AEC Magazine NXT BLD LONDON Special Edition November 2017

Summer 2017

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Project Quantum: the future of BIM? 4 In an exclusive interview, Martyn Day speaks to Autodesk chief software architect Jim Awe about the company’s vision of the next generation of BIM tools.

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Graphisoft BIMx for VR 13 ArchiCAD users now have access to a low cost Virtual Reality solution.

Greg Corke gets hands-on with Graphisoft BIMx that works with Google Cardboard.

From Revit to VR 16 Greg Corke gets hands-on with three Virtual Reality (VR) applications that work seamlessly with Revit, weighing up their capabilities and assessing how well they combine with the HTC Vive and workstation GPUs..

Real meets virtual construction 22 From drone-gathered site data to AR, advanced technologies are bringing new perspectives on real-world environments and works in progress.

Construction verification 26 When it comes to addressing gaps in the BIM chain, it’s time to take a look at

construction verification as a way to add long-term project value, says Michael Johnson, a senior BIM consultant with chartered surveyors Plowman Craven

The age of the reality mesh 28 Ever since Bentley Systems acquired Acute3D in February 2015, it has forged ahead with Reality Capture, integrating key technologies into its foundation MicroStation platform and beyond.

Design Viz 32 AEC Magazine highlights some of the work presented by two architectural visualisation firms at the CG2 Code for Art conference recently staged by rendering specialist, Chaos Group, the developer of V-Ray.

In another league 36 The marketing suite for the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium in North London is pushing back boundaries by using the latest VR technology. Stephen Holmes speaks to Soluis, which helped create the experience for fans and corporate guests.

The rise of the robots 40 Martyn Day evaluates the latest projects and technologies involved in deploying robots and 3D printing in construction.

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Feature

Project Quantum the future of BIM? In an exclusive interview, Martyn Day speaks to Autodesk chief software architect Jim Awe about the company’s vision of the next generation of BIM tools.

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evit turns 17 years old this year.

Its heritage dates back still further, to an older system called Sonata. This makes it a senior citizen in the software world. On the plus side, it enjoys a significant pedigree. On the negative side, most software companies feel that most code has, at best, a tenyear lifespan.

So it’s no surprise that, for years, there have been hints that Autodesk was working on a successor to Revit, perhaps cloudbased, to match the company’s vision of software as a service and the web delivery of all its products.

With the arrival of Autodesk Fusion in 2012, the company took a fresh approach to product design for the manufacturing market – cloud-based with a new user interface, powerful new constraints-solving and, importantly, a platform-independent approach, in a sharp break from delivering only Windows-based applications. The aim was to replace Inventor, and more specifically, to take aim at the market-leading SolidWorks application owned by Dassault Systèmes, a company that was by then also hinting at a nextgeneration solution.

When software companies move to a new generation of applications, there are in general two ways to go. First, they can start afresh and not burden themselves with the constraints of supporting previous methodologies (see, for example, Autodesk Fusion.) The benefit of this approach is that the vendor is liberated from older applications and can freely begin introducing cutting-edge tools and processes. Customers of earlier products, however, may not be so happy.

Second, they can maintain the front end and rework all aspects of the code in the background (as seen with Bentley MicroStation). This is like changing a tyre at 90 miles an hour and means replacing components as and when possible, while cloning operations and processes.

But when it comes to the next generation www.AECmag.com

of BIM tools, it seems that there are new options open to software developers with the deployment of web infrastructure – a ‘third way’ to go in this challenge.

Looking at the development of Fusion, we initially wondered if Revit would get the same treatment as Fusion, albeit in very different market conditions. In manufacturing, where Fusion is targeted, Autodesk was the underdog. In AEC, Revit has been in full flow, with mass adoption across all of Autodesk’s core geographies.

Looking for answers, I spoke with Autodesk CEO Carl Bass back in 2015. At that time, he told me that work was underway to renew the Revit code and that it would probably be Fusion-like – but with all the work the company had done to componentise core software services (DWG, document management, rendering, point cloud and so on) in the cloud, this would take a lot less time than we might guess. In other words, much of the work had already been done.

Fast-forward to 2016 Then came further clues, during an Autodesk University 2016 keynote given

by Autodesk’s senior vice president of products Amar Hanspal. On stage, he started to talk about an exciting project, admitting that the question of whether he should discuss the early-stage project on stage at all had been the topic of hot debate internally at the company.

Its code name, he revealed, was Project Quantum. According to Hanspal, it was about “evolving the way BIM works, in the era of the cloud, by providing a common data environment.” Its aim, he continued, was to tackle issues that arise because AEC is a federated process, with data stored in many silos, often unconnected and often unavailable when needed.

Project Quantum, he said, would connect ‘workspaces’, by breaking down the monolithic nature of typical AEC solutions, enabling data and logic to be anySummer 2017 special edition

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Feature where on the network and available, on which displays their own view of the research effort to try and figure out how demand, in the right application for the world; while Uber has a central system we can implement some of these new task at hand. These workspaces would be displaying a bird’s-eye view of its control concepts, given the change in the technolbased on professional definitions, ena- and communications network. The beau- ogy landscape.” bling architects, structural engineers, ty is that nobody explicitly sends data The implications for Revit MEP professionals, fabricators and con- around the system,” he said.

Awe added that, by delivering special- While high-level strategising to solve some tractors access to the tools they need.

In this respect, Project Quantum repre- ised, targeted applications, instead of huge, of the AEC industry’s horrific data jams sents a fundamental shift of mindset at monolithic programmes, Autodesk can sounds great in principle, Awe’s words still Autodesk in developing products for avoid trying to serve too many people with left me pondering what all this means for AEC and was not what we were expect- applications overloaded with functionality. Revit, given its status as probably the biging to hear. On the face of it, it’s not about In the BIM world, collaborative workflows gest data monolith in the BIM process. rewriting or regenerating Revit, but is a and sharing are still way too cumbersome.

While Revit has always been developed “We want apps that offer the right level as one application, for most of its history, much broader vision that aims to tackle of knowledge for the task and can share three versions have been sold, for archicollaboration and workflow.

On stage at Autodesk University 2016, that information seamlessly in the sys- tecture, structural and MEP. The funcHanspal presented, as an example, the tem,” he said. “Today, there’s a lot of man- tions from these three disciplines have modification of a curtain wall. He demon- ual effort and a lot of noise. There is a lot since been rolled into one product. Now, strated an architect updating their model of oversharing of information that no one it seems as if the Quantum vision of the in a workspace, while showing how an really needs or cares about!” future might lead back, once again, to difTo get to this view of the process, ferent tools and views for different disciengineer had a different workspace with more relevant tools for their role in the Autodesk has chosen to ponder high-level plines. task and a fabricator had yet another strategies. Awe commented, “The key conSo what did Awe have to say about Revit? workspace, containing design drawings sideration is how to get data to flow “Revit is still a major player in the ecosysof the curtain wall. In other words, three smoothly in two directions throughout the tem. It’s just we have trouble getting Revit different professionals, with three differ- ecosystem. In one direction, you have the to cover the entire landscape. Consider site ent workspaces, containing different continuum of design / make / use as you design: we are never going to put all the views and tools — but all relating to the consider a system from concept to fabrica- Infraworks features into Revit or vice same project. versa. There is just a limit as to In this way, Quantum isn’t what one application can do withreally a design tool as such, but The Quantum approach is a completely in an ecosystem. an enabling platform, a common “Revit will still be a major fresh look, not just at underlying point player, although it will morph a data environment, almost a tools, but also the process of joining up little bit to work within that ecocloud-based Babel fish.

For those of you who, like me, system. Revit may give up the digital design-to-fabrication were originally hoping for a capabilities of certain building long-overdue, next-generation elements to another app, but replacement of Revit, capable of modelling tion. In the other direction, you have all Revit will still be a major player in a larger models, faster, all this may come as the major systems of the building that Quantum world. This is not a replacesomething of a disappointment. have to coordinate with each other ment for Revit and it’s not Revit in a However, the Quantum approach is the (Structure, Facade, Site, MEP, etc.). We browser.” result of a completely fresh look, not just don’t need one giant database for all the One of the reasons Revit has suffered is at underlying point tools, but also at the data if we have interconnectedness down to the architecture of its database process of joining up digital design-to- between databases. If you look at Google and its tendency to bloat. In my past confabrication. Revit will benefit from this Maps for instance, it presents the data as if versations with Autodesk, a source has approach and it’s one we believe will ena- it’s all in one place, but it isn’t, it’s from dif- admitted that, since Revit was acquired ble rapid future development. ferent services from all over the network.” and not developed in-house, this has been In order to get a bigger picture of the A holistic approach to managing pro- somewhat out of Autodesk’s control. Had implications of Quantum, AEC jects is perhaps not new, as demonstrated the company had a choice, Revit’s architecMagazine talked with Jim Awe, chief by extranet product such as Primavera ture might have looked very different — software architect at Autodesk and also and many others. However, as Autodesk and that’s just the case for desktops. When to Jim Lynch, vice president of the com- also creates the core authoring applica- it comes to a cloud-based, next-generation pany’s building products group. tions, the company feels it is well-placed world, it’s just not fit for purpose. to offer levels of integration and connec“That’s true,” Awe acknowledged. He So what is Quantum? tivity not seen before, if it can break free then showed me a demo of one of Quantum’s core capabilities. In a single Jim Awe, an Autodesk veteran, first set from its own product silos.

Awe explained, “We have this incredi- screen, there were four distinct applicaout to explain the methodology behind Quantum. “The simplest way to try and ble portfolio of products that Autodesk tion views displayed, one of which was understand what we’re trying to accom- has built or acquired over the years, and Revit. Every time model data was added plish is an analogy with Uber. We’re try- we haven’t been able to utilise all the IP into Revit, it appeared instantly in the ing to have a data-centric approach to a as much as we would have liked, because three other applications. So Quantum enaprocess. Uber has its data displayed functionality is isolated in apps which bles information-sharing with other envisimultaneously in many different places: don’t talk to each other in a file-based, ronments in real time. This is not a case, the customer has their mobile app to call desktop world. The cloud changes that by the way, of translating the Revit file and the driver; the driver also has an app dramatically. Project Quantum is a heavy then propagating it. Instead, Revit con-

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Feature stantly ‘transmits’ geometry and property set data, via Quantum, to other applications that are tuned in, without laborious file-based data exchange.

“The opportunity here is for Revit to handle large chunks of the modelling still, but communicate in real-time with other applications, and users who may be watching or participating in the design process,” said Awe. “As we now have multiple applications coordinated, we could have for instance, FormIt which has a different database and a different way of working, but it can watch out for Revit’s property set data, which is part of Project Quantum.

“The beauty of the system is that we don’t have to take the data away and translate it into some other format. Export a file, move the file somewhere else, it really does knock down the interoperability barriers of collaboration.

Revit survives intact In other words, with Quantum, Revit survives intact and evolves at the dawn of Autodesk’s next-generation BIM solution. However, there are indicators as to how Revit will morph in the future with Quantum capabilities.

One of Revit’s Achilles’ heels is the size to which models grow and the performance issues that this growth can trigger.

In many ways, this is caused by customers building ever-larger and more detailed models — plus a fair bit of bad practice when it comes to failing to break models down. However, it’s also true that Revit requires the most RAM, fastest SSDs and processors of any of the BIM systems that AEC Magazine reviews.

Quantum is set to bring new life to Revit by taking the load off the local database. Awe explained that, by using mixed geometric representation, combining hybrid full-detail and dumb components, Autodesk has achieved pretty large reductions in local file sizes. Sending whole models anywhere, meanwhile, will no longer be required.

“If you’re in an application that requires a high level of detail — for instance, if the data is for fabricating the panels and components — what actually gets sent back to Revit is not at the same level of detail.

Revit would receive a display mesh that’s the right size and looks about right, which can be displayed in context for the architect to see how it looks.

“If the architect did want to see the panel in all its manufactured glory, then they could double-click the panel and see the manufacturer’s information. If you try to model every single part in Revit to a fabrication level of detail, you will 8

Summer 2017 special edition

undoubtedly slow it down as it’s overwhelmed with data.”

Taking the load off Revit will be a major boost for all users and, on its own, may well be a driving force for firms that build big, multi-storey buildings. The Quantum idea is that there would be a small number of large applications generating design content, with a large number of web-based applications taking these outputs and performing tasks, such as rendering, analysis, takeoffs and so on.

At the moment, a whole model needs to be loaded and then filtered in a subtractive and protracted process; through Quantum, the filtering can happen before anything is loaded. And should you want to see everything, you can load it all in a coordinated view, like Navisworks.

One of the benefits of writing Autodesk Fusion from scratch was that Autodesk could finally offer applications outside of Windows. As Fusion can run purely in a browser, it can run on anything, even an iPad — but Autodesk has also delivered a Mac-native version, a long-held wish for Revit customers.

Unfortunately, Revit is staying as it is, a desktop Windows application — and that means only available on Windows.

However, all new Quantum applications developed have been web-based, so should work on any system.

Looking into the distance, I assume that, as Quantum grows, Revit will have more capabilities taken from it and rewritten for the cloud, lightening the local load and democratising Revit’s capabilities to extend to all parties in a project. This is probably the smartest way to create a new generation of Revit, while maintaining a popular application.

Suddenly, Revit has a development path that actually promises more than the incremental updates that we have seen released each year.

