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    • Author: Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    CTC 2021 Revit Product Updates!

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    CTC Software has been preparing to release updates to our AEC tools for Revit 2021. This release launched May 4th and affects most of our AEC offerings. HIVE has undergone a massive update, streamlining all aspects of user interaction and management. Our software suites have all been built to work on the new Autodesk 2021 platforms, and the SuperDoor Configurator and Casework Configurator content packs have been upgraded for 2021 as well. All of these tools will continue to support the 2017 versions of Autodesk products and newer, so they will also fit into your workflows for any version from the last 4 years. Additionally, the Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Productivity Pack content files have been upgraded to 2019, containing hundreds of updated families and a lot of new features and improved workflows. These tools are purpose-built to support your entire workflow from beginning to end, putting the right tools in the right hands so all team members gain efficiencies every day.

    Contact CTC or one of our partners for more information about the 2021 updates to our tools!

    HIVE specifically has had major changes to the user interface of the content management system (CMS). Many of you have provided feedback after extensively using the currently released HIVE system. We listened! The new HIVE has a major facelift, and the HIVE management portal on the web has been overhauled to make management easier, and to provide you with analytics for organization-wide use of CTC tools, project performance metrics and insights into how your teams are searching for content in the CMS. As always, we strive to develop our tools alongside you, so you and your teams can work efficiently. This update will be available May 11th. Feel free to share your experiences and ideas for how we can continue to improve.

    The other productivity tools in the software suites are all updated to work on the Autodesk 2021 platforms as well. This year we have decided to make sure that we support 5 version of Autodesk products, since we know many of our clients have projects with long lifecycles. While Autodesk may not officially support 2017, we felt that we should continue to make our tools available for that release since some of you have let us know that your projects are still being managed in that version. This new 2021 release of our tools will have the ability to communicate with the HIVE management portal so you can have a better understanding of the return on your investment this next year.

    CTC has 3 major Revit-based content packs. The two that install into the ribbon are the SuperDoor Configurator and the Casework Configurator. These, like our other suites, will be supported on Revit 2017-2021. The other content pack, the Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Productivity Pack (MEPPP), has been heavily updated in its latest version. It will be supported on Revit 2019-2021 with the actual content delivered in Revit 2019 format. We made this choice since most of the projects starting fresh in your firms will be on 2019 and later. We did not see value in building on older versions, as existing projects in production do not see huge benefits in transitioning standards mid-production. This MEPPP update has seen further standardization of the parameters used to help align our pack with metric users. The first release will be in Imperial units of measure, but a metric pack will be coming soon. This release saw heavy formula updates and further removal of unit dependencies. The lighting fixtures, electrical equipment and mechanical equipment have seen major updates, improving face-based and level-based hosting in a single family, and general ease of use. Many other categories have been touched as well, to ensure a uniform workflow and general consistent use. SuperDoor Configurator and Casework Configurator launched May 4th, the MEPPP will be available May 11th.

    As always, we encourage you to contact us at: sales@solidcad.ca

    Autodesk Desktop Connector Update

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Do you use BIM 360 and AutoCAD products?  Do you have the Autodesk Desktop Connector installed?  If so, there is a new update.  This may not be news to you as there are frequent updates, but this one is somewhat unique.  Please read on.

    Read the official Autodesk documentation for all the details.  Below are the notable changes.  Note that some of these changes may affect your Autodesk references and some IT configurations.  It is recommended that you discuss these changes with your IT department and/or CAD manager prior to installing.

    • Due to the rebranding of BIM 360 to Autodesk Docs, the local folder will be renamed to Autodesk Docs from BIM 360.
    • If your files contain supported Desktop Connector file references, their paths will be automatically fixed to the new folder.  Should your files contain references that are not supported by the Desktop Connector, those that contain a full path, their paths must be manually fixed by the user.
    • Opening files in the Recent section may not open due to files being moved to the new folder.
    • BIM 360 local cache files found in %userprofile% are moved to:

    Matterport – Blur Brush Tool (Beta)

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Do you need to censor something in your Matterport Tour, say a family photo, signage, license plates? Inside your Matterport Account, in the Edit Mode of a Showcase model, is the Blur Brush.

    The Blur Brush is brand new and we couldn’t be more excited to show it off. Many of you have been patiently waiting for this tool to help boost privacy and control over what to hide in your Matterport spaces. This, however, is only the beginning. What Amir covers in this video is only version 1.0 of the Blur Brush. As the tool develops, we’ll be adding new videos and linking to them from here.

