Laminating the wheel box

Joost has laminated the heavy loaded parts of the wheel box on both sides. He used 160 grams glass fabric ('keper') and epoxy resign. By applying glass on both sides of the plywood Joost has created a sandwich panel: Very strong stiff, and light. I like the idea that we can reinforce heavy loaded parts of the body in this very simple and effective way.

I think Joost will get the plywood velomobile on the road next week! I have bought a QuestXS and we plan to compare the aerodynamics of both velomobiles. For me the QuestXS is a very nice alternative for commuting. The shape is very nice but she is rather heavy (34 kg). I wonder how much less the aerodynamics of the plywood velomobile is. The plywood velomobile weighs 23 kg only.

Developing the plywood velomobile is a lot of work. I try to involve others into the project. Let me know if you are interested.

sanded

making a pattern

one hardly sees the laminated portion

here you also see there is no connection along the chain: the body is strong and (almost) stiff enough without it

Season opener: Paddling Lake Michigan again

Still wintry, but calm and ice-free. Time to paddle!

With the ice mostly melted and the air and water temperatures in the mid to upper 30s, we decided to go on the first relatively long paddle of the season. After months of confinement in swimming pools, it was exhilarating to be out on open water yesterday.

On the Chicago River, water taxis were practicing man-overboard drills. A few hearty tourists took part in architectural boat tours.

A man-overboard drill on the Chicago River.

It took several minutes to gain the attention of the lock tender at the Chicago Harbor Lock.

"Kayakers to Chicago Locktender. Request passage from the river to the lake."

Everywhere we looked, we saw evidence of how low Lake Michigan's water level has become. The river banks are higher than they were. Previous water levels are evident on the sides of the locks, far above where the water currently laps the walls. The difference in height between the lake and the river is no more than an inch or two. Out on the lake, wooden pilings that date from the shoreline construction of the early 1900s were exposed to the air.

Paddling past the Chicago skyline.

Great Lakes freighters motored in the mid-lake shipping channel; helicopters occasionally whirred overhead. But the lake was otherwise quiet--just us, the birds, and one fishing vessel out catching perch.

In a few months, we'll be cautious about collisions with inebriated recreational boaters; now we realized there's nobody here to harm us--or help us. It was one of those low-risk, high consequences situations: the chances we'd capsize or otherwise need assistance were remote, but if anything bad were to happen, we'd be on our own in a dangerously cold environment.

Alone on the lake, and not too far from shore.

That had been part of our risk assessment before we got on the water. It affected our choice of route (near shore, 18 miles, with plenty of places to stop if necessary), timing (late morning to late afternoon, with plenty of daylight hours to spare), clothing and equipment. Light winds and a stable high pressure system added to our positive assessment. We brought a four-star kit and were prepared if the journey took longer than we had planned, and could help each other or summon help. As usual, we had also filed a float plan with trusted friends.

But all went well. Though our hands and feet were cold at times, the pleasure of being out on the lake again overwhelmed any discomfort and made us especially appreciate the miracle of hot water on demand when we got home afterward.

Loading up afterward, looking forward to getting warm again.

15 min. Rock Garden Rescue & Communication lessons learned

By Bill Vonnegut, Peter Donohue, Roger Schumann, Tony Johnson



Communication by Bill Vonnegut & Peter Donohue 

Communication can play a major factor when things go wrong. We had a capsize and swim on a recent trip to Cypress Point in Monterey CA, where it broke down and almost caused not only significant more time in the water for a swimmer, but very nearly more danger for the rescuer by making them think they had no choice but to make the run through some very big rocky surf to get the swimmer to safety. 

As with all of our paddles, we paddle as a team, but there is not an official leader. Generally we have good group dynamics. As Roger Schumann said during our post mortem review “this was really the one time [during the paddle] where we got a little sloppy, and the ocean took the opportunity we gave it to give us something to think about. “ A paddler swam, a successful rescue was performed, and we then took some time to review our actions to see what we can do better next time (with the benefit of having a couple of video cameras on during the process). We are posting this in the hopes that it will help others prepare for rock garden rescues and would love to hear comments. We realize, and ask that you also keep in mind, that in all incidences quick decisions need to be made using info available, and these quick decisions are not always the best decisions in hindsight. That is one of the challenges of these rescues.


Background from Bill 

The five of us, Allen Shah, Peter Donohue, Roger Schumann, Tony Johnson and Bill Vonnegut arrived at Carmel Beach, and after our normal greetings managed to get ourselves on the water. Four of us have been paddling together very regularly for years, and we have also paddled with Roger on many occasions. We had a few radios and the normal safety gear, but as we have paddled together so much that we can almost read each other’s minds, we did not discuss any safety procedures prior to the launch. 


Conditions were very big that day and we had been out for a couple hours trying to find some features to play on. But except for a few areas it seemed to be an all or nothing kind of day. Most of the near shore areas were ether closed out or so protected that conditions were too small to fine a significant amount of challenging fun.


All it took was a couple waves for things to break down.


