CAD, BIM & 3D

While I can not put my hands on the new versions of both of these applications, the web is getting filled with announcements so it is a good moment to see where both of the most popular BIM authoring tools are going to. I go over the "new" features and see how they relate to their main competitor. This way, my post is not simply a copy-paste of the PR mailing ;) Revit 2014 I got most of what I learned about if from this blog post . Displaced views to make open perspectives is nice to have. ArchiCAD does not have it, but it could be faked when placing multiple views on a layout. Double click to edit sketch of floor/roof is also a nice, small improvement, that might be quite handy once you get used to it. I remember it from MiniCAD when I used it in 1998-2000. In ArchiCAD, you click on an element and a floating palette pops up with all editing functions that are relevant. In Revit, you get a few extra icons on the ribbon. Edit and manage materials in a single...

My newest tutorial video explains how to evaluate an ArchiCAD model with Solibri Model Checker , using IFC . It is quite long (over 50 minutes) and again in Dutch. It handles the main workflow and shows how to adjust some parts in the ArchiCAD model to have better results. I'm interested in providing English translations, but that would fall outside of my teaching work so I need to find another way of supporting this effort. Would captions be an option? (still a LOT of work) As always, everything is recorded using Screenflow on a Mac, but everything I show works exactly the same on the Windows versions of ArchiCAD and Solibri.

While the "regular" press and websites already talked about ArchiCAD 16 in depth, I want to add a more personal comment here. For me, this is the first version since release 8 where I was not involved in any sense during the beta-tests. I was quite active for r8, 8.1, 9, 10, 11 and 12, but due to lack of time could not participate fully for 13, 14 and 15. I'm currently using r15 educational again (for teaching and for an historical reconstruction project - images will come later). The core ideas of ArchiCAD are still fine. The long-due updates to some older gripes and limitations are (assumably, I haven't use the software yet) the same as ever. But they provide a quite compelling version with r16. However, much of what 16 is about has to be seen in the context of the evolution of ArchiCAD over the previous versions. 3D Modeling Freedom (from previous versions on) 3D modeling freedom has taken some big steps over the last few versions (check http://archicadwi...

Yesterday, I installed a new (and currently free) app from Autodesk onto my iPhone, called Autodesk ForceEffect ( check it out in the App Store ). With this app, you can draw a 2D schematic of beams, nodes and forces. It will allow you to quickly assess the reacting forces into a structure. The examples included with the app also show you that a photograph can be used as an underlay, to sketch on top of them, e.g. to check a structure in the field. Gallery showing diagram over photo background While the iPhone screen is quite small for my not-too-small fingers, it works quite handy: there are automatic guidelines that constrain the direction and alignment of nodes you draw. You can switch units between metric and imperial and use gestures for scaling (pinch), panning (two finger swipe) and editing (single touch). Moreover, while it is hard to sketch an exact size for a truss, you can fix the length be entering the exact value on the dimension line and this will be enforces, even...

IES (or Integrated Environmental Solutions) has a range of tools for sustainable design analysis. They now offer free 12-month academic licenses to VE-Gaia for educational institutes (contact enquiries at iesve.com). They already offer £50 licenses for students (per year) so I'm not sure what is provided with this academic offer. The software seems to be Windows-only. Announcement:  http://www.iesve.com/news/pressrelease/IES-OFFERS-FREE-ARCHITECTURAL-SOFTWARE-TO-SUPPORT-FUTURE-OF-SUSTAINABLE-DESIGN_2009 The VE-Gaia software Info on  http://www.iesve.com/software/ve-gaia This is a standalone application focusing on building performance simulation with included visual and text-based reporting. It looks at following criteria: building characteristics: area/volume ratio, solar loads, thermal mass, material usage climate exploration energy/carbon (including temperatures, humidity and comfort at room level) lighting (daylighting and solar shading) use of natural reso...

