4D Simulations Made Economical

Transcription

1 Landon Wilson, Stantec Consulting Ltd. Description I m sure you have all seen a 4D building construction simulation, and thought that was cool! In this session I want to show you how, through refined workflow, shared parameters, templates, and more, you can utilize your documentation model and create presentable. So you re thinking ok, I ve seen it before and maybe you ve even done it before - but generally, it s something your company would leave for a third party studio to do. We were tasked with doing it for our boss in a couple days. During this session we will guide you through the process that proves not only can you generate quality economically, but you can do it without derailing your documentation model.

2 Software We discuss four suites of software that we use for this workflow. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and we will show you how to get the most out of each. Here s a quick overview of each and the key points. Revit Your Revit environment is where it all starts. We have developed this workflow with the mindset that the model is NOT for an animation, but rather, the primary purpose is for documentation. Working within these constraints, we realized that, as long as you model your components as they will be constructed - which in my opinion, you would be doing anyway - then it requires very little adjustments. In your Revit model you will need to add two new Shared parameters for all elements you want to animate: Page 2 of 6

3 4D Simulation ID (Text Parameter) o This is the bread and butter of linking your model to the schedule. You will need to come up with a naming convention that makes sense to you. o Tip You can apply these parameters automatically with Dynamo! Naming Convention for Animation. 4D Visibility (Yes/No Parameter) o This will come in handy to filter out any elements you do NOT want in your animation. Remember the primary use of the 3D model? It s not this simulation, so you can simply check off whichever elements you do not want to include, could be a connection plate, rebar, etc. Page 3 of 6

4 Microsoft Excel In our animation series we have opted to use Microsoft Excel to create the schedules. You can use any software compatible with Navisworks. For us, we were familiar with Excel and could generate schedules fairly quickly. The excel document is fairly straight forward; you will be generating a schedule for your construction. The important part of this for our workflow, is adding a column for to link the schedule with the Revit model. Excel Columns we have created: Floor Name Task Order Task ID Task Type Actual Start Date Actual End Date Planned Start Date Planned End Date Excel Schedule Example Page 4 of 6

5 Navisworks Navisworks is where the magic happens; here we ll link in our Revit model and our construction schedule. Within the timeliner we will attach model elements to the scheduled tasks and ultimately create the basis of the animation. Through the demonstration we will go over each of the following steps in detail: 1. Linking the Revit model. 2. Linking the Schedule. 3. Searching for elements based off Revit parameter. 4. Saving search sets. (Not selection sets!) 5. Using rules to apply search sets to scheduled tasks. 6. Running animations 7. Exporting Search Sets (Using Naviset Add-in found at Trancerobot.com) 8. Exporting Timeliner (Using Naviset Add-In found at Trancerobot.com) Page 5 of 6

6 3DS Max 3DS Max is well known as an extremely powerful application for renders and animations. Our final step in our workflow is building on our simulation in 3DS Max. Here, you will have the tools to add cranes, heavy equipment, surrounding buildings, and build on your general environment, the list goes on! There is 1 very important step in 3DS Max, without it, your 4D animation lacks any correlation to time. You have to set your frame count to the exact same amount of days that your construction takes place. ie days of construction will start as a 1200 frame animation. You can always re-scale 3DS Max Steps 1. Linking the live Revit model 2. Set frame count 3. Running import script for Search sets 4. Running import script for timeliner data 5. *Test animation 6. Fix / Adjust any animations. 7. Set up any render settings, views, camera s etc. 8. Test Render 9. Render Sequence Page 6 of 6