bentleyuser.org - Rob Snyder presents Dynamic Views 3.0

Rob Snyder presents Dynamic Views 3.0
by Robert Klaschka - 21 May 2010

For me this event was one of the high points of the conference not least because it is something I have been working with Rob on, but also in the continuing theme of demo bravery I spent the last 15 minutes of the presentation showing the functionality on one of our projects using a pre-alpha of the software!

As presentations go Rob's was both entertaining and contentful, it was prepared with a former employee and very talented young Architect Aaron Scales. DV3.0 is the feature set for dynamic views that will be included in SelectSeries 3 due in November this year. The principle behind it is a innovative and automated approach to combining dynamic views in a 3D model with the 2D downstream information.

One of Rob's particular focuses has been to ensure that it works with dynamic views, 2D drawing models and sheets that you have already created. Behind the scenes the software harvests the models and sheets including referenced 2D content in those files.

The first thing that one notices when opening an existing project master file is that the DVs in that model are revealed by means of icons that lie around the model in space. There are icons for plans, sections and elevations, and then an additional icon for detail bubbles. These icons naturally attract exploration and when one hovers a ribbon menu with a series of buttons appears. This is a much more interactive interface with access to the DVs right there for you. The buttons allow the DV clip to be revealed, and more importantly all down stream 2D information to be revealed on the plane. When this function is activated our 2D annotations, notes and dimensions are revealed.

It gets better they can be edited in place using the activate command on right click.

As Rob highlighted this transforms DV form a drawing output tool to a round trip 2D/3D model documentation tool. It is so much more than that though. The way that the documentation reveals the model and all the design information in it begins to deliver an interface that cuts through the complexity of the model.

After the presentation so many people have come up to me wanting to know when it will be available, that its clear the resonance this functionality strikes with people.