Archives for Premium Archives - Page 8 of 11 - Architosh

What is the state-of-the-art in Virtual and Augmented Reality? Akiko Ashley of Architosh attended last week’s pivotal 2017 Vision VR/AR Summit in Los Angeles, organized by Unity Technologies, to learn exactly that question, posed through breakout sessions, panels, and highly informative displays and presentations by the world’s VR/AR leaders.

The world of manufacturing is changing and computer-aided design tools are growing in new directions. MIT’s new Professional Education course promises to give students a front-row seat and taste of the latest trends and technologies making these directions possible. 

Graebert and its partners continue to capitalize on the legacy of the DWG CAD file format. At this year’s Annual Meeting in Berlin, held two weeks ago, partners extolled the virtues of Graebert as both partner and technical resource, while the Berlin company announced even more expansive plans around its Trinity of CAD strategy.

Some of the biggest feature updates in Vectorworks 2017 are discussed in detail, and we learn how the company is thinking more “multi-generational” while still being intensely customer-driven to better position itself as a leading BIM competitor.

By partnering with the most dominant algorithmic design software company and creating a meta-data infrastructure with a flexible graphical super-system—to help visibly put that data to work—the Hungarian BIM software maker is positioning itself for the future.

At this year’s slightly smaller SIGGRAPH show in Anaheim, the focus continued to be on VR (virtual reality) this year, in addition to a new focus on real-time rendering, cloud and other interactive areas such as AR (augmented reality) and of course gaming.

By providing native apps across all major operating systems—desktop or mobile—including the cloud via the modern browser, Onshape’s CAD partner, the Berlin-based Graebert, aims to give CAD users the world over the most flexible access to their DWG based data.

In this special feature, Architosh discusses Autodesk’s Project Fractal presentation at AIA Philadelphia, placing it within the context of the growing AEC industry interest and development in computational design software. Algorithmic design tools are far from a passing fad; this article discusses why and how some of the work of the Generative Design Group at Autodesk is pushing the envelope in interesting directions.

Architosh presents its annual “perspectives” on BEST of SHOW honorees at AIA this year via a conversation. This year we focus on some new terms, a framing of tech against the Gartner Hype Cycle and against the backdrop of Neri Oxman’s standing ovation-earning keynote talk.

According to Gartner’s “Hype Cycle technology curve, algorithmic aided design within the building design industry—sometimes referred to as AAD—is nearing the “peak of inflated expectations,” where we see in the industry what is known as supplier proliferation. Indeed, quite suddenly in fact, McNeel & Associates has seen a ground swell in competition to their famous Rhino + Grasshopper product combo. An inflection point is coming, due to the rapid rise of something McNeel & Associates has become synonymous for, but so too is change. In this two part series we investigate the factors in this change and learn what may lie ahead.

In this special feature, Architosh takes a look at the nature of ‘performance’ both in the architecture firm and its value in the BIM transformation from 2D CAD to BIM workflows. What is the firm performance trade-off due to BIM? How have architects argued against performance? And how do we discuss and evaluate performance within software and BIM in today’s workflow? This feature illuminates this topic using one BIM developer’s software development work as a case study.

Philip D. Allsopp has a counter-intuitive passion for saving architecture’s past by using the most state-of-the-art technologies available. And as part of this endeavor he is a leader in the emerging HBIM field—using BIM technology to address the heritage building industry.

Senior Associate Editor Pete Evans, AIA, recaps Autodesk University 2015 in all its many facets, and details many of the larger themes that were pervasive at the show this year. Chief among them were this blurring of lines disciplines, fields, tool chains and the boundaries between design, manufacture and product use. What we saw at AU 2015 was the emergence of a CAD company transforming into a company that will service industries far and wide across the full spectrum from initial concept to end-user and configuration and optimization based on performance and use data. It is a brave new world and Autodesk is at its leading edge.

Many manufactures across an array of industries from automobiles to AEC need both CAD tools and technical drawing tools for product manuals. However, the tools they currently have may not offer the seamless integration and cost benefits that Corel Corporation believes it can deliver with CorelCAD.