Posts from "Wood Framing Floor" category

Vestack’s greentech building revolution incorporates AGACAD tools

In a drive to disrupt the construction industry with cost-effective environmentally friendly building solutions, this innovative Paris-based ‘green technology’ company says it has found big value in several AGACAD add-ins for Revit^®.

Client Profile

Vestack is a French startup that designs and manufactures low-carbon buildings using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and related technologies to achieve major efficiency gains and sustainable processes. Founded in 2019, the company has earned national recognition as a greentech innovation leader as well as backing from a well-known venture capital firm.

New feature of Wood/Metal Framing suites makes tagging elements in Revit views faster

Tagging elements in Revit is a relatively straightforward task. Revit has a range of default tags to offer and some basic functionality as well. You can even place tags automatically by chosen category. That is a great feature…until you need to adjust each tag on the drawings…keeping in mind that each drawing may contain dozens of them.

It’s an issue that Revit users commonly face. That’s why we developed and recently released a configurations-based solution for it. Introducing Smart Tags.

Smart Tags dramatically extends native Revit tagging functionality, saving you a lot of time during the documentation process. It can be used in combination with Smart Views and Smart Dimensions to take full advantage of automated drawing creation. Based on your criteria, you can preset what views will be created and how tags and dimensions will be applied. All this is done automatically once configurations are confirmed.

Where is Smart Tags?

New feature for Smart Dimensions: Dimension to nearest Revit element

Placing dimensions on views in Autodesk® Revit® is a very time-consuming process, but it’s got to be done in order to have drawings to send to the manufacturer. So, the faster it can be done, the better.

Our auto-dimensioning technology for Revit – Smart Dimensions – is useful for wood and metal frames, precast elements, and more, but individual drawings are a bit different from plans, sections, and elevations. So, we have updated Smart Dimensions so that it gives better results in those views for dimensioning to the nearest surrounding elements.

Helping BIM professionals in the AEC industry automate their daily tasks is our aim, and this new feature of Smart Dimensions will definitely help in this regard.

Dimension to nearest

This new feature allows elements to be measured from the nearest grids, levels, floors, walls, etc.

How to set up collaborative Revit models & project standards

There are certain professional catchwords used in AEC offices, production facilities, and on sites. While they are supposed to get your cognitive problem-solving gears to start turning, they instead make you want to roll your eyes and go do something useful whenever you hear one of them.

One such word is efficiency – a word so overused that the only purpose it has left is to show how serious you are about the matter at hand. Still, we should try to rehabilitate and recapture its objective meaning because, let’s face it, efficient is one thing AEC professionals can agree that the design process should be.

What do we really want to say when we talk about ‘efficiency at the drawing board’ or ‘efficiency on the construction site’? From experience and having spoken with a fair number of architects, engineers, builders, manufacturers, and developers, the consensus is that efficiency is about reducing time spent modeling, scheduling, or inputting information and using it for solving problems instead. Because, to put it simply, a staff’s brainpower can be put to better use than filling in schedules. The people of an AEC outfit are capable of solving design, logistical, technical, and interdisciplinary coordination issues, so that’s what we want to free them up to do.

In this blog post I’m going to go through the key focus areas when it comes to managing BIM processes and Revit models and getting the most out of them. If you’re interested in watching a webinar on this topic, I hosted one in May 2021 that I invite you to watch.

Graves Lumber gets wins from BIM with AGACAD framing suite

This U.S. lumber yard adopted BIM with the help of AGACAD Wood Framing software for Revit^®, enabling it to provide more value-added services for general contractors and increase the efficiency of many of its own processes.

Client Profile

Graves Lumber is a large U.S. supplier of building materials and construction services with over 120 years of history. Based in Ohio, the company is also active in surrounding states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Wood/Metal Framing for Revit: The most significant enhancements of 2020

During the past year, we implemented over 40 updates to our Wood Framing and Metal Framing BIM software for designing walls, floors, and roofs of prefabricated timber and light-gauge steel-framed buildings in Revit®.

