PNUG_May2012_4D

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

In this document we’ll briefly review the process for creating a 4D sequencing animation using a coordinated Navisworks BIM project file. This assumes that you’ve already coordinated the BIM project and are ready to start associating construction objects to a scheduled construction task. For this example I converted a Primavera P-6 project schedule to a MS Project MPX file. The Primavera schedule can be loaded directly into Navisworks using a project server if you plan to create a working 4D BIM sequencing model. I chose to use a non-dynamic file format for this marketing example. If you are planning to sync an actual working project schedule into your BIM model make sure to use one of the dynamic schedule importer formats. I’m using Navisworks 2013 for this example because of the recent changes made in the Timeliner tool from the 2012 version. These changes are fairly minor yet still worth noting. Linking the schedule data to Navisworks 1. Start with an open Navisworks project file. 2. Open the Timeliner window from the “View/Windows/Timeliner” menu option. 3. Select the “Data Sources” tab. 4. Select the “Add” and choose the schedule data format. I used the MPX format for this example. 5. Once you’ve selected the schedule file format you will need to “link” the project schedule task fields to the Navisworks data fields using the “Field Selector” tool. As you can see to the right I’ve linked the basic “Task Type” to the “Name” field and the same with the Start and Finish fields linking them to the appropriate Navisworks fields. 6. From here we’ll move to the “Task” tab in the same Timeliner window. 7. You should now see your schedule under the “Task” section. If not, go back to the “Data Sources” tab and press the “Refresh” button. Note: The first time I linked the data it did not show up in the “Task” area until I hit the “Refresh” button.

8. Note the “extended fields” that are listed in the image above. For ease of use I customized the display turning off the Gantt chart and set the “Custom” fields under the “Task List” button. We’ll cover more details about the display style later in the process.

Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

1

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

Window Configuration (Helpful) 9. We’re now ready to start linking our BIM objects to the Timeliner schedule. 10. I want to talk about your window configuration/screen layout. I use a 2 monitor screen display (shown below) with the main Navisworks 3D visualization window on the left, the “Find Items”, “Timeliner” and “Sets” and others on the right. This really helps when you want to create working sets needed for the schedule sequencing. You find yourself going back and forth between the different windows when you start creating your selection sets.

Creating Selection Sets 1. Creating your “Selection Sets” to match the construction schedule is a very import step. Make sure to review the project schedule in detail to understand the level of detail or how the PM sectioned out the different task for constructing your building project. Our ASU project broke out the construction schedule based on using 4 area breakouts created by the architect. This matched the A Sheets and worked out nicely with the BIM model. 2. Basically we need to isolate the different objects in the scene into unique “Selection Sets” that can be attached to a given task in Timeliner. This can really get as detailed as you want it going down to matching pour schedules and control joints. 3. For the first Timeliner task we’ll break out the Foundations #1 (GL 6 to 12, C to G) task as a “Selection Set”. 4. Working with three main windows, the “Find Items” window, “Properties” window and the “Selection Tree” window we’ll now isolate the Foundation objects within the project. 5. Generally I’ll start with the “Selection Tree” and start hiding imported files first because it immediately limits the amount of 3D object data we’re looking at on the screen. I’m using the foundation NWC file and pressing the “Hide Unselected” button under the “Home/Visibility” menu. This turns off everything except the selected hierarchy objects under the Selection window. Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

