a really good break, although I spent the last ten days being ill and coming to grips with a serious sinusitis. I was still able to climb the Schafberg at Wildhaus once – Autodesk Forge Accelerator – Top CAD Blogs of 2015 – Public Revit models... Read more →

Autodesk University, Q1, ADN Labs and Wizard Update

I submitted my yearly Autodesk University proposal for the Revit API expert panel. Time for you to submit yours as well. The call for proposals closes in one week – the deadline is May 26th. Besides that, here are some other things I want to point out: Titbits from the Q1 report Autodesk University proposals ADN Revit API labs training material for Revit 2016 Updated Visual Studio add-in wizards for Revit 2016 Titbits from the Q1 Report Autodesk posted a... Read more →

Selection Filters, Adjacency and the Good Universe

Today, let's look at: A generic selection filter implementation Determining adjacent rooms and spaces The good universe A Generic Selection Filter Implementation Yesterday, I presented my new JtPairPicker element pair selection utility class. It included a templated selection filter class. I later realised that I could make use of that in several other places as well, replacing the existing explicit Wall, CurveElement and Pipe selection filters by a generic JtElementsOfClassSelectionFilter one instead: ///

/// Allow selection of elements of... Read more →

Project Solon and BipChecker for Revit 2015 on GitHub

One of the handful of Revit database exploration tools that I use on a regular basis is BipChecker, the Revit built-in parameter checker, so that is a pretty obvious candidate for migration to Revit 2015... see below. Before I get to that, let me mention some new Revit energy analysis functionality that you might want to check out: Simple Interactive Energy Analysis in Revit with Project Solon Project Solon beta arrives in Revit, providing more interactive energy analysis results, the... Read more →

Automating Large Scale Waste Recycling and Sustainability

Today we take a forward look at new solutions for the seemingly unrelated issues of waste recycling and sustainability, using rail-mounted robots and 3D printing technology in combination with novel materials: Sustainability 3D Printing Robots on Rails Recycling Waste into Insulation and Curtain Walls Autodesk Sustainability Workshop Sustainability As you know, Autodesk is leading the way in sustainable design, was commended for its tremendous leadership in corporate sustainability metrics, and BIM is one of the main tools enabling the detailed... Read more →

Daylighting Extension and Splitting with Taps

Here is a quick update on the status of the daylighting analysis technology preview and some helpful advice for anyone trying to split a duct or pipe with taps. Daylighting Analysis The Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview free analysis period has been extended until March 31 or until a commercial version becomes available, whichever comes first. Find out more and download the updated plug-in from the Daylighting Analysis for Revit Autodesk Labs page. Splitting a Duct or Pipe with... Read more →

Sustainably Chugging Along

I continue chugging along here, mainly just answering cases. January and February tend to be peaceful for me after the extreme travelling and conferencing in December. I will also be reducing my overdue vacation time in the next couple of months, so expect another break or two in the flow. Here are today's topics I find interesting or have been looking into myself: Autodesk corporate sustainability AU 2013 classes available on demand AllViews Revit SDK sample enhancement Revit API methods... Read more →

Starting to Clean Up For the Break

I am starting to clear up some open issues before the break. Here are a few that I can handle right here and now: Autodesk University classes ready for viewing and download Building Performance Analysis update Daylighting Analysis Tool for Revit update I will obviously not be able to magically transform the entire backlog of interesting topics I still wish to share and discuss. Still, I am continuously learning to be active and still take things easy, do what I... Read more →