Grid Generator & Reinforcement of Columns - Revit Structure 2010 Extensions Series

Revit Extensions in Revit Structure 2010 utilizing the Grid Generator and Column Reinforcement. Download from the Autodesk subscription website.

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Autodesk Labs: Structure Generator for Autodesk Revit

Project Structure Generator for Autodesk® Revit® Structure and Autodesk® Revit® Architecture software is a free technology preview that provides a connection between massing models and objects created during conceptual design and structural elements such as beams, column, walls, plates. With Project Structure Generator, structural engineers and architects, from the earliest stages, can very quickly create and visualize a physical and analytical model of a structure based on the massing model. See labs.autodesk.com for details.

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Sales Forecast, Part 1: Structure

The backbone of a normal sales forecast is typically a spreadsheet. It could be created from scratch or come already structured with business plan software. This first video on sales forecast explores the standard structure of rows and columns.

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Autodesk Revit Structure: Using the Rebar Shape Browser

Shows how to add rebar to concrete elements, and how to change and modify the shape and type of rebar in Revit 2011.

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Revit Structure - Modeling Concrete Columns, Beams, and Floor Slabs

Autodesk BIM Curriculum | Unit 4 - Lesson 2 - Tutorial 2 | www.bimtopia.com/bimcurriculum.html

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Autdoesk Revit Structure: Modifying Graphical Column Schedules

Demonstrates how to modify the layout of a graphical column schedule in Revit Structure and add column tags.

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Revit Structure 2011 - Slanted Column Improvements

Improving on previous functionality, Revit Structure 2011 now adds the ability to control the top and Bottom cuts on Slanted columns and improves the workflow of attaching to a slab. For more Revit Structure 2011 videos, visit Excitech's Video Portal - www.excitech.co.uk

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An Amazing Data Structure - Programming a Maze in C++

In this article, we will take a close look at the construction of a maze of rectangular shape in C++ and we will propose an algorithm that will highlight the solution for going through and getting out of the maze. Our objective here is to create a perfect maze, the simplest type of maze for a computer to generate and solve. A perfect maze is defined as a maze which has one and only one path from any point in the maze to any other point. This means that the maze has no inaccessible sections, no circular paths, no open areas. Apparently easy to be solved, this problem requires the use of several data structures : arrays, piles and lists. Our goal consists in using C++ classes in order to define hybrid structures.

Keywords: maze, data structure, pile, array, linked list, path.

Introduction

When studying a programming language, one often encounters data structures such as piles, linked list and trees, among other things. According to the paradigm, the data structure occupies a position of skeleton in the program, whereas the algorithms reflect only a way of manipulating the data. Unfortunately, in most documents referring to this subject, one introduces these structures in a simplistic way, with examples of a terrible triviality. We will hereinafter look at an interesting example, albeit slightly complex : creating a maze and finding a way out. Let us consider the following case. We start with a grid consisted of several lines and columns of rectangular cells (see figure 1). By breaking a few walls of a few cells, we can build a maze (see figure 2). One thing left to do is to determine which walls should be destroyed, at the very moment where we have finished drawing the maze or if there is a path between the ingoing cell and the outgoing cell.

To answer the previous questions, we will provide our program with three types of structure. The array comes first. It is the simplest structure. It consists of a rectangle of cells composed of a certain number of lines and columns. If the array is not numerical, there is not much we can do except reading and writing its input. Nevertheless, it is rather convenient for representing data in a compact shape, even visually esthetical. Within the framework of this article, we use it to refer to our maze inside the class of the same name. Regarding this matter, we must focus our attention on the variable Puzzle located in the listings 5 and 6. Puzzle is actually a linear array put in memory, what we can allow since we chose a rectangular-shaped maze. In this context, we provide the users of the triggered class with an indexing operator of the form : Puzzle(i,j). If this operator simply indicates the cell placed in line i and column j, the access in memory to that cell will be carried out by moving from i * total number of columns + j spaces in the memory.

