CCTV Enhancement in Fuzor

I wrote about the Kalloc Studios product called Fuzor after seeing it at Autodesk University. I sat down with them at RTC in Melbourne and was really impressed with how much they've done since then (as in, "Oh! Did we tell you we've incorporated Clash Detection too?"). We chatted about a variety of things, one of which was security cameras.

I've worked with a few clients for whom security camera documentation is a big deal. I received an email this afternoon letting me know that they've got a cool addition they are eager to show me (and everyone) at RTC in Schaumburg next week, security camera features. Keep in mind that we sat down together less than two weeks ago and none of the below existed.

They've created three types of cameras so far: Small, Large and Dome.

You can switch between these types at will to achieve the look you want. They also have the option to choose black and white or color. Here's a sample screen shot. They've also taken notice of some important camera characteristics.

They've made it possible to save your current configurations as well as load previously saved configurations from the main Fuzor user interface. This is a sample dialog for selecting configurations.

That's a lot of ground to cover in two weeks!! If you think your firm could benefit from this sort of viewing and visualization enhancement then Fuzor's just presented another strong practical reason to check them out, ...and this is just a first pass, they'll be looking for feedback to make this a killer feature.

Fuzor

While attending Autodesk University last week Elaine with NBBJ mentioned a new product she is familiar with called Fuzor. She said I should check it out on the exhibit floor. Wednesday night I stopped by to have a look.

It's a stand-alone software intended to allow real time rendering and simulation of a Revit model. It also "plugs in" to Revit with its own tools on the ribbon. For example you can use View Sync to update Fuzor as you change your view in Revit. You can initiate changes by selecting elements in Fuzor and using the Edit Selection button on the ribbon in Revit.

Open your project, launch Fuzor, wait for it to load the model and you're off. Elaine opened up a project a team in her office has been working on so it was not a small model, nor just one model. Navigation was simple enough. If you've used the walk feature in Revit or the same concept in Navisworks you know enough to get around.

There is no export from Revit. Just open your project in Revit and then run Fuzor (separate application window). The only time you'll spend waiting is the initial load, about the same as waiting for Revit to load the project initially, perhaps a bit faster. Between the real time visualization and no export it's a pretty compelling option. The closest thing I can think of is the Lux module from M-Six's Veo.

The product is only about six months old at this point and about to become available for evaluation. It's being developed by a team based in San Diego, CA. If you are interested they are asking us to send a request via EMAIL. There is a PDF Manual if you'd like to read it. The price if I recall correctly is about $3,500.00 USD. They will be able to support network licensing as well.

Key Feature Summary

• Geometry Updates in Fuzor as soon as Revit data changes
• Select elements in Fuzor first and then edit in Revit
• Load specific levels (they call them layers) from linked files
• Materials changes in Revit update Fuzor immediately
• Camera Synchronization between Revit and Fuzor
• Correct Time of Day Simulation
• Weather Conditions: sunny, storm clouds, rain and rain with wind direction
• Walk and Fly through controls
• Uses Revit lighting data for interior lighting

I've embedded their intro video, follow THIS LINK for five others.

Revit 2013 - Sunshine

I enjoyed the bit where Scott Davis showed a single day solar study last night during the SCRUG (South Coast Revit User Group) meeting. If we advance a single frame at a time it permits us to capture a view with the sun in the view, like this.

It was funny when Randy jokingly offered a really specific time of day to use and the sun in Scott's view ended up exactly behind the top of the fireplace flue/chimney. It's was a happy accident that I couldn't replicate here.

RTC AUS VISDay - Something New

If you have been watching the The Revit Technology Conference site (for Australia) you probably noticed that it is introducing a special additional day, the day before) called RTC VisDay.

The inaugural RTC Visualisation Day is an adjunct to the Revit Technology Conference, dedicated to best-of-breed visualisation technologies and methodologies. It will be held immediately preceding RTC 2012 Australasia. It recognises the unique attributes of visualisation as a process, and the skills of those in the industry. We are proud to have secured some industry heavyweights to share their knowledge and to support an open dialogue in an intimate environment - similar to established RTC events generally. Come and learn from some of the industry's best, from Australasia and abroad.

The current roster of speakers is: Scott Ballis (Atomic 3D Pty Ltd), Daniel Flood (FloodSlicer), Pat Carmichael (HKS, Inc.), Phil Read (M-SIX) and more to come.

It's scheduled for Wednesday May 23rd, 2012 (the day before RTC begins) and runs from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

Check out the site to see if it is for you!

VEO Video Preview

Remember these dials?

VEO is...

VEO™ Lux - Navigate and Visualize
VEO™ Logic - Coordination and Validation
VEO™ Time - Scheduling and Sequencing
VEO™ Track - Asset tracking
VEO™ Archive - Model-linked document library
VEO™ Pulse - Real-time sensor data

Got three minutes? Watch the preview video to get a quick sense of what's in store.

Visualization with Stadia

I recently became aware of a new application called Stadia.

It works like this: Model away in Revit, when you are ready to see something you submit your model to their cloud rendering service. You register your email address with them and you just enter it in the Revit interface. When you press Enter, Revit submits your model information to their cloud.

I believe there is supposed to be a "Bake" button on the panel too, but it hasn't shown up on my UI yet. At least there is an image file for one in the installation folder for Stadia. [I've been informed that I can download an update that will fix it.] After a few minutes you get an email with a link to download the results. Extract the compressed file that arrives, double click on the rendering.exe file and you can wander around your building. Move the mouse to tilt/turn and use the arrow keys to move forward/back/side to side. Pretty simple, once you get the hang of it.

It renders using the materials you've chosen, the lights you've placed...so the closer to what you want it is in your model the better the results. It's a bit closer to Revit's realistic visual style than photo real rendering. Naturally your mileage will vary according to your own sense of success.

In my brief experimentation so far I did find it necessary to put some site surfaces around the exterior of the building. Without such features you "fall" similar to Navisworks when "walking" through your building. Make sure you put a building pad in so the site doesn't go inside your building or you'll end up with dirt/grass inside too. Doors "open" when you approach them. They don't swing open, rather the panel vanishes as you approach, more like Maxwell Smart and doors perhaps. You can walk up and down stairs, also much like Navisworks. My first thought was that they are harnessing the Navis API perhaps but I don't actually know.

I did struggle with navigation initially because it wasn't obvious to me how to do it. I tried to use the scroll wheel to zoom but that just seems to "spin" the view in an awkward manner. I'm not sure why but I really found myself wanting to "zoom" at times instead of "walking" forward or back. My last submission resulted in a 20 MB zip file that I downloaded. It took about 5 minutes to get the email once I submitted the model to Stadia. I'm not sure if the result was actually sent to me faster than that because my email address is aggregated via Google so there may be a little delay involved with that step.

You can watch this video to see a sample (it's on the Stadia site too) of what you get after uploading your work to their "cloud" service.

SMMA Demo from Robert Pogue on Vimeo.