We were messing around in a protected cove and at the same time planning our run around the very exposed point full of very large boomers. We were a little scattered throughout this well protected cove when I saw Allen scouting a sheltered slot in the rocks that ran around the point, it looked to me like Tony and Roger followed by Peter were starting to head around the outside. So I turned to Peter and told him I was going to head through the slot. I was hanging out in the exit with Allen, checking out the line between the boomers we need to clear the to make our way outside the point when Roger showed up behind me. Figuring the rest of the group was close behind we decided to clear the small staging area and make the run to deep water and wait for the others. Tony came right after us followed by Peter, who got a surprise when a very large set hit and closed out the channel to deep water. The video shows clearly the challenges of communicating in rock gardens. I was trying to tell Tony that I would tow the boat around, and he should have Roger start moving Peter in that direction. Tony heard that he should have Roger bring Peter into the rocks to the boat. If the timing didn't work out such that I got the boat out before they got too far in, this could have seriously delayed getting Peter back into his boat.

This whole break down of communication could have been averted, had I simply signaled Roger by holding up my paddle in the hold position and waited for his response, when I had the line of site in this photo.

What was going through my mind while I was on the rocks.

For starters, please remember this was not a planned exercise where we set up a scenario and have time ahead to think what we are going to do. At the time I headed in, I had no idea where the boat even was or how I was going to get it back out. And the longer I sat and thought about it, the longer it would take to get the boat back to Peter. 

I has visual contact with Roger, who was out beyond the breakers. At the time I knew that I needed to let him know what I was doing. I had started to make hand gestures indicating we would go around and was waiting for a response to see if he knew what I was doing, in my mind my next step was going to be to hold up my radio.  As I was doing this, Tony paddled up below and asked what he could do to help. I told him to tell Roger that I was going to bring the boat around because I did not to run the slot towing a boat. Somehow over the wind and waves, Tony heard that Roger needed to bring the boat into me. At this time in my mind I had given Roger the message and continued with my quest to get the boat back to Peter as fast as possible. I did not account for the "delay" or the possibility of miscommunication in getting the message to Roger. 

The whole story including a debrief can be seen in this video:

The account by Peter Donohue, 

My State of Mind and What Went Through My Mind

Here is some background of my state of mind leading up to the swim, and what went through my mind when I swam:

Before the paddle started, I was perhaps a little tired. Have been trying to work myself back into paddling condition by paddling a lot. This week I had upped my miles. 9 miles plus some surfing on Tuesday, 10.5 miles and an overnight camp (loaded boat) on Thursday, 16 miles back home on Friday. Then an early wake up for this paddle on Saturday, and we were probably 5 miles into it our paddle that day when this happened. I didn't feel tired, but this may have had some impact in this.

I was having two gear issues. Neither of these played any direct part in this incident, but they were making me somewhat less confident.

The first gear issue was that I was wearing a wet suit for the first time in years (my dry suit neck gasket blew out earlier that week, and I hadn't had a chance to fix it yet). Last year, my roll lost its bombproofness, so I have spent a lot of time this winter (in the ocean and bay more than at a pool) working to get it back. Really came to appreciate dry suit and neoprene hoodies. Never liked that rush of cold water as it works through the gaps in a wet suit. But here I was in my wet suit (standard farmer john) with a paddle jacket (velcro neck, so not very water tight). I knew I should practice some rolls, but was being a wimp with the cold water, so I didn't. I did carry in the boat an extra fleece paddle shirt with me, which was well needed for warming up when the swim was over, but if I had worn it, I would have been overheating some prior to the swim, so would have more likely done my roll practice.

The second gear issue showed up at the start. We started with a surf launch, which I got out cleanly (especially when compared to one or two others, who had a bit of a battle). Once I got out, I decided the paddle I was using wasn't feeling right (didn't feel like it was holding its feather), so I swapped it for my spare. The spare is a paddle I've used for many years, but was purchased before I got into more aggressive paddling, so at 230 cm was a bit longer than I'd like (the other paddle was 210, which feels much better for me). A bit later in the trip, I was finding that my spare was finally showing its age and could also be twisted with some force out of its feather. Stuck to that long paddle, but was twiddling with it from time to time.

As the paddle continued, the conditions were a little large for us to get into many play spots. I am usually a pretty conservative paddler, so stayed out and watched as the big boys played on stuff, and only edged into things myself.

Just before the swim, we played on the south side of a point for a little while. Then we looked for a way to get through the point (rather than paddling around). A route was found. It involved timing your way into a channel, where once you were in you were pretty protected. There was an exit to the far side, but I couldn't see it. The others went in, and I was last. When it came to my turn, I had to wait for a set to go through before I could go in to the channel, but I made it without any troubles.

The channel bends left around a rock, and I was now seeing the exit for the first time. By the time I got there, everyone was already outside, so I didn't get the benefit of seeing the route others took, but I am well trained and experienced in this, so should be able to pick my route just fine. Perhaps I was feeling a little rushed, with everyone already outside and waiting for me, so I didn't take the time to watch a few sets as I should have.

