BIM-Bracing Accuracy: Harnessing the Power of Informed Design in Revit

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, me and Rina, talking about BIM-bracing Accuracy, or embracing accuracy-- sorry, I had to come up with funky names for them to accept my classes-- Harnessing the Power of Informed Design in Revit. I am Nauman Mysorewala, and then I have my good friend Rina. Matt is, I think, out on sabbatical, talking to Mickey Mouse. He's in [INAUDIBLE] he's loving that. And Rina loves her German shepherds. And I just love working with fruit trees. So that's my thing-- well, of course, Autodesk softwares, too, by the way.

RINA SAHAY: Yes. All of us do.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Oh, the safe harbor statement. I had to include this for Matt, but he's not even here. Anyways, our learning objectives. We did tweak it, but here are the learning objectives. We are talking about BIM-bracing accuracy. So we're going to talk about the workflow and why the Informed Design is something that Autodesk is working on and what it brings to the table to our BIM projects.

And then, also, we talk about how we can author-- well, I'm not going to get into a detailed of how I author in Inventor. I am going to talk about the process of publishing the models on to ACC to Informed Design so the designers can use that data. And then I'm going to talk about how to implement design basically in Revit. And I think Rina is going to talk about that a lot. And then some of the best practices I will touch on as well at the end.

RINA SAHAY: [INAUDIBLE]

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: So here goes-- well, what are the current challenges in construction industry? Well, inefficient processes. You know how it is right now. I mean, there is a huge disconnect between design and constructability. We are getting better. We are productizing our product-- building products, as I say. However, there are high risks associated with it. There is a huge global demand of population growth. And there is a boom in the economy.

So some places-- or at least they are modernizing their infrastructure and buildings in emerging economies as well. And one of the other challenges we are running into is workforce. Well, hard to find good talent and retaining them, of course-- then there is the cost increase is going on.

But as you have heard, maybe, that a person on a site costs a lot more than in a factory. And that is one of the major reasons why people are looking at prefabrication and control quality as well. And, also, if you are on-site, there are a lot of regulatory and compliance demands associated with it.

Also, the other problem is there are no scalability-- there is lack of scalability in the traditional processes. That means that you create it once. I mean, every piece is a piece of a design done by contractors, builders, architects, all the design engineers and all, making a masterpiece. So that is still problem is also the cost of surging.

Rising complexity-- well, technological integration-- well, we are talking about technology here as well. Also, designs are getting more complex, I would say-- new materials more so, different type of designs, taste of design in a sense. But there is a need for standardization and better coordination between that workflow from start to finish and cycle back. And there are now huge urbanization mega projects. I have worked on Chinese projects. There are huge multiblock buildings and buildings on it with malls and stuff. They are growing, and the number of those projects are growing.

And, of course, the sustainability-- well, we do want to reduce the waste and, of course, we do want to make sure that we use ecofriendly materials and construction processes.

So what the needs are also, based on what we just talked about, is that, basically, how do we deal with rising complexity? How do we train our people with technological advancements? You are talking about the constant-- I mean, every day is a new technology out there right now. Since we are in that information age, there is huge multistate collaborators involved now. We need better system for that. Speed is a huge thing and, as I talked about, complexity of the design.

Now the other part of it is that what we need is to have maybe a solution is to do manufacturability of building products. It's called building product manufacturing, BPM. So we need that scalability. We need to optimize our processes. How we can do it fast and cost-effective and be-- waste reduction and how we can automate as much as possible so we can use our workforce in different allocation of the workforce itself, how we productize our materials, building our components in a sense.

And then how do we design with those products with flexibility and making sure that we leverage the data? The data has been the most important thing. And there are some statistics that show that a lot of it is going to waste.

So addressing some the challenges in the construction industry-- DfMA, which is the Design for Manufacture, and then another group was designed for assembly. So now you're talking about coming up with standards and-- not standards, more so ideas of how we can address those challenges that we talked about. Design for Manufacture and Assembly is some talks about how we can simplify design, minimize parts-- meaning that you want to reuse them-- efficient processes. We want to make sure that the quality as well as the product is improved.

How we can make it our process and make it cheaper, of course? How we can standardize our component-- that is one of the biggest thing how we can do that much easier. We can get that from a shelf and put it in the building more so or get it fabricated. And, of course, sustainability-- there is a lot of control in quality when you do it on a prefab site. And, of course, automation comes into that play as well during manufacture and assembly of it.

