Corporate Activities – April & May, 2017

Employees get the fervor to achieve and strength to outperform by taking part in Corporate Activities of Pinnacle Infotech.

Pinnacle Success Stories on Autodesk

Autodesk published 3 more Case Studies of Pinnacle:

Autodesk Revit helps Pinnacle create 61 building models in 4 days- Pinnacle Worked with Dabblefox & Steinberg Implementing BIM on a Southern CA Community College in San Jose, USA
Creating 3D building models of complex geometry was never so easy - Pinnacle used Autodesk Revit for high-level detailing of a residential project in USA to create different stages of drawing set for construction of Multifamily Project, Los Angeles, USA (Mixed Use Construction)

Intelligent modeling saves time, delivers efficiency - Using Autodesk Revit, Pinnacle eliminated the wastage that could have affected the actual construction in terms of time, cost, manpower and material for Oak Park Station, Residential Project, US

Pinnacle Premier League

Pinnacle launched 5^th Edition Pinnacle Premier League from 26^th of April, 2017 Pinnacle witnessed the most spectacular cricket bonanza.

Pinnacle Events
Pinnacle Planned Global Key Customer Meet 2017 at Orlando, Florida this April

Pinnacle’s Global Customer Meet was a grand success. The meet has put Pinnacle in the next orbit, creating special bonding with clients and establishing Pinnacle’s true image of the Global leader. More than 75 clients attended the summit and the feedback from the clients was fabulous.

Pinnacle Participated in European BIM Summit 2017 in Barcelona Spain

Pinnacle Infotech was a proud participator at the 3rd European BIM Summit (EBS) 2017 in Barcelona on May, 26 from 9:30 am to 10:15 am at Pavilion 5 – Barcelona Building Construmat. Speaker Mr. Bimal Patwari, President discussed on BIM Innovation integrating latest technologies to meet design, construction & engineering needs to increase certainty. Advancing Construction through Technological Innovation - The construction industry is witnessing disrupted technologies and work processes and early adopters are fueling the industry transformation. Pinnacle highlighted the new technologies used to connect design and construction through fabrication and help the industry prepare for the paradigm shift & Future of Making Things. Venue: Pavilion 5 – Barcelona Building Construmat,Carrer del Bon Pastor, 5, 08021 Barcelona Date: May, 26, 2017 Time: 9:30 am to 10:15 am

Research & Development
Revit Content Management Release

Pinnacle brings the Revit Content Management to manage all your Revit Families. Purpose: Pinnacle library for Revit families is now a humongous content. In order to search for a required family based on multiple search parameters is like finding a needle in a haystack. Some basic hurdles involved in this include:

Users searching family files from existing folder structure - Time consuming approach
Family Parameters and their values can only be viewed after loading each family file and their types in Revit.

Similar families may be present in different folders - hence users remain aloof of their existence

Family files are to be manually opened in Revit individually and then segregated into folders

Revit Content Management System is being introduced to provide more desirable and effective solution for the concern. Using this management system, users can easily search and load required families directly to project document. Key features:

Lightning fast search with keywords even with wrong spelling for any thing in mind that relates to a family (not just the family name but also material, manufacturer, category, unit type, etc.)
Get an overview of the family properties and parameters without loading the *.rfa into Revit document. Thumbnails are also available

Upgrade and Load just the selected types within a family rather than loading the whole family to create lighter projects

The interface can be docked within the Revit or can be used as a separate window
Automatically updates own family database directly from the existing Pinnacle Library
New Tools & Apps Developed by Pinnacle Infotech
Revit
Revit: BOH - Bottom of Hanger

Functionality: Used to calculate the elevation of bottom of hanger from selected levels Purpose: Reduce work time for calculating BOH, by creating section, using dimension tool of Revit and adding value to parameter Compatible with: Revit 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017 How to use:

Step 1: Select hangers
Step 2: Click BOH tool

Step 2.1: Select Level from which BOH is to be calculated on selected Hangers

Step 2.2: Check “Add bearer Thickness” if absolute bottom is not required
Step 3: Click Start to run the tool

If bearer thickness is to be accounted, then an instance parameter named "_thickness" should be present in the hanger family containing the bearer thickness. In order to achieve this feature in the family of the hanger (if not available by default) a family parameter needs to be added to the family which should be instance specific and will have the value of the bearer thickness when the geometry changes are parametric.

