Monday, July 23, 2018

SCRUG July 19, 2018

SCRUG returned to Orange County this month. Architects Orange hosted. Thank you Rob!

We had two new sponsors. Thanks to Plan Grid and Masonry IQ for providing Newport Rib Company and drinks...

Tom Cuneio of Masonry IQ presented first to the gathering of 21 SCRUG members. Their Revit Plug-in and custom CAD software adds a Level of Detail presently lacking in the masonry tools in Revit. The main benefits to the add-in are hatch patterns on masonry walls that match both sides, masonry module alerts when cutting of masonry units will be required, coordination of bond beams, layout of control joints, ability to choose specific colors/products from suppliers, quick/easy custom coursing, color mixing and better renderings of masonry. And once your get outside of Revit, the software identifies every masonry unit. It is a dream come true for those making masonry shop drawings or those having to coordinate masonry with other building systems.

Under the hood, Masonry IQ

  • creates custom .pat files for Revit to use
  • lays out control joints - and they are adjustable
  • generates sweeps on Revit walls
  • for rendering it can create custom blends of masonry units and colors 
  • creates custom .jpg files for Revit materials
  • creates custom materials inside Revit

The future holds... custom grout colors, rebar tools, and more.

Wayne Atkins of Plan Grid presented second after a brief tech interlude. Their niche in the market is making a fast, mark up tool with offline capabilities. The live demo included things that field people typically do - review drawings, make mark ups, document punch lists, create RFIs, respond to RFIs, search for stuff on drawings, take photos, paste stuff on drawings, ...

Under the hood, Plan Grid

  • creates a database out of the drawings exported from Revit or imported PDF files
  • gathers everything that it considers as hyperlinks (drawing call outs, references in note blocks, and so on)
  • stores everything locally and in the cloud
  • time/user stamps every mark up, upload, attachment, photos, document, 3D photo, spreadsheet, specification, ...
  • stores blank forms 
  • project chat room
  • version controls for issuance of drawings
  • voice to text (it uses siri, android, cortena)
  • geo tagging of all changes
The future holds...free RFI access/response, 

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Podcast with some architecture content...

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chris-ganiere