The peninsula I just cut through was to my left. About 150-200 feet out from my opening was an outer underwater reef that everyone was outside of already, and waves were breaking over. So I needed to go at least a bit right. The area between me and the reef had a few boomers, lots of aerated water, and a good amount of bounce. In my short inspection (a couple of waves), it looked like staying closer to the rocks on my right was the way to go (I chose basically the same route that Allen points out in the video), so I saw what I thought was a window and headed out.

Things get a little less clear in my memory here, but I think it was the second wave that came in took me down. It didn't break on me, but was unorganized, seeming to throw me both ways at once, and I wasn't able to brace in time. I don't recall it being overly large, but the video showed that it was pretty big.

Over I went. I set up to roll, but blew that roll. I even know what I did wrong (the same issue I have been having the last year - finishing the sweep with my roll-side arm over my lap, rather than the more powerful arm up by my head). Head almost came out of the water, and when I tried to catch a quick breath I got more water than air in my mouth. This is likely where the gear issues and lack of confidence came in (along with the unpleasant mouthful of salt water), as rather than try a second roll, I bailed.

Once I popped out, I saw how close I was to the rock (arm length away), and immediately recognized that this was not a safe place to self-rescue, so abandoned ship and started swimming out to the others. I used my paddle to swim, and this is where I noticed the lack of holding a feather, so it wasn't as efficient as I could have been.

I was wondering if the others saw me, as no one was coming in to get me (turns out I chose a big set to do this all in, and they had to wait for a window).

Learning’s from Peter:

- get my gear back up to snuff, especially paddle and dry suit. If wearing wet suit, overdress so I would want to roll (and be in better shape should I swim). That old "dress for the water" saying really is true.

- practice, practice, practice - get that bombproof roll back.

- If I don't get the benefit of seeing the line others took and the others are already outside waiting for me, let them wait. I need to treat it like I was the first person who was exploring whether it was a good route to take. Watch and see what the area provides and what dangers are there for different sized waves. The fact that the others wouldn’t rush in to help me, and that Bill wouldn't tow the boat out this stretch tells me (20-20 hindsight) that this area needed much more respect than I gave it.

Side note - in looking back at this incident, I don't think my life was at risk. Once I swam away from the rock, it was challenging to swim in that bumpy water, but I wasn't being washed into rocks and could keep my head above water. At any time I could have swum or been carried to a beach not far away, where I could have gotten help from the local golfers or tourists.



Our Group Learnings 

As a group, we have reviewed this incident to see what we could have done better (some of this you can see in the video, plus a lot more reflection after that). We definitely have some areas of improvement in our group and rescue response. Roger summed it up well up well, so we are printing his comments here:

Some thoughts by Roger Schumann 

I’ve been enjoying using the CLAP acronym as a debrief tool, and I think it works well here.


Communication:

Radios would have been convenient, as mentioned. Even without radios, however, the guy with the boat (in this case Bill) and the one with the swimmer (me) should probably have been looking for each other to communicate with hand/paddle signals when Bill was up on the rocks. Also, as a group we could have done a better job using Allen and Tony as runners to send messages between boat and swimmer rescuers. We don’t need radios to assume that the next step is to get the boat and swimmer reunited. We could have done a better job reading each other’s minds on that one.


Line of Sight:

Could have helped communication between Bill and me, if we’d tried to maintain line of sight as noted above. Also, the group lost line of sight of Allen for several minutes when he went to scout the move in the first place. It turned out to be no problem, but probably not a good habit for the group to get into in such areas. Then we kind of turned our back on Peter during one of the more challenging moves of the day. Most of the day I think we did a great job of this, but kind of let our guard down for a couple minutes there and got a nice little reminder from the sea.


Awareness/Avoidance:

As a group we could have been more aware of the dangers of that particular move and set up better safety.

Position of Max Use: 

In a Class IV rapid, the group would be tuned in to the team effort of running the move, and would probably have set up safety, discussed the order of who should go first/last, etc. It is not about “babysitting” anyone; it is about group members watching out for each other. If it had been a class I was teaching, I’d have felt obliged to set up safety for the move. But just because I was paddling as one of a group of friends doesn’t make me feel like I should turn my safety radar off. We were kind of out of position as a group and I knew it, but did nothing about it. Having someone back in the channel would have given Peter a better option of which direction to swim and made the whole rescue take a lot less time in the water. He also could have climbed up on the rocks and gotten out of the water while Bill retrieved his kayak. But with all of us in deep water at the time, it makes sense that he’d swim toward his teammates.


In lieu of this, another thing I think could have speeded up the eventual boat delivery would have been teamwork with Bill and Tony or Allen for the tow. After dragging the boat across the rocks, Bill was not the team member in the best position to also tow the boat quickly. He was in the best position, atop the rocks, to see the best line for the tow, but the time it took for him to re-launch himself and hook up the tow was extra time Peter spent in the water. A quicker option would have been for him to slide the boat into the water to Tony or Allen who could have quickly clipped and started towing while Bill caught his breath and launched at his leisure.

Also, as Allen noted, we were slow to respond to the hypothermia. I for one was paying a whole lot more attention to my sandwich and my MMs during lunch than to my team mate. It was a good wake up call for me to remain awake to group safety even when I’m not on the clock. 


