Showing posts with label My_Point_of_View. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My_Point_of_View. Show all posts

Friday, 7 December 2012

A Fool And Their Money......The B1M




Saw this  "The B1M (the BIM one million) is now live at www.TheB1M.com. Please share your BIM learning and experiences to inspire wider uptake around the world. "on Linked-In and had to have a look.

The web site is missing a picture on the front page, then you read on and find its £2 a poke and limited at just 1 Million people (at the moment) so that's 2 Million Pounds, nice idea for making money and that's about all ;0)

My initial reaction was, If you are going to waste £2 give it to a charity, those already into BIM know who all the usual faces are already.....and those joining will find out soon enough.

Then Fred Mills • replied

Hi Alan, thanks for the comments. Please see the news article below. It would be very short sighted of us to make £2m and go off on a jolly. This is about making a long term impact on our industry and promoting BIM around the world. You're welcome to join in.http://construction-manager.co.uk/news/new-bim-website-aims-million-users/

After reading the information on the press release it kinda gives it a little more credibility and this information should really be on The B1M front page, but there are so many of these BIM clubs forming, I will give £2 to charity instead.

Friday, 31 August 2012

Autodesk Web Site Blues......




I may be mistaken but I'm sure you use to be able to get to downloads of Service Packs, Update Releases and Hotfixes etc. via the Service & Support drop down menu along the top picking a product. ....... No more and after a lot and I mean a lot of poking around I have finally found what I'm after and here are the links to help you.

Revit Structure
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/index?siteID=123112&id=5545518&linkID=9243182

Revit Architecture
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps?siteID=123112&id=2956546&linkID=9243099

Revit MEP
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=12828318

Just to confuse the web site structure for MEP is not the same as RAC and STR

Autodesk please fix and tidy up your bloody web site and think KISS  ~  Keep It Simple Stupid.
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Tuesday, 26 June 2012

PAS 1192-2:2012 - Read - Review and Feedback


Following my post about PAS 1192-2:2012 - Building Information Management – Information requirements for the capital delivery of construction projects http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/pas-1192-22012/

IMHO there are too many levels of management and duty owners being proposed, renaming of people within the process i.e. the "Client" used in the RIBA BIM Overlay document and well known is now refereed to as the "Employer" in addition well known named documents are also being renamed, why? There are obvious bottlenecks being built in the proposed processes, etc. 

In its present state it kind of makes you wonder if the people on the committee have actually been involved in the real construction industry or only played SIM city!  (that’s the computer game and not another term for SIM)

Bottom line this document will be ultimately trust down our throats, so take the time to read review and feedback to the committee creating it, to help them get it right.
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Monday, 21 May 2012

BD Online BIM White Paper - £199 Really!


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Just recieved an email from BDOnline plugging their BIM White Paper which they quote as being "the ultimate resource for architecture professionals battling with BIM adoption in 2012. The report has already attracted significant support and backing from leading players in the BIM community, helping them cut through the bimwash to establish the clear business benefits of adopting BIM".
Buy your copy today for £199 (+VAT)

Click Here to read more

The question is why on earh would you want to spend £199+vat in this when you could put it towards a new ipad? Not as if there isn't enought of this kind of material around for free - try looking at my left hand side panel.

If you DB guys want to send me a free copy to review, I might change my mind, until then the money is going towards the ipad.

Friday, 18 May 2012

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

RIP - Inside the Factory & Good Luck Erik


Would the last person leaving Autodesk please turn the lights out.......

Extract from the Last Post (for some time?) "Erik has left Autodesk to explore other paths and I do not have the time to fully commit to keeping the content fresh and engaging. So I (Tom Vollaro, I assume) have decided to put the blog on pause."




ErikEgbertson_BW Erik Egbertson
Erik holds a BS (architecture concentration) from Northeastern University and practiced several years in Boston and Cambridge before joining Revit Technology in early 2000. In the fall of 2007 he enrolled in Bentley University’s Human Factors in Information Design masters program and joined the growing Autodesk Revit user experience design team as an Interaction designer. In this new capacity he works to enhance his design experience with human factors cognitive science and methodologies. Initial projects included improved consistency of file access and feature enhancements and later enhancements to the platform. Erik also teaches Revit at the Boston Architectural College. Outside work Erik enjoys riding his motorcycle, making things, and increasing self sustainability

Erik - Gone but not forgotten 

So who exactly is left to fight our Revit corner within Autodesk?