Despite Awe’s vision of task-specific views of data, Revit will not be going back to being three separate products for architecture, structural and MEP. It also means that while Revit will be updated, it will not evolve to own more direct manufacturing capabilities or to have more civils / topology capabilities. These will now appear in Quantum and data will be available, on demand, in a variety of granular options.

Where a number of Revit users are connected via Quantum, other designers’ edits will obviously be seen in real time.

Here, Autodesk is looking at ways for participants to lock geometry and set private workspaces so the process of collaborative design does not become too chaotic. Awe suggests a comparison to the way

Github works: sometimes it may be appropriate to lock to a version of someone else’s work and update later.

Rapid development It will also be much easier for Autodesk’s AEC team to add new functionality into Quantum than it would be to a traditional monolithic application, said Jim Lynch.

For example, Autodesk developers took an open source analysis package and had it working within a day. Adding the equivalent application to a large codebase, such as Revit or AutoCAD, by contrast, would have taken months, as it would need to be integrated to the database and then the graphics system. With Quantum, this is a trivial issue. And in the future, it suggests that Autodesk can acquire applications and point solutions and rapidly deploy them to users of the Quantum ecosystem.

Awe added, “We had a group of developers experiment with the system, without much of an introduction, and they created a Minecraft-style modelling application, where multiple people were collaborating simultaneously to produce the designs. Each user had an independent view of the information, while a central screen offered an aggregated view, like Navisworks. This gives us enormous flexibility in how we can build applications, move the data around, what kind of independent specialist views we can create, versus what we can do now, which is give everybody the same tool, with the same model, and force them to filter it down an appropriate view.”

Quantum applications So with Quantum providing this ecosystem of sharing applications, I asked, what would an actual product that sits on top of all this look like?

“We still have a long way to go,” Awe replied. “The friction in the industry as it stands, is that you have a design-heavy tool such as Revit, which coordinates all the systems, all the verticals, and then you throw the data over a wall to the people who have to make and fabricate it.

The data is not at the right level of detail or the right composition, so engineers have to rebuild it from scratch and throw away most of the data.

“Quantum takes us in a new direction where a specific system, such as a curtain wall, can be designed from concept to fabrication. And then we can take those individual systems and stitch them together around their interface points.

For instance, how the curtain wall attaches to the structure and how the building footprint impacts the site. The applicawww.AECmag.com

tions have to agree on certain interface points throughout the process. If you like, it’s a contract between the systems and between the levels of detail.”

This makes sense, as Revit isn’t an application designed to drive cutting machinery, and nor should it be solved in a single application. Adding the detail required for fabrication would have a negative impact on the size of the model database and there are better, manufacturing-specific CAD systems out there.

By agreeing these interface points between systems, at different levels of detail, in different formats, Quantum enables the selection of the right tool for the right job, while still maintaining a linked ecosystem.

The key seems to be these interface points between the systems. This means geometry and data doesn’t have to be exported or translated and each party can keep the levels of detail separate and do that in whatever tool they need to do it in.

Awe explained that, while modelling, if interface points change, this could automatically update the design in another system or raise a flag to the designer to indicate a change has been made.

This is a massive benefit over what happens now, where an architect will give continually lob over a hefty Revit model with each revision, leaving other project participants having to figure out what’s changed. For fabricators, this is just noise in the process and wastes their time.

Quantum parametrics?

While Quantum is aimed at bypassing existing workflow log-jams, it also brings with it new potential problems.

In the world of Revit, Dynamo, Grasshopper, ArchiCAD and GC, we have lots of parametric systems driving geometry. In an interlinked world, how would Quantum deal with conflicting and automatic drivers?

“We do imagine that there will be multiple parametric systems, and our goal is to make them collaborative, not competitive,” said Awe. “Having all the disciplines intertwined into the same model and editor can be unnecessarily restrictive.

“We imagine a Quantum ecosystem to be more decoupled, giving each discipline the freedom to choose the tool of their choice for modelling their specific part of the building. So, as an example: the façade designer may use Dynamo or Grasshopper as their main authoring tool; the architect may use something like Revit; and the structural engineer may use a brand-new, web-based authoring tool. Each one is responsible for the parametrics of their own system and there www.AECmag.com

should not be any conflict. But of course, what happens when those systems have to coordinate? Our theory is that having them interact and communicate via the interface points that we discussed earlier is beneficial in several ways.

“It decouples segments of the model, which allows the method of authoring and the level of detail to vary depending on the need. Just as I could mix Dynamo scripts and Revit parametric constraints, I could also mix conceptual level of detail for one system with fabrication-level of detail for another. This is much more flexible than having to do the entire model in one level of detail and then trying to throw it over the wall to the next person, or to attempt putting multiple levels of detail into the same model.

“It allows for the ‘natural’ boundaries of professional discipline to be represented in workflows. As a structural engineer, I can do my work in my own chosen tool. When I am done working things out, I submit my work back into the system, which triggers an update of the interface points I agreed on with the architect. The architect then gets a controlled event that they can react to. They can easily see what changed and make the decision to accept as-is, or start some negotiation or redesign based on the proposed change.

So, in this case, the parametric systems aren’t competing for control of the reaction to those changes. They are informing each other in a more rational, controlled way that respects the normal boundaries of those two professions. This same dynamic would hold for interactions between architect and site engineer, architect and façade engineer, and so on.

“We feel confident in this interaction among the major systems that have heavy fabrication / make requirements.

However, it will get a little trickier depending on how fine-grained and spe-

cialised each of the tools gets. Will there be a ‘stairway authoring tool’ for nonstandard stairs? What about panellised walls? We imagine that Revit will continue to play a major role in the BIM process and then reach out to the Quantum ecosystem when there is a complex system in the building that has heavy Design/ Make/Use lifecycle considerations. We might run into some ‘competing parametrics’ in some of those smaller systems, but our goal is to overcome that the same way we do for the larger systems, maybe with a few subtle nuances.”

Sharing data and the cloud Autodesk has made no qualms about its cloud-based vision of the future of design tools. At the ‘sneak-peak’ at Autodesk University, it quickly became apparent that Quantum was essentially an always-on system. If a designer were to decouple and go offline, how could that work be added back into the mix, when multiple changes might continue to be made? Synchronising project data online and offline is a challenge, so does this mean you need to be always online with Quantum?

“I’d be lying if I said we had it all figured out”, explained Awe. “Many of the applications we have been working on and have demonstrated are web-only applications, so would not be available if you didn’t have a web connection. I’ve been in this industry a long time and collaboration and interoperability have always huge barriers to realising the the full benefits of BIM. Quantum’s capabilities make a lot of those issues go away.

Now, we have some new problems to solve, but we think we have made considerable progress in tackling long-established painpoints.

“We are just getting started on implementation,” he continued, “and to date, we have separated the data out by disciSummer 2017 special edition

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Feature are talking about an ecosystem of products and services that will evolve over time, it’s difficult to give specifics beyond general trends and theories that we think may be likely.

“Second, the breakthroughs that we are very excited about are the ones that have been holding back the industry and the full potential of BIM for many years: collaboration and interoperability of data and tools.

Final thoughts on Quantum “Leveraging cloud technologies allows Quantum is a lot to take in. The first for those promising breakthroughs, but thing to note is that there is no next-gen- it also introduces some new, but exciting, eration Revit and that Revit is Windows- challenges that we are eager to work based for the foreseeable future. As it through. So, while we don’t have all the develops, Quantum will take a lot of the answers just yet, we are confident that it weight off Revit by removing the data- is a promising direction and we are base millstone around its neck. Over investing in it accordingly.”

While the technology is one thing, it time, it’s likely to see some of its functionality dissolve into Quantum-based, will be interesting to see how customers on-demand web applications, further feel about a system that really needs to lightening the load on the desktop. I’d have everyone online to work — should even suggest that, over a longer time that prove to be the end result. It’s possiperiod, we could well see Revit dissolve ble that the benefits may outweigh the into the Quantum framework, becoming limitations, but I’m not convinced how that might play in countries with lessa series of applications. evolved infrastructures.

When the AEC industry moved to BIM, interoperability became Quantum is an ambitious vision and not an issue as we lacked decent Quantum API Obviously, ecosystems need a shipping product – but the potential interchange standards. While Quantum attempts to solve that populating and Autodesk to kill problems that Revit BIM issue, it also makes Autodesk cusaims to have an API available workflows suffer from is significant tomers even more reliant on to provide application and Autodesk products, services and services from the developpricing. ment community, all operatI’ve talked with many enterprise license Quantum will, however, offer some ing around the Design / Make / Use continuum and the concept of ‘Data at the immediate benefits for users with com- customers who have been shocked at the Centre’ (without that data literally resid- pliant applications — namely, dynamic increase in premiums charged for their updates of geometry and data properties, next three-year deal for design tools, sering in one database).

According to Awe: “You can’t do that enabling collaborative working in a new vices and consultancy from Autodesk.

After all, it’s one thing to have your by being a closed system. As we are and exciting way. Autodesk has dodged building out the pieces for prototype the bullet of making a humongous online authoring tool based on one company’s workflows, we always make it work for at database and solved the problem of try- technology, but it’s a much more signifileast two cases: first, one of our tools, like ing to expand Revit into areas in which it cant proposition to hand over your comRevit; and second, a generic stand-in was never ever intended to play (such as plete process to that vendor. For competitool, like Excel or standard JSON data civils and fabrication), and which quite tive third parties, this would also be seen as potentially playing into Autodesk’s frankly would break it. that any JavaScript app could produce.

By breaking down the development stated ambition to ‘own the platform’.

“As an example, for the façade applicaFor now, from what I have seen, there is tion to get its interface points, we would work into smaller modules and enabling make a modification to Revit that can rapid deployment of new tools using the a touch of genius to creating a new, ‘third serve those changes up to a neutral sche- cloud, Autodesk can quickly flesh out its way’ to reinvigorate a mature product, ma. We would also make an Excel ver- AEC offering and rapidly integrate its providing a platform to renew its capabilsion of those points that can feed into manufacturing solutions. For third-par- ities, while solving serious pain points for that neutral schema. So, in short, there ty developers, this also opens new possi- customers and developers and, at the are no assumptions about reading / writ- bilities and potentially enables design same time, bringing powerful capabilities ing directly to Autodesk tools, and that firms to integrate disparate arrays of to team collaboration.

In conclusion, Awe closed off our chat gives us the flexibility to insert anything solutions from different vendors.

Quantum is a very ambitious vision by saying, “For now, we are heads down, into that same spot in the workflow.”

The development team also said that and it’s not a shipping product — but and working to develop a platform ecothis API would be available to competi- the potential to kill some of the prob- system that we consider the future of a tors, as they recognise that AEC firms lems that Revit BIM workflows suffer Design / Make / Use workflows for the now run multiple tools to complete their from is significant. As Awe put it: “It’s AEC industry.” projects. I was shown many ‘orchestra- still early in the process and because we ■ autodesk.com pline, so that each company or team has their own pile of data that they own, but the interface points are shared by the two (or more) parties that have agreed to collaborate around those shared points.

They can push resolved sets of geometry for others to use for coordination and visualisation, but they have agreed to share those as well. They don’t have to give up any of their native data used by whatever tool they use to author.

“But, as I’m sure you can guess, it gets tricky pretty fast when you consider all the possible workflows. So, lots of work still to do here. We are fresh off of considering the realities of ‘ownership of data’ with the BIM360 Docs project, so we understand most of the issues. One thing that is different is that we are reducing the amount of information that must be shared in order to collaborate and we hope that will have a positive effect. But, the bottom line is that it’s still early and we will need to work with customers to help us figure out what they are comfortable with. There are new opportunities over file-based systems for sure, but there’s also some uncharted territory.”

tion graphs’ of target customers’ toolsets.

This could potentially have big benefits for companies like Bentley, which has a huge suite of analysis tools, and popular point solutions, such as McNeel Rhino.

The big question will be, will these vendors want to play in Autodesk’s ecosystem? I suspect that customers will make that decision for them, by choosing to adopt (or not) a Quantum-based system.

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Review

Graphisoft BIMx for VR ArchiCAD users now have access to a low cost Virtual Reality solution. Greg Corke gets hands-on with Graphisoft BIMx that works with Google Cardboard

W

hen it comes to Virtual Reality (VR) for architecture, it may be the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive that grab all the headlines but the Google Cardboard still has plenty to offer.

The big benefit of the entry-level VR viewer is that it does not need a powerful workstation. Instead, it works with a smartphone and, as the name suggests, is made from cardboard. Simply assemble the viewer, slot in your phone, download the relevant app and away you go.

With Google Cardboard viewers costing around £10 to £15 and being compatible with most modern smartphones (iPhone and Android), the beauty of the cardboard is that it gives almost everyone easy access to VR. Although it lacks the positional headtracking capabilities of the Vive and Rift, it can still be a very powerful communication aid for clients and architects alike.

This has not been lost on Graphisoft, the developer of ArchiCAD, who recently added support for Google Cardboard viewers (v 2.0) to its impressive BIM presentation and communication tool, BIMx.

Google Cardboard offers a VR experience with a standard smartphone

From ArchiCAD to VR

BIMx was originally designed to extend the reach of rich ArchiCAD BIM models to clients, site workers and other AEC professionals. It started out as a PC and Mac app, but is now also available for iOS and Android. The Google Cardboard VR capaInteractive VR bility is only available for smartphones.

