SCRUG 4/17/14

Qatar - 2022 world cup. Jay Holland gave a report on the largest BIM project currently in design or construction. KEO International Consultants is managing the design team, which includes AECOM London. The software used to generate the design ranges across the gamut. In the end the client, Government of Qatar, requires an Autodesk Revit deliverable. Jay's presentation included a Sketchup walk through, Rino model, and Solibri model. The design he showed is progress from their schematic phase. The final Schematic Design is due in July 2014.

A bit about Solibri: (like Navisworks you import models and files from other programs), you can examine clashes between models, it uses the IFC model format, you can examine model integrity, it is a rules based software, you can examine naming conventions or adherence to other standards.

Interesting fact about Qatar, the government provides city wide chilled water. Qatar has an estimated 200 years of Natural Gas reserves.

While the showing off of projects are a staple of many a SCRUG meeting, the real meat is showing off features in the software and teaching how to make it happen. Marcello Sgambelluri provided a work in progress version of his next AU presentation.

"Dynamo 101"

What is Dynamo? What can Dynamo do? How or why would I use Dynamo?

Marcello gave us the official Autodesk version and his own version. In the end, the vast majority of users do work on standard buildings and just want to do something that the GUI of Revit won't allow or makes difficult. Marcello is an expert on finding out what Revit can do and which tools to use to get the result you want in the shortest number of steps. 

Dynamo is a programming language with a Python back of house. The front end of Dynamo is visual - boxes with text and wires to connect the text. In typical programming you have to get the text exactly correct or it does not work; error checking and debugging are a fact of life. In Dynamo it is easy to see that there is nothing connected to the "input" or "output". In Dynamo you do not need to name variables. The "boxes" or "nodes" are modules of Python code that do something. Autodesk creates new boxes and releases them every day. Others are allowed to create custom boxes you can download and use them. You can create your own. 

Dynamo can:

• Create moving pictures in your Revit model
• Grab and change parameters
• Pick an edge that Revit won't let you pick
• Create complex geometry
• Eliminate "work arounds"
• Access ALL of Revit's parameters
• Reorder things
• Renumber things
• Create sheets from an Excel spreadsheet
• Create rebar inside a concrete column and schedule them
• Attach a beam to the underside of a curve - and update it automatically

The reason to use Dynamo is to save time and increase accuracy. 

The most productive way to use Dynamo is dual screen - go back and forth between Revit & Dynamo.

Dynamo is the future of Revit.

Thank you to Jay, Marcello, US CAD, Microdesk and Keller Pacific.