All in all we got the job done adequately, and although we could definitely have used a little tighter teamwork in a couple places, it was cool to be paddling with such a strong, competent group. I’ve always said that “Rock garden paddling is a team sport.”

My thoughts regarding the rescue on our recent Cypress Point paddle by Tony Johnson

When Peter came out of his boat I paddled to him and yelled many times for

him to go inside. I thought at the time, and still do, this was the best

course of action. The slot just to the north of Peter provided a safe place

to swim, recover, and retrieve his boat. Peter decided to swim to the

group. This was a longer swim in rough conditions. Roger went in to get

Peter and Bill went around the south section of the rocks to retrieve Peters

boat. I took the slot inside that I was referring to above to make contact

with Bill. I asked him how I could help. I had a difficult time hearing

Bill, I think the ear protection attached to my helmet made things worse.

How I miss understood Bill is troubling, watching the video its obvious that

Bill was telling me he was going to tow the boat around to the south. I'm

not sure how I came up with the plan was to get Peter to his boat. Watching the

video and hearing Bill say "I don't want to tow the boat through here" was

surely miss understood. I may have also thought at the time that towing

wasn't a good idea.

I made my way back to Roger and told him the plan. I could see that Roger

was not completely ok with this. He had Peter on his deck for ten or more

minutes in some real bumpy conditions. He was tired, and now I was

giving Roger and Peter some bad info to go inside. I do feel this slot was an option

to get Peter to his boat. I went through the slot twice, there was a safe passage inside.

Just as Roger started taking Peter inside I heard him saying Bill is coming with Peters boat.

If it wasn't for Roger being alert seeing Bill this could have been much more work, Peter

inside, his boat outside.

As soon as I realized my mistake in hearing Bill, telling Roger that going

inside was the plan, I felt terrible! This miss understanding on my part could

have really complicated things. In the future I need to make sure of

instructions given to me.

Roger and Bill did a great job. Roger kept Peter out of the water for some

time, Bill doing lots of work inside, then towing in big water.

Peter, swam through some rough water, he kept his paddle

and used it well to get to us.

I must say that I have become to relaxed with the folks I paddle. Many

things I could have done differently. I should have swept, let Peter go

ahead of me. I should have been aware that Peter once on the beach was

becoming hypothermic.

When I posted this trip, as the date neared I became concerned about the

conditions. I posted to those interested that I was thinking of cancelling

this trip due to the conditions. I was boarder line but thought that this

area may get some protection from the north swell. I haven't had the

opportunity to paddle much and wanted to get on the water so if two or more

folks were interested then I was in.

I learned a lot from this experience.

Why we still love the WMCKA Symposium

Thumbs up for the WMCKA symposium, one of the family friendliest paddling events in the midwest.

We have a special affection for the West Michigan Sea Kayakers Association (WMCKA) symposium. Held on Memorial Day weekend at YMCA Camp Pendalouan near Muskegon, Michigan, the WMCKA symposium is notable for:

• World-class guest coaches/speakers. This year, Nick Cunliffe of Kayak Essentials in North Wales, will join the talented midwestern coaching staff and offer an evening presentation.
• A huge assortment of on-land classes in the mornings. Participants can learn about navigation, weather, VHF radio use, dressing for paddling and many other essential topics.
• An even larger assortment of on-water classes. From strokes and maneuvers to rescues and towing, the phalanx of dedicated coaches offer a myriad of courses for beginner through intermediate paddlers.
• The beginners' track. Novice paddlers can comfortably start with courses on boat fit and wet exits, and quickly progress into courses on basic skills.
• The kids' program. This popular program, for ages 7 to 14, helps kids build skills while playing games, and includes time on land doing summer camp activities with Camp Pendalouan's wonderful counselors.
• BCU 3* training and assessment. Participants with intermediate skills can challenge themselves in Bonnie Perry's two-day training and opt to follow it with a one-day assessment.
• Neptune's treasures. This pop-up consignment shop allows participants to buy and sell used gear, from wetsuits and PFDs to kayaks.
• The sense of community. Everybody stays together at the camp, either in tents or small cabins, and eats together in the large dining hall. Evenings include speakers, parties and plenty of social time.

The dining hall. For a small fee, participants can take advantage of communal meals.

Big Blue Lake, where the on-water courses are held.

Now in its 24th year, the WMCKA Symposium is always adding something new to its offerings. This year, it is hosting a Coach Level 1 training and assessment May 21 through 21, immediately before the symposium begins.

This is the first symposium we attended--the symposium that set us on the path of long-term paddling and coaching. Registration is open, affordable, and limited to 170 participants (and 25 in the children's program). Sign up here.  

Communal (and free!) camping at Camp Pendalouan.

Touring Kayaks North American Style

Touring Kayaks North American Style

Storm GT Touring Kayaks North American Style

Storm GT Touring Kayaks North American Style

What’s new in Revit 2014?

