OOPS Let me recover that object! (AutoCAD Command)

Did you delete an object by mistake and kept workin? OOPS! No worries, you can have it back!
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If you delete an object in AutoCAD, keep working, and then you realize you shouldn't have deleted it and want it back, there is a command in AutoCAD that allows you to get that object back.

The OOPS command in AutoCAD will bring back the last deleted object, even after you kept working and doing more stuff. It has its limitations as you can imagine (for instance if during that "kept workin" you deleted something else) but still can save you from having to redo stuff.

This and more good stuff via How to undo almost anything in AutoCAD by Ellen Finkelstein

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SketchUp Plugin to Import Art Pieces to your Models

Creating a Slum from scratch in 5 minutes thanks to this plugin and a bit of smart thinking
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The people of ARTmine just got in touch with me to share their SketchUp plugin ARTmineSKP. I think it is pretty cool so thought I'd share it here despite not posting much about SketchUp lately. What this plugin does is that it makes available a database of artworks and allows you to add them directly to your model. This way you can decorate your interior design projects with some original artwork. See the video below that explains how it works.

You can get the Plugin here for free.

Remember to check the List of SketchUp Plugins, you might find something useful.

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AutoCAD on your Mobile Device

You can visualize your DWG files also on your mobile device now
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I wrote back in 2011 about the official launch of AutoCAD WS (what had been called on Autodesk Labs Project Butterfly). At that time I actually had no smartphone and the Ipad and similar tablets where not as common as they are right now. So when I talked about the use I was giving to it and the potential I saw, I have to admit I didn't foresee that the main use could be to view files on site with your mobile devices. ANd I think this is actually one of it main uses today.

I was asked today at a lunch party by a friend who also works in the AEC Industry: How can I see AutoCAD files on my IPad when I go on site? The answer was simple, download the AutoCAD WS app for iPad, create an account, go to the AutoCAD WS web page from a computer where you have those files and upload them to your account on the cloud, then simply access the app on your iPad and you will be able to see those files. Simple it doesn't get in life.Here the links to the apps, choose the one that fits your device:

- AutoCAD WS for Ipad, Ipod and Iphone
- AutoCAD WS for Android

This is actually the best use I see for this app, but don't forget another one that I also talked about back in 2011. It can actually work as a free AutoCAD version converter. See the image below

If you get a file and you are not updating your AutoCAD software regularly you can use AutoCAD WS to upload the file to the cloud and then download it saved in any version from R.14 to the latest one. So this is another great use of this tool I guess.

As far as I know, so far only iOS and Android have apps, something to consider if you have to buy phones for your field staff.

Any other great uses you guys know about and that you wish to share? Please Comment!!

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Revit: Adding, Removing and Exporting keyboard Shortchuts

Modyfying Revit keyboard Shortcuts
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On a previous post I collected the latest (2013) Revit Keyboard shortcuts. This list is made of the default shortcuts for Revit. Of course, as we also saw about AutoCAD, you can actually change those shortcuts to fit your preferences. Some people love to personalize these shortcuts to work even faster (one cool trick is to have the shortcuts you use the most to be made of 2 equal letters so you can type that much faster). See this comment on twitter by user @Jrostar.

@cadaddict I changed mine to 'AA'. Best shortcut change ever

— Jason Rostar (@jrostar) January 29, 2013

So now that we know that it is very useful to personalize the Revit shortcuts, how do we do it? Well two ways. Either use the shortcut to access them, that is type 'KS' or go to the 'View' tab in the Ribbon --> Windows Section: User interface --> Keyboard Shortcuts. See the image below.

Either way you access it, you will get this window with all the existing shortcuts, and all the actions in Revit that can be shortcut.

One thing to consider, if you get used to non-standard Revit shortcuts you will not enjoy changing computers, so remember to Export and store your shortcuts in an XML file and have it available in case one day you move to a new company or new computer or you reinstall revit.