Here comes the second structure and the list (doubly-linked list, in our case). It consists of several nodes, each one containing a data element independent of any implementation, including two pointers (whose values correspond to the addresses of the next and previous nodes). By convention, the "head" of a list is the node having no previous node. And the "tail", the one that has no next node. Many operations on lists can be carried out, the most usual one being the insertion (in the first, middle or last place) of new elements. For that matter, let us pay attention to the code of the listing 3. We can see that the list structure for the class Room is implemented. Here the function Glue provides the only operation, we are interested in : it carries out the addition of two lists containing given rooms. To perform this task, we look for the head in one list and the tail in another one. Then we merely "glue" the two nodes in question one upon the other. It is clear that, with respect to the array, the list gives the undeniable advantage of growing. It is therefore useless to know its size in advance.

Let us now move on to the third structure : the pile. It is a peculiar case of list that one can envision as a heap of objects. It has only one pointer and consequently, we cannot access freely to its elements since we can extract only the one that is located on the surface. We summarize these properties by calling the pile a structure LIFO in which the Last Input is the First Output. In a pile, the only possible operations are to pile up a new element (function push()) and withdraw (when possible) the last piled-up element (function pop()). This property makes precisely the pile interesting in our case. As a matter of fact, when lost in the maze, we will always get the possibility of moving backwards. So, if we store our trajectory into the pile, the last piled-up element will always be a "retreat solution". We implement this structure in the listings 3 and 4. The data of our structure are the coordinates of the cell (room) of the current location.

1. Encoding the openings and closings

Creating a maze is made by means of a class which accepts any number of lines and columns. It allocates an array of the type lines * columns = rooms. The data of each room rely mainly on two integers. One specifies the set it belongs to and the other one specifies the state of its doors. Except for the edges, all cells possess four doors (down, right, up and left). But as a door is shared by two juxtaposed rooms, we will consider that each room manages only the doors Down and Right that it contains (because they are at the down and right sides of the cells, in our drawings). Of course, the edges make an exception. We represent the state of the doors (open, closed and, let's be crazy, locked) by the bits with the following convention :

00 : the door is closed

01 : the door is open

11 : the door is locked

Moreover, we decide that the two first bits (at the right side of the usual writing of a binary number) symbolize the state of the door Down and the two following bits (going to the left side of the usual writing of a binary number) represent the one of the door Right. So here are the equivalences of some decimal numbers:

0 = 00 00

? the doors Down and Right are closed.

7 = 01 11

? the door Down is locked, the door Right is open.

All possible states are enumerated in the type DoorStates of the listing 5. In order to remember them more easily, we use D for (D)own, C for (C)losed, L for (L)ocked, O for (O)pen. With this convention, it proves rather easy to write the routines allowing to change the state of the doors. To fulfill this task, we must modify bit-by-bit their current condition by using the operators | and &.

The different functions are implemented in the listings 5 and 6. By way of illustration, consider the implementation of the function LockRight(). It only applies the disjunctive operator " | " bit-by-bit. For instance, knowing that 12 (decimal) = 11 00 (binary), the function locks the door Right and does not touch the one of Down.

2. Laying the openings and closings

This first step being defined, we want now our maze to be perfect or, in other words, we want one and only one path between two unspecified rooms. In a technical point of view, it is thus a question of representing all the possible trajectories by a tree. In a practical point of view, the rule will consist in not creating a door between two rooms if they can already connect by another path. Here is, for example, what could be the statement of the creation of a maze : "Mark each room in a single way, with an identifier. As long as the maze is not complete, place yourself - randomly - in a room. If you find a door closed, look at the identifier of the neighbor room. If the identifiers of the two rooms are different, open their common door and unify their identifiers and also their lists. Otherwise, lock the door (for that means that both rooms are already connected; open that door would make up a small island). The maze will be considered as complete when all rooms have the same identifier".

In general, the complexity of a maze can be measured by its tree. The more it is "balanced" (a tree is said to be "balanced" if each one of its branches has approximately the same size), the more complex the maze becomes. It should be noted that, instead of taking cells randomly, one can also move by chance in the maze.

The algorithm is implemented in the constructor of the class Maze. This constructor takes dimensions as input. We start the construction by choosing randomly some cells. This operation enables us to insert some corridors so as to make difficult the search for the good path. Then we insert a last loop carrying out the same task at the end. This loop is there just to check that all rooms are really connected.

