Download the pattern add-on latest version ZIP file from here which incorporats: enhanced user interface, ‘X3’ representing angular values, as well as the user guide.

Install Steps: follow these instructions to download and run the Add-On.

-          Download this ZIP file which contains one folder named ‘Revit-Tools’.

-          Place the entire folder named ‘Revit-Tools’ from inside the ZIP file on the ‘C’ drive.

-          Make sure to copy/paste the Add-On instruction file called ‘iConVizTools.addin’ from the ‘Revit-Tools’ folder to the Revit2011 Add-ons folder. For example folder ‘C:\Documents and Settings\mallasiz\Application Data\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2011’

-          The Add-On button should show up on your Revit2011 Ribbon interface inside the ‘Add-Ons’ Revit tab.

-          Click on the ‘Activate Add-On’ button to activate this FREE unlimited version of the tool.

You can refer to the ‘iConViz-V2.1-PatternAddon-UserInterface.pdf’ for quick help/documentation.

Click on the thumb images below to view the videos.

In this update of the pattern add-on, I have added an extra button which controls the 'Angular' instance parametre values of 'X3' as part of the Revit family.

If you have already downloaded the first version of add-on, then you only need to download this DLL updated file (iConVizTools.dll). Otherwise, Please download all the files from the link provided in the Blog below.

… Again, this is another competition called AWR-LOFT we thought to participate in and work on experimenting with the Revit Patterning Add-on. It is always good to keep trying different usability scenarios in order to enhance the interface. The images for our board are provided below. The team worked on this was myself and my colleagues from Perkins + Will at the time [Mike Hodge, Helena O'Connor, Steven Sauer, and Joyce Jymarino]. Without getting into the details, the double-faceted triangulated panel opening reacts to the solar radiation/exposure depending on its orientation. The solar exposure is driven analytically from the Image Data.

-          Download this ZIP file which contains one folder named ‘Revit-Tools’.

-          Place the entire folder named ‘Revit-Tools’ from inside the ZIP file on the ‘C’ drive.

-          Make sure to copy/paste the Add-On instruction file called ‘iConVizTools.addin’ from the ‘Revit-Tools’ folder to the Revit2011 Add-ons folder. For example folder ‘C:\Documents and Settings\mallasiz\Application Data\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2011’

-          The Add-On button should show up on your Revit2011 Ribbon interface inside the ‘Add-Ons’ Revt tab.

-          Click on the ‘Activate Add-On’ button to activate this FREE unlimited version of the tool.

You can refer to the ‘PatternTool-UserInterface.pdf’ for quick help/documentation.

 … So we decided to take a shot on the Revit API and utilize some of the Revit 2011 sample API code in order to create a generic Revit Add-On which will allow the user to map the Image analytical data onto the panel components of a Revit Divided Surface. Most will agree that the nice thing about Revit is that 60-70% of the hard work is done by designing the parameters of the ‘Pattern-Based’ family component in a way to react to values changes in the parameters.

So, myself and my collage Mike Hodge decided to look at the sample code with Revit 2011 API. We basically connected the Add-On User Interface with buttons and menus that activates the commands on the sample codes that came with Revit.

The images above explain some of the key ideas that helped us designing the Add-On. We especially tried this tool on a Tower Project competition to exemplify real design requirements for a project. We won the first Prize!

 IT IS FREE: It will be great to get some feedback from users about the Revit ‘Patterning Tool’ Add-On. Please EMAIL ME so I can email you the Add-On and a few notes on how to use it. Sorry, I do not have the documentation created now as this is an on-going development process. Please share your thoughts and it will be great to get your input.

The interesting about this data-driven approach to configure the surface is that with Revit family the user can specify a generic parameter (e.g. width, thickness, height, rotation, etc.) and the Image acts as an input data that manipulates the components parameters. Think of the image as an analytical data such as:

-          Ecotect solar exposure.

-          Structural analysis constraints.

-          Visibility chart of a horizontal or vertical surface.

-          Etc.

These images show a tower skin whereby we altered the individual thickness of each precast panel based on using an assumed structural analysis pressure image. Notice how the precast panels are thicker at the bottom of the tower and thinner at the top of the tower.

Credits for working on this scheme goes to my friends Vincent Poon and Mike Hodge from Perkins + Will.

Here are a few examples of images showing how to alter the configuration of a simple box components family to change its ‘Height’ parameters in order to map an Image pattern the divided surface.

This was created using the standard C# Code I got used from the Revit 2011 SDK sample snippets. The sample is called [...Samples\Massing\ParameterValuesFromImage].