So why use Informed Design? Well, Autodesk came up with this idea of how we can connect the manufacturer to the architect-- to the designer. Sorry, I'm an architect. That's why I keep saying architect-- designer, and then connecting the design to back to the manufacturer based on components that we got from the manufacturers so they can generate quick documentation as needed or measurements and whatnot, give it to the fabricator, fabricator fabricates, and it makes it much easier.

And then, also, as I talked about, customization-- seamless and accurate manufacturable components based on their rules and no surprises at the time of fabrication. So I have touch base with Cascadia Structural, and they have been very helpful in getting my presentation ready for this. So I'd like to thank them.

BIM-bracing Accuracy-- so what do we do to talk about accuracy here in the BIM world? So we talk about what are the workflows and benefits. So we talk about these--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

RINA SAHAY: Nauman, this is mine. All right, guys. So as you can see, Nauman was getting a little carried away by--

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, I do do that.

RINA SAHAY: --by the glory of his words. But this is my territory. And here, we're going to treat this like a movie. And we're going to introduce you, first of all, to our cast of characters. So Act I-- this is where the manufacturer plays a major role. So the manufacturer is going to be using Inventor Pro as well as Informed Design for Inventor.

Now one of the reasons why Informed Design is gradually gaining traction is just look at us at our end. Here we are. We're developing families for furniture, for building components, and a lot of times, we may come up with something that works for us but does not work for the manufacturer. And so the manufacturer takes time and effort, and there's a whole lot of back and forth just to make sure that they're able to give us the component that does what we want it to do but which is manufacturable according to their standards.

So we start off with the manufacturer. Then we go on to the next set of characters, which are us, the designers. Our tools are Revit 2024 or newer. Anything older than that will not play with Informed Design. And then we have the plugin. We have Informed Design for Revit.

The final set of characters-- and these are the guys who-- this is the team, rather, that will produce the actual deliverables for fabrication. They'll manage, publish product designs, they'll generate fabrication docs. Now this is something that will blow your mind when we run through the demo.

So this team will use Autodesk Docs, and they will use the Informed Design web application. Yes, there is a part three to whatever it is that we're doing.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Hey, Rina, just one second. I've got to talk about my character, the manufacturer, the designer, the fabricator, and the builder, and eventually, the client are involved as well. I mean, they are the major pieces into this puzzle. So I just want make sure that you don't ignore them.

RINA SAHAY: No, they are. They are our supporting cast. But I just introduced our audience to our main characters. So yes, you're right. We do have a fairly extensive supporting cast involved.

So now let's take a look at the whole story. The whole story starts with authoring content. We've got the manufacturer. They are in Inventor Pro. They are using InDesign for Inventor. So they author in Inventor. They use in InDesign-- they use Informed Design-- I'm sorry, they use Informed Design for Inventor to publish content. And the content goes to Autodesk Docs, which then is used to share information.

And that information is shared with the next stage of the story, where we've got the designer come in. So the designer gets on to Autodesk Doc and bridges over. Yes, it's entirely possible to use ACC Bridge and to reach across to the manufacturer's account and retrieve content depending upon the permissions that have been given to us.

Then the designer will use Informed Design for Revit, the plugin, to discover required content and to customize. This is where things get really, really interesting. The customized components are then dropped into Revit, our own old stomping grounds, and then the content is still further shared back to Autodesk Docs.

Part three-- this is where we have a larger team. We have manufacturer and the fabricator and the builder. Wow, we've got a whole bunch of people involved now, and this is the execution team. That really didn't sound right. But this is the team that will execute the design.

[APPLAUSE]

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: I'm sorry.

RINA SAHAY: They're not killing anything.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: I'm good. Sorry, it took me a while.

RINA SAHAY: Yes. So this team will receive the Revit information via Docs. They will then use the web app, the Informed Design web app, to generate documents. Those documents are all set for the fabricator. They go to the fabricator, and everything is fabricated. Everything is constructed. Everything is wonderful.

And we end up with this stage. We end up with a fully complete project. And, after that, just as a follow-up, we can go in. We can operate the building. We can manage the facilities. We can create a digital twin in tandem, manage everything, and our project lives happily ever after.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, a lot of the data can come from those components, the rich data, and transfer over to facility management and tandem directly. So that gives us a lot more power down the road as well, where the data is not lost.

