AECCafe Today 
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » Gearing up for AUNovember 25th, 2009 by Susan Smith
Autodesk University traditionally falls during the week following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, as it does so this year. It also comes right after Autodesk’s third quarter fiscal financial announcement: http://www10.aeccafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=762867 This year’s AU will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, a change of venue from previous years at the Venetian. Apart from the keynote presentations, Mainstage, exhibits and technical sessions, what looks interesting on the agenda: Unconference sessions, where session content is created and driven by participants. What is needed: a room, a projector, and a microphone, and then participants and the session leader do the rest. This year you can pre-register for unconference sessions.View all unconference sessions. The Design Slam is back for its second year, following the format of Cut&Paste Slam of the previous years. The fast-paced format tests skill, speed, and stage presence, while the audience witnesses the professional designers and Autodesk executives at work on large-scale projected screens, creating original work in rounds of 20 minutes. Pecha Kucha Night on Wednesday holds the expectation that participants share their ideas in a challenging format: they display 20 images, each for 20 seconds. In those six minutes and 40 seconds, presenters are expected to make a personal connection with their audience. This event has generated interesting results that have shown up in Mainstage presentations in later years. See you there. CAD Price WarsNovember 16th, 2009 by Susan Smith
On November 4, China’s largest CAD software company ZWCAD Software Co. Ltd. announced a 50% markdown on their affiliated products to CNY 2,698. Other perks will be offered to their existing users. Autodesk recently lowered the price of AutoCAD LT by $300, which is most likely a short term promo. Bentley continues to offer their PowerDraft, the equivalent of LT, at a competitive price in China – it reads DWG and is programmable. Another company offering low-cost CAD software is IMSI/Design’s DoubleCAD XT PRO with their limited time special offer -DoubleCAD XT PRO is now available as a bundle with Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 for only US $695. IMSI introduced this product earlier this year in the hopes that the faltering economy would be in their favor – users who didn’t want to pay the price of the next upgrade for AutoCAD would jump ship and try DoubleCAD. According to Bentley China, ZWCAD has a presence in China, but does not have a strong presence in the AEC market. Bentley’s GenerativeComponents – a panel discussionOctober 27th, 2009 by Susan Smith
An impromptu panel discussion was held at the end of one architectural track session at the Be Inspired Awards and Symposium a couple of weeks ago. The panel was comprised of Richard Priest, architectural software engineer for Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, winners in the category Innovation in Structural Engineering, Oliver Plunkett, civil and structural engineer director, BDP, finalists and Andy Shaw, architect, head of advanced digital modeling and Paul Hunt, Hopkins Architects Limited. Huw Roberts, Bentley: Some practices have a specialist team doing GenerativeComponents (GC) – is it better if you can get it absorbed into the practice of the teams? Response: It’s changing the dynamic for who’s driving the design. You used to get guys out of college who could just draw, now you’re getting them who can actually design to the project. It’s an emerging way of working, it’s generational, with more senior people who have more building experience moving on. It’s giving young practices an opportunity to emerge. I think it’s removed tension. The young are intimately involved and driving options that may seemed not possible. Before they would come in and just draw someone else’s design (in the old days). You’re using GC to achieve purpose not just a cool shape. Roberts: How do you think this technology is changing abilities? Response: Before you had one best guess, now you can fine tune it, within practice, you can’t get away with doing extravagant, must make it rational and efficient, making sure design can work. Huw Roberts: Clients wanted to explore progressive design – how has technology helped you convince the client that you’re helping minimize their risk? Response: If you model something in 3D you can’t fudge it. It’s a virtualization of the building process that as designers, we should be doing. GC forces you to be very precise, the 3D model is your digitai prototype. If your virtual model is working a lot of clients get more confidence that it can be built. The word “Prototype” makes it sound like it’s more correct, than the word “model.” Huw Roberts: Are you sharing analytics with client? Response: Yes, you can prove C-values, shadows, they are easiest to quantify, room temps are more difficult to quantify, etc. They know what they’re getting. Architectural building constraints become the inspirationOctober 21st, 2009 by Susan Smith
New home for the Sperone Westwater art gallery presents vertical space challenges: “…architects often say the possibilities of a building lie in its limitations, and architect Norman Foster was drawn to the challenge of designing what is essentially a vertical art gallery on New York City’s former skid row, a landscape dominated by restaurant supply stores. The building, at 257 Bowery, just south of Houston Street and one block away from the New Museum of Contemporary Art, will be the new Lower East Side home for Sperone Westwater. The gallery, now on West 13th Street in the West Village, represents artists like Bruce Nauman, Richard Long, Guillermo Kuitca and William Wegman. At its new address it will rise eight stories on a site of just 25 by 100 feet.” Mr. Foster said, “it’s a case of the constraints finally becoming the inspiration.” – Architect’s Challenge: A Sliver of a Space by Robin Pogrebin, October 20, 2009, The New York Times (registration required) i-models tackle collaboration in project reviewOctober 19th, 2009 by Susan Smith
At the Bentley Be Inspired Symposium last week, one of the announcements was the soon-to-be-released ProjectWise Navigator V8i (SELECTseries 1), dynamic collaboration software for iterative project review. According to press materials, this new version of ProjectWise Navigator can be used by infrastructure teams to interactively view, analyze, and augment project information. What will make this process dynamic so there can be bi-directional feedback for team participants, is the inclusion of a new product, i-models. i-models are said to be “a new infrastructure currency for open information exchange.” As I understand it, the i-Model is a container that can hold an entire 3D model, a revision history and tracking of where the information comes from (what Bentley terms “provenance,” and can be exported to those who need to see this information or series of files. The author can embed access rights into the model, support digital signatures and take measurements or extract information from this information. It cannot be changed, but notes can be attached to it. It is a .dgn file, but it has the capability of bringing in other material such as Revit files using the previously released Revit plug-in. It honors all file formats (or will, once Bentley develops individual plug ins for it) and standards such as ISO 15926, IFCs, XML. Press members asked, why do we need another format? The i-Model is not really another format, it’s another way to share information with team members or other stakeholders. Similar to a zip file, when you open it you can see its contents. It will be particularly useful for plant and process and other large-scope projects with multiple and diverse processes. The other big question is, how big is it? In comparison with a regular model file, perhaps a BIM file, the i-Model would be at a ratio of 10 to 1. It will contain all accurate geometry, but will do away with anything extraneous or redundant. I’m not sure how it makes this decision. The i-Model capability will be part and parcel of the next release of ProjectWise Navigator and Composer which will ship in October 2009. |
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