Oh yes, it’s that time again when the red carpet gets deployed. There is frenzy in the Revit community; twitter goes into hyper drive & the bloggers go mad (including me), as Autodesk serve up the latest greatest version of Revit for us to use & abuse on our BIM projects. But before we get into the juicy bits, let’s pause for a second & review some Revit history. Revit 1.0 was released on the 5th of April 2000, so Revit has now been gracing our earth for 13 years. Maybe not as long as that other BIM app which begins with “A”. But Revit has developed into a mature solution which will deliver model based design & can be centroid to the BIM process, but it’s not BIM per say. Some will argue that ArchiCAD is better, Revit is better, blah, blah, I’ve heard it all before. It’s actually a really boring discussion now, what is more important is whether the tools can truly talk to one another, are open & interoperable. ArchiCAD community says Revit sucks at IFC; the Revit community says who gives a stuff when it has the majority of the market share. Passionate users of both camps spend hours defending their beloved solutions on social media like it’s some sort of life or death affair. The reality is that as governments start to push the whole IFC / COBie delivery requirement, all AEC solutions need to start to respect the need for data to be sharable & of an open nature. That is compounded by the recent IFC4 announcement.

Anyway, back to the Revit history lesson. What I do find amusing is in the early days of Revit, the software was initially offered on a monthly rental option. Anyone remember that? Early adopters will. It was one of the reasons; my then boss John Mullan, MD at House Henderson Architects was so interested in the product. Not only did it start to offer the office a quick building modelling system which was faster than CAD, it could be picked up or put down depending on the office’s needs. Why did he consider Revit you may ask? Well John had implemented Rucaps Sonata in the office. It was an expensive system, but it was one of the earliest parametric building modelling systems. The fact that one seat was the price of a good quality family car was beside the point, it was a powerful solution. When John Mullan saw Revit, he could see the same potential at a fraction of the cost of Sonata. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUCAPS

In those early years, Revit went through a rapid release cycle, even after Autodesk purchased Revit in 2002 there were a vigorous number of point releases until things settled & Revit then went to a yearly release, which is what we now have. But what I would say is where once BIM managers wanted to roll the latest version of Revit out to their staff on projects, they are now taking a more pragmatic approach to deployment & often holding back for 12 months or even skipping a release. There are many reasons this might be happening. Cost of update training? Cost of deployment? Long term projects which have decided to keep with a consistent version? Anyhow, it seems to be more common place.

 

What’s new?

Revit 2014, what’s new? What’s been improved? So these are the highlights, but like any release of Revit you will find minor tweaks here & there, some which get documented, others that don’t, so be on the look out! I have reviewed the architectural & general platform enhancements, however I have also listed the structural & MEP improvements, but do not go into detail in this review.

• Displaced Views
• Dockable Windows Framework & Enhancements
• Material UI overhaul
• Non rectangular crop regions
• Room calculation Point
• Schedules
• Selection enhancements
• Split Elevations
• Temporary View Templates
• View navigation performance
• Multi Selection - bring to front & send to back
• Stairs & Railings
• Double click to edit
• Point Clouds

The specific structural improvements include:-

• Multi-Reference Annotations
• Structural Analytical Model Improvements
• Reinforcement Rounding
• Rebar Constraints
• Welded Wire Mesh Constraints
• Enhanced Rebar Shapes
• Rebar Length Calculation for UK Shapes

The MEP improvements include:-

• CSV File Removal - Ability to embed CSV data into a family.
• Divide System.
• Air Terminals on Duct - Ability to place Air Terminal families directly on Duct segments.
• Plumbing Template
• Cap Open Ends
• Angle Constraints

Building Performance Analysis

• Energy Analysis for Architectural Building Elements - Ability to automatically generate an Energy Analysis Model from a typical Revit model made of architectural building elements.
• GBS Analysis App Feature

Displaced Views

Displaced views are an exciting new feature which literally allows you to rip apart your model as an exploded view. The clever thing here is that any displacement of components is only effected in that view & not the whole model.

The feature works in 3d views & perspective views only, allowing you to create diagrammatic assembly views of how the building goes together. Not this feature also works with assembly views & parts. The concept is very easy to implement. Go to a 3d view, select a few elements, then choose the displacement feature from the modify tab > create. Then in canvas use the 3d widget to drag the components away from the main model, it’s that easy. If you are not happy with their position, a reset button allows you to return the elements back to their original location. The path feature allows you to automatically draw a line from the original position of the elements to its displaced location. You can control the linestyle of this line from objects styles & visibility graphics.

Another thing about the path feature which may not be that obvious, is that there are 2 path style types. A straight line (the default) & a jogged line type, which is useful when you need to drag the elements further away from the model for clarity.

 

 

Dockable Windows Framework & Enhancements

When you are using Revit you just can’t get enough screen real estate. You decide to get 2 monitors, but space always seems to be at a premium. I am not sure why, but I guess it’s natural when you have a multi document, multi view application. In previous releases of Revit you could dock the project browser, properties palette, system browser & reconcile hosting browser in different locations but they always docked adjacent to one another or at various positions around the screen. Revit 2014 now allows you to dock each window to combine them as tabs at the bottom of dialog windows. OK, it’s not a massive enhancements & auto-hide would have been a nice addition as well, but this new window framework structure will certainly benefit those that are tight for screen space or utilize a-laptop.