BIMx models are produced in Most architectural VR experiences on Google Cardboard tend to be 360 panora- ArchiCAD. No special export process is mas. These are essentially wide-angle required to make them VR ready. Simply panoramic images that deliver a full load up your ArchiCAD model, click File > 360-degree snapshot of the world around Publish BIMx Hyper-model, then set a few options including Global you. Applications that offer Illumination (for more realisthis functionality include BIMx mobile tic shading) and background.

Chaos Group V-Ray, Nvidia Supplier: Graphisoft Most of the models we testIray VR Lite, Autodesk A360 Price: Free ed took under a minute to Rendering, Iris VR Scope, Website: graphisoft.com/bimx publish. However, when Lumion and Vectorworks.

Global Illumination (GI) was Many of these applications are physically-based renderers, so the turned on, processing time increased sigquality is impressive and includes realis- nificantly. Our most complex ArchiCAD tic lighting and materials. The big down- model took a couple of minutes to publish side is that the VR experience is from a with Global Illumination turned off, but over 30 mins with it enabled. BIMx modstatic position.

Graphisoft BIMx is different insofar as it els can be saved locally or pushed to the offers users a fully navigable VR experi- cloud using BIMx Model Transfer.

Models can be published with plans, eleence. Explore the building on ‘foot’, simply by looking in the direction you want to vations and sections, with slick links between the different views, but for VR walk. Navigation is very intuitive. www.AECmag.com

we’re only really interested in the 3D model.

To view the model on a mobile device you first need to download the free BIMx app. Next, grab your model from your choice of cloud storage — BIMx Model Transfer, Dropbox, OneDrive or iCloud Drive — then tap on the 3D model in your list of views. To enter VR, simply select the three dots pull down menu, then hit Cardboard VR. Google Cardboard viewers come in several different formats, so it’s important to set up the BIMx app accordingly. To configure, simply point your smartphone’s camera at your viewer’s QR code and the app will calibrate automatically. Next, place the smartphone in the viewer, line up the centre line and away you go.

There are two main control methods inside VR — your head, which you use as a cursor, and the physical Google Cardboard button, which is located on the top of the viewer. Clicking on this brings up your menus.

To set you on your way, use your head to point your cursor to the walking mode icon, then click the Google Cardboard button. The direction in which you walk is controlled by your head. For complete freedom it’s best to do this standing up.

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Review Alternatively, sit on a swivel chair.

To stop walking, simply click the physical button. Here you will see more icons, giving you the option to take a couple of steps back or, if you are in a hurry, increase walking speed. The software stops you walking through walls but allows you to pass through doors. It automatically guides you up and down stairs.

Navigation takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you get to grips with it it’s all very intuitive. Use the pause button to give you time to explore rooms from all angles.

Instead of always having to explore the building along a linear path, BIMx lets you teleport between locations in the model using bookmarks. These are defined as cameras inside ArchiCAD and need to be added to the model before publishing the BIMx file. Bookmarks are also useful for giving clients guided tours of a building to highlight specific features.

If you haven’t set up any cameras in advance, you can still navigate to other parts of the building without having to walk there in VR. Simply jump out of VR, grab your smartphone and pinch and zoom to the appropriate location, then reenter VR. Considering BIMx is running on a smartphone (we tested on the iPhone 6S) the render quality is very good, even with GI disabled. Models can be viewed in several different shading modes, including realistic, hidden line, simple shading and black and white, which is useful for early stage proposals. Navigation was smooth on the majority of our test models, although there was a little flicker on our largest dataset. Some of our testers also experienced a touch of motion sickness, particularly when walking at pace. This is likely to go once you get your ‘VR legs’.

Publishing a BIMx file in ArchiCAD 20

Viewing the 3D model on an iPhone 6S

Conclusion BIMx for Google Cardboard might not offer the fully immersive experience of an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, but it’s still an impressive architectural VR tool.

It’s powerful enough to give clients, engineers, architects and contractors and a better spatial understanding of a building and, with the ability to go from ArchiCAD to VR in minutes, quick enough for iterative design workflows. What’s more, pretty much anyone with a modern smartphone and a spare £15 can get on board.

At the moment, the functionality is limited to navigation only. It will be interesting to see if Graphisoft starts to bring over tools from the tablet version of the software or add support for the Vive and Rift in the Windows desktop BIMx application.

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Navigating the model in VR on Google Cardboard

ArchiCAD VR on the Vive and Rift ArchiCAD users looking for a full-blown VR experience on the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift should look at Iris VR Prospect, as reviewed in our ‘Revit to VR’ feature on page 24.

IrisVR Prospect does not currently support native ArchiCAD models, but it will do in the future.

While we are waiting, the good news is there is currently a workaround.

ArchiCAD users can export an ArchiCAD model as a Sketchup file, then drag and drop the file into the Prospect launcher for viewing in Virtual Reality.

■ IrisVR.com

www.AECmag.com

ONE CLICK TO VR REAL TIME RENDERING PLUGIN FOR SKETCHUP & REVIT

TRY ENSCAPE FREE FOR 14 DAYS www.enscape3d.com

Review

From Revit to VR Greg Corke gets hands-on with three Virtual Reality (VR) applications that work seamlessly with Autodesk Revit, weighing up their capabilities and assessing how well they combine with the HTC Vive and workstation GPUs.

V

irtual Reality (VR) is one of the most exciting technologies to hit the AEC market in years. Architects, engineers and clients alike can experience a realistic virtual prototype of a building long before it is built.

A fully immersive VR experience gives you a sense of scale, depth and spatial awareness that simply cannot be matched by a rendering, walkthrough or physicalscale model. The feeling of presence – of existing inside the 3D model – is quite incredible. Users have the freedom to

explore a building at their own pace, to understand how it will feel and function.

Walking across rooms, teleporting through doors, peering around corners – it’s all possible with a fully tracked roomscale experience.

The impact on the design process can be huge – but only if VR can be used at the precise moments where it adds most value.

It’s fine to wait days or weeks for an expert to produce a polished VR experience for communicating proposals to the client or the team. But for VR to truly influence design, it is the user of the

Autodesk LIVE 1.6 Autodesk LIVE has many different components – a Revit plug-in, a cloud service that creates .LVMD files and a standalone Autodesk LIVE Editor that reads/writes .LVMD files.

There’s also a free viewer, Autodesk LIVE viewer, which is available for Windows or the iPad. This reads .LIVE files published by the Autodesk LIVE editor. The VR capability is only available on Windows.

To prepare a model, simply create a 3D view in Revit, then go to the Revit add-ins tab and click the ‘Go LIVE’ button. The software then does some pre-flight checks on the model and alerts you to any aspects that need your attention. This includes textures that can’t be found, section boxes that you might want to turn off and levels of detail that you might want to enable so that you can see all the model geometry.

Missing textures need be re-mapped manually. If they aren’t, the objects will just appear plain white. All other

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issues can be sorted out at the click of a button without leaving the dialogue box.

Hitting ‘Go’ will upload your file to the cloud for processing. As Revit files often stretch to hundreds of MBs, upload speed is important but, when on a decent connection, it is processing time that takes up the bulk of the process. On average, with 0.5Mb/sec upload, we found our 100MB to 200MB Revit test files took around 15 mins to upload, process and download the resulting .LVMD file to our desktop workstation.

Larger files can take a lot longer. Also, depending on how busy the Autodesk LIVE servers are, you can end up in a queue, which can add a significant timelag. .LVMD files can be opened in the Autodesk LIVE Editor, a real-time desktop game engine design viz environment that also has a VR capability. For this article, we’ll start off by looking at what can be done on the standard desktop application and then share our

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experiences of VR. For navigation, use the mouse to orbit around a building or select a 3D viewpoint inherited from Revit.

Alternatively, with ‘tap and go’, click on any location and the software will walk you there, automatically navigating stairs and doors. You can set the view height so it’s possible to see what an adult, toddler or wheelchair user might experience when interacting with the space.

Models can be viewed in different display styles, including a clay type render mode, which is useful for early-stage design, when the focus is on form and volumes. The default fully rendered setting shows you fully baked materials and ‘realistic’ RPC content, including people and trees. Overall, the render quality is very good.

Autodesk LIVE also includes tools to explore daylighting. Simply move time and date sliders and shadows adjust in real time. Revit lights can be set to turn on automatically at night.

One of the most powerful capabilities of Autodesk LIVE is the ability to view the underlying BIM data within

CAD/BIM software that must have full control over when to enter the virtual environment. This gives them the opportunity to explore alternatives, evaluate the impact of modifications and detect errors early. Discovering issues weeks after a design has progressed can create delays and ramp up costs.

This presents a huge opportunity for software developers to create push-button workflows to move quickly from CAD/BIM to VR. Such tools not only bring in the model geometry but also materials and lighting, so nothing needs

the model. Simply click on any object and the data appears in a dialogue box.

Moving into VR is easy.

Simply click the VR button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, put on the VR headset and you’ll see a bird’s-eye view of the model – the so-called Mini Map. The model is placed on a hoop, which the user can grab, spin and pull closer to the face to inspect from any angle. It’s a really good way to get an overall view of the project and to quickly zoom in on details. It’s possible to return to the Mini Map at any time, simply by pressing the Vive’s trackpad, which can be really useful for getting your bearings.

Most of the navigation in VR is done by teleporting.

Simply use the HTC Vive trigger controller to point and click. In a flash, the model fades in and out and you’ll find yourself in the new location. Depending on the size of your room-scale set-up, you can also walk short distances.

Doors open simply by looking at the them. This adds to the realism and your understanding of the build-

ing, but can be a little annoying if you simply want to see the detail of a door – a glass door, for example, which you can see through anyway.

Unfortunately, most of the functionality from the Autodesk LIVE game engine experience is currently not available in VR. You can’t interrogate the model, nor change the time of day in real time without pressing ESC, taking off your headset and swapping VR controllers for a mouse. Autodesk LIVE VR is currently very much a navigation and viewing experience – albeit a very good one. However, it’s likely that Autodesk will add more functionality to VR as it works out the best way for users to access more advanced capabilities.

The visual experience in Autodesk LIVE is very good.

This can be further enhanced with Autodesk Stingray, the underlying game engine technology on which Autodesk LIVE is built.

Autodesk LIVE models taken into Stingray can also be turned into fully interactive experiences (think light switches, running taps, TVs or adding mechanisms to flip

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software places a big emphasis on visual fidelity. Prices start at $449 per year.

Autodesk Live is a cloud service and application that turns Revit models into a fully navigable desktop game engine experience where users can also enter VR at the click of a button. Files are uploaded to the cloud using the Autodesk LIVE Revit plug-in. Once processed, the game engine experience is downloaded to the desktop. This process takes around 10 to 15 mins with The relatively low GPU requirements small to medium-sized models. and free version make IrisVR Prospect Autodesk LIVE experiences also be enhanced with exceedingly attractive to smaller AEC can Autodesk Stingray. Prices start firms with tight budgets at $30 per month, although this is an introductory offer.

to be done post-import.

Many of the current developments centre on Autodesk Revit, with a number of applications now supporting both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). It is these two HMDs that currently give the most immersive VR experience. The Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard deliver a more basic VR experience without positional head tracking.

VR software

For the purpose of this article, we tried out three of the main ‘Revit to VR’ applications using Revit 2017. All of the tools work with both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but we only tested with an HTC Vive, using two different workstations and GPUs. Each application works on the premise that whatever you have in Revit – model, sun settings, lighting, materials and entourage – is automatically transferred into VR, simply by pressing a button, or a few buttons. This makes all three applications well suited to non-expert users.

Prospect from New York-based IrisVR

can be used to create fully navigable VR environments in minutes (even under a minute) using a Revit plug-in. It also works with other CAD/BIM tools, including SketchUp and Rhino. The software places a big emphasis on performance rather than visual fidelity. It comes in two versions – a free version, Prospect Basic, for simple navigation;

‘‘

’’

and a paid-for version, Prospect Pro, which adds more functionality and costs $200 per person, per month.

Enscape is a real-time rendering plugin, providing a live link from Revit to a desktop 3D game engine that can also be used for VR. It can take minutes (even under a minute) to go from Revit to VR and, uniquely, any change made in Revit, automatically updates in Enscape. The

VR headsets Entry-level smartphone VR headsets such as Google Cardboard can deliver impressive results (see our Graphisoft BIMx VR review on page 13), but for a fully immersive, navigable room-scale VR experience, you will need an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Both HMDs are tethered to a 3D workstation via a long cable.

Room Scale, as the name suggests,

The Mini Map includes a hoop, which the user can grab and spin to inspect the model

between different design configurations). This level of customisation is complex and requires a design viz specialist or game developer. Moving forward, it’s likely that the Autodesk LIVE Editor will inherit some of Stingray’s capabilities, while maintaining the user-friendly interface.

In terms of workstation hardware, Autodesk LIVE VR has pretty high-end requirements, with the recommended spec being an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

In terms of professional

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GPUs, all of our test scenes ran fine in VR mode on the high-end Nvidia Quadro P6000. We would also expect the Quadro P5000 to give a decent experience, but we didn’t test this.

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 worked fine in desktop display mode, but in VR, we found it to be underpowered. Even with relatively simple models, the scene jumped around in front of our eyes, which made it disorientating and unusable.

The good news is Autodesk

Teleporting in Autodesk LIVE

is currently looking at ways to reduce the hardware requirements so that Autodesk LIVE VR will also run on less powerful GPUs. The company told AEC Magazine that this could be achieved by tuning down some software capabilities. This would mean that the visuals would not be so compelling, but at least the experience would be fluid.

