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

The following short (and silent - for now) videos present a full overview of getting a model from SketchUp into Unity3D. It uses the demo-version of the LightUp plug-in for SketchUp, which is fully functional (for a while). This works with the free and the Pro versions of Unity and SketchUp, on Windows and OSX. The model in SketchUp and lighting it with LightUp LightUp 4 SketchUp (1) Inside SketchUp from Stefan Boeykens on Vimeo . This video describes how to lighten a SketchUp model with the LightUp plugin. I'm using the demo version of LightUp (v1.1) inside SketchUp 8 Pro for OSX. Transferring the SketchUp model into Unity using FBX format LightUp 4 SketchUp (2) Export FBX for Unity from Stefan Boeykens on Vimeo . To get a SketchUp model, baked with Lightup, into Unity3D, you can use the integrated FBX exporter. This also works in the free version of SketchUp, which does not support FBX. The integrated FBX exporter includes the baked lightmap and the secondary UV c...

While I don't usually blog about events, sometimes people just ask, politely, if their event can be announced on the blog. If you think it is inappropriate, please tell me... To the responsible of CAD & 3D, My name is Guillermo Carone and I’m getting in touch with you as the responsible of the architecture website  www.archmedium.com .  ArchMedium is a venture dedicated to the organization of architecture competitions for students with the collaboration of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and the Architecture School of Barcelona.   Our goal is to offer future architects the opportunity to get familiar with these kind of events and create at the same time an international meeting point were students from different countries and cultures can show their projects, enriching the learning process of all the community. We have recently launched a new competition called “New York Theater City” and we will like to ask for your collaboration in promoting the even...

The M.A.D. Zonematic add-on for ArchiCAD , allows you to generate a series of ArchiCAD Zone objects from a text input file. This is something you could use in the preparing phase for an architectural project, where the required building program is being translated in spaces with certain dimensions. The add-on generates color-coded zone objects, with which you can start to assemble a first building layout.