At Lands End

Nice Infrastructure Modeler review on AEC Magazine

2012-02-01T11:44:25-08:00

We're pleased to find a great review of Infrastructure Modeler on AEC Magazine: http://bit.ly/y9UYKX

This comes across as a well considered piece that validates many of the themes we were trying to address with the product around visualization, huge models, and communicating plans. It even confirms many of the requirements we're getting around using a tool like Infrastructure Modeler to track a model throughout the asset lifespan.

What I find particularly funny is the longevity and reach of this demo data set. Amusing to think that it was a 2D GIS data set I created 4 years ago for a MapGuide Enterprise demo of RestFUL web services!

Important announcement about Microsoft Windows Vista support at Autodesk

2012-01-27T12:01:00-08:00

Autodesk has made an important announcement about support for Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please follow this link to read more:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=18424371

Regarding Windows XP, this announcement does not change support for Windows XP for Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler. Infrastructure Modeler does not currently support Windows XP.

Webinar: Top Ten Tips for Responding to CDP Cities: From the Experts

2012-01-26T15:39:31-08:00

CDP Cities webinar

Top Ten Tips for Responding to CDP Cities: From the Experts
Join the CDP Cities team and responding organizations to learn tips and tricks for responding to CDP. This webinar will highlight the strategies that some of the companies and cities which respond to CDP use to construct their responses and build support internally and externally. There will also be an opportunity for participating cities to ask questions and trade ideas on reporting.

Featuring

Ben Thompson, Sustainable Business Program Manager, Sustainability Living Lab, Autodesk

Jonathan Dickinson, Senior Policy Advisor, New York City

This webinar will take place via Webex on
Wednesday 1st February at the following times:
0800 Los Angeles / 1100 New York / 1300 Buenos Aires / 1600 London
If you are interested in attending this free webinar, please register here.

Carbon Disclosure Project
40 Bowling Green Lane
London EC1R 0NE
United Kingdom

www.cdproject.net

T: +44 (0)20 7970 5660 | +44 (0)20 7970 5675

CDP Cities provides a platform for city governments to report their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change related information to the public. Last year, 48 global cities—including
29 of the largest cities in the world—made use of CDP’s platform. CDP’s platform is open to any city government, regardless of size.

40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0NE, United Kingdom | Registered Charity no. 1122330

Carbon Disclosure Project Wins Zayed Future Energy Prize

2012-01-24T09:16:21-08:00

"You have to measure it to manage it to measure it."

That was the message declared loudly by Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, to attendees at the C40 Cities Summit in Sao Paulo last June. Following 2010, a year that saw the biggest estimated carbon dioxide emissions jump ever, many other voices around the globe also proclaimed this message as leaders and citizens became increasingly concerned about our society's inability to address environmentally responsible growth and infrastructure management. Cities and organizations are seeing the impacts of climate change, but without a global source for reliable data on carbon emissions, the leading human-caused contributor to climate change, it is difficult, if not impossible, to measure the effects of efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

The Carbon Disclosure Project has been showing the way by demonstrating the power of measuring carbon emissions information as a measure of risk to corporations for over 10 years. CDP currently receives reported carbon emissions from 3700+ corporations around the globe that collectively hold $71 trillion in assets.

Last year, in partnership with Autodesk and others, CDP launched a program for monitoring carbon emissions reported by cities. We're hoping to see the Cities program achieve the same scale of success that has been achieved by the investor program. (Note that the 2012 information request is open... encourage the cities where you live and work to participate!!)

As I've had the fortune to be working closely with CDP Cities over the last 2 years, I'm pleased to report that CDP has won the prestigious Zayed Future Energy Prize in recognition of the organization's contributions to addressing climate change. This prize brings CDP well deserved recognition in addition to a monetary reward that will go far to support the non-profit organization's growth.

Congratulations to all the great folks at CDP who made this happen!

How can you help? CDP Cities is actively seeking information from more cities for the 2012 report. The 2012 information request is open and CDP can use your help to encourage the cities where you work and live to report carbon emissions to this growing body of invaluable data that can help us chart the best solutions for management and growth to help reduce and protect against climate change!

Multiconsult doing awesome things with Infrastructure Modeler

2012-01-20T13:40:41-08:00

Multiconsult is a Norweigan engineering firm that is doing some incredible work with Infrastructure Modeler. I first ran across them at AU 2011 and quickly realized that they were pushing the boundaries of what could be done with AIM 2012 in really cool ways.

Check out this fantastic video of a large rail corridor that they produced:

What's been most amazing is that to my knowledge they've done most of this with little or no help from Autodesk. Amazing.

Have a good weekend!

AU 2011 Infrastructure Modeler 2012 class tutorial

2012-01-13T16:45:30-08:00

Hi folks,

I prepared a class for AU 2011 that some of you have asked for. Here it is!

Download AU2011ClassData-CAndrews-GS4630-L (~100Mb)

Note that much of the data in the class come free on the web, courtesy of Massachusetts GIS, and should only be used for educational purposes.

To get started, find the docs\GS4630-L-CAndrews-Handout.pdf file in the directory structure of the zip.

Note that if your system hides file extensions when you are using Windows Explorer, you may need to show them to be sure you're dragging and dropping the right files into AIM.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments.

Have a good weekend!

New discussion group for Infrastructure Modeler on Autodesk.com

2012-01-10T14:46:57-08:00

Welcome to 2012!

Just a quick announcement. We've activated a forum about Autodesk Infrastucture Modeler and related topics on the Autodesk.com community discussion groups page. Feel free to post questions, ideas, and comments up there in addition to chatting with us around this blog.

Click here to access the discussion group

Happy New Year!

Chris

Flight paths in Infrastructure Modeler? Think pipes...

