The Future of 3D Printing

Why stop at 3D printing your face or a small representation of a building... why not 3D print an entire house.

Lighting Analysis - Run and Seen Within Revit

ElumTools http://www.elumtools.com/ is one of the best uses of the Revit API I think I have seen.  It truly shows what the future can hold for expanding the capabilities of BIM within the Revit Platform.  Currently still in Beta, you can sign up to be part of the testing on their website.  In the week or so that I have been involved, they had two beta releases to bring it to Beta 7 as well as a very responsive feedback team.  The video below shows the testing I did for the Beta 7 release.

ELUM Tools Beta 7 from Jason Grant on Vimeo.

Don't Hide from BIM and other Future Trends!

People who hope to thrive in the Conceptual Age must understand the connections between diverse, and seemingly separate, disciplines.

- A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

It is easy to put blinders on to the world, focus on today's goals and not on the future.  This is an easy dilemma to understand since you are getting paid for the work you do today and not on thinking about the future, right? The question is, will the work today provide you with the tools necessary to get you the work tomorrow if the industry changes?  Will you be prepared or put your nose to the grindstone hoping that hard work is enough?

 Photo By Alfonso Herranz http://www.studio-kg.com/news/2011/5/24/ostrich.html

Future Revit Portable App for Existing Conditions?

I thought this was really interesting and actually could be very helpful for quick field measurements that can be used for a Revit underlay. Autodesk should take note of this as it is definately the future of how users want to input data. Laser scan point cloud data is fine for the complex projects with huge budgets but what about the other 95% of projects out there.  The other 95% spend enormous amount of time just getting the basic floor plan of an existing building from site to the computer. This app is free for iPhone or iPad 2 users.  I would test it for you all and tell you more but unfortunately I only have the original iPad with no camera.  If someone could try it and comment, I am sure many would greatly appreciate it.  Click here for MagicPlan by Sensopia or the Sensopia Website

Thoughts on the #adskaec Media Day

If I can understand between the tweets and short blog posts, this is what we may or may not have to look forward to:

• Autodesk Vault (Integrate with all your Autodesk Products) Is this a pipe dream? - I can only hope that this is something remotely similar to Horizontal Glue which makes your Revit files lightweight (move around model in a web browser on a wireless connection), digital markup (Design Review replacement), collision detection (very similar to Navisworks) and simple to upload to secure web via Revit plugin. Some things mentioned that could be interesting is integration with Revit Server which will take snapshots of the file from what I can gleam. The problem with most of these "web services" is that the day-to-day work is overlooked and thus a firm needs to coordinate their internal and external files manually. Gets frustrating after a while and then it gets abandoned. Needs to be like Dropbox which synchronizes wherever it is installed and can also be accessed via web access.
• Annoucement of Suites - The Building Suites which has already been covered by many and a new Infrastructure Design Suite that I had not heard of yet.  I still really just want a ONE PLATFORM REVIT. Is there really a need to have three versions of Revit with the same base programming? Suites are a good first step... thanks.
• Solar Planar Analysis Tool - Rumor from Robert Manna is that it is graduating from the Labs and will be in Revit 2012.

• Case Study - UMASS Albert Sherman Research Center - Peter Campot of Suffolk Construction used parallel model, saved $600,000 worth of steel fabrication. Apparently he gave a stunning presentation stating their projects are 100% coordinated and said "as design firms get better at this, it will make our job as contractor easier."  I liked this other comment that the industry needs a Paradigm shift (Build it virtually, build it right) Suffolk gives Revit models to owners, fully tagged and identified.

• Project Neon (Cloud Rendering) - Was previously testing only on Autocad but maybe we will see it soon for Revit.  Good news since rendering in Revit is SLOW and FBX transfer to MAX is not seamless. I am all for the cloud! Take the processing needs away from my computer and just tell me when it is done.

• Project Galileo - I have had some posts on Galileo (Terminology) and (Overview). Really interesting future possibilities but while it may be the "Future of Cities" there are some things that are difficult for an Archtect that makes it difficult to use. Civil Engineers using Civil3D are not using the required coordinate system needed to import Civil3D files into Galileo. Revit file are bulky, only take the default Revit Materials into Galileo (not modified materials) and are difficult to locate exactly. As with any program, it works best if everything is made natively within it and it does work surprisingly well without a Revit file in it.

• "Cities of the Future + The Future of Cities" - Seemed like this talk went above and beyond Project Galileo. James Moore from HDR led this discussion. Some of the interesting links that came out through twitter was how the USA is not listed as one of the 10 most livable cities, best transportation is a bicycle, Center for Neighborhood Technology and single biggest challenge is REGIONAL planning as only small independent decisions are made with no regional thought. What does it matter, right? The world is ending in 2012 anyway... if you believe in that.

• Navisworks - Can Navisworks be reworked to manage data and infrastructure? Interested to see an image of the cities of the future looking like "The Matrix" as mentioned in twitter.

• BIM is IMP - Phil Bernstein said "BIM is an intelligent model-based process."  Got that? It is not just modeling but Intelligent Modeling.  Also, it is not just a model with information but a process. This process requires change. Read my post BIM is so Last Year
• Cloud Computing - Don't know exactly what was covered but glad Autodesk is still pushing it. Cloud computing is really the future as desktops can only reach a specific speed without spending a fortune. Seems like rendering, structural analysis and visualization/energy modeling were shown.
• Conceptual Design for Infrastructure - How about finishing it for the Architecture process first? Currently disconnected with project workflows. Infrastructure is important to projects but please don't forget to finish other projects first.  I did like Steve Stafford's quote from the session "We can't even see our most expensive systems - below grade infrastructure."
• Prefab Thru 3D Printing - Concrete, Steel, Carbon Fiber - I would really like to see that... full sized printing, awesome possibilities. The engine below was done a while ago but is still interesting.

• What is the Architect's Role? - Robert Manna had some interesting information here. I think that most firms are too nervous to accept what is really the future role of the Architect. This is where Architects hire less Architects and Contractors hire more Architects. Both will probably hire more technology gurus (Programmers, modeling wizards, math geniuses and industrial designers) See post here.
• Project Dasher - Autodesk Research - I do not really think owners will ever really use Revit as it is not the tool they need but Project Dasher looks just right. Tag all employees while you are at it so that one can track them down.

For future Autodesk AEC Media Events, I would like to make the following suggestions:

1. Webcast for a larger group of your media team (Bloggers).  Let us in on a few of the presentations as we are part of your voice to the world.
2. Provide some digital information to the tweeters and bloggers that they can use in their sharing to the world.  It is very difficult to understand or make sense of much of the information that was shared.
3. Make it quiet (no tweets, no posts) until the end. Then the content will have more quality than quantity. 

Thanks to Steve Stafford, David Light, Robert Manna and David Baldacchino for the information you provided and for letting me crash the party on Monday night. It was fun to hang out and chat!