Introduction to FormIt

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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PHILIP ROTHEY: It's interesting to see how things

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have progressed over the years.

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When I started my career, well of course,

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there wasn't very much getting apart from 3D Studio Max.

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And then I moved into using SketchUp back I

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think 2000-- when was it 2005, or something as an architect.

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And it got a lot of adoption, of course, and just

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from the ease of use and what people were doing at the time.

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Let's see, Sarah's tried it on the iPad.

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So if you're not familiar with it, it's actually--

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I don't like to compare FormIT to--

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I like it to stand up on its own,

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rather than comparing feature set to feature set.

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Or is it an urb space modeling application-- no, it's not.

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Rhino's really good at that, as probably Sarah knows.

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But it has a lot of advantages and there's going

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to be a lot of development.

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There's a lot of development currently going through FormIT.

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And we're going to see a lot of changes.

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And that's why I didn't really want to go--

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at the moment I'll show you the current features

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and how FormIT works.

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And just showing some interoperability with Revit.

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But I also wanted to give you a snippet of where

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the direction of FormIT, the product team, where they're

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going, and how that all fits into use like generative design

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and outcomes-based design, as well

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as working on the cloud and things like that.

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So want it to be standalone character

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in the cast of multiple applications

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you can choose from.

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And really, I'm kind of excited about FormIT

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because for me finding a good way to model

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and to do iterations within a Revit environment is good.

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So I've seen certain developments

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and I think it's going to be an exciting time

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to see what's happening out of FormIT.

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I'm kind of passionate about it too.

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But what about me.

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I am very much like Martin.

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I'm also designated support specialist.

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I focus in on architecture.

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I'm an architect of background-- very much like Deepika here

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and your other account representatives from Autodesk.

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I was a design technology manager

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in both, well, in the Seattle area.

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I'm now currently in San Francisco.

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I've been here for about four years.

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But I've been up and down the West Coast for about 15 years.

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I've worked as an architect in many geos

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whether it's been where I'm from in the UK,

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as a registered British architect.

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I've also worked in the Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

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And primarily a lot of my backgrounds in architecture

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has been spent in the United States.

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But I have taken a bit of a little trip over to China

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and lived there for a couple of years.

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So that's about me.

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A very young photograph.

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That's a long time ago.

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Look a little different--

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I should update that.

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But what am I going to do during this presentation.

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I would like as I mentioned to give you

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an overview of FormIT for those people that don't know it.

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I want to delve into some of those key features that

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could make it stand on its own two feet.

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There was a release this year, which

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saw a lot of interoperability between Revit 22 and FormIT.

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And some enhancements that I can show you as well.

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But as I mentioned where's FormIT going as a product.

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What is Autodesk doing about it?

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And how is it tying into our ecosystem?

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And then, of course, you don't want

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to see a slideware after slideware.

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You want to see the product.

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And a bit of a demo.

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So I'll show you a little bit of interoperability between Revit

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and FormIT itself.

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I was going to go along and look at the iOS.

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Unfortunately, Martin can attest I

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was struggling with my iPad to connect

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without getting super feedback.

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So I'm to drop that.

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But I'll show you what's happening.

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I've BIM 360 and the web app and we'll do it live.

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So I'm sure things will go wrong.

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And hopefully I'll keep an eye on the time.

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And maybe, if anyone's got questions along the way,

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please just write in the chat window.

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And we could just stop whenever.

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The group is fairly small.

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And actually I've seen Shawn.

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Shawn is on the call too.

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And I know Shawn from my days when I was in Seattle.

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So hello, Shawn.

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So please, just feel free to butt in or just ask questions.

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This is really for your benefit and hopefully get a bit out

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of it.

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It makes you excited and to try out products

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and see how it works.

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So there's our de facto to protect

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what I'm saying because I will be

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going along talking about future facing stuff about FormIT.

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So not that you make decisions based on purchasing,

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but some people may-- you've already

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got it under your enterprise business agreement.

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So you've got it.

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It should really make any big.

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And we also have got NDA signed.

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So we should all be fine.

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But I nevertheless have to show you this slide.

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So what are the key features and what makes FormIT, FormIT.

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Well, FormIT is a subtle solid modeling tool

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and it's for 3D sketching.

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Since it's a 3D solid modeler, you

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can design in both additive and subtractive methods

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by pushing and pulling solids and voids.

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And as a solid modeler, the forms

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will translate to 3D printers and other solid modeling apps

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like 3D Studio Max and Revit.

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And also into rendering applications and gaming and VR

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apps such as Unity and Lumiere.

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And as you can see here you can extrude openings at angles,

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create complex shapes, and openings.

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And you could do that with multiple forms at once.

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There are some advanced geometry tools like the Shell Tool,

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Flatten, Boolean, Adding and Subtracting,

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and Lofting and Sweeping.

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And FormIT allows you to split a model--

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a solid-- into multiple pieces.

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You can simplify geometry and merge edges.

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You can eliminate attached geometry sets as well.

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You can extrude shapes intersecting at angles.

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You can extrude 2D shapes and most of them into 3D models.

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And you can eliminate geometry and merge the leftover edges

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as well.

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But for me, it is also integrated with Dynamo.

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So it's very much like how Rhino and Grasshopper are

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linked together.

