CAD, BIM & 3D

To promote the use of the XFrog plant libraries, they are giving free samples for most of their libraries. These are downloadable models in multiple formats: the native XFR format is only usable with the XFrog software but enables parametric editing. The other formats are meshes for various applications, e.g. Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema4D, Vue and generic formats such as 3ds and obj. Beware that many of these models are quite heavy and are to be avoided in regular CAD drawings, as the hidden line renderings will take ages. They are better used in DCC software (e.g. the above applications) which can render large scenes. http://www.xfrog.com/2011/01/130-free-xfrogplants-now-available/

At  http://processingjs.nihongoresources.com/bezierinfo/ you can read a quite detailed text about Bézier curves and the math behind them. Interestingly, most graphics are dynamic and you can interact with them, when you have a recent browser with good Javascript support. Nice and informative.

One of the exercises our students had to elaborate last semester, was an introduction to Fabbing, in collaboration with our local and new Fab-Lab ( http://www.fablab-leuven.be ). They had to design a module inside a placeholder rack, made in plexi. Each student had a cube of 75x75x75mm in which they had to design a trajectory for a 30mm marble (in theory) that was able to pass. Different places had different connections, but they were combinations of an L and T-shape. Not all the places have been filled in (yet?). They had to combine two techniques, chosen from 3D Printing, Lasercutting, Milling and 3D Scanning. We sponsored a small amount of money to cover a part of the 3D printing cost, so each student could, with some caution, work cheap or even free. Info on the assignment and exercise (in Dutch): http://caad.asro.kuleuven.be/Modules/ArchComp2/Fabbing/assignment.php Here is the resulting sculpture/closet/rack/whatever as it is sitting in our labroom. Nice things they learned...

Tekla released a free BIM software that you can use to load and inspect BIM models, in IFC, DWG and DGN formats. This indicates that it is not strictly BIM, but as you can do clash checking and inspect models, this seems a nice tool. They claim that you can use it to combine models from different disciplines and assist with information sharing. It is only available for Windows. http://www.teklabimsight.com