These updates include new features, enhanced sample families, and requests made by clients that benefit many of our users. In the spirit of sharing BIM advances, we walk through over 30 of them now in the hopes that this summary will be of use to not only current users but also Revit users generally and those who may be considering making the switch over to a BIM workflow for framing design.

We’ve put a lot of work into our Wood Framing and Metal Framing BIM software over the past year to make sure it continues advancing to meet the needs of architects and structural engineers around the world. Click a topic in the list below to auto-scroll down for more about it.

By the way, we also hosted this webinar in June 2021 that goes over most of the features enumerated below.

Framing Openings in Revit Easily Using the Cut Opening Tool [WEBINAR]

The importance of coordinating and designing openings in Revit should not be underestimated. Whether for doors, windows, structural, or MEP systems, it must be done accurately, as quickly as possible, and be readily adaptable to design changes. Setting up a system where such tasks may be performed easily, however, can cost considerable man-hours.

Here’s the good news: AGACAD has developed the software and workflow that allow Revit users to automatically insert openings based on clash-detection analysis. Once openings are generated, the software naturally accommodates them so that, for example, a duct passing through a wall is taken into account.

We invite you to sign up below for this free 30-minute webinar on August 26^th during which we’ll show the process that streamlines the insertion of penetration holes in the context of a timber or light-gauge steel framing project.

The webinar will be held twice, so please register for the session that’s more convenient for you. Content will especially be of interest to architects, engineers, BIM managers, out-of-box Revit users, and designers of wood or metal walls, roofs, or floors.

Best Practices for Starting to Frame in Revit [WORKFLOW]

Want to frame walls, floors, and roofs quickly in Revit®? Our Wood Framing and Metal Framing BIM software for Revit streamline the framing process for architects, structural engineers, and framed building contractors and provide a wide range of options for modelling framed buildings.

The great thing about our framing software is that we’ve built best practices right into the tools, based on the insights of leading users. Those just starting out with our framing tools, however, sometimes feel overwhelmed doing the initial setup for a new project. That’s why we’ve pulled together these best practices, which will help even experienced users navigate more confidently from the start.

In this blog post, you‘ll discover the essential steps for getting your project started on the right foot. We’ll start from the very beginning of the workflow so new users can start working on their own projects with confidence. And if you’re a seasoned user, knowing these steps will reinforce techniques with which you may already be familiar.

These essential steps – along with other useful recommendations – were also given in our recent webinar, so be sure to check that out for more visuals and explanation.

Modeling Recommendations

1. The Wall/Floor/Roof structure should be layered the way the parts of the framing will be modeled, e.g.:

New Wood/Metal Framing Version: Framing in Groups, Part Assembly Creation for All Framing Layers, Floor and Roof Dimensions and more

The newest Wood/Metal Framing version for Revit has been released, bringing the capability of working faster within big projects and improving users’ daily framing and dimensioning routine!

Note to Current Users: be sure to download the latest updates by clicking the red dot in the TOOLS4BIM Dock, and start benefitting from these new features today!

Our team at AGACAD continually strives to make work easier for designers of framed buildings. In order to address the growing needs and popular requests from our user community, we are pleased to announce the latest updates for our Wood and Metal Framing products.

These enhancements make our framing tools for timber and steel more flexible and enable you to have more control over frame design. As a result, you’ll be able to save time and avoid workarounds, both of which are key components of reducing stress when it comes to putting BIM into practice.

Released for Revit versions 2022, 2021, 2020 & 2019

While we usually only support the three latest Revit versions, in this release we have exceptionally provided an update for 2019 because we still have clients on 2019 for whom these features are important.

Without further ado, check out the latest major features described below and, again, make sure to download these updates via the TOOLS4BIM Dock. A list of minor improvements and bug fixes is included at bottom.

AGACAD Solutions Compatible with Revit 2022

To those who’ve been waiting to hear this announcement – thank you for your patience! Our BIM Application Engineers have been testing the Tools4BIM DOCK* against Revit 2022 to ensure complete compatibility. And now we’re pleased to announce that our BIM Solutions and Tools4Revit Add-ons are all ready to use with Revit 2022!