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Now what is happening is that FormIT and Dynamo are

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being linked and there's more development going on

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as we move forward.

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And you can-- and where you could run the Dynamo craft

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from within FormIT itself.

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Out of the box it comes with sample graphs

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that create stairs, curtain walls, places, louvers

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and structural grids.

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And you can create more by going into Dynamo using the center

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FormIT node and pointing to the DY N graph and location.

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And these graphs are located--

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they can be edited from inside FormIT with simple sliders.

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So you have that interface-- the better graphic user interface.

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Where you can input fields and buttons

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so that the designers don't need to actually work in FormIT

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to explore design options.

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Much like that Dynamo player you see in Revit.

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And additionally, the capabilities of FormIT

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are expanded with several JavaScript

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plugins that ship with FormIT.

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And some plugins are the rebuild curve tool,

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extract material maps, mesh, and unmesh nested objects, as well.

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You can fillet 2D corners and the properties

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plus tool to expose additional detail properties

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and quantifications.

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But you can also do your own customized graphs and scripts,

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as well, for your specific needs.

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And FormIT, what it was doing is it's

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positioning itself into a data-rich modeling environment.

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And currently in-product allows you to get real time weather

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data from local weather stations which

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can be used for shadow studies, solar heat gain analysis,

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and for energy optimization modeling through insight.

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Each form knows its area.

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And along with the overall site area, floor area ratio,

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and floor areas are calculated.

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And can always be kept up to date with any design changes

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that you make.

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The model will also identify any watertight issues and back face

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issues where you sometimes-- when you bring

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in external models as well.

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And that can get in the way of 3D printing

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also for some other downstream workflows.

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These issues can occur when importing geometry

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into FormIT from other surface modeling programs.

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FormIT is part of the large BIM 360 ecosystem where models

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can be saved and shared in hubs and projects on the Autodesk

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documents.

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Along with the rest of the project information.

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And that can be accessed by the whole team from any location.

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Using the large model here, you can

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mark up and assign RFI to team members for task tracking.

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And FormIT collaboration, which is on the desktop application

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allows multiple people to be working on the same FormIT

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model at once.

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So one person could be at the site working on the model

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from an iPad whilst another architect is,

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say, in his office on the desktop.

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And the collaboration sessions works only

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on the pro version of the desktop application.

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You have to be cautious, though that any changes are sequential

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and shared between users.

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So if you undo too much you could inadvertently

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delete parts of your colleague's work.

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Both the iPad and Windows also have

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apps and their touch base interface

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which makes it much easier to navigate the model

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whilst being mobile.

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And a lot of focus over the current year

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has been with interoperability with Revit.

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By pressing the 3D Sketch button in the Massing and site Tab

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the model is compiled and sent to FormIT on its own layer.

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From within FormIT design options and 3D model content

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can be developed.

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And when complete, sent back to Revit

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with the center Revit button.

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The model will maintain materials, levels,

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and also keep levels and layers intact.

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FormIT levels will become Revit levels.

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FormIT materials will show up in the Revit materials list,

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and can be used as material definitions for Revit elements.

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And under the hood, FormIT geometry

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is imported back to Revit.

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And it appears as an imported symbol--

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where FormIT layers can be controlled in Revit's

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visibility graphics settings.

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So we can see this.

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I'm actually going to demonstrate this on a model

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that I've got.

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And sort of taking that as a use case

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example of actually bringing in geometry from Revit

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and bring it in to FormIT sent to with the 3D massing--

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the 3D sketch button.

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And then I'll be showing how to bring in other external content

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into the environment building up a reception desk.

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And then we'll go along and put that back into the Revit.

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So we'll actually be seeing this work flow as we move forward.

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So I'll skip along.

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But what makes me sort of excited about FormIT

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is not just what's in the current set at the moment

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with-- we've seen various improvements over the years.

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It had a hiatus for a period and it's and it's

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good to see it's coming back into the fore.

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But I'd like to cover what are the new features.

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Where is the product and what is the product team envisioning?

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And looking to that sort of near future state.

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The FormIT had significant enhancements

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with the current 2021 release.

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You can import geometry.

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And the importing of that geometry all that

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about a 10 times improvement.

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And there's been also a 15 times improvement

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for navigating the model when the shadows are turned on.

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We're looking at having an environment where

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you can actually working without being encumbered

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by large models and things like that.

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There's also been added support for project and folder

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permissions levels in Autodesk Docs.

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Now there's also the ability to use multiple SendToFormIt nodes

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to allow for output geometry from one Dynamo

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graph as an input geometry for another Dynamo graph.

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We also saw the introduction of Terrain--

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data included, when you define a location.

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And that Terrain mesh's includes the draped satellite imagery

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from Bing.

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This the smoothed hidden edges between FormIT

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faces which now remain hidden when

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converted to Revit so you don't get all that tessellated silo

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graphics.

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And what they look like on sheets It's been improved.

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And also other tools were included,

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such as the offset line tool, where you can quickly

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draw closed parallel lines to extrude when modeling.

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So when you use like modeling walls, or beams, or sidewalks,

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or whatever you have as parallel lines.

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So it speeds up the process.

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And finally, as I mentioned before this more

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of a seamless Revit workflow that

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was introduced in Revit 22.

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And with the inclusion of that 3D

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sketch and sent to Revit in FormIT.