 

Materials

So after last year’s fiasco with the material UI, Autodesk decided to go back to the drawing board. A good friend of mine & fellow Revit Guru, Aaron Maller literally lost hours of sleep trying to get his head around the Revit 2013 material user interface to make it work like 2012! If you know Aaron, buy him a beer & he will literally rant for hours about the mess which is the Revit 2013 material UI. I am not sure what Autodesk were thinking, but I am so glad to say that the 2014 UI is soooooo much better. Everything is obvious, in a tabbed layout dialog. The UI is easier to navigate making materials easier to locate & select. In 2013 the material browser & editing dialog boxes were separate which was the core issue to the problem! This made the whole process of material editing unbelievably frustrating as workflow process was confusing. With both material browser & editing now merged back into one single common dialog, stability & common sense has returned to the material editing process. Yes!

Non Rectangular Viewports

So non rectangular viewports have been on my Revit wish list for some time. In Revit 2014 we now have this added functionality for view crop regions and callouts. In essence the user can customise the shape of the crop region using Revit sketching tools.

Select the crop region, then choose the Edit Crop tool from the ribbon & sketch away. But before you get too excited, you are still only limited to rectangular shapes, no curves are arcs my friends. This feature will work on any crop region including plans, ceilings plans, elevations, sections, detail & section callout views.

 

Room Calculation Point

Once you have been using Revit for some time, you recognise that Revit needs to start to think a little smarter; it should know where things are. Whether you think software should be smart, is a debate for another day. But the introductory of a Room calculation point setting for family types which are room aware such as doors, furniture, casework, speciality equipment and generic models starts to help. This new function allows families which are placed in a project to know where they belong.

For instance, sometimes a piece of geometry might be located outside a room or space, which results in no values being reported to where the element actually is. The new Room calculation point allows the user to specifically move the location of the calculation point to a desired space within a model so that the element then knows where it belongs and can report this when scheduling.

 

Schedules

Schedules; what would we do without schedules in Revit? They provide us with access to data in a way which was not possible using traditional CAD drafting approaches. I would suggest that anybody who is serious about building information modelling will know the power & possibilities that Revit scheduling functionality offers. Scheduling gives you access to data which you can utilise in many, many ways. We can capture integrated data; we can use schedules to input data. Neither the less, scheduling within Revit was not without its limitations, but Revit 2014 sees a major overhaul of the scheduling functionality. The interface for creating schedules in Revit remains the same, although new categories have been opened up, so we can now schedule architectural columns, detail items, entourage, generic models, grids, levels, pads, roof soffits, structural beam systems, structural area reinforcement, structural path reinforcement and structural fabric area.

Another nice minor enhancement is the ability to schedule phases created & demolished. However, more importantly we are provided with far more control over how we can format schedules. Text styles can be used to control the formatting of titles, headers and data within a schedule. Cells and text appearance can be overridden for cells in titles sections and columns. The Schedules are far more aligned with an Excel type appearance, so what you see is what you get, with more alliance between the schedule view & what you actually place on a sheet. You will find a new ribbon interface allows you to control the appearance of the schedule and if you understand the basics of Excel style column formatting, then this is going to be a total breeze for you to learn and implement.

 

Selection Enhancements

I believe one of the biggest challenges any new user has when starting to work with Revit is the way you select elements. Those that have been using Revit for some time, have learned to live & adapt to Revit element selection peculiarities. But I have seen countless occasions when Revit newbies select elements & screw things up. No fault of their own, it’s just a different process from what they are normally use to. Yet Revit does not make it easy during the transition process. To improve the way you can access & select elements, Revit 2014 has introduced a few improvements adding to what has always existed. There are now four selection options, which can be accessed via the modify tool or via the status bar. Each options has two states, either active or in-active. The options included Select Links, Select Underlay Elements, Select Elements by face, Drag elements on selection. With the select links function, if this behaviour is not enabled & you use the modify & move tools, this stops you accidentally selecting links or CAD linked files. Select underlay elements, again if this is not enabled, then you can’t select, modify or move underlayed elements.

Select elements by Face, now this is a biggie for me. With this feature enabled you can select a face of an element or by clicking at the edge. This now makes the whole process of editing, say a floor, a lot easier as you can select the face rather than having to grab a bunch of elements & filtering. If you don’t have this feature enabled, then it’s as it was before, you need to click on the edge of element or filter & select. Drag elements on Selection replaces what was press & drag. With the feature enabled, you hover over the element, press down the mouse & drag. Revit will then move the element. If this feature is not enabled. If you hover over a model elements, AC point, callout, grid, section, scope box or detail, pressing and dragging will result in the element NOT moving. It should also be noted that the settings are stored per user in the Revit.ini, so can be set as part of your deployment.

 

 

Split Elevations

Not sure this is noteworthy, but we have been able to do split sections for some time. But the functionality has been extended to elevations, allowing us to do split elevations. Now before you get over excited, it’s not what you think it is! It the same as the section tool, that’s it. What would have been very nice to see is the ability to unwrap elevations to create true elevation representations!