In summary, Autodesk LIVE offers a simple workflow from Revit to VR, good navigation and high-quality visuals with realistic materi-

als. The big downside is the time it takes to enter VR. While 15+ minutes might not seem that long in the grand scheme of things, it does put a big barrier in place for true iterative design workflows.

Predictably, Autodesk is aiming to bring this time down. Currently, a simple change to the Revit model would mean a completely new upload, but Autodesk is exploring new methods so only deltas (changes) need to be uploaded and processed. It is also looking to

reduce processing time by developing more computeintensive algorithms (think multiple CPU cores or highend GPUs for light baking) to better harness the scalability of the cloud.

Autodesk LIVE is available on a 30-day free trial, which allows ten jobs to be processed. A subscription costs $30 per month for unlimited use of the cloud and the app, but this is an introductory offer so is likely to change.

■ autodesk.com/live

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Review

Exploring surface finishes in Enscape

Enscape 1.8.3.3 Enscape is a real-time visualisation tool designed to work specifically with Revit. The software can be used on a standard display or in VR. It offers a push-button workflow from Revit to VR and, uniquely, a live link between the two applications.

Once a link is established, any changes made in Revit – be it geometry, materials, layers or lighting – will automatically appear in Enscape seconds later. With other Revit to VR applications, the entire RVT file must be processed again.

This excellent feature makes Enscape incredibly well-suited to iterative workflows. Make a change in Revit, then, in less than the time it takes to put on your HMD, assess those changes in VR. Should you so desire, live updates can be paused.

Enscape’s unique workflow is possible because of the way the software works.

Rather than exporting geometry from Revit, it only sends graphics information to Enscape, which is then

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rebuilt as proxies.

The software is installed as a plug-in inside Revit and is given its own tab. To enter VR, simply click the ‘VR’ Button, pick a predefined Revit view from the pulldown list, then hit run. In less than a minute, you’ll be able to see your Revit model in VR. The best way to enter VR is usually from a bird’s-eye view, as this gives a good overall picture of the project.

However, this initial view must be set up properly in Revit. Enscape has a maximum teleport distance, so be careful not to be too far way. If you are, the only way to get closer to the building is to fly there using the Vive’s trackpad controls (the left controller moves you left and right, the right controller moves you up and down) and this can take some time. You also need to

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ensure your model has some surrounding terrain.

Once you are close enough, navigation is intuitive. You can teleport through doors – both solid and transparent – which is great, but you can’t teleport through certain types of windows. This can be annoying if you quickly want to jump outside to view the exterior of a building. To get around this, Enscape lets

‘‘

Shadows will change in real time and lights will come on at night. Unfortunately, Enscape does not display a clock in VR, so the wearer of the HMD cannot assess lighting at specific times of the day. A clock is visible when viewing the model on a monitor, so the wearer can momentarily lift the HMD, but it’s a bit of a fudge.

If you want to capture certain elements of your building to jog your memory or for basic design review, you can also take screenshots with a custom keyboard hot key. This is pretty tricky with a standing, room-scale experience (think one leg, big toes, small keys). Ours is the voice of experience as we used this exact method to produce the screen shots for this review.

For more control, you will need to take off the HMD and use a mouse in Revit.

Through the Enscape settings dialogue box, users have full control over con-

Enscape is an excellent choice for Revit to VR, offering a seamless workflow with near instant updates

’’

you fly through any solid object – windows, walls and all. Flying is very useful for viewing buildings from above, from any angle. However, it did make us feel a bit sick and, at times, gave us vertigo.

Enscape offers limited functionality inside the VR environment.

You can change the time of day using the grip buttons on the side of the Vive controller.

trast, colour saturation and colour temperature, which is great for getting the desired look. There’s a papermodel mode, which strips out all materials but retains light and shadows. This is useful when you might not have correct materials assigned or simply want to dumb down the view to emphasise form.

A polystyrol mode gives the effect of your building being made from Styrofoam. Both modes can be turned on at the same time. Line thickness can also be changed to enhance the edges of objects.

To bring scenes to life, Enscape can automatically replace planar ArchVision RPC models in Revit with more realistic 3D entourage.

This includes 3D people and trees with individual leaves.

The software can also directly support all types of RPC content, including premium human models from RPC content partner AXYZ. Render quality, in general, is excellent. The software supports Global Illumination, simulating how light bounces off objects onto other surfaces.

This can be turned on and off.

Enscape offers plenty of scope to take visual realism to

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means the VR experience takes place in a space the size of a typical room. For architecture, this can be a big plus, as users can explore virtual buildings on foot, taking small steps, with larger distances covered by teleporting. While room-scale VR is great for presentations and design review, a seated experience often works better when using VR as a design aid.

This is simply because of the ease which with one can flip between Revit and VR. The Oculus Rift started out life as a seated/standing experience, where the user could only move small distances and navigation was performed with a gamepad.

This type of experience still comes with the base package, but the Facebook-owned HMD now offers two optional hand-tracking Touch controllers and additional VR tracking sensors for a full room-scale experience. A total of three sensors are recommended. One comes with the standard headset, another with the Touch controllers and a third can be bought separately The HTC Vive offers both a room-scale VR experience and a standing/seated experience, in spaces up to 5m x 5m. The HMD comes with two wireless controllers, each with four control buttons

(touchpad and menu on the front, trigger on the back, and grip on the side). The kit includes two tracking base stations.

HTC also offers a Business Edition of the Vive, which includes dedicated phone support and better peripherals, including a 5m (16-foot) headset extension kit, and four face cushions, which are particularly useful if the HMD will be shared among many people. (Faces often get sweaty in VR). In the future it will also come with Vive Enterprise Software, an enterprise-friendly package that does not require users to install the games-focused Steam store.

Importantly, the Business Edition comes with a commercial warranty. If you use the standard consumer version for commercial use, your warranty is null and void.

Setting up the HTC Vive With a little bit of guidance and the right equipment, the HTC Vive is fairly easy to set up. Position the tracking base stations at opposite corners of a room, at a height of 2m, angled down to between 30 degrees and 45 degrees with an unobstructed view of each other. For a permanent or semi-permanent VR room, mount the base stations on the wall. For a porta-

More VR tools for Revit Revizto is a standalone real-time viz tool with a focus on collaboration, co-ordination and issue resolution. It works with Autodesk Revit, ArchiCAD, SketchUp, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Navisworks and AutoCAD, and also supports FBX, IFC, BCF and PDF file formats. Revizto runs on PC, Mac, iOS and Android, as well as supporting the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

■ revizto.com LumenRT from Bentley Systems is a game engine design viz application that plugs directly into Autodesk Revit, ArchiCAD, Bentley MicroStation, Sketchup and others. It can also import models from many more applications. Users then bring the model to life by adding entourage, including realistic trees, people, water, wind and moving vehicles. LumenRT can currently create VR panoramas but will add support for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift later this year.

■ LumenRT.com

Trees are very detailed to add realism

Enscape includes 3D mannequins the next level, by tweaking lighting and materials or adding custom Entourage. Phil Read from Enscape reseller Read | Thomas, who supported us during this review, has some great tips on self-illuminating objects, material bump maps, reflectivity and transparency (linkedin.com/today/ author/readphil).

Enscape offers more than just high-quality visuals. To deliver an even more realistic experience, it allows you embed sound sources within your Revit model. Here WAV

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files are added to Revit Family Components, such as a stereo playing music or birdsong from a tree. The volume of the sound increases as you get nearer and it also responds to the acoustic qualities of the objects within the space, which really adds to the realism.

With all its visual quality, Enscape has pretty high GPU requirements, with the developers recommending at least an Nvidia GTX 980 or Quadro M6000 GPU. The software performed

very well with our Nvidia Quadro P6000. It did not work with the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100.

In summary, Enscape is an excellent choice for Revit to VR, offering a seamless workflow with near-instant updates. This is great for architects or engineers who want to jump between Revit and VR to assess different options or for presentations where clients can immediately see the results of their feedback. Enscape also has the added benefit of offering

a desktop game engine experience using a standard 2D display. And models can be distributed as a fully contained .EXE, which can be viewed without any additional software.

The visual quality is excellent, encouraging exploration of materials and finishes, as well as form, fixtures and fittings.

However, some of this is lost in VR, simply because of the display resolution of the HTC Vive and other HMDs (you can still see the pixels).

It would be great to see more control given to the wearer of the HMD for things like mark-up, but with Revit driving the application in real time, this is less of an issue.

Enscape is available on a free 14-day trial. Prices start at $449 per year.

■ enscape3d.com ■ readthomas.com

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Review ble set-up, use camera tripods.

Ideally, both base stations should be connected to each other using the sync cable, but it’s not essential. Both base stations plug into mains power. They are not connected to the HTC Vive or workstation.

The HTC Vive headset features a long, chunky cable that connects to a dedicated link box. The link box then connects to power, and to your workstation via USB 3.0 and a video cable (HDMi if you have a gaming GPU or DisplayPort if you have a pro GPU). When turning on your workstation, you may need to pull out the video cable or Windows will boot to the HTC Vive, rather than to your monitor.

Installation is very straightforward and the HTC Vive set-up software guides the user through the process step by step. Depending on the size of the room and the requirements of the user, the HMD can be set up for a full room-scale experience or a standing experience.

Detailed instructions can be found at tinyurl.com/HTC-Vive-setup

VR workstations and GPUs Virtual Reality demands extremely pow-

-

erful workstation hardware. While most modern CAD workstations should satisfy the minimum requirements for CPU, memory (3.30GHz Intel Core i5 4590/8GB RAM or above), and USB 3.0, they will likely fall well short on graphics (GPU).

Both the Oculus Rift and HTC V i v e

require a GPU capable of sustaining a minimum frame rate of 90 FPS while in VR. Anything below this and the model can jump and the user can experience nausea or motion sickness.

This is because what the user sees on the HMD is not what the brain expects to see, based on head movements.

IrisVR Prospect 1.1.0 Out of the three Revit to VR tools featured in this article, Iris VR Prospect is the only one to concentrate solely on VR (there’s no formal desktop experience, although spectators can look at the monitor to see what the wearer of the HMD is seeing). This focus helps make it the most mature in terms of what you can do inside VR, including real-time daylighting, layer management, annotation and screen capture.

IrisVR Prospect also has the added benefit of being able to work with other applications, including SketchUp and Rhino. There are plans to add support for ArchiCAD, MicroStation and Navisworks. This expansion will help extend the focus beyond architecture and into infrastructure.

Having this breadth of functionality calls for a higher price tag of $200 per user, per month. However, there’s also a free version, Prospect Basic, that strips back all the extended functionality, but still

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includes the core push-button workflow for file conversion and VR viewing. With Prospect Basic, it’s not possible to save projects as native Prospect files (.IVZ). The VR experience always has to start in the CAD or BIM software or with a neutral 3D file.

Models inside IrisVR Prospect appear more clinical than in Autodesk LIVE and Enscape. Textures are less realistic and RPC content is represented by outlines, but the wearer of the VR headset still gets an excellent sense of presence and scale. Materials and outlines can be toggled on and off by hitting M and O on the keyboard. The resulting ‘white model’ gives a schematic feel and is great for conceptual design.

By offering a less visually rich experience and by performing heavy geometry optimisation, Prospect is able to run on more modest workstation hardware. We found that the entry-level VR graphics card, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, deliv-

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ered an excellent experience with all our test models.

Prospect installs as a plugin inside Revit, which can be accessed via the add-ins tab.

Simply select your 3D view, then click ‘View in VR’. Once your file is ready, click ‘launch’ and you’re straight into VR. Most of our files took a minute or less to process.

In VR, you first enter Scale Model Mode, where you’ll see your project on top of a plinth. From this bird’s-eye perspective, the model can be rotated using the HTC Vive trackpad. Lean forward to get a closer view of the building – even stick your head inside.

To view the building at human scale, simply point your cursor at a surface on the model then click the trigger button. You can teleport anywhere where it shows an avatar. To stand outside the building, the Revit model must include some form of surrounding topography.

For navigation, take short steps in your VR ‘room space’, then travel larger distances by teleporting. A circle denotes places where you can teleport. A cross shows where you can’t.

Navigation is pretty easy,

To make things easier for those buying VR workstation hardware, both AMD and Nvidia brand their GPUs ‘VR Ready’. This stamp of approval works well in the games market, as games contain fixed datasets designed to run on specific GPUs. However, just because a professional GPU is labelled ‘VR Ready’, it does not mean it will work with all professional VR applications out of the box.

Performance is both application- and model-dependent and is influenced by the size of the dataset, the complexity of the geometry (number of polygons), how well the application optimises geometry for VR, as well as lighting and textures. Custom Revit objects, particularly those with curves, can eat up GPU resources, especially if there are hundreds of them within your model.

For example, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, a low-cost ($799) professional ‘VR Ready’ GPU, gave us a comfortable experience with IrisVR Prospect out of the box.

But it stuttered with Autodesk LIVE and didn’t work at all with Enscape. For these more demanding applications, we needed the considerably more expensive Nvidia Quadro P6000 ($6,999). We imagine the

although there are some limitations. You can teleport through transparent walls, doors and windows, but not through solid doors or walls.

There are a few ways to get around this. One option is to move close to a door, reach through until your control disappears, then click the trigger to teleport to the other side. Another is to make all doors transparent in Revit. A third is to turn off all door layers, leaving the model with door frames. The developers are looking at ways to improve this, including X-Ray modes or the ability to select an element in VR, and turn off all similar objects.