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The FormIT product team is focusing really

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on three key areas of investment as they

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hope to balance interoperability,

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connectiveness, and provides you with the tools that

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provide insight into your design decisions.

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By connecting workflows across the Autodesk portfolio,

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and by using computational design,

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they're hoping to make design exploration more

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efficient and iterative.

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So you can design better buildings.

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Hopefully, in less time was the intent anyway.

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Then in forming design with analysis and compute.

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Will hopefullly help you and also your client

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make better choices around energy use

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and the environmental impact of your design.

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And also with collaborating and sharing on the Autodesk cloud

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will open up more services and better

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access your data to make, hopefully, good decisions early

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on in that design process.

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FormIT is working to create more of that seamless experience

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between that early stage design, and detailed design,

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and construction, basically, in Revit to prevent rework when

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moving between project phases.

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And as designers and architects, we

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know that design is iterative and it's not linear.

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And the tools that we should use will hopefully reflect that.

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The recently released improvements in the 22 release

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are a sort of the starting point.

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The FormIT team plans to expand iterative design capabilities

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with link and update workflow.

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So any modeling changes you make on FormIT

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will automatically update in Revit when you sync.

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And you will continue to move between an early stage design

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model and detailed model in Revit with hopefully one click.

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And additionally, the plan is to enhance element mapping

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between FormIT and Revit.

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So that for example, a vertical surface

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within FormIT's conceptual model automatically

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maps to a Revit wall system family.

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This may initially take the form of enhanced

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by face tools that maps many elements at once

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and tracks the changes.

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And eventually they will explore how

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we can get smarter at element mapping

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with rule-based association between elements which can

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be customized on each project.

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There's also been a lot of work on Dynamo integration

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with FormIT in the last year.

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A selection node was introduced, a live connection,

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faster reruns of graphs, and the ability

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to place multiple bake nodes in one graph.

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And all of these enhancements enhances the use of computation

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to drive their early stage design.

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The FormIT team is continuing to focus

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on this initiative with an emphasis on customization.

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They're trying to expose more of the FormIT JavaScript API

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as Dynamo nodes.

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So that design technologists can create custom graphs

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for specific project needs.

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For example, the image on the top right

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shows a custom plugin built by an intern that track

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the shadows across the site.

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The time intervals are editable so shadows

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can be tracked hourly--

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across the day, monthly--

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across a year.

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Or any other time frame that is inputted.

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We can expose more through the API through Dynamo nodes.

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And there will be more open functionality

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for you to customize your analysis needs.

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There's also going to be an emphasis

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on analytical capabilities in early stage design.

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Combining what you see in FormIT today

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and the recently acquired Spacemaker.

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Architects and engineers should be

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able to understand the implication of design decisions

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when they make them.

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So that they can always be working towards their desired

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outcomes.

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The team-- the FormIT team that is,

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plans to build on the analysis web services in Spacemaker

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to provide persistent out-of-the-box analysis

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feedback at the speed of design.

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And these analysis services will not only

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solve those common problems but will also

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be customizable to your project-specific needs.

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And hopefully with these tools, designers and architects

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will be able to define goals up front,

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compare alternative scenarios, track impacts,

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and to find the best solutions in less time.

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So those are the lofty aspirations.

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But also, connectivity and working effectively

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across teams is also important, as well.

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Especially since most of us are still working from home.

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Unlike myself here.

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We want to ensure there's a single source of truth starting

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with the early stage design work, including all project

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data.

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So that teams can work effectively,

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efficiently, and also securely.

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And recent work in this area has been the ability

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to host FormIT's content library and your own content for FormIT

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on the Autodesk cloud.

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We ensure permissions keep your data secure and also

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accessible.

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The FormIT layers are accessible under the Autodesk viewer.

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And it has made it easier to search for properties

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on your Autodesk Cloud Hub.

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The next steps are to share and access more FormIT data

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on the cloud and to support better decisions

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and collaboration.

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The team is currently working on ensuring a one-click workflow

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that uses the 3D sketch button in Revit

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to launch FormIT directly from Revit.

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Working on BIM Collaborate, but also

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in Revit Cloud Worksharing.

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Just the same thing.

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Additionally, we want more FormIT data

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accessible on the Autodesk cloud.

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Things like FormIT Scenes to control

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design options, FormIT Groups, and individual object

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attributes.

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And their vision is--

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or our vision is by having more data on the cloud.

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Which will mean more services that you

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can extract data that can be used for workflows

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like feasibility estimating, phasing, and work breakdowns.

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And eventually, the whole project team

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can collaborate in one model--

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in one centralized cloud database.

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So that's the vision.

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But yet making improvements to connectivity

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and interoperability and insights,

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the product should also not forget about those performances

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and in-product experience.

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And what we saw over the last release

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was improved model performance that

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was made to both navigation, selection, and editing.

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And in FormIT 22, we significantly

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sped up the time it takes for FormIT

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to open up the Revit model whilst also improving

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both the quality and the reliability of that data coming

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through.

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The product saw improved performance of also rerunning

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those Dynamo graphs in FormIT.

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And we'll see-- I think moving forward, pretty soon

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is more geographic locations by localizing FormIT

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into 14 languages.

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So you'll be able to access FormIT from the 3D sketch

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button in Japanese, for example.