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List of Revit Keyboard Shortcuts

List of Revit keyboard Shortcuts
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A list of Keyboard Shortcuts for Revit, updated to Revit 2013 (see that there are up to 3 letter shortcuts)

• // - Divide Surface
• 32 - 2D Mode
• 3F - Fly Mode
• 3O - Object Mode
• 3W - Walk Mode
• AA - Adjust Analytical Model
• AD - Attach Detail Group
• AL - Align
• AP - Add to Group
• AR - Array
• AT - Air Terminal
• BM - Structural Framing: Beam
• BR - Structural Framing: Brace
• BS - Structural Beam System; Automatic Beam System
• BS - MEP Settings:Building/Space Type Settings
• CG - Cancel
• CL - Column; Structural Column
• CM - Place a Component
• CN - Conduit
• CO#CC - Copy
• CP - Cope; Apply Coping
• CS - Create Similar
• CT - Cable Tray
• Ctrl+` - Activate the first contextual tab
• CV - Convert to Flex Duct
• DA - Duct Accessory
• DC - Check Duct Systems
• DE - Delete
• DF - Duct Fitting
• DI - Aligned Dimension
• DL - Detail Line
• DM - Mirror - Draw Axis
• DR - Door
• DT - Duct
• EC - Check Circuits
• EE - Electrical Equipment
• EG - Edit Group
• EH - Hide in View:Hide Elements
• EL - Spot Elevation
• EOD - Override Graphics in View:Override by Element
• EOH - Graphic Override by Element in View: toggle halftone
• EOT - Graphic Override by Element in View: toggle transparency
• ER - Editing Requests
• ES - MEP Settings:Electrical Settings
• EU - - Unhide Element
• EW - Arc Wire
• EW - Edit Witness Lines
• EX - Exclude
• FD -Flex Duct
• FG - Finish
• F9 - System Browser
• FP - Flex Pipe
• FR - Find / Replace
• FT - Structural Foundation: Wall
• GD - Graphic Display Options
• GP - Model Group:Create Group; Detail Group:Create Group
• GR - Grid
• HC - Hide Category
• HH - Hide Element
• HI - Isolate Elemente
• HL - Hidden Line
• HR - Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate
• IC - Isolate Category
• KS - Keyboard Shortcuts
• LD - Loads
• LF - Lighting Fixture
• LG - Link
• LI - Model Line; Model Line; Boundary Line; Rebar Line; Draw Lines
• LL - Level
• LO - Heating and Cooling Loads
• LW - Linework
• MA - Match Type Properties
• MD - Modify
• ME - Mechanical Equipment
• MM - Mirror - Pick Axis
• MP - Move to Project
• MS - MEP Settings:Mechanical Setting
• MV - Move
• NF - Conduit Fitting
• OF - Offset
• PA - Pipe Accessory
• PC - Check Pipe Systems
• PC - Snap to point Clouds
• PF - Pipe Fitting
• PI - Pipe
• PN - Pin
• PP#Ctrl+1#VP - Properties
• PS - Panel Schedules
• PT - Paint
• PX - Plumbing Fixture
• R3 - Define a new center of rotation
• RA - Reset Analytical Model
• RA - Restore All Excluded
• RB - Restore Excluded Member
• RC - Cope:Remove Coping
• RC - Repeat Last Command
• RE - Scale (Resize)
• RH - Toggle Reveal Hidden Elements Mode
• RL#RW - Reload Latest
• RM - Room
• RO - Rotate
• RP - Reference Plane
• RR - Render
• RT - Tag Room
• RY - Raytrace
• SA - Select All Instances: In Entire Project
• SB - Floor: Structural (Slab)
• SC - Centers
• SD - Shaded with Edges
• SE - Snap Endpoints
• SF - Split Face
• SI - Snap Intersections
• SK - Sprinklers
• SL - Split Element
• SM - Snap Midpoints
• SN - Snap Nearest
• SO - Snap Off
• SP - Snap Perpendicular
• SQ - Snap Quadrants
• SR - Snap to remove Objects
• SS - Turn Override Off
• ST - Snap Tangents
• SU - Sun Settings
• SW - Work plane Grid
• SX - Points
• SZ - Close
• TF - Cable Tray Fitting
• TG - Tag by Category; Tag by Category
• TL - Thin Lines Toggle
• TR - Trim / Extend to Corner
• TX - Text
• UG - Ungroup
• UN - Project Units
• UP - Unpin
• VG#VV - Visibility/Graphics
• VH - Hide in View:Hide Category
• VOG - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle ghost surface
• VOH - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle halftone
• VOT - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle transparency
• VU - Unhide Category
• WA - Wall: Architectural
• WC - Cascade Windows
• WF - Wireframe
• WN - Window
• WT - Tile Windows
• ZA - Zoom All to Fit
• ZE#ZF#ZX - Zoom to Fit
• ZO - Zoom Out
• ZP#ZC - Previous Pan/Zoom
• ZR#ZZ - Zoom in region
• ZS - Zoom Sheet Size