One of the Vive’s controllers is used for navigation, the other to hold the tool palette, which includes Home, Screen Capture, Annotation & Callouts, Daylight and Layers. To access tools, simply use the other controller to point and click at the icons.

The home button puts you back where you started, in Scale Model Mode. Screen capture takes a snapshot of where you are looking.

There are very simple annotation tools, which allow

you to redline the 3D file with a freehand marker or draw a fixed circle callout at the centre of your view. Once you’ve completed the markups, these can be saved with the screen capture tool. IrisVR admits that these tools are quite basic and will be improved in subsequent releases. In the future, there may be the ability to assign custom text and symbols to objects.

One of the most powerful capabilities of Prospect is the daylighting tool, which allows you to see how light and shadows change with time or date, based on the geolocation of your Revit model. Simply use your Vive controller to move the appropriate sliders on the tool palette and see the light and shadows update in real time.

The sliders can get a little frustrating if you move your cursor slightly off centre as it then stops scrolling. Some leeway would be great here, just like when you’re in Windows and it still stays engaged even when you move your cursor off the scroll bar. IrisVR told AEC Magazine it will be addressing this in the next release.

Layers can be a powerful

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Nvidia Quadro P5000 ($2,499) would probably be powerful enough to deliver a good experience in Autodesk LIVE and Enscape, but we didn’t get to try this.

Ideally, you should try before you buy, using your own datasets.

In many cases, a simple graphics card upgrade can turn your desktop CAD workstation into one capable of running VR. However, this depends on the type of workstation you have; all the aforementioned GPUs need an auxiliary power connector and between 150W and 250W of available power. And all of them, bar the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, take up two PCIe slots. You need to make sure your CAD workstation can satisfy these demands. You may need to upgrade your Power Supply Unit (PSU) as well.

Of course, there are plenty of pre-configured ‘VR Ready’ desktop workstations.

These are available from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Fujitsu, as well as custom system builders like Scan and BOXX. The Armari V25 is a slimline, custom-built VR workstation with a chassis designed to house the HTC Vive’s Link box (see tinyurl.com/ armariV25-AEC for our review).

VR-ready workstations don’t have to

come in tower form factors. Dell’s new All-in-One, the Precision 5720, features a 27-inch screen and an integrated AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 GPU. Also coming soon are a whole range of VR-ready mobile workstations, featuring AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, Nvidia Quadro P4000 and P5000 GPUs. We expect there to be a lot of interest around VR-ready mobile workstations for those wishing to take VR to client offices.

VR is not limited to professional GPUs. There are number of consumerfocused AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce GPUs that meet or surpass the minimum requirements for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift.

These GPUs should work perfectly fine with all the Revit to VR applications mentioned in this article. However, they are not certified for Autodesk Revit or other CAD /BIM applications, which will be very important for some firms.

from functional and aesthetic evaluation of projects to daylighting studies, markup and client communication.

We’re excited to see how these capabilities grow over the coming years.

Applications like Enscape will likely keep their strong focus on using VR as an extension to desktop design visualisation, but it will be interesting to see how products like IrisVR Prospect evolve to better support design/review workflows.

VR is great for identifying issues with buildings, but it’s very much a one-way street. The process would benefit greatly from being able to capture this information and feed it back into BIM authoring tools. Technologies such as the BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) or voice recognition could play important roles here.

Conclusion

Since this article was written in February 2017 all of the tested VR software products have received new features. Autodesk LIVE has also been rebranded to Autodesk Revit Live.

It’s still very early days for VR but we are already starting to see the extensive benefits that this exciting technology can bring to architecture and engineering –

In addition, Nvidia has released a single slot, professional VR Ready GPU called the Nvidia Quadro P4000.

Scale Model Mode places your project on top of a plinth

way of viewing model data; for example, you can strip back everything to the steel frame, view different design phases, toggle between materials, or explore different furniture arrangements. To get the most out of this feature, users will need to do some work in Revit upfront.

Layers are listed alphabetically, so it can be a bit of a pain if the layer you most frequently want to turn off lands at the end of the list.

Renaming layers is the obvious solution, but this could

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Mark-up tools accessed through the toolbar

impact company layer conventions. Layers suffer from the same scrolling issue as daylighting.

IrisVR already has lots of ideas on how to improve the software. It is exploring ways to view metadata, simply by clicking on an object. IrisVR admits that the only way to do this would be to load all the objects individually, which would impact performance, so there is still some work to do here. (One of the reasons Prospect delivers such good performance in VR is because

objects are currently grouped to reduce draw calls.)

Collaboration is also going to be a big focus moving forward. Ideas currently being explored include project libraries, an easy way for clients to view IrisVR projects, and shared sessions, where multiple users can exist in the same project, with each participant represented by an avatar.

In the more immediate future, the next release of Prospect will be able to load in perspective cameras from

Revit, to allow users to jump between waypoints at the click of a button. IrisVR sees this as a useful way to quickly get a bird’s-eye view of the project or to guide clients through a building, rather than letting them wander off on their own.

In summary, IrisVR stands out for its expansive toolkit.

The daylighting and layering tools, in particular, are very impressive. The push-button workflow where models can be processed very quickly makes it well-suited to design

iteration workflows. The relatively low GPU requirements and free version will also make it exceedingly attractive to smaller AEC firms with tight budgets. With the prospect of BIM data being exposed and better collaborative tools, we’re really looking forward to seeing how this impressive tool develops.

IrisVR Prospect Pro is available on a free 21-day trial. Licenses cost $200 per user, per month.

Iris VR Prospect Basic is free.

■ IrisVR.com

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Feature

Aligning real and virtual construction From drone-gathered site data to augmented reality (AR), advanced technologies are bringing new perspectives on real-world environments and works in progress, writes Randall S Newton

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he construction industry in time and costs,” says Fujitoshi the gathered imagery; and a cloud intelligence platform, for turning imagery and Japan has a problem: the Takamura, CTO of Komatsu. scans into actionable data. shrinking birth rate is creating One example of the data processing is a shortage of skilled construc- Eyes inside the project tion workers. So heavy equipment manu- “We are a data company that happens to in creating topographic charts. There can facturer Komatsu has created a Smart use drones to collect data,” says Patrick be no trees, shrubs and so on in the final Construction division, building automat- Stuart, director of products at Skycatch. data. Removing all the flora by hand, ed excavators and dozers. The robotic The company’s combination of drones, using a computer workstation, can take equipment pushes dirt without a human mobile apps and cloud processing turns hours or weeks, depending on the scale of driver, following excavation plans with raw data from the drones into usable the project. The Skycatch cloud platform great accuracy. The automated heavy information for autonomous equipment does it in minutes, scaling to use as many equipment is so fast and precise that or for use by engineers in existing CAD or processors as available to complete the task. The software can export to common existing methods of ground-based data BIM workflows. gathering (surveying, ground-based For example, a utilities engineer can AEC data formats for CAD and BIM. Running robotic heavy equipment scanning) cannot keep up. monitor how utilities are being installed To tackle this issue, Komatsu Smart in near real time. By tracking progress so and monitoring construction progress Construction worked with San Francisco- closely, the engineer can see if and when are only two of the most obvious uses of based start-up Skycatch to improve data a design change must be made, then take UAVs. One Skycatch client started using the technology after ground had collection and processing. Skycatch been broken and foundation work specialises in industrial applications had begun on a campus-sized for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles BIM no longer has to be only the (UAVs), commonly known as design/engineering model; it can be project.

Management started by using drones. the constantly updated record of Skycatch technology to gather curNow, whenever Komatsu Smart construction rent site data, comparing it to the Construction vehicles are on site, project design. On the first day, they are guided by one or more they found a $400,000 slab of condrones gathering terrain data.

Komatsu refers to the resulting workflow measurements and decide what to do. crete was eight inches misaligned. Work as the world’s first machine-to-machine What took days or weeks with manual stopped; an investigation revealed flaws in automated construction system. data gathering and oversight can be now the original survey that echoed through the design phase and into construction. If Skycatch’s drones photograph job sites, done in minutes. capturing imagery and automatically gen“We give people in construction some- not found so quickly, a $400,000 concrete erating 3D site data. The data can be quick- thing they never had before – eyes into an mistake could have ballooned, costing sevly laid over site drawings or models to entire construction project,” says Stuart. eral times more than that sum, depending automatically calculate area and volume of Traditionally, construction managers on when traditional construction overearth to be moved. gathered information from a variety of sight methods spotted it.

“I use the Skycatch data on the site daily The results are transmitted as instruc- sources and methods, from discussions tions to Smart Construction machinery for on-site to marked-up plans, to email and if not hourly,” says Victoria Julian, a superintendent for DPR Construction. “We can fully autonomous work on the site. Think phone exchanges. of it as drone-to-phone construction man“It is like a phone tree game,” says take the Skycatch plan, colour-code it, agement.

Stuart. “Usually the data is late and not mark it up, label it and use it for logistics planning, daily, weekly, monthly – whatev“Once we have efficiently planned the very accurate.” work amount, [clients] can use the The Skycatch technology stack com- er we need.”

“Everybody who sees this is amazed by Komatsu machinery. Smart Construction prises three layers: the drone hardware can successfully plan the efficient system and control technology (Skycatch sells it. Loves it. And is using it. It’s really an from the beginning to the end so clients drones but also works with other incredible tool that I don’t want to have to save significant amount of workload, brands); apps for data review and editing do without on the next big project.”

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Komatsu Smart Construction transformed its autonomous earth moving equipment when it added near real time data from drones to its site models. (Source: Komatsu)

Recurring imagery as sequential data Skycatch is one of several vendors working to unite the real and the virtual in construction. The new element is recurring imagery. A ‘single source of truth’ has always been the holy grail, but the construction process has made it elusive. The ability to add recurring highresolution actionable imagery data to BIM models or CAD drawings is a gamechanger. BIM no longer has to be only the design/engineering model; it can be the constantly updated record of construction.

The use of high-res recurring imagery can mitigate risk by providing evidence of deviation from the design, as in the case above. Instant aerial 2D linear and 3D volumetric measurements replace manual estimates or hands-on retrieval, with significant time savings and improved safety. Using imagery for job site flow analysis can identify high traffic areas immediately, allowing managers to create workarounds. Terrestrial 3D laser scanners have been in use on large projects for years, but the addition of drones adds both the new dimension of fly-over viewing and the ability to turn site analysis into a new form of sequential data.

A construction site is constantly changing; research shows the constant state of flux is one key reason construction has not made efficiency gains in recent years compared to other induswww.AECmag.com

tries. Specifically, the issues of Flying Superintendent Flying Superintendent uses drones to create a on-site coordination, planning real-time construction Turner Construction is workand communication have not ing with researchers from the monitoring process.

(Source: University reaped significant automation University of Illinois (UI) to of Illinois and Turner gains, with the obvious excepcreate a real-time construction Construction) tion of making data accessible monitoring system using drone on mobile devices. The creation of data imagery. Flying Superintendent uses and editing of data has remained a desk- both still images and video to guide qualtop activity. Using drones to gather recur- ity control, safety compliance and logisring imagery means site maps can tics. “The analytics we conduct on these become daily reports. Planning logistics survey-grade 3D visual production modand managing assets is simplified when els offer construction managers a transexact coordinates replace estimates. parent view into what’s happening on Communication with quality control, site each day, empowering them to safety and other departments becomes improve reliability in short-term plans faster and more accurate. and eliminate problems before they hapSummer 2017 special edition

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Feature

Would you be able to walk the plank in the vertigo-inducing WorldViz demo?

pen,” says Mani Golparvar-Fard, lead principal investigator and an associate professor of civil engineering at UI. The research team is currently testing and refining Flying Superintendent on the construction of a new professional sports complex in Sacramento, California. The goal is to create a predictive computer vision system for construction site data analysis that runs with minimal human interaction and can navigate using construction site data. By not relying on GPS data as its only navigation method, drones can be used for indoor work where the GPS satellite signal is weak or non-existent. The research is being commercialised by a university spin-off, Reconstruct Inc. Flying Superintendent is also currently being used on a high-rise project in Arizona and by a leading Japanese construction company on multiple projects.

State of the art

tal funding and is working in close cooperation with Autodesk on SiteScan, an aerial analytics platform designed to integrate the drone-and-camera hardware with various Autodesk products including ReCap and A360. Earlier this year a SiteScanenabled 3DR drone created 3D imagery of the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver as part of a renovation project.

Autodesk helped scan Red Rocks a few years ago using terrestrial 3D laser scanners, but this update significantly improved upon the existing data because of the aerial dimension. Following a borrow-not-build ethic, 3DR is also collaborating with Sony (for mobile computing) and GoPro (for photography) as it builds out the capabilities of SiteScan.

Autodesk Years of research and a variety of acquisitions has given Autodesk a rich treasure trove of relevant technologies for aligning real and virtual construction data. Until recently most of it was scattered in vari-

Skycatch claims using drones to gather 3D site data can cut days from the process of surveying a typical construction site (Source: Skycatch)

ed in scans. A360 is a cloud collaboration tool that works in conjunction with ReCap, simplifying access to data for all stakeholders. The resulting data can be used in all Autodesk AEC and civil engineering applications including AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, Infraworks and others.

Bentley Systems Bentley brings its enterprise approach to AEC and geospatial engineering with a line of software products and service for what it calls “reality modelling”.

