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AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 27 (June 3, 2000)
AEC Tech June 3, 2000
A/E/C SYSTEMS June 6-8
With the biggest event of the year for AEC technology just a few days away, we are sure that the next few issues of this newsletter will be filled with news about the architectural CADD software introduced and the plethora of new construction industry extranets announced at A/E/C SYSTEMS from June 6 to 8. If you cannot get to Washington DC then, you still can catch a few of the sessions, and even part of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout via web-cast if you check out www.avat.com.
Since the "A" and "C" of AEC Tech will have so much news in the next issues, for now we will concentrate on more of the "E" and various types of engineering software in the construction industry.
GPS Site Surveying
When the US Government switched their emphasis from the radio based LORAN to the satellite based GPS, many navigators like myself were dismayed at the loss of accuracy - going from something theoretically accurate to 60' (LORAN) to over 100' (GPS) - because some mysterious "fourth signal" that only the US military could use. The technical aspects are discussed in an article linked below called "GPS Accuracy: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics." An obvious advantage, regardless of the accuracy, of GPS was the availability to get the signal anywhere, not just offshore. So far, at the speeds cars and aircraft go, such accuracy in civilian devices has not been a real issue. Now, however, we have a huge change with enormous implications for sailboat navigators, architects, and surveyors. Without much fanfare, the US Government recently allowed that "fourth signal" for civilian use, since they finally found some way to protect themselves and shut it off again if there were an emergency situation. What it means, though, is that those handheld GPS gizmos we can get for less than $200 are suddenly something like ten times more accurate. Accurate enough now to use in measuring up buildings, surveying sites, and in really pinpointing that windward mark. Expect a flurry of new devices, including add-ons for your Palm, which will help you on your job sites - even checking height elevations.
Cyrax Site Surveying
Another simply amazing way to measure up sites, as well as buildings, that is rapidly becoming the preferred way, is laser scanning. A company called Cyra will station a theatolite laser scanner at a number of positions around a site and run it through their Cyrax software which takes those thousands of points they call clouds and turns it all into a 3D CADD dxf file. It becomes sort of like a CAD Overlay (the standard in 2D paper scanning) for the 3D physical world. The system even has some sort of way to compensate for the trees and other vegetation to get the actual landforms.
Photogrametrics to Create 3D from Photos
Another way to develop 3D models of existing built forms is by taking a number of specific photographs and running it through software such as Canoma or PhotoModeler Site. Both are a lot more work than laser scanning and will require you to dynamically select lots of points onscreen to match up. You can try it yourself though as PhotoModeler Lite is a free download.
O2C Visualization for 3D Objects
Another free download, in the "too amazing to believe and you just simply HAVE to try this out" category, is the O2C technology. Simply going to the web site linked below will automatically update your system with a small plug in (actually I kind of wish it had ASKED first) which gives your system the stunning ability to dynamically rotate and render 3D CADD objects (which are in a special o2c format). The objects can have built in animation (parts moving, windows opening, fountain water running, or simply spinning), changeable materials (to try out different fabrics on a chair, or different paving materials), and different rendering levels right up to ray tracing, all while still giving you the ability to dynamically rotate it - and they are small, even a whole house can be less than 100k. Which means it is also fast, easy, and automatic ... kind of blows VRML out of the water. It seems somewhat similar to Apple's 3D metafiles, but it allows dynamic rendered walkthroughs, and has many more options with a right click of the mouse.
