Aussie ACA (ADT)

MultiLevel In 1 File Series on YouTube

2011-12-07T20:04:00.001+08:00

I've uploaded some quickly produced video on my Maverick Method of constructing multiple levels in 1 file. Done late into the night so I can hear myself fade to a whisper to ensure my wife doesn't spoil my foray into a media career for waking her up!

As well as MY YouTube channel itself I have also a side page here to list the video's available.
The Playlist for this series seems to mess the order up.

At the moment the sample file and lisp is only available by posting a comment here WITH your email (I will NOT publish and have not) and I will email to you. Perhaps soon I will post them somewhere that you can just grab them anonamously.

cheers

I've gone YouTube

2011-12-01T21:00:00.001+08:00

I've finally got a video up on my youtube channel, intended to be the first of a number to explain my idiosyncracies and the method behind the madness in the way I use ACA.
A few ideas are planned but this first one takes a light dive into explaining my Mult-Level in 1 file approach for residential and small commercial projects. Sorry I did spend a little too long on my pretty picture but it is just an intro! Let me know what you think.

On googling my blog I came across this interesting link placing my site in the top 2 million for the UK and in the top 19 million in the world. Haha! I guess there is a lot of people in the world so I should feel good about it but I do think they may be over estimating it's worth. Apparently most visitors are from Turkey so welcome to you all. Once we fought but now the best of friends hey - we have an important history together. Hopefully you can understand my accent on youtube.

It's great to see despite not being able to blog much lately it's still of value to some.

I should also mention AU - Autodesk University which has just begun. If you have subscription it's free and there is a number of previous year classes that can be accessed which are still very relevant. I've just downloaded recorded movie files & pdf's for classes on Rendering in Autocad to see if I can pick up any good tips as well as Advanced Modelling etc in ACA. Don't forget that you can get benefit from some AutoCAD classes as well as ACA. Might have to wait for this year classes to be uploaded. I did try to partipate in a live class last year but the lag and the timeframe (early morning for me) saw me falling asleep in class. The opportunity to be able to download previous year class video recordings is a fantastic learning opportunity. They are BIG files but well worth the cost (free).

2011-07-20T01:17:00.001+08:00

I'm liking that the ACA master himself is getting into rendering inside ACA and I am looking forward to learning further how to get the best out of the system. Archidigm has a new post of a very nice internal render on his front cover. My feeble attempts at internal renderings are humbling but I would like to get there. I notice his furniture featured which is available as content at a very good price.

He's also written another article on rendering materials across X-Ref's and some of the problems you have. He notes that RMats work a little differently than other objects. When you bring x-ref's together for the purpose of rendering a model, all the materials are brought into the file and become part of that file. So you can then alter the materials in the host file unlike for e.g. a wall style which needs to be edited in the original file, saved and reloaded. Unload the xref and the materials remain (unless purged). Update the material in the original file and the material is NOT updated in the host file unless it's deleted and then reloaded by reloading the xref. These complications are why I like working in a 1 file approach. Recently pulled my 1 file model into another file just to do the render (as it was after doing the CD's) and I certainly confirmed the simplicity of my approach as I encountered the problems Odin addresses. However if you require a team to work on a project together then splitting the file using the Project Navigator can be a good idea despite the drawbacks or you may just like breaking the project into manageable pieces.

I like his pick of how many steps it takes to swing a door in Revit. Not knocking Revit overall of course but it's nice to see that ACA still has the ascendency in some areas.

Anyway just thought I'd post to let you know I am still alive. Barely breathing but still kicking.

Do you believe in ghosts?

2011-03-20T20:04:00.010+08:00

Here's my ghost story!

This is something that I have had occur over the years from time to time. ADT2005, 6, ACA2009 and 11. I have strange issues occuring with walls mysteriously not cleaning up properly and strange interference from unseen (wall?) objects. I've called them 'ghost walls' as they aren't there and won't show in any view or display rep even Diagnostic whiich should show something. I believe they are 'deceased' walls having been killed (erased) but they just don't want to go! Have they unfinished business?

I've tried deleting everything from the drawing and the purging the styles using the sweep tool but some styles won't go! Reading autolisp tutorials I've read that you can query the database for an object and see if it's erased and if it's still present in the dwg database even though erased. I gather this is for the undo options where items deleted can still be restored if you undo your previous actions. However I thought this was until you close the drawing and I would have assumed this information is lost forever. Or so I thought. Perhaps they don't want to go and come back to haunt my drawing.

What's interesting is that the purge styles function in the style manager (broom) would not purge lots of styles & objects and the purge function would not remove lots of empty layers. It's like a complete breakdown in the functions. Thinking I might learn some new useful information I went thru a copy and LAYDEL each layer. (I draw a line on that layer so I can select the layer). This had the interesting effect of then allowing the Purge Styles to work and Purge on blocks as well?? At that point my Ghost walls had appeared to have 'gone to the light' and I no longer had my cleanup issues.  Some aecmaterial definitions hung on perhaps attached to the blocks still resisting.

I copied my square outlines from the picture file you see here and posted them back into the file I copied to use as a template thinking that they were going to coincide with the previous project walls but they didn't. Not quite anyway. Maybe this is a good reason to start from a clean template!

So I'm not sure what I learnt. Not about to delete all my layers from my functioning drawing though I suppose I could WB all the info out and then purge and then bring it all back in and see if that works the same. (I would loose the x-ref connections to the aecElevations).   I had just moved it all to the left away from the ghost walls and the issues go away. I just can't draw in THAT space.  Hey it's haunted!               So....

Do you believe in ghosts?

part 2
Well as it turns out, as I was showing my younger workmate my haunted drawing, he pointed out that my Isolate Objects globe was red! After unisolating objects it turns out that on grabbing a previous drawing as a template, I had certain portions of the drawing hidden and brought it along into my new drawing. So the hidden walls were causing the cleanup problems!
Or were they? After removing all the now unhidden but unwanted drawing portions I still had cleanup issues! Sometimes advances in technology just get too fancy!

I wonder if this is the answer to the issue I've had over the years from time to time.

Structural objections !

2011-03-09T23:04:00.002+08:00

James sent me a bunch of Structural Members he's been playing with that look great except they're not really structural members! In the great spirit of not accepting a 'tool' for what it is but exploring what it could be James has used SM's to create excellent 2D detailing tools for those repetitive items. In case you ask the obvious question "what about using the Detail Componant Manager" which is designed to do this, it's not set up with australian details and there has been no Australian issue like the UK version. We'd have to customise the database and then learn how to upgrade and maintain yet another Tool! But yes you could use the DCM :-)

I've been tinkering with Dynamic Blocks to do much the same thing but there is a real advantage for an ACA'er using Structural Members. The more you use a tool the better you are in applying it and SE's can be very handy in virtual construction. For e.g. Structural members are great for creating a steel beam, adding end plates and the repeating cleats at set distances. So essentially the tool can also be used for 2D work in the same way.

The disadvantage is that blocks can't be rotated or mirrored so you basically have to create the block in the orientation you want to insert it. However in the case of the roofing purlins in the example shown, the whole SM is simply rotated to the pitch so the purlin block would be inserted as though flat anyway. Here's a bunch of wall styles SM's. Constant materials like wall cladding are componants of the SM. Periodical items like studs or hanging straps are added as blocks.
So you end with dynamic detailing componants that will stretch and add components automatically! You do need to know when to create a separate style as in the window sill illustrated here. It's attached to the window instead of the bricks. Sometimes things get TOO complicated and besides, separate components gives you extra flexibility.

I hate fiddling with those repetitive sheet profiles.
James, having done much more commercial work is good with SM's. Myself I still struggle to understand why I must create a pier base sideways to get it to insert properly. But the more I use any of the tools and 'get' how they work I get increased productivity in knowing just how to use a tool, where to use it and when it won't do. I can model most things very quickly now because I understand what tool to use and how to use it effectively. Doing what James has done with SM's is going to teach you a lot about Structural Members

So I might as well share with you some of James' other tricks.

I blogged an option for displaying Vertical profiles mainly for the purpose of rendering but James showed me a better way using a curtain wall, with only Profiled Mullions showing, in the shape of the sheeting. CWA's can have their roof or floor line edited-in-place for easy matching to a building shape and the profile follows suit. The curtain wall might contain other componants but here it gives flexibility for the sheeting alone. This is a good quick way of get vertical profiled sheeting into your model. Through components you could control different display for different display reps. ie. this for 3D, just hatching on another component for aecElevations.

Here is a wall style James developed for use in large commercial projects. Adding components for sheeting, insulation, cladding and each expected purlin and then adding a sweep to each purlin component you get a detailed wall that will section, elevate and off course display well in plan. Being a wall it will cleanup, has roof & floorline edit and the subsequent purlin components will appear as your height increases. Higher wall this time? Add (copy) some more purlin components in your wall style, add sweep and you're done. If your wall is low, the higher purlins don't appear.

Hope that helps stretch the paradigm a little for ya!

Drawing Properties

2011-02-25T21:21:00.002+08:00

I described here how we use the drawing file custom properties for our 1 File for Multistorey to store the project data which is automatically grabbed by the title block and cover page. Well an email to support (subscription is useful for something occassionally) turned up this link and an excellant autolisp file that can bring a preset list from a .cvs file right into the drawing custom properties ready for you to add the project data to. (There are 2 lisp files posted at this link. I used the first issue for .cvs files. The 2nd amendment looks for .xls files but it didn't work for me).

Commands impdwp, expdwp and clrdwp import, export or delete (clear) drawing properties. Once you have them in your template they can just be updated for the next project but if you already have a project and want to bring the data in, here is an easy way to do it.

Been to Archidigm lately. They have released a new ACA door style set and checking out his windows and the many display options to get detail quickly and efficiently is impressive. He has video's of his street kit in action. And don't forget his intensive Development Guide. Purchasing one of Odin's products get's you access to his classroom and there is a treasure trove of info available for your ACA obsessing delight.

Doing it by the Book NOT

2011-02-17T03:00:00.000+08:00

As a user since ADT3 for must be 6 or so years it's only in the last couple of years that I have hit an upper air stream in terms of productivity increase with ADT/ACA. I feel that I have finally 'got' how it works and more importantly how to work it. That includes not doing as I am told. Well not always. We all use this product for lots of different types of projects and the requirements of a hospital project have very different demands to a 2 or 3 storey residence or a back room extension. The product is really developed with the hospital in mind but my work is mainly residential.

Here's some ways I have NOT done it by the book:

Development of a 1 file for multistorey approach using custom (simple) autolisp programming, custom layer standard.
Developing my own simpler Layer Key Standard with many less layers.
Practise that avoids dependance on the 'latest' interface such as using keyboard commands rather than point and "oh where is it this time?" click chase the ribbon.
Return to solids rather than MassElements for modelling certain one off library elements.
I've abandoned aecSlabs in favour of using aecSpaces. They are so much more easily edited. They don't have edge styles though but they do have componants and can be rendered. I do still use slabs but not mostly. Unfortunately spaces stretch oddly, if you 'grab' their centre point the whole space moves instead of stretching as the old area objects did.
Getting to know the Roof Object intimately and understanding what it can do and not converting to the slow, less intelligent, cumbersome Roof Slabs.
Just knowing all the ways that won't work and the ones that will and knowing how far they will work so I don't have to fiddle.

So I thought I'd share some experiences that were successful and simple and worked. They may or may not work for you in your situation but might be worth considering.

example 1

I don't use the Project Navigator for small projects and will build multilevel projects in the one file. However one advantage of the PN is in regenerating elevations without getting unwanted elements added in (like text) and having any new modelling elements automatically being part of the selection set (when the file is saved and the X-ref is reloaded). So on certain projects I may create a 2nd file to X-ref (overlay not attach) the model file into, set up the elevations including room elevations, sections etc and x-ref that back into the model file to complete the set of drawings. The advantage is the 2nd file will have all the right layers turned off and on so only desired elements are captured in the elevation (like in the PN) and also once the x-ref is selected, any new elements added to the main file are automatically selected for the next refresh or regeneration of the aecElevation. You can do all of them at once! You can x-ref in the model several times, renaming each instance if you want to set it up in different layer configurations for different purposes. A section or internal room/cabinet layout may require different layers than the elevations. Changes to the model file need to be saved, and the x-ref's reloaded in the Elev file, saved and then may be reloaded back into the main file if that is where they are inserted onto a sheet. Another advantage is the aec elevation/section objects are not in the main file in your way. When x-ref'ing the Elev file back into the main file, only the required objects are shown, the unwanted portions are x-clipped out. BTW 'overlaying' and not 'attach'ed means the x-ref will not travel with the file when x-ref'd to another file. Here that would cause a circular reference and won't work. If you organise the Elev drawing space as you want it, you only need to x-ref it back once into your main file for correct placement ready for the sheets (already set up in my tabs from the template drawing. This means all the drawing sheets are in the one file.

In the above 2nd file (Elev), layers are not really important, only where you need to sort items like in a floor plan that is displayed several times in different ways as a working floor plan, sketch plan, reflected ceiling plan, electrical plan, landscaping plan, site plan, roof plan, rafter plan, ceiling timber plan etc. so I often simplify the numbers of layers I use. Using .stb plot style greatly helps this. Having a seperate file does allow some multi-user access to the one project if you need that.

example 2

I recently modelled 4 single floor units in the one file (lets call it SITE drawing). That file was then x-ref'd into another file(s), clipped down to one unit (per file) and the full drawings for that unit produced in that file. The benefit I found in this method was that altering an aec style updating all references as it was all in the same (Site) file. (On larger projects you can use project standards but this is an extra process and is not on the fly). As the complete model was in the main file, there is only one reference of the model and coordination was automatic. I wanted this fine coordination as I was also using the file for rendering and exporting to 3DWF although that is a pretty dissappointing option at this point but I wanted to experiment with it and wanted to keep it all together. Rather than a seperate file I like to keep the file always at a ready to be re-rendered at any point rather than having that as a seperate file. This keeps all the documentation side out of my modelling file for rendering. I am about to use this method on another project of 10 small single storey homes as it was quite efficient.

Don't forget there are lots of ways to work on one area of your model (as opposed to having to split it up into x-ref's). Using Layer Isolate or the the object isolate tools are good ways to get data out the way quickly. Available on a right click is the Isolate Objects tools. You can hide lots of components you don't want to see for a while even if their layer gets turned on.

Anyway, don't think that the method presented as THE way is always the best way. Not that it's usually the wrong way! Sometimes it's just the long way.

Cheers

Free Tree Downloads

2011-02-15T23:03:00.001+08:00

If you are into rendering in any way you may have seen Xfrog.com which offers a tool for creating and editing trees and plants. Well they have just released quite a portion of samples for you to try out. Among the strange list of download options for max, maya and terragen you also have the old 3ds format for 3DStudio which I think is now a defunk product. Using the 3dsin command, these tree files (oops see below) can be brought into AutoCAD for rendering. Each zip folder downloaded contains a number of 3ds files along with bitmaps (tif) for leaves, bark etc to be applied to the tree. Whilst the tree is modeled, the leaves are a single face for a bitmap to be applied.

There are some tricks to getting the 3ds file into AutoCAD though. It seems it can't handle so much data (another memory handling problem?) and so you are best to load portions of the info at a time. But oh dear in trying to test this thru my ACA2009 crashed each time trying to bring the file in. So I loaded 2011 which can save the files down to 2009 (for non ACA items) though I am wondering what the translation does to the material definitions.

FAIL again. Crashed every time with xfrogs 3ds files? I had loaded a couple earlier so perhaps I need to reboot. I'll report the problem with xfrog and see if they offer any solution.

If you get past the crashes, and the load fails, try loading without leaves and roots. once imported, do it again and this time load the leaves (do you need the roots?). I have a technique for simplifying the number of materials so I might not assign any material, using my own oft repeated material (e.g. Leaf1). In this case the leaves are just a square face and require the leaf bitmap to look somewhat realistic so I might include materials. I also don't allow multiple layers and put it all on layer 0.

Anyway, until I get it successfully loaded I can't post a picture of what you might expect. If I do I will update this post with a sample pic but it's all there on xfrog's site.

er...happy rendering

Multiple Levels in a single Drawing File? Part 4 (updated)

2011-01-29T01:29:00.007+08:00

Thanks for the feedback on the Multi-Level in 1 file approach. I know it's not for everyone. Some of you don't like messing with layers. That's never been a drawback for me - I have aliased the Layer commands (were from ExpressTools) to quick shortcuts and use them alot as I work and have found it very efficient to do so. (I've now incorporated those shortcuts into my Levels autolisp so you will have them if you ask for it (& provide email)). Makes it quick to manipulate between layer set groups, or singles whilst I am working on different parts of a drawing. However my ML system is tied to a layer set and that may be a drawback for some. Some have asked for (& received) a sample file (you need to give me your email address - I will NOT publish online). Maybe a system such as this could be incorporated into the product somehow like the Renovation set but I wouldn't like to see it get complicated. I like it simple. Along with my understanding of the roof object this has made residential work SO much quicker.

I should say this is for advanced users. Beginners might feel a little swamped. Email me for a sample! I'm really only explaining my theory here as to how I set it up. Now...

Did I mention that I use a different wall cleanup group per floor? Again easy to create. Open Style Manager, Drag Standard down until a + symbol appears at the mouse, let go and another cleanup group, nicely named 'Standard (2)' for the 2nd floor appears. If you use something other than Standard for your walls then just copy that. I only just discovered the 'drag and let go' routine. Makes it so easy!! I then manually change my upper floor walls over to the new group. Haven't thought of a way to automate that yet nor explored fully how the change to the cleanup's for walls at different Z levels (version 2009) has made but it all works fine with the seperate cleanup group. (As I often will use a similar previous drawing as a template for the next job, I will often have an existing wall to 'As Selected' right click on and draw with so it already has the cleanup group set. i.e. I've changed to Level 2, the old level 2 is there off to the right and I click on a typical wall, right click and choose 'As Selected'

Stairs An additional item I need to share with you which require their own special treatment. My thoughts for handling stairs were along the idea of a spanning construct used with the Project Navigator but of course I can't bring stairs in at a different level. Many have used 2 different stairs but I didn't want such a work-around. I just wanted it to work and it again turned out to be easy to accomplish but you need to do a little work again in the Display Manager. So here it is.

By diving into the DM 'Sets' (see image) and adding a 2nd 'Set', copied of the 1st such as 'Plan', dragging 'Plan' so the mouse shows a '+' symbol and dropping I get a 'Plan (2)' set. Perfect! I can do this for however many different display styles I want for the stair utilising the OOTB ones preferably. So Plan, Plan Presentation, Reflected, etc. If you want you can simplify and use the same 'Plan' display for all your different display's whether it be working plan or a reflected ceiling plan.

Now moving down to Representation by Object, scrolling down to 'Stair' and we do the same thing to add another display representation set but this is only going to apply to the stair. Again this is done to the OOTB template and is quite easy to do, however most times I grab a similar project as a template and it's already set up. Differently as done for the display representation 'Configuration', I am going to do a little more than just alter the cutplane however don't panic! It's not complex. So here we go.

Selecting an existing display I want to copy for a 2nd floor and dragging down it becomes a new one with a (2) appended. Ideal!! Now we just need to scroll across and associate the (2) with the Display 'Set' (2) and unassociate the original with the (2) set. Ok your way out and then draw a stair in a (Presentation) display. Editing the style you should only see one set to alter (it's the bolded one). (2) should not be bold. Now change your display set to a (2) and again edit the stair style. If you made your changes correctly, you should be now editing a newly created display rep for the stair for the 2nd floor and whatever changes you make will only appear for the 2nd floor. Now this makes it easy to set up a stair for ground floor showing the stairs going up and for the 2nd floor display with the stair going down! Or however you like it to show!! The final display changes can be done in the environment you are familiar with through working the style from the stair itself. See these 2 images.

Viewports (update) will need to be adjusted for each level displayed. It's seems that if you have not changed a viewports display rep then it will be whatever your current model space is set to. However if you specifically change the display rep inside a viewport, it will stay that way and not automatically alter (no idea what variable that is). So if you are setting up a viewport for your 2nd floor, double click inside the viewport and change the setting to Medium Detail(2) or whichever you need. Then also change the Elevation setting and you are done. If I use a previous job as my template these are already set though the 2nd floor level may be a little differerent height and may need to be altered. - easy!

