Inside the System

You are Invited!

2009-07-17T14:01:11-04:00

Greetings!

On behalf of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard and the Office for Sustainability, you are invited as either an owner, architect, or energy consultant, to participate in an online survey on the use of building energy simulation during design, construction and operation. A special emphasis of the survey is to better understand who on the design team owns and gets access to the energy model of a building, what role the model currently plays during building design and construction, and how the use of the model could be extended to the overall lifetime of a building.

The survey is being carried out by the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in collaboration with the Office for Sustainability. The survey is funded through the Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative. Our goal is to develop recommendations of how owners of large real state should interact with their building design teams to get maximum benefit from their building performance analysis contracts. We hope that your input will help us to develop recommendations that are acceptable, fair and profitable to all members of the design team.

To participate in the survey simply go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JagO4lMUgSWMjQM7J2EaHQ_3d_3d.

Thank-you for your participation! Please forward the survey link to your professional networks.

The survey will remain open until August 15^th.

McQuay International provides Revit MEP Content

2009-07-09T13:00:00-04:00

McQuay International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daikin Industries, Ltd. and a worldwide manufacturer of HVAC and refrigeration products, has been offering more design files of its products in Revit format. Check out this article to learn more about how they are developing this content and where it is available from so that you can begin using it today!

Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 Update 1 is available.

2009-07-07T15:20:11-04:00

All,

I am pleased to annouce that Update 1 for Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 is now available at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=12899931

The Update can be applied to all languages of Revit MEP. Currently, only the English download page has the update, but the other language download pages will be available in the next few days.

Regards,
__________________
David Pothier
Product Manager,
Revit MEP

Un-pin AutoCAD MEP Dialogs in Vista

2009-07-07T13:00:00-04:00

In AutoCAD MEP, although many windows have been migrated to the Properties Palette (such as PipeAdd), some still remain, such as the DuctAdd window. If you are using Vista, you may have noticed that the 'Pin' control on these windows (which allows the windows to auto-hide) is not visible due to the Vista themes... however, if you right-click on the title of the window, there is an 'Enable Rollup' option that will accomplish the same thing.

New RDB Link Tool for Revit Family

2009-07-02T13:00:00-04:00

New RDB Link Tool for Revit Family Available on Autodesk Labs!

Check out the new RDB Link Tool! The RDB Link tool enables you to export data from the elements in a Revit project and maintain relationships against data that exists outside of Revit. The tool allows for both import and export of the project data and will allow the user to make changes on the database side that affect the data within the project once imported. Learn more by visiting Autodesk Labs and downloading today!

Supported Applications

§ Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

§ Autodesk Revit Structure 2010

§ Autodesk Revit MEP 2010

Supported database platforms

§ Supported databases when running under 32 bit: MS Access 2003/2007 and SQL Server

2005/2008.

§ Supported databases when running under 64 bit: SQL Server 2005/2008.

You can now display intersecting (straight) centerlines in AutoCAD MEP 2010

2009-06-30T13:00:00-04:00

Did you know that you can now change the display of centerlines for all round elbows in AutoCAD MEP 2010? The new command is “DisplayStraightCenterlines”

You can independently control the setup for Conduit, Duct and Pipe or set all of them to the same setting.

Centerline display for elbows. Select domain to change setting

[Conduit/Duct/Pipe/All]:

The settings are saved in the drawing so if your company prefers the centerlines on Elbows to show as intersecting make the change in the Templates.

this image shows the different displays of Piping, but all other round elbows will look like this also.

Heating and Cooling Loads in Autodesk Revit MEP 2010: Building Service Type

2009-06-25T13:00:00-04:00

If you’ve been calculating heating and cooling loads in Revit MEP 2010, you may have wondered how the new Building Service parameter affects the analysis.

Heating and cooling load calculations are affected by variables that are extrapolated from the Building Service type. The most important variable is the Calculation Type, which is set to either Constant Volume, Variable Air Volume, or Radiant.

Most of the building service types are Constant Air Volume or Radiant (almost the same). The Variable Air Volume types include the acronym “VAV” in their naming convention.

There are also smaller characteristics determined by the service type, such as whether Use Reheat or the Fan Configuration (Blow Through or Draw Through) is used. These inputs help determine some of the zone-specific loads. Currently all of the service types use draw-through as the fan configuration.