3. And now... getting out !

Let us consider a virtual robot which, put in a room, must go through the array in order to find the way out. The robot can only fulfill four types of movements : up, down, left and right. If we start from the principle that it is located at the position (i, j), here is the way to formulate them :

Right : we move to (i + 1, j)

Left : we move to (i - 1, j)

Down : we move to (i, j + 1)

Up : we move to (i, j - 1)

Now it is advisable to apply the classical rule of the right hand (or left hand), which consists in always following with one hand the wall of the maze. It works very well if one starts from an edge of the maze. But if our robot gets thrown in any place of the maze, it runs the risk of turning around, because it did not choose the right hand ! Here we understand all the interest of storing the trajectory carried out in the pile : it enables us to get back and look for another bifurcation instead of retaking infinitely the same path in the same direction. The algorithm for getting out of the maze has the following appearance :

Put into the pile (push) the starting position

While we don't find the way out

Evaluate the opening of the doors of the room for each opened door

If the door has not been crossed

Go forward

Store (push) the new position

Else we are in a deadend

Go back (pop)

In the implementation, it is obvious that we must follow a strict order when looking for opened doors from the one by which we came into the room in the direction of the needles of a watch (case of the left hand) or in the opposite direction (case of the right hand). The final algorithm is implemented in the listing 8.

After compiling the source code and running the program, you will obtain something like the figure 6. It should be noted that the presented source code could implement more complex mazes, like those in a pentagonal, hexagonal shape and so forth. In fact, only the display will basically make the difference.

4. How to visualize the maze

Using Shell, you must type in :

:$ make -f Show

:$ make 30 60 10 &

These commands will enable to draw a maze with a dimension of 30 lines and 60 columns with cells having ten pixels on the side (nine, actually, since a pixel is used for drawing the wall). You will thus obtain something like the figure 5.

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Coaching Tips - How to Structure Short-Term Goals For Long-Term Success

This month we'll delve deeper into the goal-setting process by working on specific exercises to help you structure your goal, along with a goal chart that will help you track your progress. In general terms, short-term goals are goals you can reach in one year or less. Long-term goals are ones that are attainable in one to five years. Both of these goals work hand-in-hand with each other. By merely having a long-term goal, you don't have the necessary "baby" steps that will get you where you need to go. It's like starting from point A and being told to go to Point C without any type of roadmap in hand. This is where short-term goals come in. A short-term goal is a rung on the ladder; a concrete activity you can check off on a list. It is also a task that leads you towards your ultimate goal.

In creating a short-term goal, it is important to distinguish between what you "wish" for and what you ultimately want. Often a person's goal can be "to make lots of money," "live where it's warm," "find Mr. or Ms. Right," etc., but these are merely broad generalizations and therefore, it's difficult to create concrete markers to let you know if you're heading in the right direction.

Instead, use these broad subject areas to delve into what exactly motivates you about them. Instead of wanting to make lots of money, this "wish" could be re-phrased to "making $50,000 this year and saving $2,000 for retirement." There are also many more factors involved in "living where it's warm" that you need to address. What part of the country interests you, what is the cost of living, what demographics are you seeking? By breaking down a statement of what you wish your life could be like, you are much more likely to get there. In order to reach your goals, you will have to get around any barriers you may face. List those barriers and your solutions for dealing with them. Below are two exercises to help you structure your short-term goal-setting process.

Exercise: In creating your goal, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

2. What would your "perfect life' look like and your "worst life" look like?

3. How important is the goal to you? Why is it important?

4. What obstacles might I face?

Exercise: On a sheet of paper, write "Short-term Goals I Want to Accomplish." Start with the goal that most interests you, then create a column for each of these areas:

1. Things I can do right now to achieve them

2. Things I can do next month

3. Things I can do six months from now

4. Things that might prevent me from achieving my goal

5. Thoughts I'm telling myself about my abilities to complete this goal

For each statement, make a list of concrete actions you can do, then set a deadline for their completion. After you complete each action, put a big checkmark next to it. Seeing something written down can often be much more motivating then simply thinking about it.

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Tips for Making Your Pages Search Engine Friendly: Part 1 Graphics, Text, and Page Structure

Your web site may look beautiful to your eyes, but what about to the "eyes" of a search engine? If you can understand how a search engine "sees" your site, than you can design the site or make the necessary changes so that your site will get a higher ranking in search results.