Stairs another way (PN & X-ref's).(update)

James doesn't like manipulating layers and would like a 1 file system without having to manipulate layers. He sent me a file showing a stair that displayed differently in response to it's elevation. By setting the stair elevation to minus -2900 in the properties pallete, (as you would in an x-ref system for the 2nd floor plan) his stair changed to the 2nd floor display much as I show above but using the same display representation He achieved this by altering the global 'Display Below Range' to -2900 (normally set to -300) for that display rep. Of course this requires the stair set at 2 different positions and doesn't work for a one file system, but may be of interest to those using X-ref's or the PN. Interesting indeed but I haven't worked out all the ramifications.

Spanning Walls

If you have got a file from me and it has Plan Presentation (2) in the Display Manager under Representation by Object - Walls, then it's not required except where I was trying for a spanning wall which needed, like the stair, to be able to be viewed differently from the 2nd level. This would require a style over-ride for a style only used for spanning, or an object override. I'll have to discuss this in another blog but you don't need this except if you are trying to avoid horizontal lines between same plane upper & lower walls in your elevations. Since I often use alive elevations (the model viewed from different sides with hidden lines) for sketch presentations I've tried to use this option. I'm not sure it's successful but Watch this space !

Mult-Levels in 1 File?

2011-01-25T18:53:00.006+08:00

Great to have some interest in this idea. I've sent out files to some. If you haven't given me your email address I can't email you anything OR reply to you!! As you can see no one's email has been published so be confident I will protect your privacy. I delete your comment rather than post it. If you've tried to follow my online notes, it may be difficult and I may have missed things (hopefully not). It's hard to anticipate everything about someone else's setup.

If I send you a file you can compare and see how it actually works (and it does) and, if it suits you, use my file for your template. Feedback is welcome too.
My intention is community as I like the open source idea.

This 2nd image is 3 storey for which I had to add another 'level' of commands for.

I'm presently working on a split level house which presents more challenges, some which should be simple to resolve and some are resolved because the typical wall style has it's cut plane over-ridden. I'm adding some extra commands to change the Z plane level without changing the Level you are working on so you can have different levels for the same 'Level'. A 'Level' would correspond to those collection of levels you want viewed in the same plan view.
If you have specific queries feel free to post a comment but it's best I can send you a file to try it out. If you are using ACA2011, I am sorry but it has BIG problems that will hopefully be addressed but it does significantly negate partially the reasons for Multi-Level in 1 File (rendering & memory issues). I may post my totally negative blog review on using ACA2011. For the record my great increase in productivity is in using ACA2009.
And also I say again. I promote this system for residential and small commercial work. Larger projects should really be done with the project navigator or at least X-ref's but I will be intereted to see how large I can get. As computers increase in capacity, the size of file you can handle increases.

I keep intending to put some tut's on Youtube on the roof object, rendering and materials and this idea. Now that I've published it I have to do it hey! So much simpler to watch instead of just read.

cheers

Windows & cutplanes

2011-01-08T23:27:00.000+08:00

David Koch - The Architects Desktop, has two excellant posts on getting windows above the cutplane to display, something I've always blundered through but his explanations makes it very simple to achieve at least my desired solution .

Displaying Windows above cutplane and
ACA Wall settings at openings. (ok this one is not so simple to understand).

And whilst visiting here, David has a link to ACA / ADT scheduling resources that is very valuable. He's captured wisdom from some great minds including his own and put them in one place. I can use schedules because of what I learnt from here.

David has help Paul Aubin with his latest update to the 'Mastering ACA' series of books now called
The Aubin Academy Master Series: AutoCAD Architecture 2011

As Paul tells it, the bulk of the work for ACA has been done by David this time around and my thanks to David for all his efforts on continuing the education for ACA..

I've said before that I learnt how to use the Project Navigator after reading Paul's ADT2004 series and I dived in on a complex project on ADT2005 and was pleasantly surprised how it all came together so well. Paul himself has some good movies to watch over at Autodesk Exchange, also a great resource. So recommend Paul's work.

Hope the new year's looking good for you!

Cheers

and Now for the Really Important Stuff

2010-12-22T23:00:00.002+08:00

Well we're off to a wonderful holiday destination for just a short break. I think we have the blue trailer and some storage space in the red sea container reserved. I sure do need the open air exercise and I'm assured the pool is clean.

Thanks for sharing the journey. I hope you all are holding your own as the world shudders.

I've been working from home looking after my kids on their aussie break and they have got into Sketchup - release 8 just released. My middle son has designed his dream house. Not sure about the engineering issues but it's gets a great view and will catch any breeze! They have also messed with Envisioneer Express (free). So if you got young'uns who you'd like to inspire but don't want them messing up your cui or your pallete then these are great simple and free options for play.

Actually I tried out Sketchup myself to be able to quickly review the sun path for a new display home I'm working on. It allowed me to quickly test the height and angle of a highlight window design. The sun slider is quick to show real time shadow and I was able to determine refinements required to allow in more winter sun and still block summer sun. I reduced the overhang. I could also evaluate the effectiveness of solar panel positioning and as here determined that some panels were just not going to be very effective and need another location.

To get your aca model into Sketchup use the 3DSOUT command on a 3d view. (Don't have 3DSOUT??) You can then import the 3dstudio format file into Sketchup.

I also placed a camera and rendered shots at different times of the day using ACA, easy to adjust the time and rerender but it's not real time. Just looks better!

I am working on a 3 level house now and upgraded my lisp tools to work on it within 1 drawing and it's working quite well. I have another post to share some finer details of my system of working in one file. I've also added some extra commands that allow more quick efficient manipulation of parts of the building model.

anyway.....

So here's to you and yours. May you have a most enjoyable Christmas holiday with good family and friends, may your ability to shoulder the troubles increase and your understanding of the deeper things bring you peace. May your laughter be louder and longer and your tears be shed in joy and in sorrrow with those you love.

In this, His season,

God's best to ya

Cheers from AusACA

Multiple Levels in a single Drawing File? Part 3

2010-11-06T01:51:00.002+08:00

Ok to continue my crazy idea of completing a multi storey building in one file in ACA.
Here's a sample drawing with all layers turned on (not any different to look at from X-ref'd level files) and the rendering (incidently done in a seperate file after the CD's were completed because I couldn't resist. Design by others.

The Cutplane & Display Configurations

The cutplane determines at what height a horizontal cut is made through your building to show a plan view. You can adjust the height to cut through the windows or as the default 'Reflected' display rep does, raised it to miss windows & doors altogether. (I lower this to cut frames as I display them in the electrical layouts for residential work). Now I override the global cutplane for walls and this is discussed here. This means that whatever height a wall baseline is, it will display normally and not disappear because it's above the Global cutplane. So this will mean that you will need to rely on other methods to not display some items (walls) that are not in the current level but this is okay because some items ignore the cutplane and don't work like walls anyway. Here is where I use layers and my first designation in the layer name of it's level (1,2,3, Site etc). So in issuing a L2 command to flip to the 2nd level I need to adjust the cutplane and I do this by creating another Display Rep. This is a very simple procedure. Opening your display manager and noting what Configuration is current (in Bold text). Select and right click and copy and then paste. This creates the same DR with a (2) attached - sweet just want we want! Actually that's the long way to do it. Try Selecting Standard and whilst holding it, drag down and your mouse should display a plus. Let go and the **(2) file is created. ('Configurations' are the names that appear in the selection box RHS bottom of your drawing screen).

Now I move to the CutPlane tab and add the lower floor to current floor height to bring the cutplane to the same height for the 2nd floor. Ok out and test in your display Configuration selection box that you now have a new config to select ready for your second floor.

You can create these extra configs for any of the DR's that you use. I would generally only create 3 extra for a 2 storey home and no other fiddling is necessary but you may need more depending on the type of documentation required.

Z Plane and the Elevation
Of course when you draw a wall you need to be able to restrict the baseline to the current level and not snap to some line lower down. The OsnapZ variable does this for you and the button is to the right of the Elevation setting. My lisp reads the 2nd floor height you set via a 'SetFL2' command and wrtes it to the Elevation setting and then locks the current Z plane to that height (sets OsnapZ to 1) and you can be confident that the any snapping will ignore the Z height. Issueing L1 will return back to the ground floor Z plane and elevation height.

Controlling Display
So how do we flip from Ground Floor to Upper Floor to Ground Floor Electrical to roof plan?
Actually I don't use a roof plan but I could. Simply by using lisp to automatically execute the -Layer command and using wildcards to turn layers off and on I can instantly switch between various groups of layers. L21 will switch to the 2nd floor but show the underlying walls of Level 1 locked so they can't be moved. L1E would show the Ground Floor but without text and dimensions and also show the electrical layout not shown for normal Ground Floor plan. Basically by following conventions and grouping rules with my layer names I can create simple lisp routines to get whatever display I need. As yet I don't control the Display Configuration via lisp completely and on issuing a level change command, the dropdown list will popup allowing you to cancel (if the current one is acceptable) or select the new display rep to change to. I know the tools to change are there but I need to step up my lisp learning to get the job done.

So that's it. Relatively simple for something I desired for years to accomplish and now am using successfully in production with significant productivity increase and ease of use with some simple Autolisp. As I said at the start, I am disappointed that this wasn't presented as an option now that I know how simple it is to implement. I am happy to send you a sample file and a copy of my ever evolving lisp file to check out so drop me a comment with you email (will NOT be published) and I can do that. I hope I have presented this in a way that doesn't scare you off. Drop back and check out the reasons why this is such a good idea for smaller projects if I haven't yet convinced you. See here if you missed parts 1 & 2 for all the MultiLevel posts..

Next I need to share just a little more work on stair so you can use a single stair and see it differently on the ground floor plan and the upper floor plan. Odin Cary discussed this problem years ago here and I did use something of his logic (developed for the PN) to use in my system.

cheers

Rendering is fun!

2010-09-18T20:09:00.000+08:00

This is another project that I keep rendering over again. I have strict council guidelines to match a pocket of pre-war housing and I have to ensure that I satisfy the gods... er I mean the planners. A pretty picture can go a long way in getting support. I am not supposed to have a garage door and possibly the brick beam is going to get vetted but I'm hopeful they both have a chance.

Being able to constantly refine a design, hit render and in around 5-15mins (dependant on settings) I can have a reasonable image to sell the design. It goes a long way to winning a client. I will use the actual model, viewed from each side in a viewport with the vp set to hidden for elevations and they aren't perfect but it's quick. We can use aecElevations down the track when we get serious but time spent rendering will win over everytime. The included expanded (around 100) RPC's are enough to get you by though you can buy extra as you need it. To get the RPC's going you will need to download from Archivision. Look in your browser. I've mentioned before that if you have a license of 10, you can use the extra RPC's included in 10 in 09 without any problems.

Jay of Visionrez has posted some helpful tips on getting started in rendering in pdf form for you to download. He explains that it was created for their VR clients but it's mostly useful for anyone using ACA or even Acad. (Can someone tell me where this is posted?)

Some simple tricks n tools shown in this image.
Rafter ends are a block of the rafter overhang ensconsed in a curtainwall style which automates the repeatable spacing. (I'm still figuring out how to automate the hip rafter).
The front fence is a railing style.
A curtainwall fashioned as vertical blinds create an interesting look behind the windows.
The boarding to upstairs clad walls are a profile applied to a cladding componant.
Roof hips and Gable treatments are profiles (shapes) applied to a structural brace style.
Gutter is a wall style with a profile. (my typical fascia and eave lining is turned off).
Windows have a surround attached to fatten them up.

Having these items set up ready in a library and in a pallete at your fingertips makes bringing together an image like this an efficient process.

Rendering .. . .. . you gotta try it.

Model Rendering (edited at bottom)

2010-09-12T09:21:00.004+08:00

James posted some lovely images in the ADesk NG and I thought I'd like to add it to my blog as well as my wallpaper. This is modeled and rendered inside ACA2009 and shows that it's quite capable of a decent image for presentation.

One of the tasks for the image is as part of the presentation to the local authority to gain their support for a project that overreaches in some aspects of planning regulations.

A particular nicety in this image is the shade ribbon (a ribbon I like) that meanders around the balconies and brings about a wonderful interplay between the regular rhythm of the balastrade both glass inside the ribbon and solid outside, and the random travel of this shade device.

James has drawn 2 circles, one offset of the other, extruded both and then subtracted the inside from the outer resulting in a tube. A plan view PLine was also used to map out other flat sections, extruded to a solid, other solids used to subtract portions and after some union'ing the whole lot was converted into Mass Elements.

I've just derided the overuse of ME's in my last blog but here they are quite useful because as James points out, they obey the cut plane when displaying each floor. Now He doesn't use the PN but regardless, positioned correctly, the ME ribbons will 'cut' correctly in the plan views whereas using solids would not, having no intelligence of that sort. Also in this situation the ME 'Ribbon' style can be assigned an aecMaterial and different rendering options can be swapped quickly to explore ideas. With an ME style, you only need to deal with the aecMaterial and mess with the 'Render' material to do this. If you used solids here, you would either have to alter the actual render material used (loosing previous options) or create a new material and then remap it to each seperate portion of Ribbon each change. The style system of ACA works well here although masselements are now more primative than solids and not able to show a true curve being segmented. But if your settings are high enough (as here) this can be barely noticable.

Oh and James is working on a 64bit system with 8Mb of RAM. I doubt I could finish such a render on my 32bit home system with only 2Mb of RAM.

tips: remember that ME's can be easily turned into solids and visa versa. Select the object and RC for options.

I should mention that the first image is an updated rendering. BACKGROUND command will allow you to choose options such as a background image (sky) seen above, or sun & sky with illumination (no background) seen right. If you want to place a sky picture in later you can use a solid colour which makes selection easier in a paint program like photoshop or free GIMP. The Background setting can be saved in a VIEW you create. If you added a camera you will already have a view by the same name as the camera. Using a camera can allow easier adjustment of the view and easier setup in plan view. I'm still playing with these settings and cannot get light shadows with a sky background as James managed to get in the top image here so I've gone to pasting skies in later in GIMP. I'll post some images later to illustrate more on these settings.

James' Tip: If you are not using sky illumination you may have trouble getting shadows looking anything but dark. Try GI (Global Illumination) and forcing FG (Final Gather) on (not auto) (more the FG than the GI). "It's the only way of achieving lighter shadows if you don't want the generic mental ray background (Sun & Sky setting). I also use the logarithmic exposure control over the automatic." You can see the Globe button lit up for GI to tell you it's on as the settings display whether it's on or off (no greying out functionality here). The interface design is rather poor on a number of the palletes in 2009 and I don't think it's really improved in 2011. Be aware too that these two settings will greatly increase your render times. For my day to day images I will not use them but if I am trying to render higher resolution and better quality for special shots I will turn them on, set the render to go when I turn the lights out and hopefully in the morning I am greeted with a fabulous image. If you are using RPC content then you may be warned to alter your Physical Scale setting. Be good if the defaults were set already. James thinks it's 1100. I thought I read 600. Oh! this pallet is raised by the command RPref . Sunproperties will open the sun pallete (I've alised it to Sun).

Other settings I know to mess with: If you have lots of RAM, you can try setting your memory limit higher than the default 1048. With 3.5Gb I have used 1800 but 2000 will crash. My home system with 2Gb will not get above 1600 (if I am lucky to get that). If you can get to 64bit and lots more RAM you will have better success trying to render larger images. At the top you can select from the presets. Medium will give you a reasonable quick render (5-20mins) but High or presentation turn on FG & GI and alter some of the other settings so only use them when you are ready for the final render. Of course the render time is greatly effected by what you are rendering, the materials applied, transparency, reflectively and the settings you have applied. When experimenting don't work on that 18 storey building! Try something small, even a few masselement boxes on a floor so you can get quick feedback.

Rendering is fun!! Go on. Have a go

Roof Object - Part 12

2010-08-02T21:13:00.007+08:00

Why Part 12? Why not move on? LOL?

Because I keep finding out things about this RO tool that make it so much more usable and if I knew at least some of this when I was starting I would have been more productive and enjoyed using it more. So... I want to let you know !!

This one (or two) is fairly simple and is more about technique. I've now known and used many times (Doug?) my trim trick but I've found out how to make it quicker and easier to use.

You ready??

Instead of using a line to trim, use a circle. Pick the corner for your centre and any diameter will do. Then issue the TRIM command, pick your circle as a trim object and then your roof eave line and you now have 2 vertices - voila! (Oh you haven't read my earlier post?) They didn't tell you you could do this?

Now it's been great to have someone working with me and my young gun, on teaching him this trick just assumed you could trim an internal corner -- he was successful, but didn't tell me! He just thought I knew! Here I am, going to the nearest external corner to drag (stretch) points around into position and all I had to do was trim in the inside turn and I was there. Sigh. So simple!

Either way, the beauty of using a circle is that you still have the original corner point preserved in the centre of the circle and using osnaps and the Stretch command you can quickly restore one of the points back to the corner. I was drawing extra lines before I learnt this trick!

The old idea was that if you had to edit the roof object, you either deleted it and started again or converted it to slabs. I've learnt so many tricks to this RO that were hidden that it's a long way off from being such a disposable object. With it's easily edited capability it's a keeper.

So after editing the edges (see below) we have a new roof.

Here we have an edited roof object, albeit a simple one for demonstration but I hope you can see you've no need to throw out that complex Roof object and start again or convert to slabs just because the client wants to add a sun roof extention.

I will even edit rather than delete just to see what else I might learn about this creature.

Now remember this tool was created for ADT1 (1999) and it hasn't been improved since. Wouldn't it be great if Adesk paid some attention to this tool of great promise.

Some more tips

Make sure when trimming you 'cut' the 'Eave' line not the gutter line.

Sometimes when stretching vertices back in line they may disappear if they have the same height, eave etc. You may need to re-order your movements to stop them from disappearing or add the eave or difference before moving back in line.

My young partner also showed me how to remove an unwanted vertice - simply select it and drag into another vertices and it is gone. I've already told you he showed me that Stretching a vertice is often successful where a drag won't budge it .

When you trim the Roof Object, the newly created edges will have their pitch at 90 and their elevation set to 0 and as the 2nd picture attests, that will muck up your roof object shape. Simply edit the offending edges and set to match your roof numbers and it will pop back to line.

Final tip for now (until another one is discovered).

When you trim a roof with it's elevation not at 0, like my 2nd floor roof within my 'multi-level in one file approach' system upper floor roof, your roof will be set back to 0 elevation. Once edited, simply retype in the elevation height (2nd floor level) in the properties pallete.

Ok also a BIG apology to anyone who has followed from my much earlier posts on this roof object. I have mentioned drawing your roof with or setting a slope pitch to 0 when I should have said 90d. Setting one side to 0 will wipe out any reaction to any other pitch unless that pitching line is above the other so for example when creating a one slope verandah roof you should be using 90 (not 0) and adding the pitch to the sloping portion only.

Get Rendering

2010-07-17T22:34:00.005+08:00

I have a number of posts about my own experiences rendering inside ACA. I held off using 2007,8 and 9 because I had a quick and efficient system with ADT2006 but I have been enjoying using ACA2009 for almost a year now. If you are not rendering then you are missing out on the fun. I thought it would become a slow labourious process with overnight renders and the nightmares to go with it but I've found it almost as quick and efficient as it was in 6 and of course the new Mental Ray rendering engine can produce a higher quality finish.

As a side issue I have discovered that a number of OOTB practises of ACA are detrimental to an efficient process, namely the overuse of MassElements within styles, the overuse and underuse of Render materials and of course the use of the Project Navigator or even X-ref's. Not that I don't use X-ref's but if you do you have a number of extra steps to go thru to edit files in preparation for rendering. At best it's clumsy and verbose (but maybe necessary for larger projects) hence my development of multilevels in one file.

So..with the acceptance that I'm no expert renderer and that there are few that are on rendering inside ACA I would like to offer the tips I've learned to get a little something out of this baby. If you are after the highest quality renders, then Max may be your gig but if you would just like to get a basic good quality render out quickly and efficiently without paying the premium in time and upgrades for another program then you can get there with AutoCAD and ACA. You also have the advantage of being able to alter the file and re-render without having to learn & link to another separate program.

In ACA assigning materials is a step sideways from the direct approach in Acad which assigns materials directly to an object or bylayer. With the styles manager and it's matrix it can be a little more complicated. But that's ok. Unlike Max which is a dedicated renderer and not much else, you can use the same file for preparing your Development Application and rendering and still rip off quantities so changes need to be only done once. You could progress the same file to construction drawings and even still use it for rendering at a moments notice!

