Saturday, December 31, 2016

Reflections @ 2016

2016 flew. 12 months passed by. When we were in the month of January, we thought, "God, it is going to be a long year." Never did we realized that today as i am typing my way in my little space in this world wide web, a year has gone. It is an amazing year, so much to be thankful of. As i am writing this, i do not know why, but tears are welling out. Probably, we had gone through a lot this year and to think back on how we made it through with God's grace, we have no words to describe how tough yet sweet it is and we are here because of the support we have from the Almighty, and also you, our dearest family and friends, from near and far. Yes, that is 2016! 

January 
Our last trip as twosome. Isa joined us but she was in my womb. It was tired but very joyful trip. 

February
 
Met up with my pregnancy buddy which was also my high school classmates. Our babies are due almost the same date :D it was a beautiful pregnancy journey with you, Ellis. I truly enjoy every updates exchanged with you during our monthly check up.

March
Baby Isa is growing in me and I am enjoying every single moment.

April

Had a blast with my spanish family welcoming baby Isabella. Feeling beyond blessed and touched. It was a moment i would be remembering always and it is a story i would be telling Isabella when she grows up.
My dearest colombian friends, Pablo and Diana was leaving to Australia for a new adventure. I was sad for many days because i missed them but i am also happy as i know they are in a very nice country! Painted this to wish them great journeys in life, no matter how many journey they would be having in life!

May
Heavily pregnant. We went all the way to the botanical garden on a scorching hot day to take a series of pregnancy photos. It was exhausting but all worth it. I didnt realize i had such a big bump until i look back at those photos...#missingmybabybump

June

I had some serious hot flashes during my stay in Kuching while waiting to give birth. It was hormonal and i could not control it. I felt sick, caught cold and had flu because i slept near the strong fan without any blanket. It was a waiting game everyday on when Isabella is going to be born.

July
2 July 2016 - met up with my beautiful dominican republic italian friend who came to Kuching. Never did i ever think that 5 days later Isabella was born!
7 July 2016 - Little Isa chose a nice birthdate for herself. This photo is precious because there was so many emotions in it. I was tired but relieved, and beyond happy after giving birth to little Isa. Pandamopi was beyond words when he saw a very tiny grey baby coming out from me. Baby isa did not give a loud cry. She probably was shy so she cried like a cat!

August
Isabella is one month old. Confinement is finally over!
Celebrated my birthday as a mom for the first time with family in Kuching

September
It was tough adjusting to new life, especially with a very young baby and then getting back to work after 1 full months of rooming in with baby 24/7. Grateful for a mom-in-love who came all the way from Penang to help us settled down.
Went straight back to work when Isa was only one month old. I had separation anxiety and cried on my first few days back to work but smiled to myself when nanny's daughter sent me this! Her shirt is too cheeky!! I experienced letdowns when isa is feeding at nanny's. It's amazing how this little one gives me such great strength and motivation to work :D I will never give up!
Little Isa is officially a big sister now because little cousin Oli is born on 10 September 2016. Cant wait to let Isa play with Oli :D 

October 2016
3 months old isa continues to grow into a happy little girl. We can never love her enough :D

November
Back to The Reading Room with my spanish family again after a long time, this time with Isa in our midst. It was a beautiful moment and what we left in the rooms was memories, nothing else...

It seems that the grey baby that was born 4 months ago knows how to appreciate and enjoy books now :D
 Mom flew in to Singapore to spend some time with Isa and it was a great time..
Attempted to participate in #theadventretreat 2016 but stopped half way due to unforeseen circumstances. Will participate again this year..
December 

 December is exciting. Spend a very short weekend for a wedding but did super many things that in the end Isabella's just dozed off without waking up for milk...

Attended my wedding mc, Gloria & Mervyn's wedding dinner. It was beautiful.

Our very first christmas together. Happy Isa!

12 amazing months, with our fair share of ups and downs. The fact that i am still typing now means life is still great as it is :) Thank you, Lord for your provision and protection! All glory to You.


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Waterproofing & Drainage

Water seepage in buildings can cause damage to building structures and finishing, as well as poor environment quality and health problems for inhabitants. Protection against water's destructive forces is vital in the design and construction of buildings. The effective approach is integration of good waterproofing and drainage system - a simple concept of keeping water out and channeling water away quickly. While simple in concept, proper planning, design, selection and installation of every component is required to make sure that the system work. -- Elmich Waterproofing & Drainage

Last week during a presentation by Elmich personnel, my colleague inquired regarding the detailing of drainage and expansion joint detail. Expansion joint detail is especially tricky due to the movement of the structure.

Below is the detailing for reference : -
Internal Wall & Slab Drainage Detail


Expansion Joint Detail
One of the most popular product for green roof /inverted roof/non ventilated metal roof is evalon.

Also, we learnt about Versi Drain which is grate for balconies, terraces and podium decks. This could be used in roof garden (which eventually has no plants) in Changi General Hospital. 



