Do you have a laptop from the last two to three years?
Big fancy dedicated graphics card?
Autodesk software runs slow in graphics and you haven't seen an improvement on your old laptop?
Products like InfraWorks especially are demanding some graphics grunt to navigate around a whole city.
Probably this is you?
So the problem potentially is that you have switchable graphics.
This is to save battery power that your laptop is consuming the on board graphics card only.
Right click on your desktop and screen resolution and the ‘advanced settings’ and see what it is showing.
If it says Intel HD, then you are not running with your fancy graphics card
This is an example of what you could be seeing (Image from Intel.com)
With NVidia and AMD ATI cards, they have a desktop tray control to potentially switch the graphics or have automatic switching where you can choose a product to use the dedicated graphics.
Example of a graphics card control panel for setting graphics preferred graphics processor, i.e. switchable graphics
To be honest the automatic switching, I have never got to work.
So the other way around you will need IT assistance as we need to touch the BIOS (here be dragons as they say )
So when you boot your computer you normally can press F5, F8, F12 or something to enter the BIOS setup (they are all different)
Then look for display or video and you hopefully will have an option like this for ‘Switchable Graphics’
TURN IT OFF
Save and your computer will restart
When you enter Windows, it could look bad like safe mode and you will see that the drivers are reinstalling and will potentially ask for another restart
After restart, you will find you have the graphics power, less battery time but software that really performs
Do the same test and you should see your fancy graphics card (other manufacturers are available)
Please, work with your IT to test this as it applies for everyone and is affecting ALL your software performance in a big way.
Jack Strongitharm
Update My Feed PreferencesIntegrating Autodesk Revit and Robot Structural Analysis Professional Whitepaper is now available on the iBooks Store. This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iPad, and with iTunes on your computer.
This paper explores the interoperability between Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Revit Structure, and Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional software - including recommended workflows, analytical modeling best practices, and the details of data exchange between the solutions. Update My Feed PreferencesI would like to share with you my favorite structural enhancement which was made in Autodesk Revit 2015 R2.
Now it is possible to define rebars in beams and columns without a need to create additional sections.This feature improves the way of rebar definition in any host and gives the user great flexibility to define reinforcement in any 2D view.
Update My Feed PreferencesSubscribers rejoice! Revit “R2” includes over 30 user-requested features that add powerful capabilities, enhance software performance and improve user productivity for architects, MEP and structural engineers.
In addition to addressing customer requests, the family of Revit R2 releases represents more value for Subscription customers who get access to the most current Revit technologies.
Learn more: Autodesk Revit 2015 Subscribers Get Slew of New Capabilities with “R2” Update
Update My Feed PreferencesThis whitepaper contains the updated information on the latest SMXX format as well as the analytical model enhancements in Autodesk Revit.
SMXX is the binary file format that contains information about the structural model.
Thursday 23rd October we will be holding the first Civil 3D user group in the UK.
A start up committee of dedicated users, supporting resellers and myself are pulling this group together and initially starting in Manchester for an evening gathering.
Watch this space for an invitation and more details.
Look forward to seeing you there
Jack Strongitharm
Update My Feed PreferencesAutodesk Advance Steel has powerful tools for miscellaneous steel such as stairs and railings. In this video, you’ll see how easy the tools are to use to create simple or complex designs.
Learn more at www.autodesk.com/advancesteel
Update My Feed PreferencesUse of Building Information Modeling is accelerating dramatically, driven by major private and government owners who want to institutionalize its benefits of faster, more certain project delivery, and more reliable quality and cost. According to the 2013 McGraw Hill Construction SmartMarket report, “The Business Value of BIM for Construction in Major Global Markets,” adoption of BIM has reached more than 70 percent among firms in North America. Leading engineering firms are finding that BIM provides opportunities for companies to reshape projects at an ecosystem level, changing workflows in ways that deliver important results.
Figure 1: BIM-driven workflows can include structural detailing to better optimize the structural design to detailing process together.
A major driver of this evolution is that engineering firms are looking for better return on investment from BIM (see Figure 1). Even with a high adoption rate of BIM and owners seeing better coordinated designs with fewer requests for information, engineers are not being fully recognized financially. Other external factors at play include fewer construction projects, tighter project schedules, and lower design fees. Some firms have tried to reduce costs through mergers and acquisitions or offshoring of certain services. Others are exploring technologies such as mobile and cloud that better streamline processes such as multidiscipline collaboration and structural analysis and design.
Update My Feed PreferencesThis video focuses on telling the story of Steelway Building Systems. Steelway is a structural building systems detailer and fabricator based in Canada, who use Advance Steel to accurate model and drive fabrication of steel components.
Update My Feed PreferencesSome of you might have noticed that the surface from point cloud feature had disappeared in the original release of the 2015 version of Civil 3D.
Well for good reason.
So this extension has been posted on the subscription centre for a couple of weeks, but thought I would make a quick video to show you how it works.
Thanks to Topcon for the supply of the point cloud from their IPS2 mobile mapper solution which I had indexed in our Recap technology and comes in directly into AutoCAD.
The Recap point cloud can be consistently controlled and accessed through AutoCAD Civil 3D for this technique.
Currently limited to only extracting 800,000 points to a surface by filtering out non ground points is making point clouds now useable beyond just viewing to a huge user base.
Think of maintenance, widening etc to capture all the defects in the existing surface is much easier than just traditional survey.
Depending on your equipment used to capture the data, the time can be reduced to how long it takes to drive the route
Update My Feed PreferencesI am happy to share with you another whitepaper. This time it is a document on Wind Load Simulation in Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis
This whitepape is also available on the iBooks Store. This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iPad, and with iTunes on your computer.
