Frog Up or Down

Vectorworks, Inc. Announces English Version of Vectorworks 2017 BIM Software for AEC, Landscape and Entertainment Design Industries New offerings include robust Resource Manager, intelligent door and window styles, a suite of irrigation tools and virtual reality Columbia, MD (September 14, 2016) —Global design and BIM software developer  Vectorworks, Inc.  announces the 2017 release of its Vectorworks product line, which includes Vectorworks® Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Designer and Fundamentals. The English version is now available with 10 additional language releases planned during the worldwide rollout in the coming months. “Vectorworks software is unique compared to other competing products because of our company’s dedication to pushing the programming of the products to maintain flexibility while offering state-of-the art technology,” said Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “Our continued commitment to reengineering parts of the code base enables Vectorw...

The new release of Vectorworks 2017 is out, and its not just a stunner, its a level above, Its probably the best release of Vectorworks, for a long long time, not that the others were not any good, its just this release goes beyond almost anything Nemetschek has done before. The Video below tells it all.

Sketchup has some great tools, but one them is the link to Google Earth and maps. This video below is  a classic video that shows so easily the way to build up a site model in 3D using these tools. I have watched this several times, but for the purposes of CPD time I have claimed only 2 hours quality CPD time making notes the second time.

A single large construction  project is going to collect a lot of data throughout the design and construction phase of its life culminating with all the data it will collect during its operational life of say 60 years. but the types of data can easily be split split into 6 different types of data. When we look at all the data we generate for a building you might just look at it all and think we are entering the world of Big Data , but here we have to be a little careful on the word "big" as we compare different uses of the word Big, when we look at the  2560 terabytes of data that retailer Walmart collects every hour by capturing customer transactions, and the vast size of all the videos on /youtube although spread over many servers its estimated to be in the several Exabytes , by comparison Birmingham city Council in 2007 had 7 terabyte of storage just for there immediate data only storage needs for  roughly 35,000 staff, this probable That this doubled every...

I see this a lot in the construction industry , a committee wants standardisation.  The  BIM Task Group  in association with the  Construction Products Association , BIM4M2 and  CIBSE  are looking to develop a  standardised process for the sharing of product data , You have to ask why, does it not go against the very nature of the development of big data, what Hadoop , Hana and all the other new ways to view and analyse large datasets, which I might add do not need standardisation, rather the opposite. Large projects need to establish data use before it gets to site, develop rules to show how relations are make and kept, data shared, looking to associations for advice not rules, but thats for an individual project, and it may change as new projects are started, adding the benefits of hind sight and advances seen in the industry, but thats for a good project team to sort out, not a committee. I sit back an wonder who is pushing for this a...

This is a seriously interesting development, in the design of a sundial, the stick has a load of holes through it, each hole is a specific angle, that will produce a small spot at only one specific time, the combination of a lot, and I mean a lot of holes will produce a shadow like a normal sun dial, but with what looks like a digital readout, but its just a small sun spot, Can you imagine the design of all these little holes,,,,,,, But the video below is a great viewing and shows how and a little of the software required, is it CPD, well I think so, its design, knowledge of Lat and Long, time and Serious CAD and 3D printing, and Architecture, can you imagine a larger version that casts onto a large square,,,, cool. More from the web site, http://www.mojoptix.com/

Perhaps one of the biggest things happening to CAD is the way BIM, is adding such richness to the drawings we produce, and so much of this is being exported as Cobie files , a posh way of saying structured spreadsheets. Its here I want to take a look, and I have added a specific section to my CPD to look after this subject. I often teach this to students, and I look at spreadsheets as Four distinct areas of learning, I will briefly list these, but they will take separate blogs to expand on them. Drawing aid Detailing with a view to export Exporting as Cobie files and it use Data Manipulation So first off as a drawing Aid This is were I started, so long ago, playing with spreadsheets on a very old mac, the spreadsheet was basic, and did not have many commands, but it allowed the usual multiply div and subtract, enough to work out petrol us and millage, this I added to over the years to allow area calc, and working out ventilation rates for area or volume, it served...

The question I have, is should we learn how to use algorithms for Big Data , I am currently writing a paper on the use of IFC , IoT and big City data and my honest answer looking at all of this is yes, or at least if your not directly involved in it, at least understand it. This article Teaching Algorithms for Big Data, is a great starter, in understanding the concept, but at its very simplest its all about adding as much useful information to our specifications within a 3D drawing as possible. At best its great CPD, just trying to understand the very concepts and its impact on our detailing and design, not just as a single building, but as a large scale planning implementation Related articles How Big Data predicts and helps prevent train delays in Sweden Analyzing Big Data with Twitter - Lec. 2 - Growing a Human-Scale Service & the Twitter Ecosystem Discrimination by Algorithm 22 Big Data & Data Science experts predictions for 2016 Related articles ...

I am exploring today, the correct geospatial set up of a CAD model, so that it may be exported correctly to IFC. You may wonder why, well its simple really, to accurately describe the position of any material, located within a component, in any element, in a 3D model we need to use the X,Y,Z coordinates. In the past, we have relied heavily on the use of a simple grid to locate column positions, and to describe the position of say a door in a 2D model, and to some extent this will still work in a 3D model, but to accurately describing the failure point within a cavity wall to a computer program, needs a spacial grid, that is linked to the real world. Enter the use of a global position system, In the UK we use the National Grid Ordnance Survey   G eographic   Cartesian coordinates   system, or Eastings and Northings, its position can be linked to almost any other grid method from the various Lat Long methods, to the variety of country grids operating about the gl...