As you may have previously seen, we recently launched a YouTube channel named The AEC Bar, it's a place for discussion, tips and tricks for AEC professionals. Recently we got chance to catch up with Navisworks Product Manager, James Austin to discuss some of the new features in the 2018 release. Over these three videos totaling less than 20 minutes we discuss IFC, laser scanning for as built verification, improved coordination and Revit, performance improvements and partner integrations. Well worth some of your day.
If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover or questions you're looking for an answer for, email the.aec.bar@autodesk.com
It's been more than two years now, since Autodesk started to invest in research on Generative Design. Some of the results have been shown already in the video below.
When we talk about Generative Design, the subjects are very often related to manufacturing (design of heat exchanger, bicycle frames, …). At Autodesk, we want to show that this technology can be used in the world of AEC as well.
After having bought three levels in the "MaRS Discovery District" building in Toronto, Autodesk has used the technology of Generative Design to perform a space planning (like office space, meeting rooms, utilities, …) in a pragmatic way. The team of "The Living" (an architectural research team within Autodesk) has carried out studies concerning the initial conditions of the levels, to define the best way to meet conceptual objectives in the new building area.
Then, after having interviewed the future users of the work spaces, several wishes and demands have been collected and been analyzed with diagrams like the one displayed below:
The team of "The Living" created a series of formulas for each goal, to get several space planning solutions. Therefore they created mathematical models based on equations to characterize the objectives.
Various requirements have been assigned to the development zone, such as the proximity of teams and the distribution of equipment, such as kitchens and meeting rooms. And finally also the placement of the circulation areas that connect the several rooms.
With the help of a general algorithm, they've harmonized all the equations to find solutions that meet the objectives. This algorithm is composed of these 4 big steps:
Generation of data (geometries, position of utilities, spaces, …)
Evaluation of each objective
Production of all solutions meeting the several requirements (brute force technique)
Analysis and choice of the best solution(s)
In the final step, the solutions are presented in a Kiviat diagram, better known as a "spider diagram", to learn more about the different components and their obtained scores within the optimization.
Important here is that the optimal solution in the "spider diagram" is the one with maximal cover (indicated in blue).
The video below showcases the whole process that is used.
Though this is a very exciting project, we still want to remind you that this is about a concept, that is not yet finalized, but which creates a lot of opportunities. For example, take the case of a residential building in which one wants to define a series of constraints, such as:
Proximity of one space to another (ex. Living room close to the kitchen, but far away from the bed rooms)
Cupboard area (minimize them)
Maximize the exterior view
Daylight optimization (to minimize the number of artificial lights)
HVAC regulations
At the end of the calculation, Generative Design, proposes several solutions, respecting the requirements (criteria). This is very beneficial for an architect to define the final and optimized building model.
Originally posted by Olivier Bayle (Autodesk) on the Village BIM blog
Just as with the Rubik´s cube, understanding what the end result looks like and how to operate the cube, creating visions of what the BIM goals should be and learning how the "BIM" tool´s work, is a relatively manageable task.
The real challenge lies in figuring out how do we actually change behavior, habits, tradition and standards from focusing on the deliverable of intent documentation, to actually communicate and manage project information in a effective and rational manner.
According to www.rubiks.com there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (43 quintillion) ways to scramble the Rubik’s cube, rendering it virtually impossible to solve it by chance. Despite the almost infinite number of combinations, champions of the cube can solve it, in less than 10 sec. How is that even possible? My educated guess would be that they use a structured repeatable process enabling them to understand what to do next in any given situation.
In my view, we need to start prioritizing the what is it we want to do, and why is it we want to do it, to figure out how do we achieve that. As we build new structured repeatable processes, we should bare in mind that no projects are alike and there are no "one size fits all" solutions, so we should be able to scale our processes to fit the individual needs of our projects.
The key to success is in the ability to tie our BIM efforts to the business visions of our companies, setting up BIM as one of the drivers to achieve our goals.
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