Hope this is useful

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Excel: Automatic "Last Save Date and Time" Stamp

Show the last save date and time in a cell automatically with VB code
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We have a standard excel file at work where we track the bidding process of each project with subs. It basically shows who was sent what and when, have we received anything back, etc. One of the points to fill is when was the document last updated to check how recent the file really is.

I wanted to get that "last modified" to be automatic. The idea was, that a cell would show the date of the last time someone saved the file. So I searched for how to do that, and I found this here. The code there described allows you to get a cell in excel that shows your last saved date (and time with a few tweeks)

The process to get that is as follows:

First of all we have to create a macro. Press Alt+F11 and you will get the Visual Basic Editor. When it opens double click on This Workbook and paste the code on the right. I have added a new line to the code to show also the time on a different cell. See the image, the code is after it.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("F4").Value = Date
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("G4").Value = Time
End Sub

Once you have entered the code, just close the VB Editor and save your file. The cells specified as Range in the sheet specified after Sheets will fill with the Save (F4 in my code) and TIme (g4 in my code). If the code doesn't work be sure the Sheet name is spelled exactly as the name of the sheet in your workbook.

You will probably get a message like this when you save. Just do as you think best.

The final result should be something like this.

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My First Published Paper

My first scientific paper has just been published online
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Some of you might remember that a couple of years ago, I talked about my Master Thesis here. Since I was told the Thesis was quite good, I started publishing parts of it here. While I was doing that, one of my Thesis tutor's, Jürgen M. Volm put me in touch with DDavid Bryde who told me there was potential to turn part of the thesis into a scientific paper. So me and David started to work together to turn my MT into a paper. Now this is done and the paper is available online on the January at ScienceDirect.com. You can access it here (if you have access to ScienceDirect, or paying the price...).
The paper is called "The Project Benefits of Building Information Modelling" and analyzes the benefits and challenges of using BIM in 35 case studies. It was a lot of work but I have to say it is very rewarding to have it up there in the scientific sphera. Hopefully there will be more coming.

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Potential Business Oportunities with BIM (UK policy)

See UK's advice on how to grow using BIM. Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The UK Government Released by the end of 2012, a paper named Building Information Modelling - Industrial strategy: government and industry in partnership, a very interesting paper on the possibilities for growth for companies doing BIM. If you are on the BIM market, read it, plenty of inspiring ideas in there.

Considering that the BIS BIM Strategy is regarded as the most ambitious BIM strategy in the world promoted by a central government, the advice in this paper should not be taken lightly. The BIS BIM Strategy is a long term strategy that for now is forcing the government's AEC clients (architects, contractors, engineers, etc) to jump on the BIM wagon to not fall behind.

In the paper, you will the opinion of AEC professionals on the role of BIM and how it will help the AEC Industry. Finnally you will find several actions to be taken by the government together with the industry to help UK be a worldwide leader in BIM, and so, to help UK companies to gain business worldwide.

All this, seen from Barcelona now, seems like a dream really. Although some things are going on regarding BIM in here (Last June the Spanish Chapter of BuildingSmart started to roll officially) most of the fuzz right now in the insdustry is focused on the "hard times" and more recently on the new draft of the "LSP -L ey de Servicios profesonales" (Law of Profesional Services). This draft seems to change the atributions kept exclusive for Architects and Engineers and is creating a lot of movement from Architects' Boards and Unions trying to defend our parcel of work in the industry. I will try to talk about this draft later on another post, but for now it seems to me that while other governments like UK's is trying to create policy that will enable better ways to collaborate, the Spanish government (always so smart) is creating disruptive trouble and fighting between parts instead of promoting strategies that will help sell our services worldwide that is what the country needs the most.

via BIMTaskGroup

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The Architect's Alphabet

A visual Alphabet of Architects and their works
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Just saw in Vimeo this cute animation made by Federico Gonzalez, Graphic Designer and Visual Artist from Colombia ( but based in Barcelona ) and Andrea Stinga, from Argentina and also working in Barcelona. It shows 26 very important architects and one of their most popular buildings. Excellent work and really fun to watch.

