Autodesk 2012 Product Launch - Bloggers Event Part 2

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OK, so at about this time last night I was in the midst of a twitter frenzy surrounding the hashtag #adsk2012.  The long anticipated graduation of 'Galaxy' into Revit 2012 finally happened, and the NDA was lifted from hardcore Revit users worldwide.  As I said in my previous post, I was very grateful to Dave Light for sneaking me into the closed event for autodesk bloggers and it was a pretty cool evening all told.  I'll take you through the bits that have stuck in my head considering I am not part of the beta programme, and was seeing a lot of this for the first time since a couple of NDA sessions at AU and the odd sneak peek over Adam's shoulder at work...

Autodesk open webcast - 9pm GMT

The arrival of the USB key delivery method and the mind boggling array of Autodesk Suites dominated this session for me.  Much was made of the array of software available through the suites bundles, which we are told will make more software more accessible to more people.  Speaking to my reseller today, I am less convinced that this is not a cynical means to charging more - fine you get more for your money, but you have to spend more to get it.  In the current UK financial climate, and coupled with a resistance to bim adoption from some quarters, I'm not convinced this is as good a move as Autodesk may think...  I was a little underwhelmed by this screencast if I'm totally honest.

Autodesk Bloggers closed webcast - 10.30pm GMT

And so armed with my mug of hot milk (cunningly disguised on my twitter status as beer), I entered into the unknown.  The session basically split into 3 - RAC, RST, RME.  I have to admit that whilst I love bagging the other guys to get on my bim bandwagon, I am definitely no expert in MEP or Structures, so I'll leave that side of things to my more learned friends and concentrate on the RAC side of things.  If you want comprehensive detail, check Dave Light, Robert Manna, or Steve Stafford's blogs - I'm going to focus on what stood out for me.

 #1:  Construction Modelling

To me, a converted bim geek, and self confessed Navis freak, the arrival of parts and assemblies in the construction modelling enhancements was huge.  The ability to subdivide and break up a model for construction purposes is a really useful tool.  Coupled with the visual enhancements (which I'll get to later), the ability to document construction information just got a whole heap better - and this is version 01.  I know several contractors that will be very interesting in seeing what this will enable.

#2:  Visualisation Upgrades

Quite a bit of time was spent showcasing the updates to the visual styles, including realistic with edges modes and the addition of shadows to consistent colours mode, as well as ambient occlusion for shaded with edges (and IT PRINTS! - hurrah).  These are great enhancements and I can see the benefits they will give to us already without even playing with them.  The other significant addition to this section was the arrival of ghost surfaces.

Much like x-ray mode in sketchup, we are now able to 'ghost' elements by individual, category or whole model overrides.  The results are pretty cool, and I can see some nice graphics being demo'd on a few blogs already today.

#3:  Point Clouds in Revit

Hallelujah!  Ever since I saw my first point cloud at AU2009, I have been fascinated by them.  But, as my previous post discussed, I have long been stumped as to what to do with them.  I have spent a lot of time and discussed many long and complex workflows involving many software platforms to generate a revit model from the data - but now its all sorted.  Revit 2012 will handle point clouds - with a few things to note.  They are linked into the file to manage file size and performance.  In answer to my question at the bloggers event as to whether or not Revit decimated the cloud, I got the following response:  "Revit does a degree of decimation appropriate to define the scanned building in the display. In some parts of the display, if scanned points are few, the general density of points may rise to retain defintion in the sparse areas".  Tools such as the section box and sections work fine, and the cloud can be manipulated as an object to some degree.  A really cool feature I'm looking forward to trying was the plane recognition for drawing geometry - in the screencast it was plain to see that the walls were recognising inferences from the planes of the cloud, and snapping to those planes.  Great stuff for anyone involved in refurbs, and great for us having just trained one of our guys how to scan (thanks AU2010!).

#4:  3D Connexion Support

I was ssoooooo happy about this one, even though I knew about it already!  Having won a Spacepilot Pro a couple of weeks ago in a twitter competition, I am absolutely gagging to try this out!

#5:  The Wish List Works!