Update My Feed Preferences
Updates for Vehicle tracking
Check the readme for details, link
Update My Feed PreferencesGet yourself upto date with the service pack 1 for Civil 3D 2015
Update My Feed PreferencesAs the title implies, this is the 500th blog post.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the faithful followers of this blog over the years.
This blog started out as more a tips and tricks blog around AutoCAD Civil 3D.
Over years it has expanded with BIM for Infrastructure taking hold and how best to approach the 3D model based process to help facilitate this significant shift in the industry.
Also, just as a way I can help you keep upto date with the ever moving product enhancements from Autodesk.
Thank you also to the guest contributors and other colleagues that have kept the blog going.
Civil regards and more to come as always
Jack Strongitharm
Update My Feed PreferencesThis video provides insight into how to use the Revit tools in the best way for creating complete shop drawings and final rebar schedules. Take a look at the partitioning, the numbering, the bar presentation, the multi-rebar annotation tools and more in action.
Update My Feed PreferencesSP2 is now available for Map3D 2015 and Infrastructure Administrator 2015 (Industry Models).
These are 2 different service packs. If you use Industry Model functionalities you are required to install also the SP for the Infrastructure Administrator 2015.
The SP for Infrastructure Administrator 2015 does not shows up in the Autodesk Application Manager so please following the link below to download.
Download Service Pack 2 for Autodesk AutoCAD MAP 3D 2015 and Infrastructure Administrator 2015
Please note if you use IM with Oracle and SQL Server you need to open the Autodesk Industry Model Setup and update Mapsys user before you start using IM again.
Cristina Savian
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Glumac, a consulting engineering firm with offices throughout the West Coast and in Shanghai, is a leader in sustainable design—engineering green buildings that work. The team had been using the Autodesk Building Design Suite to create photorealistic renderings of its architectural designs for years. But recently, they faced a particularly challenging and important client proposal—a project for the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles.
That’s when they discovered the time-saving magic of rendering in the cloud.
Before discovering rendering in Autodesk 360, they had been trying to figure out how they could show the client their detailed plan visuals, without having to go through time-intensive process that usually comes with rendering images. That’s when David Rushford, the Director of BIM Integration at Glumac, noticed the “Render in the Cloud” button.
Right next to the normal “Render” button, David tried the new cloud rendering button, and to his surprise, the renderings that used to take numerous hours to complete, took mere minutes!
Thrilled to be able to produce such beautiful renderings in a fraction of the time it used to, they were able to render a slew of stunning visuals for their client presentation.
“To present extremely complex information in ways that everyone can understand, gives us a competitive advantage,” said Steven Straus, Chief Executive Officer at Glumac.
The renderings were a hit—their client was impressed by their plans for the Wilshire Hotel, sealing the deal for the project.
To see just how Glumac found their success with cloud rendering in Autodesk 360, watch the video:
Update My Feed PreferencesSome people have been experiencing troubles accessing the OS onDemand product using AutoCAD MAP3D so here is the correct workflow you should follow;
1. Data Tab > Connect > Add WMS connection
2. Add Server URL > Add user name & Password (If you do not currently hold a current OS onDemand licence you can apply for a trial version following this link http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-ondemand/index.html)
3. Make sure you select Version 1.3.0
4. Change the Layer CS Code from LL84 to British National Grid (You just need to change it in one layer and it will automatically change in all the others)
5. Change the Server CS Code from ESPG4326 to EPSG27700 (Unfortunately, you need to change all of them one by one, including the ones you do not intend to use)
6. Now select the last Layer “GB overview” as first layer, and all the other layers you need to bring into you Map (Note; the OS free trial will only give you access to OS OpenData products http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/opendata-products.html)
7. Select Combine into one Layer
8. Click on Add to Map
9. You should now have access to OS onDemand via WMS connection.
Please note; The display of individual layers in OS OnDemand is controlled by scale threshold settings. This is to ensure that the appropriate map products are automatically displayed for the map scale requested.
You can find more detailed info on the OS onDemand User guide. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/user-guides/os-ondemand-user-guide.pdf
Cristina Savian
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I must admit I do some of these posts so I can remember how to do some of these tricks myself when I am not always working with the software.
Here’s one of those I lost in emails.
So draw out your linework/area in Map 3D or Civil 3D, 2D is fine unless you have specific levels you want to use.
Here I am drawing against my InfraWorks model via the FDO link in Map3D/Civil 3D pointing to the SQLite file and also drawing in the Bing imagery using the ‘Geolocation’ feature
Ensure there is a break in the line and that the polyline is set to open, otherwise InfraWorks will treat it as an area.
Type ‘Mapexport’ and save to a SDF or SHP file
Import the file into InfraWorks and choose ‘Barriers’
Select your 3D model that you want to array along the line
Under ‘Table’ tab set the spacing, here you need to know to know the length of your 3D model, in my case its a fence panel of 2m
**If your output is rotated, you can come back to the rotation in this table on the Z axis**
You can choose the drape option which will stagger your models on their insertion point or fix a ground level/elevation
And voila
Thought I would do a playground as the kids are off on holiday now here in the UK and kept my son entertained for 10 minutes while working from home.
Quick quiz, who recognises where I got my 3D blocks from?
Update My Feed PreferencesAutodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional Wind Simulator Validation Brief and Direct Analysis Method whitepapers are now available on the iBooks Store. These copies were designed for iPad. To view these books on an iPad, you must have iBooks 3 or later and iOS 5.1 or later. You can also explore these books on your Mac.
These books are available for free and take advantage of some of great things you can do on your iPad or Mac. They are capable of Multi-Touch, audio, video, and more. With Multi-Touch Books, you are no longer limited to flat images on paper. You can flick or swipe through a photo gallery or listen to audio commentary etc.
Don't wait and just download them now:
Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional Wind Simulator Validation Brief
Direct Analysis Method in Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional
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