Revit: Intersected Element

Functionality: Used to get the element Ids of the elements whose geometry intersects the geometry of the selected elements Purpose: Reduce working time of finding the connected elements not traceable by default in Revit Compatible with: Revit 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017 How to use:

Step 1: Select the elements for which the intersected elements’ element ID is to be found
Step 2: Run the Tool Intersected Elements found in Pinnacle tab->Common panel

Step 3: Select the categories from the list with which the selected elements’ intersection needs to be calculated

Step 4: Click on the start button to run the tool

Output

Revit: Purge Line Styles

Functionality: Used to select all elements by Line style and to Purge unused Line Styles Purpose: Create healthier files and shrink file size by deleting unused Line styles Compatible with: Revit 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017 How to use:

Step 1: The tools displays a list of line styles present in the project
Step 2: Line styles should be selected that you need to purge or the line style for which you want to select the Elements using the same

Step 3: If the Line style selected is being used by any element in the document, the tool shows a dialog with the number of elements using the Line style

Step 4: When the dialog is closed, the elements using the line style gets selected
Step 5: If there is no element using the selected Line Style, a dialog appears which confirms the same
Step 6: Clicking ‘yes’ deletes the Line style from the Project
AutoCAD
AutoCAD: Arc Leader Creation

Benefits of New Approach

Easy installation
New developed Add-Ins to activate by starting with relevant AutoCAD version

Easy access of developed Add-Ins in AutoCAD

User to show the branch of popular tools from Ribbon and Toolbar
Tool improvement like Pline to Leader, Match Text
Tools related settings to change from displayed pop up window

AutoCAD In-House Tools

*Add-ins name*	*Function*
Mtext Manipulation	Mtext properties and stack value will be manipulated Note: The tools has been upgraded with new options, available in Ribbon panel, Toolbar as well as Command Prompt
Block Hatch Coloring or Delete	All Hatches will be colored or get deleted from Selected blocks. Note: The tools have been upgraded with new options, available in Command Prompt
Placing Mtext at Selected Block Insertion Point	An Mtext will be placed at all Selected block insertion point
Block insert at middle of selected line	Block or delta symbol will be inserted at middle of the selected line with same rotation
Select line by length range with V/H angle	Select line by length range with Vertical / Horizontal angle
PISDwg Setting	New additional features to set Text Height, Dimension style, etc. as respective of specific standard that Pinnacle has followed
Line To Pline	All Selected Line entities can be converted as Pline. The single line converting as single Pline not to be joined like results of JOIN command

PISDwg Setting: A specific standard of setting is used (Text Height = 0.1, Text = Romans, Dimension style name followed the reflected scale). By executing the developed tools related command “PISetting”, the user can set the AutoCAD working interface with the said standard. The tools can set the dimension style, Text style, LTS as per Pinnacle standard. After pressing the set button it could be set up automatically. The user can set the text size result value and then the standard value will calculate respective of size result value. So, the standard value may not consider like Pinnacle standard calculation (i.e.: 0.1, 0.075, 0.15 etc.) Command: PISETTING
Line To Pline: All selected Lines will be converted as individual PolyLine with multiple selection facility. By using the JOIN command all the selected lines will join as Polyline. Command: LINETOPLINEX

AutoCAD Tools with new approach:

*Add-ins name*	*Function*
2DConduitParallel	Electrical conduit creation for two parallel Fixtures will be connected to provide a design with polyline consisting of fillet corner. The Radius and design will configure by executing the command “CFD_Setting”
BackGroundColor	Change the Color of Existing drawing as per decided color Index value.
BlockRestorer	Selected Block entities will be restored as Zero Layer, ByBlock Color, ByBlock LineWeight
BreakSymInsert	Providing 2D-Break symbol after breaking the selected Line to preserve the engineering concept
DtextToMtext	Selected single line text will be converted as Multiline text in the same position
Incremental	Addition and subtraction will be made on selected Multiline Text - Will change (+ / -) of Multiline Text’s numerical values