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And they will also open within Revit

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and it will open up a Japanese version of FormIT.

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And along with localization of that product,

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there's also going to be improvements

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to documentation and tutorials.

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And the team is also working on improving

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the performance of Shadows.

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And will continue to improve both the FormIT for Windows

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and the FormIT for web tools as well.

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So that's just the overview, but I wanted to-- as I mentioned,

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I don't want to go along and bore you

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too much with the slide deck.

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Hopefully, it wasn't.

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I hope I gave you a bit of insight

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of where the product was going and where

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it's headed to, hopefully.

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But I also want to give you a demonstration.

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We're going to be looking at the FormIT UI.

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Some of the 3D sketch tools--

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the 3D sketch tool within Revit and how

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to make that interoperability between 1 and the other.

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So we'll be able to-- and once we opened up that model

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in FormIT--

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go along and we'll bring in some external content.

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So I have downloaded some SketchUp content

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from the 3D Warehouse.

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So we could use that in to view a scene and then

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we bring that back into Revit.

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I was going to do a bit of documents--

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how does that appear on the sheets and how it's cut.

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I think we probably will miss that due to time.

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But also, I'd like to overview BIM 360 and a bit of the web

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app.

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So we have a 3D model within Revit itself.

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This is also a test bed model.

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So I think it's a student hall center.

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And I thought, well, what scenario could be

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used for today's demonstration.

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And I thought we could have a look at bringing

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in looking at lobby.

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When I was working in architecture--

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interiors departments-- we'll be modeling up reception desks

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and things like that.

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But you'd always have to do In Place Family

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to get the context and things.

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But yet, with FormIT and being able to model up ideas,

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and you could bring those back in.

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And once you brought them back in you

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can use the likes of Landscape or whatever

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to visualize them within Revit and also

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be able to document some of those design options.

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So I find FormIT is a good tool to do the design options

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and flush out those ideas before really going in and committing

25:19

those to Revit.

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So I see it as a good way to have this maybe slightly

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migrate more away from design options within Revit.

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And then play around with FormIT which is much more loose.

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And you can have that concept.

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You can bring in the context of the Revit environment

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and push it back.

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So I thought, well, that would be a good example.

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So I took the lobby area of this model.

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And what you can do is when you go,

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you can export it out by using the Massing tool

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and we have the center 3D Sketch.

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I might have just seen this.

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It's grayed out.

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And if we go to the 3D model, it then comes back in.

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So you can't export out of a 2D view.

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You have to export out of the 3D view.

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But I don't want to export the whole model, which you could do

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and I've actually successfully exported this model.

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I thought I just wanted to look in a specific area.

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So I'll create a Scope Box of that reception area.

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And that's it.

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So I put the scope box in--

26:25

the reception area is here.

26:28

You can see that's what the area is going to really focus in--

26:33

on this area.

26:33

I wanted to get a bit of context as well.

26:37

And then once I've got it I really just go along and then

26:41

just click the button--

26:42

FormIT 3D sketch.

26:44

So I'd click that.

26:45

And then it comes up with a dialog saying, well,

26:47

"Do you want to launch FormIT?"

26:49

with all its visible Revit objects or just the ones

26:53

that you selected.

26:54

So you can be very specific and just highlight and use

26:57

the filter tool within Revit.

26:58

Select what you want, send it across.

26:60

I'm just going to do the visible ones.

27:01

I want to put it with the scope box.

27:05

So I click on that button.

27:07

It's gathering all the data.

27:08

And what it's going to do is it's going to compile it.

27:11

Its going to go and open up a session of FormIT.

27:15

And then open up and have that context--

27:18

the thing that I've defined in the scope box--

27:22

put it in and put it onto a Revit layer.

27:26

So it's normally quicker than this or maybe

27:29

it's just my impression.

27:31

Because it's always the way when it comes to doing

27:36

a lot of presentations.

27:38

It seems much slower than when you do it yourself.

27:42

So it's opening up that FormIT model.

27:48

Hopefully, I've got all the permissions.

27:51

And then it's brought it in.

27:52

So it has brought it in as a Revit Context.

27:55

And recently in this update, you could also

27:57

have the ability to lock the layer so you don't accidentally

27:59

move it.

27:60

Select it.

28:00

So you can see this--

28:04

I think it's a No Entry or whatever sign

28:06

it is that you can't go along and select it

28:09

if I was to go along or select that you can now

28:12

select elements and components.

28:14

But what's nice is it's put it into the context

28:17

itself and you can turn off the layer in such a way.

28:20

But I thought I'd talk about a little bit

28:22

if the context and the UI.

28:27

So you have your main toolbar--

28:30

tool palette up here.

28:31

You can see here that this has been activated.

28:33

If you were to open up a single FormIT session,

28:36

you won't be able to send the geometry back to wherever.

28:38

It doesn't know.

28:39

You need to be able to have that hook.

28:42

Open it up in Revit, send it, and keep that session open.

28:47

If you close that session down, you can save it as an AXM.

28:51

And then what you can do is you can load as .cat, an AXM file,

28:56

and it will bring it in.

28:57

And the nice thing about what this workflow here

29:01

is that it remembers locations.

29:03

So if I was to go in-- which I will do in a minute--

29:05

go into this area, be able to draw, model,

29:09

and I send it back, it will remember

29:10

that particular location.

