Posts

MetaConnex is the latest 12d Model tool that empowers data consistency. It’s flexible and powerful, and connects your data to your metadata (attributes) requirements.

I caught up with Paul Hardwick of 12d Queensland to see how this new system can help 12d Modellers to make the most of their data.

With Paul’s background in Surveying, I wasn’t sure how widely to expect this feature to be applicable, but as it turns out, it’s particularly useful for users of BIM , ADAC, A-Spec, RAMS (TfNSW), and GIS data, and will definitely be a very important new addition in 12d Model 15.

MetaConnex is a structured list of attributes based on code names. It has computation capabilities, and allows validation of attributes.

MetaConnex allows you to set and validate your attributes before you export your data. Instead of using multiple options inside/outside of 12d Model, MetaConnex allows you to dynamically calculate attribute values from your data or manually add attributes to your data.

MetaConnex has over 90 calculation functions that can be used to calculate attribute values on the fly. The values can also be concatenated to create one value.

Check out the video of Paul’s presentation:

–Lisa Stewart

I caught up with Mal Peaker of 12d Queensland for the second episode in our new ‘What’s Coming from 12d’ Webinar Series: CSI – An Interface for Stormwater Planning.

This exciting presentation provided a quick look at Concept Stormwater Interface (CSI) – the new stormwater interface for Dynamic Drainage.

This interface is targeted at conceptual phase stormwater designs where users have limited/no input data, and provides a schematic representation of the network to enable rapid interpretation of the model elements.

–Lisa Stewart

In this first episode of our brand-new ‘What’s Coming from 12d’ Webinar Series, Dylan Revell of 12d NZ introduces us to the exciting development of Themes inside 12d Model.

Themes are the culmination of many years’ work and feedback about providing efficient user interface workflows for navigating and utilising the incredibly comprehensive suite of tools available to 12d Model Users…and you might also get a sneak peek at the new look 12d Model!

Check out the video from this great presentation today, and stay tuned for more webinars in this new series!

Wellington Water is made up of six Councils within the Wellington Region and is responsible for receiving and validating three-waters asset information from civil engineering projects in their region.

12d Model allows for easy production of the required information enhancing the 3D Model data, with enough flexibility to allow the Metadata to be captured either in the field or in the office.

The whole process is focused on minimal manual metadata entry, ensuring that the required metadata standards are captured in an efficient way, which also reduces the risk of incorrect metadata flowing through into the Asset Managers work-flow

As the metadata is efficiently pre-populated and checked, to further reduce the risk of the digital data not representing the spatial plans produced for Council sign-off, the 12d Model system contains routines to automatically produce and label PDF plans directly from the 3D model.

A fully booked second round of training for Wellington Water’s Three Water asbuilts process was undertaken in early November, more to come in the new year.

For more information on Wellington Water, Click here

Customisation inside 12d Model can be as easy as setting up a title block file or editing the Project Details Panel to have variables more specific to your own workflows and needs.

Custom Linestyles and symbols are easily created on the fly if need be and can be referenced back at any time in the future.

Feel free to contact your local 12d Model Support team to help in setting up any customisation you may require.

(With thanks to 12d NZ Ltd for this special content.)

I caught up with our co-founder and Managing Director, Dr Lee Gregory, to chat about Using FME with 12d Model.

12d Model has a very rich data set and attribute structure which is not supported by most file transfer formats.

This usually means that only a portion of the 12d Model data can be transferred, and different decisions need to be made depending on what the output format can support. And even worse, accuracy of survey and design data can be compromised.

The best solution is to provide clients with a 12dXML file that contains ALL the accurate data and attributes, allowing the client to decide how they want to manipulate the data for their various applications.

But how can this be done?

One solution is for the client to use FME.

FME, from Safe Software, reads in 12dXML files, can manipulate the inputted data, and write the manipulated data out in hundreds of different formats.

This video looks at what 12d Model data and attributes can be handled by FME.

I caught up with our Product Sales Manager for 12d Field, Graham Wirth, to chat about BIM Data Management to Field Setout.

This presentation explored the difficulties surveyors can experience when setting out Design solid models. Initially, designs using BIM or solid modelling were restricted to building structures. This format is now becoming the norm across most structural infrastructure designs. Surveyors’ traditional use of line and point positioning technologies needed new methods to manage setout of solid design models.

Graham’s presentation demonstrated new digital tools that assist surveyors with this process. Using the IFC BIM data exchange format, surveyors are able to import Solid models traditionally referenced at a 0,0,0 coordinate location. We also explored conversion to metres and using 2D and 3D transformations to bring the model into a real world geodetic position, as used by surveyors. With the IFC format ability, surveyors can separate the structure elements critical to setout requirements, such as footings, slabs and columns. These solid elements are then able to be broken down to the points and lines for setout.

–Lisa Stewart

As there are now quite a few resources covering how to write snippets in 12d Model, we decided to offer up a webinar this week that’s something a bit different…

“Snippets – Under the Hood” takes a high-level look at how/why things work the way they do, and also how to understand error messages.

Join Joel Allsop from Extra Dimension Solutions in this interesting look at Snippets and their uses.

This is a fairly informal session with the trainers from ExDS and 12d Solutions, but we invite you behind the scenes to hear about this incredibly useful aspect of 12d Model.

Perfect for intermediate to advanced users.

 

Many of our 12d Model customers have commented over the years that one of the extra special things about our software is its capacity for customisation. Many of those customers have gone on to write some pretty amazing macros to expand their use of 12d Model. Some of those macros have even ended up being included in later releases of the software!

Examples of 12d Model Customisation

You can see some examples of case studies on customers using macros here (see the ‘Customisation’ section).

We’ll also soon be releasing more information on some of the incredible Customisation entries we’ve received across all our Innovation Awards – stay tuned!

Our website includes a page on Customisation downloads, which is a really handy reference.

You can also head over to our YouTube Channel and check out our 12d Model Customisation playlist!

Tatras Consulting Ltd

One of our most prolific macro writers over time has been Sam Cech of Tatras Consulting Ltd in New Zealand. He’s even happy to share many of these with other 12d Modellers, free of charge – click here to see the range! On the Tatras website, it states:

“For the last decade 12d User Forum has been the “go to” site for support and knowledge sharing about 12d Model.  Users participate in over 8000 topic discussions and many share not only their “how to” knowledge but also configuration skills with over 100 macro source codes posted with over 4000 downloads. 

Our pick of the best open source/free macros is below authored by various users and sourced from 12d User Forum.  While downloading source code and compiling macros can be lot of fun some users find it complicated and would prefer ready to go compiled versions.  As long as you are happy to accept the following terms and conditions you can download compiled macros below.  If you prefer to download the source code, choose the User Forum link next to the macro.”

Of course, some 12d Modellers require something a little more specific, and on that front, Tatras is also able to assist (click here for details on their Macro writing services).

Their macro writing service has been extra popular during 2020, with so many people from home looking for increased consistency and productivity.

Give it a go!

The only real limits to what you can do with 12d Model Customisation are your imagination and know-how…and who knows? If you become proficient enough at creating your own macros over time, maybe you’ll go on to be a prize winner in our next Innovation Awards!