First Wai, now Erik and others no longer answer emails...... 

Tom_profile_bw2 Tom Vollaro
Tom has a MS in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Architecture from the New Jersey Institute 

And it would appear can't be bothered to keep Inside the Factory ALIVE

Monday, 16 April 2012

Revit 2013 Downloads Please Hold Again and Again

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As recorded by Steve Stafford on Friday 13th (Not a good day anyway), Autodesk were having problems, today I went to download the my upgrade of Autodesk Building Design Suite - Premium 2013 only to be informed I don't have one dispite the button now being displayed




So I left it a litle while, and now when I go into the Subscription Area the now famous and previously reported message from Steve Stafford is back......






Come on Autodesk get your bloody act together will you, every year we have this problem, AU 2010 virtual was a wash out, luckily I was too busy to bother with AU2011 and you expect us to ultimately use your software on the cloud .......... I don't think so do you?
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Tuesday, 3 April 2012

360 Degree Dynamic View From The Shard



Serously Impressive, here are a couple of screen shots, but visit the site a take the 360 virtual tour....




Enjoy..
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Thursday, 29 March 2012

Revit 2013 Family Structure & Content

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Hi Blog Readers

No I've not dropped off the universe, just been very busy with family issues as my wife Jennifer was taken into hospital and for a short period was in intensive care. Combine that with work and organising and administration of the LRUG http://www.lrug.co.uk/ March meeting, then editing videos and creating material from the presentation to upload to the LRUG members’ area of the web site there Isn’t very much time for other interests or blogging.

Thankfully we now have Jen home with us again, complete with cylinders of oxygen etc. but she is still with us and hopefully on the road to recovery.

What can I say about RST 2013……

OK as previous years I have been beta testing, but no Bloggers event this year, shame I missed killing the penguins. In reality I would not have had time for it with everything that has been going on.  

The same stupid prat that let the cat out of the bag early last year (who some see as a Revit Evangelist) has done the same this year. I saw a linked-in notification of his posting and was not surprised who it was when I went there to read it.

David Light a fellow founder of LRUG has done his usual excellent review, (Click Here to read) and as the NDA is over I can now Blog legitimately.   

From my point of view, I’m underwhelmed with the lack of development, as I have been the last couple of years. The 2010 and 2011 version saw major advances with the product and real additions halfway during the Autodesk product year at Subscription Advantage Release.

I understand that for most of the world there has been a recession, however looking at press releases about Autodesk profits recently, they need not only to squeeze every ounce of monies out of large corporate companies but to actually use that money in developing the products to give us real tangible benefits.

We are still waiting for many items that have been on the users “Need List” not “Want List” (and there is a distinct difference) for many years now. One prime example that comes up every year is Subscript and Superscript in the text editor. It’s basic and fundamental, and still missing within the Revit 2013 text editor.

OK off soapbox and to some stuff I can share.

Many moons ago, when I was younger, so much younger than today, (sorry I had a Beatles moment) in January 2008 I produced my first Revit Libraries Reference Guide and Autodesk used it to make modification to all the typographical errors and misspellings in the 2010 release the following year.

And it’s since then I have produced a review annually so Click Here for the Revit Structure version for 2013

Best thing I can say is download and read it, some stuff has been moved around and renamed so much I’ve included diagrams like the one below just to sort it out in my own mind.


HOT LINKS

Revit 2013 ~ What's New In Revit 2013 ~ David Light ~ CLICK HERE 

Revit 2013 ~ 30 Day Trial version ~    CLICK HERE

Revit 2013 ~ System requirements ~  CLICK HERE

Revit 2013 ~ Materials ~ CLICK HERE 

Enjoy
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Thursday, 8 March 2012

Autonomous Agile Aerial Robots

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Really Cool video found by Erik over at Who's afraid of the Big Bad BIM? - Click Here for the original posting.



Erik says that these flying robots have been making the rounds for a while, well I had missed them until his posting , I think that apart from those in BIM liking cutting edge stuff, when you see how they can map a building now that's impressive - why do I feel like we aren't taking notice of Terminator and I was looking for a Skynet logo in the background somewhere.