RINA SAHAY: This gives our design a lot more teeth. So just imagine the increase in power at your fingertips. So, with that, Nauman, here is stage two for you.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, so let's talk about authoring leverage, how Informed Design connects with Inventor, and how you publish those designs that you have or components that you have. Again, this is not a session on how you set up. I don't have that-- the expertise to talk about Inventor iLogic and stuff.

RINA SAHAY: Don't have the time either.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Well, yeah, that's-- well, I mean, it's not in my workflows. That's why it's "illogical" for me to understand it-- I'm sorry I had to.

So at the manufacturer's end, what we have is Inventor Pro. And then we have the model. I mean, I just wanted to-- this is thanks to Autodesk for providing these samples so I could test them and understand them, the whole workflow and how those elements connect. So, basically, you have the assembly, all that, with also includes the 2D elements too that you can send for the fabrication and stuff down the road. So these are the various parameters that you see. I mean, nothing to-- but you will see these downstream when we talk about how we pass on those as well.

So the BIM definition, BIM properties-- this is an Inventor plugin. I think this is in the newer version where, before, in the Informed Design, they had it this-- some part of it was included inside Informed Design. Now it is all controlled by the BIM definition and BIM properties so they can design Revit families and can take them and transfer them to Revit from the manufacturer and add all the parameters that you have, some of the parameters that you can pass through, like the stair width or something like that. Those are available as just read-only parameters.

Here, the major thing that we want to talk about that we need to set the Revit category. In this case, I chose vertical circulation. Why didn't I choose stairs? Well, stairs is a system family, and this does not work because it's reliant on loadable families. So, luckily, we have this family of the category available since I think 2023 or '24. I can't keep track of all of those new additions-- but then, also, what the name of the family is. So this is where we define the name and that as well as we also talk about the categories, what that category data will be in.

So when you open that family up or how does it behave in Revit-- just like the Family Editor in Revit, where you can say Always Vertical, Enable Cutting, Room Calculation, things like that, those you can set as well as now that is the family portion of it, where you define which parameters you want to pass through. You can assign the OmniClass or, in this case, Assembly Codes, Keynotes, your manufacture name, all that information, plus you can add more parameters that are specific that you want to release to the designer.

So then what we need to do is use the Informed Design add-in next is to-- we'll do that. And within that, this is the first screen here. What you need to do is, first and foremost, if this is the first time, you need to create a new product definition. Or if you already have one, you can edit it. And if you see that new product definition and edit it, but at the bottom, you see Staircase Metal 1, that was my test, and I haven't released it to anybody yet.

So then I have the source content. So when you start editing, this is what you get. So you edit the source content. What is need to be in there. It'll ask you where I can find all those documentation for this and which Inventor project because that defines all the locations and everything, at least the directory and what it is using. So notice, it found two drawing files. The two-- did you want to include them? I'm including DWG and IDW both. They're [? had. ?]

Then you get into parameters. This is where you can release which parameters does the designer need to see or manipulate? Well, my mistake was I didn't realize that the first time, and I started checking a lot of them. Hey, the more parameters-- I thought these parameters will be available in Revit. I was wrong on that. It needs to be done through the BIM definition now.

So I just wanted to show you where these parameters are coming from. These are the user parameters that show up in this list, or you can even filter it. This is filtered with user parameter, or you can see all the parameters too.

The next is where my head [? goes ?] right now. But this reminds me of Scratch Junior, those block coding-- yeah, this [INAUDIBLE] code blocks. You can design the form as well as the inputs. There are two separate logics here and loops-- I mean, all that stuff, what are the minimums, maximums, and stuff that can be designed here.

And this next step allows you to output. So what are you outputting? You can pick and choose what elements of your design you want to release to the-- well, you want to release the RFA? Yes, that was the whole point. I'm releasing this. You don't have to.

You can use it not just for RFA but you can use-- and I think, down the road, they're going to think about more, where you can automatically generate your SAT version and STEP versions too. But 3D model, all representation, IAM file-- in this case, first, yeah, sure available, but then you want to think about it-- IAM file, you don't want to release that. Also, you get the drawing files, just releasing the drawing and the PDF. So PDFs are generated dynamically.

And then you get into-- I decide not to, then which representations you want to release. So the big part about the representation is that you want to have a BIM low LOD representation. Designers don't need all nuts, bolts, and screws and stuff. It will bog their model down. Nor do you want to send them that because they won't be able to handle it, and your products will run slow in their product, and they will say, yeah, I'm not using it. Bill of Materials and other neutral formats-- I talked about SAT, STEP, GLPs.