 

Temporary View Properties

Revit 2013 introduced some welcome improvements to view templates; the Temporary View Properties feature on 2014 takes this a little further. In the view control bar you are provided with access to Temporary View Properties. What this feature does is always you to change the view properties of a view without impacting the saved view state. The concept behind this is to potentially reduce the need for working views as you can quickly enable a Temporary View, apply the view template to better understand the impact of the view template without actually having to apply it. You can switch between different view templates which you have created & once you have finished, just select the reset feature to go back to the original state of the view. If you do enable the temp view, it has no bearing on the view for printing & also has no influence on the view when using worksharing.

 

 

Perceived Performance

If I had a pound or even a dollar for how many times I’ve heard users complain about how slow Revit is at times, I’d be a very rich man. The reality is, on some tasks Revit can be slow, but then if you consider what is happening under the hood, then maybe you might assess the situation differently. But then again, the reality is we want everything instantly! We want out email now! We want everything on tap, on demand & we no longer accept waiting. Over recent years we have seen multi-threading functionality introduced to some aspects of Revit. Speaking with the development team, it’s not a case of just flicking a few switches & tweaking the code to make Revit suddenly become a super multi-threaded wonder app. It’s a complex problem, due to the way Revit works. Saying that, one area which Revit certainly needed a kick was on screen redraws when zooming, panning & orbiting a model. So the Revit dev team have made some tweaks to improve graphic performance by automatically turning off graphic intensive effects during view navigation. This works in 2d & 3d. What actually happens is that the graphic effects are suspended during camera manipulation & then instantly redrawn to the screen once you finish the operation. It’s a little disconcerting at first, but once you get us to it you will value this improvement, Revit certainly feels quicker.

 

Multi- selection

A minor enhancement, but a vital one, is the proper implementation of the Bring to Front / Send Back ward tool. This now works as you would expect it. When you select multiple elements, be it detail elements or images you can reorder them correctly.

 

Stairs & Railings

As this review is typically biased towards the architectural enhancements, we will look at these. With Revit 2013, we saw the introduction of the new component based stair as well as enhancements to the railings. Revit 2014 sees the component stairs developed even further with a few minor tweaks to the railings. The way a stair joins a floor or slab has been improved. Any precast stair can now be join to a floor or slab. You can now quash the additional riser created in a plan representation when a monolithic stair meets a landing.

There have been developments made to the way you manipulate landings. Each landing, when selected, has controls to each edge which makes the process of editing the landing a lot easier.

When you draw a stair, two additional location line options are provided. You now have exterior support left & exterior support right as well as actual run width settings. These can be set in the options bar when creating the stair.

Autodesk put a lot of work into how stairs were represented with the component based stair. But as ever, things can always be improved. With 2014, the stair path arrow can now be displayed at top of landing. With the monolithic stair, the plan representation stair no longer displays an additional risers at half landings. The way snaps work with stairs also receives some enhancement. For example, we can now have a parallel snap, allowing us to reference other elements such as reference planes, walls, beams when you are creating straight stair runs. Another snap enhancement is the ability to parallel snap to riser lines when dragging the direct manipulation controls of a landing. All these snaps just provide a better fit / finish when working with the stair creation process.

One of the first things I noticed with component based stairs in Revit 2013, was the loss of temporary dimensions. Love or hate them, they are fundamental to the Revit modelling process in my humble opinion. Temporary dimensions are your best friend when making changes or tweaks to elements. With Revit 2014, Autodesk dev temp have listen to user feedback & component based stairs get temporary dimensions to control landing size, component position, stair width & radius of spiral stairs.

Sadly we haven’t seen any further enhancements to railings in 2014, but we do get some defects fixed, such as if end with riser is unchecked the railing will now be parallel with the stair run. Handrails would disappear in some views, this has been addressed.

 

 

Double Click to Edit

Maybe, I’m old school, but 2013 saw the introduction of double-click functionality to edit certain elements, after many user requests. But with any enhancements, sometimes there are trip hazards. Users who are rather trigger happy with double clicking, end up going down rabbit holes as they start editing something they didn’t mean to. But with care & precision, you learn to adjust. In line with functionality introduced into Vasari as well as Revit LT, we can now edit the following elements by double clicking.

Element type	Double-click behaviour
Assemblies	Edit assembly mode
Schedules on Sheets	Open schedule view
Views on sheets	Activate view
Wall(EditProfile)	Edit profile
Floor(EditBoundary)	Edit boundary
Ceilings(EditBoundary)	Edit boundary
Roof (Footprint)	Edit boundary
Roof (Extrusion)	Edit boundary
Slab (Edit Boundary)	Edit boundary
Beam System (Edit Boundary)	Edit boundary
Railing	Edit railing
Stairs	Edit stairs
Edit Extrusion (Form)	Edit form
Edit Revolve (Form)	Edit form
Edit Sweep (Form)	Edit form
Edit Swept Blend (Form)	Edit form
Edit Blend (Default to edit Base)	Edit base
Truss (Edit Profile)	Edit profile
Rebar	Edit rebar
Reinforcement	Edit rebar
Opening Cut	Edit sketch
Filled Region	Edit sketch
Revision Cloud	Edit sketch
Split Face element	Edit sketch

So to protect those that may be a bit too hasty when using the double click functionality; in the options, the user can now customise the double click settings.

