AECCafe Voice asked some users and vendors about their low cost conceptual design software to see what features are the most valuable to users in the workplace.
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Archive for the ‘AEC training’ Category
Users Speak out on Low Cost Conceptual Design Options
Thursday, May 25th, 2017Neuroscience Instills Human Response into the Built Environment
Thursday, May 4th, 2017Tatiana Berger, associate professor, Graduate Architecture, of the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, spoke recently at the Moscow Architecture School on the topic “Neuroscience in Architecture,” a relatively new science in the architecture field. Our interview with her encompasses some of the talking points of that presentation.
Carlo Scarpa. “The relationship between interior and exterior spaces and views to nature have a deep effect on how the brain perceives architectural settings.”
Presenting 2030 Districts: Urban Sustainability Through Collaboration
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017Dave Low, Network Liaison for the private-sector led 2030 Districts, spoke about the recent development of that group’s establishment of a non-profit separate from Architecture 2030, an organization that provides support for the goal of reaching carbon-neutrality in buildings by the year 2030.
After five years of support and oversight from Architecture 2030, the fifteen 2030 Districts across North America have established their own non-profit.
As part of this move, the 2030 Districts have selected the following thirteen members to its initial Board of Governors:
| Name | Organization | Name | Organization |
| Tyler Harris | General Services Administration (GSA) | Anna Siefken | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Jason Kobeda | Major League Baseball | Jiri Skopek | Jones Lang LaSalle |
| Edward Mazria | Architecture 2030 | Tim Thiel | Covestro, LLC |
| Sara Neff | Kilroy Realty | Jon Utech | The Cleveland Clinic |
| Brett Phillips | Unico Properties | Jenita Warner | Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District |
| Dave Pogue | CBRE | Jill Ziegler | Forest City Realty Trust |
| Megan Saunders | Stamford 2030 District |
Ease-of-Use, Owner Involvement are Big Themes at Rand IMAGINiT
Thursday, February 16th, 2017Carl Storms, Senior Applications Expert, for Rand IMAGINiT and Matt Mason, director of Software Development, for Rand IMAGINiT spoke with AECCafe at Autodesk University in November 2016 about the direction of the AEC industry. Rand IMAGINiT is a consulting and software development firm and Autodesk Partner. Carl Storms is “out in the trenches,” working with real world problems in AEC while Matt Mason is behind the scenes in the software development department, realizing the solutions to those challenges.
When asked about popular products and trends in AEC, Storm said, “Dynamo and visual programming are still a big thing. It’s been around a couple of years and now people more comfortable with it. Autodesk’s latest release of Dynamo Player is for people who are maybe not well versed in technology. They can just hit a button and play something. It’s like a playlist, you can pick a track you want to play. It accesses the information inside of your Revit model. It will, for example, have your text go from lower case to upper case with just the click of a button. It really gives people the benefit of using the technology without spending a lot of time learning the programming.”
According to Matt Mason, “Dynamo is still used by the power users, but to make it available to the rest of the people in the firm it needs to be more approachable. It’s been a challenge historically because you had to open the power users’ big complicated graph and understand it. From a usability standpoint, for the other 95% who aren’t at the level of doing Dynamo, it really helps democratize and leverage the Dynamo concept. The players can take advantage of the power users’ skills and have pretty much on-demand access.”
“Another big thing is augmented and virtual realities,” said Storms. “It’s now in more client and consumer based products. You have things as simple as Google Cardboard where you spend $12 to get the little lens and use your own smartphone, to high end devices, but they all allow you to immerse yourself in the data. Whether it’s a virtual reality type of device where you get immersed in the world of your model, you can walk around in your model and see what’s going on. Or you bring the reality into your reality so you can still see people and have conversations. You can see your interaction. People have been talking about it and have lots of thoughts and ideas for using it, and it will become more mainstream.”
Top Trends in AEC Technical Training from ASCENT Center for Technical Knowledge
Thursday, January 26th, 2017In an AECCafe Voice interview with Paul Burden of ASCENT Center for Technical Knowledge, the courseware segment of Rand Worldwide, he spoke of the trends he saw in the provision of technical training for their customers.
