Autodesk Project Vasari

(0)

 If you haven’t already heard, Autodesk have been working on a rather cool project called project Vasari and have uploaded a technology preview to the Autodesk Labs website.

What is project Vasari?

Some people are saying its Revit LT, others are saying it’s an alternative to sketchup, I recon it’s both.

Project Vasari is all the conceptual modelling tools from Revit, in a stand alone application and Bundled with the REM & Energy tools that were recently made available in the Revit Advantage pack.

So I can do everything in Vasari that I can already do in Revit?

Yes and No, firstly Project Vasari is the same set of concept tools that are available inside Revit 2011 - no more and no less.  BUT, because all the Revit documentation tools have been removed, the interface is much simpler and more focused on conceptual design, which will be a big hit to Architects who just want to push and pull without getting bogged down on how the thing is to be built.

Project Vasari is a single 387mb stand alone “.exe” file and does not need any installation, which means you can stick it on a USB key drive and carry it with you.

 What can you do in Project Vasari?

You can create forms easily using similar push and pull tools, similar to Sketchup, however unlike sketchup Vasari is a parametric solid modeller, this means you can do all sorts of weird and wonderfull stuff based of a set of parametric rules and formular. To show the power of this, the building below I knocked up in 10 minutes during my lunch.

What else can it do?

You can analyse your designs, using the REM tools available inside Project Vasari.  You can run solar analysis on your design (shown below), and you can also plug into the power of the cloud and use Vasari's Energy analysis tool to run acurate analysist on your designs. Vasari will then generate a comprehensive report, on your design, suggesting possible areas for improvement.  The energy analysis tools pull data from the buildings local weather stations to analyse yoru design.

How does all this link in with Revit?

Vasari uses the same RFA & RFT file format as Revit, meaning that the conceptual mass is compatable between the two aplications.  This means that any conceptual models made in Vasari can be loaded into Revit (and the other way around).  We can then use the Revit tools to start the construction documentation process. 

I have Revit 2011 and use the conceptual enviroment, why would I use Vasari?

Vasari can rum off a keyfob without any instalation, and it does not need a powerful Revit spec PC to run.

Ive only been playing with Vasari a few hours and my initial impressions is that it is a very powerful tool.  By seperating the conceptual tools from Revits building tools, it allows not technical minded folk to create some rather cool forms withoout getting dragged down in detail.  It is also powerful enough, for more advanced users due to the almost limitless possibilities of the parametric design engine.

You can download project Vasari from the Autodesk Labs website HERE