Tips and Tricks – A Complex model in Autodesk Building Design Suite Ultimate

I thought I would share an interesting challenge I recently had for creating some complex geometry and being able to transfer this geometry both to Revit Structure and Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional. I have used my own data just to verify and test the procedures required.

The software used within the Building Design Suite Ultimate package is:

• Autodesk Inventor 2015
• AutoCAD 2015
• Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2015
• Autodesk Revit 2015

I modelled a Stadium within Autodesk Inventor and used the split command to create the various positions for the truss sections that I wanted to produce. The Inventor model is fully parametric and capable of change relatively quickly.

I then used the XEDGES command in AutoCAD to extract all the wireframe edges. The other option is to output the model to ACIS and then explode the geometry.

This model was then taken into Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis by opening the dwg file. The lines are automatically converted to bars. I then assigned the relevant members and the model was ready to design.

Finally you can then create the Revit model from the Robot model! A lot of Autodesk software used here but if you have the Building Design Suite Ultimate then this could be a viable workflow.

Have Fun,

Lawrenceh

Advertisement

Revit Structure – Using Load Take Down for Internal Dead Loads

Here is a very quick tip and trick for modelling dead loads from internal walls to your analysis programs. You will first need to ensure that you have the Load Take down tool added to Revit which can be download from Autodesk Exchange Apps

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/en

Once this is installed you will need to add your internal walls and make sure that these are structural and have an analytical model. In the image below I have created a filter to show these in Red.

You also need to add Boundary conditions for the slabs, walls and columns and set the fixity for these. You can then start the Load Take down tool from the Extensions Ribbon.

Click the Structural Analysis command and then you can see the linear loads on either the entire structure or just the stories where the loads are applied. These linear loads can then be added to the Revit model (A manual process at the moment).

The model can then be transferred to your Analysis application.

Enjoy,

LawrenceH