B6 - Class Reflection

Prior to taking AE 410/510, I was aware of Revit and databases as a concept, but I did not have a good understanding of what those systems were capable of.  Dynamo and grasshopper were also great software to get exposed to, as they allowed me to see where design firms in the architectural engineering and construction (AEC) industry is moving towards.  These, along with emerging technologies like robots, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, can expedite construction projects and ultimately save money.

How this class exposed me to the Revit software I believe will significantly help me in the future.  At my job as a consulting engineer in the AEC industry, I am involved on some of Philadelphia’s largest and most forward-thinking design teams.  BIM360, as mentioned in this class, is one of the databases that I have been using, and on the same project, Revit is also being used.  Using these two software together has been extremely helpful, where Revit is being used in the design process and communication between various trades for coordination.  Then, BIM360 is being used to track problems with a system once it is installed on site.  Similar methods to issue tracking and design can be created using different software, but this concept is extremely helpful for projects with an integrated project delivery (IPD) method.  Dynamo and grasshopper are also clearly helpful to the design process, although for the specific career path that I am working towards, I do not believe they will be applicable.

Databases I believe are more applicable to my future career.  Occasionally there will be a project with hundreds or thousands of different buildings where data for each one must be collected.  Alternatively, there may be a single building, but thousands of photos that can be categorized by location in the building or what type of work is being photographed.  Larger projects like the second one mentioned can take years, or decades to complete, and with photos being taken daily, this can add up very quickly.  Towards the end of said project, finding specific photos can be difficult, but utilizing databases and queries, it could be possible to find specific photos much faster, saving time, and making the overall process less arduous.

Comment 1 Kunlun Ren:

Kunlun, it is great that you were able to get the opportunity to learn Revit and Microsoft Access.  I was in a similar situation where I have been putting off learning Revit and other software for years now, even though I knew I could learn it and that it would be helpful.  This was because I was either always too busy, and I knew that it was not an immediate concern, meaning I could learn it later.  I liked that this course forced me to learn the software, although I also wish that Revit were taught earlier in the AE curriculum at Drexel to help with junior design and senior design.

Comment 2 Harvin Bhandal:

Harvin, good points bringing up the novice level assignments versus the experienced ones.  I loved how Professor Mitchell allowed us to decide every assignment what level we were at, and be graded fairly and accordingly to our skill level.  Students who have used Revit over their co-ops obviously were more experienced with the software, and could complete the experienced task, while students like me who are not as familiar with Revit could do the novice level assignment.  The same can be said about databases.  This also allowed everyone in the class to learn more about databases and Revit, since everyone was able to expand into new areas of the software that they were unfamiliar with before.

Comment 3 Richard Kimball:

Richard, that is really cool that you have been teaching yourself to code and learn databases on your own.  I have also been meaning to begin watching videos online to teach myself specifically how to learn the command prompt on a computer, as I believe mass file edits are a common task that I will be given.  Learning the syntax and commands involved with the command prompt will help me streamline these processes, and save significant amounts of time.  Like you, I also want to learn databases and coding, and this class has been a great jumpstart to me gaining that knowledge.

B6 Course Reflection - Alkiviadis Tsitsios

AE 410, Intelligent buildings has been a very beneficial course to me. Because of technological advances, the building industry is changing. The purpose of the course was to help us understand how these technologies affect the future of our professional career. In terms of design, construction, operation, renovation, and demolition, AE 410 has helped teach the role of information technology in these aspects. Through the review and discussion of articles, many topics have been touched on. The class has reviewed how BIM affects all parties of a project, like owners, architects, engineers, and contractors. It allows you to communicate with all parties, and eases the access of shared information. Additionally, the class discussed BIM technology’s relation to other drafting programs, like AutoCAD. Not only did the class discuss BIM technology, it also discussed database software. In particular, its relation to BIM, and in design, was emphasized.

One of the goals of the course was to become proficient in Autodesk’s Revit. I believe that after this class, I am much more seasoned in the software. There were various assignments and tutorials that forced students to become accustomed to its uses. These tutorials and assignments allowed me to become more familiar with the software. Previously, I had glanced upon the software, and was slow at navigating it. Now I can make my way around, and I am aware of the locations and functions of many of the tools. Additionally, training was instilled for the Database software. Assignments regarding this were helpful. While the training in both softwares were helpful, I believe with slightly more tutorials, as well as some more tutorials on how to correlated BIM with Database software would have been helpful. Nevertheless, the knowledge that I have gained through the assignments and the class will be carried on with me through my career. My first real exposure to BIM and Database software has been through this class. As I progress in engineering, I can always come back to the information that I have gathered in this class for reference. The course has been helpful in understanding the conceptual reasoning behind the use of the software, as well as administering the software for technical use.