You can see more of Federico's Work here (vimeo) and here (tumblr)

Andrea Stinga is one of the two partners at OMBÚ Architecture.

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Download Adobe Photoshop Free and Legit

Get Photoshop for free at Adobe-com.Català - Castellano - Deutsch

Adobe is allowing users to download a free and legal copy of Photoshop from their website. I got the heads up from Gizmodo (actually via twitter user Jason Howden ‏@RTVTools), where it is said that Adobe's tired of keeping the activation servers running to support legitimate installs of the 10-year-old CS2.

Well, no idea if that is the reason, but there it is, free for the taking. You will not be able to use all the new cool features that new versions have been adding, but still, a perfect legal way to get photoshop on one of your slow machines or simply to stop using unlicensed software.

You can alse get Adobe Premiere for free, Adobe InDesign for free, Adobe Illustrator for free, Adobe Acrobat Pro for free, well, All CS2 Versions for free. So if you don't mind using 10 year old software, you got a good option here.
I installed PS in my Laptop running Windows 7 x64 and it worked with not a single problem.

Here's the download page.

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Top Visited Posts in 2012

2012 Summary
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#01. List of SketchUp Plugins: A post dated from 2009 but that has been (or used to be, when I had teh time) updated regularly with all the SU Plugins I have reviewed on this site. It needs some link updating which I will do soon, but it is still the favourite post for most visitors to CAD Addict.

#02. Using AutoCAD autosave files to recover lost work: This post explains what can you do after one of those moments when apparently you've lost part of your work in AutoCAD. It is the post with the most number of comments and all of them positive, so it is the one that made my work here feel more rewarded. Thanks to all who spend the time wirting down a comment, good or bad, it's great to know someone is reading.

#03. Plugin to Make faces from lines in SketchUp: I have toc onfess I am a bit puzzled by this post being so popular. The plugin was very useful back when the version of SU was v.6 or so and the program was not very smart creating lines from a closed set of lines. I think this was pretty much solved in later versions of SU, but oddly the post keeps getting a lot of visits. If anyone knows why the info will be very much appreciated.

#04. Volume Calculator Plugin for SketcHup: A post explaining how to use this old plugin to calculate volume of entities in SketchUp. A simple post about a simple plugin but that has had a lot of visitors and comments during these last months.

#05. How to install plugins in SketchUp: This is simple tutorial on how to get your plugins working in SketchUp. Sometimes the posts you think are too simple become the most wanted ones.

#06. List of BIM Software and Providers: Back when I was writing my Master Thesis, I started researching on all the scope of providers that have Building Information Modelling related software. This posts gathers most of that info and organizes it in different categories. One think this post taught me: People love lists.

#07. Converting 3D objects into 2D drwaings in AutoCAD: THis post explains the use of the FLATSHOT command in AutoCAD that allows you to flatten 3D Objects into a 2D drawing.

#08. Representing section cuts with solid fill in SketchUp: Another simple tutorial with images to get a nicer representation of the section cuts that SketchUp allows us to do very simple.

#09. Converting lines into tubes / cilinders in SketchUp: A post explaining the use of two different plugins that allow you to do this operation very fast.

#10. Mirroring objects in SketcUp: THree different methods to do the mirror operation in SketchUp. The oldest post (it dates back from 2008) to appear on this top ten list.

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Happy 2013 - End of year thoughts

The most innactive year comes to an end, hope next one is better.
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2012 comes to an end. It's time to think about all those new year's resolutions and of course, after checking that I only posted 6 times on this blog in 2012, my new year resolution seems obvious, POST MORE. I already explained the main reason why I was not having time to blog at all here. Well, good news for the blog (not so much for me) the construction is over and I am temporarily back to office. It is a more relaxed sort of job I am doing right now, but of course not so interesting. So apparently it seems I will have more time after work (and more energy) to think on posts and to write them. That is my new years resolution. Of course, there are others, but can't publish them here ;-). On the mean time, I just want to say thanks to all readers who keep coming here on purpose or just by chance through a google search during 2012, you are my motivation to keep the blog active. Cheers and happy 2013 to all! I have though one good news coming soon, will post it already in 2013!
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