Dynamo it is a visual platform allowing users to explore visual programming, solve complex problems and make user defined tools to aid in design and documentation workflows.
Dynamo is, quite literally, what you make it. Working with Dynamo may involve using the application, connected with other Autodesk software or not, to engage in a visual programming process, or participating in a vibrant online community of users and contributors.
There’s a lot we need to do in Revit that’s very repetitive. Sure, the software makes individual tasks pretty easy to accomplish. But when you need to do that task 10, 20, 100 times, it adds up to a lot of clicking. Creating sheets is a perfect example. Creating one new sheet isn’t very difficult. All it takes is a right-click, a left-click, and a little bit of typing. But in most cases, you need to create 50 or 100 new sheets. Ugh. . . that’s a lot of clicking!
Fortunately, Dynamo makes this task REAL easy. You can create your sheets directly from views in the model. Or create them from an Excel file. What would have taken over an hour can be accomplished in a few seconds.
A big part of BIM in general and Revit, in particular, is all that data. It’s the “I” in BIM, after all. But getting that data isn’t as easy as it should be. Sure, you can create schedules in Revit. You can even export these schedules to Excel. But sometimes you need to combine data from different categories. Or you need to calculate specific values. While Revit has made strides in improving these capabilities, it still falls short on many data-specific tasks.
However, Dynamo makes this process much easier. For example, using Dynamo you can create a two-way link between your Revit model and Excel.
As good as it is automating tasks and exporting and importing data, Dynamo is also a powerful design tool. With Dynamo, design truly becomes a process as you explicitly define the generative design rules.
How do you know your design is going to perform in real life like it does on paper? You can either wait until the building is built (and cross your fingers) or you can test it during the design stage, when it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to make changes. Dynamo makes it easier to simulate building performance throughout the design process. Want to know how much daylight you can expect on a partially cloudy day in March? You can create a tool that measures this.
Lastly, Dynamo requires you to take a systematic approach to working. You need to think logically and in a step-by-step manner. Most architects rely on intuition and creativity to solve problems. This kind of thinking doesn’t always fit into a left-brained, computational process. But what if you could encode this intuition? You could look at each step and really understand what makes it work. Even better, you could reuse that design logic and improve it over time.
Great news Autodesk® Dynamo Studio is now included in the AEC Collection! What are you waiting for? Program your way to an easier work life! We even provide bespoke training to help you get to grips with the software.
This post was written by Matt Hull, AEC Software Consultant at Pentagon Solutions Ltd.