ROBERT BORRELLI
I agree that the course is not what I expected. I am glad that we discussed and trained in the softwares. Initially, I thought that it would be an informative course, littered with structural calculations and a buildings relation to technology. The class did emphasize a buildings relation to smart technology, but through demonstration, rather than lecture and speeches.

HANYAN CHEN
Before the course, I already understood that there existed “smart” technology. I did not understand that an entire building could actually be intelligent. Even through the final project, there have been many instances shown where a building could indeed be intelligent. Not only is there automation in manufacturing, and advancements in robotics, there are also advancements in building, and that is intelligent building.



MAALIK KAPTUE
I agree that this course is a lot different than most. Like you said, I am also used to courses which emphasize heavy calculations. It was refreshing to take a course where guest speakers were frequent, demonstrations were helpful, and the ability to be creative was emphasized

Blog Post 6: Course Reflection

I did not have much of an idea of what the class would be like, but I am happy with what I got out of it. I enjoyed the fact that there was a wide variety of topics, especially ones that I did not know much about. I knew about Revit and Building Information Modeling, but I had not taken classes that discussed sensors, robots, or AI much at all. It was very useful to broaden my understanding of what goes into intelligent building and where future technology is headed.

I have a lot of experience with AutoCAD, but barely any experience with Revit. The Revit assignment was very helpful in getting me familiar with the program and the step-by-step instructions, as well as the video walkthrough, was very helpful. I would have liked a second part to this assignment that walked us through using Dynamo as well. The sensor database assignment was useful as well, both in creating a database in Access from scratch and from trying to find data on different sensors.

The lectures and videos on 3D printing, robotics, and AI were all very interesting to me. I had already seen some of the technology that was shown because of my personal interest, however, I had not been keeping up with the new developments. Being able to automatically 3D print buildings and other structures will cause drastic changes in our current infrastructure.

I enjoyed the guest lectures, especially Kayleigh’s because I had never heard of visual programming before. I had been thinking about looking for jobs in BIM so it definitely got me curious when she said, “BIM is dead.” However, this sent me down a path from Building Information Modeling to Visual Design and Construction to visual programming and generative design. Generative design was the topic of my project paper and I learned a lot about it.

Overall, this class was very helpful, and I will use what I’ve learned throughout my career. The discussions and blog posts taught me to research new technology and think/talk about what changes will occur. It is important to learn about future technology and stay ahead of it or else you will be left behind. 


Comments:
To Sean Reifer
I am jealous that you did your project on Dynamo. It was something that I wished the Revit assignment went into. I can learn it on my own, but as you mentioned, it is more challenging to work through it on your own. A video walkthrough detailing exactly what you are trying to accomplish is very helpful in learning quickly.

To Nick Maloney
I agree that we learned about a lot of different topics, but did not have enough time to go in depth with each of them. It was definitely useful to get some information from the various topics, but there are some topics that I wish we went into in more depth. I believe the idea of the project was to allow us to pick what topic we wanted to learn more about during the course and do our own research which worked well.

Yicheng Li
I also learnd a lot of new things about 3D printing, sensors, and databases. I agree that the blogs helped us learn about something new and write about them almost every week as well as read other people's findings. My project focused on generative design which could become a problem when it comes to reducing or eliminating certain jobs. However, I believe some jobs will remain and their tasks will be altered and some new jobs will be created due to the changes within each industry.

