1225/2078

PoiPointer, View Depth Override and Destination BIM

Originally Published in

Three topics for today:

Brussels Hackathon and PoiPointer

I returned from the Hackathon Open Data Brussels ↗ that I mentioned last Friday, promoting the use of the huge amounts of open data, cf. this impressive list of available data sets ↗.

As said, I participated in the PoiPointer ↗ project, with a goal of implementing an app pointing out points of interest of various categories in Brussels, e.g. museums, cultural places, monuments, sculptures, fountains, murals, etc.

We used the schema-less REST driven JSON-based ElasticSearch ↗ database and Java for the back end database, node.js ↗ and JavaScript for the web server, Objective-C for the iOS mobile app, Python for database clean-up and verification and HTML with GitHub in-place website hosting for the project home page.

Here is the project home page and all its GitHub repositories:

I learned lots of new things and will definitely take a closer look soon at implementing some simple cloud-connected database search engine connected with Revit BIM collection using node.js and ElasticSearch.

I love the GitHub web hosting functionality and will certainly make frequent continued use of that as well.

View Depth Override

I received an email asking whether it might be possible to implement a perception of depth on elevation and section views:

Question: I am struggling to provide an automatic perception of depth on elevation and section views.

I would like the objects in the front to be displayed in black and white like Revit normally does. Everything in the background should be a grey of sorts, and the further back, the lighter the grey.

Here is an illustration of what I mean:

View depth perception

  • From the section or elevation line, I would like to define a distance or area where everything would show black & white like Revit normal. This distance or depth can be adjusted.
  • Further back from the Revit normal area until you reach the depth clipping line, I would like to make a setting that overrides the normal display and allows the user to set a starting grey and an end grey ranging from dark to light. It would be nice if the element projection line thickness could be overridden in the same way.

Here is a discussion on whether Revit elevation views are leaving you flat ↗ that might help provide a better explanation of the end result that I am looking to achieve.

I have no knowledge of the Revit API or add-in programming. Do you think that this is possible?

Can this be achieved using API or through an add-in?

Answer: You are in luck, especially since you say that you are not an experienced add-in programmer yourself.

I once happened to notice an add-in that does exactly what you are asking for.

It was published on an Italian blog, though.

I spent quite a while digging around for it and was initially still not able to find it or any way to pick it out from the mass.

Searching for “italian add-in” obviously did not help, and I could not imagine what it would.

Later…

I spent some more time on this and finally found a suitable search term: revit macro distanzia ↗ led to puntorevit.blogspot.com ↗, and that in turn led to the mention I had in mind, on the view depth override macro by Paolo Emilio Serra.

I browsed through inpuntorevit ↗ a bit more and even discovered a recent update of the view depth override external command ↗ for Revit 2015.

By the way, Paolo switched from Italian to English language blogging now, which may or may not simplify things for you, depending on your language preferences :-)

Destination BIM Contest

Are you a BIM champion?

Enter the Destination BIM contest ↗ and win the chance to attend Autodesk University 2014.

Contest Details

  • When: Content runs from October 17, 2014 until November 3, 2014.

  • Who can enter: Anyone using or interested in BIM! Winner is open to US and Canada only.

  • How to enter: Contestants fill out form and tell us how their BIM pilot is helping to change their organization on the dedicated contest landing page.

  • How to win: winner selected by Autodesk committee by November 7, 2014.

  • The Prize: 4 winners. Each receives one pass to Autodesk University Las Vegas, $600 travel voucher and hotel stay.

  • Fine print:

  • Contestants grant Autodesk permission to use their submission materials and interview content captured at AU

  • Winners must participate in interviews and appear in video at AU per schedule determined by Autodesk

Destination BIM