So once you're done setting, save that file and then publish. Well, you might get an error at this point, where you will say, oh, yeah, you saved the product definition, but the Inventor file is not saved because this saves inside the Inventor. So you have to close this, go save the file, and come back to this part again and then say, Publish.

And wait, those hamsters which are in that cage right there, round and round-- and then, when it says, oh, it's done, notice that there is a Release 4 associated with it. And then I just wanted to show you how you see it in the Informed Design web app. So that's that component of the web app. What versions you have, whether they are active or default, we'll get into a little bit more detail later.

So how do we implement those? This was my touch there. Rina, you want to touch-- she wanted to do the Revit part of it.

RINA SAHAY: That's my territory. Revit's my superpower--

[INAUDIBLE].

Yes, anything to do with Revit. So now, you must have gotten a feel for how involved Informed Design is. And has this occurred to you at all? If the manufacturer is doing all the legwork, modeling the geometry, setting up the parameters and they've got this really, really magical formula with iLogic and with code blocks and things like that to do what we used to do with formulas and stuff like that in families. So yeah, that's it.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Oh, that's way beyond that, OK.

RINA SAHAY: We are not going to be building families anymore. The families-- all the legwork is being done for us. And let's take a look at how this content that Nauman has published from Inventor over to Docs and has got ready for us to use.

So when we implement this content in Informed Design, you're going to access and discover. You're going to make sure that you customize things. And all the customization is going to be manufactured because guess what? You will not have an option to do anything that is not standard to the manufacturer. You'll be able to review the projects. You will be able to perform a certain amount of customization to make sure that the products are appropriate to the purpose you want to apply them to.

And then you're going to generate documentation. Yep, Nauman did touch upon that and the formats that are available. I'm going to go over that in a little more detail. And this will certainly blow your mind. Finally, we'll talk about sharing content libraries between projects, between accounts via Bridge. This is an additional superpower that Bridge now has.

So let's talk about how to access and discover content and how to place content in Revit via the Informed Design add-in. Listen on.

Now to access manufacturer content, it's pretty simple. You're in Revit 2024 or 2025. We performed our tests in Revit 2025. Informed Design has its very own tab. The tab has got three tools. We're going to start with the Insert Product tab. When we hit Insert Product, it takes us to a screen where we can now navigate to our project, go to the correct account, pick the correct project, and then Informed Design will look at our project, and it will analyze it to see if there is any manufacturer content in there. And it turns out to be, yes, we've got the staircase in there.

When we select the staircase, then Informed Design tells us about the staircase, tells us what which release number it is, tells us the category. Now, as you can see right now, the stair is in specialty equipment. But Nauman did show us in the previous section how he corrected that in Inventor and change it over to vertical circulation. So that would have led to another release.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, that was my first release. I just went with whatever the standards were-- default were.

RINA SAHAY: So then you can go on once you've got the staircase, and you've got it selected for your project. The next option you get would be to customize an insert so that you can configure the stairs. Now this gives us a lot of options. Hey, this gives us height. What other options do we have? Width. But you know what? We have a dropdown which only gives us a specific number of options for width.

So there are some things. The height, for instance, you can customize that. You can change it from 30 inches to maybe 75 inches depending upon what is needed by your project. And that's kind of cool because you change the height of the stair and then you look at your model and, magically, your stair is higher, and it is hanging in the middle of nowhere, things like that. But there are certain parameters that have been hardwired in Inventor, and they only give you a certain number of options to pick from.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, so this is coming from the product definition. Basically, if you choose to enable use standard widths, allow people to choose between standard widths, or they are allowed to customize it within their parameter limits. That's coming from the iLogic and stuff.

RINA SAHAY: So the next step after this is to hit the Generate button. Takes a few minutes, and Informed Design does give you a warning. And it brings up the screen. Now, in this screen, you can see that there are two variants that have been created. So when you think about it, variants are kind of like types in a family. Variants have got customizations that are made in Revit.

But the releases that Nauman was talking about previously, those have got modifications that were made in Inventor. So they have a lot more serious stuff happening with them. And that's the difference between the two. Let's go on.

Part two of the implementation process is customizing for manufacturers. So you're going to customize, you're going to replace, update manufacturable components. Remember, this is the keyword of the process. You're going to select from manufacturer-specific options. There are some situations where you will not have an option to do anything other than what the manufacturer wants, and that gives you easily manufacturable results. Remember, standardization is key.