In my recent quest to discover possible tools for design analysis, I already noticed Karamba , which is a free (for now?) Grasshopper-plugin for integrated structural calculation. It means you can define a structural system, with beams and loads and with control over connectivity, support conditions (degrees of freedom of nodes) and analyze it directly within Grasshopper. Real-time if possible. Nice. So I launched Parallels Desktop and stepped through the manual (which is well-written!) and tried to create a basic learning example. Don't shoot me if there are glaring mistakes in this, as I have to re-learn some of the things that have been kept under a rock for the last 10 years (Finite Element Analysis, Building Mechanics). The following screenshot displays a small example with three nodes, two beams and a single force . The nice thing is that, once this is setup, you can interactively play with it, e.g. move nodes, adjust the force, with the simulation running alongside. ...

While AxisVM has been around for quite a while, they are not as known as other programs. They do present a friendly approach to educational users, by providing both a free 6-month license of their full software and a permanent "LT" version. The LT version is functionally identical to the full version, but is limited to 40 beams or trusses, 400 surface elements, 20 load cases and 10 mode shapes. For teaching and learning this might suffice, but probably not for freeform roof shapes generated in other software, where the amount of trusses will be too limited. It is Windows-only, so I had to fall back on Parallels desktop to try it out, but it performs well. I followed one of the step-by-step examples to learn how to input nodes, beams, assign sections and materials, define Degrees-Of-Freedom (DOF) for nodes, add loads and perform the analysis. Once I get the hang of a few of these applications, I will try to do a more complete comparison and then see how I can automate mo...

When reviewing papers for a conference, someone referenced Z88 Aurora ( http://www.z88.org ) which is an Open Source, cross-platform (Linux, Windows, OSX) Finite Element Analysis software. It is quite extensive and comes with examples and documentation. There is also Z88 (without the Aurora) which is also Open Source. I'm not fully sure about the difference between both... but AFAIK, Aurora contains the more user-friendly GUI with more interactivity, whereas Z88 is more limited in scope. It contains a pre-processor (load geometry and FEA files, meshing, materials), FE-solver (calculates displacements, stresses and node forces) and a post-processor (visualization of results, export to CSV). For once, this software is (quite) easy to use on OSX as well, provided you have the X11 system installed, which usually comes with installing the Apple Developers packages, which are included with your OS system disk. It relies on a few external libraries, but even those are embedded or inc...

Based on CodeAster, LibAster is an Open Source Python-library for structural and thermomechanical analysis. Using Python, it should be quite portable between platforms. While this is not as user-friendly to get started, e.g. when comparing with full Desktop applications, having a library or command line tool makes it easier to connect into a workflow. Right now, I would like to reach a point where I can launch energy, cost and structural analysis from BIM models, where, in addition, the generation of the BIM model would be generated parametrically. Translated into software names, this could mean something like steering a design from Grasshopper, transferring it into ArchiCAD or Revit or (preferably) IFC and launching different analysis calculations in parallel from there.

FermaNext ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/ferma ) is an Open Source stuctural Analysis software for Windows and Linux. Ferma is a free educational CAD software for truss units analysis. It is grounded on the construction conception and designed for finite element calculation and optimization of 2D truss structural units. Struggling with OSX compilation After re-installing the Qt SDK (Qt 4.7.2 for Mac) recently, I made an attempt to recompile this software from the provided sources, as there was only a Windows and a Linux version prepared. Unfortunately, this is quite complex because of dependencies and non up-to-date packages... I failed. But got reasonably close. Qt Creator read the Pro-files and created a full project structure. But the dependencies were harder: expat (sources for this XML parser are included) did not compile, as it only contained some hints for Mac OS Classic. I added an "__APPLE__" directive to at least get through with it. Anti-Grain-Geometr...

While I have taken a course on the Finite Element Method during my "master of engineering: architecture", I have never used this in practice, so it has faded considerably over the years. Since performance simulation and Building Information Modeling go hand in hand, I want to reload some of that knowledge. So I have been looking for some software tools to connect to a digital design workflow. So far, it is cloudy... but I want to share some of it here. There are as many approaches as there are engineering problems ... structural mechanics, acoustics, heat transfer and energy, ... They all can apply these methods. Most software seems to focus on one approach. It's a Windows world . Face it, most engineers work on Windows. Some of them use Linux. Most of them ignore Macs. So most engineering software is Windows-only. Most systems are commercial . Some Open Source systems are really open in the sense that they can be used as libraries to create a custom solution. This ...