Here's some links which may be helpful on learning about Acad rendering but also try google.
http://www.dailyautocad.com's%20e-book%20%22creating%20render%20materials%22/
http://alt.dailyautocad.com/files/2009/2009-011-mat-def-toolbar.zip
http://www.dailyautocad.com/2006/01/autocad-tutorial.html#render
Archidigm article on Materials
Archidigm's Development Guide (look up materials (P1) and the appendix at the end for render/materials)

Firstly it's good to get your head around the use of aecMaterial definitions. That's not just for rendering though they contain the link for any render materials as a part. aecMats are used to describe how a material when applied to an aecObject will display in any of the display reps (Presentation, Medium Detail, Reflected etc) and in any view (plan, elevation, model etc). This would generally be understood as a hatch pattern, line thickness and possibly colour shading. However within this definition set you can also assign a render material (RMAT). Here I have developed my own thoughts apart from the OOTB system to reduce the number of RMATs used which will quickly bring your system to a crawl, especially if you are still using a 32bit OS. I also work on more low end stuff and have no time to fiddle and tweak too much so I need a system that will allow rapid development and render. It's not uncommon for me to start a design in the morning and finish the day with a set of presentation drawings (site,floor plans, elevations) together with a smart render for the cover sheet. With my multistorey in 1 file approach this has become much easier to achieve.

As for the overuse of MassElements I have discussed that here but in case you didn't get it I'll say it again here. You don't always need to use a ME for an object (block) that you embed into a style. I used the example of the aecDoorPanel that's OOTB but here's another example.

My young partner who is new at ACA created a letterbox MultiViewBlock. He created a model and 4 views (Plan,Side,Front,Rear). For the model he used MassElements and for each material created an ME style and then created seperate render materials that were captured in aecMaterial definitions. Now he did a great job and followed ACA methodology but adding this letterbox into a file added a swag of render materials, aecmaterial and ME style definitions that quite frankly we didn't need. This letterbox comes in a series of colours but apart from that there are no choices and it's going to look the same in every instance. So here is what I did to make this object a much more friendly object.

Editing the 3D model I turned every ME into a 3DSolid using the Right Click option. I edited the Render Materials so I only had RMats I would typically have in my file (and is on the limited list of materials required). The cast concrete letterbox can use the same render material that's used for rendered walls (a sand finish render). The steel letter recepticle can use Paint-SemiGloss though really do you really need to see shine on a letterbox (and add the associated render time). In the Style manager, using the 'Broom' button sweeps away the no longer required ME styles and aecMaterial styles. Purging the file removed the unwanted RMats. I make sure there are no layers in the file and all is on layer 0. The command "SETNESTEDOBJECTSBYBLOCK" (alias'd by me to FB) rids all layers,colours, plot styles, linetypes, and pen thickness's but leaves the render material assignment assigned. LAYDEL will remove unwanted layers that won't go.
Now both 'Paint-SemiGloss' and 'Render' do NOT have any colour assigned. That comes from the object being set to 'ByObject'. This means that when placed in the drawing I can pick the MVB and without exploding set a colour if need be. (I use aec Standard.stb plot style where colour is meaningless unless told otherwise).
So now my letterbox can be dropped into my drawing on a layer of my choosing, coloured if required, rendered, all with a light touch and minimum fuss. Any item that is a specific colour like the backplate is given that colour in the original block (after using FB of course). You can see you get one selection for colour so it won't work where you need two.

Oh the ME's? Well if my letterbox was an ME I would have to dive into styles and search thru menu's to find which style was assigned and if ByMaterial, then trace thru the material settings to find the colour. Now for a wall or roof I use this 'style' process (not always) but for peripheral items (props) like letterboxes it's just so much overkill and takes 10x as long to manipulate. Dump the ME's and just use plan ol' 3DSolids.

Have you downloaded a block and found lots of weird colours? I downloaded a speed boat that I've never used. This one had lots of render materials for seats, chrome, engine parts and nice colours assigned for the paint and the flames. However the acad model itself was all green! Now making an entity a colour is simple but years ago we might have followed an office assignment. Colour 151 = chrome and Colour 204 = red leather etc. But we don't need to follow such an indirect scheme. Make the object the desired colour and the chrome silver and then assign RMAT's that have colour ByObject. I also removed all the layers (no need to assign material ByLayer either). Now if I ever use that speed boat in an image it won't add any layers, (new) RMATs, plot styles or, linetypes If I make the body ByBlock I can even colour it when added to the drawing without exploding the block and it has Paint-HighGloss applied so I get a great spray job as well.

It's a prop! Who wants to spend time fiddling with a boat? You just want to drop it in your drawing and it behaves and stays quiet! I've used this technique for the car in this image. The car is dropped in (the body is white or whatever the layer 0 colour is) and a colour selected).Now it ain't going to win me any rendering awards but it has won the client over.

If you've had a chance to check out the even newer Mental Ray rendering engine update in 2010 and 11 it may have a high drool factor - the new materials look lovely, but it's going to slow you down and weigh down your system and prevent you from an efficient process. Check out the paint colours. Each colour has it's own RMat !! That's a lot of Rmats. Ditch the colour, make it ByObject and then you can use the same RMat where-ever you use that same gloss level. And remember unless you are trying to create a high image level, then many of the subtle variations in paint are lost on a simple quick rendering. Is gloss plastic that much different from Gloss paint. If you think so then you shouldn't be reading this article. If you require a specific material like brickwork then yes you will need a RMAT for each different one though for something like concrete pavers you can simply use a bump map and colour ByObject again.

Odin Cary of Archidigm is doing some great investigation articles of ACA2011's new rendering and materials and it seems he's having better luck. He also has explained the 'jump to perspective' bug that had me in frustration. Odin has also started renaming the complex and longwinded material names so I am not alone here.

Also be aware I am talking exteriors here. For interiors the game changes alot. Rather than the one light source (sun) you need the reflective values of many surfaces to realistically light an interor but to be efficient you can still greatly reduce the number of RMat's used by using the above techniques.

Get in and render! (or simply!! then render :-)

Multiple Levels in a single Drawing File? Part 2

2010-07-09T00:24:00.002+08:00

Ok so are you interested enough to read further on this idea?
I can promise a productivity boost on residential and small commercial projects. Following the OOTB processes can at times lead to a lot of the confusion attributed to ACA/ADT when simpler processes could have been put in place. The OOTB processes are also detrimental to efficient production especially when you want to turn (churn) out fast renders as well.

Here is the recipe on how I achieved it and it was much simpler than I thought it would be. So simple that I ponder why Autodesk hadn't provided this as an option. Oh and this is just background of how it works. You don't have to understand or recreate this.

Let's go to the the list of the items I posted in Part 1 in more detail.

A Layer Key Style that holds a Layer designator.
We all work differently and we need to have the items required for our environment. For very large projects, you may have multi disciplinary drawing files but for the most part, I would complete my set of architectural drawings and a structural engineer would complete his own set of drawings. Maybe a hydraulic engineer would be required or perhaps a civil engineer but they would also complete their own set of separate drawings (& CAD files). So there is no need for me to preface a layer with an A. I preferred the level indicator to be first and I use a simple number. '1'. It's great to open the layer dropdown and type S and go straight to the Site-* layers. But it doesn't really matter because as long as your level indicator is in the same place you can use the '-layer' command to find and manipulate your layers. So 'A-Wall-L1' or 'A-Wall-FLR2' is ok. Because the layer manager dropdown display is so narrow and only shows a limited number of letters I try to keep mine simple. You cannot mix A-Wall-L1 and A-Wall-Blow-L2 though as the level indicator is in 2 different places (3rd and 4th along) (In my system anyway).

(Odin Cary of Archidigm has excellant explanations on all things ADT/ACA in his Development Guide. Check out under section 2 for Layer Key Styles.)

As an explanation;
From the command line I can issue -layer , select 'OFF' and then using a wildcard such as 1-* have all the layers starting with 1- turning off. (The * being a wildcard for those not familiar). I could also issue *-*-FL1* but of course it will fail if the level is not in a consistent position in your layer names. If the level is always in the 3rd position it should work. Therefore I chose to put it in the first position and also allow me to sort my layers naturally by level. (I've seen a wish list item posted several times to allow layer groupings, but this is not available at this time).

However this does not prevent me from sorting via major item either. Issuing the -layer command again and OFF and *-Wall* would turn all wall layers off regardless of their level.
So from this basis we can turn all layers off using the * wildcard and then turn back on those we want to work with. Therefore in lisp fashion the following lines...

(command "-LAYER" "m" "0" "F" "1-Elec*" "OFF" "*" "N" "ON" "1-*,1+*" "")

...sets layer 0 as the current layer, freezes the electrical layer (as I only want that one on when doing electrical layouts), turns all else off, then turns on the level 1 (and 1+) levels (except the frozen electrical layer).

My system uses the difference between freeze and off for layers. Frozen layers do not regenerate and reduce the load on the display system. Off layers are generated though not displayed and are quickly turned off & on. So by freezing layers I don't want to see for a while and turning off layers I might want to edit quickly in my next move, I can have a fast responsive system.

I used the 1+ Stair for items that would span more than one level so they would show also on the 2nd floor as well (but with a different cut plane and display rep - more on that one later).

So if we tie the above lisp line to a simple command, say 'L1', then we have created a new command to show us all the layers on level 1 only. More on this layer..er...later.

I also use other 'level' indicators to sort layers such as Site-, 3D- for info only used for modelling or elevations and not required in plan views. Your Layer Key Standard will set whether your layer names have to follow a strict or loose convention. Some LKS's have strict 1--4-4-4 numbers of alphanumerics generally with the last 2 places being optional. Mine has no restriction on the number of each. I find the AIA layering system, designed to organise a hospital complex way overkill for simple residential so don't feel tied to such a system if it's not needed.

Hey try this. If you have an x-ref in your drawing, use the layer command to freeze all it's layers like this -layer F X-RefName|* The | symbol is shown in the layer name itself in the Layer Manager between the x-ref name and the layer name (inside the x-ref). I have my survey as an x-ref named 'Survey' and using this info I can freeze all survey info in my drawing using lisp.

All new to you? Open your Layer Manager and click on the 4 buttons top right. I'll try to add some good links here for simple tutorials on these great and powerful tools.

Can you see why I have dropped the A- from my layer names. Layers are sorted alphabetically (of course) and you can use this fact to your advantage in your layer scheme. Even keeping your A-, what comes after will determine the sorting order. In the layer box you can type say 2 and it will scroll to all my 2nd floor layers.

Place to hold your elevation floor level heights.
If you want to switch to the 2nd floor, you need to be able to draw a wall at the 2nd floor height. This height needs to be entered and available to the drawing. I did want to use Fields but as yet I don't know of a way to access them in lisp (strange!). It needs to be saved with the drawing but it's not a drawn entity. So for the moment I have elected to use Autocad variables (thanks David Koch) Acad has 10 user set variables available that are stored in the drawing when closed that I can enter and access. I chose the interger based as I work in mm and won't be requiring any decimal places. If you have decimal places in your floor heights, you will need to use the USERR1-5 system variables as the R stands for REAL. I assume level 1 at z=0 but level 2 is set in 'USERI2" and level 3 in "USERI3" etc (the 'I' here is an i). My loaded custom autolisp file reads this variable when I open the drawing and assigns the variables FL2 and FL3. These variables (FL2/3) will be lost once the drawing is closed hence the use of the system variables to hold the values over. An easy way to access these is thru the 'System Variable Editor" available under the 'Express Tools' under 'Tools'.

Now don't worry if this is all confusing to you. I am just trying to give some background info on my method of madness. I can send a template or sample file to you that has these items set up already and I have followed OOTB methodology as much as possible so that I have minimised my customisation. My overriding rule is to Keep It Simple so I assure you it's not complicated.

Next .... Cutplanes, Zplanes and switching Display Representations.

Free ADT teaching vid's and other news.

2010-07-06T09:59:00.003+08:00

Daryl Gregoire of CadClips has just released his ADT and Autocad video's for free viewing. Looks like he stopped teaching at version 2008. Not too much has changed since then anyway. I have had CadClips link on my page for some time so you may have already visited but if not pop over and you can get an online video review of that difficult to grasp concept.

Perhaps watching someone do it will be the thing that gets it to sink in! Watch them here

(pssst you will even see some Revit video's too but you won't here it from me!

Matt Stachoni is a heavy weight in the installation and setup of AutoCAD Architecture and it you have some questions on how to install and where, his guide, available at his new web site aecblog will make a good night time read. (At the time of posting this it was off-line but come back to it). I only do single installations so all the network stuff was more than I needed but I enjoyed his hints at how to hack the dialogue boxes. You know when you have to keep enlarging them EVERYtime and it gets old.

and in some interesting news Dell Not so Swell

Is there any company that's reliable and trustworthy to deliver and full working product anymore?

cheers

Roof Object - I was WRONG again !!! Part 11

2010-06-12T14:40:00.002+08:00

I can't believe it !! I am flabbergasted. This beauty of a tool was hiding yet another secret. One that I said it couldn't do. I don't think Autodesk knew. EVEN the roof creator himself didn't know!! But I am about to show you what we all missed - IT CAN BE DONE!

What?

This roof object (RO), that was created back for ADT1 can overlap itself. Yes it's true it hasn't changed in all that time and it CAN do what we all thought it couldn't. You just gotta know how to caress and seduce it. Actually it's even Much easier than that.

Take a look at these examples and see. This picture is of just ONE RO.

I discovered this all by accident and there must have been someone else out there that also discovered this but perhaps because you have been told to explode to roof slabs you didn't bother to explore. But my obsession with this clever tool continues to lead me to discover new tricks.

So how's it done. Simply by creating extra edges & a gap which allows the object some space and you the opportunity to add an overhang or underlap. These gaps can be made smaller than you can see on a print.

This example is the centre hip in the roof above. It both overhangs and underlaps itself. I've shown the gap big enough to see but it can be very small and I turn this blue (eave) line off in display anyway. The red lines would need stretching into position once you create the roof object but you would then have the RO valleys showing to know where to stretch it to. (It should become obvious if you do one).

Here are 7 edges from the LHS of the roof as numbered above. I've pasted in each face slope so you can see it collectively. You can see the whole hip has a higher pitching height (3200) to raise it above the surrounding roof. You can see an extra 90d slope added to get the gamblet on edge 6. The height for those egdes with 90 slopes doesn't matter much. Here's the strange one. The overhang to edge 1 controls the length of the underhang! Sweet!

There's a number of different ways to create this shape but possibly one easy way is to draw a RECTangle over the walls that will hold the raised roof. Offset a small distance (10?) and then again. Stretch the top of the outside square down 3 x 10 to get the short 45d edge to line with the valley. (ok I've not shown square distances above-sorry) You would need to lock your walls so they are not stretched and pref have everything else turned off. This should give you enough points to snap to as you draw around. Erase the rectangles and STRETCH the top of the shape to meet the created valleys.

You will notice the created eave line snapback controlls the under/overlap width. Drag it back & forward to see how it controls the extent.

One more BIG tip when manipulating the Roof Object. We are taught to pick vertices and drag along. Good advice for everything else but for the RO, the STRETCH (S) command will give you more consistent results. If an edge won't move, Stretch it instead. This tip was fed to me by my young drafter who remarked "I can get the roof object to pretty much do what I like now!".

Ok to restress the rules;
- The Eave line cannot overlap itself but the overhang can but only with a gap between.
- I turn off the eave line as it doesn't represent anything I want to show on my drawings. There may be times when the eave line path required to get the roof object as you want it is not what you want to show either.
- Stretch - don't drag vertice
-Odin Cary found that you may need to have no general overhang set for the roof to work at first so you may need to add overhangs later rather than set them as default.

-Don't forget you can add vertices by my Trim Trick if you need to add extra edges but it may well be quicker to recreate it.

Here is a closeup on how to get that overhang happening in another common situation. Here the secret is a simple gap where it overlaps. Again the blue line would be turned off and you are left with a clean roof shape. I would stretch the inside snapback blue line to the left once created to line up with the forward ridge. This will align the underhang with the main roof as you will see if you do it.

Once you get the hang of the rules these are dead easy to create. How did we all miss it?

Oh dear...... I am going to have to go back and edit my earlier blogs !! agian!

BTW in case you didn't realise, in IE you can RC on an image and ask to open in another TAB and it will open a larger image you can more easily read. You can also hold the CONTROL key and scroll your mouse to enlarge a web page display.Cheers
Roof On

Design Review 2011 - Walkthroughs??

2010-06-09T00:04:00.002+08:00

What a disappointment this product is. I'm sure some find it useful but after some excitment at the thought of the latest release, the blogs mentioning how lighting and the camera view has been improved, I was certainly let down when I tried it out.

I am comparing the product to ArchiCAD's Virtual Building Explorer which I think has hit bullseye as to what a program designed to give a client the power to virtually walk thru a design should be. VBE is not free, costing around $600aus for the creation program but the low cost is more than justified by it's output. This could really sell a design! Conversely DR looks amateur. It still can't properly light a model, materials wash out (still), it's view is still terrible, the interface is awkward and hard to manipulate requiring constant changing from one control to another.

VBE does not require any software to be installed for the end user. They receive an executable that simply opens an interface to run thru the model. Navigating is familar to anyone who has ever played a 3D game. WASD keys forward-back, left & right whilst 'looking' with your mouse. It's very easy to walk around and look. DR is just pathetic in comparison. It can't move sideways whilst looking forward so you can't walk past a building while looking at it. (just dumb). VBE has used OpenGL rendering to produce a game like environment with materials and lighting that look... well like quite a good game. DR's environment is gawky and ugly. How come Graphisoft can get an easy camera view inside a building but DR's is like a fish eye camera with bad distortion all round?

I'm sorry but there is just no comparison between the 2 programs. VBE is professional and very impressive. DR is like something developed by a back yard operation. I don't get how Autodesk could miss the mark by so much. VBE has been out for years. Graphisoft purchased the technology when they bought a company and they have really used it well. I'm told that Adesk also had "Walkthrough" back in the 90's but they dropped the ball and have not picked it up. Perhaps they thought that DR was meeting it but anyone who thinks so has not checked out how high Graphisoft have raised the benchmark. I am very frustrated and embarrassed that DR is the best I can offer to the sales team.

Visit the VBE site and download the samples at the bottom of the page and then make some noise on the newsgroups or directly to Adesk. I don't think they see any need to compete.

Adesk have committed themselves to a crossplatform approach and the navigation tools are used in many Adesk programs such as Autocad, Max, Maya, Design Review, Navisworks, such that you can open an unfamiliar program and understand how to navigate a model. Sounds good but the tools they chose to incorporate are just plain awkward. Difficult to use I would not like to give them to a company director and watch him embarrass himself trying to move around and look about. The navigators are the wrong choice. Have none of the programmers have ever played a 3D game? How easy it could be. Was it an executive decision by the power brockers? Instead they designed a convoluted system that requires training to operate. After a few hours I have can navigate somewhat successfully but it's still not freedom.

Sigh. If you pop in to Adesk development it appears there's nothing good on the horizon either.

Auto Title Blocks & Fast Plotting

2010-06-02T09:20:00.001+08:00

If you are doing large projects in ACA or just Autocad you should be making use of the PN or the SSM (Sheet Set Manager) which automates the numbering, labelling and naming of files and compiles a title sheet for you. Hawever if you are working on smaller projects this may seem a bit overkill. I wanted to share some available tools that can be used that will bring great efficiency if you are only using a 1 file approach (even multistorey) as I do. I do use x-ref's, keeping the survey and entourage seperate (and maybe others) but essentially I draw and set up plot sheets in the same file using paper space tabs.

Template
The big one that saves you time is using a template with all your settings already installed and maybe some basic styles and componants. Your text & dim styles, layers that are not created by your layer key standard (non aec entities). (I cheat and grab a similar project.) I start my model at 0,0 (floor plan or site plan) and when I flip to my floor plan sheet it's viewport is ready to print (maybe a little tweaking). I put my elevations in the same place each time and they also will be ready to print from their layout. This also allows for the correct layers to be already set so selecting the Electrical layout will show the plan already in Reflected display rep and have text and dims turned off etc. For two storey, the right layers are set in each floor plan along with the correct cutplane and display rep (see my 1 file multi-storey approach).