ContextCapture turns photos into detailed 3D mesh models that integrate with MicroStation and other Bentley design and engineering products as well as CAD or GIS software from other vendors; the models are precise enough to measure from or use for comparing as-built with design. A set of photos up to 100 gigapixels in size can be converted into a single detailed model. The software includes georeferencing. Other modules in the ContextCapture line can create videos or interactive web models.

The technology for aligning the real world of construction data with the virtual world of design and BIM is very much a work in progress. Start-ups like Trimble Skycatch and Reconstruct and Construction and operations are others are working from the It seems each of the major AEC looking closely at AR as a new way to drone-and-imagery side, while vendors has a different phrase to deliver assembly, operations and repair describe using 3D site data in the experienced AEC technology data to the job site vendors like Autodesk, Bentley construction workflow; for and Trimble are working from Trimble, it is “mixed reality”, to the design data side. An overdescribe the blending of realview of the leading vendors and their ous divisions. Last year, Autodesk world objects with digital content from work reveals a variety of approaches to the launched the Forge Initiative, designed to design in real time. Trimble’s roots are in challenge of aligning the real and the vir- consolidate its various technologies and construction, not design; in recent years it tual in construction. Major players and services related to mixing the use of real- has been building a BIM portfolio from a technologies include: world data (“reality capture” in construction tech point of view, and also Autodesk’s words) with design automa- working closely with other vendors where 3D Robotics tion. Some of the technology is designed interests align. Trimble has interoperabili3D Robotics (3DR) was an early player in for product development and 3D printing, ty agreements with both Autodesk and the commercialisation of drones and but there are also tools for AEC. ReCap Bentley, and is using software from both recently dropped out of the consumer 360 provides automatic stitching and reg- companies in their mixed reality R&D. Trimble sees mixed reality as a form of market to focus on enterprise applications. istration of scan data to CAD/BIM files It has received $99 million in venture capi- and can be used to measure items depict- spatial interaction, in which design teams

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and construction teams both review, interact and share using 3D models in the context of the physical environment instead of the virtual design space. “In the context of the building industry, this is the phase in which digital and real content co-exist,” says Aviad Almagor, Trimble’s director of Mixed Reality.

“Architectural design collides with reality and construction teams transform digital content into physical objects.”

Trimble is working closely with Microsoft to bring Hololens technology to AEC. Hololens is a wearable, self-contained holographic display computer.

Users can interact with 3D models that blend into the view of real objects. The Hololens display can be adjusted on a continuum from ‘real objects only’ to ‘digital model only’ – or anywhere in between.

Trimble is working from a deviceagnostic perspective. In addition to Microsoft Hololens, it’s also exploring the use of the Google Tango platform to develop augmented reality applications and Facebook Oculus Rift for virtual reality.

Two on-going pilot projects with very large companies highlight what Trimble is developing.

With engineering giant AECOM, Trimble is developing a system for collaborative review of engineering design from a construction perspective. Engineering data and site data collected by drones are overlaid for viewing inside a Microsoft Hololens display system. Design alternatives can be explored in a collaborative context and team members can immediately see how the changes will interact with the existing site.

In June 2016, Trimble announced a mixed reality pilot program with CSCEC Group 1, one of the largest construction firms in China. Similar to the AECOM pilot, drone data will be blended with design, but for construction operational overview, not engineering review. Given the need for on-site collaboration in the Group 1 pilot, the Google Tango tabletbased augmented reality technology may play the lead role from the display side.

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1 Would you be able to walk the plank in the vertigo-inducing WorldViz demo?

2

Unlike the products from Autodesk and Bentley, the Trimble mixed reality technology is still in the proof-of-concept and pilot programme stage.

The Big Data future Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are attracting a lot of attention in AEC at the moment. Project visualisation (whether for sales or architectural design review) is an obvious use for VR. Construction and operations are looking closely at AR as a new way to deliver assembly, operations and repair data to the job site. These are interesting applications, each worthy of their own articles.

But there is something unique to realtime site information in the BIM model that transcends either specific display technology.

Virtual reality and augmented reality freeze data at a point in time, yet construction sites change constantly.

Superimposing drone-gathered site data

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onto the BIM model in real time makes new technologies possible; Komatsu’s autonomous earth movers are just a first step. As all construction processes become accessible as data, technologies now used in so-called big data applications such as analytics and artificial intelligence can be applied. It should not take too long for autonomous robotic welders and riveters to assemble highrises and autonomous cement trucks to deliver just-in-time loads where they are needed on the job site without a specific advanced order or schedule. Adding other data sources such as weather and traffic could improve logistics and oversight. Add financial data to the mix and, over time, data analysis could more accurately predict costs for specific design styles and construction methods.

Randall S. Newton is Principal Analyst at Consilia Vektor. He has been writing about AEC since 1987.

1 Trimble and Microsoft are developing a mixed reality platform that combines physical objects and digital models into one holographic view.

(Source: Trimble) 2 Bentley ContextCapture turns photographs into 3D mesh models suitable for use inside CAD and BIM software. (Source: Bentley Systems) 3 3D Robotics works closely with Autodesk on equipping drones for use in construction monitoring.

(Source: 3D Robotics) 4 Autodesk ReCap and A360 and 3D Robotics SiteScan were used to create a 3D data set of Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. (Image courtesy of Autodesk, 3D Robotics and Kimley-Horn)

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Construction verification - the missing link When it comes to addressing gaps in the BIM chain, it’s time to take a look at construction verification as a way to add long-term project value, says Michael Johnson, a senior BIM consultant with chartered surveyors Plowman Craven

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Using this new workflow while workrom the introduction of CAD in cial, providing a great new data tool to the late 1970s to the latest inno- validate the accuracy of recently complet- ing on some of London’s landmark buildings has enabled the team at Plowman vations in BIM, I’ve spent the ed work against the construction PIM. last 35 years following the As hardware, software and processes Craven to identify the critical stages development curve and uptake of digital become more advanced and better under- where construction verification adds workflows. stood, construction verification will long-term project value. Our conclusion And as senior BIM consultant at lead- become a vital tool in delivering against is that it really does have the potential to ing chartered surveyors Plowman increasingly stringent client requirements. change the way projects large and small Craven, one of the most technically innoWith large construction projects are executed, reducing risk and potentialvative companies in the field, I have a increasingly using a PAS 1192-specified ly saving millions of pounds in change personal interest in ensuring that invest- BIM that demands LOD500 or an ‘as- orders and costly reworks.

In addition to clients viewing construcments in BIM made by clients and their built model’ of the completed facility, the delivery teams have real-world value use of laser scanning in construction is tion certification as a kind of ‘insurance throughout the design, build and manage already exploding. We see construction policy’ against potential variation claims, stages of an asset’s lifecycle. verification as a great opportunity to con- we are witnessing an increase in the It strikes me that, despite the great tribute to an industry-wide improvement number of developer and end-user clients who see it as a method of proving conforadvances that are being made in the use in standards, efficiencies and cost savings. mance to contractual tolerance of PAS-1192, federated models set by the design teams. It’s also and LOD/LOI, the fact remains a way to avoid duplication of that, in most cases, BIM could Many still see BIM as existing only work caused by multiple subbe said to stop when the first inside a computer or, at best, as a contractors commissioning sursteel is erected.

The reason for that, I feel, is federated model supporting 4D and 5D veys to validate the work, produce as-builts or check defined that many still see BIM as existprocesses. This needs to change tolerances. ing only inside a computer or, at As BIM Level 3 moves from best, as a federated model supits current embryonic form to a porting 4D and 5D processes.

This needs to change. As the industry In addition to monitoring construction better developed, more clearly defined continues to improve its understanding of progress against programme milestones, tool, data and verification will play an where and how BIM can help to improve construction verification – if carried out increasingly important part in our future design coordination and identify poten- at pre-planned construction stages – deliveries. Dr Ioannis Brilakis, a lecturer tial issues before construction starts, the could assist the supply chain in discharg- at the Laing O’Rourke Centre for real challenge we now face lies in auditing ing some of its responsibilities surround- Construction Engineering at Cambridge University, has aptly described the next and recording exactly what has been con- ing ‘as-installed’ model data. structed against what was designed.

I’m convinced, in fact, that construc- level of BIM as ‘as-is BIM’.

From a contractor’s perspective, the But that raises an important question. tion verification can play a significant In addition to demonstrating that con- role in the early recognition and subse- not-too-distant future may involve checktractual obligations have been met, what quent mitigation of some of the ever- ing construction methodology using realmight be the other commercial advantag- present and costly delays, re-works, time information, supported by active es of having documented, independent package creep and legal and financial monitoring systems feeding data back certification of the positional accuracy issues that blight our current processes. into live models.

Being a technically-led company, we are and content of installations?

It might bean obvious question, but what For VDC [Virtual Design Construction] impact might a reduction in contingency constantly looking to improve on accuracy and BIM managers, a construction verifi- have on work-won ratios and tender and automate processes where possible.

In line with these goals, we are currently cation workflow could be hugely benefi- return prices?

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Feature

Above and below Construction verification errors

combining our historic project experience with that of sector software specialists to automate where possible the key activities of ‘capture, verify and report’.

We have recently been involved in a London-based project where the tolerance and position of steel frames were of paramount importance. As such, we were commissioned to carry out construction verification of the steel and concrete packages.

The purpose of the project was to verify that the steelwork construction was within 25mm tolerance of the design, and that it included the penetrations required when federated with the steelwork model.

To achieve the desired outcomes, we laser-scanned and photographed the site and processed the data in Leica Cyclone, before converting the data to an Autodesk ReCap (RCS) file format – and that was the easy part!

The next step required the federation of the point cloud into precisely the same place as the PIM, despite different origins being used in the real world and the model world. In my opinion, we are now – as surveyors – adding real value to money invested in BIM by using the model data to audit reality.

Having reviewed the data within Navisworks, we were confidently able to compile an independent construction verification report, complete with snapshots, descriptions and locations, supported by a TruView visualisation model. www.AECmag.com

Our client was encouraged by the results and is confident that the early identification of minor differences will be accommodated by agreed design changes – with less impact on a complex construction programme than might have been the case previously.

Another recent example came about when Plowman Craven was commissioned by a leading London developer to assist in the monitoring of complex services as they were installed in a prestigious development in the capital. As each basement construction was completed on

the 19-storey building, it was 3D laserscanned and a coordinated comparison made with the structural and services design.

The ability to understand differences or clashes between ‘as built’ and design enabled critical alterations to be made to the design, as well as physical changes to be made on site, both in a timely and cost-effective manner. Ultimately, this led to fewer RFIs and smoother contractor handovers, again proving the tangible benefits of this invaluable process.

■ plowmancraven.co.uk

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The age of the reality mesh Ever since Bentley Systems acquired Acute3D in February 2015, it has forged ahead with Reality Capture, integrating key technologies into its foundation MicroStation platform and beyond by martyn day and greg corke

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t the Year In Infrastructure (YII) conference in 2015, Bentley Systems showed exactly how viable reality computing techniques had become, showing off ContextCapture, a new software product based on the Acute3D technology it had acquired earlier that year.

Starting with hundreds or thousands, of photos captured by drone or taken by hand, ContextCapture automatically produces a detailed 3D reality mesh. In other words, an engineering ready 3D model complete with textured photos.

In just one year, Bentley has come a long way. It has decided that reality meshes are 28

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now a new fundamental dataset for MicroStation – in addition to 2D vector lines, 3D solids, 2D raster and 3D point clouds. It has deeply integrated the reality mesh capabilities into its platform stack and already developed applications for users to integrate mesh work into their design and documentation processes.

In the early days of reality capture, it felt that Bentley competitor Autodesk, was pushing the boundaries, having previously licensed a past version of the Acute3D technology, as well as develop ing point cloud applications such as Recap and Memento. However, Autodesk has a disparate array of products – Revit,

AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Inventor, Fusion and Infraworks, which appears to have slowed deployment and direction.

Now Bentley appears to have taken the initiative. At this year’s YII conference, it demonstrated OpenRoads Designer, an incredibly dynamic environment for civil design which felt as graphically-rich as a game but generated road designs with cut, fill, 2D documentation and even enabled live ‘optioneering’.

Now that reality mesh technology is in MicroStation, it seems every Bentley vertical application will get a ‘Designer’ variant, with versions for the building design application AECOsim soon to be in public www.AECmag.com

REALITY MODEL: A9 DUALLING PROGRAM – (GLENGARRY TO DALRADDY, SCOTLAND). IMAGE COURTESY OF BENTLEY SYSTEMS / CH2M FAIRHURST JOINT VENTURE

beta. This would allow buildings to be designed in context, exterior facades grabbed for remodelling and existing brown or green field sites quickly captured and imported.

Complementary applications such as SITEOPS can run optimisation algorithms on the mesh, to provide the best orientation and layout of buildings and roads. Cut and fill requirements for grading can also be explored accurately, very early on, helping reduce risk when budgeting for construction.

Bentley Descartes provides a number of tools to get more value from the data. It can produce digital terrain models www.AECmag.com

straight from the mesh, as well automatically extracting features, such as breaklines. Attribute information can be added to specific parts of the mesh using the new reality mesh classifier. This enables users to search and query the mesh based on the associated data, providing a means to visualise geospatial information.

The use of reality meshes goes way beyond the design phase. For construction, drones can be set up on flight plans for continuous survey. Daily models of the construction site can be automatically produced, so progress can be monitored, materials located or volumes of material measured. This record of building pro-

gress could be stored and accessed later for as-built or facilities management information.

