Thursday, July 08, 2010

DPR Model Slicer - Free Revit Add-on

Laura Handler, her blog is (bim)x,mentioned this in her post a little while ago. Jason Pratt, part of the author team at the blog "Connected" also mentions it. In fact Laura mentions his post in her post...bloggety bloggety blog blog. Expecting to see some tweets soon too.

What is it?
...snip
DPR Model Slicer is a free Revit plug-in which facilitates the creation of 3D Building sections from a Revit model. Inherently within Revit, the only way to separate a model by floor is to filter it by reference levels. Unfortunately, this often results in a product (shown below), where items modeled as multi-floor elements, such as walls or columns, become associated with only one floor despite occupying space on many floors.


How it works
DPR Model Slicer was designed, not only to make the creation of these sections easier, but also to allow you to quickly repeat the process on other projects or versions of the model.

There are two main parts of any 3D building section in DPR Model Slicer:
  • 3D Section Box: Defines the top and bottom bounds of the section. Typically corresponds to a building level.
  • Visibility Settings: Defines the visibility settings for the section (what objects are shown in that view)
By combining any combination of these two settings, all of the requested 3D sections can be created.


Who is DPR?
DPR Construction is a unique technical builder with a passion for results.
Ranked in the top 50 general contractors in the country over the last 10 years, we are a national commercial contractor and construction manager that has grown with our customers by delivering measurably more value. Whether it is a multi-million-dollar technical facility or a conference room renovation, we execute every project with relentless accountability. We listen to your goals. We develop strategies based on your business. We track our performance. We do everything we can to earn your trust and build great lasting relationships.
...snip

Amendment: 07/09/10
Since this post has generated several comments I've added my response to those that wonder why we wouldn't just use the Orient to View option ourselves to get the "same" result.

My comment reply:
...snip
Sure you can use the Orient to View option. Where this application proves interesting is that you don't have to create all of the views manually. It deals with repetition nicely.

You set up criteria once in a dialog and save the settings. You also can harness filters and associate them with your saved scope box settings. Then as a batch you can create 3D views based on your prepared settings.

It also provides a way to export these views to DWG or DWF formats. Remember this tool was created with the notion that a contractor wants to break up a model into discreet chunks. Exporting carefully from Revit can make the Clash Detection process in Navisworks much easier than forcing the NW user to do all the filtering in NW. Though very capable it can be tedious, especially when a Revit project is already made up of categories and levels.

Try it...and remember you don't have to use it.
...snip

6 comments:

Elisa said...

Funy, I read the tweets first, and went to their website. I was looking for more info, I'll read the other blog, it does look cool. I'm trying to figure out why I would need it, or if anyone is using it.

Danny said...

Uh, you can do this with the standard section box. I do it all the time. I don't see the need for this.

Anonymous said...

we have been using this for some time now,its actually quite useful to export views to Navisworks for clash.OpWd little too late on thisone

Anonymous said...

i agree with Danny. This is weird. Also, try right clicking on the view cube and doing an "Orient to View" and choose the floor plan. Quick and easy.

Darren Snook said...

Unless I'm missing something here, Revit can do this. Say you have your floor plans already set up. By going to a 3D view, right clicking on the view cube and selecting 'Orient to View' and picking the floor plan, the 3D view will adjust to the extents of that plan view. It will also work the same for any other type of view. Not knocking it though, especially as its a freebie, but just thought I'd share my observation

Steve said...

Okay you grumpy old Revit users...I suggest you actually try it out before you dismiss it completely.

Sure you can use the Orient to View option. Where this application proves interesting is that you don't have to create all of the views manually. It deals with repetition nicely.

You set up criteria once in a dialog and save the settings. You also can harness filters and associate them with your saved scope box settings. Then as a batch you can create 3D views based on your prepared settings.

It also provides a way to export these views to DWG or DWF formats. Remember this tool was created with the notion that a contractor want to break up a model into discreet chunks. Exporting carefully from Revit can make the Clash Detection process in Navisworks much easier than forcing the NW user to do all the filtering in NW. Though very capable it can be tedious, especially when a Revit project is already made up of categories and levels.

Try it...and remember you don't have to use it.