Fields

First, hopefully you have been using fields to derive automatic information useful to list on your drawing sheet. Fields such as Date Plotted will automatically collect the plotted date and insert it into your drawing and be updated each time it's plotted. I often store drawings in pdf format for others to utilize and that pdf will clearly show it's plot date so plotted sheets can be compared. It also shows the file name of the drawing file so we know which file it came from. There are many fields that can be used in your title block or anywhere in the drawing, even if you don't want to display it. Some may only need to be viewed by the CAD drafter. (You can see here I was using ACA2011 and it was constantly crashing - you can see 'recover' in the file name.) By default Fields will show with a non printing grey background so you can tell them apart from normal text.

To insert fields go to the 'Insert' menu or under the 'Annotate' ribbon and the extra pulldown.

But you can also create your own....

Drawing Properties

Here you can set up fields to hold the custom data you require to access in your drawing..

In earlier versions you can find this under the File menu or by clicking the tiny arrow bottom RHS of screen, typing _dwgprops or in later versions under the Big A

I have created up a series of fields that can then be accessed by the title block for each sheet. The advantage of using DP to hold your data rather than entering directly into your title block block is that it's much quicker to edit and access. It's also accessible as fields and can be referenced in more places than one. Where I have a client name, I can have that field entered into my title block as well as sheet set cover in a different font and setout all in my template file. Can't do that if entered straight into your title block. Open a template, save as new job, enter client name once and it appears on every sheet title block AND the cover with only the one entry. Spelt it wrong? Update quickly once and be confident that everywhere it appears it has been corrected.

CTAB

Another not well known trick here is to use the 'ctab' field inserted into the title block to reference the name and number of each sheet. The CTAB field reads the name of the layout. Now you only get one reference here for each layout but I put a space between my sheet number and the sheet title and I can use some old fashion fudge action to split them into 2 parts.

Use of a 2d solid object effectively blocks out the parts I don't want of the same field 'ctab' used twice as shown here. You could use a solid hatch, wipeout, aecpolygon or such for the covering but they all have issues. My 2d Solid is slightly off white 255,255,254 and has a 'Standard' plot style assigned (STB) as to alway print the colour white regardless of the plot style used. The beauty here is the TAB name doubles for organising your drawing as the layout names are visible when you are working. You can see that here I haven't entered the site size or the R coding yet.

I would love to be able to gather the tab names together for a sheet list but I don't believe this option exists except maybe thru some clever programming.

Another benefit to this method is that when printing a layout to a pdf, Acad assumes the dwg file name and appends the layout name so I will get ClientName-Poolhouse-02-FloorPlan.pdf as the default name to save which returns a nice set of pdfs. Not useful if you print multi sheet pdf's but they can be difficult to email especially if the recipient only wants the site plan. To be honest, Acad is somewhat random here and does not always assume the full name - but most times. It also doesn't appear to work in AcadLite.

Draw Once
I adopt a Draw Once philosophy to my drawings (where possible) to reduce the error factor. We all make them but if we can minimise the times we draw something it will reduce errors especially when changes are made..
If you are labelling each title block individually then you are doing a lot of extra work and not making use of the software effectively and greatly increasing your chances of errors. If a clients name is spelt wrong, it would take me about 30sec's to open a dwg file, change the name once and send a whole set of drawings to a printer (real or pdf). The use of a field fills in the project details in the title block but also on the cover sheet in a completely different font & size. I can even do something arty by doubling it up and fading the 2nd one behind for a shadow effect.

Plotting
By using clearly labeled layers and discipline to what goes on them we can reuse the same drawing for different printed sheets turning layers on/off. Here is Australia, smaller practises layering is atrocious and few follow any sort of good practise. Unfortunately If they do have a good office scheme then getting drafters to follow it is another difficult task.

Page Setups
If you aren't using these then you have to read these links. (Still picking corners??) This tool makes plotting SO much easier and who likes to spend time plotting? Once setup, this makes it easier to print either a hard copy or pdf set, print a half size set or print to a different printer at a few clicks.
Archidigm's page setup tips
Ellen Finklesteins tips
Cad Geek - Importing page setups
Heidi Hewitt

I have some other practises that might be helpful.

Metric or Imperial
If you are a metric user, make sure you are using metric templates, your own or Out Of The Box. MEASUREMENT should be set to 1 for metric and this forces Autocad to reference metric linetypes and hatch files (Acadiso.lin ad Acadiso.pat). I often get .dwg files that have a setting of 0 and they will reference the imperial files and it can be difficult to get dashed lines and hatches to display correctly with your drawing. To correct, you need to set Measurement to 1, reload every loaded linetype and regen. Depending on how the linetype was scaled can effect the outcome. Linetypes should really be drawn a 1 scale although you will have to adjust the useful 'batting' linetype to the size required.

Now here's where I seriously divert from recommended practise. I set LTScale to 25 and leave it. I don't change LTS or think about it. I set my Paper space layouts PSLTSCALE to 0 which removes dynamic adjustment of linetypes but for residential work, using the common linetypes like dashed, hidden, Centre, Dashdot, EvenDash, Divide (and even iso02100 dash space) will produce reliable results that just work. I mostly do not consider scale on linestypes. As I see them in model space is how they will print in paper space and I don't have to remember to set LTS back to 1 to print. For the scale used in residential work (1:10,50,100,200) this all works perfectly. (let me know if you want to see a file of this working in practise).

Of course this is old advice with the new MSCALE setting which dynamically adjusts according to the set annotative scale but I prefer my simpler and reliable practise. If you do larger work (commerical) then learning the MSCALE setting is a must and will make the whole linetype scale problem go away (at least that's what they tell me).

Now ducking for cover!

Cheers

Archidigm.com update

2010-05-22T01:35:00.001+08:00

Have you been back to Archidigm.com lately. I have often linked to his site with it's great teaching tips and spoke about his ready made content and system. Odin has given fantastic support to the ADT/ACA community both with his teaching and downloadable content. If you are in the US you may be able to avail his services but for those around the world he has a wealth of in depth information on the web site.

Did I mention that he released his Development Guide, last written for ADT2005 for free download. Although we have moved on 7 versions since then, many of the base concepts have not changed a great deal and you will find great tips here.

Odin continues to release updates on his excellant content, the latest being an update to his previously released Fences kit for ACA2010/11. If you are looking to do interior renders or illustrations then his Kitchen & Bathroom Kits could bring great productivty gains with the ready made componants for cabinets, fixtures and fittings ready to drop in and assemble and they are also designed to be used to produce the Construction Documents so you are not double handling, reducing errors.

He has also released a Furniture Kit, TV's, Garage doors, Fridges, Streets and there are some package deals going where you can save by bulk buying. Purchasing of a kit also gives you 1 years access to the OSMOSIS learning web site which contains even more indepth information on all sort of things ACA.

A large portion of my knowledge of ACA that has lead to productivity gains has come about from scouring the Archidigm web site so get on over and dig in.

Cheers.

Render Materials in a 32bit world.

2010-05-12T23:30:00.001+08:00

Further on from my discussion about the use of aecMaterials....

Hey I wanted to share some ideas about creating render materials with ACA. Not the method itself but some methodology that I have dreamed up in an effort to reduce the RAM overhead with windows 32bit that causes so many crashes in rendering. It obviously taxes the system considerably and 32bit Windows is limited in how much memory it can access. So .... my thinking was how do I reduce the number of render materials I am using. Have you noticed how slow the Materials pallete makes Acad run when it's open. I am learning rendering and have some way to go to get the most out of the new rendering engine now in AutoCAD (Mental Ray). I often have materials I don't want but can't delete because they are buried in some style somewhere and there really is no quick or easy way of finding where it's attached. When opening the Material pallete the system slows and doing anything suffers from having the pallete open and the more materials present the worse it is. So ..... what was my brilliant idea this time?

How can you reduce the number of render materials (RMAT) used? Well, where you need to apply a bitmap to show tiles, paving, bricks, grass etc you will need a RMat with a bitmap applied (as in a picture of brickwork or roof tiles). But where you don't, you may be able to use one render material for several different instances by setting the diffuse colour to By Object which removes the colour factor from the Render Material definition. To explain.... here are different examples in practise.

If I have a colourbond roof, whereas previously I tried attaching a bitmap of the colour together with a bump map of the sheeting, now I have no diffuse map, setting the colour to By Object. Now the material will apply with the bump giving the impression of a corregated roof sheet but the colour comes from the aecMaterial definition. Furthermore if I have several roofs of different colour, rather than setup several aecMaterial definitions, I can set this colour also to By Object and then physically pick each roof and set it's colour by the old acad colour dropdown. Better By Style but this method even reduces the number of aecMaterial definitions and also allows quick adjustment of different roofs. (Note: I use .stb plotstyles so that I can use any colour and it doesn't define line thickness)

For the above image, the roof corrugation simply comes from the render material however the walls are swept profiles. However I could use the same RMaterial by rotating the RMAT in the aecMaterial definition for walls with horizontal sheeting.

For the gutter and ridge/hip cappings (Missing on the front unit-woops) I use to define an aecMaterial definition with colour and then attach a Render Material called Ridge or such. However NOW where an item is solid colour, I may assign it to 1 of 4 paint finishes, Paint-Matt, Paint-SemiGloss, Paint-Gloss and Paint-HighGloss. These RMats have their colour set to By Object so they can be used for any instances of any colour and they will be rendered appropriately. The HighGloss I apply to Car bodies etc - anything with really high gloss! Furthermore these same paint finishes are now available to any furniture etc I insert.

So a TV surround may have Paint-HighGloss applied to the black casing and it doesn't introduce another Render Material but does render with that lovely gloss. Of course if you want a timber finish you will need a bitmap and it's own RMat. I have always held back on interiors not wanting to fuss with so many render materials. Max might be great but AutoCAD will never be a renderers dream, however following these principles I can create a library of furniture that will not introduce any RMATs into my file at all, again (unless I am using bitmaps but even then following a simple approach I can greatly reduce this as well). So a table maybe given a color and a RMat applied in the block and I can just drop it in and move on. If required, make the table ByBlock and you can set the colour on the fly without exploding the block. This also allows you to remove any and all layers from the table block and put it all on layer 0. No unwanted layers added to your file. Ever downloaded a block online to find it have wierd colours assigned? Usually this is following someones colour-to-render assignments but why not use a direct approach and just colour it the colour you want and assign the material. I think using .stb's has pushed me in this direction but a 3D model of a chair has only one purpose - it's appearance in 3D so colour it as it should be and remove all those obnoxious layers.

Tip: SETNESTEDOBJECTSBYBLOCK will quickly set all items within a block to 'ByBlock'. Put all your bits in the one file (like a style file) and create your render materials. Apart from the paint series, try StainlessSteel etc. Then these RMats are available in that file to assign to any componant.

Previously I had 2 seperate RMats for window glass and car window glass. However with the Glass Render Material colour set to By Object, I can darken the car glass objects so you can't see in (no interiors!) and still be able to have transparency for the building windows. Setting the colour in the aecMaterial setting for glass to the windows I can control the windows glass colour/transparency/look. I could even control different styles or windows separately if I needed to. All this is setup and defined in my library file for the car so it's ready to just drop in and render.

This all has 2 main effects

It reduces the number of RMats required thereby reducing the overhead and easing the load when opening & closing the (render) Materials Pallete.
It becomes quicker to adjust colours when you don't need to open said Pallete but can either use aec style boxes or even just by picking objects knowing you have already set the correct 'Gloss level'.

I have car models which I wish to quickly x-ref in and have render without fussing. For a carpark, I might use the one car several times. By setting the car body colour to By Block I can use the same car a number of times and simply select the X-ref and choose an acad colour for each. Because I also have Paint-HighGloss applied in the car file it renders glossy without introducing another Render Material into your file. This is applied to Acad objects not aec ACA objects so it's simple to apply without any styles etc.

Hint : Any Render Materials in your x-ref files will travel into the Render Material Pallete unless they have the same name as one existing in the host file. Updates in the X'Ref'd file will not affect those in the host file unless you unattach, purge the material and reattach. Of course if there is already a used material by the same name it will have no effect to change the RMAT in the X-ref file.

Your Acad library of 3D objects can be set to ByBlock for colour and assigned a simple 'Paint-Gloss' and it will render ok. If your block is inside a MVB then sorry you don't have this luxury and the colour is defined in the 3D block used.

I am still working through the above process but it has already brought about a good efficiency return and finally given me confidence about how to set up my 3D library of bits to enhance a design presentation without spending heaps of time adjusting each little part. Maybe the methodology can be useful to you too.

Hopefully I can post some more tips that have really helped me slim down the file and improve efficiency.

I've converted many MassElements to Solids with a material assigned such as the must be famous door panel. Having Paint-Gloss applied I can easily update the colour in the door style definition rather than having to chase down a MassElement style or exploding the block itself to find I've done an object override. It's there now - easy to get to. I have always tried to stay within the system but I realised that in this case, ME's are actually detrimental to efficiency and weren't helping. Plus Solids have exceeded ME's capabilities (i.e. curves!).

To the right I clip various dialogue boxes to hopefully show you the path. If you are new at this it can seem a bit daunting but most of this would be set up in your library files and you only need to tweak a colour here and there. You can see the render material has no colour assigned. You can also assign a % of colour and % of bitmap if that helps.

Also to mention that I go against the long winded approach to naming that is adopted in Adesk products. Of course this may be necessary for a hospital wing but you are going to bring your system to it's knees if you try to have so many RMats that you need to group them so catagorically. Unlike Max, ACA is also trying to do lots of other things than just concentrate on shapes and materials. So I use direct names.
Roof-Colourbond.
BrickFace (I should use WallBrickFace but that's too longwinded for me).
Also the shorter, the less scrolling you will have to do.
Grass etc

ah I could waffle on forever..... hope this helps you.
cheers

Materialisationability

2010-04-28T23:56:00.003+08:00

Using the ByMaterial settings.

Maybe because my materials are different to what's available OOTB (I didn't even know what CMU was), I set about creating my own materials including bitmaps of bricks and timber finishes etc. but I ended up with lots of overrides in my wall styles to show the floor plan hatching as I wanted it, the backlining, the section view. It's a very labour intensive process and not very efficient. Ok maybe I didn't understand what I was doing but a year or so back I 'got' the idea of using the ByMaterial setting and it has vastly simplified my process and therefore the maintenance and editing of my projects. Now this isn't my own wacky creation - it's how the OOTB content is setup to perform so it's as per the creators intended. Duh! At first it seemed too laborious to set up but it's not and pays dividends down the track. If you can use the American materials even better - it's set up for you. There are other packs available. I have the UK set, a pack has even been released for Chinese content!

Now I want to be able to quickly design up a building, shoot 3D's in the design process, then document all in as efficient process as possible. 3D's are an extra that most avoid but it's an enjoyable one and if you can make the process efficient then it's not really much extra effort to create. All your modelling becomes part of the CD's so that time is not wasted. My main work is common residential and it's all the more important to have an efficient process because the drawing fee is not generous!

I have found that aecMaterials is a big part of the key to get this process happening efficiently.

So now here's what a typical wall style use to look like for me and how it look's now.

You'll notice that there are now NO style overrides now which as said before reduces the effort = productivity boost. All wall styles are controlled by the 'Standard' wall style settings. (ok not all - more on that later).

Background
I have come to the conclusion that it's best is to stay as close to OOTB as possible but probably most international users will need to customise for local conditions. So here is my practise I have adopted with the Display Representations (DR).

Presentation DR is used for designing & sketching and renderings.
Medium Detail is used for construction drawings usually at 1:100
High Detail is used for Detailing at 1:20-1:1
Low Detail is used for Site plans
Reflected is used for service layouts (generally just electrical) (With a lowered cutplane to show doors & windows)

Above is a sample wall taken from the UK Wall Styles shown with the different display rep's. If you examine them they won't have overrides except where required to remove endcaps but these can and should be removed or displayed for the standard style. I undid the overrides and got the same outcome. i.e. For Low Detail you would generally not want endcaps for any style and conversely you would for High Detail - so the settings can be made in the standard wall style and set for all styles.

Remember too that if you add extra DR's you will multiply your maintenance so be cautious and only add what you really need. See if you can make use of an existing unused DR (screened?) instead of creating a new one.

I know that some don't like to manipulate layers but it does give you another dimension of control and it's easy if you follow good practise and make use of the (express) layer tools.

How the OOTB content works... (wish I'd understood this before - DOH!). Open the wall style drawing from the Content/Styles folder. Then cycle thru the different DR's and see how the wall display changes. Turn on your LineWeight display so you can see the Bold lines. Now click on any wall and see if they have any overrides set - (No!)

For Presentation (DR) drawings the walls are shown as a solid fill. Any wall with any material will simply show as a solid fill. All the componant displays are turned off so no individual componants (Brick, frame. cavity) will show giving you a nice simple solid for any wall (regardless the style). This is all controlled from the Standard wall style as there are no style overrides. Have a look at a wall style at the Layer/C/L tab and note which componants are on. (remember that no matter which wall you pick, you are looking at the settings in the Standard wall style as there are no style overrides). So all wall styles will show the same shrinkwrap and sw hatch. Bring in a new wall style and it displays the same. OOTB uses the standard material for the shrinkwrap but I added my own material 'Shrinkwrap Wall' so I know it only applies to walls. Sometimes I may use diagonal lines instead of solid fill and I may not want that everywhere standard is used.

For Medium Detail the shrinkwrap hatch is turned off and the shrinkwrap is used as the overall backline. The componant displays are now turned on and control of the componants is controlled by your material settings. This is so because the ByMaterial boxes are ticked. No overrides are set in individual styles because your custom control happens in the material definitions (MD). This is the trap for international users because we may not have sets of appropriate material definitions set up. But hopefully I can show you why it's worth the effort if it's required. (remember you may use the OOTB materials).

The beauty here is that if you change the display of your certain brick material every wall style containing that componant will be instantly changed, in plan, elevation, section and even a render view. Done in one simple edit. If you have overrides in your wall styles you would need to chase every instance of that (brick) and remember each setting you changed (i.e. hatch, scale and rotation, pen thickness and plot style etc). The material once defined can be stored and retrieved and applied to any wall (or other) style just by assigning the material.
For High Detail, it's much the same as Medium except the hatching is shown for a larger scale for details but remember the hatching comes from the material definition not the wall style. Shrinkwrap could be a thicker line for the larger scale.
In the Reflected DR, the componants are again not displayed, the shrinkwrap hatch is turned off and the Shrinkwrap is a light line instead of bold. A nice background for your electrical & ceiling drawings. You could even turn your componants display on here and shrinkwrap off if you wish to show cavity or some level of detail. Your material settings could ensure the lines are all still light. You would not usually have your componant hatching turned on.

Remember there are no wall style overrides (except for special walls) so this is all determined in only my (1) Standard wall style and the aecmaterials definitions. This IS pretty much how the OOTB styles are set up and it's easy to adjust the whole drawing and all wall styles in one shot.

Next: But what about?? - some overrides you DO need to make.

Customisations I've made.

Why this is important for efficient renders

Why I thnk some of the OOTB is over the top - simplify!

Here's a couple of customisations that I needed to make to get this working for me.

I created a new material called 'ShrinkwrapWall'. Every wall gets this assigned for it's shrinkwrap material. (I created this rather than use 'standard' as that is applied to many styles and componants and I wanted to be able to control my walls independantly. If you don't do this, just remember that 'Standard' is used for your wall styles so don't change it without thinking about the consequences)

Because my wall cavities are empty I need to create a material that wouldn't show but because there are no overrides to control this one componant I needed another trick to make it disappear. Realise that in your standard wall style you have no idea which componant is which, they are just numbers and you don't know which one is your cavity. So using the ByMaterial setting I created an 'Air' componant (which is also useful elsewhere). In most DR's this material display is turned off and doesn't display.

Tip: Alias aecMaterialDefinitions to MD for quick access.

Multiple Levels in a single Drawing File? Part 1

2010-04-18T11:25:00.002+08:00

Now this may take several posts to discuss and some of you at least will think me mad. "Why would you want to do that? Just use the Project Navigator (PN)."

I have used the PN way back in ADT2005 when it first was implemented after I read through Paul Aubin's Mastering ADT2004. I documented a four story addition to a 3 story building, the floors not lining up with the existing building (ceiling heights not as high as the 10' original). It also had an uneven dual stairwell with central lift between the two buildings. The whole effort to turn it into a backpackers hostel. Now I shudder to think I dared dive into a heavy project like this with an architect's deadline to please, with such a new concept as the PN (all on an old P166) but I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it all came together. Various repeated Ensuites became Elements inserted into Constructs into Views and Sheets. Seperate drawings for external, internal, ceilings & electrical etc. The only major problem I had was my sheets template didn't have the same adjustments to the Display reps that my Views had and it caused me a fair amount of trouble to adjust items afterwards. All this to say that I have used PN successfully and I understand it's advantages.