One other minor, but useful tweak is when editing a parameter in a tag, a parameter takes priority when you double click on a parameter label.

 

Point Clouds

Laser scanning & data capture is now common place to the BIM process. There are plenty of surveying firms & even contractors using laser scanning equipment, as the cost of ownership has reduced, to capture large quantities of data about buildings as point clouds. This data, albeit it huge in size, is being used for modelling of existing conditions as well as cross referencing the Building Information Model (design intent) against what is built on site. Revit has had the ability to link in point clouds for some time, but Revit 2014 sees the implementation of a completely new engine.

What this is, is the inclusion of the Alice labs acquisition within Revit. What I have tested is astonishingly fast, throwing a 5 gig cloud data file around in Revit was amazingly smooth. Linking the point cloud into a Revit project is exactly the same, but there are more point cloud file types available. You do need to index the point cloud data structure for the engine before loading it in. If you select a raw dataset to be inserted into Revit, you will be asked to index the data. Once indexed the resulting RCS file can be linked into a Revit project. Crop regions & sections box tools allow you to control the visibility of the point cloud. But with visibility graphics you can also override the colour mode of the point cloud.

There are 5 options available for colour modes of the point cloud.

<No Override>: This will display the point cloud in the colours specified in the source file, if they are available.

Single Color: will displays all points in the point cloud in a single colour that you can specify.

Elevation: will display the points in the point cloud using a gradation of colour between the 2 colours (Max Elevation and Min Elevation) that you can specify.

Intensity: displays the points in the point cloud using a gradation of colour between 2 colours (Max Intensity and Min Intensity) that you can specify.

Normals: displays the points in colours relative to the direction of the point normal (the direction of reflectance of points when initially captured). For example, all points with a normal direction "up" will have a consistent colour.

You can still snap to planes detected within the point cloud when using snap functionality, but we still have some way to go before we can start to automatically convert point cloud data into smart objects. This will come, but for now just being to reference reality into a BIM environment starts to close yet another gap in the BIM process.

 

Some of the other paraphernalia

So included below are few other enhancements which are worth knowing about. Not earth shattering, but they all go a long way to the fit & finish process of existing functionality.

When you divide a surface in the conceptual massing environment, you can adjust the u/v angle with the align tool. You can specify a default divisions to surface settings, which will be retained in the project for subsequent uses of the divide surface tool.

This one I am genuinely excited by. When you import a solid into a family, you have the ability to fully explode the solid. What this actually does is turn this into an element which you can actually do something with! Whilst you can’t actually edit the form, you can manipulate the resulting freeform elements with direct manipulation handles. You can also cut, join the geometry with form functionality tools. Now all we need is Revit to be able to read parameters from other tools!

When working in the conceptual massing environment, you can use a 3d start – end – radius Arc, which creates a 3d arc. The points of the arc can be hosted on reference geometry.

To solve a particular COBie requirement, you can allow parameters to vary between groups. You can control values so they are aligned per group type or values can vary by group instance.

There are a raft of minor tweaks to interoperability. Substantial work has taken place to ensure IFC export gets IFC certification in accordance with buildingSMART international standards requirements. DWF files now support textures, line patterns, lineweights, colours as well as sun paths. DWG / DXF export sees further improvements to how Revit dimensions export to AutoCAD. When a DWG or DXF file is linked into Revits project environment, import / links only list the views the imported / linked file appears in via the visibility graphics dialogue box. If you delete a view with a linked DWG file you can now re-establish a new reference view, rather than having to remove the linked DWG file & then re-link it in.

One other minor, yet critical improvement is the ability to control dual units in dimensions. Any dimension can display both units say metric & imperial. Just by simply going to the dimension style & enabling Alternate Units, then picking the Alternative Units Format you can display two different dimension formats in a dimension string.

 

 

Summary

So here endeth this year’s round up / sermon of new Revit functionality for the release of 2014. What do I think? Good…..actually very good. I’m not just saying that; there is some honest improvements to aging functionality which needed to be modernized as well as bundle of items which I would refer to fit & finish functionality. Sometimes you need that, so you can take stock and improve the whole user experience. I really like the displaced views tool, that’s a cracking enhancement in my opinion & schedule functionality update is very much welcomed. Alignment with how Excel works & functions, is very nice. Revit 2014 feels snappier and smoother in operation. But…. there is always a “but”…..I want to see developments to site tools, nothing as dynamic as say Civil3d, just the ability to model proper roads, pavements & terrain. We need better ways to create & control railings & custom railings. I never thought I would say this, but text formatting! Autodesk, just do it. We talk up BIM, with plenty that are developing models, yet deliverables still remain 2d. Disagree with me if you like, but right now 2d information is not going to disappear anytime soon. Improving how we link in notes & formatting of text is something we just need to enhance to improve the overall completion of the tool. Working in perspective views, can it be that difficult? Those kids over at Vasari team have cracked it. Non-photo realistic enhancements, squiggled line presentation views. More graphics card GPU enhancements & finally its time curtain walls got an injection of love. I don’t want much do I?

Music listen to when formulating this review - Above & Beyond anjunabeats vol. 10

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