A quick update...

The last month or so has been an great insight into how Glue, and other cloud based technology, is going to fit in within the industry in the coming years. There's been large amounts of interest in Glue within the group of clients who attended the event down in Farnborough. A number of UK and EU clients have already started the implementation of the software, with many more pushing for it within their companies. 

I will be continuing to keep the industry updated on Glue and I'm always open to questions. Over the next few months we will see how Glue, and all of the other Cloud related software gradually brings the industry up to date and at the forth-front of technology.

For now, if you want to get to know Glue better, please take a look at the wiki page....

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/BIM_360_Glue/enu/Help/Help/0000-New_in_B0

Navis integration has arrived!

Navisworks now has a Glue-it button add-in that allows you to publish data directly from Navis on to the cloud. I've added the link to download the add-in, which is compatible with 2012 and 2013 Navisworks.

https://bim360.autodesk.com/addins/addins.html

BIM 360 Glue App!!!

The long awaited ipad app for Glue has finally been released! Here's a few screen shots....

Secure user log-in - with real-time access to all the projects the user has access to on the desktop

Access to all the views set up on your desktop, as well as being able to click and view object properties.

The ability to walk through models and be able to look around models using the ipads gyroscope.

This app is a great way to allow multiple users to look around a project in meeting rooms and on site.

Working with colors and transparency in BIM 360 Glue

A big thank you to the bloggers over in Germany for this one....

I saw that a frequent question from the users is the ability to change the appearance of objects (color, transparency etc.) inside BIM360 Glue.

There is a way to paint objects inside Glue by using Model Variations.1. First open the Review menu and go the Variations tab on the right side of the UI.

2. Then select some objects with the Selection Tool , Window Selection Tool or from the Object menu on the left of the UI.

3. From the Color drop-down menu, select a color. The color is automatically applied to the selected element.




Using transparency

Transparency can be used through the Isolate tool.
First we need to select an object and then click Isolate , on the Selection panel.
In the Options menu, we can control the transparency of elements.



Click Isolate again to reveal all elements in the 3D Model Viewer.

With the Hide/Show and the Transparent tool located on the Visual panel, we can hide and show different objects or selections

Welcome to our friends and some more Q&A's

I would like to welcome my German counterparts to blogger. They are keeping the community up to date in German!   http://bim360glue.blogspot.de/

Wanted features / bugs / questions from clients

The ability to separate aggregated Navis files in Glue
Glue is designed to aggregate models for review, although Glue will accept nwd. files, it is strongly recommended that you upload the original files so that clash detection and separation of files can be completed. It is not yet a feature to be able to separate aggregated nwd. files.

Ability to hand-off log-in credentials to OpenId / OAuth
Currently there isn't a feature for this. If there is a specific request from a client to have this feature, the BIM 360 Glue team are happy to look into it with you. 

Ability to change the appearance of an object in Glue
Currently all object properties come from the imported model and can't be changed. The ability to change the appearance of objects (color, transparency etc) is a frequent question from users and is being looked in to.

Summary of the Client Introduction Week to BIM 360 Glue

Friday 21st concluded the UK based introduction week to BIM 360 Glue which saw over 50 clients from the UK and Europe get an insight into the future of technology within the construction industry and beyond. 

'BIM 360 Glue offers HyperConnectivity - the ability to access up to date, real-time data, from anywhere in the world' 

I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce the community to the team helping to instigate this leap in working methodology. Above, is Jordon Brandt, he is the Co-founder of Horizontal Systems. This was the firm that designed and built the technology that was later bought by Autodesk and turned into BIM 360 Glue. Throughout the week Jordon talked about the uses, benefits and future for the industry once this technology is more widely adopted. 

Below, is Milin Trivedi. Milin joined Horizontal Systems right at the beginning and is one of the guys who built the software. He knows every nook and cranny it and he took control of the demo sessions during the week.

Next, we have Krisztian Hegedus. He's the guy running things, organizing people, venue's, structuring the day's and introducing the software and the team. Krisztian is based in Autodesk's Munich office and has worked with Autodesk through the introduction of Revit. 

Also there's Peter Morton and myself, Glenn Wooldridge. We are the 'Young Experts' brought in by Autodesk to be on-call 24/7 for the clients that are part of the program. We have now officially been named the Gluru's! 

Of course there are a whole team of people helping run this project within Autodesk, but the people mentioned here are the faces the industry are most likely to see during this introductory process. 

Back to the summary...

The clients seemed very impressed with a whole range of features and how easily it coped with such large models. Datasets that were tested included complex Rebar models, Hospitals, skyscrapper... etc. All of which were handled with ease using Glue. Also, the ability to integrate Glue with existing systems such as PLM, Maximo and a number of other programs proved to be of real interest to the clients as this showed how it could be integrated within there existing workflows as well as increasing efficiency's.

'Whenever I get a new email I shouldn't have to contact an email manager in order to organise, access and reply to it... The same should be for BIM'

As well as all this positive feedback there were also a number of questions. I'm going to share a few of these with you and provide answers where I can...

How do we get notified of changes made in the model?

An automated notification system exists within the software. Each user can opt in to receive notifications for things such as Model Updates, Clash Reports, RFI's, Markups... etc. Additionally, users can send notifications to other users directly.

Is there a free web viewer available? 

Currently not, the only way a project can be viewed is through a user account. The reason for this is to ensure a full Audit trail is kept.

Can I Archive a project and its Audit Trail?
Autodesk is currently working with clients to define the best format for this type of archiving system. It will be introduced in an update to the software over the coming years.

How does it deal with projects of different coordinates?
Models can be aligned within Glue via a Shared coordinate system or a Project internal system. Each model can be assigned this separately and only has to be completed once. There is also a manual coordinate system which can be used to align models.


Hopefully this has helped answer a few questions some of you may have been having about the software. Please don't hesitate to comment below if you want me to answer any more!

What's next, you may be asking...
Well, the team are heading to Munich to run a similar week over there starting today. They have left Peter and I behind to continue to help all the clients with the software over the next 30 days whilst they trial it within their offices. 


You can also follow the progress on twitter and add your own experiences using #BIM360

Day Two of the BIM 360 Glue Introduction

After two days of demo's, hands-on experience and model testing, BIM 360 Glue is well on the way to many UK/EU workplace's. Everyone had the opportunity to have a play with the online application and test workflows, navigation, clash finding and annotation. 

Even though the application hasn't yet adopted the traditional Autodesk interface, the navigation is still very easy to use and it's incredibly quick even when working with large complex models. The ability to integrate models of multiple formats, quickly and easily in to a single, cloud based model works seamlessly.

The second half of the week will be a repeat of the first half, showing another collection of UK/EU based clients the new software. 

I've been chatting with the guys at Autodesk to find out whether this is going to become available to students and unfortunately they said 'not quite yet...' but hopefully once it's become more widely used and updated to match the traditional Autodesk interface, there'll be some sort of opportunity for students to get their hands on it!

G