Project Galileo Terminology

I have been chatting with the folks from Autodesk on Project Galileo and I plan to continue my exploration into the tool.  One of the things that may seem a little foreign to many architects is the terminology used within the program since it is GIS based.  Based on some of my inquiries, they have answered with a blog post Galileo: Questions from Architects on the blog At Land's End.

Tons of great information and additional links to find additional information.  Check it out if you want to find information on:

• Shapefile
• Database Info
• Terrain Surface Files
• Terrain Texture Files
• What File Format
• LandXML Data
• Coordinate Systems

Autodesk Showcase or Project Galileo... for Architects?

So, a month ago I asked the question "What happened to Project Newport?"  Thanks Steve Stafford and Don Rudder for your responses of Project Galileo and Autodesk Showcase.  Both I had seen but did not think either captured what an Architect would need and what Project Newport seemed like it would provide.  If these are the solutions, I think Autodesk is missing a huge opportunity for architects to share their models with clients or walk a client through a building during design.  These tasks impossible to do with the slow refresh within Revit.

Autodesk Showcase

I downloaded the 64bit trial and brought one of our moderately sized files into it.  Some of my concerns with this program are:

• Materials do not come in with the Revit Model.  The entire model was black and it was time consuming to assign the materials.
• Moving around the model was just as slow as within Revit.  Although, I must say that this program may perform better with a "great" video card.  Revit does not seem to benefit that much from an expensive card but this program might.
• Hard to make selection sets.  I had to scroll through numerous Revit elements to find a grouping of curtain wall panels, assign a material and then scroll through to find another set of the same type of panels.
• Definately, this product was designed for the industrial designer with a smaller model and less elements to select.  Would love to use but too difficult to sell to my project teams.
• Do like the ability to show different material options but initial setup is difficult.

Project Galileo

• Faster than Showcase on moving the scene around but again, probably the better the video card the faster the scene moves.  Just a guess though.
• Brings in the FBX with most materials... not all.  I am confused about this one but I think it may be unaltered Revit default materials that it keeps.  See image comparison below.
• Since the materials did not come in correct, I could not find any way to change the material of sub-objects in the imported FBX which makes things difficult.
• Don't understand the functionality of adjusting the scale during import.  Who would want to do that? You draw to scale, why would you want a building to be an odd scale and incorrect with its surroundings?
• If using Galileo for one project, I would suggest breaking up your Revit data into multiple FBX files to give more control within Galileo.

  From Revit with Realistic Mode, Shadows and Ambient From Galileo after FBX Export from Revit

Results

Autodesk Showcase and Project Galileo both have half of what was shown in Project Newport.  Galileo has faster navigation and Showcase has material control.  Anyway we can get these together?