So now we're going to talk about customizing. It's going to be the designer that's involved. I don't know-- why did you give the designer horns? The designer doesn't need horns.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: [INAUDIBLE] need to point it out. I just wanted people to see, hey, it's a happy monster. Come on.

RINA SAHAY: OK, that's a nice way to look at it, a happy monster.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yeah, the horns and teeth. So that's why.

RINA SAHAY: You know our designer, who's a happy monster, is working with Revit, is working with Informed Design in Revit.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Rina, I'll take this one. So this was something that Karl [INAUDIBLE]-- he's also teaching another class. He's from Cascadia Structural. The thing is that they already have a lot of content in Inventor that is parametric, and they already generate their cut plans. They generate how the punch is going to happen everything already. So why not leverage all that data and share parts of it within their specs? Because I mean, yeah, well, let's have X amount of door size here, and then you find out No manufacturer doesn't do it. So that's why this allows you to have that.

So what I did was I asked him, hey, how can I get your models? Well, first step was to just give it to me. And he gave me a login to his manufacturer account and their project, and that was able to go in as read-only and download. I can do that easily. Here, I'm just going to try to install Fink. But then, later, as Rina or I will talk about, is that we will bridge it. This is showing the bridge one since, after that, I was able to just use my project. I don't even need an account with the manufacturer at that point.

So then what I do is I select the product that I want, open it, and now I configure it. So, in this case, this one I chose of [INAUDIBLE] truss or-- I don't know why, but I did it because I showed Fink Sales again. So anyway, the truss length, I set it to 32 feet because I had it at 30 feet. I generated one, but I didn't like that size, so I had to add it.

So I have to go back in and generate another one. And it allowed me to go certain numbers. It go step by step 1, 2, 3. So it has that. It doesn't show you the limits, but you can show that in the. So these are test models. So now you see that I had a 40 now. I told it to create a 32 feet truss. And I select that and click insert.

Now when I do click Insert, hey, we got it. And it places that truss into the model. As you can see in the graphic, I have those trusses for also [INAUDIBLE] 30 feet, and then change it to a 32 feet. So I just kind of leave both the representations in. Please don't judge my design on this one because I just kind of have a simple building where I can test things. So anyways, Rina, you want to talk about this one, how I went in and changed this because my design changed and my ground was dropped a lot. I don't know why, but it was, so I have to go 6 feet instead of the original 36 inches.

RINA SAHAY: So for this, what you ended up doing was used the update content.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Well, yeah, so I just want to make sure we understand-- go ahead. Sorry, I shouldn't have--

RINA SAHAY: And so with this, when you go in there, you are going to see some options. This will also show you the options that are obsolete. Now how do we know which ones are obsolete? Maybe this is something that the manufacturer doesn't do anymore. Maybe it is something that has completely changed. So, in that case, this is information that will come from the manufacturer. They will mark the content as being obsolete. And then that information will be transmitted over to you to make a change.

Now you can see that there is one stair that has been marked as being obsolete, and we can hit Replace. So when we hit Replace, we now get the option to create Release 2. So the original release is obsolete. It's discarded. We are now creating something called Release 2, and that is what we are going to use. And when we click on this dropdown, we see whichever releases lived in the model before this.

These are the things that we can edit. We can edit the height of the stair. We can edit the width of the stair. We do have options to pick from to set up the width of the stair. And once this is done, we can go into Configure, and now we have Release 4 all set to rock and roll. You're going to select, and now we're into Release 4

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: So this was the generated one that after I selected that one and say Place, and you notice that, in the model, now I have a longer stair.

RINA SAHAY: Looks so much safer.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: It's very illegal to put it like that. The right side stair's a little bit better. It has a landing, but--

RINA SAHAY: There you go.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: As I said, don't judge me on my design, please.

RINA SAHAY: The next tool that we're going to talk about is replace content. And Nauman, do you want to talk about this?

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: So I mean, I was confused between the Replace and Update because then I'm like, wait, hold on, the dialogue just seems similar. What's going on? Well, this one, it has that update dialog box. I think that was a mistake. But when you click Replace, the menus are saying Replace. What you can do is you can select an element in the file and basically say, replace this with another size, with another release. However, basically, this allows you to change the sizes.