As Erik says "Very worthy of your coffee break time."

Saturday, 4 February 2012

BIM and Beam - Three Buses in a Row ;0)

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It may be pure coincidence, however since my posting on the 31st January about the lack of effort and posting over at BIM and Beam since Wai Chu moved on from Autodesk from the five nominated Authors (The Famous Five), postings on BIM & Beam are now like London Buses. Nothing for ages then three all come along at once (usually one after the other and not side by side as the picture above).

Squeezed out into the blogger-sphere just after my posting and before midnight on the same day, actually making it two posts in January is  Autodesk ForceEffect Version 2.0 Now Available!

This posting is about a free app available for Apple iPad and iPhone from the iTunes App Store that allows engineers including structural engineers to model and simulate concepts. Real time solving capabilities provide immediate feedback on the performance of a design, enabling you to bring engineering to the point of the problem.

No Author credited for this posting which is a real shame because you don’t get to see which of the famous five suddenly burst into life. Nice posting, actually had something to do with structural engineering.

Then as if a Bear being poked with a stick.......


Two postings ON THE SAME DAY – Bly me!  

The first posting is about  Operating Systems support change for Autodesk products Reporting that there has been an important change to the way Autodesk are support Operating Systems for Autodesk products.  This change directly impacts the Revit family of solutions.  Please see the following link for the change and important details Microsoft Windows Vista Support FAQ, it says

Again NO AUTHOR CREDIT, So no answer as to which of the Famous Five Authors is alive, breathing and blogging?

Then as if to answer the question Pawel Piechnik posts  New structural content for Revit Structure is available straight after on the same day.

It appears Autodesk (Pawel) thinks that they have just uploaded some new country specific, structural .rfa content and templates in the Subscription Centre for you to download.

The delivery includes content for Brazil, Russia and Spain Yipppppeeee for them

However it looks like Pawel may have jumped the gun with his posting because three readers have reported that they can not find the material on the Subscription Centre and are requesting a hyperlink!

OK, ok, I know we asked for some action and more postings on your blog, but you could have scheduled the posting for a couple of days in the future, to make it look like you are continually active on our behalf, or at least ensured the material was actually there before you told the world about it......

I know we the User and never happy :0(   The Headmaster now says  "6/10 Better". Now a plug for things UK based ;0)

Autodesk have asked for feedback about what’s missing out of the box for the UK users, so unless you actually helped Paul Oakley gather feedback for Autodesk – don’t complain if when a similar package arrives for the UK it does not have in it what you would like.

Nuff Said
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Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Q: What's happened at BIM and Beam? - A: Nothing Much


Since Wai Chu the Ex Product Manager for Revit Structure left Autodesk, five people have been allocated to take over his Blog BIM and Beam. And it has to be said it looks like they are just names because since Wai's departure there have been very few posts

4 Post in November (I think Wai was still with them then)
0 in December
1 by the skin of the teeth in January, about a non Revit specific Autodesk Blog in French for god sake.......

The individual who are supposted to be supporting what was a good Revit Structure resource are

Brian Haines
Gary Wyatt
Pawel Piechnik
Sarah Hodges
Tomasz Fudala

So there should be at least Five (Revit Structure Specific) postings a month if you only do one each guys

Two of you are supposed to be specifically taking over and sharing Wai's responsibilities on our behalf. Please introduce yourselves formally on the Blog and at least make it “look as if you” are supporting Revit Structure and it’s users. Because at the moment that isn’t the impression the blog is projecting…

Consider this a kick up the rear from your readership


4/10    See Me ... Do Better ! – The Headmaster ;0)
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Thursday, 27 October 2011

My First CAD Computer

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Here is my first CAD computer, we wrote the CAD software in house using HP Basic and it allowed Scaffolding Great Britian Ltd to design the temporary works to a bridge on the M25 in a day rather than two weeks manually, including a full schedule of all the components required to construct the temporary works.