29:12

It will also remember materials as well.

29:14

So that's pretty handy.

29:17

So this is the main toolbar up here.

29:21

We have back, go back, selection tools.

29:24

You have these pull down menus where you can select,

29:27

you can filter by what you want to select to,

29:29

so you can select Edges, Faces, Groups, Meshes.

29:32

You can go along and measure.

29:34

You can measure angles as well.

29:35

You can create sections.

29:36

So if I was to select this button here and do a section--

29:42

going down because I don't want to have all of the areas--

29:46

there's too much-- there's the duct work there,

29:48

I can select that.

29:50

Put that in and I can drag this down accordingly.

29:53

And then you see that it will model it down.

29:55

So I can start to see the space and be able to move it all

29:59

accordingly.

29:60

And I may not want to have that section box always there.

30:03

And I can turn that section cut off, as well.

30:06

Yeah.

30:07

So I can do the section indicators

30:11

and turn the section indicators off.

30:13

Then you don't get that big gray square.

30:18

You also have the ability to go along and look

30:22

at Sun and Shadows.

30:23

You can turn on Shadows, see what they look like.

30:25

So you can see how that's affecting the space you

30:27

can change the time of year.

30:28

You can move these sliders up and down.

30:31

And you can play around with the Sun Editor

30:33

and that, basically, you can rotate that-- position

30:36

that accordingly.

30:38

Another really great-- actually I'm

30:39

going to do this in another session

30:41

because I don't really want to interfere with this.

30:44

Let's open up another FormIT session.

30:48

And another cool feature I felt was the introduction

30:53

of the Location and by putting in Location that

30:57

also maps to your Sun path.

30:59

It will automatically see where those things are.

31:02

So if I was to go and do a location which is here.

31:05

And it's got a long hand--

31:12

find location which is pretty bumpy.

31:16

Let's go along and have a look.

31:20

This is more to do with the internet connection, I believe.

31:28

Well, whilst that is having a bit of a think.

31:31

Here we go.

31:32

So I can select--

31:42

so let's search location.

31:44

So if I go in search and I type--

31:48

I think that Shawn is here.

31:49

I think he's in Seattle.

31:51

So I'm going to put Seattle, Washington.

31:57

And let's just get along I know that this particular area

32:02

around here is kind of got a bit of a bumpy area.

32:06

So I'm going to do that.

32:07

And I'm going to import the terrain as well.

32:13

And you can zoom out.

32:14

Select what you want.

32:22

So it's a little bit jerky.

32:24

OK.

32:24

Let's do that.

32:26

I'll move it around accordingly.

32:29

That's a big, big area.

32:33

And then what I'll just do is finish.

32:35

And I'll import it in.

32:36

And what it's doing is it's automatically saying

32:40

that this is the terrain--

32:42

the satellite image.

32:43

And with that satellite image, you

32:44

can actually start to model on top

32:46

of it, which makes it easier.

32:48

Because it's harder to do when the terrain is on.

32:50

But if you put the terrain on, then you're

32:52

getting the whole terrain in as well, which is pretty handy.

32:56

And you can cut into that as well.

32:59

Moving back to my example because I'm cognizant of time.

33:03

Let's take off the shadows as well.

33:05

So you've got the shadows here you can also

33:08

send this model off to our Insight services, which

33:11

if you've got a Massing model of a building

33:13

and you have the layers and the levels which

33:17

you can set over here.

33:20

And you can assign them to a particular object.

33:23

You can go along cut that.

33:24

You can then send that to the Insight services.

33:28

And then it gives you an approximation

33:30

using the Insight

33:33

can look at EUI and a basis for your design

33:39

as well, which is pretty handy.

33:42

If you have a Surface Book or whatever

33:45

you've got the touch mode.

33:46

You can move around those things.

33:47

And this is the Collaboration session.

33:49

So if you want to open up multiple people

33:52

being in one FormIT session, you can go along

33:55

and press Collaboration.

33:57

It gives you a starter Collaboration session.

33:59

If you need the Pro version, it gives you a URL.

34:01

You can send that to various stakeholders.

34:03

If you don't have FormIT Pro, you still can participate.

34:07

You can just go onto the web application as well.

34:12

So over here, we have the Layers.

34:14

So you can turn on Layers as we just saw just then.

34:17

We have Properties which we'll go through in a little bit.

34:20

Materials over here.

34:21

You can either choose the Material Samples

34:23

that we have here.

34:25

And there's a whole plethora of them.

34:26

So you can go through to Metal.

34:28

These or the ones that have been compiled by the team.

34:32

But you can also look at the ones that are in your sketch

34:34

as well.

34:35

So anything that you've imported across from Revit.

34:39

It's coming in here as well as probably,

34:42

if anything that you bring in also from third party--

34:45

such as SketchUp objects.

34:50

And I believe also Rhino as well.

34:54

You can set up your Scenes.

34:56

We're going to see future releases where

34:57

you can animate that scene.

34:59

And send those off to an MP3, MP4.

35:04

You can set your Style.

35:06

So you can have the Line Style so you can do more silhouettes.

35:11

You can make it monotone.

35:12

You can play around with Shadows.

35:15

You can also go along and have the Axes,

35:18

have Fog, North Arrow.