What I didn't see, though, was what if I wanted to completely replace it with another model of it? Maybe I have, let's say, a toilet with a flush in it or nonflush. Well, I think that's-- whatever the components set are, what is inserted in Revit already can be replaced-- the same product. If you need a new product, you've got to go back to, say, Product and insert the product itself.

So yeah, so basically I go in and replace it with the 32. This is another way to do that. In this case, I had to use Replace because it was not an outdated, obsolete version. The update is mainly for it checks your model for obsolete versions, and either you can replace them at that point or even if your elements are. That's where my confusion happens between the two commands. So nonetheless--

RINA SAHAY: All right, so now let's talk about reviewing products. And, more importantly, let's take a look at how Informed Design families work for us in Revit. Are they different? Are they similar? Are they easier? Are they more confusing? And, also, we do need to understand what's the extent of control that a designer would exert over an Informed Design family. So let's take a look.

Now here we are. We've got our truss families, and they are inserted in Nauman's simple little building. And I've got the truss selected over here, and you know what I mean-- it looks pretty standard when I look at. When I look at the properties, it looks pretty standard. The parameters, they look pretty standard.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: [INAUDIBLE].

RINA SAHAY: And then I click on Edit Family. Let's click on Edit Family.

Now when I click Edit Family and I edit, I go into the family editing environment, and I click on the geometry. It selects as a model group. It does not select as a piece of geometry or many pieces of geometry. It selects as a model group. And then let's drill still further down into this.

Now when I look at this, I can go into the family types, and I see a whole bunch of parameters which are grayed out. Those are the data that have been set up in Inventor. And, again, you and I don't have power over them unless, of course, we really, really know what we're doing.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Actually, these are-- the mid ones are basically their identifiers and what version they are and the grids of that. Basically, it's telling you where this is coming from, the tenancy ID, and all that kind of stuff, and the variant ID. What it doesn't show is that it doesn't have any parameters released and identity data. So usually, you can pick and choose, in the definition, which ones you want the user to see in Revit and schedule them. They all show under General.

But the other part of it is that those values are editable, yet they don't do anything. You may be able to change them for schedule purposes, but that's not the whole part of accuracy. So those are, I would say, read-only values.

RINA SAHAY: So moral of the story, leave them alone.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Yes. That's why you want to be accurate. We're talking about accuracy.

RINA SAHAY: Exactly. Exactly. So however, we do have this model group, which we are a little curious about. When we go in to edit the model group and we grab a piece of geometry, it comes in as an import symbol. So let's try to understand where did the import symbol and the model group come from? In Inventor, when this truss was modeled, each piece of geometry was modeled as an Inventor part, and then in an Inventor assembly file, all of those parts were strung together to create this lovely truss.

So, right now, the import symbol that I have highlighted in this view is nothing other than an Inventor part. And so that's where it comes.

Now how does this affect us? Here's what this means. We can't edit geometry in an Informed Design family. We can't edit parameters. Guess what? We stand back, and we just accept whatever it is that we have been given because these are the limits. Within limits.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Within limits. And as I said, I mean, you have to either update the content, or you have to replace it or create a new product definition with it. So every time you have to put a new product in, you have to generate it if it is not the standard one that the manufacturer is providing to you. These are also test families.

Now Kyle also gave me the RFA files that he had built for the same truss. I mean, they were great. I mean, you can adjust them and they act as trusses in the-- but the problem with this is that you can't do any analytical work. You have to create the analytical model separately.

The other part was that within-- the manufacturer gives you an RFA file, you can change the value to whatever you want, and the model would flex, I mean, to whatever the constraints are within it. But you can make it nonstandard values. So this allows you to lock it down. So that's the great part about this is embracing the accuracy part of it.

RINA SAHAY: And if you really need something very something dramatic and Earth-shaking done, then that would lead to a conversation with the manufacturer to possibly have that incorporated in the next release of the family.

Now let's talk about generating fabrication documentation. This is the fun part. Please pay close attention to this QR code because this is what will take you to the web application. If you are logged into ACC, then you are already logged into the Informed Design web application, and you should be all set to go. So let's do that. Let's go, go, go. Here we are at the final frontier of whatever we're doing.

This is a stage where everybody's involved. We've got the designer, the manufacturer, the fabricator, the builder. Everybody's involved. So when we go in, we have the option to browse to our project. And this is the project that we have. We can go through our files and we can locate our project. Once we've located our project, we can open the model.