TiVo
On a bit of a sidetrack, but something AEC techophiles will definitely appreciate, is a gizmo you attach to your tv, which, essentially, records everything, all the time, called TiVo. It is hard to believe something so simple can actually change your lifestyle, but every other TiVo owner I have talked with definitely agrees, and none ever want to go back to watching conventional tv again. Essentially it is a huge hard disk (and computer) that stores up to 30 hours of programs and movies that it learns that you like. By giving as many as three thumbs up, or down, it can even learn nuances of things like which TYPE of James Bond movies you like, later suggesting future films or programs you may like (and never would have known about). I had become frustrated with what seems like 99 channels of near-garbage which at certain times of day must have 22 home-shopping things. With the TiVo automatically picking out all the (to me) good stuff, I am suddenly astonished how much amazingly good stuff is actually broadcast each week - sometimes in the middle of the night (for those architecture specials or classic movies) or during the working day, which is why I never realized it. Thus if only 2% is good stuff (which is why it all looks like garbage when glancing at conventional tv) in a 168 hour week there are at least 3 or 4 hours really worth watching. Besides not having to miss that movie or favorite program, being able to pause a show when the phone rings, and replaying funny spots for Cindy, I really like fast-forwarding through commercials and boring spots. As a person knowledgeable about computer hardware, I would recommend the Sony version over the Phillips version of TiVo. Ask me next month whether I actually spend more time watching, or less.
COFES2000
Meanwhile, our top colleagues were in Scottsdale, AZ, talking up a storm about engineering software. The Web changes everything, extranets and internet capable CADD collaboration are overturning how things are done in all design fields, ecommerce, and the inevitable shift from 2D CADD to 3D CADD modeling with intelligent objects is a paradigm shift we will all have to deal with for years to come, were all hot topics at the Congress on the Future for Engineering Software.
Building Energy Analysis XML
Speaking of engineering software for the near future, GeoPraxis has finally developed what they call a "green building" extension to XML called gbXML which will allow web pages to easily transfer information about our buildings relevant for energy analysis, such as wall and roof square footages, orientations, r-values, location, glazing, mass materials, and so forth. From this information, other web sites, or commercial software can then calculate sun angles, energy transfer flows (building heat loss, solar gain) and other stuff for a full DOE-2 type energy analysis, all without the pain and hassle of inputting all the numbers. The DesignWorkshop 3D CADD software is already running such dynamic analysis in their betas. The implications of a designer dynamically having such information immediately (without having to be an HVAC expert) mean that suddenly such considerations will be a real part of the design process.
Macintosh and Engineers
Another thing for engineers to watch for in the future is how we can bring AutoCAD back to the Macintosh (and also bring in ProEngineer) because of the interplatform abilities of Mac OS X. You can add your voice to this growing movement at www.architosh.com.
Dr. Frame/3D
Another company with lots of future plans, but also some rock solid existing software you can download today, is Dr. Software, which makes a variety of structural analysis software - beam design, column design, 3D frame design, and more. Their software calculates all the loads automatically in the background, so what you see on the screen is live and dynamically changing force conditions as you change things. Again the immediate dynamicness of it changes the nature of how we design, so that, as opposed to being something we run after-the-fact, these issues really become a design tool.
Links :
A/E/C SYSTEMS = http://www.aecsystems.com
Designers 3D CAD Shootout = http://www.architecturalcadd.com/shootout.html
A/E/C SYSTEMS web-cast = http://www.avat.com/site/events/webcast_aec.stm
GPS Accuracy: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics = http://www.gpsworld.com/columns/9805innov.html
GPS Site Surveying = http://www.eaglegpssurvey.com
Cyrax Laser scanning = http://www.cyra.com
Canoma = http://www.canoma .com
PhotoModeler = http://www.photomodeler .com
O2C = http://www.o2c.de/englisch/index.html
TiVo = http://www.tivo.com
COFES2000 = http://www.cofes2000.com
GeoPraxis gbXML = http://www.geopraxis.com
Architosh = http://www.architosh.com
Dr. Frame/3D = http://www.drsoftware-home.com/products.html
About Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Prof. Langdon is a registered architect and is the principal of Architectural CADD Consultants, a firm that specializes in helping architectural firms with computing and CADD. He has taught Design, Solar Energy, and Architectural CADD at a number of colleges in the Boston area. He is the author of Architectural CADD: A Resource Guide to Design and Production Software Appropriate for Architects, a guest speaker at many AIA events, and the founder and organizer of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout competition. contact him at aectechnews@architecturalcadd.com, or through his website: http://www.architecturalcadd.com
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