2

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

6. Next I’ll select one of the footer objects to find a unique “Property” to search against using the “Find Items” tool. In this case I’m using the “Element” tab looking at the “Footing & Pile Caps” value data under the “Assembly Description” property field. Next, we’ll take this property information found in the properties window into the “Find Items” tool. 7. Under the “Category” field select “Element”, next select the “Assembly Descriptions” field for the “Property” for the “Condition” field I usually use the “Contains” variable like a wildcard. For the “Value” field we’ll type in “Footing”. This gives us a majority of the items we’re looking for in the selection set, but notice we’re still missing a few items for this selection set. This gives me the “Footers” now I want to add the Wall Foundations to the selection. 8. So now we need to add “WF” to the selection set under the “Find Items” tool. It’s import to add a “conditional statement” when using muliple search catagories as seen by the little “+” (plus) symbol next to the second line as in the “Element” category field. This example shows an “Or Condition” for the WF objects. This means we’re looking for “Footing” assemblies “or” “WF” names under the “Element” category. 9. Now we’ll save this selection set to the “Sets” tool by right clicking and selecting “Save Selection” Linking the Selection Sets to Task 1. Open the “Timeliner” window from the “View/Windows/Timeliner” dropdown. 2. I’m not sure why this happens… but… it’s a pain. You need to set the “Columns” view each and every time you re-open Navisworks. This is still true in 2013. I’ve noticed selecting the “Custom” columns view will bring back the column settings as shown once you’ve set them. 3. Here’s an example of how I setup the columns for linking the selection sets to the scheduled task. 4. I’ll also “Hide” the Gantt chart overlay during the setup in order to speed up the initial linking process. 5. Note about the Gantt chart. Using the Gantt window is very helpful when you need to tweak the spatial relationships of the 3D object sequencing. I used this grabbing technique to control the timing relationships of objects within the 3D scene. Very import to 4D sequencing.

Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

3

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

6. Your Timeline window should look something like this.

7. Next we’ll set the “Task Type” field. The “Task Type” field is defined under the “Configure” tab. This controls how the objects appear as they enter the timeline animation sequence. As you can see I used the “Construct” name with the “Model Appearance” for both the Starting and Ending Appearance and the “None” setting for the Early and Late Appearance. What this really means is how Navisworks will render the object during the scheduled task duration. This allows the ablitiy to create a different appearance for the construction duration verses the completion of a given task. 8. Back to the Timeliner; set the “Task Type” to “Construct” using the dropdown. 9. Next, “Right Click” under the “Attached” column to select “Attach Set” and you will see a listing of all your selection sets. Simply pick the appropriate selection set that matches the task. 10. At this point we’ve completed all of the steps necessary for associating the selected objects to the timeline task. In the next section we’ll define the process for creating selection set animations. Adding Animations to your Selection Sets 1. Start by opening the “Animator” window from the “View/Windows/Animator” 2. First we’ll add a “Scene” to the Animator window. You can use the green “+” symbol on the bottom to add a new scene or right click in the window area and select “Add Scene” from the dropdown. In this example I named the scene “Foundations”. 3. Next we’ll add the Selection Set by first selecting the Selection Set in the “Sets” window (this is import to select the Selection Set first) and then right clicking on the “Foundations” scene in the Animator window and selecting “Add Animation Set/From Current Selection”. This defines the objects to be animated. Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

4

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

4. This next step has changed since Navisworks 2012… Select the “Scale Animation Set” button on the top left. With the default position at the zero time position select the “Capture Keyframe” button. This places a black diamond marker under the animation timeline to the right. 5. Change the “Time Position” to 5.00 or 5 seconds to advance the scrubber marker forward in the timeline. Again press the “Capture Keyframe” to create the second time marker in the scene. Now we have a start and stop point for our 5 second animation. Keep in mind that the duration is not import here. The actual timing will be controlled by the duration of the task by using the “Scale” behavior in the Timeliner. 6. Next we’ll double click on the first black diamond at the 0.00 time marker location. Here you’ll notice that I changed the value of the “Scale: Z” to 0.01. This causes the objects to flatten out like a pancake at the beginning (0.00) of the animation. Next, double click the second black diamond marker under the 5 second mark. Note the “Scale: Z” is at the default 1. This means that the object has returned to it’s default scale. 7. I used the same exact process for most of the actual animation using the “Translate: Z” to show the objects dropping down into the scene. Adding the Animations to the Timeliner Task 1. Return to the “Timeliner” window by selecting the tab on the bottom of the window. 2. This time we simply click on the “Animation” column to select the animation from a dropdown list. Note that the Scene shows up as the first word in the listing followed by a back slash and then animation name. Our example is “Foundations\Footer 01 Scale”. 3. Lastly we’ll set the “Animation Behavior” to the default “Scale”. As mentioned above I left this at the default setting because I wanted the Timeliner tool to set the duration of the task to the duration of the animation. Using the other settings will lock in the animation to the time set in the animator by using the Match Start or Match End.

Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

5

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

Setting up an Animated Camera Path 1. Go back to the Animator tab. 2. Right click to add a new “Scene” and label it Camera (noting that you do not see “Add Blank Camera” in the list. Navisworks wants to have a scene created first before allowing you to create a camera. It took me a little while to wrap my head around this little prerequisite requirement. 3. Now we’ll right click on the newly created “Scene” and select “Add Camera/Blank Camera”. If you’ve created a viewpoint animation you can right click “Add Camera/From Current Viewpoint Animation”. You have two ways of creating animated cameras, manually using the blank camera or using the animated viewpoint camera if one is available. 4. Here are a few pointers. I created an orbiting camera manually saving a keyframe every 10 seconds until I had 1:40:00 seconds. You’ll want to use a duration that matches the speed you want the final animation to end up as. My original intent was to have a continuous animation without any stops. I ended up having to break the animation up into 3 sections due to Presenter crashing during the long render times. As of 2012 Presenter only used a single processor which really limited the rendering process when using the raytracer renderer. Sadly the 2013 Presenter still only uses one processor for rendering. Simulate: Putting it all Together 1. Finally we have the entire task list animated and assigned under the “Task” tab and we’re ready to rock and roll with the final simulation review. Select the “Simulate” tab in the Timeliner window. This brings up the schedule task list and a Gantt chart. 2. Select the “Setting” button to configure the “Simulation Settings”. 3. Set the Start and End dates accordingly. 4. For the “Interval Size” I left this at the default value of 5 Percent. What this does is break up the schedule into 20-5 percent segments. You can also select other durations like days, weeks or months. This didn’t present a problem until my renders started crashing, needless to say I’d use a different interval (weeks) on future projects. 5. For the “Playback Duration” I matched the animated camera duration. FYI… I noticed that this duration overrode the actual animation duration if you change the duration to something different than the original animation length. 6. A note about the “Overlay Text” as of 2012 this function did not work with the Presenter rendering. Sadly the text overlay is not available for raytraced renderings. This feature is only available when using the “Renderer: Viewport” setting with the exporter below. 7. Lastly we want to add the camera animation to the “Animation” setting. Simply select the animated camera from the dropdown… noting the format of the scene name followed by “>” and the camera path name. In our example this shows up as “Camera->Long Path” Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

6

May 10, 2012

[PNUG MAY 2012 – HOW TO: CREATE A TIMELINER ANIMATION]

8. Click OK. Export the Animation 1. This little button also changed between 2012 and 2013. This export button now shows up under the “Simulate” tab on the far right above the Gantt chart. Before in 2012 this was under the “File/Export” section of the main menu. My first impression of this change is bad… I’m not sure why Autodesk chose to move the export functions to the app windows. I wondering why not have them in two places?? I’ll have to find the viewport XML export now. 2. Press the “Export Animation” button to open the configuration settings. 3. Source needs to be set to “Timeliner Simutlation” 4. In my case I set the Renderer to “Presenter” because I wanted to get a raytraced (High Quality) image. 5. Format: I used PNG to get a little better image quality. 6. Size: This is determined by what resolution you plan to use for your final presentation. I used an HD format of 1440x1080. Even with using the medium quality settings and turning off anti aliasing my render times were up to 10 minutes per frame. Navisworks 2012 liked to crash if it got over 10 minutes per frame. Be very care when working with the quality settings. 7. FPS: I used 15 frames per second. Normal video is roughly 30 frames per second. Again using fewer frames shortens the rendering time. This all depends on how smooth you want the animation to look. For this type of animation 15 frames per second feels good. 8. I also noticed a new “Autodesk” renderer is available in 2013… this does use the multiprocessor function and speeds up rendering times dramatically, but I didn’t see my textures when I ran a render test. Need to investigate this renderer more. 9. That’s it….it’s time for some happy rendering! Post Production and Final Thoughts 1. I won’t get into the details of creating the final video. I just want to let you know that I used Adobe Premiere Pro to assemble the final animation. Premiere allows the ability of creating titles, adding music and the Haydon logo overlay on the final video. 2. The only other area we didn’t cover is how I used Presenter to create the realistic materials and Google Earth for the sites ground plane. We can talk more about this in future meetings.

Presenter: David Mettler - [email protected]

7