JTB ACA Tools for AutoCAD Architecture based toolsets

JTB ACA Tools comes with editing Tools for Property Sets, Classifications and List Definitions for AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) based products including MEP, Map 3D and Civil 3D.

With JTB Find, you are able to find and replace text in Extended Data tab in Properties, specifically for Property Sets and their Property Definition values.

With JTB PropsClassMapping, you are able to change Property Set values, Classification values of SPACE, WALL and DOOR according to the values of their other Property Set.

With ClassificationDefinition tools, you can import export AutoCAD Architecture Classification Definitions, avoid the need to type everything manually.

With ADTListDefinition tools, you can import, create and export ListDefinitions quick and easy.

JTB ACA Tools provides some useful lisp functions for AutoLISP programmers to modify property set and/or classification properties.

Free trial of JTB ACA Tools is available.

JTB Find new app to find and replace text in Property Set Data

With our new app JTB Find you can find and replace text in Property Sets and their Property Definition values (PSD).

JTB Find is an app for AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) based products including MEP, Map 3D and Civil 3D. If you want to try it we have a free trial available.

Do you need any custom development for AutoCAD verticals/toolsets like AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Map3D and AutoCAD Civil 3D we can help with that too.

JTB Quick Perspective updated for AutoCAD 2018

JTB Quick Perspective has been updated for AutoCAD 2018.

JTB Quick Perspective will transforms Points, Lines, straight Polylines and "landscape" Blocks to perspective view drawing, all in 2D working space.

If you want to add some simple perspective view to your drawing without getting involved in complicated 3D modeling, you will find JTB Quick Perspective invaluable. All you need is one command and you will be taken through a simple procedure where you will control required extrusion and rotation. Newly created objects are polylines and can be used as source frame for the next command call. With JTB Quick Perspective you will create 3D-like perspective views with just a few clicks!

JTB Quick Perspective 30-day trial is available.

AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD MEP 2018 New Feature Summary

It’s a really short one. Even AutoCAD 2018 had a quite short one, at least anything in AutoCAD 2018 is of course included for AutoCAD Architecture 2018 and AutoCAD MEP 2018.

With the new DWG 2018 drawing file format be careful about if and when to upgrade and how it affects others involved, but in your team and customers.

Based on the “news” it seems like there’s only one developer left working for these products. Question is how long AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP will be around?

A bug managed to be introduced. It’s been in AutoCAD Architecture before. In the example below I have multiple apps installed and each app gets one tab named either Plug-ins or Add-ins.

Design Center has not been updated even though Autodesk Seek is no longer available. See image below. Not so much a vertical issue but rather an issue in vanilla AutoCAD.

Here are the “news” and it’s always nice to see some bugs to be fixed:

Content

Approximately 400 new MVBlocks and block references are added to the metric content in the Design Center. The content includes lighting, furnishing, elevators, escalators, and electrical services.

High Resolution (4K) Monitor Support

Most AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP user interfaces are now optimized to work with high resolution monitors. As a result, dialog boxes such as the Style Manager and Display Manager dialog boxes, and palettes such as the Tool palettes and Styles Browser, scale correctly when you increase the text size in Windows display properties.

Performance Improvements

The value of the HPMAXLINES system variable has been optimized to reduce the time taken to open drawing files. The occasional crashes that occurred when opening and saving files, as well as when mirroring drawings containing Architecture entities are addressed.

Seamless Updates

Whenever an update is installed on AutoCAD Architecture 2018 or AutoCAD MEP 2018, the ribbon highlights the feature that was updated.

Product Quality Improvement

Projects addressing product reliability have resulted the following improvements:

• Exporting and converting schedule tables to Excel produces correct results under conditions it would not in previous releases.
• Transparency values are retained when set through the Display Properties dialog.
• Isolate Objects now correctly retain divided spaces when one of the spaces is isolated.
• It is no longer necessary to refresh a project to display new sheets in the Project Navigator.
• The Manage Content Library dialog is no longer suppressed when launched from the Style Browser, soon after migrating from a previous release.
• Issues with PDF drawings that did not import correctly in previous releases have been identified and rectified.
• The EXPORTTOAUTOCAD command no longer results in a system crash when exporting drawing files containing Open Light entities.
• Product Updates are now visible in network deployment when added through the Add Updates option.
• 2D block references will no longer participate in section creation operations.
• You can now split or trim mass elements when using non-default UCS.

System requirements found here.

JTB World’s apps ACA_db and Timber Tool have been updated to work with the 2018 version of AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.

ACA_db 4.1 released - for AutoCAD Architecture and MEP

With ACA_db you can use AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD MEP even more as part of your BIM process. Property Set values can automatically be updated back and forth to one or many external databases. If you make changes to the Extended Data values within a Property Set they can be synchronized back to the external database. Any Property in a Property Set Definition can be exported and all editable Properties can be imported.

