We’ve been looking forward to it for months, and now it’s finally upon us: BILT Conference 2017!
If you’ll be attending, we hope you’ll come say hello at booth #25.

Held from the 3-5 August in the Westin Harbour Castle, the BILT North America Conference will be a gathering of BIM experts the world over, and we’re proud to be a part of it. Our very own MEP expert Jokubas Vaisvila will be adding to the conversation with his presentation entitled “Builder’s Work – Holes for MEP.” In it, he’ll demonstrate Dynamo and Revit add-on workflows for making openings in architectural or structural elements. Best wishes, Jokubas!

Hope to meet you in Toronto!

In this article, I will go through a few ways you can apply Revit add-ons from our Precast Concrete solution (compatible with Revit® 2016, 2017, 2018) to deal with the design of Precast Massive/Solid and Sandwich Walls.

Our Precast Concrete solution includes tools for inserting details, cuts, and connections; sorting columns and beams automatically; and preparing shop drawings with automated dimensions and sheets.

Let's begin by taking a look at a couple of examples of how to work with walls.

First of all, if your building has full-length Revit walls, you have to split them into separate panels. You can do that by switching to Smart Walls and using the Split Wall window commands for automatic or selectable splitting of walls.

Wood and Metal Framing software for Revit has been enhanced once again to save you time on probably the least “fun” process – documentation. After getting so many user requests, from now on you will not have to create new sheet templates in every project over and over again. Interested? Read on!

In previous versions of our Wood Framing software for Revit, after creating an assembly with automatic dimensions and tags, users had to drag views to the sheets and then set those Sheets as Templates to create other Assemblies within that project. Then, when users would start the next project, configurations remain and could be used straight away. But the Sheet Templates had to be created in each project for every configuration from scratch.

In the new versions of Wood Framing software, we’ve managed to enhance this workflow: you will not have to create new sheet templates for your assemblies anymore, as you will be able to use the existing ones from the Template Project.

In the July 2017 edition of our newsletter "AGACAD ADVANCES," the spotlight is on Precast, expert framing and MEP tips, our summer special, and more!

AGACAD ADVANCES July 2017

Been meaning to try out our BIM tools for Revit but haven't gotten around to it yet? Now's the time!

Download our TOOLS4BIM Dock here. Once you have it, take your pick of any tool for a 2-week free trial, and we'll be at your side to help you figure out if it's the right tool for you!

We´ll be in Toronto for this big event Aug. 3-5. Visit AGACAD (booth #25) and hear our own MEP pro Jokubas Vaisvila speak about builder's work (openings and holes for services)

AGACAD is gearing up for the BILT North America Conference to be held in Toronto, Canada at the Westin Harbour Castle this summer from August 3-5. And our very own MEP pro Jokubas Vaisvila will be presenting!

Jokubas will give a presentation about builder’s work, specifically as it relates to making openings and holes for MEP services. Sharing what he knows about modelling builder’s work in Revit, he will demonstrate Dynamo and Revit add-in workflows to make openings in architectural or structural elements. His goal? To make attendees’ lives easier.

As summer gets underway, we have a unique 3-for-1 offer. From now through July 31, when you purchase Smart Details, you’ll get BIM Tree Manager and Smart Browser Manager for FREE for 1 year!

Furthermore, you get three pieces of software that can be used by two people simultaneously.

“How do those three get along?” you might be wondering. Smart Browser and BIM Tree Manager make a sandwich around Smart Details. Your workflow would look something like this:

Automation of shop drawings with AGACAD’s Smart Assemblies, a BIM solution for Revit, has given this Western Australian firm a competitive edge in its design-and-construct projects for mixed-use high-rise buildings.

Hanssen Pty Ltd, established in 1992, is a project management and construction company based in Perth, Australia. It specializes in mixed-use residential and commercial high-rise buildings. The firm has in-house design and engineering teams, and manufactures precast panels, steel fabrication and windows for its projects.

Sometimes you have piping and ductwork running along the same route. Have you ever wanted to create a hanger assembly in Revit® that can handle both? Read on to see how you can do it using MEP Hangers!

CLIENT QUESTION: Do you have hangers like the one below? How can we build them?

When it comes to laying out hangers in a Revit project, it’s important to make sure they attach to the structure you want and that the hangers can extend or contract as needed if you need to adjust, for example, the ceiling or floor height.

QUESTION: We want pipe supports to attach to the floor. But when we change the pipe level offset, the rod length remains the same. How do we keep the supports connected to the structure?

ANSWER: First of all, you have to define which Revit category your hanger should connect to. If you select Floors – hangers will connect to the floor. If you select roof – they will connect to the roof. If you select everything – hangers will connect to any structural category found in their way.

All framing structural designers know that diagonal bracing is necessary because it keeps framed walls stable, preventing them from collapsing. Let-in bracing is the most widely used bracing system, but this bracing requires the studs be notched so that the brace will be flush with the stud surface. Using diagonal braces, these studs are typically cut at a 45- to 60-degree angle.

But sometimes designers need other type of cuts. For example, AGACAD client Optimera AS (which is supported by AGACAD's valued partner in Norway Focus Software AS), a significant distributor of building materials in Scandinavia, was looking for the possibility of making special cuts:

"We need cuts for diagonal nailers to be horizontal and not diagonal as shown in the pucture. Is this possible?"