I also recall the delivery of the 10Mbyte hard disk and Twin 8" Floppy Disk drive arriving. A fan was fitted into the room because of the heat it all generated 

The 9845 was HP's high-end technical desktop computer of the 1970s until the introduction of the 200 Series in 1981. The 9845 was the first HP computer to incorporate a twelve-inch CRT screen. Previous computers had only one or three line screens. The large monitor of the 9845 made program debugging and program listing much more convenient. It also provided (optional) graphics display for the first time, with a resolution of 560 x 455 dots. The 9845A came standard with a built-in mini-cartridge tape drive (217K capacity). A second tape drive was optional as was a built-in thermal printer (80 characters wide, 480 lines per minute and graphics capable).

The 9845A shipped with 13K RAM standard, expandable to 62K. The computer came standard with four I/O slots and used the same interfaces as the 9825. The 9845S came standard with the additional tape drive, printer and graphics package. The 9845B replaced the 9845A in 1979. The original 9845B came standard with 56K RAM, expandable to 449K.


Click here to see this original green screen drawing the SINX/X function (file size 1.5 MB).

At the time these computers cost a fortune, later when completing my degree in Civil Engineering (1991/2) I found one at a car boot for £15 including a bag of thermal paper and 10 tapes, Ummm and it's still in my loft together with my CoCo, Spectrum, Amstrads (3No) and Tandy Model 100 etc.

For more details on this machine CLICK HERE

Here are a few more from my yester year collection that still live in the loft!.

Hours spent copying code from mags and writing your own programs with the old Spectrum.


I programmed the CoCo to "ask"  my girlfriend at the time

(made it talk)  "Will You Marry Me"

The result was she is my wife and tells everyone that I never actually
asked her to marry me, and that she has been a computer widow ever since then ;0)



The joy of having a disk drive .......I had two
I surfed the net or www before it was called the net or www with this one!

This one broke your back and looked like you were carrying a sowing machine around



Yes Mr Sugar - "Luggable" is a perfect description.




I spent an evening with Joanna Lumley after I sold her one of these, setting it up and giving some training.
She even made me a couple of cups of coffee.


Sometimes it pays to be a Computer Geek ;0)
Then on to MS Dos Machines

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

The Cloud is Dead Long Live the Cloud

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A very interesting article over on upFront.ezine NEWS #709

My View - I will wait and see, so far I'm underwhelmed at Labs I've tried.
I guess I'm a true reflection of the results of the survey by Steve Johnson Over at blog nauseam

How do you feel about CAD in the Cloud?
Survey: 69% concerned or frightened, 31% hopeful or excited.

Ralphs' remarks that "One marketing trick that old timers like Mr Johnson and I have repeatedly lived through is the claim that the Next Big Thing is inevitable, like buying pet food over the internet."

As a fellow old timer I can relate to that ;0)
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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Content Packs for Revit RAC & RST2012 Update 2 Now Available

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I really worry about Autodesk at times, they release Update 2 for Revit Structure without the supporting documentation which arrives two days after, then three weeks after that someone finally realises that perhaps some users install their content on a server (what a novel idea!)

So finally three days ago The Revit Clinic post the announcement below:-

The Content Packs for Update Release 2 for both Revit Architecture and Revit Structure have been posted on their respective product pages.

RAC_UR2

To update the content, extract the .cab files to the same location as your installed
content.

Revit Architecture

Revit Structure

Come on Autodesk, put you brain in gear and try an co-ordinate this will you please, I could have done with this file weeks ago with the release of the Update not as an after thought!

6/10 Do Better!
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See

Update Enhancement List for RST2012 - 4th Oct 2011


Revit Structure 2012 Update 2 Ready - Well Nearly! - 28th Sept 2011

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Sunday, 9 October 2011

City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri

I've just watched this BBC 2 program, cracking use of 3D Surveying and 3D Modeling


The complex mix of expert archaeology, underwater robotics and state of the art graphics allowed the team to piece together the secrets of Pavlopetri, producing spectacular results.

Here, team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics take us through how they worked to solve the puzzle of the city, using an autonomous underwater vehicle, the first time such technology has been used on this scale on a submerged site.

Throughout the night, the camera took stereo images under the water to judge the distance between the ruins on the sea floor. The robot captured hundreds of thousands of images, in order to build up a 3D model - allowing the team to create views that would be otherwise impossible.