The following table indicates the Building Service type variables that affect the heating/cooling load calculations.

Building Service Type Variables

Building Service Type	Calculation Type				Fan Configuration
	Constant Air Volume	Variable Air Volume	Radiant	Use Reheat	Blow Through	Draw Through
Central Heating: Radiators			x			x
Central Heating: Convectors			x			x
Central Heating: Radiant Floor			x			x
Central Heating: Hot Water	x					x
Other Room Heater	x					x
Radiant Heater – Flue			x			x
Radiant Heater – No Flue			x			x
Radiant Heater – Multi-burner			x			x
Forced Convection Heater – Flue	x					x
Forced Convection Heater – No Flue	x					x
VAV – Single Duct		x				x
VAV – Dual Duct		x				x
VAV – Indoor Packaged Cabinet		x				x
VAV – Terminal Reheat		x		x		x
Fan Coil System	x					x
Induction System	x					x
Constant Volume – Fixed OA	x					x
Constant Volume – Variable OA	x					x
Constant Volume – Terminal Reheat	x			x		x
Multi-zone – Hot Deck / Cold Deck	x					x
Constant Volume – Dual Duct	x					x
Radiant Cooled Ceilings			x			x
Active Chilled Beams			x			x
Water Loop Heat Pump	x					x
Variable Refrigerant Flow	x					x
Split System(s) with Natural Ventilation	x					x
Split System(s) with Mechanical Ventilation	x					x
Split System(s) with Mechanical Ventilation with Cooling	x					x

Information in this post provided by Dylan Reid, Martin Schmid and Michael Lavoie

AutoCAD MEP Panel Schedule Whitepaper

2009-06-23T12:00:00-04:00

In AutoCAD MEP 2009, we made some changes to how electrical panel schedules are created. In prior releases, the panel schedules were generated by VBA code and were difficult to customize. They are now based on AutoCAD tables and users can create their own schedule "templates" to match their company standards. You can even bring in an existing Microsoft Excel schedule to speed up the creation process.

We have published a white paper which explains in more detail how to create your own custom panel schedules. Link to whitepaper: AutoCAD MEP Panel Schedule Whitepaper

Toby Smith, PE, LEED AP
AutoCAD MEP Product Manager

Revit MEP 2010 Families Guide Now Available

2009-06-18T13:00:00-04:00

You can now download the Revit MEP 2010 Families Guide. Some highlights in this year's guide:

The Family Editor overview and concept chapters now contain more MEP-specific examples.
The tutorial exercises include more background information to explain why you are performing certain Revit-specific operations.
The tutorial exercises also include more images that make it easier for you to see where to click when performing a step. Other images have been added to show you the desired outcome of the step.

Welcome to the new MEP blog

2009-06-16T12:00:00-04:00

I'd like to start by thanking Kyle for his previous efforts in running this blog. I'm not sure that my writing style is as flavorful as Kyle's but I hope that I can help effectively manage this blog going forward. I'll start by introducing myself.

My name is David Pothier and I'm the new Product Manager for Revit MEP. Although new to this position, I'm not new to Autodesk, MEP or Revit. I started my MEP career working for a small consulting engineering company in Harrisville NH where I was lucky enough to build my MEP skills as well as learn AutoCAD. After 4 years working there, I went over to the dark side (yes, I'm a Star Wars fan) and started working for a software company called DCA Engineering which then became DCA Softdesk and then Softdesk before being acquired by Autodesk just over 12 years ago.

Over the 19 years I have worked in the software business I have filled many roles. I have worked in product support and QA. I have done product design and even development where I was the primary developer for the plumbing software in Softdesk S8. I have worked with our sales channel as a partner recruiter but I have spent the majority of my time working as an Applications Engineer where I demonstrated our architecture and MEP solutions to thousands of customers across North America.

As the new Product Manager, I'm really excited by the opportunity to help make Revit MEP the software solution that everyone wants it to be.

You can expect regular posts on this blog going forward. However, unlike the past, this blog will now be used to provide information on all Autodesk's MEP solutions including AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP. As Kyle mentioned, this isn't just me or Kyle contributing but the MEP team at Autodesk. You can expect tips and tricks, informational posts, industry news, etc. Our goal will be to start with a post each week on tuesdays and thursdays so be sure to check back often.

Thanks

Dave Pothier