Check this out - one of my suggestions was granted wish list status just over 6 months ago.  Revit 2012 incorporates many 'little things' that may well go unnoticed (unless you read adam's upcoming blog post that is) - but one of them |I spotted was exactly my request.  The rotate command has been upgraded to give you more control over its location, which for me is just great!

In Summary...

Now of course that is just a small part of what has happened in this release, but trust me there are a million blogs around today that will list them all, and people that know far more than me.  I haven't looked at any of the collaboration upgrades to Revit server and linked files, nor any of the really cool worksharing enhancements (Dave has though, and done it well). The things listed here are what stuck as I was washed with a torrent of info at an ungodly hour last night, and some of the stuff that I am most likely to rush out and try when 2012 is installed in a couple of weeks or so.

Personally, I actually reckon this is a bit more than just a 'solid' update to the software.  I think that the introduction of the construction modelling tools is a great move, I love the point cloud interface and I think that the visualisation upgrades and UI/edit enhancements are a good acknowledgement of user feedback.  To me, its all moving in the right direction, and that step taken in just a year is very positive.

I just hope that it is not all undermined by an overcomplicated and expensive change to the way in which the products are sold.  My initial feelings about this are of concern - BIM is approaching its toddler stages in the UK right now, and I for one don't think we need any more barriers to adoption - I hope I'm wrong.

Autodesk 2012 Product Launch - Bloggers Event Part 1

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Well here it is - I was lucky enough to be contacted by David Light this week and invited to take part by David Mills of Autodesk in an invite-only bloggers event tonight outlining the new features of the 2012 Revit AEC suite.  Its late now, and as an established blogger, Dave had an excellent blog teed up before I had even seen some of the features.  There's not a lot to be gained trying to outdo such a comprehensive post from the "godfather of Revit", so take a read here.

I'll be posting tomorrow with my thoughts from the event, which was an awesome first for me - the implications of some of the enhancements from my standpoint, and fallout from the earlier, open event that announced the arrival of Suites on a USB key.  Our IT guys are gonna just love that one...

See you tomorrow, I'm off for some much needed sleep - leaving the geek nest.

Sooo busy...

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It's the worst excuse of a blogger, so please forgive me.

I just checked to see when my last post was and it scared me, so I thought I'd best put something up about what I've been doing, as its given me quite a few ideas for this blog that I intend to get out over the next few months...

Most of my time has been absorbed with www.bimstore.co.uk. We're very excited about this, and it launches in April, so be sure to take a look and of course let us know what you think of our little baby...

I also have been super busy with all things BIM.  We launched our www.bigbim.co.uk site at BSEC 2011 - featuring a laser scan of the stand courtesy of digital surveys , dgital masterplanning courtesy of Skape , BIM implementation and support with Excitech , and awesome collaboration furniture from Steelcase.  We have also been having some great discussions with Willmott Dixon, who are busy moving forward BIM in their business, as well as running point on the BIM coordination for 5 jobs accross our office now.  That has led me to start our next online venture - keep an eye on www.navisspace.co.uk for a new online Navisworks resource...

We also have been continuing our march onwards with BIMming up the business, keeping the training going, and importantly helping our guys get certified as Revit 2011 professionals.  We see this as an important statement of our BIM credentials, and shows how proud we are of all our revit champions that have joined us on our journey onward and upwards.  Yesterday, 8 people passed in our first wave, making us the most certified single company in the whole UK - with just short of 40% of all certified Revit professionals in the UK working for us.  With another 10 lined up to take the exam in May, we're serious about our commitment.

I have also been a victim of my own twitter addiction.  Responding to a call for bloggers from BD magazine, I now also write a blog about BIM for their site.  Its kind of a different slant from this blog - exploring some of the wider issues concerning BIM and keeping it a little less geeky.  If that sort of thing is your bag, then you may want to take a look - be warned though, some of the comments its has provoked are a little spicy to say the least.  Not sure everyone is as passionate about BIM as me...

And lastly I notice the twitter frenzy for the forthcoming 2012 suite has well and truly begun.  If that doesn't rock your 'galaxy' then I don't know what will.  Needless to say, there will be some important news coming early next week, and we'll be a part of that.  All I can say at the moment is that I hope theres a 'point' to all this hype, and I am so happy that last week I won a Spacepilot pro courtesy of 3Dconnexion!