Stair Planning Tool Version 2.0

Lets face it, the stair tool in REVIT is quite cool, but when it comes to actually planning stairs it a bit less helpful than we would hope.

I did a post last year lamenting the situation and how i got around the problem by making a silly little 2d/3d rig to help me plan stairs....see it here.

In November, i had the honor of joining Kelly Cone and Jason Grant to put on a rockin' class at AU called FUZZY MATH ESSENTIALS. If you missed it...well...don't be a putz and come to AU next year.

During the class, Jason proved exactly what kind of over-achiever he is by presenting an insanely detailed stair family that was used on a project in his office....as an extension of that presentation, Jason has offered up a REALLY AWESOME FULLY 3d STAIR PLANNING FAMILY!

Revit Stair Planning Family from Jason Grant on Vimeo.

Go see his post on the topic and download that sucker if you want it!

Lady GaGa Christmas

Ho Ho Ho....

Captain Hippo-Lady Gaga's Christmas Album from Captain Hippo on Vimeo.

BIMTrouble Maker Global Ministries is closed until 2011....

Tron Cometh....

oh yeah...now i'm excited...

Notes from AU

This was the highlight of the week, bar none.  John D. Rockefeller meets Dr.Evil...

Followed closely by the special screening of a clip from the upcoming TRON film.  6000+ CAD Geeks in one place, I think they nailed the target audience.

And speaking of getting nailed, when I told my girlfriend bout the male/female ratio at this thing, she said next year she would send some of her single friends over to cruise for guys.

At one point I was chatting with Carl Bass, and he did tell me about the ADSK secret prize…a free one-year subscription if you can prove that you hooked up at AU.  Seriously, has anyone EVER scored at this event?

I really liked having the event at Mandalay Bay.  The meeting room levels at Venetian always felt too small, or my a55 has gotten way too big from doing nothing but pumping CAD over the years.

Robert Manna’s Baby Picture on his AU Class professor page was priceless.  I can’t believe they let him get on the plane by himself….let alone teach a class.  Congrats on the birth of number one.  Glad you took the time to come!

While I'm doing shout outs, I finally got to meet Zach Khron...If Shaggy from Scooby Doo had listened to more punk rock and went to MIT, I think he would be doing the Buildz blog too...

Revit Gunslinger….Wait, u mean I have convinced these guys that I know what I’m doing?  But it was very cool to meet some of the hardworking staff that put out Revit.  It was great to help test out next years release and I hope I can continue to be involved in the future.

Ran into Carl Bass a couple of times through out the event.  Very Nice guy.  Very approachable.  He also got a kick out of the Emiliy Pilloton from Studio H who stood up on the main stage and repeatedly said “CORN-HOLE” during the opening keynote.  A full write up of the opening keynote can be found here, Core77 did a bang up job writing about the event

The exhibit hall was cool.  The Tesla Sedan from Tuesday morning was in there for people to drool on up close.  You could have your head scanned and get a model made of it.  You could sit on Carl’s Stone bench…Some other nice exhibit pieces.

The vendors could be summed up as:

• BIM in ‘The Cloud’
• Win a free iPad
• Hot 3d printer sales chick who couldn’t answer questions, but sure draws a crowd. ( But i think she was there last year too....)

I took part in my first teaching presentation with Jason Grant and Kelly Cone.  We kicked ass according to the reviews:

• One of the best of the best at AU!
• Basically, due to the presenters, this class is the highlight of the entire AU 2010 conference for me!
• Best AU Session this Year. Congrats on a Job well Done!
• By following the simple steps from this presentation, I lost fifteen pounds, doubled my income, and became a better wife and mother!  Thanks BIMTroublemaker!

Lets do it again next year!  Yee haw!

Curtain Panel Truss Applied to Other Forms

These are images of some additional messing around i did with the Panel Truss Idea.  I think it it starts to bust through the "You Can't Do That in Revit" Glass Ceiling.  Only limit is our imaginations right?  But first, one more plug....

Come see me, THE BIM TROUBLEMAKER, at AU 2010.  Myself and 2 other VERY talented and experienced Revit users will be presenting the course:

FUZZY MATH ESSENTIALS FOR REVIT FAMILY BUILDERS

Course number AB327-4  Wedensday after lunch

If you aspire to be a family building bad-ass, don't miss this class....seriously!

