CAD, BIM & 3D

Introduction When Manufacturers create custom objects for use in BIM software, they often want to embed as much relevant information as possible into the objects. In BIM-software such as ARCHICAD or Revit, you can do this fairly easy: ARCHICAD supports Custom Properties and Revit has Project or Shared Parameters. The basic concept is more or less the same: you define a property set and individual properties inside the set, with a data type and possibly default value. To make these properties available for the user to enter, you can attach them to an element category (like wall, slab, beam, window). So far so good... The problem However... a category applies to ALL instances of elements of that category. Every single element will gain the properties assigned to the element category. So if you start loading manufacturer objects for e.g. doors, every single door will gain these new properties... even those for which this is not relevant. Managing Properties inside Autodesk Revit ...

Disclaimer : I was politely asked by Emily Donalds from Cometdocs to possibly feature a post on their PDF to AutoCAD webservice. While wary about advertisement, this is an open and free offer and useful for CAD users. On http://www.convertpdftoautocad.com you can (obviously) convert PDF files to the AutoCAD DWG format. In a time were probably every single PDF containing CAD drawings was originally created as a digital drawing anyway, it makes sense to optimise on this kind of drawings. You can go to the website and, without creating an account or registering, you can upload a PDF from your computer. It should not exceed 40MB and you need to be willing to enter your e-mail address, cause the conversion process will happen on their servers. The service is free and upon testing, was reasonably fast. The example I tried was a PDF from a elderly care centre provided during a research project and was originally drawn digitally (although I'm not aware of the exact software th...

Last week, I got a question from one of our master thesis students. She is working on a historical reconstruction project and received some old files from the architectural office, responsible for a renovation project in 1993. They used ClarisCAD. The files had no extension and the software is, obviously, part of CAD history. Recovering the software ClarisCAD is not available anymore, but on Macintosh Gardens , an archive is maintained with downloadable installation files. You can download the full software freely and it runs without requiring to enter a serial number. I assume, as the software is abandoned, that using it can be considered as some kind of "fair use". I did not fully investigate though and as it was only used to recover some files, I think it is OK. Recovering the operating system To be able to run this on a current computer, you need to emulate the Operating System (unless you have the actual hardware still running around somewhere). Luckily, there a...

Motivation I have worked literally day and night on a expanding series of video tutorials. They are made as part of my teaching assignment at KU Leuven and are meant for our students of Architecture Engineering to replace to a large extent that traditional class-room based sessions. Partly out of necessity, as it becomes harder and harder to support large groups of students and partly out of didactic motivation, as the speed with which students learn CAD and 3D software differs widely. For some, it is always too fast in a class setting, so they give up and start entering Facebook or messaging on their cellphone. For others, they are frustrated as they are already ahead of the explanation, exploring other tools. The actual tutorials So here is the full YouTube page where I'll post all current and future video's in separate playlists. stefkeB - all YouTube video playlists At the time of writing, there are videos about  ArchiCAD (3 series), AutoCAD (2D basics), SketchUp...

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...

Disclaimer : I was asked by Packt publishing if I was interested in reviewing this book. I immediately accepted, as such a book would fit within some of the themes we handle in our classroom and many students and architects are interested in discovering the world of realtime interactive architecture. The coupling of SketchUp and Unity3D is quite accessible and can be completely free, if you use the basic licenses. Packt provided a free review copy of the book and if you buy it through the provided link, there is a small commission. But the review is my personal opinion only. Book info on the Packt-Publishing website Google SketchUp for Game Design is a quite recent book, focusing on delivering a reasonable low-entry into the world of Game Design. When you think about presenting architecture to others, an interactive game-like environment is very compelling. Tied to the ubiquity of SketchUp for quick modeling and the Unity3D Game Engine , you can publish interactive models as s...

In an unusual (or panic?) move, 3D software developer DAZ 3D gives away its three major content creation and rendering software for free for a limited time (29th of February 2012) . These are unlimited and complete software applications, which used to be commercial before. All software is available for Windows and OSX. Check  http://www.daz3d.com Which programs are available? DAZ Studio Pro 4 (used to be $430) This is a program to load, pose, animate and render 3D characters. You can load models (free and non-free content is available). One of the novel features is the "Genesis" character model, which can be adapted parametrically, so a single basic model can be tweaked and reshaped in different variations. Character modeling is beyond the reach of the average 3D modeler, so being able to use a dedicated software might make it more feasible. What's the catch? Well, most models, accessories, poses and bundles will not be free. E.g. the Victoria 5 bundle is ...

While most BIM applications present the user with a fairly large collection of objects (furniture, building elements, drawing details), they don't have everything. Although you can create your own symbols, library objects or families in the software, this is beyond the reach of the average user. This is where content libraries step in. While there have been CAD-drawings available for many manufacturers since quite some time, they are usually DWG or DXF drawings in 2D and do not integrate as well in a BIM software as actual library content. BIMstop is an example of a recent content library, that provides objects in multiple formats. BIMstop   presents the users with freely downloadable objects in ArchiCAD, Revit, SketchUp and VectorWorks formats http://www.bimstop.com The following links are some of the pages of the software manufacturers for content libraries. Not all of it is free and the quality may vary, but it can be cheaper to buy a library than to develop objects ...