I have used it again from time to time on largish projects where it was advantageous to break it down into smaller componants. I used it when I had to assemble 65 "little boxes on a hillside" for a rendered illustration (Right).

I like how you can select some entities, drag them into the PN and drop to create a new file or even into (merge) another file without opening it. The PN is a really smooth organiser.

But....

Most of my work has been in smaller residential projects and I just think it's over-kill. Vision-Rez must agree and had created their own one file/multi level approach though you can use the PN if you want. There are advantages to splitting files up. I still do that keeping entourage for rendering and the survey in separate files but on the main, it's all in the one file.

Just to clarify I am talking multi-storey residential or small commercial/industrial. If I were to do a larger many mutli-floor project again I would happily consider using the PN.

So what are the advantages to a one file approach and why would I bother?

I can easily project a wall to a gable roof without having to copy a roof into my present construct (adding the layer), project and then delete the roof again. I don't need to draw a PLine either! It's all there.
I can add a mutli-storey window to both floors without having to add an ME to subtract in the 2nd floor file or wall edit etc because it's in the same file! Just add the window as an interference to the 2nd wall - done.
I only have to create object styles used on 2 or more levels once and if I edit, it's edited!
If I edit a material for the ground floor, I don't have to copy/overwrite it/save/reload x-ref/regen in any other files to get it to the 2nd floor. This especially applies to render materials. Editing and copying across gets old real quick!
I can create a file trail legacy by simply renaming the file, advancing a version No. without worrying about without messing up a PN file hierachy. (I have had files corrupt completely.)
I can even create multi-floor walls that span more than one level though this may or may not be successful depending on the circumstances.
I use only one stair and it's there, available to project walls to the u/side etc.

Disadvantages?

Only one person can work on the project at one time - not quite true as you can either keep the model in a one file approach and x-ref that into other files to create elevations, sections, room layouts, details etc if required. These can be dropped back into the main file once completed for easy filing etc. Remember you can even import a page layout if it's been setup in a different file. You could also adopt a 1 file for the model approach and x-ref that into other drawings to document. This method would even work within the PN.

So I am suggesting it's easier and more straight forward without work arounds or doing the same task more than once in separate files. Everything is there available for you to deal with in the one file. With a modern computer's power it is not too much of a strain on resources either providing the 'house' does not look like a shopping centre.

For most of my projects I have tried to create some degree of a rendered image, because I enjoy it. In ADT2006 each copy of a render material would come through the x-ref and you would end up with say 3 seperate copies of the same "ExtBrick". The new Mental Ray rendering engine in ACA2008 onwards is clever enough to assume the same name is the same material (but you can still end up with lots of materials anyway) so that's a big plus. (If I succeed in removing an unwanted Material from one file I don't have it come back again from the 2nd floor.)

I am intending to add future posts about how I set about to create 'a System' to achieve this approach and hope you come along for the ride. It may offer some other tips even if I don't convince you to have a go. It involved creating;

A Layer Key Style that includes a layer designator. Early Autodesk Australia offered Australian content packs with ADT1 with 'L1-Wall' as the the layer designator. It seems they abandoned this approach when the PN came to power as it does away with any need for level designators in your layers (1 level per file) but it was interesting that they had it there at all. At some point they must have considered a one file multi floor approach. Oh and the level designator could be anywhere in your layer name such as A-Wall-L1.
Ability to control the Z level and lock it at that. (So when you draw a 2nd floor wall it's at the 2nd floor level and doesn't snap to ground floor entities.
Place to hold your different floor height levels (i.e. 2nd floor height above ground).
Ability to efficiently switch between levels. (One big reason why I wanted to learn AutoLisp). This should automate this whole list here.
Ability for a variety of options in layer display (ie. show 2nd floor with ground floor walls underlay, show ground floor electrical layout, roof or footing plan).
Some simple additions to Display Representations to allow the change to the cutplane. (Don't worry this part is easy!)

If all this sounds too complex stay with me. I've really researched for this to make things simpler and it has achieved that. If you think it might help you I am happy to share! It does rely on layer manipulations which are easy but may be a problem if you have hardcoded layers into your styles. ( I don't recommend that however it may still be possible).

Here's a quick preview
I type L1 and the drawing shows me the ground floor ready to draw.
I type L2 and the drawing shows the upper floor ready to draw.
I type L1E and the drawing shows me the ground floor electrical layout ready to draw.
and I think it really should be that simple.

If you want you could make a toolbar/pallete command/ribbon button to type L1 for you but typing is by far quicker.

cheers

Autocad Architecture 2011 is out ...

2010-04-08T11:25:00.015+08:00

.... for a couple of weeks+ now, I must have timed it just right and had it downloaded and installed before the US woke up. In case you missed it you will not receive a DVD in the mail unless you specify it at your subscription site (log on to tick the box).

I will reserve most of my opinion until I put it into production. There are some helpful reviews, but apart from the small amount of changes to ACA (which I expected) I like what I see. There are some nice additions to AutoCAD (see review). PolyLines have finally been updated !! Rendering has again been overhauled. Hatching is too (in ACA objects??).

JTB World.
ArchiDigm.com
David Koch's Architect's Desktop

Commercial reviews
Autodesk
Imaginit (uk)

Don't forget that ACA is built on Autocad and there are also good reviews that I think offer tools that will be useful in ACA

Cadalyst
Cadalyst
Cad Panacea
upfrontezine
World Access (What the russians think)
Cadit
Ellen Finklestein
Lynne Allen's Acad 2011 ticks and tips booklet
CadManDo
AUGI

Futher to that, there has been a couple of useful additions to Design Review (free download) to make it better for walkthroughs for residential work. They have improved the lighting problems and added a field of view to widen the camera angle. Whilst welcome they still fall well short of ArchiCAD's virtual building Modeller. The navigation interface is still awkward and liable to embarrass a company executive as he tries to 'walk' through a design. I have still to download and trial the latest version of Navisworks Freedom (free download) which supposedly offers better tools for walkthroughs.

Design Review ...er.. review

Hopefully I might find an AutoDesk product that can work in conjunction with ACA to accomplish this is a professional manner that doesn't leave me embarrased ("ArchiCAD can do that").

Oh and if you missed it, Autodesk thought they'd ask whether they could delete the menu's and toolbars altogether from the Autodesk range. After the incredible negative reaction to the robbin, they have the audacity to ask this? Is it hopeful that many will not see it and they can see 'our research shows we can delete it"?? No that's far too cynical! Anyway, you can log in here and make your comments known either way. (I wonder if this means the old screen manu is done for?) As for me I am trying to loose my dependence on pull down menu's without relying too much on the Rabbin. The keyboard is always quicker and has not changed for a long time. If you don't want to loose too much productivity every time they change the interface (do you think the ribbum is here forever??) then divorce yourself as much as possible and practical from the interface.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Toolbars

CheersExitech (uk)

Roof Object part 10 - the Hole Truth

2010-03-15T23:17:00.003+08:00

Ok I did say I would offer another tip about putting holes in the ACA Roof Object.
Well the Truth is you can't. Be nice to be able to wouldn't it!

But I can get you close enough to get the job done in an efficient manner without resorting to slabs.

Here I'm going to show you how to create....

Dormer Roofs (ok this is another Sergej tip and he keeps telling me I have to share this one) but this technique could be used for adding any hole.

We start with our roof sketched out using the roof object. We add our dormers, and it looks great on the sketch & 3D but now we are onto working drawings and we want to subtract the holes to do sections and interior shots. Ulp! Do we explode to aecSlabs NOooooooooooo!

Here's what I would do :

Create a small MassElement (ME) (*see note 1 below) on your roof layer in one corner in a style defined as 'Roof'. This should be completely inside the roof object (It's going to disappear). Next we create ME objects to use as subtractives for the dormer holes that would be cut out of the main roof. These have no need of any style. (*1 After we've finished maybe put these items with your main roof object onto a non-print layer to be frozen later or WBLOCK them out as a separate drawing (out the way) as you may want to go back and edit the roof.)

Select your 1st ME, right click and add (union) the roof object to the ME using the Boolean functions and then also Subtract the dormer hole objects the same way. No need to add the dormer roofs as they can stay separate roof objects (unless you want to!). Done! You can add the roof material to your roof ME style the same as the RO's.

*1 Keeping the original roof object and negatives allows you to make adustments later if required. Reposition and recut holes.

You know this is a great trick and the funny thing is that Odin Cary showed us all years ago in this page in his instruction set. I did read it but didn't understand the potential. This method improved and simplified in the next release after he wrote his article and I show here how simple it has become.

I've shown a simpler example so hopefully together we can show you that this could be a great option to create that Dormer roof or other complex roof with a hole for your next project. Odin's example uses the model explorer which still works and may be easier to edit but it's no longer necessary.

Tip: When creating the dormer roofs here I made a square roof and gave the back edge a 145d pitch (180d - 35d (my roof pitch) to get the dormer to run into the roof. However the Roof Object will give you am unwanted face on the inside and also square off the overhang where it meets the roof and I had tricks to work around this - WRONG WAY. Duh! Create a 5 sided object with the back 2 edges at 90d to nestle into the roof. Simple & done.

And that's the hole truth.

Note 1; Odin has pointed out to me that you don't need to start with an ME. Using the command MassElementConvert (or just type MassElement and use the C option) you can turn a roof odject and many other objects into an ME. I tried it with a mess of aec objects and solids and it worked with them all. If you have shapes that are part of your roof that are not suited to a RO or even slab, then feel free to use any object required. He also emphasises that using the model explorer may allow you to edit more freely later whereas my approach (quicker) means to edit is to basically delete and hope you kept the original elements to remake your shape.Cheers

While we are on the subject of Roof's

2010-03-02T20:54:00.001+08:00

Just to be sure that you know that both Sergej and I are crazy about roof's, here are some interesting buildings with ...well interesting roof's that can't be done with Roof Slabs or the roof object. Maybe with the new Mesh tools in v2010.

crazy and unique houses

A side bar link has some interesting buildings as well.

Cheers

Plane Cutting Remarks

2010-02-14T22:26:00.009+08:00

I did a project where I placed many simple house models on a hillside for a design scheme and development approval. However it was ridiculous that I couldn't show the houses at their correct elevation and also have a plan view showing the internal layouts (walls) because the global cutplane was either above or below many of the houses. Dermot posted a NG question and in conversing with him he provided me with the answer to this dilemma. I was very excited because I had even had a response from one of the ACA team who said it couldn't be done. I'm sure I was misunderstood because this situation would occur on many campus, hospital or school projects but I was told it was not a common situation and wouldn't be addressed. I wanted an option to be able to override the Global Cut Plane with the x-ref's CP which would assume the walls are sitting at 0 and would cut correctly for plan view. (I was using the PN).

However, the solution was much simpler, thanks Dermot.

I simply overrode the Standard Wall Style cut plane (I have no style overrides to my various wall styles because they are set up to display ByMaterial and follow the std wall style).

(Any specialist styles like cabinets, eave, kerbing, built with a wall style already have their own CP override in the style.)

The effect of this surprised me! With a wall style using the Global Cut Plane, when you raise the wall it will disappear when it is no longer 'cut'. However, override the wall style CP and you can raise or lower a wall as you like and the wall will display perfectly. (It will cut each wall based on the it's cut plane and THAT wall's baseline). I was very surprised and excited that it was so simple. Whilst it obviously overrides the cutplane, it's not obvious that it also overrides the baseline that the CP height is taken from. So why doesn't the OOTB standard style have it's own cutplane. I can't see any advantage to use the global cutplane. If you work with straight single or 2 storey construction this problem won't be obvious to you but as soon as you do a split level it becomes a problem to get a mezzanine to display correctly. With the new cleanup rules introduced in v2009 it's easy to create the 2 floors at their own 0 and still have the walls cleanup.

So now I can have units at varying heights and each one will assume it's own cutplane at the right height according to it's own floor level. This behaviour will occur whether I am using the PN and /or x-ref's or it's in the same file. I've been wanting to work with multi storey in a one file approach for years and this tip was a key to allowing me to make this happen easily - thanks again Dermot.

Thought!
It used to be hard to get a high window to display. You had to override the style display rep to raise the cutplane. Unfortunately overriding a cutplane will require to cut that wall (style) off from it's parent wall style and it will no longer respond to style adjustments made to the parent. In ACA2009+ you can have the baseline at various heights and it will still clean up so maybe instead of overriding the cutplane, it might be an option to raise/lower the baseline and adjust the bottom and top of the wall instead (as long as you have this blog tip in place!).

ADT on the Roof

2010-02-03T19:05:00.003+08:00

ADT on the Roof

I just had to post this one. No idea of the story but thanks for sending it in Sergej.

For those new to the game, ADT (Architectural DeskTop) is the old name of Autocad Architecture from version 2008 and prior and Sergej is enjoying a joke at our shared obsession with the ACA/ADT roof object. Him as the creator and myself as an avid user.

Even my wife thought it was funny!

Cheers

Roof Object part 9

2010-01-15T01:29:00.001+08:00

(Yeh I know, like a dog at a bone....)

I just had to post this little gem from Sergej. He emailed this cute cottage pic showing a portion of roof that neatly meets into the main roof without influencing it. Notice how the entrance roof joins into the roof on the left but there is a portion of the main roof behind that continues as though this lower roof is not there.

This doesn't work with the ACA Roof object I had no ideas about how to get this to work except using a separate object and trimming them around each other. Trouble is how to work out where to trim and how to keep the slopes correctly orientated.

How about this! In Sergej's Spirit roof object using his 'sub-roof' , Sergej can get the minor roof to nestle in there like a suckling lamb and muma bear is just as sweet as. (Sorry about mixed metaphors an' all). This is all done with a few minor clicks and is a simple affair. Here's a pic of the Spirit Roof shown against the ACA Roof Object's effort.

Autodesk please let him have another go at the roof object. With all the time he has spent honing his roof programming skills he could give some great upgrades to this roof object tool.

Here is another not uncommon situation where Sergej's updates to the Spirit tool would be great if they were available in the ACA Roof Tool. Here I show an octagon roof that nestles at the corner of a hip roof. Using the RO, we have no way of adding the extra slopes because they are inside the controlling edges.

Here is a coloured view showing showing the Spirit roof with a Sub-Roof object. I've yellowed a portion of roof that has no controlling lower edge that's perpendicular to the slope as you require in ACA (including the aecSlab Object). I could see that I could use a second roof and trim it to shape but the slope is hard coded to be perpendicular to your edge so it's going to fall apart!

I might come back and have a look at how to work out the trim lines on the 1st roof I've shown here but as a hint, it involves constructing the 2 roof's ensuring they are interlocked and taking a snapshot in plan view (hidden line) to get the right roof lines and using those as trim lines. The connecting roof' edges will have 90d slopes. We could do the same for the 2nd example I show here if I leave tiny 90d to slope control edges and hope no one notices.

Sergej tells me that with his Spirit sub-roof, he can create the 2nd roof and have it automatically calculate how it interacts with the main roof, subtract the overlapping portion and still maintain all it's slopes. What's more it can be amended and still update correctly. I assume it remembers the original trimmed perimeters. Oh to have that in ACA!! Yes please!

Roof Object - Part 8 - getting round it!

2010-01-05T23:06:00.006+08:00

continuing my rants on the ADT/ACA Roof Object (not slabs)... (see all roof object posts)

Creating a Round roof
I'm sure you know that you can create a round roof, either as a complete circle or as part of an overall roof. When you select a round roof, each arc will be an edge with 2 end points and a mid point even though you may appear to have many hips. You can change the appearance for the smoothness of the curve (& number of hips) by editing the edge (Selecting the Right Roof Object and Right Click option) and increasing or reducing the number of segments (max 30) to represent the curve. Whilst 30 may look the smoothest in real terms, a round roof is built with a number of segments (hips) so you may be best to match the contruction number for an accurate representation.

There doesn't appear to be any way to create a curved roof using the command line but you can create one by applying the Roof tool to curved linework or walls. Note that ;

You cannot create a completely round roof from a circle linework or 2 Arcs so use 2 arc'd wall objects (2 arcs - because you can't create a completely circular wall with one wall either!).
You possibly can't create a roof with a round portion from linework unless it's a closed polyline. (Well that's how I had to do it).

Curved roofs

You can also create curved roofs in the vertical plane for barrel vaults, eyebrows and igloos. You can't create a smooth curve but can add multiple changes in pitch to approximate the curve which again is how they are generally constructed in real life. Now the effort to add these multiple pitch changes is no small task so you would like to know how the resultant estimate 'curve' will look before you begin to ensure you are going to be happy with it. Also you need to be able to enter exactly each pitch and height changes to get the appearance of a constant curve not spend all day guessing at the numbers? So how?

Well I have a simple idea to give you the exact data to be entered in the roof edge to get exactly the result you were expecting.

Draw your Arc in elevation view as it would appear adjacent with the model. Use the DIVIDE command to place Points around the Arc. Use an even number to land one point at the apex if you drew the whole Arc (I only drew half!). . Draw a PolyLine on a different layer joining the Points and then turn the other layers off. You should now be left with the Polyline stepping around your curve and be able to estimate whether you are happy with the resulting estimation of the curve. (This will be on your aecElevations as well as any rendered model.) If not - erase the points and use the divide command again increasing the points if you want a smoother curve. Once satisfied, you can dimension each point by angle and height as shown above and this will give you the numbers you enter into an edge on your roof object. OR... you could simply draw a polygon instead of the PLine and have your segments a lot quicker! Again adjust the number of sides until you are happy and then use the procedure above to measure each point to enter into your RO. He's pointed out this is also useful for Roman & Gothic arches. Thanks for sharing this cool tip Robert. As James points out, you can also attach an edge profile to an aecSlab to create the curve. Your slab would be a very narrow ridge at the apex and the curved profile both sides would give you your round roof. You can trim slabs with a pline to fit it into your main roof.

TIP: Be aware the height numbers are for a roof object with it's elevation at 0. If you need to adjust for a different baseline of your roof object, stretch all your dimensions (not the angle ones) down or up at once if necessary to add/delete any extra required.

With this technique, you can create an Eyebrow roof out of a normal gable roof as illustrated, or a barrel vault roof or your own special creation etc.

There is a limitation of the roof object shown here for the eyebrow roof. The Roof object thickness stays perpendicular to the main roof pitch and does not dynamically adjust with the changes in pitch as shown in the picture. For me this would be covered by a gable end treatment (Structural object) but would also be evident in any section. (Note that Sergej's updated Spirit roof tool has no problem with keeping the roof thickness constant!)

Inverted roof
You can also create a Concave or Convex (bullnose) curve to your roof though I may use a wall style for these (see here and here). The other option as James has shared is to add a profile to a slab object so the slab itself is only a very small postion and the curve is achieved with the profile. Very easy to do if your roof line is constant.

Copy & paste Trick (sergej's tip)
If you are looking at doing multiple pitches to more than one edge with the ACA Roof Object as shown above, it can get tedious real quick entering each height and pitch on a number of edges. However once you have entered a series to one edge, if you click in the first column of the face box and Control C to copy, you can then move to another edge and paste the same numbers (yes all three columns). If you had originally selected the 2nd (or more) edge already, it will be available in the dialogue box to paste to. Ok it's not perfect. Be nice to be able to alter a number of edges at once but it's quicker than doing each edge individually. Oh and it is a little temperamental sometimes and may need caressing to get the paste to overwrite.

Oh didjaknow?

When you create a roof object, it remembers the last pitch for next time but not the last edge cut. (I think it writes it to the registry!)
Once you edit some of the edges, adding gables etc, you may not be able to edit the main pitch via the properties pallete and may need to edit each edge at a time! Sigh! Therefore it may be quicker to remove a pitch (gable?) adjustment, change the roof pitch and then re-enter the gable.

Cheers!

Welcome to new bloggers Doug Bowers & Anthony Mason

2009-12-21T20:23:00.002+08:00

Doug Bowers has joined the blogger ranks and has some great tips to share for ACA along with Revit. Doug has taught at AU and is on some of the teaching vid's or articles I have downloaded over the years so you can be sure that he has and will have some worthwhile posts.