Bentley’s reality mesh technology is not just being used within the Bentley sphere. Topcon, for example, is incorporating ContextCapture image processing for its mass data collection via drones.

This is part of a bigger ‘constructioneering’ collaboration between the two companies where survey, engineering and construction data are more tightly integrated and digital engineering models are used to feed the 3D machine control that guides the construction machinery.

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Feature 1

from a drone provide a broader ‘reality mesh’ context around the track.

Mesh power

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ture technology, isn’t being forgotten.

Bentley ContexCapture now supports both point clouds and reality meshes in a single environment. Bentley showed how this

could be used to great effect on a rail maintenance project, where a train mounted laser scanner provides a very accurate survey of the track, while photographs taken

To find out more about the integration and delivery of Bentley mesh data for customers, AEC Magazine talked with Santanu Das, senior vice president, design & modelling, Bentley Systems.

“The most difficult problem that we had was how to manage such a complex data structure. We call the format 3MX,” he explained. “It’s one thing to take photographs and create a mesh but it’s another to actually do something with it, such as measure, extract ground levels, clash detections, add models and create a hybrid environment.

“We spent a lot of time working out how to integrate meshes into MicroStation to drive workflows with our existing products, as well as our next generation platforms.”

With many of its customers working in distributed teams, we asked how Reality Capture meshes would be shared and delivered, Das said, “We had to work out how to stream the data from our Azure cloud service, as 3MX files are not small, so we compress and expand them on the fly and have to cache areas around the area of interest, ready for scrolling. In some way it’s very similar to what we had to do for point clouds but it’s an order of magnitude in complexity; our meshes have many densely packed triangles, draped textures, snap points, it’s not as

Reality 1: A9 Extension Project An important part of Bentley’s YII event is the Be inspired awards ceremony, not only for congratulating innovative customers, but offering the opportunity to see detailed presentations of significant projects. Despite reality mesh technology being relatively new to Bentley, there were a number of projects from customers that were actually using it on live projects.

The A9 project, presented by joint venture CH2M / Fairhurst, is a £3billion extension to a 130km single carriageway that runs between Perth and Inverness. It’s the longest trunk road in Scotland and runs through beautiful and remote landscapes which are heavily protected by envi-

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ronmental designations, including the Cairngorms National Park.

CH2M / Fairhurst is working on a 43km section of the road, taking it from design development through statutory process to supervision and construction of a new dual carriageway road to cut travel times and increase safety.

CH2M / Fairhurst have design teams in multiple locations and use Bentley Projectwise to glue them together and establish string workflows. The project uses the following Bentley applications: Microstation, OpenRoads, OpenBridge, Descartes, Acute3D, LumenRT and MX. The team used a combination of satellite digital terrain maps and Acute3D photogramme-

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try to mesh captures to build a vast model of the existing road to model in context and to enable various design options to be assessed. This was also used at regular public meetings to engage with communities who would be affected by the building work and benefit from the road upgrade.

To double check the quality of the Reality Mesh, CH2M/Fairhurst sent people to various part of the valley to take photographs, which were compared to views from the captured model. The end results were impressive with very accurate correlation between the real and the modelled topography and textures.

With such an accurate and lifelike model, combining CAD data with a reality cap-

tured mesh, the team immediately saw the benefit in stakeholder engagement and noted the benefit of letting people ‘fly around’ the model to see the scale of the work and assess the impact on the countryside.

Reality model of the A9 trunk road in Scotland

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1 Descartes’ feature extraction tools allow users to perform tasks like breakline and ground extraction directly from reality meshes or point clouds 2 SITEOPS and ContextCapture help engineers, architects, and designers examine real-world existing conditions to create optimised designs 3 Bentley ContexCapture now supports both point clouds and reality meshes - a train mounted laser scanner provides an accurate survey of the track (top), while a reality mesh provides context (bottom)

straightforward as an array of 3D points.

We also add a level of intelligence to understanding the meshed objects making selection and identification easier.

“The application area of Reality Capture is just huge, many of today’s projects actually start off as brownfield sites and even if they do have drawings or a CAD model, it’s probably out of date and not ‘as built’. Construction, civil, industrial, mining, wastewater and even facilities Management. The only area we have not yet found a solution for is interior design as it’s not yet practical to fly drones inside buildings…. But we are working on it,” he smiled.

Conclusion Bentley’s Reality Capture capabilities are available today and can benefit a range of existing vertical applications.

This certainly highlights the benefit of having a single platform through which a vast array of applications can access common datatypes. While many people will utilise this technology without a thought of what’s happening under the

hood, it’s actually an incredibly powerful hybrid environment, as models may be derived from data sourced from a wide variety of inputs.

In many ways, we are seeing the CAD software development community taming technology which produces ridiculously large quantities of data and making them incredibly digestible in tools we

are familiar with. Design tools are finally starting to feel as interactive as games and yet they’re incredibly accurate and useful. The next challenge will be figuring out how to economically store gigabytes of historical project data and serve on demand, I’m sure Projectwise will be able to help you there too.

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Reality 2: Helsinki City Model Another Reality Mesh project in contention at Bentley’s YII was the Helsinki 3D+ project, which aims to build a 3D platform over 3 years to aid development, analysis and achieve environmental objectives. This information would be made open to citizens, companies, developers and universities.

Helsinki 3D+ is not actually the first 3D model of Helsinki; the Finns love 3D and BIM and as far back as 1985 had created a 3D model of the city, albeit limited by the technology available. In 1999, a second model was created using game engine technology and used as a real-time simulator in exhibitions and then again in 2003.

This time, the Helsinki

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team wanted to go beyond the visual aspects of a model and wished to use the model to assist in making Helsinki a ‘smart’ city.

Using CityGML and open standards, the core team of only three people are building an accurate model at LoD2 of over 400km2! To add to the CityGML and GIS imported data, and using Acute3D, they captured 50,000 oblique images which enabled a reality mesh model with 10cm accuracy. IFC BIM models of new buildings or proposed buildings can be added too.

Launching in December 2016, the 3D infrastructure model will be provided online. There are plans for 3D virtual parks and even capturing underground and ‘underwater’ city models too.

Serious urban analytics will be applied measuring urban spaces, Co2, GHG emissions and solar potential.

The quality of the model is excellent and the ability to fly over the city in real time must be seen to be believed.

It’s even more impressive, considering that such a small team managed to pull this off and there is a lot of depth to the many layers of georeferenced information that it contains. See the video at tinyurl.com/helsinki-mesh

The Helsinki 3D+ reality mesh city model boasts a 10cm accuracy

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Designviz AEC Magazine highlights some of the work presented by two architectural visualisation firms at the CG2 Code for Art conference recently staged by rendering specialist, Chaos Group, the developer of V-Ray.

Studio Niskota

(Zagreb, Croatia) - studio-niskota.hr Ban Center Living (3ds Max, V-Ray, ForestPack) Rendered in V-Ray, this project focuses on an apartment located in Ban Centar, a luxury development in the historic centre of Zagreb

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Project 1 (3ds Max, Vray, ForestPack, Marvelous Designer) This was Studio Niskota’s first personal project, exploring the theme of a predominantly white interior, to see what effects can be achieved simply by varying the texture and material properties of objects. The penguin was added in post

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Mountain House (3ds Max, Corona, ForestPack, Thinkbox Frost) In this scene, the snowy environment gave the Studio Niskota team a chance to try out a ‘no post-work’ approach, exploring the atmospheric effects that can be achieved in a raw render. The footsteps in the snow are generated at render time, instead of being physically modelled in the scene

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Brick Visual Solutions

(Budapest, Hungary) - brickvisual.com

(Right) BakPak Architects: Sosnowiec Sports Complex The initial composition outlined in the first sketch was carried right through to the final image

AHR Architects: Oxford Station The big challenge for this RIBA Design competition-winning project was modelling the entire environment, and capturing the atmosphere of the square and the nearby university building

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Gallery

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In another lea

The marketing suite for the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium in North London is pushing back boundaries by using the latest VR technology.

Stephen Holmes speaks to Soluis, which helped create the experience for fans and corporate guests.

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cheduled for completion in 2018, the new stadium for London’s Tottenham Hotspur Football Club will be one of the most advanced in the world, with a capacity of 61,000 and a single-tier, home-support stand accommodating 17,000 fans.

As with any modern sporting venue, the stadium will offer an extensive range of premium suites, lounges and pitchwww.AECmag.com

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eague

The new stadium for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club promises to be one of the most advanced in the world

side seating to suit all styles, preferences and budgets.

Marketing all these possibilities led to Spurs launching a fully integrated Virtual Reality (VR) marketing suite at its headquarters in North London.

The Spurs Virtual Reality Suite – or ‘SPVRS’, as it has been branded – was devised to showcase the club’s aspirations both on and off the field, utilising www.AECmag.com

the know-how of experienced interactive visualisation firm Soluis.

The company’s first involvement in the project followed an initial batch of early VR work with stadium architect Populous, created to aid the design review process for the stadium. Soon after, the club approached it to explore ways of using a range of interactive platforms to help it market the premium hos-

pitality areas being designed.

“They spent some time reviewing our extensive range of previously delivered leisure and hospitality projects, and were quickly convinced that this would not only help them accelerate the sales cycle, but also help in reinforcing their credentials as a technologically advanced organisation,” explains Soluis CEO Scott Grant.

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“The goal was to make visitors to the marketing suite feel valued and generate sufficient impact to ensure a lasting memory of the experience.”

Welcome to the Reality Portal Soluis worked closely with F3 Architects on the technical aspects of the design for the suite, allowing for a full-size ‘reality portal’ to provide the centrepiece of the installation.

This Reality Portal – a portable, immersive VR dome that can comfortably accommodate a group of standing adults, without the need for headsets – sets the scene with a blend of motion graphics, real-time sequences, computer-generated (CG) animation and booming sound to bring the story to life, raising excitement levels and anticipation.

Further into the experience, VR workstations were arranged in a central viewing area that uses actual stadium seating, allowing users to visualise what sitting inside the new stadium environment will feel like.

As an interesting addition, the entire contents and layout of the SPRVS marketing suite were also prepared as a VR mock-up, to help the football club’s business team to understand the design proposals for the suite.

“High-value people were gathering to discuss a radical new concept with technology that most hadn’t encountered before, so this proved invaluable in accelerating the final stages of the process and allowed some of the later additions to the design to be signed-off notably quicker than previous elements,” says Grant.

Once the project was given the goahead, development of the real-time environments began across the both the

Reality Portal and Oculus VR stations.

The key issues here were getting the most from the assets and guaranteeing their ease of use.

To reduce the need for onsite VR technical experience, Soluis developed a custom software platform to enable all of the different spaces to be accessed via an intuitive touchscreen console. The user interface to this was designed with club sales staff in mind, letting them operate the full system.

Soluis also prepared a series of mobile apps, used to trigger a range of different interactive environments using a series of Augmented Reality (AR) trackers.

The primary set of apps focused on providing easy access to the interactive stadium model and a complete set of highquality 360-degree CG views of the premium hospitality spaces.

The versatility of the apps has helped club staff explain much more of the story than a physical model might do, while all staff members are able to carry this capability with them on their own mobile devices.

As a final addition to the suite of apps, an AR photo opportunity was created to enable all visitors to leave the suite with a photo taken of themselves buddying up to a favourite Tottenham Hotspur player or the club’s manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

This involved designing a full-height tracker image to match the style of the suite, and then integrating a range of specially shot green-screen videos to play alongside the visitor in AR.

issued for approval.

Towards the end of this development cycle, it was notable that the visuals created by Soluis for the marketing process were proving extremely useful in finalising key design decisions.

Revit models from both the architect and structural engineer were imported and developed around a largely centralised production pipeline to facilitate creation of CG content and real-time environments.

A degree of optimisation was required to ensure optimal performance of the VR experiences and ensure that visual quality could be maximised for the AR stadium model.

There was a significant amount of effort applied to optimising the stadium model to maintain suitable frame rates in VR, as the ability to smoothly access the associated seating and get a feel for the environment was a key feature for each space.

The design information was delivered in phases for spaces still being finalised, so in some cases, there were existing concept boards and a few reference CG views already produced.

For some of the later spaces, which included some of the larger lounges and restaurants, Soluis worked with the designers to bring the concept to life for the first time in these environments.

Using Unreal Engine as its primary real-time visualisation platform, Soluis has found the software to be an increasingly core element of both its rendering and real-time production pipeline.

An Unreal development cycle “We’ve long held the belief that a cenAll the different environments were tralised approach to visual asset developdeveloped in phases over an 8-month ment is a necessity in this age of multiperiod as various designs were being platform engagement; and this project provided the perfect opportunity to really test ourselves on this belief,” states Grant.

The latest version of Unreal Engine offered an optimum pipeline to use across the Reality Portal, Oculus Rift headsets and iPad apps.

“We’re always asked if real-time environments will ever match traditional CG production, but we firmly believe that we are there now and that the differences are down to the skill of the artist – and not with any perceived limitations with these platforms.

Mobile apps help club staff to explain the story better to fans and guests than a physical model could do

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Feature 1 Spurs players explore the new stadium in VR 2 At the flick of a switch, the VR setup can showcase how the stadium will look during different events, such as an NFL game 3 The Spurs Virtual Reality Suite was devised to showcase the club’s aspirations both on and off the field

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“You could argue that, on a frame-by- models into a real-time engine – but ly positive about the experience, as it frame basis, an image could still be mar- with the levels of proficiency we’ve effectively showcases the ambition and ginally better than a real-time scene, but developed over the years, our real-time quality of execution to be expected of the in terms of actively visualising space, the artists are increasingly capable of pro- new stadium. There’s a video available real-time experience is many times more cessing materials and lighting directly to view at tinyurl.com/spursVR With these results, Soluis sees archiin the engine, which has several beneeffective.” tectural visualisation evolving from The other major benefit of this pipeline fits,” says Grant.