    To enable the beta Blur Brush, simply login with as the Admin https://my.matterport.com/settings/account/manage

    Go to your Settings > Manage

    Below Turn on the Blur Brush:

    It will now appear in the Edit Mode:

    To see this tool in action, check out the video :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzFuW1nfr1s&t=94s

    Lumion 11.3 Release Overview

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Architects love using Lumion for one important reason — it breathes life into rendering.

    Lumion makes the process feel like a natural part of your craft, helping you produce beautiful results with ease at every phase of the design project. Its elegantly simple workflow guides you through a rendering experience peppered with moments of unexpected joy.

    Whether for design development or the big client presentation, Lumion 11.3 continues to enhance the rendering process by bringing architects and the art of rendering even closer together.

    No longer will you need hours of frustration and guesswork to produce compelling images and videos of your project.

    With Lumion 11.3, the flow of ideas from your imagination to the computer screen encounters so little friction that rendering becomes an effortless tool in your design toolbox.

    Show the life and emotion in your project, and enjoy the process along the way. Learn more about how Lumion 11.3 changes the relationship between architects and rendering.

    Watch the recording of the webinar by SolidCAD’s product specialists Samuel Plante and Stephane Faulkner and learn all you need to know to get started with Lumion visualization software.

    The webinar covers the overview of Lumion software including some of the new features from the latest release.

    Revit Content Management- Changing Needs for a Work from Anywhere Future

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    The past year has brought challenges to all. While we look for areas to support and encourage, we continued to look at how we can best serve the needs of our clients. One of the most critical points that hit many, was the need to support entire workforces now working remotely. For our clients using Revit, Autodesk BIM 360 Collaboration enabled our clients to continue to work as teams on new and existing Revit projects. This critical piece ensured that projects could move forward. However, the Revit project models are only a portion of the solution required.

    Architects, engineers, and contractors need to author and populate these models with content. Doors, windows, beams, columns, HVAC equipment, lighting fixtures. Every piece of design content needs to be carefully selected and placed. We also need ways to manage and support these projects. Ideally helping our clients be more efficient, reducing the risk of errors and omissions, and heading off project issues ASAP.

    Dan Stine of Lake Flato Architects shared his thoughts around the important topic of content management and project analytics in this article published on the Autodesk University site. Dan explains the critical issues that CTC Software’s HIVE solution solves. SolidCAD is the exclusive provider of HIVE for Canada.

    In his article, Dan talks about the important topic of content management and project analytics and CTC Software’s holistic solution in this space, that being HIVE. He covers the importance, the challenges, disparate pockets of content, broken feedback loop, and more.

    Check out his blog post on The Necessity of Content Management and Project Analytics.

    *Dan Stine’s Bio:

    A Minnesota native who recently relocated to San Antonio, Texas, Dan Stine has nearly 30 years of experience in the AEC space. He is a Wisconsin registered architect and teaches graduate architecture students at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and presents regularly at the University of Minnesota. Additionally, he has written 14 textbooks, including six on Revit, two on AutoCAD, and one on AutoCAD Architecture. His Residential Design Using Autodesk Revit 2021 is the #1 Revit book in the academic market in North America. He also writes posts for his blog, BIM Chapters, and for Enscape’s blog. He is currently the Director of Design Technology at Lake Flato Architects, the #1 US firm on the 2019 ARCHITECT 50 List.

     

     

    HIVE is a content management system developed specifically for the AEC industry. Firms can organize, manage, set permissions, and ensure the latest content is kept up-to-date and available for all project participants, even when working remotely. Users can quickly find Revit, AutoCAD, PDF, JPEG, and other file types quickly using libraries, tags, favorites, and file metadata.

     

    SolidCAD is the exclusive provider of HIVE for Canada.

    Reach out to our CTC team today. We’d like to understand more about your workflows, issues, and projects in Revit so we can continue to work towards practical solutions for our clients. 

     

     

    Matterport Capture app for Android is officially here!

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    This article was originally published by Kirk Stromberg and Matterport on the Matterport Blog.

    With Capture now generally available on Google Play, anyone can Matterport their space using a Pro2 or their favorite 360 camera.

    When it comes to helping you digitize physical spaces, we’ve always believed the less friction the better. It’s your world, and we want to help you capture it.

    That’s why when we shipped our first 3D camera, we paired it with the Matterport Capture app so that anyone could download it on their iPhone or iPad and use it to scan spaces in a simple and intuitive way. As we expanded our lineup of supported cameras to include 3D LiDAR scanners, 360 cameras, and even the camera on your iPhone, the Capture app on iOS was always at the center of our user experience because we wanted to make using Matterport easy, flexible, and instantly familiar.

