Inside the System

Introducing Autodesk Insight 360

2015-11-20T11:54:25-05:00

Over the past few years, you might have noticed that the Autodesk Building Performance Analysis team has had a fair amount of projects in Autodesk Labs or marked as beta that have been making their way into Revit or FormIt 360 Pro. You also probably noticed that while the portfolio of BPA tools was growing, it sometimes seemed like a lot of separate pieces. We are absolutely thrilled to announce the release of Insight 360, an effective and cohesive guide for improving building energy and environmental performance.

Insight 360 includes:

Energy cost ranges and performance factors
Heating and cooling loads calculated with EnergyPlus
Solar radiation and photovoltaic energy production
Customizable daylighting results and automated documentation

Head over to the new Insight 360 blog for all the details.

Learn about Project Solon Dashboards for Revit through Autodesk Labs

2014-06-16T19:22:25-04:00

Now you can personalize the building performance analysis experience in Revit by defining a native Revit dashboard with charts and results that are important to you. The central web-based Solon management environment allows you to create charts and configure dashboards for all of your company Revit users from a central collaboration environment in Green Building Studio’s Project Solon.

Join the Autodesk Labs project to learn more about this new feature now available to all paid, trial and student subscription customers.

Last Chance to Submit Class Proposals for AU 2014

2014-05-20T22:17:25-04:00

Want to be a speaker at AU 2014?
Proposals are due this Friday, May 23.
If you have an idea for a class or other session, we'd love to hear from you. Share your knowledge and expertise at the world's largest conference for Autodesk customers - Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas: December 2-4. Visit the AU website for a proposal guide and more details.

Submit your proposals for the MEP Engineering and Design Track

This track focuses on topics that are important to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers, designers, drafters, BIM managers, CAD managers, and design professionals who want learn more about Autodesk software for Building Information Modeling, design, and documentation.

We invite proposals that are focused on:

Workflows that show how to get started with BIM for MEP engineering design projects, including examples of real-life projects and implementation strategies.
How to solve workflow challenges using Revit, Revit MEP, or AutoCAD MEP, along with Autodesk 360, Simulation CFD, 3ds Max Design, and other complementary software.
Coordination between MEP engineering firms, structural engineering firms, architectural firms, and contractors.
This audience highly values classes that focus on advanced modeling and design. Classes should be tailored for intermediate and advanced users with live product demonstrations.

For MEP fabrication and detailing, see the Fabrication for AEC Professionals track.

Export Panel Schedules to Excel

2013-12-20T07:46:00-05:00

There is an API sample that automates the process of getting panel schedule data from Revit into another application, such as Excel. The sample is quite rudimentary, as it is intended to provide developers just enough sample code for the base functionality to enable them to then create an export function tailored to specific requirements.

Below are the steps you may follow to try this functionality out. Some electrical design firms have staff with enough background to be able to massage the sample into something that would be quite useful. Hopefully, this helps get such folks on their way.

You will need some flavor of Microsoft Visual Studio to build the sample. You can download Microsoft Visual C# 2010 for free.

From the installation image or DVD for Revit, upzip the file \DVD\Utilities\SDK\RevitSDK2014.exe

In Visual C# 2010 Express:

File > Open Project
Browse to the folder \Software Development Kit\Samples\PanelSchedule\CS
Select the file PanelSchedule.csproj
Click Open

Make sure the Solution Explorer is visible

View > Other Windows > Solution Explorer
In the Solution Explorer, expand References

Depending on your flavor of Revit (from a Suite, or stand-alone MEP), you may see a yellow warning icon on RevitAPI and RevitAPIUI. If you don’t see the yellow warning icon, skip to step 21.

Select RevitAPI and RevitAPIUI.
Right click, and select Remove.
If prompted that they will be removed, click OK.
Right click on References, and click Add Reference…
In the Add Reference window, select the Browse tab.
Browse to the appropriate folder, depending on your installation

From a Suite:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2014

Stand-alone MEP:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit MEP 2014

Scroll to RevitAPI.dll
Click to select it.
Scroll to RevitAPIUI.dll
Hold the CTRL key, and click to add to the selection.
Click OK.
In the Solution Browser, select RevitAPI and RevitAPIUI.
Right click, and select Properties
In the Properties window, make sure Copy Local is set to False

Build the sample

From the Debug menu, click Build Solution.
If prompted with a Save of Read-Only File, click Overwrite.
In the Save File As window, click Save to accept the default save location.
Close Visual C# 2010 Express.

