All Things BIM / DC

Article from Forbes.com SAN RAFAEL, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its on-going commitment to support the practice of sustainable design and green building in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced two acquisitions to improve building performance analysis in the building information modeling (BIM) process. Autodesk announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets related to the Ecotect software tools for conceptual building performance analysis from both Square One Research Ltd. and Dr. Andrew Marsh. Autodesk also announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, Inc., a provider of web-based whole building energy, water and carbon-emission analysis software. Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed. "Buildings are a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, so to combat climate change it is

**Update If you are using any of the tools from Autodesk LABS and would like to comment on the current tools or have ideas for other tools, please email the LABS at thelabs@autodesk.com. This is a little of topic, but if you would like to see some other interesting uses for the Wii controller, I would suggest looking at Johnny Chung Lees's website . _____________ I came across this new tool that the Autodesk Labs has put together. I am not sure of my Dell M90 laptop supports Bluetooth, if it does I will report back my success or failure with this Wii Remote tool for Design Review. ------ From http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/wiimote_adr/ Wiimote Navigation Add-in for Autodesk Design Review At Autodesk Labs we are looking at various forms of human-computer interaction. One of them is multi-touch. Another is hand-held controllers. The Wii Remote™ (or Wiimote for short) is such a device. You can hook up a Wiimote to your Windows computer and interact with your designs using the Wiim

From Building Design and Construction , June 2008 By Jeff Yoders, Senior Associate Editor June 1, 2008 Building Design and Construction In Nebraska BIM users share tricks of the trade at RUGON. In Kansas City they discuss Revit at KCrevit. In Toronto ArchiCAD East users gather at ACE. Online user groups are helping individual users and whole firms make the switch to BIM less painful and more profitable. At the recent 2008 AIA Convention and Design Exposition in Boston, Autodesk announced that Revit had crossed the 300,000 seat threshold, while Bentley claimed high penetration at the bigger AEC firms. As BIM gains greater acceptance, BIM and CAD managers are turning their experiences into websites and online communities. “When we started this group [in 2006] you could tell how many people were using the program by how they pronounced the name: a lot of people would say 'Reevit' and only a few would call it 'Revit,'” said Patrick Davis, co-founder of KCrevit.com and na

**From http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/revit_stl/ Create 3D Prints of your Revit 2009 models. As architects and engineers start their digital designs earlier and keep them digital for longer, they want a way to still physically interact with their designs. With the economical availability of 3D printers this has become possible. 3D printed models increasingly serve as a critical part of the design process to study design options and improve communication between project members and owners. The STL Exporter for the Revit 2009 family of products is a proof of concept project that we are working on. It is designed to take a 3D Revit building information model and create an STL file that can be used for 3D Printing. We invite you to take it for a spin and see what you think. We look forward to hearing your feedback. To Get Started Download the ZIP package that cantinas the installer, installation and user instructions, and a feedback form. Unzip the downloaded ZIP fi

Autodesk Subscription members as part of their benefits, can download the new e-Learning items listed below. You can access these downloads via the Subscription Center or via the Communication Center within the product. AutoCAD 2009: Introduction to 3D Modeling e-Learning AutoCAD Architecture 2009: Migration Assistant: Import/Export Module AutoCAD MEP 2009: Migration Assistant: Import/Export Module Electrical Essentials e-Learning Plumbing Essentials e-Learning Piping Essentials e-Learning HVAC Essentials e-Learning Autodesk Inventor® 2009 Interacting with an Assembly e-Learning Annotating Assembly Drawings e-Learning Drawing Standards and Resources e-Learning Basic View Creation e-Learning Dimensions, Annotations, and Tables e-Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 Creating a Character Foot Rig Video Podcast Camera Control Video Podcast API Overview Downloadable DVD Autodesk Productstream 2009 Working with Autodesk Productstream e-Learning Autodesk Vault 2009 Maintaining and Populating a Vault

In case you haven't started reading it, Phil Read formerly of Autodesk Consulting has joined HNTB Architecture and started started a Arch | Tech blog. His latest post is on the weakness of the current Revit Warnings system. I used to be one of those users that didn't concentrate too much on warnings, until I started working with Daniel Hurtubise . It took Daniel all of a half hour to show me the importance of addressing warnings immediately. Yes, I know that is not always possible, but it is a good practice. (If you are a non-believer, send Daniel an email and I am sure he will provide you with a demo). Since then I have been working with Phil and Autodesk Consulting (and yes they still have some assume talent there) on addressing warnings. While we have been documenting many warnings to provide the user with greater insight on how to correct them, the ability to access and track warnings has been lacking. When Phil joined HNTB, one of the topics I was hoping would be address

I attended the AIA Large Firm Roundtable BIM Implementors meeting this past week in Seattle and one of the presentations was on "Cool Tools" and I thought I would pass it along. The tool is call MOI and it is a modeling tool for designers and artists. I have never used it, but the demo and presentation was very interesting. It does not work directly with Revit, but the tool was interesting enough that I thought I would mention it.

See the following post on AUGI .