    Capture for Android works as flexibly and simply as on iOS, making it a cinch to connect a Matterport Pro2 or six of the most popular 360 cameras made by our partners, Insta360 and Ricoh. So if you or your company already uses the Matterport platform, the free app can be downloaded onto the compatible Android devices you already own, making it fast and easy to mobilize more people on your team to capture spaces.

    If you don’t own a compatible camera, check out the options below. The Matterport Pro2 is the right pick if you are scanning a large volume of spaces and high accuracy and image quality are important to you. If portability and affordability are key factors, then choose a 360 camera. They are a great choice for scanning small to medium size spaces. You can compare cameras here.

    Check out this video to see how easy it is to get started. And then download the free Matterport Capture app on Google Play today. We’re excited to know what you think.

    https://youtu.be/pxST9ofYshQ

    Learn more

    Below is more information on Matterport Capture for Android. Note that additional information on requirements and support can also be found on our support page:

    Minimum Requirements for Supported Android Devices

    1. Android OS – 8.X (Oreo), 9.X (Pie) , 10.X (Q), 11.X
    2. 3 GB of RAM or more
    3. Android devices certified by Google and unrooted.
    4. Modern devices with a 64-bit architecture

    Supported Cameras

    • Matterport Pro2 3D camera
    • Matterport Pro2 Lite 3D camera
    • Matterport Pro 3D Camera
    • Insta360 ONE X
    • Insta360 ONE R
    • Insta360 ONE X2
    • Ricoh Theta Z1
    • Ricoh Theta V
    • Ricoh Theta SC2

    Supported languages

    12 languages including, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese  (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional).

    We’ll keep on building and adding to this list, and please stay tuned for updates on Matterport for Android, giving you the ability to capture 3D spaces using just the camera on your Android device

    Label Genie for Civil 3D: New Features

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Label Genie, with it’s recent debut, changed how we do Civil 3D sheet annotation. Allowing automated insertion of labels across multiple drawings and layouts at once, Label Genie turns hours of work into minutes. The latest release will feature labeling in Profile and Section Views, and add many new label types, such as dimensions, blocks, pipe and pressure networks. Additional anchor objects will be included and new data sources will be available, such as block attributes, property sets, objects data, and more.

    In this mini video series: Part 3, our Technical Consultant Infr/GIS – Colin Gaudet will showcase how you can automate labeling in Profile and Section Views, benefit from even more label types and anchor objects than before, and more.

    For full information on CTC tools for Civil 3D click here

    Auto Grader for Civil 3D: New Features

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Auto Grader is a game-changer in Civil 3D site grading. Through dynamically linked feature line sets, users can create grading families for parking lots, ponds, subdivisions, and more. The latest release features a “template-based” grading method, allowing automatic insertion of a user-defined set of feature lines, such as a building pad, along defined baselines, such as a roadway. Other enhancements include more detailed surface targeting, automatic surface boundaries, better family preview controls, and other user-friendly features.

    In this mini video series: Part 2, our Technical Consultant Infr/GIS – Colin Gaudet will showcase detailed surface targeting, automatic surface boundaries, better family preview controls, and other user-friendly features in the video below.

    For full information on CTC tools for Civil 3D click here

    Bluebeam Revu Update 20.2

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    The latest update for Bluebeam Revu has recently been released; you can find the release notes at this link.

    Independent Length Measurement units.  In previous versions, a user would calibrate a page, say in feet and inches, and all length measurements would be locked to that unit.  Length measurements can now be set to any preferred unit.  Create a measurement and change the unit in the properties.
    TIP:  if the default measurement is not in the desired unit, change the unit then set that as the new default by right-clicking.

    A refined Calibration tool.  The name has been changed from Calibrate to Set Scale.  After the tool has been launched, the dialog is a little different.  In previous versions, the Pick Points calibration window would appear first.  Now, the Apply Scales page appears first.  The user chooses either preset or custom scales, or they choose to calibrate using selected points.  Also, in this same form, the user can choose to apply the scale to a selected range of pages and add the custom scale to a preset for later use.
    TIP:  to remove a preset, click the garbage can icon in the Measurement tab.

    Earthwork Processor for Civil 3D: Subgrade Volume Calculations

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    Earthwork volume calculations can be a complex task in Civil 3D, especially with variable depth subgrades found in many site projects. With the CTC Earthwork Processor in the CIM Project Suite, this work is done for you. Subgrade and stripping surfaces are created based on intuitive inputs, then results can be automatically labeled, tabled, hatched or exported to a spreadsheet.

    In this mini video series: Part 1, our Technical Consultant Infr/GIS – Colin Gaudet will give you a quick overview of Earthwork Processor from CTC CIM Project Suite and cover some of the main features and capabilities.

    For full information on CTC tools for Civil 3D click here