Revit View Range



Very good video on Revit View Range.

Some takeaway notes on view range :

Primary Range 
Top : Object below this will be drawn according to it's 'object style'. Any elements above this height will not be displayed

Cut Plane : This is the height that Revit will cut through elements : ie windows, doors, etc

Bottom : Absolute base of the primary view range. Element that is on/above this height will be drawn according to its "object style"

View Depth (associated offset) 
Must be set to a height lower than the " BOTTOM " height. Any object that fall within this range (between view depth & bottom) will be drawn in the  "Beyond" line style. (Can be dotted line or colour)

View range settings apply to plan views and reflected ceiling plans

Views are associated to levels.

Model elements outside the view range are not normally shown.

Friday, May 20, 2016

How to switch of certain layers or elements in linked revit models ?

Generally, by default, everything that is in linked Revit models are reflected as it is. Sometimes, we would like to reflect or hide different info depending on type of submission. For example, in CBPU (Plumbing and Sanitary Submission), we only need to reflect the proposed or affected plumbing and sanitary points and not the escape route (ingress, egress routes) which are normally reflected in fire submission.


In this post, I am going to share on how to switch of certain layers or elements in linked Revit models.

1. Go to view ribbon > user interface > check properties. You will then see a properties pop up window. Under the properties window, go to identity data, under view template, click the view template itself. 

2. Under view template, go to V/G Overrides RVT Link. Click Edit.  



3. Under the linked Revit file, change display settings from "by host view" to "custom" as below : 

4. Go to the second tab (Model categories), change "<by host view> " to "<custom>". 
When it is "by host view" the details in the table are greyed out. No changes can be made. 

5. Once it is changed to "custom", the details in the table can be changed. Here is where we can start to switch on and off certain layers or elements in linked revit model. 

6. In our case, we would like to switch off egress and ingress path in the drawing since this is a sanitary submission. So under generic models, switch off "egress path, egress solid and hidden lines".



7. Now, the escape route in the linked model is switched off and the drawings only reflect details required for sanitary submission. 



Thursday, May 19, 2016

How to find out saved path or location of the linked autocad files in Revit ?

Sometimes, when having many autocad links in a Revit files and it comes to a point that we need to know where these links are stored. Ideally, they all should be stored systematically in a specific folder as below – a folder with linked autocad file created specifically for BIM.


In any case, to find out saved path or location of the linked files,  go to 

manage ribbon > manage link.


Under CAD format tab, you will see the saved path of each autocad file which are linked in the Revit model. Refer image below.

For items that is indicated as not found, you can either reload it again from the same folder (when revit file is moved and autocad files are still located in the same folder) or from different folder (when revit file remains the same path but autocad file is relocated to different folder or REMOVE it if it is not useful anymore.
 

Why do linked CAD files are unable to snap or move in REVIT, but only align?

Yesterday while i was working on linking an Autocad files in my revit model, I was unable to pick, snap or move any lines from the linked autocad file. It is pretty frustrating as all i could do to move the autocad file to the desired location is to align accordingly. :(

After researching, trial and errors and experiments, there is a solution to that, which i have recorded in the image below. The trick is to enable select link option when you want to be able to select linked files and individual elements in the links. I do not know whether it was disabled by default or not but at least now i have another place to check when I could not move or snap my linked autocad files.

Steps :
1. Click the imported linked cad files.
2. Enable select link option. (see image below)

Monday, May 16, 2016

How to create curve or angled mullion on regular curtain wall

Normally when creating  mullion, the limitation we cant have 2 angle when rotating the mullion angle. Here are some simple steps to create a curve or angled mullion combined with regular grid

1. First create architecture wall (curtain wall) with some mullion grid ,



 2. Selection the Curtain wall , duplicate it by copy to clipboard


  3. Paste the same curtain wall ,"with Align to Same Place" , there will be

 3.  There will be  some error message pop up, just ignore it , close out on it


 4. Click on the isolate element "sunglass icon at the very bottom"


 5. Select every click on filter, select only the grid mullion and grid and delete, (we have the mullion on the 1st curtain wall)




  6. Select the 2nd Curtain wall and click on edit type , Change the Curtain Panel = Empty System Panel: Empty. (to delete the glass , because the glass is already in the 1st Curtain Wall)


 7. Now the glass is deleted , while it is still selected , go ahead and click Edit Profile


  8. Edit your desire mullion angle or curve  (it required to be in a close shape)



 9. Dont worry if it white out, just move around to find the gridline , c


8. Click on mullion , and press on the angled grid to give mullion profile 



  9. Once completed , press on the sunglass to exit the temporary isolate



In usual case , revit don't automatically embed curtain wall if  there are both overlapping


 So when you draw a architectural wall overlapping with the existing curtain wall, error message will pop up, just ignore it


 then go to the elevation, select the 1st curtain wall and click on edit type , make sure it say automatically embed (with tick)



There you should get it properly cut out.


Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUx7v_i9d-g