The graphics team carefully built up a 3D map from the layout of the ruins and the uncovered artefacts. The final images of Pavlopetri reveal an intricate portrait of the city around 1600 BC; a city at its advanced peak.

There are a few short videos to be found on the BBC web site:-













Watch the whole program on





Thursday, 30 June 2011

Time Travel Again - Back to the 80's


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I've just lost 31 years and I'm 22 again.......

A quick trip down to the local supermarket to pick up a new windscreen wiper and as always I look at the Budget CD's and there it was.

A mixture of Solo in Soho and Philip Lynott Album plus some rare tracks ....20 Tracks for £3

As it says on the back cover of this cracking collection Phil Lynott was the leader of Thin Lizzy he was a musical hero, master songwriter and majestic singer, yet as this collection of solo hits, album tracks and rare b-sides proves he was much more.

And yes I am enjoying the magic it's like having my original record collection back
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Monday, 27 June 2011

Government thinks there are Too Many Architects

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"RIBA president Ruth Reed says she has been told the government thinks there are too many architects in the profession."

OK I've always said this myself, we could get all the bad ones, line up 5 against a wall and shoot them daily until the number of good ones increases ;0)

Joking aside this is serious stuff for Architectural students to read more CLICK HERE
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Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Early Fathers Day trip to the Dr Who Experience

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Thanks Girls for my early Fathers Day Gift......

What more could a Dad ask for, his two Daughters and the Dr Who Experience!!!!

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Revit 2012 underwhelming....I can't get excited

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The blogger webcast was held very, very late last night in the UK, and like Dave Baldacchino of Do you Revit? I’m taking the view that plenty of Bloggers will all ready have posted about the event, especially those that have the Lois Lane complex and need a scoop or have Revit in their DNA ;0)

David Light over at his Revit blog, as always has produced such a concise review that it’s very rare that others meet his article standard (that’s another fiver you owe me Dave)

Dave Baldacchine & David Light talk about the split between users:-

David Baldacchine saying  “there will be those that are very excited and those that are bummed. In past years, I’ve almost always been in the first camp and couldn’t understand what the rest were fussing about. However this year, I am feeling a bit disappointed about the quantity of improvements for the Architectural field.”

David Light summarising “Will Revit 2012 keep the die-hard Revit user who wants long standing items like better text tools, improved typography and site, stairs etc….happy???? hmmmmm probably not! But I would have to argue that whilst some of the improvements to big ticket modelling items have yet to appear, there is still plenty in this feature rich release to make most users content.

But a word of warning Mr Autodesk; some of these long standing requests really do need to be addressed over the next 1 to 2 releases. I see users fighting with some of the trickier tools on a day to day basis and I feel their pain. However, I have a pragmatic view on much of this now as I have come to realize that there is no utopia and Rome really wasn’t built in a day. As the Guinness Ad says, good things come to those that wait. Nevertheless, improving model quality and construction assembly by providing flexible, easy to use software tools most be the end game. Without this, there will always be an excuse by some diehards that this “BIM thing” is just not worth doing."

Like Dave Baldacchine I’m in the “feeling a bit disappointed about the quantity of improvements” Actually more in the very pissed–off, rather than the bit disappointed if I’m truthful

IMHO this year has been more about the bigger users with Bells and Whistles and not Basic fixes for all users.

Because of the NDA I can’t tell you how I’ve come to these figures yet, but one way of measuring the real improvements in Revit Structure gives me a split of:-

 58 Architecture and the All Products common platform
   5 Structure which equates to about 4%
 56 MEP
112

Should Autodesk be spending time improving MEP, yes but not at the expense of the other platforms.

Whist I applaud the improvements in the Analytical Modelling and Tools, we and many other Structural Users don’t round trip the Analytical Model backwards and Forwards like Autodesk seem to think we do. Hell, there are projects were we don’t connect the Analytical and the Revit Model for a variety of reasons.

Detailing and producing useable RC Details and UK/ Europe Bar Bending Schedules within Revit is currently a joke, It’s a 3D Toy that many Structural Engineering companies are not using, again for a variety of reasons

Dave Baldacchine  My feeling is that it’s quite light this year. That doesn’t mean however, that you won’t be thrilled with the new improvements, especially if you’re in the Engineering and Construction disciplines.”

Nope Dave…… Definitely not thrilled