All that’s new with Environment for Revit®: September 2021

presented by Environment for Revit®

At Arch-Intelligence we have made it our mission to make Revit® as malleable to landscape architects as clay is to the potter. Already, landscape professionals around the globe are freeing themselves from the shackles of cumbersome technology and spending more time on their actual jobs – designing and planning outdoor spaces. With Environment for Revit® they readily shape landscapes in precise, true-to-life 3D BIM models, creating, just as the potter does with earthen clay, landscape designs that are both beautiful and functional.

From preliminary and concept design to design development and design construction, Environment for Revit® is the only Revit add-in, the only software platform, that supports the entire BIM project life cycle for landscape architecture and provides all of the necessary documentation and data needed to for execution. While Environment is already brimming with transformational functionality, we’ve recently upgraded existing tools and added new features that André Le Nôtre would have given an arm and a leg for when designing the Versailles gardens.

So, lets get to it!

Never miss a beat (or an edge) – THE Environment Auto-update Patch

We’re moving fast at Arch-Intelligence and want to share what we’ve done with you as soon as we possibly can. For this reason, in addition to our frequent release schedule, we’ve created the Auto-update Patch. Once you install the patch, Environment will proactively prompt you whenever a new fix and / or update is available between versions. Accept the update, and we’ll automatically update Environment without any need to install a new version. That’s it. Easy as 1, 2, 3.

If you miss an update, you can click on the “General Description” button and instruct Environment to install the updates when you close the current Revit session. BTW – in the next few months you can expect a number of truly major releases with a slew of amazing features and functions.

Smooth is the groove – Insert Midpoint

Uneven contour lines are a particularly sore point for landscape architects who use Revit. Too few points and you can end up with a clunky, unrealistic topography. Too many points, and your model becomes heavy and untenable, not to mention the tedious work required to create the points. As landscape architects ourselves, we know this firsthand, and our uses have raised the issue time and again.

Introducing Insert Midpoint. When using Environment’s Edit Topography command, with just two clicks and a drag, Environment will insert interpolated points that accurately fit your topography, smooth it out, and increase its accuracy. As to the number of points needed for an optimal outcome, that’s entirely up to you. Watch the short video below to see Insert Midpoint in action.

Revise it – Edit existing topographies using Surface from Edge

The name Revit comes from “revise it” and changing your design is what Revit is all about. In this spirit, we’ve made it possible to easily revise existing topographies using our Surface from Edge command.

For example, imagine that your design has a pathway with stairs crossing a lawn, and for some reason or another, you wish to move the path and stairs. Now, with this update, you can edit your topography and connect it to the new path elevation with just a few clicks. No more adding point after point to modify your topographies, just click on surrounding elements for a simple yet accurate edit.

Closing the loop – Pasting a closed end curb

They say a single image is worth a thousand words. We’ll take that, and we’ll add that, with the closed loop selection option in our paste curb tool, a single Environment command can save you a thousand clicks! Take a quick look to see how it works:

Consider the planting strips. In a recent project done by one of our in-house architects, the planned sidewalks sported numerous identical strips. Before this update, using a railing element, you would need to click on multiple points along each strip to select it and apply a change. even you were using our paste curb feature. This is even more complicated for non-straight edges.

With our new update, all you need is to select a single point on the edge of each strip, and Environment automatically identifies and selects the closed loop. Using paste curb with this new feature, you can easily select all of the strips and then apply your change all at once! That’s a lot of clicks and time saved with much greater precision.

And there’s more

• Manual selection in Arrange Walls – Automatically create stepped walls in multi-level structures, e.g., for a roof garden or on top of a parking structure, by manually selecting a surface, in your model or in a linked model.
• Convert Splines to arcs and lines – Using sophisticated approximation algorithms, Environment lets you enjoy the convenience of working with Splines, and then to convert them to arcs and lines that Revit models are better equipped to handle.

A final note

Although we’ve reached the end of our update, this is only the beginning, as our upcoming releases will be jam-packed with visionary features that will further transform Revit into the ultimate BIM tool for landscape architects.