Team 1 - Things we learned from our Presentations

Sarah Hollis was the first to present in our team. We learned about the history of automated design. It was enlightening to learn about the world before Autocad and Revit existed. She walked us through the way Autocad broke into the world of draftsmen and eventually evolved into a comprehensive, 3D model. Before Autocad, she said that designers would try NOT to change designs because it would simply take too long for the draftsmen to propagate the changes throughout the drawing sets!

Dung Tran presented about his Revit model of the Glass House, where he modeled with immense detail each of the systems within his building. Dung explored some extensions of Revit such as the structural analysis that we had never seen before. He was also very thorough in modeling subsystems such as the plumbing!

Brad DiGiovanni and Cody Johnson gave a super interesting presentation on laser scanning and BIM. They gave an overview of the applications of 3D scanning and the benefit of generating a point cloud. It was crazy to see how 3D scanning can survey, in one day, a space that would have otherwise taken multiple weeks to survey. The point cloud is super accurate - and they were discussing the future potential of putting 3D scanners on drones.

Zac and myself presented on our interdisciplinary model that we constructed in Revit based on our AE 391 design. Building a Revit model as we progressed through the design phases helped to visualize how the various systems interacted in 3D, and definitely helped to identify conflicts as they arose.

Overall, all the groups walked away with a better understanding of modeling processes. We received the whole gamut of knowledge about modeling. We started with the origins of Autocad and Revit, saw two projects utilizing the interdisciplinary capabilities of Revit, and also learned the ways that 3D scanning can be integrated with BIM to incorporate detailed, field information.

Sarah Hollis - Reflection

Firstly, a number of skills have been gained which, as well as being CV worthy, will help directly with future employment; these are Revit and Databases. As well as this we have learnt about AI and Robotics which has helped me to predict the future. Predicting the future is not just an interesting topic of conversation. It can help when choosing which job to go for, or which programs to spend time learning. With the world seeming to be switching to 3D, one can predict that Revit is still extremely worth while learning, whereas AutoCad is getting dated and may not be around for much longer. This is not to say that all technologies which are not brand new are worth throwing in the bin. Databases still have a use in todays world. They provide a mechanism to organize, locate and change huge groups of data with ease.
Learning how to create a family was one of my favorite and worthwhile tasks in this module. Whilst being helpful for future employment, it also showed how Revit works with reference lines and grids. This knowledge can be applied to many more tasks on Revit to get a successful outcome.

Andrew,

I agree that this is a course that I would not normally have chosen and it covered topics about the future which I had never really thought about before. It has definitely given me some useful knowledge which could definitely impress future employers.

Dee Dee,

I also really enjoyed the guest speakers. It was nice to hear about their experience in the industry as well their opinions about the future projections for the construction industry. It was a different approach as we do not tend to have guest speakers in my other modules but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sarah Hollis - SQL

Blog Post 5 – SQL, What is it and why is it important?                      Sarah Hollis

SQL stands for ‘Structured Query Language’. Simply speaking, it is a language used in databases and other applications to insert, update, modify and delete data accordingly. It is particularly special in its field as it has the ability to access more than one data file with a single command and records can be accessed automatically unlike anything that had come before it.

Microsoft even uses this language due to its major time savings and ease. SQL is important as with only a few simple commands which are easy to pick up it can accomplish anything within a database: 

• Delete
• Create
• Insert
• Select
• Drop

These commands can accomplish almost anything required to a database making this language so useful, it has been endorsed and standardized by ANSI (American National Standards Institute).

It does have a few disadvantages and some people do highly criticize this language. It is so big with so much complex coding that most implementers only partially implement it which has led to problems with interoperability. Interoperability is a major problem for SQL, simple things like date and time are unable to be translated across applications as they use different ways of writing the date and time. Another problem is capital letters; sounds simple but SQL fails to understand the difference between applications.

One everyday use of SQL which many people do not realize is through Excel. The format of SQL allows it to be read and understood in excel which prevents the copying and pasting of individual bits of data.