Blog Post 4: Project Outline

How Visual Programming Improves Upon BIM and What’s Next

The topic of my paper is going to briefly introduce what visual programming is and how it got introduced to the construction industry. It is interesting to think about because construction and programming historically haven't been related at all. I then will discuss some ways that visual programming currently improves upon BIM. The first use is programmed 3D modeling which allows users to change certain inputs into a program and a model will automatically be generated. This saves a lot of time and makes changes to a design simple which avoids headaches. Another benefit of visual programming is being able to transfer information between different software automatically. Taking data from an Excel sheet and manually inputting it into a different program or vice versa has been a very time-consuming process usually given to interns or new employees. However, with visual programming, the information can be transferred automatically once the code has been written. I will then discuss what the future looks like and what may replace/improve upon visual programming. One thing that could definitely replace visual programming is Generative Design which is AI that can generate many versions of a structure based on your parameters automatically. Architects will need to stay ahead of this so that they do not get phased out by the technology. 3D printing buildings could add to Generative Design in that buildings could eventually be designed and built completely with AI technology by just giving it certain design requirement inputs. Finally, I will summarize the points that I made throughout the report and give my personal predictions for what the future of the construction industry may be like.

Comments:

1. Albert Hanan
I like that you are trying to incorporate Dynamo in different, new ways that will improve your model and make it easier to work with. I think you should definitely take some time to research all the different ways you can improve the model like automatically inserting windows at certain dimensions throughout the building. You have a lot of time to incorporate new things into your project and it will be interesting to see how much more you can do.

2. Hanyan Chen
Your topic is very important for the future of sustainable design. It will be interesting to read the paper that you come up with by the end of the term. Hopefully, adaptable housing and sustainable design will become more and more popular. I am looking forward to hearing about the impact that BIM has on design style, sustainability, construction, and the real estate industry as a whole. 


3. Christian Tait
This is something that I am also interested in and I'm looking forward to hearing about your project at the end of the term. The applications that you mentioned are interesting and AR is already being implemented in other areas today that you could discuss. You may even want to discuss the pros and cons of VR vs AR and how each can benefit BIM in their own way.

B4 - Term Project Outline

Project Outline

Abstract

• Our team will be creating Revit Families needed for senior design, primarily electrical devices and fixtures. We will also be using dynamo to create sheets, schedules and manage data that is input into the model and families. The design process used to accomplish these tasks will be discussed in the paper.

Division of Labor

• Samantha’s Tasks:

• Place electrical devices

• Circuit devices?
• Schedules (creating and exporting)
• Report - document the steps used to create code
• Presentation

• Jennifer’s Tasks:

• Renumber Rooms by Level
• Project Setup (ex. Sheets and templates)
• Schedules
• Report - document the steps used to create code
• Presentation

Challenges and Limitations

• Dynamo uses visual nodes to help connect inputs and outputs to make accessing and repeating tasks easier.
• Challenges stem from never having used the program. We will have to learn how to build scripts within dynamo to eliminate typically repetitive and time consuming tasks in Revit.

Conclusions

• Use Dynamo to complete tasks within Revit more efficiently. In the first few weeks we intent to become familiar with dynamo by watching tutorials and following along. After we will attempt to write our own code to complete the outlined tasks in our senior design revit model.

Resources

• Lynda
• Coworkers who use Dynamo

Schedule

• W4 - Define tasks and watch tutorials
• W5 - Watch tutorials, follow along and work with practice models provided
• W6 - Begin to develop own script/ Rough Draft of Report
• W7 - Draft due/ Work on script
• W8 - Finish script/ Final Report
• W9 - Final Report due/ Work on presentation
• W10 - Presentation

*****

For this term project we will be creating Revit families for electrical devices and fixtures. We also will be exploring Dynamo, which both of us are beginners to. In Dynamo, we are going to create sheets and schedules that implement the families we've created in Revit. Instead of using code, Dynamo uses visual nodes to help connect inputs and outputs to make accessing tasks easier when they need to be repeated multiple times.

An example of a useful function of Dynamo is creating a full set of sheets with the same format instead of having to create each one by one. This can apply not only to creating sheets but also to editing font, changing page numbers, or any other command that be automated and applied throughout the project. You are also able to export you Revit data into excel sheets, which can be used for scheduling or inventory. Another unique feature of Dynamo is it's ability to help reduce time spent on simple design, such as classic classroom furniture layouts or glazing patterns.

Similarly to eQuest, Dynamo also allows you to analyze building function such as the amount of hours of daylight the building should expect depending on the month. By performing analysis on the building function before it's built, it can help reduce the amount of errors and reduce the amount of change orders, in turn reducing cost. You have the ability to create many tools to analyze the building, but they will not be exactly accurate to real life the main function is to evaluate based on objective data provided.