This release adds support for AutoCAD Architecture 2016 or AutoCAD MEP 2016 as well as some bug fixes.

Contact us to get a time limited license file for free.

App to measure and draw floor plans

I have not tested this app but it looks like it’s pretty easy to use and could be useful if you want drawings of existing buildings.

MagicPlan measures the size of the room, draws the floor plan and creates a
DXF file, PDF document, JPEG images and a web site with an interactive floor plan. MagicPlan requires gyroscopes available only with iPhone 4, 4S, the new iPod Touch, the iPad 2 and the new iPad.

If you have tried it please comment below what you think about it.

AutoCAD Architecture Classification Definitions Export/Import

How can AutoCAD Architecture Classification Definitions be exported and imported?

With JTB World’s ClassificationDefinitionTools this can be done. I’ve now updated the tool for AutoCAD Architecture 2013 and AutoCAD MEP 2013. Windows 8 is also supported as long as you are able to run the Autodesk product in question on it.

Here is the program’s import form where the first column defines the level in the resulting classification tree. This will also work fine with thousands of classification items.

After importing this definition the result in the Style Manager is as below.

One user is using ClassificationDefinitionTools to add OmniClass Construction Classification System (known as OmniClass or OCCS) classifications to AutoCAD MEP drawings. “There are over 10,000 of them so this tool makes it easy.”

Trial is available at here.

AutoCAD Architecture 2013 database connectivity with ACA_db

ACA_db is an app/add-on from JTB World for AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.

Make use of AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD MEP more fully in your BIM process. Property Set values can automatically be updated back and forth to one or many external databases. If you make changes to the Extended Data values within a Property Set they can be synchronized back to the external database. Any Property in a Property Set Definition can be exported and all editable Properties can be imported.

With the new release ACA_db 4 there is support for AutoCAD Architecture 2013, AutoCAD MEP 2013, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

ACA_db will improve the BIM process and experience and will improve quality of your data and remove redundancy and conflicts of data.

Contact us to get a time limited license file for free.

Autodesk Seek adds New Quality Assurance Icons

Autodesk Seek will be enhanced with a file quality rating.

Here is a chart showing the file quality icons.

This is an example showing one rated product an one that is not yet rated.

From the press release:

New Quality Assurance Icons Expand Evaluation Support to Meet Needs of Growing Customer Base

Autodesk has announced the integration of a new quality rating system within Autodesk Seek, a free web service that enables architects and design professionals to quickly discover, preview and download branded and generic Building Information Modeling (BIM) models, drawings and specifications. To help architects, designers and manufacturers ensure quality when using intelligent models, drawings and specifications found in Seek, Autodesk will evaluate and rate each item using a set of seven icons. Additional ratings will be introduced over the coming months, beginning with ratings for chairs, doors, tables and benches. Additional model types will be evaluated throughout the year.

“The steady growth in the number and variety of models we have made available through Autodesk Seek has proven the system’s value as a key component in our BIM initiative,” said Jonathan Rydz, co-leader of the Bradley BIM Development Team, Bradley Corporation. “The addition of the rating system will ensure that our users know they have the best quality models.”

Some stats: Autodesk Seek is right now averaging 850,000 searches per month and 1,800,000 visitors this year alone, with nearly half of all visitors downloading files.

Via AutoCAD 2012’s Content Explorer, Autodesk Seek can be explored. Not sure though if the ratings will show up there.

Automation of Surveying

I remember how in early 1990s I was creating programs to import and export coordinates from AutoCAD to a total station and how it was used to locate the holes to be done for chair foundations in a large public hall.

The image is showing aerial LIDAR surveying from a paraplane operated by a Scandinavian Laser Surveying company.

What about those in the surveying trade?

Houston Neal over at Software Advice says:

“Surveying is going through a technological renaissance. The increased adoption of machine guidance systems has renewed the importance of the surveying trade. This technology calls for a highly-trained workforce, and surveyors are the most qualified for this job. But to get in on the action, surveyors need to learn to use this technology and re-brand themselves.”

“In addition to getting training, surveyors need to brand themselves as machine control experts. Contractors, land engineers and surveyors are all vying for this title and no one has proved themselves in the role yet. Land surveyors are the most qualified for the job, so they should position themselves accordingly. And to support this claim, they need only point to the existing state laws that require surveyors to be part of the machine control setup process.”

Read the whole article at Automation of Surveying Creates Disruption and Opportunities

8 levels wood buildings

Here are some pictures of Sweden’s highest new built residential buildings in wood. Walls and slabs are made of massive wood. Construction was done in a dry environment under a movable roof.

