Animation for Columns

[vkumar.205005]

Columns in my revit model is not broken down by floors (singe element for the whole building). Where as my Schedule has sub tasks for column construction per floor. So I did some animation for columns for each floor & attached to the Timeliner.

Everthing works fine except in the beggining where instead of showing the portion of column on the first flloor, it shows the entire column & then it scales down to floor1.

Any inputs?

[cjehly]

Columns in my revit model is not broken down by floors (singe element for the whole building). Where as my Schedule has sub tasks for column construction per floor. So I did some animation for columns for each floor & attached to the Timeliner.

Everthing works fine except in the beggining where instead of showing the portion of column on the first flloor, it shows the entire column & then it scales down to floor1.

Any inputs?

If you want the to play correctly from a subs point of view, then you would tie it into the pour, and block out the days before (whatever you're using for form-erection) and show it as simultanious. There is nothing I can think of (once again, as a sub) that would have me needing access to that column before the floor is available.

[amixam]

To show proper column sequence, you need to break the columns up in Revit. Go to element properties and change the Top Constraint height and then copy vertically. You might want to add an offset of a couple of feet if you want to show the beam splice locations properly. NavisWorks does not allow for breaking up of model elements, however another option is to use the scale function and shrink the z axis of the column to the floor plate height, then use the animator to stretch the z axis upwards to reflect the final building height during your simulation. You would need to tweek the duration of the animation to match up to the timeliner sequence as you can't use both match start and match end simultaneously. This works well because most columns are simply an extruded profile.

Cheers

[RobertB]

... you need to break the columns up in Revit.That sounds like BIM, not.

The OP has the sequence working for all the floors except the initial condition without breaking up the columns. Perhaps if the OP posted the steps taken to get to this point we might find a solution.

[vkumar.205005]

Actually we don't have access to change the revit model, so what ever we do we have to do in Navisworks.

Step 1 - Created an animation set & scaled the columns every 2 seconds for each floor.

Step 2 - Created scripter for each floor to play the animation with sepcific time begin & end

Step 3 - Seclected the corrensponding scripter for the tasks in the TimeLiner. Also attached the whole column set under "Attached". I guess this where the problem is.

Now the simulation part

Task 1 Build Columns Floor 1 - it shows the whole columns (since that is what we attached) then in a split second it shrinks to Floor 1 (scripter comes in to play now)

Task 2 Build Columns Floor 2 - now it goes smoothly from Floor 1 to Floor 2 according to the scripter. Rest of the tasks works great.

So the problem is in the beggining for a split second it shows the whole columns!!!!

[david.kingham]

I don't have a solution, but a thought. Could you get the model from the steel fabricator instead of the structural engineer? Assuming they're creating a model and you're far enough along in the project

[vkumar.205005]

This project is based in Abu Dhabi & unfortunately the steel fabricator does not have any models!!!!!!!!!! So we have to do something in Nawisworks.

[RobertB]

Ok, so think outside the box? Why not start with the whole model shown for a few seconds (as a tease) and then start the correct animation?

[andy.thelwell]

I think I can help.

The Animator module doesn't use the 'state' that you apply to objects in the first animation keyframe *until* the playback actually gets to that keyframe. This means that objects always appear in their original states from frame 0 until they hit the first specified key frame.

To solve your issue, then, you would need to put a keyframe in right at frame 1 of the overall animation and set the height of column to whatever it needs to be there.

[vkumar.205005]

We tried to start the animation from keyframe time position 1 sec. But it does not work. It still shows the whole set of colums for a split second.

Again this is what we did:

ANIMATION

Time Frame = 0 s
Column Set is Scaled down to half way through Floor 1 & Floor 2

Time Frame = 1 s
Column Set is Scaled up to Floor 2

Time Frame = 2 s
Column Set is kept at same height as previous time frame

Time Frame = 4 s
Column Set is Scaled up to Floor 3

Time Frame = 6 s
Column Set is Scaled up to Floor 4

Time Frame = 8 s
Column Set is Scaled up to Floor 5

SCRIPT

Task 1
Run animation 1-2 seconds

Task 2
Run animation 2-4 seconds

Task 3
Run animation 4-6 seconds

Task 4
Run animation 6-8 seconds

SIMULATOR

Task 1
Shows the columns with full height
Then Scales down to Floor 2

Task 2
Columns grows from Floor 2 to Floor 3

Task 3
Columns grows from Floor 3 to Floor 4

Task 4
Columns grows from Floor 4 to Floor 5

[dramage.190144]

I guess my friend VKumar hasn't posted the solution that we came up with.

To get that annoying first frame where it pops up to full heght and then goes back to where you really want it to start, all you have to do is uncheck the "Show all tasks in interval"
button from inside the simulations settings.

That's it! We had the same problem because one of us had checked the button and previously on another animation that we had found that worked great, we found the button unchecked.

Have fun!