The first thing to consider is that search engines do not see pictures or other graphics. If you have rendered some very important text (loaded with keywords) as an image, a beautiful multi-colored gif for example, the search engine will not index these keywords. There are some wizard-oriented web creation tools that may automatically change your text into a gif or jpg image. It may look like text to you, but not to a search engine. Thus, you have to weigh the relative importance of good images against the need to give the search engine something to chew on, some "spider food". Usually a balance has to be struck. At one extreme are pages that contain only images.

For example if you have an entry page with a beautiful image of the ocean and a beautiful sunset with one word saying Enter. It may be dramatic looking, but it is not very interesting for a search engine. Similarly sites that are only Flash images, don't give anything for the search engine's "spider" (robotic gathering tool) to gobble up and put into the index. If you want to use Flash, consider making a hybrid page, one that has some elements, such as informative text, of normal HTML and a section in Flash. Keep this in mind and make sure that your important concepts and keywords do appear on your pages in a text format.

However as pictures and graphics are very important, there is something that can be done to optimize them for search engine recognition. You can put an alt tag or alternative text on each image. The search engines will read this text and index the words you have entered. Thus if you have your company's logo at the top of the page Acme Widgets, you can write and alternative text: "Acme Widgets, California's first producer of Electronic Widgets". Put your mouse over the A1-Optimization logo at the top of this page and you can see the alt text which I used for this image. Search engines will see this tag and the tag will also appear when your web visitors put their mouse on the image. Whenever you have an image, take the opportunity to put an alternative text tag. But remember that, although the alternative text tag is indeed indexed by the search engines, it is not given as much importance as other text elements.

If you really have some important text that you want emphasized then use the heading tags, h1, h2, h3, h4 etc, and make use of bold text. These heading tags and text rendered in bold font are given more importance by search engines than other text because headings are thought to indicate the main concepts of your page. The heading tags may not look as nice as a gif image, but if they contain important keywords then whatever you think you may lose in beauty by discarding them, will be returned to you in better ranking positions in Internet searches for your important keywords.

The second thing to do is to Put your important text near the top of the page. Suppose you have put your company's logo (Acme Widgets) at the top of the page, as a gif or jpg image. Underneath it you might put some text reading: "California's first producer of Electronic Widgets". If California and Electronic Widgets are important keywords for you then you have started off your page very well. In fact, some search engines use the first paragraph or phrase as the description that is shown in search results. So if the first paragraph or first phrase really says a lot and is attractive it may entice someone to visit your page. (Getting a top result in a search engine is one thing, but remember someone has to think that your page is interesting enough to visit if they are going to click on it, and the description shown by the search engine may be the deciding factor determining whether they click through to your page or to your competitor's page)

But, what is the top of the page? It seems obvious but search engines do not see or rather, read pages in the same way that our eye sees the page. Recently I built a web site for someone and then looked at the first search engine results for that site. I saw the words "Choose your language" as the description. (The search engine took a phrase from the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page, where surfers were invited to choose which language version of the site they wanted to see). This happened because search engines have to go through the table structure of the site.

In order to align the different elements (text and pictures) of a site, designers often divide the page into tables. If a site is divided into two vertical tables, one for the left hand navigation and one for the body. The spider will first read everything in the table on the left before going to the table on the right. I corrected this problem by putting a pithy, keyword laden descriptive phrase in the left hand column just above the navigation elements. So, make sure that your important phrases are in places where the spider will see them before they reach other less important phrases. If the table structure on your page is not giving the right picture to the spider, then you should make the necessary modifications to correct the problem.

© Copyright 2002, Donald Nelson, all rights reserved.

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CADline - Revit Structure 2010 - Beam System 3D Tickbox

CADLINE Revit Structure 2010 Technical Tip and Trick, entitled "Beam 3D System check box. For more technical tips and tricks, see: www.cadline.co.uk



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeqVikdhNDA&hl=en

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Autodesk Revit Structure 2010 wrong column parameters

The video demonstrates how to use Autodesk Revit Structure 2010 wrong tool column as parameters in the properties of the element and shows how the position of columns inclined to affect the members supported.



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key of Civil Engineering Reclamation