New in 2014: Autodesk ReCap Point Cloud Review and Processing (Part 1)

Here at Ideate, we try to take advantage of all opportunities to test and work with any new Autodesk product that might be useful to our customers. This year, Autodesk released a new point cloud processing application called Autodesk ReCap. 
 
With functionality similar to point cloud review and processing tools from Trimble and Leica, Autodesk customers now have access to a program that can process and edit point cloud data prior to being used in Autodesk design software like AutoCad, AutoCad Civil 3D, Revit and Autodesk InfraWorks. And best of all, it’s included in the 2014 Autodesk Design Suites.
 
This is a great opportunity for end users to now review and process large lidar datasets in an application made specifically for that task, without having to purchase additional software. Additionally, Autodesk ReCap (.RCP) projects and (.RCS) files can be directly imported into 2014 Autodesk applications.
 
Autodesk ReCap includes a processing engine that allows users to select multiple data files at once, and produces a single (.RCP) Project file that links back to the processed data. Each original data file becomes a (.RCS) file that is part of the project. Process time is dependent on the size and amount of files selected, and during our testing a 1.5 GB dataset with eight original files took about an hour to complete. A convenient timer also provides an estimate on how long each file and the entire project will take to process.
 
Once processed, the ReCap project can be launched directly, and the composite point cloud appears in the application. Here’s a screenshot of the completed point cloud in ReCap (file provided by Surface and Edge 3D Laser Scanning).

For a video of Autodesk ReCap in action and other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new Autodesk 2014 releases, visit: ideateinc.com/2014 
Ideate Note: If you are experiencing a Fatal Error issue when trying to launch a ReCap project this is most likely based on system hardware rather than an issue with the application. For more information about this issue and Ideate’s solution, read our recent blog post titled: Help! Autodesk ReCap is Crashing.

---

Matt Miyamoto, P.E.
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Matt is a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Hawaii. Matt obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has 7 years of private sector design experience which he applies in his role as an application specialist with Ideate, Inc. His project experience includes residential and commercial site development, private and public sewer, water and drainage systems, harbors improvements, and roadway improvements. While in Hawaii, Matt was involved in multidisciplinary projects for City and County agencies, State Departments, the Army COE and private developers. @MattM_PE

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Read More

What’s New in Revit MEP 2014: This “Fitting” is Just Right! Ability to Embed .CSV File to Revit MEP Fitting Families

Revit MEP 2014 has some great enhancements, one of the best is the ability to embed the .CSV file onto Revit MEP fittings, and other types of families as well.
 
One of the most common issues that we come across when supporting Revit MEP for designers at Ideate, Inc. is the common problem of “custom” Pipe Fittings that do not display the correct proportional (connector sizes are indicating the correct diameter, just not the graphical appearance) size. The main reason for this is because the Lookup Table file ( or .CSV file ) for that family isn’t found. To overcome this issue, and others, the ability to embed the .CSV file has been added. 
 
This new feature is different in this release of Revit in four distinct areas:

1. Pipe and conduit fittings use the function: size_lookup.
2. “Lookup Table Name” is a user defined parameter, which can be modified or removed.
3. The “.csv” is removed from table names in formulae. See the following example:
   • e.g. [size_lookup (“Pipe Fitting - Generic,” “FOD,” Nominal Diameter + 0' 0 1/8" Nominal Diameter)]
4. A new Lookup Tables Manage… button has been added. This is a new button available in the Family Types window to manage lookup tables. The Manage Lookup Tables dialog lists all related lookup tables for the family. It provides the ability to import, export or delete lookup tables for the family.  See the following dialog:

 

One of the major benefits of this feature is that with the .CSV data embedded into the family, that family will then “know” how to model themselves, which if the file was “not found” could lead to unexpected results.
 

Using this ability to add the lookup function to the family will provide a convenient means to not only define parametric fitting content, it will be flexible for use even if not all considerations are accounted for in the “embedded” lookup tables by the use of the default value parameter in the function. 

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for AutoCAD MEP, Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, Civil 3D, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2014

---

Bill Johnson
Ideate Senior MEP Application Specialist

Bill has over 20 years experience in applying AEC design solutions for large commercial companies. A graduate of Pasadena Institute of Technology, he has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill has also had the opportunity to act as Lead AutoCAD Designer for multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Read More

Help! Autodesk ReCap is Crashing

Here at Ideate, we try to take advantage of all opportunities to test and work with any new Autodesk product that might be useful to our customers. This year, Autodesk released a new point cloud processing application called Autodesk ReCap. For those of you who have had a chance to install this product, I hope you’ve been able to try it out and see what it can do. 
 
If you’re like me and some of the other techs here at Ideate, you may be running into a Fatal Error issue when trying to launch a ReCap project. Before I go into the details, let me first say that this doesn’t happen on all systems, and from what we’ve been able to find, it is actually based on system hardware rather than an issue with the application.
 
So here’s the issue: Autodesk ReCap has successfully been installed, registered, and launches successfully on your computer. A new project is created, and lidar data files are selected for processing (so far all is well). The point files complete processing successfully, and an option to “Launch” the ReCap project appears. However, once you click on “Launch Project,” ReCap crashes and an error report appears on screen. Quite frustrating, seeing as everything up to this point has been successful and has gone as expected.
 
The technical staff here at Ideate is running Lenovo W530 laptops with 64-bit Windows 7, quad core processors, 16 GB of RAM, and NVidia K2000M graphics cards. This is by far a sufficient system for running Autodesk ReCap. Additionally, an old test machine that we have is a Dell M6300 with Windows 7, 8 GB of RAM and an older NVidia Quadro FX graphics card (below recommendation). The issue above occurred on the Lenovo system rather than the Dell system. On all Lenovo’s that we tested, the application consistently crashed upon launch of the project. With the Dell system, everything ran smoothly.
 
