AUGIWorld Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 7) Autodesk’s new releases of BIM solutions, such as Revit® Architecture, Revit® Structure, and Revit® MEP, among others, are designed to help users understand and improve the performance and operation of their designs before they are built platform products until you get your hands on the software. However, Autodesk has highlighted a few standout features. • Improved and additional Revit Structure extensions, including new Reinforcement extensions, which extend the capability of Revit Structure to handle concrete reinforcement details. Improved Construction Documentation • Flexibility in dimensions tools, including extended dimensioning at line intersections, allows users to run linear dimensions to center of arcs without turning on visibility of the center mark, dimension concentric arcs with linear dimensions, and apply bold, italic, underlining and width factors to all dimension styles. • Enhanced graphical column schedules include the ability to add a drop-down list to column element properties that shows different GCS label combinations. This enables users to choose among multiple options where different grid intersections are possible. • Revision capabilities are improved and streamlined, including the ability to use alphabetic, numeric, or mixed conventions for revision tags and schedules. New revision parameters for title blocks, new revision columns and the ability to add revision names without a cloud all increase revision communication clarity. Usability Updates • Improvements in selection count allow you to count the number of elements of a type in the model. • Flexible control of linked files with expanded views of floor plan settings such as filters, worksets and display of annotations can now be controlled in section, elevation and 3D. • The aforementioned 3D navigation tools ViewCube™ and SteeringWheels™ provide orientation of models and a new way to zoom, orbit, and pan. The Rewind option allows users to return to a previously used view, angle, or position of the structure. • Increased visibility of linked files facilitates seamless sharing of information between all members of the extended design team. Revit MEP 2009 Revit MEP 2009 users will see new features and enhancements in HVAC, detail lines, modeling, piping, and zone and light fixture data export capabilities. HVAC zones, a new feature, enables engineers to define building volumes and associate them together to create the zoning required for effective system design and accurate heating and cooling loads calculations. Heating and cooling loads reports have been enhanced to reflect the new HVAC zones and spaces functionality. Loads reports have also been reformatted to logically display crucial design calculation results, including check sum values for identified zones or spaces. Viewing and navigation has also been improved. Revit MEP now has MEP detail lines that enhance construction documentation. Detail lines appear as solid lines for MEP graphical representation when users add detail to documents. Modeling functionality has been enhanced with improved design tools. The abilty to model in section and elevations improves design and layout functionality. Users are also able to rapidly model layouts with enhanced automatical layout tools included in the new release of Revit MEP. Piping capabilities got a boost from enhanced ability to model sloped piping for all plumbing systems. Improved routing features help speed system design and layout. Revit MEP 2009 provides the ability to export not only newly created HVAC zone data, but also lighting fixture element data for use in the IES , providing an ability to carry out point-by-point calculations based on the Revit platform. Improved gbXML (green building extensible markup language) workflow integration helps maximize information going to third-party analysis programs. Revit Architecture 2009 Autodesk has improved Revit Architecture in the areas of control and flexibility, design and visualization, and performance and integration. Enhancements have been made to Dimensions, room behavior, and revision schedules. Design and visualization enhancements include the new ViewCube™ and SteeringWheels™ features, which provide controlled navigation for view orientation and free-form navigation for exterior and interior viewing. The new Mental Ray engine improves the quality, usability, and speed of rendering. Major user interface enhancements have been implemented for rendering interaction and users are now able to export to FBX for better interoperability with 3ds Max® software for advanced rendering. Finally, the Swept Blend functionality offers more opportunity to express complex forms. In the areas of Performance and Integration, new features include: DWF™ files published to the XPS specification can be automatically opened and viewed using the XPS viewer built into Windows Vista. In addition, the Virtual Hidden Line Removal Algorithm (VHLR) code has been rewritten to improve graphic fidelity and printing and plotting speed. Autodesk NavisWorks Suite 2009 Autodesk’s 2007 acquisition of NavisWorks has resulted in a suite of four new products. NavisWorks is software for 3D coordination, collaboration and sequencing in design and construction. Products in the Autodesk® NavisWorks® Suite 2009 are: Autodesk NavisWorks Manage 2009 – provides control for advanced analysis and coordination of 3D models. Design data created in BIM applications can be combined with geometry and information from other design tools and reviewed as an entire project, regardless of file size or format. Early fault prediction and error recognition help prevent later, more costly, miscalculations. 7 Revit Structure 2009 Revit Structure has been improved in the areas of modeling, construction documentation, and usability. The list of enhancements appears below. Enhanced Modeling Capabilities • Extended modeling capabilities for complex slabs and roofs and improved flexibility for editing the shape of slabs allows for more precise communication of design intent. • Accurate representation of beam joins and faster modeling of beam join conditions improve the display of steel beams in detail. M a r/A p r 2 0 0 8
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