I have added his site to the links on the left.

Also Anthony Mason has just started a blog on "....CAD / BIM / Procedure / Support Application / AEC...". Anthony is a long time ADT/ACA user and now CAD manager (or is that now BIM manager?) and an active contributor on the newsgroups. He's just about to start a project in Revit Arch. so I am sure that will occupy his mind but hopefully he will still have some good tips to post for ACA.

Rendering in ACA

2009-12-10T22:00:00.006+08:00

James recently posted an image with a query but he really should have been posting in the gallery section. These images are lovely so I asked him if I could post here and he sent me some different shots. James has developed the 'white' method of rendering without materials which really allow you to review the building form without the complication of considering colours and materials. If you are wanting to get into rendering, this might be a great way to try. See my original post on James' method here. Also my method of achieving this scheme in the OOTB display reps. Sweet James! Thanks for sharing.

AutoCAD Mechanical vs Mechanical Desktop

2009-11-30T23:07:00.003+08:00

Earlier I wrote about the demise of MDT and yet saw it still advertised on Adesk's website. However I now understand my confusion. There are two products here. MDT was a 3D product that made it to the 2009 versions but is now no longer available. For a while it was only packaged with Inventor so that users could move across gradually. AutoCAD mechanical is a 2D and probably uses contraints and dynamic blocks etc to assemble drawings. An explanation is on this NG entry. and news here.

Sorry for any confusion. I thought MDT became AM just like ADT become ACA.

So bottom line is that MDT is now gone - but it did take a while longer than Adesk anticipated (at least publicly). It's already financially attractive to move over to Revit from ACA and I expect as time goes on that they will make it even more attractive to move over so if you are happy with ACA then stick around. There will be better offers on the table.

Bottom line for me is that ACA is performing well in our office. The newbie is catching on to ACA well (admittedly he's not your normal 'which Icon do I press' kind a guy and is happy for me to customise him) and we won't be moving any time soon (if at all). My multi level in one file approach works well (heck even Dragonfly can do it!) and the process and system is streamlined. A salesman (ex designer) is trying to get me to move to ArchiCAD which is big here but I want to earn not learn. I've spent long hours learning 'how' in ACA and now am enjoying the productivity of knowing a product well. Why would I want to start all over again? (Well for one ArchiCAD's Building Model Explorer is an awsome tool and cane's the pathetic Design Review or Navisworks into the dust for touring a building). But that aside I'm sticking with ACA.

AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Subscription Advantage Pack - Renovation Extension 2010

2009-11-25T22:51:00.003+08:00

If you missed it in the side bar the ACA team have released an extension for those doing renovations.

I know this has often been a request item in the newsgroups so I'm sure it will be welcomed. Follow the link above to read the announcement on the Between the Walls blog or head over to the subscription centre for the download.

I have reviewed a 3d picture created with this pack apparently so there are other bonus's that aren't mentioned in the promo. Paul Cloutier has been doing renderings inside AutoCAD (not ACA) for some time and shared this image. Hopefully the ability to do this is also inside the ACA pack - I would have to assume so. Once loaded, you can use the mouse to rotate your camera view to look all around.

Odin Cary of Archidigm.com has done an in depth review of the extension.

Roof Object part 7

2009-11-14T19:20:00.002+08:00

Ok I'm still playing with this tool and have found good solutions to some other difficult roof layout problems. (ok I also got some inside tips from the creator).

(Click here for all Roof Object related posts)

Rising (Falling) Eave (Sergej's tip)
Think of a barn roof with an angle sliced off and you still want the roof to look as though it's on a square footprint. You don't want the odd angled wall to affect the ridge line and it's not obvious how! Here's a very simple work around. Have a very small straight edge before the raking eave! You can make the straight edge so small it won't appear even if dimensioned but it will still get you the effect of what you want if it has the roof pitch. In fact you can use the trim command on a squared off roof which will automatically set the angled edge to 90 and it will work (Just make sure to leave a tiny portion straight. How easy was that !!! Slabs peh!

Constant Ridge Line
This is one that I have recently discovered because Sergej asked me how long it would take to do this with the ACA roof object. He can do it very quickly in his Spirit's roof tool. First let's look at a simple example. By setting the recessed edge to a 90d slope it no longer influences the ridge line and we get our straight ridge.

But if we have another edge it no longer works so what can we do. You may have tried to guess a height and been frustrated that you just can't quite get the exact height required to heal the ridge line and an undesired line appears in your plan view.

Well here's another use for my Trim trick. Draw a line across in plan view from your inset roof position and using your snaps draw a diagonal line from where it intersects your main roof and trim the roof. In isometric view you can now use the ID command to get the exact height at this point. NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE UNITS SET TO MAXIMUM accuracy to get this to work.

Copy the z number from the command line to your clipboard using Control C. Now undo (control Z) the unwanted trim restoring your roof and then select the difficult edge. Pasting your z height into the edge height and restoring the pitch if necessary and your ridge line will be whole again. Wow! That was easy too! Too Easy! And you thought slabs were necessary!
(Tip: If your roof object elevation is other than 0, you may need to add that to the z number to get it's height correct)

Here's ACA roof objects (3) of the original roof picture that Sergej sent me thinking it would take a long time to produce with his ADT1 roof object but it's cleverer that he thought! Using the above trick for the difficult 2nd edge on the same slope and the trim command I had completed it within minutes of him sending the photo.

Hole in One
No not golf! When people ask how to create a hole they may be asking several things. Here's some tips for creating holes in different circumstances.
Dormer Holes
I will deal with this one in a separate post but there is a solution using the roof object that may suit your situation.

Wrap around verandah.
Let's say you have a colonial house with a verandah all around. Is there a roof object solution? Well I've surprised Sergej with this one and he calls it a bug but it does work. Add a 2nd pitch to just one edge at 0d and the centre disappears. Ok you will need to experiment to get the right height (maybe use the trim and ID command??)
Try it with a round roof!

Also try a double slope roof and set the 2nd slope to 90d. (This is Sergej's official solution!). mmm.... that might be a simpler solution!

Central Courtyard
How about a central open hole as in a chinese courtyard. I haven't found a way yet but you can wrap your roof mostly around the yard and finish each end very close together to give the appearance of there being a hole in the centre. The point about doing it on a corner is there is already a line there and an extra line slightly apart will be invisible.

Well hopefully again I have challenged your view of the limitations of the ACA/ADT roof object. Yes it does have them but they are probably a lot further down the track than you have been given to believe.

Why would use the roof object over slabs? Well it heals itself as you stretch prod & alter the shape. That's got to be a good idea. In my work on putting units on tight sites I am constantly stretching and moving portions around and to have the roof just 'deal with it' is great. I hope to post some competent solutions to dressing off your roof both for rendering and elevations in the future as well as just maybe some more tips so come back.

Up on the Roof.

2009-11-09T21:22:00.018+08:00

I have to tell you a story about the ACA Roof Object (RO). When I discovered that you could trim it and get another vertices, I emailed (first time) the ADT master, Cary Odin of Archidigm and asked him if he knew it could be done. He said he had trimmed it straight and the result wasn't too productive and thought no more of it. He also mentioned that he had spoken with the german programmer who created the roof object, having once worked across the road from Autodesk and being able to converse with some of the programming team in the early days.

Well that spiked my interest because now the RO had a human behind it and like others in newsgroups, I have complained about it's limitations and lack of improvement. I wondered whether he minded the negative feedback it received which was really the fault of it's development being abandoned though thankfully it's still intact and working in the current release. Cary had mentioned that the programmer had said it was created to do a lot more than what we see.

So on top of my blogs revealing what the RO can do, I 'hatched a plot' to make a very public statement about it's virtues, sharing tips and tricks and showing how useful it can be and also to help understand it's rules and limitations. I made a public loud noise to see if the original programmer would reveal himself. So I posted my Hints & Tricks .dwg file in the Adesk NG and at AUGI. I was already happy to share my tricks but I also thought it would be interesting to see if he could share any hidden tricks that we hadn't discovered and also maybe what he thought of the whole 'roof object' discussion. Maybe I could convince him to create his own advanced roof tool plug-in!

Well I was surprised when I got a curious message on AUGI from a 'german programmer'. Emails went back & forth and now I know that Sergej Alexandrow, (a Russian immigrant) returned to Germany after working with Softdesk and then Autodesk on ADT1 in the U.S. and went on to create a new roof tool for a German CAD company Softtech (English version) within the program Spirit . Dr Sergej is a professor of mathematics (figures!) and has worked as a programmer, mostly on 'roof's which is his first love. (Here's one of his Spirit roof's)

So I now have a few more tricks to share with you from the creator himself. I've even been able to share a trick or two with Sergej although he calls one (at least) a bug, but it's a useful one just the same.

Sergej has reminisced with me about the old days that he shared with the other programmers, some with whom he still works with today on Spirit. Sergej has now started a blog with some samples of his Spirit roof tool in action and yes some of them are just plain wacky (or scary) but he shows a number of tricks that we ACA users would love to see. Curved (both planes) roofs at a click, sub roofs, roofs with holes and dormers! Roof overhanging roof! Multiple slope roofs!, Hands up if you would like to see that in ACA?

So what of the ACA roof object? Sergej has shared with me what he is able to do in Spirit's version and how easy it would be to update the ADT1 version of the roof object to do so much more. But Autodesk has not the desire (yet?). Why? Why are they (intentionally?) crippling this great product with a 10 year old roof tool that they refuse to update despite many calls in the wish lists. I've seen that Revit now has a complete roof package tool. Why not ACA? Is there a political agenda rather than a customer based one? Is it because they want to force you to move to the more expensive Revit package? What other explanation am I left with?

It's time again to review what's possible and easily accomplished by Autodesk in ACA and make some more noise so they know we haven't forgotten about the roof object (as though we accept the cludgey roof slabs as a peace offering). We want an improved roof tool. Even Roof slabs are not that clever anymore and badly in need of much more of an overhaul than they got in 09 (*1).

Stay tuned for Sergej's tips on the roof object - the ones I missed.

(*1) (slice a smidgeon off the Ribbon budget).

VisionRez 2010 Part 3.

2009-11-02T22:07:00.006+08:00

More on my experience trialing VisionRez 2010 (Click here for all 3 parts of the VisionRez Review)

Placement for a kitchen was achieved thru a very complete set of cabinet MVB's for most every conceivable combination of depth height and width of cabinets presented via a pallete. The robbon has buttons to open appropriate palletes so you don't have to 'go dig' for what you are after. It works quite well and reacts very fast. I have adopted the fluid cabinets I learnt and refined from Archidigm.com and prefer these to the set sizes of cabinets - our local industry is not based on module sizes, but I learn't on preparing drawings for a project in our great South that their cabinet industry is based on module sizes. So if this is how your industry is set up then this may be a great way to go. Thinking ahead I bet this makes it easy to prepare a budget or even extract prices direct from the drawings as you will have a very detailed and accurate bill of quantities from this work.

The nice thing about placing cabinets is they have more intelligence about which way they face, they know how to 'put their backs to the wall'. And adding a sink to a cabinet (wall object) cut a hole in the benchtop automatically. Now I can do that manually but this caught me by surprise. The benchtop has a splash back whereas we would use tiling, something I achieve with a seperate wall style. It should be a simple matter of either adjusting the splashback to tiles in the style drawing or removing it from the style altogether to adapt to aussie methods.
I generally found it took me a couple of go's to 'get it' but that's because there were comprehensive options available for placement such as pressing the control key to alter insert points etc. It's quite well thought out.

Window & door tags are good but we do them differently. It's not hard to create a tag once you know how so different tags could be created.

VR have not chosen to use the aecDimensions. Neither have I. The layer manipulation tools are based on the layer standard so it may be an effort to vary that. If you just want a system that works then that may not be an issue to you. You are able to switch quickly from a plan view to a roof layout to an electrical layout on the 2nd floor. Remember that it works with all levels (up to 5) in the one drawing file (but you can use the PN if you wish). This one file approach is something I have longed for and recently achieved through a new layer system (with level) and some basic lisp. For smaller projects I think it's a much better way to go though I do keep surveys and entourage for rendering in a seperate file. It makes it so much easier to manage materials and render inside ACA rather than having to re reload x-ref's and copy material definitions back & forth.

I got a tingle when issuing the VR Roof command. I have watched their movies but to see it in action is a pleasure. Wow! An actual complete sophisticated roof tool in aec! What an idea! As I've mentioned it doesn't do gablets or dutch gables easily which in our present design style phase is not so bad but they will come back in style.

Roof framing tool. Ah to see all those rafters just magically appear. Rafters should come directly off every change in direction but it missed in one instance. I easily manually edited, adding rafters or altering the position and spacing. There may be automatic ways of doing it. It's lovely to see all the plumb cuts made instantly. Whew! Lots of work saved there. A Tag tool adds the lengths to your framing plan to the nearest (high) 2' increments. Here it's 300mm.

The roof gable is missing one rafter behind the barge. It's evident on the picture in the tutorial. Never got to find out the problem or solution but as I said it's easy to rectify. The framing isn't some other magical beast. It's just automatically assembling Structural objects so it would be easy to tweak for any fine adjustments or quirky situations.

There is a lot of content which connects to a bill of materials list so content has extra detail to be collected. Whilst you may have to create your own content or edit to suit, you have a robust framework to add content to that gives you extensive intelligence in a BIM approach.

Publish to DWF?? The little arrow down in the bottom right is not visible? Not on any workspace. So VR must have it's own way of altering the various settings.

So what did I think of VR. I was dissappointed that a busy schedule and health issues got in the way of being able to finish the tutorial and have some unscheduled playtime to see what it could do outside of it's training. I was having fun! But altogether it was nice to feel like I was in an environment that was designed with houses in mind. In ACA you know you can get the job done but you need to do a lot of work to set up palletes of local content for residential work before you are really productive. With VR you are ready to go. Well.. at least if you are an American user you are. Sadly because the content is not always relevant to the Australian market you may be have some work to do . As with any program the sales demo can be impressive but get it into a working environment and it really gets it's workout. If you would have a number of users and would like to stay in an AutoCAD environment then the time required to setup your local content might make the package worth the investment. I know that the VR team have a great reputation for back up support and would help you to understand the template and how to set that up. Gablets are not a deal killer by the way. You can turn the roof into VR slabs which have their own tools. And you have all the ACA tools as well. You can also construct two pieces of roof to fit together as I have done with the native roof object.

You have a choice of flavours. An add on style plug in which will fit up your existing full ACA version and 2 levels of their own customised package of ACA combined with VR. These don't have Autolisp included but do have many VR commands extra to ACA standard. They also don't have Curtain walls and are setup for residential not commercial though I could imagine you could do small commercial projects with some workarounds. You do have DoorWindowAssemblies with some extra VR tools. You have door & window trim - another excellant tool to place extra trim around the frames.

You have framing tools (depending on version) & bill of materials. You have a setup approach designed for residential. And these are all customisations added to the extensive feature list of ACA and Autocad so you have all those tools as well. VR is really designed to address the features missing from ACA that help you complete residential projects.

So can this package play a role in Australia (or NZ?). As I've said before, we build mostly in double brick in perth but the eastern states is often brick veneer. Maybe the upper floor is framed. In the country often framing is used but I am always surprised how far people will cart clay bricks to build in obscure locations. Maybe NZ could make better use of the framing tools.

If you are prepared to create a serious level of customised content and then take advantage of the system that Americad have set up then I think it could be a serious option worth considering. Certainly the VR Designer If you want to stay in an Autocad environment and make use of your existing legacy content. This has got to blow buying AutoCAD lite out of the water!! AutoCAD is capable of creating reasonable renders and if that is important, VR will give you an environment to allow you to build complete accurate 3D models from which you can then render and impress your clients. Of course it can be exported to Max or another renderer if you wish.

If you are in the U.S. doing residential work I think VR of some version is a no-brainer. If your construction methods are similar then check it out. However being outside their market and seeing the need to add local content I see a disclaimer. Again I think if you want to tool up a small design & drawing office then it represents a serious contender worthy of consideration. I could see VR Designer being a great success for an office wanting to be very productive and impressive at the same time.

At the time of writing, they have some serious discounts available on their range so get over and check them out. Go to the support section for video's showing their process. They have a great reputation for support. I've asked them if they could take over my ACA sub because they are actually interested in the product. And remember they are actually using this product themselves so it's not just a disconnected salesperson who doesn't know how it performs in the real working environment.

Best to ya from Oz.

Disclaimer: Previously I received a copy of the now discontinued Roof Tool & Trim plugin for assisting with feedback on an attempt at an international version. Unfortunately my direction moved away from doing CD's, I was stuck using ADT2006 and I was not able to get the plug-in (vADT2007) running so I didn't get to use it. So at this point I have not received any benefit from VisionRez though I continue to ask Jay Moore if he would take over my ACA subscription!

p.s. Yes it was appendicitis but it's gone now :-)

VisionRez 2010 Part 2.

2009-10-22T21:30:00.005+08:00

Click here for all 3 VisionRez Reviews

On startup I am greeted with a startup screen that looks much like the native ACA version. Actually it is with the addition of the VisionRez Logo. I have used the UK shortcut which I expected to start VR in metric. But it appears that the startup logo is the only thing different and I am back in plain ACA land. I only explored quickly so I could be wrong.

Ulp! There are no VR toolbars present! So I closed up anxious to see the VR I have read so much about. So I close the UK version and this time I use the VR U.S. shortcut and try out the version with those feet and inches - oo I feel so ancient! Now I am greeted with an obviously modified layout. Some of the VR tool icons look quite dated. Not up to the grey (where there heck is that tool again?) look of 2010. But I bet you can find stuff, let's see.

You can now see the additional VR toolbars and menu's spread across the robbin. It comes with tutorial pdf's. The quickview pdf is 66 pages !

VR works on a set system so you will need to change your work process to match. It has it's own idea of layers, view configuration, display representations etc. The strength of AutoCAD (ACA) is it's customability. The weakness of AutoCAD (ACA) is it's .....customability. Having everyone do their own thing hurts sharing and is especially evident in an office where you have a maverick who won't learn the office protocols. You open a drawing and have no idea how or why this drawing is set up like it is. So really having VR step in and say, "this is the way it's going to happen" can be really a good thing especially when they have thought it right thru. Did I mention that they use their own product in production so it's developed and sold by users to other users. Surely a good combination. I may not agree with everything they have done but it works. There is some flexibility (much if you want to work hard). VR does't need the PN and works naterally with a 1 file approach (yay!) but you can use the project navigator if you wish (which is a good idea for large projects). VR works with layers. Lots of them. I don't like lots of layers and I work with manipulating layers a lot. But this is a personal issue and not one I see anyone else complain about. If the process & tools largely make the layering system in the background then that too can be a good thing.

The VR ribbone with access to the palletes is a lot easier to read than ACA's new monotone version which is so bland you can't find anything cause you get bored looking. Icons are cute but you can read a lot faster than you can learn a vague icon that changes every couple of years. Actually here as VR has moved from toolbars to the ribbon, text has been introduced which is an improvement. The level & Layer controls and backgrounds look really gawky and not very sophisticated but they are very clear and I can imagine existing users getting very upset if VR refined them to conform with blandland.

The American residential market is largely framed whereas the local market in Perth is double brick (but changing). In the eastern states brick veneer is often used. Our setout line is the external perimeter, sized to suit the brick lengths, reduce cutting resulting in a neater and cheaper finish. Not so in VR. Masonry walls are set out from the external face of the internal stud wall and I believe New Zealand does this as well. Framing is king! VR also splits the internal & external leafs of the external wall and I would assume this is so it can effectively quantify and frame each leaf. In base ACA you cannot really quantify cavity wall and get accurate quantities unless your wall shape is dead simple.

So I work through the tutorial and create a house, tracing over a 2d plan. It's kinda familar and kinda different and definitely fun. I do have more om my experience with VR to reveal.

Stay tuned.....

Tip Bits on layers and blocks.