In Windows Explorer:

Browse to the folder \Software Development Kit\Samples\PanelSchedule\CS
Copy the file

PanelSchedule.addin

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2014

Browse to the sub-folder \bin\Release
Copy the files

PanelSchedule.dll
template.html

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2014

Launch Revit

Open a project (or create a new one)
On the Add-Ins tab > External panel > External Tools

You should see three new commands:

Panel Schedule Sample – Export Data

Exports all panel schedules (as .csv or .html) to the folder where the PanelSchedule.dll exists.

Panel Schedule Sample – View Instance Creation

Creates the panel schedule using the default template for the panel currently selected in the model.

Panel Schedule Sample – Sheet Instance Creation

Places all panel schedules in the current sheet view.

Revit 2014 Update Release 2 now available in product

2013-11-07T00:20:38-05:00

Revit 2014 UR2 is now available in-product through the communication center. See image below

You can also access it by clicking on the Communication Center (Radar) button and selecting the "Product Update Available" line item. It may not be at the top of your list so scroll through to find it.

There are a number of minor fixes as well as a few significant algorithm improvements in the automatic Energy Analytical Model generation used for whole building energy analysis. You can find more about the algorithm improvements on the BPA Blog.

Introducing the Autodesk Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate Program

2013-09-05T17:45:02-04:00

We’re excited to announce that Autodesk has launched the Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate Program. This free online course for architecture and engineering students teaches the building science fundamentals for designing high-performance buildings. Through self-paced online tutorials, quizzes and Autodesk software exercises, the BPA Certificate Program gives students the skills to help drive an industry-wide transition to performance-based sustainable design.

What’s in the BPA Certificate program?

Seven modules that include climate analysis, sun path studies, building massing and orientation, solar radiation analysis, wind analysis, and more.
Clear “introduction to software” section within each of the seven modules
Small clusters of content and quizzes that students can complete in short amounts at a time
Case-based examples and questions
Content focused on energy fundamentals and modeling with detailed Revit models
Application of Revit-based tools (including Revit, Vasari and Green Building Studio)

This program takes an estimated 20 hours to complete. Following successful completion, students are issued a Certificate and a Badge that they can place on their resume, LinkedIn profile or portfolio. Students will improve and prove their fluency in the strategies and tools of sustainable building design.

Students - register here: http://autode.sk/19ZTv7a

Revit Adaptive Component for MEP

2013-08-12T10:45:44-04:00

In the July issue of AUGIWorld, Alan Jackson and Mark Green, teamed up to write “Revit Adaptive Component for MEP”. Highlighting the Adaptive Components feature in Revit MEP. The article discusses various scenarios and workflows in making the most out of this Revit feature. If you’re looking to update your MEP workflows, give this article a go!

Revit 2014 Update Release 1 now available for download: Automatic Energy Analytical Model creation from Revit Building elements – Easier, faster and more precise

2013-08-07T20:04:00-04:00

For those of you who are interested in finding out more about the improvements in Autodesk Revit UR1 - you can find all the details on the BPA Blog. you should check it out If you would like to perform whole building energy analysis or other forms of building performance analysis using your Revit model.

Tell us what you think and enter to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!!!!!!

2013-08-05T20:35:30-04:00

The Green Building Studio team would like your feedback on the Potential Energy Savings chart feature. Completing the survey will enter you into a drawing for one of three $100 Amazon Gift Cards. This is your chance to share with the team your experience with the feature and help them make the next iteration even better. More info on the BPA Blog.

Revit 2013 and 2014 Update Releases

2013-07-29T10:15:42-04:00

We've recently released updates for Revit 2013 and 2014.

Update Release 3 for Revit 2013 is available here. Additionally, a hotfix is available here, It addresses issues related to re-hosting circuited devices and panels for Revit MEP and Revit 'one box'.

Revit 2014 Update Release 1 is here.