And this is kind of nice because it gives us a nice view of the model. You can actually select components, you can rotate the model, view it from different viewpoints. So here we are, and we have got this wall panel family, and I go ahead, I select this. And once I've selected this, I can go into generate outputs. So when I go into generate outputs, let's see what happens next. I am presented with a path, a progression, a progression from file types to upload location to checkout. Let's see where this goes.

So, at this stage, you've got the manufacturer and the fabricator going in and specifying the kinds of output that are required. So one option is a 3D model, which would be Inventor, and these would be uploaded in a compressed folder. You can ask for 2D Inventor output as well. And you go in, and you select the family that you want.

You can also generate a bill of materials, which is super cool. So the bill of materials, that would be exported out as a CSV file. And you can you've got options that you can select. You can go by the level of detail, or you can go for just framing or for full detail, depending upon what it is that you need. And when it generates a bill of materials, this is not really a set-in-stone kind of a deal. After you've selected all of these options, you can just hit the X and drop whatever that it is that you don't need. This is very user-friendly, and it's very easy to get exactly what it is that you want.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: So, yeah, I just wanted to drop this image in to--

RINA SAHAY: A reminder.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: --show you the comparison again to where these settings you set. Notice that you have the ability to set those, and there are the neutral formats. So you don't want to send your IAM 3D model, but you may want to share just the SAT version of it with the fabricator because they have their workflows associated with it, or it is your own factory. Either way, it's the same thing.

RINA SAHAY: So if we go on from here-- so now we know that we can also generate neutral formats. We can generate a GLB or a SAT or a STEP file. And there was a PDF somewhere too. We can pick out the level of detail. Once we've picked all the formats that we want, or maybe one, maybe all, we can go into Upload Location. Upload Location will take us to our file structure. We can pick the exact location that we want to go to. And then we check out.

Once you've checked out, in our designated folder, we see all of our outputs. And when you click on Upload Location, this will open up the folder and show you the outputs that you have. So right now, I've got a 2D Inventor. I've got a PDF. I've got my bill of materials. I've got a SAT, GLB, a STEP. I have got a whole bunch of information ready for me to look at.

So let's just look at the PDF and, hooray, we did it. So here, we have a fully-dimensioned shop drawing, fabrication drawing so as to speak, with a bill of materials ready for us, just maybe half a dozen mouse clicks, whereas it would have taken a person sometimes maybe an hour, maybe two hours to come up with this level of documentation. And this blows my mind just in terms of the time savings.

Firstly, we are not burning the midnight oil to create and manipulate and manage families. And then, secondly, we are not creating shop drawings. As a matter of fact, nobody is creating shop drawings. The manufacturer isn't creating shop drawings. I think that saves them a lot of time and a lot of effort as well.

NAUMAN MYSOREWALA: Just one other item, though, just to talk about this one-- when you process these, there is a-- I mean, we are on flex tokens, so it's a one third of a token, something like that to generate or one flex token to cost it. I don't know. Right now, it's free because it's a emerging technology, and they are testing it and whatnot. That's basically the other part of it is that this is, again, in a development process. They are very rapidly developing things, and we'll talk about some of those.

And then, in this one, I mean, the PDF is great, but who needs PDFs? Well, I mean, in that industrial future where the many-- it's going to be directly sent to the machines. The data is going to be sent to the machine to create those cut lengths. And right now, the mechanical industry is way ahead of it more so because they are doing spooling drawings for pipes, ducts. They are just being making ducts on the-- and on presses and stuff. The machine does the folding and everything. So that's the real power of it.

So let's talk about, just trying to wrap it up-- this is images from Autodesk and FactoryOS. Steve Dewitt-- I had the pleasure to work with him as a mentor. He was presenting some classes last year in AU [INAUDIBLE]. It was great to know him.

And what we are doing is taking the fabricator stuff and sending it to the builder now. They have the factory where they basically assemble the whole items. Here you can see all the pipes, electrical everything already inside those wall panels. And those are automatically cut by the system, by the data that is provided directly. You also have the standard up against that and, voila, they have that full enclosure to be shipped or, I mean, they can go in and finish it off too further. I mean, some companies are doing toilets, all that stuff already finished and deliver this as a package so it can be just as a unit, put it in the site. So that's great.

So, in this case, at least we were able to-- down the road we can build it. OK I said I won't talk about-- well, I didn't say I won't talk about AI, but at this time, I do. Well, no, I mean, I just needed something to show that.

And I tried it a multiple of them. I was wanting to share all the weird stuff that was given to me when I did that.