At Lands End

Defining your own facade styles

2013-03-28T09:18:05-07:00

Customers are asking how to create a floor arrangement with original/customized cells in order to define their own facade styles.

Thanks to Sascha who provided a nice workflow, which I want to share here with you (Note: within this workflow we will use textures only, so you won't create a 3D facade element):

For doing this you’ll have to do some manual style gymnastics as we don’t have a UI for defining your own façade themes/cells (themes are simply a collection of cells).

1. Determine the façade theme of the façade style you want to edit (here: adding new cells based on façade photos):

2. Find the façade theme json description in your model.files styles folder:

3. Add a new façade cell to the theme JSON file using your extracted photo façade segment:

“id”: identifier of the cell for referencing it in façade patterns (as listed in the “available cells” section of the Block and Floor Arrangement Editor)
“texture”: your photo façade segment (see next step where to place it)
“geometry”, “geometryTransform”: not needed, as you don’t have geometry for the cell (for high-lod rendering the texture will be used instead)
“size”: size of your façade segment (width x height, in meters I guess)

4. Find the façade theme resources dir in your application resources folder and put your façade segment photo file into that (for installed builds the application data folder should be located under ProgramData\Autodesk\Infrastructure Modeler):

5. Open the façade style editor’s Block and Floor Arrangement Editor and add/substitute/create your desired façade pattern using the new photo façade segment (Note: You need to restart the application):

6. Apply your changed style to the desired facades/buildings.

Enjoy

Andreas

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler prototypes Integration of Building Energy Analysis with Green Building Studio

2013-02-14T16:41:41-08:00

Check out this awesome prototype of selecting a building in AIM and displaying its Energy Utilization Intensity, Annual Energy Cost, and Annual Carbon Emissions using Autodesk Green Building Studio in concert wit AIM.

More on the Building Performance Analysis blog!

You Get. We Give.

2012-12-18T16:01:17-08:00

Team up with Autodesk and Engineers Without Borders USA to improve the lives of people around the world. When you sign up for a free Autodesk® 360 account, Autodesk will give US$1 to Engineers Without Borders USA. Autodesk is committed to giving up to $30,000, so sign up soon, and get your colleagues to sign up as well, to ensure we maximize Autodesk’s contribution.

You get. We give. Everyone wins.

You get Autodesk 360—a cloud-based platform that gives you access to storage, a collaboration workspace, and cloud services to help you dramatically improve the way you design, visualize, simulate, and share your work with others anytime, anywhere.

Autodesk gives to Engineers Without Borders USA—a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to partnering with developing communities around the world. EWB-USA works to build a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs, addressing challenges including water purifications and delivery, sanitation, transportation and infrastructure projects, and sustainable and renewable energy systems.

Sign-up Now (please use this link): http://youget-wegive.com/?var=var-036

New AIM How-to Videos Posted to the YouTube Infrastructure Channel

2012-12-12T15:28:55-08:00

The Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler ecosystem gets more exciting everyday! As we continue to release hot, new features, such as the storyboard, found in AIM 2013 R2, you will also see a steady stream of great how-to videos that accompany new features. In the series below, Andrew Vernon, a principal content developer and AIM expert, takes you through the nuts and bolts of using the storyboard feature to create content rich videos and scenarios. Enjoy!

How to flatten terrain coverage easily in AIM?

2012-11-09T06:28:46-08:00

Howdy folks,

today I would like to talk about a nice little feature which enables you to flatten out terrain patches. Recently a couple of users humbled across this section and therefore I’d like to post it today.

So why would you flatten a coverage?

You can draw a coverage representing a green space or a beach. These patches will eventually be part of the terrain and texturing it. This means that the green spaces or beaches or whatever you draw will follow the terrain.

But there are other use cases where you need to have a coverage which is flat. Think of parking areas or football fields. You might also use a coverage not only for texturing the terrain rather than flatten the terrain. Think of water areas (in case the terrain underneath is grumpy) or leveling a proposed site before you place a building or some structure on it for planning purposes.

In order to achieve to flatten a coverage you have two choices:

1. Draw or import a coverage in AIM. Zoom into it and select one of the vertexes. Use the little
blue cylinder and move one vertex up/down just a little. This will flatten the coverage at an average height of all vertexes.

2. I must be said that this workflow is a bit tricky and therefore I want to provide a better workflow based on a little script.

Unzip the Download FlattenSelectionSet.js
Open the model in AIM
Select the feature(s) you want to flatten
Show the JS window (ribbon -> Manage -> Create and run Scripts)
Press “load” in the scripting window (top left) and select the unzip JS script
Press “Start script” in the scripting window (center left)

NOTE: the coverage will be flattened to the height of the lowest vertex and is set in the 4th row
of the script: geom.To3d(bbox.Min.Z). In order to specify s custom height like 145 m for example oyu need to change it to geom.To3d(145.0).

Hope it helps and feedback is welcome.

Update your schema in order to provide more descriptive attributes and classes in AIM

2012-10-19T07:30:42-07:00

A couple of month back Chris posted on how to actually work around the xml based file which defines your data base schema in AIM.

Today I would like to take the chance to update you on some changes in order to let you be able to update your schema as you please.

First of all we are not generating an im_schema.xst file in the model.file folder anymore. The default schema is provided within the code and can also be localized. Also it might be safer instead of having a file which can be destroyed or updated in a strange way :-).

If you now want to update your schema you need to create this xml file by yourself. Let's take a look at the Download New_schema_def file that I've updated to add some more descriptive categories and attribute names.