“The obvious one,” he continues, “is that something that people recognise currentwas that the team could then quickly genly as the production of erate photorealistic envimedia and imagery for pasronments from the Unreal sive viewing, to something Engine views, which could None of the creative work that goes into that now enables the delivthen be edited in post-proery of genuine ‘memories’ duction as standard renelevating the quality of the scene is lost of proposed futures. ders would be. when transferring environments from “That, for us, is the true The system also allowed one format to another purpose of a VR headset, as many individual animation the visualisation is delivsequences to be created for ered primarily through the each suite, lounge or bar, which would otherwise have been it saves time in the process and this also creation of believable real-time environextremely prohibitive in terms of costs has the knock-on effect of ensuring that ments by talented artists,” says Grant. and time involved. none of the creative work that goes into elevating the quality of the scene is lost While some clients might have thought To dare is to do when transferring environments from one twice about being too adventurous with such a project, Spurs has taken its club “In the past, our team would have per- format to another.”

Visitors to the suite – including the motto to heart: To Dare is To Do. haps spent a little longer in more familiar 3D platforms before transferring the team’s own players – have been extreme- ■ Soluis.com

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The rise of the robots Martyn Day evaluates the latest projects and technologies involved in deploying robots and 3D printing in construction.

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(producing an amazing three storeys per hile the general media Modular and Prefab seems happy to stir up Modular design and prefabrication has day) by using prefabricated components.

The B2 Pacific Park building in fears of mass-unemploy- long been a popular subset of AEC. ment and social instabili- It has been proven to work for ‘proto- Brooklyn’s Navy yard had a very comty brought about by the infiltration of cabins’, McDonalds restaurants, emer- plex design that used prefabricated comrobotics into traditional middle-class gency shelters and caravans, which need ponents to build 32-storeys, 363 apartjobs, the construction industry remains to be ‘manufactured’ rapidly and ments, and 930 modules.

Facit Homes has developed a unique relatively untouched by automation, deployed in weeks. despite decades-old flagellation over marHowever, despite many attempts, pre- way to employ digital fabrication within ket inefficiencies. fabrication has generally failed to get its BIM process for domestic dwellings.

BIM has been touted as a way to reclaim much traction in construction until rela- Using Revit, customers work with the some of this inefficiency but, looked at a tively recently. There are now a number of firm to design their individual home.

The Revit model is then used to generate different way, it is also the entry point to firms, such as China’s Broad Sustainable robotic fabrication.

Building (BSB) company, which are work- GCODE to run a CNC milling machine, In the manufacturing world, the move to ing out how prefabrication can have bene- which is shipped to the construction site in a shipping container. The building is 3D modelling enabled Computer fits without the old drawbacks.

Numerical Controlled (CNC) machining Autodesk VP strategic industry rela- assembled from insulated wooden box sections, which are cut fresh and 3D printing, the core asset each day wherever the buildof which is the creation of a 3D ing site is and controlled back model to drive the software, to Robotics use in construction remains at base in London. drive the machines. embryonic, with today’s plinth-located Facit Homes managing As a model-centric approach becomes more mainstream in manufacturing robots making Doctor Who’s director Bruce Bell explained to AEC Magazine why the traAEC, it will inevitably drive Darleks look positively advanced ditional view of prefab buildthe digital fabrication of comings from factories will not ponents or complete buildings. work in the residential sector.

However, today’s attitude towards creating BIM models is more tions Phil Bernstein recently examined “There is a direct correlation between about documentation than driving fabri- how technology changes are pushing the factory fabrication and repetition cation and will need another step-change AEC industry towards embracing pre- because you can’t have factories sitting to enable model-driven fabrication. fabrication. (lineshapespace.com/future- idle due to the overheads. So, as soon as you have a factory, you need turnover While much of this work resides in the of-construction). research labs of universities, there are Mr Bernstein envisions that buildings and in order to have turnover, you need companies like Laings, which is actively will be ‘assembled’ and then mass cus- standardisation and you end up producseeking to deploy rapid fabrication tech- tomised, enabling sophisticated design ing the same thing over and over again.

“If you build on-site, which the vast nologies that hitherto have been the pre- changes even though components are serve of the automotive industry. Laings configured within a production line majority of buildings are, the constraints are completely different and fabricating is doing so with its Design for environment.

Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) Mr Bernstein gave a number of exam- on demand has benefits such as having approach to modular construction. ples that, he said, prove that it is possible no heating, storage costs etc, as running a A number of other highly-publicised to utilise digital fabrication and have a factory would.

“The economics (of prefab) just don’t projects are also seeking to demonstrate unique end result. that robots and 3D printing can be utiFor example, BSB built a 57-storey stand up. It leads to standardisation and lised effectively on large-scale projects. tower, with 800 apartments in 19 days people don’t want the same, and every

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Feature MX3D is planning to build a 15m long bridge using robots

The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia uses a community of small robots. Each has its own tasks and collaborate to create big structures

MX3D is planning to build a 15-metre long bridge using robots

site has its own requirements. There is no one size fits all.”

The robots are coming Robotics use in construction remains embryonic, with today’s plinth-located manufacturing robots making Doctor Who’s Darleks look positively advanced.

However, there are a number of projects that aim to teach robots to weld and lay brick. To do this it is important to overcome platform immovability, limited arm reach, onsite spatial awareness and real time clash detection.

Safety is also a major concern as these robots will be more than likely working alongside humans.

3D printed buildings Given that 3D print technology has been around for such a long time, there remains considerable hype around its application. This is probably, in many ways, due to its fall in price to address the emerging ‘maker’ and consumer markets.

Now that hoopla has died down, the reality is dawning on AEC professionals that those with engineering knowledge and CAD skills can manufacture with a growing range of desktop machines.

While the print technology progresses slowly, there has been a great leap forward in materials that can be used.

I have seen 3D printers that use chocolate, mud with seeds, plastic, cake mix, candy, ceramic, rubber, colours, UV curing liquid and various metals. It was only a matter of time before concrete and clay became available on the 3D print menu.

Many 3D printed buildings currently come out of China, although many do not appear to live up to the 3D printed label.

For example, Zhuoda Group claimed to have produced a 1,100 square metre ‘neowww.AECmag.com

classical mansion’ featuring multi-storey (five floors) and decoration in just 10 days. However, further investigation reveals that 3D print was used to generate components in a factory, which were delivered on site, not ‘cast’ in situ from a roving 3D print head.

WinSun has developed its own system — a 3D printer array that stands 6.6 metres high, 10 metres wide and 40 metres long.

The ‘print engine’ sits in WinSun’s factory and fabricates building parts in large pieces. These are shipped and assembled on-site.

WinSun claims the process saves between 30%-60% of construction waste, can decrease production times by between 50% to 70%, and labour costs by between 50% and 80% percent.

Yingchuang New Materials claims to have ‘printed’ up to ten buildings in 24 hours. Each ‘house’ was made for less than £3,000.

So far the Chinese company has spent 20 million yuan (£2 million) and taken 12 years to develop its additive manufacturing device. The only sections not produced by the printer were the roofs.

Chinese companies are also keen to find new materials, such as using recycled concrete from unwanted buildings to produce new 3D printable concrete.

However mixing concrete with fibreglass and different resins could lead to health issues should anyone actually live in these buildings. The materials science of 3D printed buildings is still some way off.

Amsterdam’s Dus Architects has been experimenting with plant-oil based materials to create a 3D printed house on its open source KamerMaker (room maker) 3D printer. Again, due to build size issues, 3D printing is used to create 2 x 2 x 3.5m high sections of the design,

which are stacked up like Lego bricks to create a 3D printed equivalent of a Dutch gabled canal house. The project started in 2014 and is set to last three years.

3D printing concerns There are many challenges for 3D printing buildings. Physically there is a need to have a huge frame around which the 3D print head can move, otherwise it will remain as print sections and assemble.

The materials need to be durable and fit for purpose and consistent — you do not want air bubbles or material weakness in supporting loads, for example.

There are also many problems with printing 3D buildings in concrete. The first problem is the model has to be constructed in a way to get the best fabrication success rate, which will certainly not be the same as producing a BIM model to produce drawings. In addition to the BIM model for architecture and a BIM model for construction, at the moment it would require a model for digital fabrication too.

Concrete curing times have to be taken into consideration. The print head needs to travel as fast as possible and the material deposited needs to solidify and harden within minutes.

Suddenly architects will find themselves being faced with questions that engineers and industrial product designers face every day when designing cars, planes and consumer products. When buildings are made of prefabricated components or 3D printed, they become more like machines, more an assembly that needs to be durable and repairable.

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Feature Foster + Partners is part of a consortium set up by the European Space Agency to explore the possibilities of 3D printing lunar habitations

down? Should ducting or spaces for ducting be included in the 3D model and what would that mean to later refurbishment or alterations/repairs?

How will the material consistency change over the time of the 3D print? Will the weather negatively impact cure times?

How long is the material guaranteed for?

What’s the toxicity of the material? Can one material fulfill all criteria for each part of the design? What are the legal issues?

There are also fundamental problems with devising shapes for manufacture in today’s AEC tools, which quite frankly were never designed with 3D print or direct manufacture in mind.

This area should improve over time as cement companies like LafargeHolcim experiment with extrudable and quick curing materials.

Complex forms

made of C-sections called AMIE, which make this work. 3D print industry guru Signature Architects like Zaha Hadid and generates solar energy and has a symbiot- Terry Wohlers said: “When considering Foster + Partners find themselves drawn ic power sharing relationship with a 3D the time and cost of constructing an entire printed electric car. building, the skeletal walls are a small to the possibilities of the technology. part of the project. You also need floors, We are seeing an increasing use of nonceilings, roofs, stairs, and kitchen and standard fabrication materials and meth- Conclusion odologies to achieve stunning forms that Digital fabrication is undoubtedly coming bathroom fixtures. Consequently, I cannot could previously never have been built to the construction industry. With so see how the use of 3D printing technology for an acceptable budget. As many of many active research projects and invest- could save any time or money.

“When you factor in the added cost of a these shapes are derived from generative ments being made in materials and robotvery large, expensive, and not very portaand computational methods, connecting ic technology, some will eventually stick. them to automated fabrication machines However, it is going to take a while for ble 3D printer, the cost of these walls are sounds like a good idea. the various dots to get connected, as likely far more expensive and time-conMany of Frank Gehry’s designs could changes are required to software, hard- suming than conventional walls. The use of 3D printing may be good for marketing not be built because the cost estimates ware, contracts and mindsets. from fabricators had huge ‘risk’ fees The idea of a machine or robots creating and attention, but that’s all.”

For now, prefabrication and included as it was not totally assembly on-site can lead to clear from the 2D drawings incredible productivity benehow components could be To effectively employ these methods, fits, if perhaps not to stunning manufactured.

When designers will need to understand the limits architecture.

Gehry’s practice started Robots work best in enviusing the CAD tool Catia to of the construction, materials and fabrication ronments that are controlled produce detailed 3D models technologies far better than they do today and predictable. They are his contractors and fabricatherefore much more likely to tors better understood the be of use in a factory fabricatdesign and could reduced costs by using the model to cut the steel a building in a single 3D print still seems ing components.

To effectively employ these methods, and aluminium. Gehry is still proud that like science fiction still to me. he can have a sculpted wall for the same At best, it may work in space, for quick designers will need to understand the price as a straight one. military fortifications, or in emergency limits of the actual construction, materiFoster + Partners is part of a consorti- shelters or homes. But single continuous als and fabrication technologies far better um set up by the European Space Agency pour does not seem to make much sense. I than they do today.

Even in engineering, which is typically to explore the possibilities of 3D printing also seriously doubt that 3D printing a flat lunar habitations. As it is prohibitively wall is actually any faster or better than a much more connected to fabrication, expensive to ship heavy materials to the traditional block wall, unless you have engineers still create designs that cannot moon, Foster + Partners is looking to pro- severe labour shortage. This is a misappli- easily be produced digitally or otherwise. cess and print a lunar soil-based material cation of the technology. into an inflated dome. Simulated lunar Much of the 3D printing hype from soil has been used to create a 1.5 ton China seems to really be a story about preThis is an edited version of an article that first appeared in the Nov/Dec 2015 edition mock-up using a D-Shape printer. fabrication and assembling it on site and of AEC Magazine. To read the full article, SOM, together with the Oak Ridge most just look like concrete sheds. which includes more in-depth information National Laboratory have been working There also needs to be considerable about construction robots and 3D printers, visit tinyurl.com/AEC-robots on research for a 3D printed structure technological advances in all fields to

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Designed for high-end professionals in industries ranging from Manufacturing, Engineering, Design through to Oil & Gas, Media & Entertainment and beyond, the ThinkPad P71® is certified for leading ISV applications and delivers the fastest and most powerful mobile workstation Lenovo has ever built.

Lenovo’s first mobile VR workstation is NVIDIA VR Ready and comes equipped with full Oculus and HTC certifications.

One of the most talked about technologies today, VR has the ability to bring a new visual perspective and immersive experience to our customers’ workflow.

ThinkPad P71

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