2011-12-21T22:58:21-08:00

Infrastructure Modeler has some very easy ability to create videos of fly throughs around your project. Today we're going to look at some techniques to make those videos even more interesting!

To create a camera path, you use the "ShowMotion" tools that are available from the on canvas toolbar:

The basic workflow is to do the following:

Open the ShowMotion tools

Create a new camera path

Choose whether it is a sequence of shots or a camera path (see dialog below)

Create individual shots

Push one of the record buttons

Be sure to choose a 'camera path' when creating the new path.

TIP: Using CTRL+LEFT CLICK allows you to move shots around in the sequence.

Here's an example of a flight around a model of a proposal solar cell field created by VTN Consulting.

What about flight paths?

A few folks have seen a video from me showing actual flight paths and airplane models generated in a video right out of Infrastructure Modeler. The question that I get is... "How the heck did you do that?" In a word... pipelines.

That's right, I've overloaded the pipelines data type to show really big pipes, way up in the air. Here's how I did this.

Create a new model with a custom schema

This is not a necessary step, but I got a little fancy and created a new model using a custom schema that has placeholders for my flight path and waypoints. You can download the schema by clicking the link in this paragraph or create your own by following an older blog post.

The new schema allows me to do things like toggle on and off the flight paths by themselves in the Model Explorer, while not affecting pipelines.

Load some data into the model

In my case, I chose to work with a model of Boston that we generate from some public domain data available from the Massachusetts GIS website.

Create basic GIS data to represent the pipelines and waypoints

I then cracked open AutoCAD Map 3D and created some simple GIS files (in my case I created shapefiles) with some custom attributes in the correct geographic area of my model. The structure of the files looked something like this:

Polyline file - for flight path visual effect

StartElevation attribute - Starting elevation of the flight path line

EndElevation attribute - Ending elevation of the flight path line

Point file - for camera positions and waypoint visual effects

Elevation attribute - Elevation of the waypoint; typically the same as the start elevation for one of the polylines in the flight path file

Tilt attribute - Tilt up or down of the camera while it travels the path; positive values tilt down (if desired)

Rotation - Rotation of the camera when it travels the path (if desired)

Name - Name of the waypoint (can be used in the camera path UI)

You'll need to then draw the paths you want, create the points, and edit the data table to populate the values that you want to represent your paths. It takes some trial and error, but you'll get the hang of it.

Flight paths and waypoints in Map 3D

Add GIS data to the model as flight paths and waypoints (or pipelines and city furniture)

The next step is to add the GIS data to the model to create the visual representations of the flight path and waypoints, if desired.

For the flight path, just add the data file to the model and create it as a flight path, if you used the custom schema, or as a pipeline, if you did not. You'll use the start and end elevation attributes that you set in Map 3D as the start and end elevation of the flight path. Choose a style. Personally, I like to create a new style using one of the transparent textures to represent my flight path.

Note that you'll want to also set the X and Y size dimentions to something that will be visible way up in the air. I chose 100 ft.

Then you'll add the point file to the model and create the waypoints, or create them as city furniture objects if you didn't use the custom schema.

In this case, you need to switch to the Source tab in the configuration dialog and choose Set Elevation and the altitude field you created in Map 3D.

Don't forget to pick a 3D model for the waypoints. We've even got a 787 model in the Style Palette!

When you refresh these data layers, it may take a little while to generate them depending on how big they are.

Set LOD to maximum for the Flight Paths and Waypoints

OK... this is an important step. So that you can see your flightpaths from far away, make sure to set the Max LOD toggle in the Model Explorer.

Create the ShowMotion camera path

Activate the ShowMotion tools and select the Import icon in the main toolbar.

Select the waypoints (in my case "CameraPoints") file and configure them by setting the name, tilt, and z value:

Note that I set the Z to be "Altitude + 100" becuase I want the camera to be slightly above the flight path. Otherwise I'm going down the center of the path and that's not so visually interesting.

I also changed the path duration up to 5 seconds because I don't want to go too fast. I left rotation alone in this example.

After accepting my changes, I see a new path in the ShowMotion toolbar:

Now, I push the Play button to see what happens!

There may be a little trial and error on your part, but if the stars are in alignment, you'll see something like this:

A couple of other tips:

This is a little outside the box, but keep trying... it really works

I create a couple of extra camera shots at the end of the sequence to swing back around and look at Santa

I also reset the position of the first point so that I could see Santa starting his journey

With a little more attention, I could have fixed some of Santa's rotations to better match the flight path turns... or even used an attribute to drive the rotation

I hope this was a useful tutorial!

Happy Holidays

to everyone!

(Santa model from TurboSquid.com)

Augmented Reality research with Project Galileo Online and Infrastructure Modeler

2011-12-20T11:52:23-08:00

Some people who have tried out the Labs projects have asked us when we are going to add Augmented Reality into the IPad viewer. Well... it's already there!

Simply hit the little button with the AR on it and then hit the little crosshairs icon next to it and you'll activate the GPS and turn on the camera.

Quick guide to the icons and layout of the IPad2 Project Galileo Online mobile application (Power station model shown from TurboSquid.com)

Then you should see something like this: (Click image to see the video of the Project Galileo Online AR capability in action.)

(Here's the direct link: http://bit.ly/uxEHvr)

As always with Labs projects, we're in the research phase... this isn't shipping product, so don't use it in production!

We're very interested in feedback. When would you use Augmented Reality capability?

Solution: WMVCore.DLL error when installing Infrastructure Modeler 2012

2011-12-13T15:10:14-08:00

When starting AIM 2012, some users are getting the message:

"This application has failed to start because WMVCore.DLL was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

This can be caused by running on a Windows operating system that does not have Windows Media Player installed. Most often, we are finding that this occurs on some non-English language OS installations.

To resolve this please install Windows Media Player from:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-media-player