Mesh4BIM: Point Clouds to 3DMesh for BIM

Nowadays the construction industry is using laser scanners to perform as built surveys from different buildings. The result is a point cloud compound of millions of point.

Autodesk Revit’s platform allows to import those point, to use them as reference to model architectural and structural BIM elements. However the performance of the workflow dealing with millions of points is to low and turns the software unstable or clashing. Redrawing work views could take several minutes even if it’s a last generation system.

Another issue is about the lack of definition regarding the geometrical shapes of the components in the project, this could create confusion based on the different densities and low performance of the work.

The proposal is to process the data sets of point cloud and shape as polygonal meshes, reducing hundred millions of points into only dozen of thousand points. Resulting in files of a few Megabytes instead of several Gigabytes.

Addin for Revit: Mesh4BIM

We’ve created an Addin for Revit 2016 that allows to process the point clouds using Meshlab software and applying multiple filters automatically.

The addin is divided in the process:
Input, Process and Output.

Mesh4BIM allows to process 2 types of Point Clouds DataSets: PTS and PTX. You could also choose between medium and high quality for the resulting mesh.

All process execute in a command window that should leave open all the execution:

DXF Meshes inside Revit

The final files, containing the polygonal meshes are in format DXF. The DXF format could be readied with any CAD software in the market, and is easily imported by the Autodesk Revit platform.
As result of processing the point clouds and the consequent conversion into a polygonal mesh you get:

-A reduction of the size of the files, from several Gigabytes into a dozen of Megabytes.
-A reduction of the size of the cloud by sampling hundreds millions points into dozen miles of polygonal faces.
-An improved performance of Revit, avoiding destabilize the system and eventual clashes.
-An augmented precision of the geometrical shapes, which improves the quality of the modeling process through a polygonal mesh.

Request a Demo: contact@scaleid.com

Mechanical from scratch using Dynamo [Part 3]

On this post we’ll use the location of the diffusers in the cad to place them in the revit files.

First we need to retrieve the coordinates of the diffusers block by using data extraction command

Change Duplicate Marks automatically

DUPLICATE MARKS!

Have you ever been working with other people on the same Revit model, and you realized that there are a lot of Element’s duplicate marks? We’ve develop a custom node in Dynamo that automatically changes all duplicates marks. You just have to create a list with the categories or family types that have Duplicate marks, set Run and thats all!

1.First of all download the Dynamo node(find the link at the bottom of this post)

2. Create a List with the categories or family types that have the Duplicate marks

3. Connect the create list to the “Replace duplicate Marks” Node and hit Run!

Below you can find, first the link of the Dynamo node and secondly the link to the python node code:

–https://mega.nz/#!bQU1HCAD!_BS3cnodDc7KGwQYF28JnH5kijprhnlf0RC5-jLeNRM

–https://github.com/ScaleID/Dynamo/blob/master/Replace%20duplicate%20Marks

Mechanical from scratch using Dynamo [Part 2]

Today I’ll explain the node we have created to generate ducts in Revit using lines coordinates from a cad file.

We will use the Revit API method Document.NewDuct Method (XYZ, XYZ, DuctType), which needs 3 parameters:

2 XYZ : (Autodesk.Revit.DB.XYZ) for the first and second point of the duct.
DuctType: (Autodesk.Revit.DB.Mechanical.DuctType) The type of the duct.

Mechanical from scratch using Dynamo [Part 1]

I would like to share with you a project where I’ll try to create an HVAC system from a CAD sketch into Revit using Dynamo. This is not meant to be a new procedure to design mechanical systems more than a study of Dynamo capabilities on MEP modeling.

For this I’ve created this milestones/steps I’ll try to accomplish on the next posts :

1. Model a simple building on Revit and export to CAD.
2. Sketch an HVAC layout with a supply system and a few diffusers.
3. Export the location of the elements back to Revit using Dynamo.
4. Change the sizes of the elements according to the flow needed on each room.
5. Tag all elements having in count it’s locations and sizes.