Autodesk Quantity Takeoff 2011…move along folks, nothing to see here

I’ve been patiently waiting for a new release of QTO, which finally came out yesterday; a mere 7 months off of Autodesk’s release cycle for the rest of their software. I figured they must be doing great things with all the time they’ve had to work on the product right?

Well, not so much. The only notable new feature is takeoff coloring of the model. The rest doesn’t get me excited, which you can see here http://doddsandends.typepad.com/blog/2010/11/autodesk-quantity-takeoff-2011-released.html (sorry Jason)

3D is still unusable for the most part, none of the navigation tools have been brought over from design review. No sectioning, walking, hiding, etc. No split screen, can’t have multiple documents open. Still can’t total your quantities inside qto.

All that said, it is still a good program and we will continue to utilize it, I just needed to express my disappointment in the development of the product.

Scan to BIM

I haven’t seen this posted anywhere else besides a tweet that Beau sent out the other day. This is too exciting to not be talked about.

This should help reduce the cost of laser scanning since previously you generally had to rely on the scanning company to convert the point cloud to a model in AutoCAD. I have not tried it yet so I can’t speak to it’s usability but I am excited to find a project to use it on.

http://www.avatech.com/solutions/building-design/product-details.aspx?product=90

The Scan to BIM software add-in takes the ordeal out of the process of getting 3D laser scanning data into Revit. It enables you to import point clouds directly into Revit, visualize them directly in Revit, and interact directly in Revit with automated recognition and placement of walls and openings, as well as pipes and ducts.

Back in action

I just signed up for the blogger social event at AU and realized I haven’t posted since March (my jaw dropped a little when I saw that) I must admit I had lost my motivation towards BIM and it was a rough year while I tried to find my path in life. Some of you know that I found a deep passion for photography and this overtook my life; it was all I could think about and nothing else mattered. I couldn’t see balancing work life with my newly found purpose.

Recently I went through Dale Carnegie Training, which Darren Lewis explains nicely in his blog post How to be human.  This really awakened me and revitalized my passions for life in general. I have re-dedicated myself to BIM and am very excited for the coming year.

My focus will be helping implement Lean construction methodologies with BIM and really changing our entire process rather than simply inserting BIM into the same old processes. We continue to bring in lots of work at Neenan despite the economy, which speaks volumes of how great this company already is; I’m excited about the potential this company has.

Soon I’ll be posting about what we’re doing with Vela in the field using iPads on the jobsite amongst other things. No real content in this post, just a reintroduction to get myself motivated to post again. For those of you going, I look forward to seeing you at AU!

p.s. for those of you interested I am still fully immersed in photography as well and am selling my work for install in commercial/residential buildings. If you have any connections with interior designers I would appreciate you forwarding my contact info on! We just finished an install in one of our medical buildings which you can  see on my other blog www.kinghamphotographyblog.com and you can see my work at www.kinghamphotography.com

QTO

Oops Jason already posted my last tip on his blog last year, and I’m even subscribed to his blog…oh well. Maybe this will help raise the awareness of QTO.

So far I’ve found Jason’s blog:

dODDS and Ends

and…

Autodesk QTO Users Group

last and never least…

AUGI Quantity Takeoff Forum

Anyone else have any good QTO resources?

Autodesk Quantity Takeoff and Windows 7

In Windows 7 you will receive the following error when attempting to open a file in QTO

Fortunately Autodesk support was extremely fast to respond (3 hours) with this solution:

The ADOX file is a file required for VBA applications that the 2010 QTO installer does not install into Windows 7. A manual copy of the Vista version of this file into the program should correct this issue. You will need Administrator rights to perform this operation. Here is a process for you to try:

Copy and install the ADOX file:

1.) Close Quantity Takeoff.

2.) Locate the following path\file on the install DVD: \x86\Autodesk\QTO\Vista\ADOX.DLL

3.) Copy the ADOX.DLL file to the installed QTO directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Autodesk Quantity Takeoff 2010\

4.) Restart QTO.

5.) Open a new or existing project.

Easier model text on a curved wall

Daryl posted a good tip for placing model text on a curved wall. While it is a creative solution I believe I have a better method for you all.

First off create a new family from the Generic Model – Face Based template. Put in a piece of model text, give the model text an instance parameter so you can change it in the project, you can also give parameters for material and depth. Load this into your project and place on the face of the wall (which can be done in plan, elevation or 3d)

Now in plan view array some ref planes around the center point of the wall to get your spacing between the letters correct, to align these just select and drag to align with the ref plane, you cannot use the align tool. Now if the wall ever changes the text will go along with it.

 

Subscription Pack available for Navisworks

Autodesk released a plethora of updates for many products yesterday, Revit and AutoCAD had plenty of coverage in the blogosphere, so I’ll only touch on the Navisworks update.

First off we can now import and export fbx format. Importing is not such a big deal for me, but exporting is very nice to bring out to 3ds max.

Batch processing utility, I had already automated most things using autohotkey but maybe these will be a bit more reliable since it runs directly through Navisworks:

• File list—produces a text file containing a list of the paths and file names of all design files used in an integrated model

• File combine—enables users to automatically import a batch of files of any supported format into a single model

• File convert—enables users to automatically convert a batch of supported files into individual Navisworks files

Last and certainly not least is the NWC export utility. This is huge. Finally we can freely distribute this exporter to the entire project team, now anyone can export to Navisworks without buying the software. Thank you, thank you, thank you Autodesk for listening to the customers.

These can be downloaded from the subscription (obviously you must be on subscription) http://subscription.autodesk.com