After some digging, and after reviewing the system .NFO file for the Lenovo, we noticed that it actually comes with two graphics processors; the high-performance NVidia card that we ordered with the system, and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 processor that comes with the laptop by default. Apparently, the crash is being caused by the system defaulting to the Intel card rather than the high-performance NVidia card. 
 
That led us to the solution for the issue, which requires some manual changes to the graphics settings on the laptop. By accessing the NVidia Control Panel, we were able to override the default settings that were pointing the application and the 3D OpenGL preset to the Intel card instead of the NVidia card. Once those were changed, everything was up and running without any fatal errors.
 
To fix the problem, right click on your desktop and access the NVidia Control Panel. There are TWO settings that need to be adjusted. On the left under 3D Settings, click on Manage 3D Settings. From there, the main window will display two tabs.  

On the Global Settings tab, select 3D OpenGL Stereo from the list of Global Presets, and change the Preferred Graphics Processor to High-Performance NVIDIA Processor.

Then switch to the Program Settings tab. In the Select a Program to Customize area, select Autodesk AutoCAD. Under Select the Preferred Graphics Processor for this Program, select High-Performance NVIDIA Processor.
 
Click APPLY, and exit the NVidia Control Panel. As far as we can tell, both of these need to be changed. If either of the two is not set, the program continued to crash.
 
Here’s a Video of the process: http://screencast.com/t/S0KrIhb3Zl

To recap the issue, the fatal error only occurred on our Lenovo systems, so it may not happen to you. However, if your workstation also has dual graphics processors and ReCap is crashing, give that a try.

For a video of Autodesk ReCap in action and other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new Autodesk 2014 releases, visit: ideateinc.com/2014

---

Matt Miyamoto, P.E.
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Matt is a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Hawaii. Matt obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has 7 years of private sector design experience which he applies in his role as an application specialist with Ideate, Inc. His project experience includes residential and commercial site development, private and public sewer, water and drainage systems, harbors improvements, and roadway improvements. While in Hawaii, Matt was involved in multidisciplinary projects for City and County agencies, State Departments, the Army COE and private developers. @MattM_PE

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Read More

eLearning – Upcoming Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education. 

Upcoming classes include:

5.28.13::Revit 201:
Making Titleblocks

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

Get It. Know It. Use It.

Read More

Classroom Training – Open Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

5.29-31::Seattle
AutoCAD Fundamentals

6.3-5::Portland
Revit Architecture Fundamentals

6.10-12::San Francisco
Revit MEP Electrical Fundamentals

6.10-12::San Jose
Revit Architecture Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

Read More

Ideate, Inc. Tech Team Member Awarded Autodesk® Certified Instructor (ACI)

SAN FRANCISCO, California, 05/14/2013 - Ideate, Inc. (ideateinc.com), an Autodesk Gold Value Added Reseller, today announced that Ideate Senior AEC Application Specialist Shruti Harve was awarded Autodesk Instructor Certification (ACI) upon completion of the three-day ACI Workshop in San Rafael, California, February 27 – March 1, 2013. Harve joins Ideate AEC Application Specialists Ron Palma and James Cowan, who are also ACIs.

The ACI program, a cornerstone of the Autodesk Professional Excellence Program, provides professional instructors with the highest level of training on the use of Autodesk software and gives them globally recognized accreditation. The program requires each candidate to have at least two years’ teaching experience before application and admission. It is designed to ensure that students leave the classroom competent and confident.

ACI certified instructors must meet standardized requirements in order to teach Autodesk solutions. The program also provides an in-depth evaluation of an instructor’s proficiency with Autodesk solutions and the instructor’s ability to train others.

“During the ACI training, our expert technical team members continue to advance their presentation, listening and teaching skills. They undergo instructor, class and self-evaluation, all while maintaining the level of fresh energy that makes our AEC Application Specialists so extraordinary. They are key to helping our customers maximize their use of fast-evolving technologies,” says Bob Palioca, President of Ideate, Inc. “We congratulate Shruti on this outstanding achievement.”

About Ideate, Inc.
Ideate, Inc. is a leading Autodesk solutions provider, offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to AEC professionals. Established in 1992 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ideate is recognized as a Gold Partner for Architecture, Engineering and Construction, one of Autodesk’s highest levels of authorization. Ideate, Inc. operates five Autodesk Authorized Training Centers (ATC): San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. Ideate facilities are Autodesk Authorized Certification Centers, providing globally recognized certification courses for professionals who sell, service and support Autodesk products and solutions. For more information visit www.ideateinc.com.

Autodesk and ATC are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.
 

###

Read More

Navisworks 2014: Autodesk Rendering

Ideate, Inc. is pleased to show new functionality within Navisworks which enhances interoperability and avoids the need to assign materials and create lights within Navisworks. In this example, materials and lights are brought in from Revit and rendered to show internal and exterior lighting.

In this new release of Navisworks, Autodesk Rendering gives you access to a common materials library and lets you create four types of lights (point, spot, distant, and web). You can adjust environmental settings for location, time of year/day and exposure. Three render styles (low, medium and high) let you ray-trace on screen before capturing and saving images. This new feature compliments the Presenter option for rendering and provides a seamless workflow where you now have the building element surfaces, data, materials and lights with no need create materials or lights when they already exist.

Artificial Lighting

Daylight

Don’t forget to look through the great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2014

---

Jim Cowan
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience and Autodesk design solutions expertise have made him a sought after university curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at University of Manitoba, Jim has special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). YouTube Channel: MrJimCowan

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Read More