35:19

So you've got all of those controls--

35:21

probably a lot similar to SketchUp

35:24

although I haven't been in SketchUp for some time.

35:27

And then here you can identify Watertight issues and things.

35:30

So when you send things to Insight 360

35:32

you need to have a Watertight model.

35:33

Sometimes a lot of failures happen because they're not.

35:36

And this will identify-- and I'm sure I've got a ton of them

35:38

here--

35:40

not too bad.

35:42

But what it will do is it will show a blue, blue line, which

35:46

means that you have to go and address those issues.

35:49

And you can also identify back face issues

35:51

which has a lot to do with materiality and problems

35:54

with that.

35:55

There's also this Group tree which you can go along

35:57

and then organizing-- what's nice about that

36:00

is you can go along and select certain elements.

36:02

So if you name your groups correctly, and are disciplined

36:06

about that you can select and you can find that geometry

36:08

straight away.

36:09

And then you can use the hide command

36:11

to go straight to that object.

36:13

Layers levels-- I mean you can create the levels

36:15

and those levels actually migrate also into Revit

36:21

as well.

36:23

The Content Library too is pointing to Autodesk Docs.

36:26

So you can go to a certain location

36:28

and find those whichever-- wherever you've placed

36:30

your content library as well.

36:33

You can also see what your history is as you can see.

36:35

I've been a little bit of a busy person today.

36:38

You're not really seeing everything there

36:40

but you can go back and then pull back your undos.

36:46

So it remembers those.

36:47

And then we have the Dynamo button, which I don't really

36:49

know if I can click.

36:51

And then here we see some of the Dynamo samples

36:55

that the team has created.

36:56

But you can create your own as well

36:58

by clicking on this button.

36:59

And it will open up a session of Dynamo and launch that.

37:03

And then you could start to manipulate and do things

37:05

very much like as you do Dynamo with Revit.

37:09

But this is pretty handy.

37:10

So you could even go along if I put in 3D text.

37:13

I'm doing this on the fly.

37:15

So let's just double click that.

37:21

Hold on.

37:22

There we go-- 3D text.

37:23

It's already there.

37:24

So the 3D text is there, you can select it.

37:27

And you can go along and then with it, once you've placed it,

37:30

you can then rerun it.

37:31

You could change the name--

37:34

the actual text itself.

37:35

So we can call this Reception.

37:44

And then run a graph.

37:46

And whilst doing that--

37:50

it's always slow the first time you run the graph.

37:53

And it speeds up after that.

37:58

So hold on.

38:00

Bear with me.

38:02

There we go.

38:02

So then you can run these graphs that you've created

38:06

and it will update accordingly.

38:09

And then you also have the ability

38:10

to create these custom plugins as well.

38:14

And there's some that have already been available.

38:16

So you can clean up your geometry before sending.

38:18

You can create Fillet 2D Corners.

38:21

There's all a bunch of different JavaScript applications.

38:27

You can create your own as well.

38:29

So that you can learn how to do that here.

38:32

And then you can go and you'll start

38:36

to see the box-- the JavaScript plugins already here.

38:42

So you can clean up your model.

38:43

You can validate your model.

38:44

That's just one of the plugins that have been I've downloaded.

38:47

And also you can go to the web itself and download some more.

38:53

So that is basically the user interface and delete that.

38:59

And actually when you right click on something

39:02

you get this contextual interface

39:05

where it gives you the commands that can

39:08

be applied to that selection.

39:10

So here you see rotate, scale, copy, array, group on group,

39:16

explode--

39:17

those things.

39:17

I'm just going to go here, you can mirror too.

39:19

I'm going to just delete this here as well.

39:22

And that's a similar experience on the web

39:25

and also on the iOS app as well.

39:30

OK.

39:31

So what happens.

39:32

So let's bring in some geometry.

39:34

And let's do a little bit of modeling.

39:36

And try and do this as quick as possible in the time.

39:40

So if I was to bring in some file, insert, import.

39:46

I'm going to-- I've already saved some files.

39:49

Before we do that, let's just go along and set the axes

39:52

because I'm noticing this--

39:54

it's not-- nothing is angled correctly.

39:58

It's not 90 degrees.

39:60

But I want it to be.

40:01

So let's go along and set the axes.

40:05

So we can go here.

40:08

I think if you can edit, set axes.

40:12

That brings the dialog it brings that thing here.

40:14

So actually, it's select snap to that.

40:18

Oh.

40:18

I snapped the wrong one.

40:19

But I can do this and I can bring this to here.

40:22

So now I've got the axes going here.

40:24

So when I start to bring in geometry

40:26

it's going to remember that axis you can see now the axes.

40:30

Let's return that.

40:39

Now we should see.

40:42

We're not selecting the geometry here.

40:50

Let's just get out of that.

40:57

Select this.

41:07

This model-- for some reason-- select.

41:11

OK.

41:12

So let's just see here.

41:14

I want to go and lock that.

41:20

Here we go.

41:21

So there we go.

41:22

We're not playing.

41:23

I'm now going to go and insert some of the objects

41:26

from import, from some of the things I

41:30

have downloaded online.

41:33

And if I look here, then I want to go along and say,

41:36

yeah, I want to bring in a reception desk.

41:39

So I'll bring this in.

41:43

Then zoom out.