2009-10-20T08:01:00.004+08:00

LayerMerge: I hate extra layers and I only work in one file (ok perhaps a survey x-ref). I hated (when working in the PN) finding multiple useless layers in every drawing I didn't want but couldn't get rid of. These are coded into obscure styles in the OOTB templates. In 2009 & before ACA has a Layer Merge command found under the Format-Layer Tools menu or typing "_laymrg" at the command line. This command was in 2006 & prior (under Express Tools) but didn't work if the layer was hardcoded in a style definition. For 2009 this tool will now rid you of unwanted layers even if coded into an aec style. Try it on a template with a few start up layers like G-Anno-Nplt etc before you draw anything else. I generally draw a line on layer 0, then a line on each layer I want to remove and then run the command. Now there is a point where it will not work (in a full drawing) and I don't know why. Perhaps a layer in a nested block? It seems to stop and not work at all. But at least I can get rid of those layers in the templates I don't want without trawling through the display system to find them. When you are using PN to stack quite a number of drawings together it can be a pain to deal with 6 unwanted layers per drawing.

p.s. I haven't a clue where it is in 2010! It possibly hidden somewhere in the robbing! Is it 'managing' or something to do with the 'view'?......oh I don't know - let me know if you find it and I will add it here.

SETNESTEDOBJECTSBYBLOCK: I've alias'd this one to FB because I was using a lisp FixBlock. This will set all colours, linetypes, layers, lineweights AND plot styles to ByBlock, removing any trace of an unwanted plotting or layering scheme from a block in one hit. Very sweet. Not sure when this one came in. I'm happy with ByBlock as it gives you that extra bit of flexiility and now that I am using .stb's this saves me an enormous amount of time and frutration. Tpe FB, one click and move on.

Large companies might want to restrict practise to ByLayer to ensure that a block always follows the layer it's inserted on. Anybody know if there is an equivilent command? Help is unhelpful on this one.

My biggest tip by far is to use alias commands for as much as possible. It's been interesting moving to 2009 from 6. I added a couple of extra alias's for commonly used commands and the disruption was minimal. I just largely ignored the robbing. Realise that it won't stop at the ribbing. Once they have that all sorted and dusted, they will come up with another new idea and it will all start again. Did you have anyone who had spent time customising their 'dashboard' only to have it all dumped after only 2 years! And it takes that long to learn these interfaces! Learn to use the old pgp file and it's very easy to bring your shortcuts along to the new version, dump it in and keep working! and ADesk can waste resource changing the interface again and again and your disruption will be minimal.

Cheers

Testing VisionRez 2010 on Windows 7

2009-10-15T21:29:00.008+08:00

Click here for all 3 VisionRez reviews
I write this as I install VisionRez Standalone 2010 on my freshly built new computer, sampling a brownie cooked by my young daughter, and recover from suspected appendicitis (maybe not?). The computer, sporting 4mb RAM is targeting for some testing! I installed an old XPpro 32bit and then installed Release Candidate version of Windows 7 32bit. I skipped Vista as un-nessessary marketing drool but 7 sounds like they got the mix right. Even better I don't have to pay for it until March 2010 when it will start shutting down every 2 hours. And now - what I really want to do, set up Windows7RC 64bit. To do this I have used a Gnome tool to split up the new 1TB hard drive into 4 seperate partitions, the 2x Win7 OS's are installed on smaller 20Gb drives ready for toasting if I don't procede with any OS upgrade. (have to remember not to save anything important to those drives). Actually Windows7 seems to have it's own partition tool so probably needn't have bothered except to say I've now used a linux tool. All OS's are available from a boot menu. Windows 7 32bit & 64bit both show up as simply Windows 7.

My aim is to test ACA in a 64bit environment. If succesful I might move here for my work machine and install some extra RAM. Now ACA doesn't natively use more than 1 cpu except on a couple of executions, like regenerating or redrawing windows and then only 2. But the new Mental Ray rendering engine will pump up as many cores as you have, bringing Quad core into their own. If you plan on rendering, then quad's may have their use but for general ACA work, a faster Dual core will bring you better return. The 64bit environment will allow you to use more than 4mb of RAM. Apparently 32bit can access close to 4Mb but you need to include your graphics card so if it's a 512Mb, then only ~3.5Gb of RAM will be addressed. Further I understand that any one application can only use 2Gb. 64bit opens up a lot more RAM for use in Windows. I bought all except the CPU as I had an old D805 Dual Pentium lying around so that may penalize my results a little. But it can overclock so we'll see what I can get out of it. The $100 case has a nice blue lit fan that's large enough to cool the whole room so hopefully overclocking will bring a decent improvement. If it does become my work machine it will have to be upgraded.

So to VisionRez 2010

So when I saw that VisionRez invited tryouts of their latest release based on the v2010 series I jumped at the chance to take a look at this excellant residentially slanted tool. Whilst we bemoan AutoDesks ignoring the residential community's cries for better 'resi' tools, this is VisionRez's market so you can be assured of their focus. However, they are an American firm and the product, heavily customised for residential reflects the US building methods. This is a great opportunity for me to check out their product and evaulate how easy it could be moulded to fit a different market. My fear is that I may wish that I had bought their more residentially targeted product rather than the broader, general and less focused ACA. I am installing the 64bit VisionRez Stand Alone.
VisionRez series of products are based on ACA, either a plugin for your full version, or 2 standalone versions based on cut down versions of ACA (depending on what you need)
VR Designer and VR Builder. I am reviewing the full version standalone.

Builder includes the Framing, Bill of Materials etc, gear required for actually building it. Designer doesn't include these or Curtain walls & Spaces. (See link for complete list) But the prices are keen for cut down versions and a many may not require these extra features. Designer is $1495US which get's you an amazing amount of power as a residential designer. That's the same price as the plug-in for a full version. For a small office that want's to tool up on a great CAD platform, produce models for rendering and CD's efficiently this is a great option.

Of course VR is famous for their roof tool which looks everything a roof tool should be, except it can't naturally create a Gablet or Dutch hip, both which can be easily created by the native ACA tool. Apparently North Americans just don't do them. But Aussies do and often so therein is a problem that I am interested in seeing how to resolve in VR. But VR is a lot more.

One thing that surprised me was that they had not enabled the default install of the express tools. I understand that they are not supported but the amount of users who have paid the enormous price for the full version but don't know about these fanastic, practical & versatile tools is just silly. To a power user it's anaethema not to have them available.

So - don't install default, go custom, add Express Tools, and also add the UK version if you are using Metric. UK version is a lot closer to Aussie use that the US Metric. Of course if you are in the US then just go with the US versions - they will be right in your pocket.

One error on install - MS SQL server seems to have issues with Win7 but it installed so we'll see. The install starts and I am greeted with Robert Shelton of VisionRez work team's images in slide presentation. Robert's images are so good it's either inspiring or makes you want to give up ever trying a rendering again. I choose to be inspired. (Also on YouTube)

It seems that a full version of ACA is installed and then the plugin. I'll be interested to see how a VR created model and data is handled in a regular version of ACA2010. (update - it doesn't completely - a barge board looses it's sloping profile and becomes a large square mass).

Oh and the test also comes with an install of HSB which will build wall & roof frames in both timber or steel. This should be fun. - Ouch, HSB wouldn't install! - Error. (I think this is stated in the install help - as I didn't order that product it won't install).

So how is it? To be continued.......

Is this a good thing?

2009-10-11T21:55:00.005+08:00

This link will give you a list of Autodesk's products available. I guess it's good to be supported by such a large and diverse software company but it could be easy to get lost in the crowd.

AutoCAD mechanical is referred to as "a standard in 2D mechanical design" and then mention is made of 'prototyping' which I thought could only refer to 3D. The downloadable pdf shows 3D renderings. Maybe much of it is still 2D? Here's an old article about Mech's demise. But it appears a 2010 version has been released. Maybe users didn't move to Inventor as quick as they hoped. I think that Mech is still only available together with Inventor or at least that's how it was for a time.

AutoCAD Civil3D is mentioned as a BIM solution? whereas AutoCAD Architecture is not .... er.... because Revit is! Ah....marketeers! No mention is made on the ACA opening page of 3D but it does tell you that you can move to a BIM solution "at your own pace" and points you to Revit! It's there again in the pdf brochure!

Ok so I'm just grumbling really and just surmising what's going to happen with ACA in the future. As I am about to set up a builder's drawing office with a system, you'd like to know which direction to head. For now it's looking like ACA!

I also have noticed that all the major players in the 3D architectural modelling are now (or appear to be) owned by North American companies. Not sure what that means but the basic package is never a fit for the way we do things here in Oz. We are always reliant on local content (bought or created) to make it relevant to our local market. But I guess whether the package is from the US, Canada or Hungary we always have to customise it somewhat and we are always at the mercy of developers far away!

Cheers

Ouch!!! Chief Architect Australia get scalped !!

2009-10-04T21:26:00.005+08:00

I just need to post something so you know that I am still alive! It's been quite a busy couple of months though I have a number of good articles in the works and some good ideas coming from James I have just not found the time or energy to spend in carefully editing a detailed post but I thought this could be of interest to aussie cadders.

Chief Architect I was surprised to learn had a support team/supplier in Australia but now in the words of the supplier "Chief Architect Inc's USA short sighted management has made the decision that in an effort to support all Chief Architect users 'more efficiently' (?) they will totally eliminate the middle men.. i.e. their remaining commercial Chief Architect dealers acoss the world, before the end of the year.. and have started the ball rolling by terminating the contracts of Gordon McDermott and his dedicated team at BayCAD in New Zealand.. and of course ourselves here at Chief Australia." Read the rest of their web page epitaph here. They don't sound too happy! ...."Only an American company could stoop this low in an effort to save their own skins." Ouch! Them's fighting words.

I came across a small local firm here in Perth that was using CA when I was starting out with ADT. A builder I worked with also bought CA 1997 thinking he could do some of his own drawings but he ended up giving it to me and my kids enjoyed playing with it. It's great how you can very easily get something you could immediately show a client with a walk through, something it would be great if we could do in ACA now 12 years later! Sigh!

Here's a link to a great 'Walk Through' presentation from ArchiCAD's Virtual Building Explorer from a young local team that are doing fantastic things using ArchiCAD. (VBE is a paid for add-on to AC). It's about a 14mb download that allows you to tour the house like you would a 3D game. Sensational. Worth the download.
http://mikasadesigns.com.au/Jacobs.html

So when can I do this in ACA? I've just been playing with Design Review 2010 and it's just not up to the standard required. Lighting washes out the materials for my front view, the camera view too narrow to negotiate the internal of the model for a walk through and it's awkward to navigate. It's pretty pathetic in comparison with what I see in the ArchiCAD's VBE.

I have changed work places and am now in a better place of common sense. I have brought ACA into an Autocad, Autosketch, ArchiCAD, chaotic environment and am going thru the phase of standardizing the work practises around ACA. (Heck even with Autocad there is various plot files being used - all custom and none any good) Is that a good idea?? I don't know! ArchiCAD is the prime tool in the residential housing market here (or Autosketch and I'm not going there!!) as it has been well marketed here in Perth. I don't like ArchiCAD.... too messy and proprietory but should I be going Revit? I don't know why I want to spend more money and another 2 years becoming profficient in another package to do what I can already do but it's a different story setting up an office. So I wrestle!! At least with ACA on subscription it's a small step to the Revit Arch suite if they decide on that path in the future. I've spent so much time with ACA and finally comfortable setting up content and standard palletes etc.

Ah! Such is life.

Best to ya!

Tutorials on AUGI

2009-05-28T22:19:00.002+08:00

This link will take you to the latest in a series of tutorials on the AUGI website for Autocad Architecture - this one on 2010 version. They are really designed for the newbie but I often find I pick up or am reminded of a great tip here and there. Also check in the archives for older posts. He recently went thru the basics of creating and displaying walls.

Archidigm.com

2009-05-06T23:41:00.002+08:00

I have been a fan of Odin Cary's ARCHIdigm.com web site for most of the years I have used ADT and his site is a wealth of information.

I have often mentioned and linked to his site for various tips and techniques. Whereas some information is by the book and dealing with straight forward tasks, Odin looks beyond to the 'how to' often faced in the real office. ADT OOTB has basic cabinets made from wall styles but Odin took them alot further to something that can be used to produce even finished construction drawings with little manual drawing. He showed how to create a downpipe, latticework, various fencing styles from railings. He taught me the how to create a Layer Key style and overrides, stair displays and the list goes on. I always appreciated his slant for looking to press the tools beyond their intention.

But after sharing about the roof object with Odin, he let me see inside this storehouse and I found out I was only window shopping. There is some really great information that would have saved me SO MUCH TIME (and time = $ right!) in the OSMOSIS section. I had assumed because the gear is in imperial that I would not be able to use it however that's not the case. And the prices are so low that it's well worth buying something to get access to OSMOSIS.

Just being able to pull the gear apart and learn how he has done things is a big learning curve but if you just want to get on with the job then his kits are a great offer. Just a drag and drop for construction drawing and render ready cabinets, appliances, fence styles, Door and window styles and even furniture packaged to suit Autocad Architecture. Sometimes it's just developing more styles that you find Out Of The Box but there are also clever ideas using ACA tools for some thing completely different.

So do yourself a favour and get over to Archidigm.com and you WILL find many items of interest.

Roof Object - small Part 6

2009-04-28T20:00:00.002+08:00

This is the 'advanced' image that the ADT/ACA help menu gives you on the roof object. No wonder most people will convert to slabs if that's all you can do with it! (It's not - see here). Little of the roof object's secrets are divulged in the help menu.

After I posted my roof object demonstration file showing the 'trim the roof object for an extra vertices' trick, Doug posted in the NG that he could simply recreate the whole roof quicker than trimming it to gain extra control points. I think this is important to note because of course 'just because you can do something ...... ' Doug I believe was at least partly referring to the ability to change from hip (slope) to gable as you are creating the roof by altering the settings in the properties pallete. I tend to forget and have to alter it afterwards anyway. Some with the grips, others by edge editing and others by trimming. It's just good to know that you have these options.

I hope that Doug will confess when he resorts to trimming the roof instead of recreating :-)

update:
If my instructions on adding a vertice to the roof object are unclear to you, you can check out Odin's excellant tutorial here.

Copy & Paste Trick

2009-04-11T08:30:00.003+08:00

Did you just spend time creating one thing (like working on a complex aec item) to realise you deleted something else a little ways back accidently. Here's a trick I remembered whilst fiddling with the roof object.

I had just created a new shape and had spent some time editing and experimenting (fiddling). Now I had what I wanted. But I had damaged another roof and I didn't know what I did. So I Cntrl-C'd the new object and then Cntrl-Z (undo) back to restore my original object. Then I just pasted back in the new object! That was easy! Probably only works on a dumb object like a roof or acad objects though. A more complex object like a curtain wall assembly would assume the paramaters of the style set in the drawing. To use this trick for a styled object like a curtainwall object you would need to change the style name slightly before pasting it back in, thereby preserving your latest adjustments.

Mike Williams has just reminded me about the 'OOPS' command, which will restore the last deleted object which may help you in a different situation.

All tricks & tools for your enjoyment!

Bring Display Order above object.

2009-04-07T01:39:00.003+08:00

I am so tired of adjusting draw order! Why would I want text or even tags obscured by other objects like hatching? Why would I want hatching above other objects? Okay sometimes I might. Anyway I don't know why they buried the display order option on your right click deep down in the 'Basic Modify tools' but it's easy to bring it up one level so it's right there and available on your right click.

To accomplish this, type CUI and make sure you are looking at the contents of your ACA.cui.(drop down at top - shown with a tick). Track down to the shortcut menus and it's in at least 2 of the menu's as shown in the picture, tucked under the BMTool's menu. Drag it up and drop it into the position above. Can you pick the error I made. I have put it before and then after the Isolate Objects menu in the two different spots. It's important to be consistent in placement as it will help you find it quicker each time - so I fixed it. Now my draworder is found on the first menu displayed on the right click and I don't have to go search for it.

BTW : I find it more efficient to have the tool at my right click rather than a tool bar, pallete or ribbon. I did even try to alias the draworder commands but the syntax failed for reasons I'm not smart enough to deduce.

Ever trimmed a viewport?

2009-04-04T08:23:00.003+08:00

I must have been over excited after discovering the using the trim command on a roof object because I just trimmed a viewport and thought the result was cool enough to post. I turned the viewport frame red to show it up better. Notice the RHS (Right side image) is missing. But it still works just fine.

To post something more helpful, did you know that you can create a viewport from a shaped polyline? Great for setting up partcular details where you need to exclude portions or interlock together tightly with other details. Use the 'Object' option in the MView command and select a predrawn closed PLine.

Also you can match properties to get an adjacent viewport to follow scale and layer settings (inside the viewport) as well as the expected behaviour. So for e.g. if you already have a viewport set up and decide you wanted to use a special shape instead of the std rectangle, you can create your viewport shape, zoom in to match closely the view scale you want and then (moving to paperspace) matchproperties to get the new viewport set exactly as the old including layers. Once created, you have the freedom to move the corners around to reshape it. Want to add more points? Just select the viewport, right click and select the Viewport Clip option - Polygonal and redraw a new viewport boundary with extra vertice if you require.

(BTW the viewport I trimmed was created using the above PLine (object) option in case you just tried to trim a regular viewport :-)

Lisp on Auto

2009-04-02T00:55:00.010+08:00

Hey you gotta check out these couple of posts from a clever Autolisp programmer. Not sure what they can be used for, they don't even look like autocad, but Andrea Andreetti has done some amazing code here in the AUGI newsgroups. Make sure you scroll down and get the latest version he has posted.here >>> Dynamic Line Modeller and his Dyn amic LineEditor Tool

Follow the links and see this pic come alive.
Here's his website where he has some other great tools.

Thanks for sharing Andrea!

ACA2010 and a snap problem,

2009-04-01T00:35:00.004+08:00

Now that I have moved up to ACA08/09 and have even tried rendering, I have some newbie tips to help you to have a go at rendering. But for now you might have run into this 'feature' if you've upgraded.

In ACA09 if you add an aecmaterial to an object, display it in 3D (isometric), turn of layer 0 and regen, you possibly won't be able to snap to much of your objects except a baseline. The workaround is to keep your layer 0 on. It appears to relate to what layer your materials are set to. I advise to leave them on layer 0 but if you put a layer into your mat definition the problems goes away, or at least shifts layers. If you put it on the same layer as the object, the material is applied to then it won't be frozen when you are trying to snap to it. But I don't like the idea of building in layers in your styles as it reduces your flexibilty so I will have to live with it.

BTW this wasn't a problem in ADT6!

Oh and did I tell you that I got ACA10. Received my discs here in Aus before most in the U.S.!
.........It's not fixed in v10.

Is 10 worth the upgrade? I don't know yet. I'm still trying to find everything! I'm very anxious to find out what the new fluid modelling tools can offer to site development. I certainly think it will add to the use of entourage. Imagine a double bed with slightly rumpled bedspread, a dining chair with a cushioned seat, a lounge with cushions and curves. I was hoping to see that you could import a .max file with it's curves but no. Still just .3ds
I'd like to comment on all the fancy modelling but I can't find it :-) I'm sure it's in there unless they removed that for us ACA loosers! er I mean users. Even the 'brilliant' contextual ribbon has nothing to offer. So I loaded the acad.cuix and got the mesh modelling tools!

update "The ‘new fluid modelling tools‘ Ribbon is invisible by default in ACA 2010 . You can show it by right clicking your ribbon tab, and choose "Show Tabs -> Solids" - anon"

Thanks

But time is gone...... to explore another day.

TipBits

2009-03-29T08:10:00.004+08:00

AutoCAD Typing Tip.
Did you know that in many places you can type the first letter of what you are after and it will scroll to items beginning with that letter. The best place to try this is in the layer drop-down. Hit the drop down arrow to display the list and for e.g. if I want to go to the wall layer which is way down the list I type 'w' and it scrolls to the first w in the list. Now you may have 'A-' at the beginning, I now have '1' but you will still have several different groupings (if not why the prefix?) that you can type. If I want to go to the roof of level 1, typing '1' gets me close. Typing 'S' gets me close to my 'Site' levels.

Try it in the colour, linetype and plotstyle dropdowns. Generally any dropdown will respond. In the layer manager itself. Try it in your plotter dialogue box when you change printers. (remember your printers 1st letter for quick setting). There are lots of places where this will just give you that little bit of speed and if you are impatient like me it will be appreciated.

Moving Objects
Did you know that you don't need to type the move (or m) command to move something. If the distance is arbitary like text or a tree then you only need to select the item to highlight it, place your curser on it (not the grip) and press and hold your left mouse button anywhere on the object and you can move it. You can select multiple items and move them all as long as your mouse hold starts over one of the objects.

aecRoof Object - Part 5 - Wow look what I found out!