MatchText	Single line text and Multiline text content will match. Source Dtext / Mtext content will match with selected Dtext / Mtext objects
Move Along with ZAxis	Selected elements will be moved along with Z_axis
Paper Space Ltype Scale Zero	All Existing Paper space line type scale will be set as Zero value
PolyLineToLeader	Selected PolyLine will be converted as Leader as respective of getting vertex. AutoCAD leader will be placed instead of selected pline based on getting vertex
Middle Center	To write Single line text as Middle Center justification
Middle Left	To write Single line text as Middle Left justification
Aesthetic Checking	Based on AutoCAD, default function have to check overlapping of textual part with other elements
Length Total	Shorter command flow to proceed the lengthen command
Reference Rotate	Will rotate basis of reference angle of selected elements
Arc Leader	Arc leader to be drawn as per client requirement. The curvature smoothness depends on the user skill.

Case Studies
AutoCAD - Message saying ‘SAVE’ command not allowed during reference editing

Issue: There were two types of block editing options to modify existing block as per user recommendation. Whenever, the user is making use of the Block Editor, the ‘save’ and most of the command will by applicable with the block editor space. In the block editor place, the users do not have the facility to modify the block to get reference for nearest objects or another block for making new design. In that situation, generally user should use the ‘Block editor’ in-place option to edit the block. After making some changes user can apply, save / Qsave command to save the latest block design. Cause: During reference editing, AutoCAD does not accept the said command and the user have to close the reference edit. Solution: Using the command ‘REFCLOSE’ and entering the “Save” (S) to save the last design - The user can discard the change by entering “Discard reference Changes” (D) How to Load Toolbar in AutoCAD interface? The common query of a beginner is “How to load AutoCAD toolbar in AutoCAD interface?” The steps to follow the loading of AutoCAD customized toolbar include: Step 1: Place the relevant folder in the shortest location so that the interface performance cannot effect during execution of toolbar / command. C drive is the most preferable option to get the access from all AutoCAD versions for supporting and browsing Step 2: Open the required AutoCAD interface as version to be loaded (i.e.: 2014, 2017 etc.) Step 3: Execute the command OP => Files Tab => Select the Support file Search path => Click on Add Button => Click on Browse => Show the path (eg. C:\xxxx) Click on OK, Click on Apply and OK Step 4: Execute the command Menu load / Cuiload => Click on Browse => Show the path (eg.C:\xxxx) => Select the “xxxx.cuix” file => Click on Open => Click on Load, Close the window Step 5: Normally after loading the *.cuix file, related toolbars will display. If the toolbar does not appear after loading the same, then the user may display the loaded toolbars by right clicking on the blank space of toolbar location.

AutoCADmep: How to delete overlapping pipes?

Issue: Some pipe / elements have same location with same properties. There was not any option to filter those pipe / elements to delete aspect from clear design and/or conceptual correction of the design. These are not affected by normal “OVERKILL” command of AutoCAD application Cause: During merge of two or more files into a common DWG file for a assemble DWG files, sometimes the user needs to place the same design at same location from different systems after deletion of the existing one. Unfortunately this happens if the user repeats the same activity two or more times. The resulting pipes / elements have same overlapping condition. Solution: The users have to change the options setting of “OVERKILL” command like the following snap: However, it should be noted that the operation is not a secured aspect of the design concept. The users have to check after the completion of the activity using the command. Tips: The user will select only small area whether it helps to look over the design changed. The user can also apply the after select by “Select System” from Pipe in ribbon panel => General. The Pipe ribbon will appear after selection of any pipe in the working interface of AutoCADmep. Result:

Pinnacle researched on Revit Fabrication 2017 & BIM 360 Collaboration

Revit Fabrication 2017 & BIM 360 Collaboration Revit 2017 has the capabilities of Fabrication as nowadays clients share services. In parallel, the BIM 360 collaboration ADSK cloud library has been enriched for stakeholders to see the fabrication services in cloud. Step 1: Open BIM 360 with Revit 2017 with Fabrication services. Now you can work on the same services & sync in BIM 360 Drive Step 2: Collaborate using Manage A360 Models Step3: Delta upload the change, using publish option Step 4: Publish option - Fabrication services synced in the cloud