Limnologen is an eight-story building with 134 apartments, constructed using wood as the main building material.

Buildings with low energy consumption
The building is a part of the project Valle Broar, which aims to support wood-building technology and create the modern wooden city in Växjö. Limnologen is the first high building in Sweden whose construction is based on wood and has been conducted and evaluated in close collaboration with leading experts in wood building, who are active at universities within Sweden and abroad.

Environmental benefits
Wood buildings have many environmental benefits. The material is responsible for low carbon emissions during production and sequesters carbon during its lifetime. Producing wood is energy efficient, does not tear on finite resources and in addition wood buildings consume less energy than other types of buildings during their lifetime. The building only consumes 65 kWh per square meter and year. Wood buildings, in particular the ones that have a high level of pre-fabrication, are flexible and it is possible to recycle building elements. In the end of the lifecycle the material does not need to be deposited, but can be combusted and converted to heat and electricity. To the environmental benefits come other desirable attributes, such as it being highly fireproof and creating a good working environment. ref.

More pictures of Limnologen at Midroc Property Development as well as at Linnéuniversitetet here and much more here.

Building materials made of corn stover

I found this green product interesting and with a lot of potential.

CornBoard™ is a version of wood composite board that uses corn husks and stalks (commonly referred to as corn stover) remaining in the field after corn is harvested. The structural composite is prepared by mixing the fibrous corn component with a polymer matrix, laminating the mixture, and applying heat and pressure.

In contrast to traditional particle board, plywood, or medium-density fiberboard, CornBoard™ developed at CBMI will be repurposing an underutilized biomass material.  For every acre of corn grown, (over 86 million acres are grown annually in the U.S), over 4,000 pounds of corn stover is left in the field.  Appropriating this biomass material into new and innovative products is an efficient and environmentally conscious means of stewardship.

CornBoard™ is a green technology in that it traps CO2. Typically, when biomass is left to decompose in the field, the CO2 previously captured and consumed by the growing plant is released back into the atmosphere. Conversely, when the corn stover is made into CornBoard™, the CO2 is “trapped” in the material. Sequestering CO2 in CornBoard™ alleviates the contribution of the decomposing biomass towards an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.

CornBoard™ also provides an alternative to wood products, thereby reducing the demand on a less renewable resource. According to CBMI, just 2 acres of leftover corn stover biomass would produce enough CornBoard™ to build a two story house supplying the roof decking, flooring, and outer wall sheathing. CBMI uses a non-toxic resin binder in CornBoard™ production.  This method is a safer and more environmentally conscious choice than a traditional formaldehyde-base binder.

CBMI can produce CornBoard™ in varying densities, allowing for a variety of applications. Due to this flexibility, CornBoard™ is not limited to being a wood composite board replacement, but is also being developed into a variety of products including home and lawn furniture, kitchen cabinets, door cores, and even a full line of longboards.

Via Illinois’ Technology Basis for Unique and Versatile Corn-Based Structural Composite and more at the Corn Board Manufacturing website.

10MW offshore wind turbine

This is a bit old news but I thought it was interesting in several ways. This is Arup’s Aerogenerator X visualized by architects Grimshaw. The diameter is 274 meters and an innovative design and construction that can generate 10MW and new versions in the future possibly up to 20MW.

"In order to reduce the fatigue stress, the blade sections and thicknesses are increased which further increases the blade self-weight. These issues continue throughout the device. Drive-train mountings must be stiff enough to support the heavier components inside the nacelle on top of the tower, otherwise the systems can become misaligned and the support structure is also exposed to extremely large dynamic thrust and bending stresses, which are amplified significantly with any increase in water depth".

The innnovative design is the conclusion of an 18-month feasibility study called the NOVA project undertaken by Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Strathclyde University, Sheffield University and Wind Power Limited supported by consultant engineers and project managers. The NOVA feasibility project was funded by the Energy Technologies Institute, a public private partnership comprising BP, Caterpillar, EDF, E.ON, Rolls-Royce, Shell, BP, EDF, EON, Caterpillar, the UK Government and Wind Power Limited.

More at Arup.

Apple staircase

When you think Apple you might not think building design or construction but perhaps not surprisingly, the staircase received a design patent in 2002 with Steve Jobs' name first, followed by several others. The staircase design itself received a design patent, and the complex glass and hardware system received a separate technical patent.

More details at www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/glass_staircase.html

Autodesk Sustainable Design Center

On Earth Day Autodesk released the new Autodesk Sustainable Design Center. We all know the big need for sustainable design and this new site will help in general and especially if you want to know how Autodesk’s products can fit in. Lear too from several interesting customer stories like how AutoCAD and Civil 3D are butterfly-friendly.

