21 Building Systems: Toward a Rational Taxonomy in Architecture

§ February 26th, 2010 § Filed under Viewpoints § 10 Comments

In this Viewpoint article, architect and technologist Bill Dickens, discusses the importance of systems and taxonomies, and proposes a taxonomy of only 21 Building Systems to cover the complete set of architectural, engineering and construction tasks. The concept is based on his work developing logic diagrams of the AEC process as a Systems Analyst at Smith Hinchman and Grylls, where he scheduled the 300,000sf SUNY, Stony Brook Medical School.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2010/issue_50.html

Graphisoft EcoDesigner

§ February 11th, 2010 § Filed under Product Reviews § 4 Comments

In this review, Sid Thoo, an Australian architect and sustainability expert, takes a detailed look at the workflow of EcoDesigner, a plugin that allows the energy efficiency performance of a building model to be analyzed within the ArchiCAD environment. The review explores how the application works for quick, conceptual analysis and concludes that EcoDesigner is a valuable plugin that should be considered as mandatory for all ArchiCAD users who are serious about designing more energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/EcoDesigner.html

BIM and the Cloud

§ February 4th, 2010 § Filed under Newsletters and Features § 13 Comments

In this article, Chris France, CIO of Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, a 225 person firm located in Charlotte NC, describes how they built a private cloud that included their high performance graphics workstations. A private cloud differs from the public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services or Google by the fact that the cloud computing infrastructure and resources are controlled by the individual business that deploys it. Little’s cloud is the first AEC workstation cloud in production and is on track to reduce the firm’s workstation and laptop hardware expense by 67% ($2M) over the next 10 years. The article also describes many of the additional business benefits the firm has achieved through its workstation cloud approach and shares some of its implementation details.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2010/BIM_Cloud.html

AEC Exhibitor Highlights from Autodesk University 2009

§ January 14th, 2010 § Filed under "Building the Future" articles § No Comments

This article provides an overview of the many AEC-related applications that were on display at the Exhibit Hall at Autodesk University 2009, including new design visualization solutions such as 3D digital holograms from Zebra Imaging, a new 3D real time exploration and navigation solution called Nova that works with Revit models, several 3D printing devices, many supporting BIM technologies that integrate with Revit, and several structural, civil, and site engineering solutions.

URL:  http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2010/AU2009_Exhibitors.html

Autodesk University 2009: AEC Keynote and Design Computation Symposium

§ December 17th, 2009 § Filed under Newsletters and Features § No Comments

This article discusses and analyzes the information presented at the AEC industry keynote at Autodesk University 2009, which highlighted the growing trend towards renovation in addition to sustainability by showcasing two GSA projects: the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and the Tuttle Courthouse Annex in Atlanta. It also provides an overview of the research-focused Design Computation Symposium that was held a day prior to Autodesk University.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2009/issue_43.html

The Role of agcXML in Streamlining Information Exchange

§ December 14th, 2009 § Filed under Viewpoints § No Comments

This article, authored by Michael Tardif, Director of Integrated Project Delivery Systems at Grunley Construction Company, Inc., discusses the rationale for the agcXML, which was developed by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) in collaboration with NIBS as a standard to support the exchange of business information during design and construction.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2009/issue_49.html

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