Sources:

http://www.sqlcourse.com/intro.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

Brad,

I agree that databases are going to become increasingly important after construction, we currently have so many problems with loss of information after completion when something breaks, gets damaged etc. The use of databases would be an ideal solution to this problem. There is a much easier place in the construction industry for databases now that standards are getting stricter and much more precise.

Xiaoyu,

I loved your exploration of the definition of an object. That is may go beyond what we typically think of an object and that we can include behavior traits and states in this definition. The diagram of the bicycle modelled as a software object really highlighted this expansion of the definition if an object.

Advancements in BIM and Changing Workflows - Sarah Hollis

Blog Post 4- Project

The title of my paper is ‘How are the advancements in BIM altering the standard workflow in engineering and architect practices?’.

I am going to write a paper on how the major advancements in BIM, namely REVIT and AutoCad, have changed the design workflow that small and large companies adopt. I will then see what those in the field think is going to happen to the workflow in the future. With the future of BIM potentially requiring much less man power what will happen to the workflows. Will this differ in large and small companies. From preliminary research, it appears that projects, in general, are speeding up due to many factors, but most notably due to automatic copying between sheets.

The main part of my paper is split into two parts, previous changes to BIM and what may happen in the future. I want to also make note of what is considered a ‘good workflow’ and how this definition may become something different entirely with advancements in BIM. I will also make reference to how fast these advancements in BIM are being made, can small companies keep up with these rapid changes in BIM which ultimately result in new workflows required.

I am hoping to get opinions from those in large and small architect practices to establish where workflow is currently at and where they envisage it going.

In the conclusion I hope to be able to answer the following question, what is changing to common practice workflows and why is this change occurring. Having done only a small amount of research so far, it appears that workflows are shifting to be much more computer based, meetings are taking place virtually. There also appears to be much more fluidity between professions (electric, plumbing architecture etc) as we are leaning towards one master model for the entire project.

Some links I have used are:

https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1278800

https://www.enventive.com/en/mechanical-design-workflow/

Brad,

I like your idea that 3D modeling is not relevant for everything It is important with these new technologies to be extremely sensitive to people who have been doing their trade for many years and are extremely good and efficient at what they do. I had never really considered 3D scanning before, I think this is a really neat idea and could be extremely useful at determining overlaps within mechanical piping.

Allison,

I like the idea of your project due to the completely different challenges that will be faced. The different conditions on Mars and its distance from Earth will make this extremely interesting and extremely relevant due to the increasing population and decreasing amounts of space on Earth. If automated construction can be achieved on Mars, then there is no reason as to why we could not adopt this on earth, to help with the lack of construction workers to meet our current demand on construction.

Current Issues with BIM - Sarah Hollis

One of the major issues with REVIT in its current format is its lack of interoperability, linking in with my previous blog post. Too much copying between applications is going on manually, which uses up the valuable time of employers.

REVIT, in my opinion, has failed to recognize its importance after construction. BOMA, a company which analyses building areas and locations to price them for rent etc has been unable to use BIM applications for their area details. Energy usage BIM applications, on the whole, still lack the ability to coordinate with each other, so BIM is not as successful once the building has been built.

We watched an interesting speech by Bill Allen, titled ‘the future of BIM will not be BIM’ which raises some interesting points. I agree, that if BIM fails to develop accordingly with the rate of development of AI and Robotics then yes, we may no longer be using the term BIM in a few years-time. But, BIM will not stand still. Huge amounts of money is spent every year updating REVIT and quite frankly, I can’t see smaller businesses being able to afford AI and Robotic technology for at least a few decades.

Something which I had never fully considered before is the changes in construction legality that come with BIM. This is because BIM allows contractors to have a greater say in design, hence is it still fair that they can still sue the principle designers for due negligence when they too can alter the model. This is a question that has still not been resolved and is another major downfall to BIM.

Comments:

Shuster,

I agree, that this technology development is moving fast and does appear very exciting. However, I am not sure to the extent at which this technology will be adopted. It will take time at first for us to gain trust in this new method of design and even once we are happy with it, I feel design still needs a 'human touch'. The surroundings needs to be considered to design a building that fits but is not identical to those next door. Will this development reduce the amount of innovative building designs that stretch the parameters of design, because everything is being done 'by the book'?