This review explores the book, Data-Driven Design and Construction: 25 Strategies for Capturing, Analyzing and Applying Building Data, authored by Randy Deutsch, who draws upon his experience in both academia and the industry to ponder on the question of data, why it is important, and how we can best use it to improve design and construction in the AEC industry.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2016/DataDrivenDesign.html
While BIM has proven its value as the next generation AEC technology for buildings primarily intended for the upper half of society, can it also help in designing low-cost housing that is direly needed for the millions of people who live below the poverty line in so many parts of the world, as well as temporary housing for accommodating large congregations of people when needed? This article provides an overview of a design proposal for low-cost and temporary housing in India that is facilitated by BIM and explores additional work being done in this area.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2016/BIM-LowCostHousing.html
This review explores a new solution, Schema from Archetris, for space programming and planning in the preliminary design phase of a building project. It comes in six distinct yet integrated modules, which collectively chart a traditional linear workflow of developing, iterating, and refining a design from the most spatially abstract to the most spatially defined solution. It also includes Revit integration, allowing the data and conceptual designs from the preliminary design stage to be transferred to the detailed design development in a BIM environment.
This article by William Speakman, BIM Analyst at Caveo Consulting Engineers, describes how the firm has started utilizing 3D handheld scanning technology to document existing conditions, the advantages of this over traditional tripod based scanners, and the many benefits it has achieved with the specific solution it has adopted.
This article summarizes the key developments in AEC technology that happened in 2015 and looks ahead at what 2016 might bring.
This article provides an overview of several third-party AEC technology solutions that were on display in the Exhibit Hall at Autodesk University last month, including the versatile visualization and analysis tool, Fuzor; energy analysis tools such as Sefaira, IESVE, and ElumTools; the powerful stand-alone visualization tool, Twinmotion; design applications and plug-ins from Transoft and Ideate; the virtualization technology of Frame and how it applies to AEC; new construction offerings including Newforma LeanPlanner and Assemble Insight; the laser scanning company Skycatch, which makes drones as well as laser scanning software and has attracted a strategic investment from Autodesk; and finally, the latest in computers, printers, and graphics cards from Dell, Lenovo, Epson, HP, and AMD.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2016/AU2015_Exhibitors.html
Larry Rocha, Principal and Senior Vice President, Mosaic Modular and LMR Consulting, shares his perspective on AEC technology in this Profile.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/profile/2016/PeopleProfile-ShawnFoster.html
Mortenson, one of the top builders and developers in the US providing a complete range of construction services, shares its perspective on AEC technology in this Firm Profile.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/profile/2016/FirmProfile-Mortenson.html
This article captures the highlights of the recently concluded Autodesk University 2015, whose theme of “The Future of Making Things” translated into many more developments for the Manufacturing industry compared to AEC and Media and Entertainment, and showed several cutting-edge manufacturing projects including a 3D printed airplane partition for Airbus designed using generative design and the development of bionic devices for missing limbs that can even surpass their normal capabilities. It also looks at the extension of manufacturing into construction, and a new application for cloud-based document management, BIM 360 Docs, which was the biggest news from Autodesk on the AEC front at this year’s event.
In this article Christian Ehl, who most recently set up the OpenBIM platform, bim+, within the Nemetschek Group, paints a fascinating vision of a future world in which robots are commonplace in society and bring their unlimited computing power to the building industry as well. He posits that “BuildingBots,” small software and later hardware robots, will play a major role in creating the buildings of the future, from planning and construction to operations and management. The change will be gradual but definite: in 2016, the first bots will evolve and make sure that all building data is available with 100% accuracy; in 2020, we will see the first self-optimizing buildings; and in 2025, the first self-building buildings will evolve. Software and robots are already reshaping the world completely, and they will do so for the construction industry as well.
URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2015/BuildingBots.html
AECbytes Blog 