When David B. from Do U Revit taught this course in 2008, he turned me into the troublemaker I am.  Hope to see YOU there!

And now...more truss panel monkey business....

Tower/Column Form

The horizontal divisions were created using DIVIDE by INTERSECTION

Wavy Surface

Mobius Truss

and now...onwards to Vegas....

Parametric Trusses via Curtain Panels 02: Arch Trusses

Continuing on from my last entry, i wanted to push the idea further.  A simple straight truss is pretty easy, but what about arched, triangular trusses?  This is where the fun really started.

First i made some adjustments to the panel pattern i was using.  I connected the reference points of the grid using the "Connect Points with Curve" command.

Using the right command is important because otherwise it won't properly generate the form downstream.  i then linked the visibility of these lines to the visibility of the different forms of the truss frame.

Then i created a rig in the conceptual mass editor.  An arc controls the overall geometry while some triangles nested at the ends and center generate the desired form of the truss.

Generating the truss form, i then pick and divide the individual surfaces, applying my Truss Panel Pattern

Once all the surfaces have had the panel applied, I have to pick each panel and setup the sides which are on and off.  A bit tedious, but you can apply to several similar panels concurrently.

So with this done, we can cycle through a bunch of different sizes pretty quickly.

And this what i like best....I can export one of these trusses to DWG format.  when i open it up in ACAD, I get this:

Because i implanted the model lines within the Panel Pattern family, with a little bit of creative deleting, I can have this:

A nice wire frame i can give to the engineers so they can analyze my truss quicker, with less guess work!  Collaboration at its finest!

download the arch truss family here: Panelized Arch Truss.rfa
Lastly, a shameless plug.....

Come see me, THE BIM TROUBLEMAKER, at AU 2010.  Myself and 2 other VERY talented and experienced Revit users will be presenting the course:

FUZZY MATH ESSENTIALS FOR REVIT FAMILY BUILDERS

Course number AB327-4  Wedensday after lunch

If you aspire to be a family building bad-ass, don't miss this class....seriously!

When David B. from Do U Revit taught this course in 2008, he turned me into the troublemaker I am.  Hope to see YOU there!

Parametric Trusses via Curtain Panels

I have long been frustrated by REVIT's inability to divide curves equally.  Its a nifty command in both ACAD and Bentley, but for what ever reason, I can't do this in REVIT yet...with a hopeful emphasis on 'yet'.

So rather than sit around, pout, and send incendiary emails to the program design team, I sought a work around.  The first question is "Why do i want to do this anyways'?

Well, to make an adujsutable truss of course!

After screwing around with Curtain Panels by Pattern for a while, I found a pretty decent work around.  It isn't perfect, but with a little planning, this methodology can go a long way.

First off, I have to make my Panel Pattern.  In this case i have based it upon the rectangle template, but you can certainly do it with triangles as well.

 

I linked the reference points at the corners with reference lines and extruded solids along the lengths.  Visibility of all the forms is controlled independantly, which will become clearer in a minute.

Next i started a truss form in the conceptual mass editor using a simple rig.  I created reference lines to become the top and bottom of the truss, with circles hosted on reference points at the ends to control the bar diameter.  Then i hit the Create Form button to create a surface between the lines.

 

Next comes the fun part.  I divide this created surface and turn OFF the U Divisions.  Obviously, I can now change the number of divisions to my hearts content (which is what i wanted in the first place!)

I'll apply the pattern I created earlier and it looks like this, not quite what i am after visually...

Remember that i said the visibility of all forms in the Panel Pattern were controlled individually?  By picking panels individually, I control the bar locations and direction.  I can also eliminate duplicates later on if i want to schedule the elements.

So now i have a parameter driven simple truss.  All the bar sizes can be controlled easily.  Also I can change the number of panel divisions to make it larger or smaller, but when i do that, the bar visibility that i set up goes pear-shaped.  But like I said, with a bit of planning, I can get around this in my project by setting up multiple families and using design options.

You can dowload this example here:

Truss Simple.RFA