BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1 - (Page 10)

Intuitive design modeling Let’s start with design modeling. An information model is one component of a 3D model. If you are using MicroStation, you are creating 3D models. There are some great ways to do things in MicroStation, but you told us you had some pain. In MicroStation V8i, we have attempted to address techniques for creating 3D models in MicroStation. The ﬁrst technique is surface modeling. With surface modeling, you draw curves, connect the curves with surfaces, and then combine surfaces and extrude surfaces to create solids. That is the typical workﬂow. If we were to look at the way you used MicroStation before V8i, there were two challenges. First, the surfacing tools were not particularly cohesive. The techniques that you need to create a surface from a series of curves involve picking the curves in a certain order. Now when you pick a curve and you decide that it is going to be the edge of a surface, MicroStation V8i will highlight the direction that the surface is going to emanate from that curve. If it is wrong, you click on a curve and the arrow points the other way. The second issue with surfacing in MicroStation pre-V8i was that the surfaces you created from these tools were not necessarily complete enough to become the edge of the next surface you wanted to create. Now, however, you can take two surfaces and just push them together and the edges join automatically. That would have been a difﬁcult thing to do in surface modeling pre-V8i. MicroStation has great solids modeling tools: a features solids toolset and smart solids. The feedback was not that you cannot do enough with it. Rather, it was that it is too complicated for the average user. You are using products like Google SketchUp and Rhino to do conceptual design, trying to take that from those other products, import it into MicroStation, and then use it on the rest of the project. And that workﬂow is suboptimal for many reasons, not the least of which is that you are creating in other tools. So in MicroStation V8i, we added a few very simple concepts called push-pull modeling. The idea is that you start with simple forms like a slab and you merely take faces or edges of the slab and push on them. This is very similar to SketchUp. Pushing and pulling on faces and edges, and vertices is a very nice thing, but you also need to subdivide them. The simple way to do that is to merely draw on an individual face using 2D techniques, which creates a new face or subdivides a face. So what you are seeing here is someone using basically two commands—push pull on a surface and push and pull on an edge. The second command is to draw on an edge to create a new face. When you are done, you can create solids models that are in DGN format in MicroStation V8i and easily coordinate the work of someone who did not have much knowledge of MicroStation V8i with everything else that is going on in the project. We have now provided ways in MicroStation V8i to limit the scope of solids tasks to just these simple concepts. A second aspect of creating a design model in MicroStation V8i concerns generative design, or GenerativeComponents. When you see a GenerativeComponents demonstration, it is somewhat strange because you do not actually draw anything. You start by describing anchor points and lines. Then you describe the rules or the formulas from which new points and lines are created. From those new points and lines, you connect them using geometry in MicroStation. And at the end of the day, you have generated all the geometry that you previously would have drawn without ever actually having to use a MicroStation V8i drawing command. The component aspect of it is that you use these tools to formulate the way something is designed. That is, you describe how it is designed not what it is designed as. Then you have three options to generate new components. You can change the input parameters, the program, or the script that generates it. And by using the left half of your brain instead of the right half that you would use in a typical MicroStation V8i session, you can now create models very “WHILE MICROSTATION V8i PROMISES many great new features, we are most excited about dynamic views. In addition to producing 2D documents that are live representations of our 3D building information models, the ability to interactively deﬁne sections through our BIM models while symbolizing the information uniquely in different areas with display styles will enable us to visualize our designs in ways that we hadn’t been able to conceptualize before.” Tim Grimm, design technology manager, LMN Architects 10 Be Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 1 http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/GenerativeComponents/ http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Promo/V8i/intuitive.htm

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1

BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1 Contents Anticipation’s Name Is V8i Be Awards of Excellence Kicks Off Competition Bentley Launches the Most Comprehensive SoftwarePortfolio for Infrastructure Ever Assembled in a Single Release MicroStation V8i Up Close & Personal Is Water the New Oil? How Does Intent Become Reality? Does Performance Create Sustainability? Renewing Confidence in Public Highway Infrastructure Enterprisewide System Manages International Airport Standardized CAD/GIS Platform Streamlines Infrastructure Engineering 3D Modeling Refines Reusable Design for Plant Prototype Lean Teams Deliver Automotive Assembly Plants Through Innovative Use of BIM Integrated 3DModels Enable Compact and Safe Plant Design Sustainable Development Supports Thriving Community Terminal Pumps Natural Gas Through Longest Subsea Pipeline Large UtilityWorks To Reduce SO2 Emissions Aging Power Station Boosts Engineering Productivity Hydropower Dam To Fuel Growing Economy Collaboration Tools Accelerate Chinese Railway Electrification System Design Rapid Rail Link To Meet Socio-Economic Development Goals High-CapacityWastewater Treatment Facility ReclaimsWater Resources City ExpandsWater SupplyWithout Deploying AdditionalWater Resources Private Calling Meets Public Service Learning Paths Map Skill Development for Infrastructure Professionals A Contemporary Approach to Site Design The Art of Visualization Special Feature: Be Communities Physical + Digital Investments = Intelligent Infrastructure

BE Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 1

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