AECCafe Industry Predictions 2020- Part 3

We’re coming down the home stretch with our AECCafe Industry Predictions. The last of a series of editorial articles on this topic will be published the last week of January. Deadline for entries is January 20th. This article is the third installment of those articles.

Please keep your submission to 200-1,000 words, with author’s name, email address, photo and a short bio. Susan.smith@ibsystems.com

In this article the topic is primarily virtual reality, immersive visualization and analytics visibility. Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost quoted a fact at AU last year that we’ve probably all heard before: 33% of all construction projects contribute to global waste. To counteract this shocking statistic, firms will need to get on board and employ new technologies that can help eliminate mistakes and waste before the designs get to the construction site.

So assisting with that endeavor is the employment of more accurate visualization tools to give us a better understanding of our designs from concept through to construction and even beyond to the operations and maintenance phase.

“Requirements for immersive visualization and analytics visibility are exploding. We are seeing many more projects that are model-based, rather than requiring 2D paper-based deliverables, and projects that are implementing digital twins. Digital twins will have increasingly broad application in advanced design environments, in which a fully functioning digital model is developed, allowing it to be improv

Adam Klatzin, Bentley Systems, Inc.

ed by analyzing different design choices, right up to the project phase for a more evolved process compared to conventional approaches. The driver of this innovation is a model that evolves over time during construction and into operations—instead of a static design represented in different phases.”

Adam Klatzkin is Vice President, Business Development for iTwin Services at Bentley Systems.  His team is responsible for the vision, development, and user success of digital twin cloud services for infrastructure engineering.  He joined Bentley in 1998.  His previous roles have included leading various platform and product development teams including Senior Director of Construction Product Development.   In 2010 Adam co-founded The Engineering Essentials Company (TEEC), which developed SpecWave a software product to help architectural, engineering, and construction organizations intelligently manage their engineering specifications and related codes and standards. Bentley acquired SpecWave in November 2012.  Adam holds a Bachelor of Science with honors in electrical and computer engineering with an additional major in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

“We saw a number of exciting changes in virtual reality in 2019, especially as they relate to the AEC industry. Here at The Wild, we help people experience how VR can amplify visualization of design projects for internal teams, clients, and stakeholders. The ability to walk someone through a 3D design in a virtual reality headset is quickly becoming a standard capability for most technically forward companies. In 2020, we predict that, not only will we see larger end user adoption of VR, but we will also see this adoption grow beyond visualization and into collaboration.

In the AEC industry, viewing a space at human scale, before it’s built, is critical. Not only does this provide context for decision-making and alignment among project contributors, but it also allows for greater efficiencies throughout the design-build process. But despite the wide array of benefits VR has to offer, for many teams, it has felt out of reach due to the need for expensive, complicated equipment. Not anymore! With the introduction of the Oculus Quest in 2019, we believe this will greatly contribute to broader VR adoption in 2020.

The Oculus Quest’s release has lowered the barrier to entry for smaller firms and other teams who may have been wary to invest in costly and more cumbersome headsets. As a result, many teams are now looking to incorporate VR into their client presentations and internal workflows, and several companies have created dedicated initiatives to exploring tech opportunities in the coming year. As we enter a world where the Oculus Quest has made VR accessible to the masses, we expect companies in the AEC industry to begin to equip their employees with their most powerful tool: immersion within design.

There are many indications that immersive data will be the data of the coming decade. Literal, human-centered immersive data is more readable and accessible than conventional, abstracted digital information. Even though AEC industries are notorious for moving slowly when it comes to adopting new technologies, the value proposition of immersive data workflows is so tangible that we expect to see accelerated adoption in the coming years. What is new and exciting for 2020 is that software, hardware, and data pipelines are reaching a level of maturity that make the paradigm of immersive data practical and, most importantly, scalable. At The Wild, we are working tirelessly to lead the charge.

Immersive collaboration is a revolution for this industry, not because it’s cool, but because it connects people, places, and ideas into a shared experience. This is a major advance in empowering both the individual and the team. We think VR adoption will initially be driven by the desire to improve efficiency in design-build projects, but it will skyrocket as the AEC industry learns how immersive collaboration improves, not only the quality of employees’ work lives, but the work itself.

Like most complex domains, the AEC industry has broad compatibility issues across many competing standards. Two trends are converging in 2020 to create huge incentive for interoperability: the enormous value of remote collaboration seen in such platforms as BIM 360, and the power of immersive visualization achieved with VR. Together, these trends provide real-time telepresence in shared environments, which will eventually form the backbone of all large-scale spatial design. It will be a dominant market that no service provider can afford to ignore, making it crucial for every team to understand their place in the emerging ecosystem.

Last but not least, we believe that broader VR adoption in 2020 will be driven by an industry-wide effort to improve sustainability. We are in a global climate crisis like we’ve never seen, and architecture and construction play a huge role in this, both in contributing to it and in fixing it. At the recent Autodesk University, CEO Andrew Anagnost stated that, to this day, 33% of all construction projects contribute to global waste. To counteract this shocking statistic, firms will need to get on board and employ new technologies that can help eliminate mistakes and waste before the designs get to the construction site.

Using VR collaboration software like The Wild, architects and designers can help cut back on global waste by experiencing their designs in spatial context, providing a unique opportunity to align early and often. Additionally, carbon emissions from air travel can be eliminated when teams are able to connect across distance and experience their projects virtually, from anywhere in the world. Onsite coordination with a general contractor can even be conducted in augmented reality, using an iPad at the building site. These types of innovations can combat the global waste problem, improve efficiency, and take collaboration to exciting new heights, and they are definitely going to be the trend in 2020.”

Based in Portland, OR, The Wild is an immersive collaboration platform that uses virtual and augmented reality to enable architects, environmental designers, and BIM managers to save time and make better decisions by experiencing their work together, immersed in a shared virtual space. With native support for SketchUp and Revit, The Wild aims to shape the future of collaboration by connecting people and their ideas across distance into a shared experience. For more information, visit thewild.com.

“At this point, the acceleration of the digital transformation of how we design, construct, operate, and reuse buildings is no longer a prediction but can be plainly seen on a daily basis happening around us. Therefore, it can be expected that in 2020 we’ll see the AEC industry capitalize on this progress, and continue to collect, centralize, connect, and collaborate on more data than ever before. This will not just create more value for building designers, owners, and occupants, but also help to reduce carbon emissions of the built environment on a global scale.

At SimScale, we’ve been lucky enough to have had a front-row seat to watch how countless AEC design and engineering firms leveled up their design toolbox to be more centralized, connected, and able to handle and learn from larger amounts of data than they could before—ultimately resulting in higher-performing buildings faster. We are excited to see what will be created in the wake of this new building momentum.”

David Heiny is CEO and Co-Founder of SimScale. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics and a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the TUM as well as a Master’s degree in Computational Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His expertise includes CFD, Numerical Analysis, Software Development and Applied Mathematics, developed both through his studies and work experience.

Tags: 3D, 3D cities, AEC, architects, architecture, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, BIM, building, building design, building information modeling, collaboration, design, engineering, engineers, generative design, infrastructure, Simscale, The Wild, visualization, Year In Infrastructure 2019

Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AEC training, AECCafe, apps, architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, building information modeling, civil information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, construction, construction project management, field, field solutions, file sharing, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, Internet of Things, IoT, lidar, managed services, mobile, point clouds, project management, reality capture, rendering, sustainable design, terrain, traffic simulation, video, video surveillance, virtual reality, visualization, YII 2019

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