RhinoBIM (at  http://rhinobim.com/ ) is an approach to connect the freeform modeling power of Rhino with the richer model description in BIM, using IFC format. They focus mostly on construction aspects, but the methodology seems more widely applicable. This is how parametric and advanced design methods , which are commonly focusing on geometry and Building Information Modeling , which is mostly concerned with semantics and usable information can benefit from each other.

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.

At  http://www.formfinder.at/main/software/  you can download a structural design software which you can use for the creation of "form-active" structures. There is a free Light version and a non-free professional version. Both are only supported on Windows. Additionally, they software also presents a project-search system, where you can look for other designs that people have shared.

At  http://www.istructural.com  you can check out a structural engineering software that is completely web-based and runs on most computers and operating systems. It has free and non-free account types and provides different systems. Check out the demo to see if this fits your needs (which can not save and has fixed values). Beware that most examples use US units, but you can define a project with SI if you want. The demo has two main example calculations with which you can play around.

On the Autodesk Labs, you can download Project Vasari , a standalone energy simulation software, which can be integrated with Revit (reading: it is Windows-only - vasari.exe is a Windows executable and it produces Revit 2011 files). It can be used for design analysis. Autodesk ®  Project Vasari is an easy-to-use, expressive design tool for creating building concepts. Vasari goes further, with integrated analysis for energy and carbon, providing design insight where the most important design decisions are made. And, when it’s time to move the design to production, simply bring your Vasari design data into the Autodesk ®  Revit ® platform for BIM, ensuring clear execution of design intent. Project Vasari is focused on conceptual building design using both geometric and parametric modeling. It supports performance-based design via integrated energy modeling and analysis features. This new technology preview is now available as a free download and trial on Autodesk Labs. Th...

In line with some of my wishes on this blog , there is a nice plugin for Grasshopper to enable IFC export . Let me rephrase that, as I think it is quite significant . On the one hand, parametric and visual control over a design is increasingly being used in advanced design exploration. On the other hand, Building Information Modeling promises integrated management of information in a building project , beyond mere 3D geometry or drawing synchronization. And to be able to combine this into a single workflow is something big. This is indeed the beginning of exploring the full potential of IFC. Analysis tools focusing on getting the most out of IFC, while "parametricism" or generative/procedural/parametric/programmatic design can be used to embed design intentions and to enable design variations. Would this lead to architects creating series of designs? And to automatically connect them to both the full design documentation and design analysis? I do hope so. I assume t...

BlendME (The Blender Modeling Environment) is an add-on for the Open Source Blender animation software, focusing on analysis software connectivity. You can use software such as Radiance or Energyplus from within Blender to perform daylight or energy analysis. The software is not available yet , but when it does it will be either commercial, either donation-ware. Some more info about BlendME on Blender3Darchitect  and on  BlenderNation . Daylight Analysis with Radiance : Energy Analysis with EnergyPlus :

DIVA (short for Design Iterate Validate Adapt) is a plugin for Rhinoceros3D to assist with design evaluation for sustainability. http://www.diva-for-rhino.com It is only working for the Windows-version of Rhino and uses Radiance/Daysim for all evaluation tasks. DIVA-FOR-RHINO consists of a series of compiled RHINO and native GRASSHOPPER scripts that are accessible within the RHINOCEROS NURBS for Windows modeler via a dedicated toolbar. DIVA-FOR-RHINO uses the following third party software: Radiance ( http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/ ) Evalglare ( http://www.ise.fhg.de/radiance ) GenCumulativeSky (developed by Darren Robinson at EPFL http://leso.epfl.ch/ ) Daysim ( http://www.daysim.com )

On the Google Code Repository, there is a "su2rad" project , which contains Ruby scripts to export a SketchUp model into a prepared scene for rendering with the Open Source Radiance lighting simulation software. The Ruby scripts are apparently based on another Ruby script (ogre-exporter) and is a full plugin, including HTML-dialogs. I might have to take another attempt at re-installing Radiance on my laptop, as it has been a while since I last tried using it.