Saturday, 29 May 2010

Fur Maker plugin for sketchup

Amazing new sketchup plugin that can create fur/grass:


Fur Maker is available for download for free from this thread on SketchUcation. If you think it’s as terrific as I do, leave tak2hata a note (on the thread) to thank him. Note: you have to first register to sketchucation

To install it, download the fur_en.rb and fur_lang_en.txt files from the above link and drop them in your plugins folder. If you’d prefer another language, download the relevant .txt file instead (as of today, kind volunteers have provided translations for Japanese, Spanish, French and Persian).

Fur Maker is a young script, meaning it’s only been around for a very short time. As such, there’s always a chance it’ll exhibit erratic behavior. Save early and often.

For further info visit google sketchup blog

Thursday, 20 May 2010

New Releases of Major BIM Applications Revit and ArchiCAD

Here are some highlights from the recently released / announced Versions of two of the major players in the architectural BIM field: Revit Architecture 2011 and ArchiCAD 14. See these following videos highlighting some of the interesting innovations.

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011  Sun Path Simulation

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Conceptual Design Enhancements


Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Workflow Enhancements

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 User Interface Enhancements

ArchiCAD 14 New Features – Refined Model Mapping

ArchiCAD 14 New Features – Direct Link to Structural and MEP Applications

ArchiCAD 14 New Features – Next Generation Teamwork

ArchiCAD 14 New Features – Direct Import of Site-Survey Data


Via Blgsim



Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Creating an Analysis Display Style in Revit 2011

Using the recently released Solar Radiation Technology Preview, we can create or modify an analysis display style.  Additional documentation is also available in the video here.

By default, the solar radiation add-in will create an analysis display style called Solar Radiation Default.  You can access the menu under the view Properties > Analysis Display Style.  Once in the menu there are 3 tabs to modify the display style settings or create a new style; Settings, Color & Legend.

Let’s look at the Settings tab first:

The only option here is if you would like to see or hide gridlines in the analysis view:

Section1 

Next on the Color tab:

There are 2 options for the graphical display; Gradient & Ranges.  Gradient will allow you to specify colors for the max, auto and min values and blend them with a gradient display.  Ranges will allow you to add \ remove rows of color as well, using the + or – buttons, but leave the rows of color separation:

Section2 

GradientComp

The last tab is for the Legend, which by default appears in the view:

The legend should be visible in the view where the analysis display is active.

Legend 

The Legend tab will allow you to specify the display of the legend in general, along with visibility for units, name and description.  You can additionally specify the font and rounding settings:

Section3


Via Revitclinic

Saturday, 15 May 2010

Solar Radiation Technology Preview for Revit 2011

Use the Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview for Revit 2011 to understand and quantify solar radiation on various surfaces of your conceptual building model.

Using the Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview during the conceptual design stage of your project can help you make informed design decisions about building shape, orientation, and shading strategies early on when changes are least expensive.

The technology preview uses the geometry of conceptual massing elements from Revit and calculates the amount of solar radiation hitting the selected surfaces of the massing shapes, based on location and weather data. It is possible to display the distribution and availability of solar radiation over an entire building or even a city block. This can be particularly useful when considering shading requirements or assessing the best areas to place photovoltaics for maximum collection.

The Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview is modeless and delivers an integrated experience within the Revit environment. This experience is made possible by the Analysis Visualization Framework, Dynamic Model Update, and other new API’s made available with the Autodesk Revit 2011 family of products.

This technology preview is a limited term release to seek customer feedback on its performance and expires on November 5th, 2010.

Below is video showing the presentation:



Via Autodesk Labs

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

List of New Sketchup Plug-ins and updates

There have been a number of New and Updated Plug-ins released recently. Here's a list:

  • Twighlight Render 1.4 -"Our latest version fixes a longstanding material problem, providing better, faster results!"
  • LibFredo6 and ToolsOnSurface - Important updates to fix the menu gray-out problems.
  • Make Fur - New plug-in for creating fur or grass component arrays.
  • ShapeBender plug-in by Chris Fullmer has been recently updated.
  • PickIt - A new plug-in by Thomas Thomassen pops-up a menu of selectable entities when there is ambiguity.
  • Cleanup - Thomas' essential utility has improved methods for cleaning up, and now also repairs broken lines.
  • Edge Tools - Yet another of Thomas' growing and great collection of plug-ins. Adds a face division tool. (see video)
  • Camera Stats - A plug-in to inspect and manipulate the Camera in SketchUp by Martin Rinehart.
  • Extrude Edges by Rails to Lattice - Another fantastic addition to TIG's powerful Extrude Toolset.
  • Probes - Recently updated query and inspection tool by TT. Shows face normal, edge normals, UVQ values, and more.
  • RayTrace and RaySpray - A couple of TIG Tools that add construction geometry to trace ray paths.
  • Fix Component Names - A TT plug-in that fixes a bug that happens when 2 Components have the same name.
  • Delete Internal Faces- New scripter kyyu released a plug-in to remove internal faces from faces.
  • Key Rotate - A shortcut for rotating things also by kyyu.
  • OnTime5D Plugin - connect 3D objects with schedule made with OnTime software.
  • Automatic SketchUp - The first Ruby book aimed at SketchUp development has been published.
  • 3D Printing - i.materialize has released a plug-in to help create and upload models for 3d printing directly from SketchUp.
Via sketchup plugins

Monday, 3 May 2010

Green Building Trends in Europe with Jerry Yudelson

This replay of Jerry Yudelson’s green building webinar provides an overview of the subject, as well as the ways that Europe is currently ahead of the United States.

Green Building Trends: Europe is the first definitive study of European green building design and construction. What can U.S. building professionals learn from their European counterparts? In his upcoming webinar, Yudelson will explain why Europe leads the world in green building practices, and how to adopt these cutting-edge techniques and ideas in American and Canadian cities. His presentation will include case studies drawn from a year of on-the-ground research in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany that show how European green buildings routinely use 50% to 90% less energy than comparable certified green projects in the U.S.

We’ve reached the point when we have not only the capacity to use sustainable techniques and materials for all building practices, but the responsibility to use them. In this webinar, Yudelson will details the lessons from Green Building Trends Europe and shine a light on how they can be implemented.

Jerry Yudelson is an expert in the LEED green building rating system and president of Yudelson Associates in Tucson, Arizona. He provides Yudelson Associates’ clients with expert guidance on creating, developing, designing and marketing green building projects. He has more than 25 years of experience with renewable energy systems, green building design, site planning, environmental remediation, water conservation and solid waste management. Jerry Yudelson is a registered professional engineer and author of several books, including The Green Building Revolution (Island Press, 2008).

Via Blgsim