41:46

There's the reception desk.

41:49

And I can put it onto press layers.

41:51

I can choose my own.

41:52

It comes in by default as the Layer one.

41:54

But if I right click, if I select it,

41:58

and then select the properties--

42:00

you'll see it's assigned to Layer zero.

42:03

I can create a new layer by clicking on the Layers--

42:06

adding that, renaming.

42:09

Let's call this furniture-- or no Reception Desk--

42:15

Reception.

42:16

And then I could change the properties in the Properties

42:19

dialog to Reception.

42:21

Once again, if I go in-- double click--

42:23

I go into that group I can select them all.

42:25

I can make sure that everything is on that Reception layer.

42:29

So now we've got the reception desk.

42:31

I can then select it.

42:32

I can then just move that object.

42:36

And then I can position it where I want it to be.

42:38

So I'm going to say I'm going to position it there.

42:41

I don't see it's not exactly where I would like it to be.

42:45

I would like to angle it-- so I can select it, right click.

42:49

I can rotate.

42:50

You select a point in that rotation--

42:54

onto that model.

42:56

Select there.

43:01

I don't have to move in.

43:02

It seems to be underneath.

43:04

Let's just put it here.

43:05

And then we move here.

43:06

And you can move this accordingly.

43:08

So you can just start to move it to where you like it to be.

43:12

So we'll just put it there.

43:16

And you can move it accordingly into that space.

43:19

You can move it up.

43:20

And you can align it to wherever.

43:24

So there's a reception desk.

43:26

We would also like to go along and create some geometry too.

43:29

And if I wanted to do a back screen, a back wall here,

43:33

I could then go along and create.

43:36

Let's do a-- select an object.

43:40

Select.

43:40

I'll just go along and do this one

43:43

where I can define-- this is the new tool that's

43:46

come out which is the Distance.

43:48

So I can go and define that.

43:52

Let's just put that there.

43:56

I'm going to move the object up--

43:58

we can see.

43:58

And if you press and you can input,

44:02

it brings you into the input feature.

44:04

You can then import it too.

44:07

Its now extending a little bit too high.

44:08

I can then select my section indicators

44:18

and move my section up a little bit.

44:25

You could see the reception.

44:28

Let's move that away because we don't select it.

44:31

And now what I can do is if I wanted to bring this in,

44:35

I can then go along and select that face.

44:38

I can go and measure that distance.

44:42

I know from the middle to here--

44:44

it's one.

44:45

And if I select it, I can then say

44:47

no I would like that to be six inches.

44:49

And I'll move it in accordingly.

44:50

I can select this face.

44:52

I can then offset it so I control.

44:54

And you see it's moving the whole face down

44:57

but it's knowing the angle.

44:58

And if I press the Shift, it locks to it.

45:02

If I press Control it's then duplicating it.

45:05

So I can then go and say, no, I want it at 6 inches.

45:09

And I've done that.

45:10

I've made that change.

45:11

You could Tab into it.

45:12

And you can change that to seven inches, say,

45:15

or let's do four inches.

45:17

And you can change it accordingly and it moves.

45:20

And then you can extrude.

45:21

So then you extrude out.

45:24

We can extrude that face.

45:26

And we can snap to the face there.

45:31

And we can bring that back another 6 inches,

45:36

I want to say foot--

45:37

and tap 6 inches.

45:41

Bring it around.

45:43

Looking at the time.

45:45

And then what you can also do is--

45:49

so you can grab this particular element.

45:52

Once again you can then move it accordingly.

45:54

And here we can see the Control.

45:58

I'm going to go and wanted to put on that angle.

46:03

Control.

46:05

There we go.

46:06

And once I've selected that I can tab in I can say,

46:09

I want that to be by foot.

46:15

And then with that I can then grab that

46:17

and I can extend that even further.

46:19

So now I'm starting to get my reception.

46:22

My wall for the reception area.

46:24

I'm going to put that and snap back to that particular area

46:27

there.

46:31

And then by double clicking, you can then group it.

46:35

So you can do that.

46:36

Shortcut is for G. But you can go in here.

46:38

And then go to the contextual.

46:43

Select Group.

46:44

And then we can name it.

46:46

So we can go into the Properties name this to be Wall--

46:51

the Reception Wall and wall.

46:56

Oh, I can't spell.

46:57

Hold on.

46:59

Reception.

47:01

And we got the reception wall.

47:05

And we could go--

47:06

and then if we were to bring in some furniture as well.

47:11

We could do so.

47:13

But as I could go.

47:17

So we have the model or what I might

47:18

do is just do a little cut out.

47:20

And here.

47:24

And mounting a rectangle.

47:30

Tab to foot.

47:35

And units are-- you can change between units and meters.

47:40

So it's both metric and imperial.

47:44

And we could go along here.

47:46

And you can see it goes straight through.

47:48

So that's a difference where you don't have to clean up.

47:50

It self-healing which is pretty handy.

47:53

So now we got that.

47:54

Just for the sake of time, what I'm going to do is I'm

47:56

going to bring this back.

47:57

So we have this.

47:58

Make sure that this is on the correct layer.

48:01

Select the Reception Desk.

48:05

That's what the reception desk layer.

48:08

And also we can select those two elements.

48:12

And then once we've got those we can go along and then send back

48:15

to Revit.

