Get a Panorama on Your iOS Device

John Sepannen sent me this information recently. He wanted to get a panorama on his iPhone or iPad and came up with this workflow. His approach does involve 3 other software applications ($) that may or may not be practical for you, or there might be another option to use instead of Autodesk Stitcher.

1.   Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited ($350 single license or 30-day free trial)
2.   iPano app ($2.99) -
3.  Photoshop or equal
4.  Dropbox (or similar used to aid in transferring images to iOS device)

Using iPano allows anyone with an iOS device to view panoramic images (offline).

1.  Rendered view with Autodesk 360
       a. option #1 - render directly to panorama.
       b. option #2 - re-render any fixed camera image as panorama
2.  Download panorama file (right click on web thumbnail).
3.  Open panorama file "photo strip" with Photoshop and cut out (6) separate square image files .
4.  Rename image files based on relative direct of image facing the floor.
       image_u (up)
       image_d (down)
       image_f (front)
       image_b (back)
       image_l (left)
       image_r (right)

Using the Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited software

1.  File: Open: Panorama
       a. select any one of the six images.
       b. Stitcher will then process the six images and create a panorama
2.  Render Panorama as spherical image.
3.  Copy image to Dropbox
4.  On iOS device export image from Dropbox to Photo Library
5.  In iPano app - import image from Photo Library
6.  Save to bookmarks.

He shared a PDF slide deck that explains the process with images and more information if you are interested in pursuing this yourself.

Rendering and Revit MEP

I received an email the other day from a Revit MEP user that would like to render some equipment rooms. The wrinkle is that when systems are assigned to pipe and duct and their related equipment the relatively new feature called Pipe Systems (and Duct Systems) override the appearance of connected equipment.

If the equipment you use has material parameters to define what the equipment should look like then it is possible to show both the materials assigned to pipe and duct systems AND what the equipment should look like. Not all equipment has either materials or material parameters though. You like my 4" blue tile covered boiler??

Then you run into equipment that "Breaks Into", like a valve into pipe. The pump and valve in the image above look different but it's really just because I assigned a solid color override to the material. That works for shaded views but you end up with the system imposing the material on the equipment and accessories when you render.

Ideally it would be nice to have an option to tell Pipe and Duct Systems to respect the material assignments of connected equipment. Guess it's a candidate for future wish granting.

Visualization with Stadia

I recently became aware of a new application called Stadia.

It works like this: Model away in Revit, when you are ready to see something you submit your model to their cloud rendering service. You register your email address with them and you just enter it in the Revit interface. When you press Enter, Revit submits your model information to their cloud.

I believe there is supposed to be a "Bake" button on the panel too, but it hasn't shown up on my UI yet. At least there is an image file for one in the installation folder for Stadia. [I've been informed that I can download an update that will fix it.] After a few minutes you get an email with a link to download the results. Extract the compressed file that arrives, double click on the rendering.exe file and you can wander around your building. Move the mouse to tilt/turn and use the arrow keys to move forward/back/side to side. Pretty simple, once you get the hang of it.

It renders using the materials you've chosen, the lights you've placed...so the closer to what you want it is in your model the better the results. It's a bit closer to Revit's realistic visual style than photo real rendering. Naturally your mileage will vary according to your own sense of success.

In my brief experimentation so far I did find it necessary to put some site surfaces around the exterior of the building. Without such features you "fall" similar to Navisworks when "walking" through your building. Make sure you put a building pad in so the site doesn't go inside your building or you'll end up with dirt/grass inside too. Doors "open" when you approach them. They don't swing open, rather the panel vanishes as you approach, more like Maxwell Smart and doors perhaps. You can walk up and down stairs, also much like Navisworks. My first thought was that they are harnessing the Navis API perhaps but I don't actually know.

I did struggle with navigation initially because it wasn't obvious to me how to do it. I tried to use the scroll wheel to zoom but that just seems to "spin" the view in an awkward manner. I'm not sure why but I really found myself wanting to "zoom" at times instead of "walking" forward or back. My last submission resulted in a 20 MB zip file that I downloaded. It took about 5 minutes to get the email once I submitted the model to Stadia. I'm not sure if the result was actually sent to me faster than that because my email address is aggregated via Google so there may be a little delay involved with that step.

You can watch this video to see a sample (it's on the Stadia site too) of what you get after uploading your work to their "cloud" service.

SMMA Demo from Robert Pogue on Vimeo.