QR Codes in CAD and Revit

This article comes from the blog-site of

Paul Crickard, an education facility planner.

1UN

Have you noticed the proliferation of these things in

magazines?

QR code to my website http://educationalfacilityplanning.com

These are QR codes. And with a smartphone and a free scanner

(such as RedLaser for iPhone) a person can scan this code and

be taken to your website, a map, call you, receive a message, or

a number of other options — its up to you what data you embed

in this code.

You can generate a code using one of several free generators

such as Kaywa. Or, since we are creating drawings, we can generate

them natively as a hatch in AutoCAD or as an image in Revit.

Autodesk released a plugin of the month that allows you to

create a QR code inside AutoCAD. The plugin is here.

Once installed, just type ‘QRGEN’ and follow the GUI

prompts.

These QR codes can be placed in your drawing title blocks,

for example.

What I find to be of the greatest benefit is the ability to

track how many people have scanned your code. By using

a URL shortener such as http://bit.ly you can create a

short URL for your site and bit.ly generates the QR code.

By entering the URL provided with a ‘+’ sign, you will see

a tally of how many people scanned your code and when.

This means you can create project specific codes and

monitor their effectiveness for marketing purposes.

I just provided one example of using QR codes in a drawing,

and a very simple one at that. You could do a million other

things, such as place one next to a detail that takes you to

a 3D model of the detail. Place one on your signage at

the site that takes you to a render of what the finished

building will look like. Put one on your business card that

updates a persons contacts using a vcard.

Happy scanning.