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 " Yorik's Site " you can read more about the architectural works of Yorik. Apart from professional services, information is shared, such as models, renderings and some techniques. Many projects can be downloaded as PDF files and as Blender models, "for your remixing pleasure", as stated on the site. Nice touch and quite uncommon for architects. E.g. see following picture from  http://yorik.uncreated.net/guestblog.php?2009=209

On the 1st of September, researchers from the Netherlands organized a "BIM Breakfast". I wasn't able to attend, but they shared some videos and materials online at http://breakfast.bimserver.org/ The BIM Server is an Open Source, Java-based implementation of an online server for IFC files. This can be used for shared hosting of project data between building partners, such as architects, engineers and contractors. To visualize IFC files, they use the Google O3D plugin, which can be used directly inside the browser. The IFC Engine is also used, but that is Windows-only.

Just when you would think that Google forgot about further developing SketchUp, they release a new update. Version 8 boasts some improvements (welcomed), but nothing as revolutionary as in the early days, when e.g. "slices" were introduced. [Pro Only] "real" solid operations are nice. There was already the "intersect" option, but that left the cleanup work still to be done. Now you can do a proper Boolean union, subtract and intersect and also a trim and split option is available. [Pro Only] Layout has been improved with better dimensioning, more accurate moving operations and better control over linestyles such as dashed lines. Better geo-location options, using Google Maps. Now you can do all the work inside SketchUp, which is really nice (and a good thing for Google). You choose a section of a map and directly load it into SketchUp. You get a more accurate result than before and the terrain model you get is now also in color (it used to be in greys...

The new release (12 already) of Cinema4D restructures the different editions and promises more advanced rendering and character animation (among others). A comparison between the different editions can be found on http://www.maxon.net/products/general-information/general-information/product-comparison.html . Notable improvements for architectural visualization include support for real-world units (important when working with CAD models and realistic light falloff), photometric data (IES lights), color temperature support, white balance correction for camera. For animation, improved Dynamics, Deformations and Character Animation seem to be the biggest features. For Architects and Designers, the "Visualize" or "Studio" versions seem most appropriate. That said, the "Prime" version (the cheapest one) seems OK to get started (with Ambient Occlusion supported, but not Global Illumination). Not free, not Open Source, but cross-platform (Win+OSX) and 64-bit suppo...

Maybe not directly usable by architects, this online sharing platform aims to become a community where engineers can freely share CAD models with other engineers, regardless of platform and filetype. http://www.grabcad.com/

The free online Autodesk Homestyler is currently in beta on http://www.homestyler.com . It works directly inside the browser and requires the Flash Player to be installed. It is simple enough to use directly and, frankly, is faster for a quick and simple modeling of your current room than typical CAD and BIM software. You can drag and drop colors, textures, furniture etc and the dimension features are basic but usable (and you can use metric units too! not bad for a US application). I just tried to recreate our office room on my Mac, browsing in Safari and had no problems whatsoever. However, as indicated by the "beta" sign, there are still issues to resolve. So far I had following strange behaviors: inserting a wall extension into a wall that had a window created a strange corner in the wall and it was not properly aligned anymore; the generic table is stretchable (nice) but can not be stretched wide enough for our office tables; placing four sofas around a coffee table was ...

This is a nice video presentation, combining computer models on top of regular live action. It's in Danish, but subtitled, so we can even understand what is going on. 8H - The 8-House from BIG on Vimeo . 8-House is located in Ørestad on the edge of Copenhagen. 8-House offers homes for people in all of life’s stages: the young and the old, singles, families that grow and families that become smaller. Instead of dividing the different functions of the building - for both habitation and retail - into separate blocks, the various functions have been spread out horizontally. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the commercial merges with life on the street.

This is a (largely) academic community discussing ' Design Patterns ' for architectural design and modeling. This explains typical, generic situations that could apply in many situations. The theory, concepts and insights are functional in any system, but the example implementations use Generative Components . http://www.designpatterns.ca/

I saw this used to announce Python-scripting for Rhino (on OSX and Windows). This is both a webservice and a software tool to quickly assemble a movie with an animated character, which speaks the text you type. The webservice makes it usable directly in the browser, but you have to wait till the movie is rendered on the server. You can customize backgrounds, actors, camera angles, soundtrack... But whenever more people are using it, you will get bored seeing the same scenes again and again. But till then... enjoy.

I don't have a clue yet as to what this precisely is, what it costs, on which platforms it runs or how it can be used alongside your regular tools, but I was amazed by the demo movie. Seems like a combination of Google Earth with detailed 3D models, with GIS and other information (metadata), possibly linked to SketchUp. It seems to be marketed as a service offering, currently focused on UK cities. But it also seems to be a software tool. Not sure if and when it will be available. Realtime 3D urban models, realtime shadows, visualization ... Interesting. Please take a look.

A nice freeware application, which allows you to mix and match mesh geometry from different models. The video displays it better than I could in a short text. Maybe the mesh topology (the clean edges and aligned series of edges) will suffer from it, but as a sculptural approach to modeling with library objects, it seems to function really well and smart. Freely available but Windows-only. Or to use the description from the owner: meshmixer is an experimental 3D modeling tool developed by Ryan Schmidt, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Toronto who is also responsible for ShapeShop and some other stuff .