2009-03-10T23:51:00.004+09:00

Ok here is the secret that no one has shared if they found it. At least not on online. But to me it exponentially explodes the usefullness of this clever tool. Especilly if you are into residential work - read on.

Some years ago I tried to slice a roof object to see what it would do. It went crazy! and I abandoned the crumpled mess to it's doom. But this clever little tool was just doing it's job. It was obeying the rules set for it.

Try this - Draw a line thru a roof object, TRIM one side and then edit the cut edge. (To do this, For 1 or more edges select the roof object and right click. Select 'edit edges/faces'. For all the edges at once, click on the roof and then on the properties pallete click on the edges/faces).

The Height is reset down to 0 and the slope is set to 90 (of course). That's gonna mess up the equations!

Reset those edges as per the rest of your roof, give it a height and set the pitch back to the main roof and voila. It's sanity has returned.

But all you did was shorten it. Not much gain there. Now the real trick.

Draw your line across a corner. ah........ TRIM the roof object. Now you have an extra edge and an extra vertex to play with. Wow. All of a sudden the roof object is editible. The perceptive among you will realise the potential this gives this object. No more recreating that complex roof arrangement or exploding to slabs just because you can't bare to do all that again.

UPDATE - See Part 12 of my Roof Object series for a better, quicker more efficient way to trim.

Now maybe I will post some detailed how to's here but for now I have posted a .dwg file in '07 format here at AutoDesk NG or here at Augi ACA Tips & Tricks so you can download and have a look at the versitility this object has. In the file I show you tricks on trimming and how you can save a complex roof creation that requires editing, how to overhang the roof object, some very weird roof shapes and solutions to some of the common situations we all come across and generally try to reveal the hidden secrets of this clever tool so you can predict it's behaviour.

Why didn't anyone share this? I guess the ruling paradigm is to convert to slabs so most have not really explored the roof object's potential. I should point out that the roof object will not give you areas or quantities without some clever programming. The way our industry here is set up we don't need it.

Now my call, in the spirit of opensource, is for you to post your complex roof solutions (just the roof object itself) append to my post and the community can benefit.

I also want to tell you about http://www.archidigm.com/ and also look at the advanced roof tool from http://www.visionrez.com/ so come back.

I have 'just a little' obsessive personality and I drive around looking at buildings to judge how I can built it using ACA objects. Lately it's been roof's and here in Perth Australia, there are only a small percentage of roof shapes that cannot be done with the roof object. Ok in the US, you do build complex roofs and the visionrez tool has been built with you in mind. But for the rest of us the old roof tool may just have some more milage to offer.

If you trim a Roof Object that has it's elevation other than 0 (say for the 2nd Floor), you will find once trimmed that it's elevation is set back to 0 . Simply Select the roof and set the elevation back to it's intended height in the properties pallete ( I use the relevant Floor hieght).

So remember : Cutting corners is now the recommended method of editing your roof object. (You heard it here first :-)

Best to ya (Click here to view all the roof tips).

ps. I am now going to have to rewrite sections of my roof posts now! You can edit!

That Roof Object again

2009-02-23T20:29:00.003+09:00

Ok I am now about to contradict everything I have whinged about with this 'object'. I now know how to add a vertex to the roof object!! It's true - it can be done. Wow! I'm blown away. And the secret is so simple it uses autocad commands! No wonder I didn't find it until now. Did you know about this?? Why didn't anyone tell me? Is this common knowledge?? If so then I'm a red-faced carpet snake!

Anyway I am going to share the secret with you!

One of the things I have enjoyed about doing this blog is that I have taken the time to stop and actually work thru the issues I have come across and in a way that I can explain to share with others. So many things have dropped into place as I've tried to organise my chaotic ways. Working for yourself has advantages but it also has downfalls. Now to that roof.

Something that has puzzled me is that essentially the roof object is programmed mathamatics and should be predictable. It may have limitations but they should be able to be understood and worked within or around. When using the roof object it can do some strange things but they should be able to become known and anticipated.

Hey before I get into the roof object again here's a great thing you can get into.

Great Daily Tips for AutoCAD (and ACArchitecture)

I just recently signed up for tips from Mike Williams, an experienced AutoCAD user and (I think) of ACArchitecture as some of his tips are for ACA. One of the strengths (and weaknesses) of ACA is it's AutoCAD base and we all use heaps of AC methods as much as ACA.

Great bite sized tips in your email everyday! I've already learnt a couple of new tips and been reminded of tips I've forgotten.

Oh and the roof object . . . . . . . . . come back in a couple of days . . . . . . it may blow you away like it did me!

aecRoof Object - Part 4

2009-02-18T23:21:00.004+09:00

Now I am talking mainly residential roof's here but I don't discount the commerical roof, with many commercial buildings built using residential practise. You may need to refer to the earlier parts of this series 1, 2 & 3.

The simple Cutout for the roof object is just a matter of tracing the outline of your roof and editing the edges (right click option) of the cut out portion and changing the overhang and the slope to 90. Just remember if you miss a point (vertex), you have to recreate the whole roof!

What about the Cutback eave? I showed this in my wall example, having to edit my external cavity wall to cater for a cut back eave. This happens not infrequently here in West Aus. So how do we wrestle the roof object into cutting back the eave and showing the eave in one straight section. You would assume that you should have two end points and a point (vertices) for where the roof eave changes from overhang to none but you will be wrong. The Roof object can't do it and your eave goes strange. You need to have an extra point and the extra edge has to have 90 degree slope. That's illogical to the roof shape but it works. Once constructed you need to drag your points very close together so that the raking portion of the eave appears at right angles to the roof pitching line for a spandrel to end the eave overhang.

What about different plate heights? Can the Roof Object handle this? Very easily!
Construct your roof at your main height. Select your roof, right click and select 'Edit Edges'.Select the edges you want to raise and enter the new pitching height. You are done.
But remember that the roof object can't overlap itself UPDATE - WRONG so for e.g. the eave can't overlap the lower roof portion. So how can you do that? Resort to slabs? Chicken! Here's a method that takes just a little planning. WHILST this technique works, being able to overhang itself is probably a better option as the valleys will self heal at the right height without you have to input.

Create the main roof and trace around the valley connecting the main roof to the raised portion. These connecting edges will get a 0 overhang and a 90 slope. Now create a second roof to position into the breach and you are done. Your new roof can now overlap the main roof and there are no unwanted lines on your drawing.

Tip: As I've pointed out before, don't worry about getting this cutout right for your design development stage. Just overlap roof objects as required to get your outer shape as you need. Once the design is final you can plan & trace and replace so your sections will look correct too.

Well that's probably as many tricks as I know to using the aecRoof Object without resorting to slabs. UPDATE - LOL Hopefully I've helped you to be able to use it more extensively, at least in the design process and be able to get it to look how you want.

Oh and I have added some more detail for a Dutch Gable and some interesting tips for gable infil and about the behaviour of the aecRoof object as a barge to Part 2 of this series. It's in the centre of the post if you don't want to read it all again.

Happy Roofing!

I've developed a Lisp !

2009-02-16T01:45:00.001+09:00

It'th True! I'm slowly (very) developing a lisp. I have finally dived in and started to learn AutoLisp and enjoying learning my first programing language. Ok I did type in a random dice program in basic but that shouldn't count. And yes even VBA has been pushed aside in Autocad 2010 but Autolisp should be here for years to come. I've been trying to reconstruct a useful program that allows you to pick 2 corners of a room and it prints the size in metres in the centre of the room. Great for marketing plans. Turned a functioning program into one that simply delivers "nil". Some work to do!

AUGI is a great resource for learning lisp and has a newsgroup and some great tutorials you can download. Of course there is Adesk's own newsgrops.

I also plan to get my thick head around OpenDCL, an open source version of the programming of the dialogue boxes that you use.

My long term goals in case anyone (anyone?) is interested.

1. Program to facilitate levels within one drawing. Should be fairly simple. Manipulate layers, elevation and display rep. Need to automate text & dims to the appropriate level as well. Got most of it sorted in my head and manually tested and satisfied with outcomes.

2. Program to enable one touch to shuffle a multi-building drawing (either blocks or x-ref's) to a level assigned in a tag and toggle back to 0 elevation. Multiple unit developments on a hill side can't display plan view and create elevations at the same time if cut plane no longer intersects houses at different levels.

Let me know if you are interested, could help me, want to laugh at me or have any comments that could help.

(setq salute "best to ya")
(princ salute)

aecRoof Object - Part 3

2009-02-14T21:38:00.007+09:00

Here's a pic showing the roof object creating a number of different roof shapes. You may need to read at least part 2 to get what I am showing here and how to get there but in part 1 I am promoting the Roof Object as a usable tool even for construction drawings!
The round (2 pitch) roof was based on a 16 side polygon and how they usually construct it anyway though usually 8 sides. The flat top (name?) was created using 2 pitches and then adding a third 0 slope roof as similar to what I describe here. The Pizza hut roof is done using the double slope roof (check the properties pallete) as can the Mansard roof if the pitching is on all 4 sides (not 2 like I've shown).
The Dormer is simply another roof (object) sat above the main roof. The trick here is to create a 5 side roof shape, with the back planted end having 2 (triangular) sides with no overhang and the slope set to 90. UPDATE - see technique for dormer roofs and other holes. The roof object cannot have holes so yes there will be roof in the middle of dormer and won't work for sections thru' here. For a schematic section you could use a masking object or simply edit the section and delete the lines. That may even possibly get you thru' a construction drawing as well.

The floating or planted Gable is again another simple roof object with 5 sides. The trick here is the 2 sides with slope are too small to be seen so it appears to be a triangle. The VisionRez roof can do this slope without a length being required which is very smo
The Gablet or Dutch Gable (Gablet-uk) along with the Mansard, Half Hip and derivatives can be created using the technique describe in part 2. via editing edges.
The Skillion roof is the most simple but not obvious with the roof object. It would appear to be native to a slab. But aecSlabs behave differently (displayReps) and so I will use the RO instead.
Trick is to create a 90 slope roof to start with and only add a slope to the one side edge. It can also turn corners and wrap around a house, even completely around. To get a verandah roof all around a house (with a hole in the middle for the house) create one roof up to the hip and then another to complete. Connecting at the hip end will disguise the use of two objects and there will be no unwanted lines in plan, elevation & model. (UPDATE: If you create a full square roof and add a second pitch at 0 to one edge at a height between the pitch line and ridge, you will get a hole. This is demonstrated in my file posted at AUGI and Adesk NG.

Hopefully you can see that the roof object has some versitility. You may well need to revert to slabs to do a complex roof but the RO can certainly go further than what may be immediately obvious. I seriously believe that with a little tweaking by the Autodesk team, the roof object could be a great tool for residential roof's. As it is - it's almost there! I don't care for edge styles as I am happy using a wall style for that But it does need ;

Ability to add/remove vertices (critical) UPDATE - it's there but hidden.
Ability to cut holes (ok not so critical) UPDATE - reasonable workaround.
Styles (ok not so critical but would be nice)

Now that slabs have componants, it may be required in your project and overtake the roof object's usefulness. But again think about how much detail you need and remember that the more complex the model in 3D, the harder it gets to manipulate it and the longer regenerations etc take. Sometimes you just don't need the extra data and can add info to a section (the only place it's required) just as easily.

Next I want to look at when a roof needs to overlap itself and the simple cut out section.

ACA v2010 and roof shapes

2009-02-11T22:02:00.030+09:00

Are you searching for blog announcements on the latest version of AutoCAD and ACA?
I have been and there appears to be some exciting things happening in AutoCAD. How they translate across to ACA and how (and if) they are incorporated in the aec tools is to be seen. 'Mesh to solid' could be exciting! Could bring some serious tools to create site development work in 3D which has been sadly lacking. I shouldn't imagine I will do much organic modelling in affordable housing but when that housing is on the side of a hill then it could be useful.
One blog to watch is Shaan Hurley's Between the lines (the inside story).
Shaan mentions improvements to walls (good), stairs(gooder) and structural members (which have lots of other uses). The PN & interface have been touched, the interface probably just phase II of the ribbon (eugh!). The PN - not that I use it but for larger projects it's a great organiser so it will be good to see upgrades to it's shortcomings (phasing, options, timing, multiple buildings). No mention of roof's (sigh!!).

Gambril or Gambrel? Googling it I can see that the name is probably incorrect according to world usage. Americans don't use them (the aussie version) and I don't see examples elsewhere but we use them alot here. So if anyone has a correct name for this type of roof please let me know so I don't continue to show my ignorance online to the world. Or should I just call it a floating gable. That one kinda sounds like it should not touch the main ridge though.

UPDATE:
ok I should have googled it. Wikipedia confirms that my roof shape is known as a 'Dutch Gable' in Aus and a 'Gablet' in the UK. Americans call something else a dutch gable (one of those elaborate rendered gables you see on the hacienda in the old wild west movies). The Gambril or Gambrel roof also known as a Mansard roof is essentially a dual pitched roof. My friend Stuart comments "The roof you illustrate I know as a gablet roof which had its origins over here in roofs prior to around 1500 when chimneys started to appear. Earlier houses would be open to the roof with no upper floor and the fire would be on the ground probably in a central position with the smoke rising up to the exposed rafters and they would form a small gable at the top of the hip which would be left open (no gable wall) to allow the smoke to escape." Well we use them alot here in Oz.

Well now I'm better edjamakated!

Cheers.

aecRoof Object - Part 2

2008-12-15T22:32:00.009+09:00

(Hint : If you have trouble seeing my pics - you can right click on them and select "Open in other tab" and it should open as a larger image).

I'm not going to repeat the basics that are found in the AutoCAD help or the tutorials. I want to focus on the extra tips for use here in Oz (and anywhere else :-) Here I am going to focus on creating a Gablet (dutch Gable to some) (Gablet-UK) plus a couple of other tips including adding infill, the barge board and dealing with the overhang (underhang?). The methods here can be used for creating other roof shapes such as a Dutch Gable.. Roof types with 2 constant slopes like the 'Pizza Hut' roof or the 'Mansard' (or American dutch gable,) the flat top roof with a skirt around are better created using the 'Double Slope' option in the Properties Pallete.

Create your rectangular roof with a hip end. Select the roof object & right click. Choose 'Properties' and on the tool pallete select 'Edges/Faces'.
(Note: This dialogue box shows the roof object tool's incomplete nature in several ways.) If you want to change the whole roof pitch DON'T do it here. You can only change one at a time.
Do it on the properties pallete under 'Slope'. You can however change overhangs 'en masse' by selecting one, several or all of the edges using Windows standard Control or Shift key options.
Now the lower panel shows a slope per selected edge and if you select multiple edges the lower panel greys out. Let's cancel out and get back another way so we know which edge we are editing.
Hint : If you can't change the slope in the properties pallete then it's possibly because you have edited an edge and added an additional individual slope so make your broad changes first before editing edges.
Cancel out and again select the roof again. Right click and select 'Edit Edges' and choose the right & left edges. Where-as before the dialogue box showed you all 4 edges, you now only have the 2 edges you selected. Select the first edge in the top panel and then click below the last entry in the 2nd panel under the 'Face' column. You have now added a 2nd plane for this edge. It will have the same slope as the main roof. Click in the slope column for this 2nd face and change the slope to 90 (vertical gable face). Now in the height column enter the height from the pitching (not eave) edge back to the face of the gable. I find this hit & miss but I get it eventually. (I'm sure you could do it mathematically.) Your height may be above the ridge so your gable may not show up. Adjust the height until it does. You now have your 'Dutch gable'. A reverse Dutch Gable can also be created by reversing the slopes for the 1st & 2nd slopes. i.e. A gable chopped short with a hip over.

Here is the dutch gable, used in the post war homes around here and every now and again copied today, but not often. Very easy to set up. Here I've easily adapted a curtain wall to act as my gable infill as the battens suit the repeated spacing. I had to give the CWA a tiny height and lower the baseline below the roof pitching line so I could right click and 'Roof Line /..." edit roof line and project into the shape of the gable roof.. The green barge on both sides of the gable is the SAME roof object. Adding a 2nd 0 slope at the same height as the main reverse dutch gable made the barge top section disappear where the gutter is. If I repeat this 0 slope on the other side the barge appears flat across this section. Interesting! Nice to have an object work with you but it's taken me years to learn these tricks to use.

Now gables look better with an overhang so how do you do that (remember: The OOTB roof object will not overlap itself). Here's my best work around. Create a small section of roof (object) with slope to one edge and 90 slope to the other three. Position and shape it as the roof section that is overhung. i.e. the 2 side edges at 45d to align with the hips. In an 'isoview', align the new section to the existing roof. Make sure your roofs 'Edge Cut' are set to plumb (properties pallette).
The only drawback to this solution is a line on your aecElevations from the model but it's minor and you could pretend it's the flashing line for the gable wall over the roof sheet below.

Tip: If you have hatching to your roof material, setting the material hatching orientation to global will ensure the hatching to both objects align for your elevaiton.
Tip: Generally I position (in iso view) a wall style at the back bottom edge of this item, give it a very small wall height (10mm) and project the wall into the main roof object to create my gable infill. This peculiar wall style might have a frame & cladding componant so that I can apply a profile for the cladding. Note: If your gable wall is too high it will fail to project being taller that the lowest portion of the roof. It must be all below it (hence the 10mm height & bottom edge).

What about the Barge?
Gutter & fascia are taken care of by my wall style. But what about the gable end barges? I use another roof object! Draw a roof 50mm wide, set slope as per main roof and edit back & front edge slopes to 90 degrees. Ensure your roofs 'Edge Cut' are set to plumb (tool pallette – wish that was default!). Many use structural members and they have their strengths (getting quantities) but if you don't need Q's then the roof object is easier to adjust quickly because it maintains it's slope when the overall size is adjusted to suit different width. (It would be great if you had the edge option of 'Flat' along with 'Square' and 'Plumb' but as this is only for 3D and the unwanted portion of the barge dissappears into the roof then I am unconcerned ). Set your barge material on the first one (remember – no styles) and then copy around, adjusting as necessary. Remember to adjust the width in plan view and place using snaps in an 'isoview'. As the slope is set in the roof object it will keep that slope as you adjust the width - which is why I use them rather than a structural object. Update: You can use this option but I now use a structural object to get more detail for rendering.

Tip: Once you have built this 'circus', you can use an object anchor to tie it all together.
aecobjectanchorattach (alias to AOA or something simple). Object anchors are cool but they can cause unexpected behaviour in connected objects so keep an eye on them.

To get around the aecRoof Object's limitation WRONG of not being able to overhang itself UPDATE you can split the roof as I've done here. This takes a little planning but I've simply traced the main roof around the valley connection to the raised roof and given those valley edges a 90 (vertical) slope. Because the raised portion is a seperate roof object it can overlap as required.

Tip: When in the initial design phase, don't worry about untidy roof's if you have several roof objects overlapping. They won't show on your model or elevations as they will be inside the roof. That way, rather than convert to slabs, you can review the overall roof and perhaps replace it with one or more aecRoof Objects when the time comes to do documentation.

Verandah's?
Again I prefer to use a roof object. Like the gable overhang infill trick above, just isolate the slope to 1 edge and you can wrap around a main roof (wall). Of course without the ability to add vertices, make one mistake and you have to do it all over again. WRONG!
Tip: Create the roof with a 90 slope then edit the edges you need to slope. You will be editing less edges.

Roof hips for metal roof's Update: You can use this option but I now use a structural object to get more detail for rendering.
Here again I've found the Roof Object to be simple and versitile. Only necessary if you render or like your elevations to look complete rather than basic. Not having styles is a drawback but if you make the first one the correct setup and copy it around it's okay. These can be tricky and are fragile. You have two bottom edges with the roof slope on a 6 sided object. The other edges are 90 slope (vertical). Make the thickness around 5 to 10mm and sit on your main roof. Make the ridges thicker and they will sit above the hips like they do in real life. Ok I've also added a 50mm round structural object to get roller ridge capping which costs more but is much better looking.

There are a couple more small tricks to using the roof object successfully and I will try to be prompt in providing those secrets shortly.
Now why would you do all this and not switch to slabs? Well I'm just showing you the options 'is all'. Simpler roofs don't need the slab and it's easier to manage one object (KISS). The hips stay aligned to one another. Be free to continue using slabs if you have them mastered and are happy with them. If you want to stretch an edge and want to see the rest of the roof adjust automatically though, you may want to revisit the roof object.

Best to ya (Now when did I really post this one? :-)