Scaling families – #empirebim

It seems very trendy to scale families these days! As I missed out on some of Marcello’s RTC Revit hacks this year, this is homage to what he & others like Kelvin Tam are doing. So as others have shown, I have various nested generic model families, dropped them into a plant family template. This family is then nested into another plant family. This is then placed into a project. Using the height parameter in the family, changing this, scales the family.

So what about this for a complete twist; a curtain wall At-At…..

So it easy to achieve this. Just create the family using the nested plant family approach previously described in both Marcello’s & Kelvins Blog posts . Next start a new curtain wall panel family. Then load your plant family into the curtain wall panel. Lock & align it to the reference level. Then create a dimension between the top & bottom reference planes in an elevation view. As indicated in the image below.

Then select that dimension & turn it into a instance based reporting parameter.

Finally link this report parameter to the height parameter in the nested plant family.

Save your family & load him into a new project. Draw yourself a new piece of curtain wall. The key component here is to set the divisions of the curtain wall to be by number in the type properties of the curtain wall, certainly during the test process. Also, set the curtain wall panel type to be your newly loaded curtain wall panel.

Your panels will then display in the the curtain wall. Select the curtain wall & alter the vertical grid & horizontal grid number as required to increase the number of panels.

You will be able to do other cool things if you manually divide the curtain wall.

I am an architect….

You may have already seen this before, but if you haven’t, pop on your headphones & enjoy……

https://sketchfab.com

Sketchfab is a lot of fun. Its a hosting service for sharing & embedding 3d models on the web. Using webGL through a suitable browser, you can post 3d models online & share them with others. Sketchfab describe themselves as wanting to be the Youtube for 3D content. Its worth a look & good fun. It supports up to 27 native formats & I hear a rumour a Revit exporter might be on the way.

Check it out http://sketchfab.com/

This was little bit of experimentation: Vasari shuttle, exported to DWF & then uploaded to sketchfab

imperial shuttle(click to view in 3D)

What a piece of junk!

Still working progress, but I thought I’d share. Why Vasari & Revit is my hobby as much as its my job!

Disappearing 1560 Trapelo Rd, Waltham, MA

I am starting to wonder whether Autodesk have introduced a new cloaking device to evade the competition down at the “Factory”? Now you see us, now you don’t!

Simply Complex Blog

 

After RTCUSA, Marcello Sgambelluri (he of Revit elephant fame) dropped me a note to say he has started a blog. He has started his blog site to be able to profile projects and Revit families that incorporate complex geometry. Be sure to check it out…

http://therevitcomplex.blogspot.com/

Nuformer & Kinects

You have got to check this out…..

NuFormer – 3D video mapping interactivity test, April 2011 from NuFormer Projection on Vimeo.

Off Topic – Hobbies, BMX, Revit

So this is a little off topic, but I thought it was worth sharing. So when I’m not geeking with Revit or spending time with my family I do have a hobby which harps back to my youth! I am 80’s child at heart and one of the cool things that came out of this era was BMX! So when I have time, I like getting knackered and trashed BMX bikes and refurbishing them back to their former glory. If you don’t know much about BMX, the craze started back in SoCal in the early 70’s, but really hit the big time in the 80’s. After dropping off the radar due to the mountain bike movement, its more recently hit the mainstream once again, with BMX heros like Mat Hoffman and Dave Mirra helping to drive the sport forward. BMX racing is even an Olympic sport.  One particular firm which I have a lot of respect for is S&M Bikes, American owned, American made, these bikes have collected a cult following over the years. Anyway, a few years back I bid for a S&M Dirt Bike frame on Ebay, the image is below. I knew exactly what it was when it appeared on Ebay and was determined to win this!

Anyway, I did win and I didn’t pay over the odds. When the frame & forks arrived I stripped it of all it parts.All the value was in the frame and forks; hand made in the USA from 4130 cromoly tubing.

I then stripped it back to bare metal.

I got the frame & forks powder coated red, as near to the original RAL colour as I could. But I also wanted to recreate the decals. I managed to get the original decals off the frame ok, which I then scanned in on my Mac. After cleaning the scans up in Photoshop, I then fired up Revit! I created a new drafting view and imported the jpeg scan.

I then traced over the scan using detail lines and solid fills to end up with this exact copy of the original artwork.

I then tracked down a firm on the internet which supplied clear decal sticker paper and printed the art work using my Epson Inkjet printer.

Then all I had to do is get the decals onto the frame!

So this is the completed bike!

So the next time somebody tells you that you can’t do that it Revit, you tell em’ that Revit can even do artwork !!! BTW, if you have old bmx bike or frame, I am particularly interested in tracking down  Skyway TA frame & forks, Haro Master or Haro Sport from the mid 80’s, let me know.  :-)