48:17

You can either do select it only or you can do all visible.

48:20

So if you've got many elements within the model itself

48:22

you can go in and do all visible.

48:26

And it's never going to send back that Revit context either,

48:29

which is pretty handy.

48:30

I also noticed there's a clash there.

48:33

Anyway, Selected Only.

48:35

Go OK.

48:36

And now it's saying that it's already back

48:38

into the model, back in Revit.

48:39

So let's see what that looks like.

48:42

And here we go there are the elements itself.

48:48

There's the thing is--

48:49

it's keeping those.

48:50

And then what we have is if we looked at our visibility

48:53

graphics, you can go into imported categories.

48:57

And within those imported categories,

49:00

you can see the imported FormIT geometry.

49:05

There it is.

49:07

You can see them.

49:07

And I could turn off the reception layer.

49:09

Reception.

49:10

I'm surprised the-- maybe I didn't

49:13

assign the-- in my haste I didn't do the reception

49:17

ceiling.

49:18

But let's do that.

49:19

Apply that.

49:21

OK.

49:22

And then you see the reception desk is gone.

49:25

So this way of controlling you control it

49:27

with visibility graphics, you can do overrides,

49:30

and so on and so forth.

49:31

So the geometry is all cutable as well.

49:36

So that is really FormIT.

49:39

I just gave you a very brief overview.

49:41

Hopefully, that gives you a bit of an impression

49:43

of what it can do to some of those functionalities.

49:45

I'd like to leave some questions and answers.

49:48

But if we go back to--

49:52

there is a FormIT blog out there.

49:55

And not only is there a FormIT blog but there's also--

49:57

you can learn.

49:59

There's a whole primer that's just been revamped.

50:01

So you can go to the FormIT primer.

50:04

It gives you a whole lot of content.

50:07

And also some--

50:09

I believe there are things that you can download as well.

50:13

So that's a great way to start the blog.

50:16

You can also reach out on the blog, too,

50:19

and join the community.

50:22

And should you so wish, you can go along

50:24

and post things on the gallery and things like that.

50:27

So that's one thing I've used actually FormIT

50:31

to do my whole home projects.

50:35

I think Martin's actually seen some of them.

50:37

I've given it to various builders to price on.

50:40

I've sent them-- I've uploaded SketchUp to FormIT files

50:44

onto the Autodesk viewer.

50:46

So I could share with stakeholders as well.

50:48

And also we have things.

50:50

So if I was to go back to my--

50:52

let's get back to my FormIT model.

50:55

And I'm here in my model.

50:58

I can go and save this file.

51:00

Save Sketch as-- and I can save it to the Autodesk Docs.

51:04

I then navigate accordingly to which very much the same user

51:08

interface that you're seeing with Autodesk Docs.

51:10

You can change the account.

51:11

I can go to any account that I'm associated with.

51:15

So I'll get Studio RoCo.

51:17

We go back to my projects.

51:19

I then can go along and save Basic.

51:21

Let's go to the FormIT Insight model.

51:27

And I'll save it there and saving project files, models,

51:32

FormIT.

51:33

I'm going to name it Reception.

51:39

Well, save.

51:41

And then it's saving.

51:43

They would put up any contextual information

51:46

or any warnings that come up.

51:48

So don't leave before you save.

51:50

Now it's saved, I can leave.

51:52

I'm now going to go back into the actual web app.

51:60

So if I go back to my model, I could go here.

52:02

I can then go find.

52:03

Hopefully, it's uploaded.

52:05

Go here.

52:05

Open my sketch.

52:06

Go to all of their stocks.

52:10

And go to that location.

52:12

Changed my account.

52:13

Go to my project.

52:15

Go back.

52:16

Same experience.

52:17

Go to the Insight project files, models.

52:23

Oh, went too far double-click to merge FormIT.

52:27

And you should see that Reception model.

52:31

So as you can see, I'm working on a Mac at the moment.

52:33

I can open that.

52:35

And continue working on that project.

52:37

And then I can go back and sync back.

52:40

And put that information back into my Revit documentation.

52:44

And it's also I can access it via the web app too,

52:46

or not the web app-- the iOS app as well.

52:49

And you can get all your insights and all the tools

52:51

that you have, which were available on the Pro version

52:56

that you can access here.

52:58

Not all of them.

52:59

There are some that are missing but definitely

53:01

enough to get you going should you want to carry on working

53:04

and you're not at your computer.

53:06

And not at your office computer or with the Desktop app.

53:10

That's the blog, the primer, this FormIT help list forum.

53:14

Access to the web app.

53:15

I would highly recommend just going on and just

53:18

giving it a whirl.

53:19

Giving it a play.

53:20

Keep your mind clear of any other applications that

53:23

may use.

53:24

Just see if you can get some nice workflows going.

53:26

I really do think this is a great way

53:27

to do design iteration by doing design options, which can

53:30

be kind of cumbersome in Revit.

53:33

I always felt-- and this keeps it

53:35

a little bit away from all that main documentation.

53:40

But you can bring it in.

53:41

You can get all this early conceptual thoughts.

53:45

Or even if you wanted to refine certain areas like I showed--

53:48

there are buildings being built or designed--

53:50

so you just need to do a little solution or design--

53:54

like a reception area.

53:55

You can go in and do that.