Here are some of the links from the Autodesk Link List.

Page Name	URL
Autodesk Sustainable Design Center (landing page)	www.autodesk.com/sustainabledesign
Autodesk Carbon Footprint	www.autodesk.com/carbonfootprint
Green Leader Perspectives	www.autodesk.com/greenleaders
Sustainable Design Resources	www.autodesk.com/sustainabledesignresources
Key Issues	www.autodesk.com/keyissues
Clean Tech Development	www.autodesk.com/cleantechdev
High-Performance Buildings	www.autodesk.com/greenbuilding
Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program	www.autodesk.com/cleantech
Green Manufacturing	www.autodesk.com/greenmanufacturing
Green Consumer Products	www.autodesk.com/greenconsumerproducts
Green Vehicles	www.autodesk.com/greenvehicles
Roads and Transportation	www.autodesk.com/greenroads
Smart Utilities	www.autodesk.com/greenutilities
Greening Government	www.autodesk.com/greengovernment
Sustainable Urban Development & Design	www.autodesk.com/greencities
Teaching Sustainable Design	www.autodesk.com/sustainabledesigneducation

See also these related blog posts:

Retrofits game by Autodesk for Greener Buildings

Guide to Sustainable Design for Architecture, Engineering & Construction

Retrofits game by Autodesk for Greener Buildings

Autodesk wants to raise awareness about the benefits of greener, more sustainable buildings and of course to sell some software (nothing wrong with that though).

Buildings are the leading cause of green house gas emissions so it makes sense to “Don't Just Stand There. Make Buildings Better” as the slogan is.

Follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Retrofits09 and
visit www.autodesk.com/retrofits to play the game. You won’t see me make it to the leader board as I’m not that good.

Revit Wood Wall Framing tool

This is good news now that residential building also is expected to increase in 2010. This means Revit can be even more used for this industry.
“Single family housing for 2010 will advance 32 percent in dollars, corresponding to a 30 percent increase in the number of units, to 560,000.” -ref
Revit Subscription Advantage Pack will include this for Revit Architecture and Revit Structure and is now available for subscription customers.

We’ll see how this will compare with MWF from StrucSoft.

ACA_db 3.0 released with 2-way sync between AutoCAD Architecture and database

ACA_db helps to make use of AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD MEP more fully in your BIM process. Property Set values can automatically be updated back and forth to one or many external databases. If you make changes to the Extended Data values within a Property Set they can be synchronized back to the external database. Any Property in a Property Set Definition (PSD) can be exported and all editable Properties can be imported.

Contact us to get a time limited license file for free.

Blog Action Day 09: Climate Change – what can be done

Today is Blog Action Day 2009 so it’s a good day to consider the theme Climate Change and what can be done to be more environmentally friendly.

Here is a study Microsoft did on the environmental benefits to provide software to consumers online instead of shipping DVD’s.
The study concluded that downloading Office 2007 avoided 8 times the amount of carbon emissions compared to producing and shipping a DVD and its associated packaging through traditional retail distribution channels.
The study determined that carbon emissions avoided through online purchasing of 10 million copies is equivalent to:

• the electric consumption of 7,715 US households, or
• 13,008 passengers cars driven in one year, or
• 231 acres of avoided Amazon rainforest deforestation.

Software Downloads Help Microsoft and Customers Reduce Carbon Footprint
At JTB World we only provide our software electronically via download or email.
In the summer of 2007, sea ice was roughly 39% below the summer average for 1979-2000, a loss of area equal to nearly five United Kingdoms. Many scientists now believe the Arctic will be completely ice free in the summertime between 2011 and 2015, some 80 years ahead of what scientists had predicted just a few years ago. Read more about highest safe level of CO2 to 350 parts per million.

In 2009 the sea ice was
 
This is what it looked like in September 2009. Via NSIDC that has a lot more info.

A pair of German merchant ships traverse the fabled Northeast Passage. Ironically melting of the Arctic can help to lower fuel usage and carbon emissions for some ships.  Read more.

Sustainable design and building, green building, LEED, are things that will help.
Autodesk’s sustainability site and guide to sustainable design.
Yesterday I was reading about a house that produces more energy than it consumes. The article is in Swedish though. Three layers of insulation on the walls and two layers on the roof.

Stockholm lighthouse

This is a suggested building project for Stockholm, Sweden. In Swedish it is “Stockholmsfyren”. With its 187 meter and 54 floors it’s aimed to be higher than Turning Torso in Malmö and Kaknästornet in Stockholm. Now we have to wait and see if this will become reality or not.

 

 

 

 

  

Architecture by Rosenbergs arkitekter and a Swedish article at ymby.