B4: Term Project Description

My project is an investigation into the automation of basic HVAC design, using Dynamo and manually created mechanical Revit families. The basic principles of Dynamo and family design for mechanical system components will be researched and then applied to a sample project, and then once refined, applied to my AE 391 building project. The family creation will not focus on in-depth modeling of the system, but more so generalized blocking of components to demonstrate how quick self-created, “dummy”, families can be used in conjunction with Dynamo, to perform a quick and accurate analysis for early HVAC system design.

The design will be applied to a simple project for testing and to my AE391 project. The AE 391 project is a building design project for a new academic, commercial and retail space on Drexel’s campus in Lot F. For the project, each of the building's systems, except electrical, must be designed. I intend to use Dynamo to simplify and automate the early mechanical analysis for the building.

My initial project idea was to create a detailed and fully complete mechanical family with numerous components. However, I decided to alter my project premise because I found the likelihood of an engineer at a firm actually creating a complete family quite low. Most companies already have their own sets of standard families for consistent design across the entire company, and if for specific design cases, equipment manufacturers typically have downloadable Revit families of their equipment.

I chose this project to develop my own skills with both Revit families and Dynamo, in order to acquire a better understanding of their capabilities and applications in the AEC industry. Hopefully, by the end of the project, I will have enough of an understanding of Dynamo to be able to apply it to my next Co-op or full-time job post-graduation, whenever automation possibilities arise. I am hoping that after completing this project, I will be able to identify things that can be automated in the daily regimen for a designer in the AEC industry, whenever I come by them in my career.  I think my biggest difficulty with this project will be the Dynamo programming due to my lack of Dynamo experience and the learning curve that comes with any new software.

Comments:

1) Albert,

It seems we are both trying to combine this project with our AE 391 project! I am excited to see what Dynamo scripts you come up with and what you are able to automate. Your idea to automate the dimensioning of the walls is a good one, considering how much time that took for our architectural assignment. I think I will also look into Lynda tutorials for Dynamo. I am hoping that by completing this project, I will become better at identifying tasks which could be automated. Good luck!

2) Maalik,

Interesting research topic! I like how specific the topic is. It seems you will have a lot of information to dig into for curtain wall assemblies. I know nothing about how curtain walls are installed, so I appreciate that you are planning to detail the conventional installation for curtain walls, and then how robots will affect or change that assembly. The potential of robots in construction seems to affect every discipline. It will be interesting to see how robots affect something as specific as curtain wall assembly.

3) Christian,

Once the technology becomes more accessible, augmented reality seems like it could be really interesting and effective in conjunction with traditional floor plans. I was also surprised by Derek’s discussion of AR, and how his firm is currently using it in some building designs. He made it sound like their current use of AR was quite limited, but the use of it at all is quite remarkable. The idea that you could directly compare as-built conditions with the model in real time, exactly where the forms are to be projected in a 3D environment sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. I am very interested in learning more about the current state of AR for the AEC industry from your project.