According to Chris’ post I did as well enter some items which are mainly the asset classes appearing in the model explorer and its attributes. In my case only the CITY_BUILDINGS have additional attributes.

In order to provide some more descriptive names to the new as well as existing attributes I entered some items.

Note that the "priority" attribute identifies the display order of the attributes in the interface (lowest to highest) as Chris mentioned previously.

Now there are two ways of how you want to get this schema change in place. First you want to setup a new model. Secondly you want to update an existing model.

While creating a new model you simple need to refer to the advanced options in the new model dialog and search for the definition file. It will then be copied automatically to the model.files folder of your infrastructure models place. Here you can update it as you like.

In the scenario were you want to update your already existing model you just need to copy the file to the model.files folder and restart your model. Everything is in place and you can enhance your model.

Hope it helps to overcome some recent changes to the schema handling.

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2013 R2 & Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler Web & Mobile Released!

2012-10-09T09:02:19-07:00

We are (VERY) excited to announce the official release of Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2013 R2 & Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler Web & Mobile Released. These releases bring many enhancements and new ways to view AIM models for engineers, designers and planners as well as stakeholders.

Key Enhancements and Features:

Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2013 R2 software delivers several enhancements to our Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2013 desktop software and our Autodesk® 360 Infrastructure Modeler cloud service. With Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2013 R2, Autodesk® Subscription customers will gain new tools designed to help better communicate their designs and produce high quality, low-touch design presentations in addition to new publishing options.

Storytelling Tools – Enables users to better convey the details of their designs to non-technical audiences with the ability to create camera paths, fly-through animations, and videos that include titles, captions, points of interest and storyboards.
Rendering More Realistic Models – Helps users produce higher quality renderings with new photorealism tools like progressive ray trace, more realistic sun/sky models, and high and low definition range output.
Open Standards Support – Enables user to access CityGML, the standard many municipal bureaus in Europe use to store city data. CityGML data may contain a whole city’s structure (including detailed 3D models), roads, pipes, and textures in different levels of detail. The inclusion of CityGML can greatly improve our user’s ability to incorporate detailed data into their designs that was previously unavailable.
Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler for Mobile* – Now, infrastructure professionals can share their models as well as specific scenarios in a more secure cloud environment - via Autodesk® BIM 360™ cloud-based services- with public stakeholders who want the ease and convenience of using an iPad® mobile digital device. Available via the Apple iTunes app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autodesk-360-infrastructure/id557267648?ls=1&mt=8
Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler for Web* – The new Web application enables interested parties who are not Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2013 users to view models and specific scenarios via a link using their Web browser, giving broader access to project proposals and more. To download the web plug-in, please go here: http://autodesk.com/aim360webdl. You can also view a list of published scenarios via the Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler Web portal: https://aim360.autodesk.com/portal/

Here's something to wet your whistle...

AIM & Civil3D Workshop @ eCAADe 2012 in Prague

2012-08-31T01:06:07-07:00

Hello,

this year’s eCAADe (Education in Computer-Aided Architectural Design in Europe) takes place in Prague this year. Autodesk will offer a 1 day workshop prior the actual conference on September 11th 2012.

This workshop will have two parts.

The first half is concentrating on Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler (AIM) and its communication with Civil3d.
The second part will focus on Civil 3d and its collaboration with AIM.

If you are around and want to participate let me (Andreas) or Björn Wittenberg know.

For more information have a look at: http://ecaade2012.molab.eu/workshops.htm

See you in Prague.

Andreas

Roadstudy made by Multiconsult

2012-08-03T01:27:15-07:00

Hello out there,

towards the weekend I want to share an awesome road study video creaed by Philip Hon from Multiconsult in Oslo. This video shows an assignment of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen).
Multiconsult has evaluated 17 alternatives plans for a new highway in the city of Fet

Rigth now we are working on various story telling tools in AIM and we are close to achieve those results :-), but let's have a look and an ear on this study brought to you by Infrastructure Modeler (AIM), Civil 3D, 3Ds Max and else.

Enjoy and think of your next planing and how AIM can fit into this game.

Have a great weekend!

Using 123d Catch to Capture 3D Models for use in Infrastructure Modeler

2012-07-19T20:53:46-07:00

Heve you ever noticed that many of the city models generated from publically available data are often missing some of the cultural or finer detail from the real world scene, such as statues, fountains, etc.? While these finer elements can easily be captured and modeled using production reality capture systems, like LiDAR, I have found that sometimes I don't need all of that, I really just want to stick the single statue of Yoda, from the Lucas Films' headquarters, on my front lawn and call it a day.

Well, now anyone can do this using a standard camera via Autodesk 123d Catch. 123d Catch is a free application that allows you to capture multiple photos of just about any subject which are then sent to the cloud and and turned into a 3D digital object. This provides a really interesting solution for capturing some of that final detail needed for a city model to make it look complete.

So, here's how I captured Yoda (or as best I could anyway) and stuck him on my front lawn...

I downloaded 123d Catch and watched all of the tutorial videos. These are a must as you'll soon see (my Yoda model is...well...kind of off).
I took about 40 photos of the Yoda statue and imported them into 132d Catch
After sending the photos to the Cloud via 123d Catch, I did my best to match some of the unmatched points in the scenes. For best results hold the left mouse button down to zoom in on points to be matched. I didn't do this and my model suffered in the end.
After resending the model to the Cloud again, 123d catch finally had a relatively decent(ish) model of Yoda...at least one good enough to export.
Exporting to an FBX via the File menu is easy
Finally, I manually placed my Yoda(ish) model in my AIM model

And that's it! With a decent camera and some good photos, anyone should be able to enhance AIM models with 3D captures.