Cited Sources:

https://archsmarter.com/what-is-dynamo-revit/

Comments:

Sam Huttick-

Blog 4 - Project Outline - CT

This assignment required students to describe their projects and have other students review and suggest any improvements.

Introduction:
My project will involve the structural design of my senior design project. I chose this project because it will be directly related to the completion of my senior design project. I believe that this project is related to intelligent building because as we move forward with using softwares for engineering design, we cannot fully trust the results generated by computers. For this project, I will be testing the accuracy of some modeling softwares. I will be keeping a log of what I’ve done and the obstacles that arose, particularly with Revit, as I have almost no prior experience.
1. Explain the experiment
     a. Is there a control? Either nothing or my hand calc's

Testing:
I will be analyzing the beams, girders, and columns of 1 floor from using softwares such as Revit and SAP2000 and my hand calculations. The shear, moment, and deflection are particular results that will be used for comparison.
1. Prepare the Revit model and run the simulation, ~Week 7
2. Prepare the SAP2000 model and run the simulation, ~Week 6
3. Analyze the structure by hand, ~Week 6
4. Vary the parameters of the models to obtain different results, ~Week 7

Results:
After performing the experiment, I will attempt to statistically analyze the results. The mean and standard deviation are good places to start. ~Week 8

Conclusion:
Explain how useful the results are to the senior design project, how accurate they might be, and how others might be able to use them. Reflect on how the softwares have helped and how much more advanced they can get.


Comments on colleagues’ posts:

Albert Hanan

I would like to see how far Dynamo will enhance your project because I am also interested in learning about it for my senior design project. I am unfamiliar with the potential of Dynamo but I am interested to see if what you do with it can be applied to my work.

Christian Tait

I once saw a concept idea of incorporating GIS and AR together so that the locations of utilities underground can easily be located without having to read plans. This is actually feasible right now in Philadelphia as long as there is someone who is willing to combine all of the GIS models of every utility into one. From there, it is simply the AR side that needs to work and contractors will be able to use it immediately.

Hanyan Chen

My stance is that a computer cannot create something with aesthetics in mind because it has no understanding of what is artistic. Even when Prof. Mitchell showed us the video where a computer created music, the AI itself has no way of judging its work to be artistic or beautiful. Even if it is based on previous data from famous artists and musicians, it cannot tell if it looks or sounds pleasing to people. With that being said, I wonder how clients will appreciate a building done with AI through many iterations. I also don’t see an architect using AI if it hinders their creativity.

The Future of BIM

As continuing the discussion from the class, similar to the post from our group. I believe the BIM will have a bright future, but it could take more than 10 years for the technology to be practical in other engineering fields.

The major concern for me about the BIM and specifically the Revit to be more practical is the community. As for my own experience and research, most of the firms are still using AutoCAD as their priority tool to deliver their projects. Moreover, governments as the biggest clients in all countries, will pay a huge role here as we speak of the future of the Revit. For instance, my coop experience at City of Philadelphia uses CAD in all our projects and I do not see the changes will come sooner than later. The education of the Revit is still developing and not to mention the elder architects and engineers are more unfamiliar to Revit than recent graduates.

Contractor is also the obstruct for the practice of Revit to be practical, contractors are relatively less educated than the engineers and architects. However, they also need their key personals to be familiar with Revit. In fact, in the lecture of Revit by Autodesk university, there are only a few people works for the contractors. The amount of cost of money and time is huge, and the desire of Revit is relatively low.

Nevertheless, in the meantime, Revit is still advancing. The changes during a decade will be outrageous. Also, with the education on the BIM and relevant subjects, the future of the BIM technology and the use of the Revit is bright. Revit will be more intimate in construction industry with the development of the other technology like AI and robotics. As we speak of, some of the projects are already uses the robotics in construction or even uses the 3D printer for small units to the whole structure. These innovations will lead the development of the modeling tools like Revit and other BIM technologies.

In conclusion, I believe the future practical of the Revit will be significant in our field, but I think it going to take more than a decade for the changes to happening.

Jacklynn Lord: I agree with your post a lot. Your experience in AECOM is good to know. I believe the training of Revit is beneficial to all of us. The innovation is happening, no matter if it comes sooner or later. The problem between versions could be worth noticing when different parties are involving in a project. However, I do not think it will be hard to solve it in the future.

Hanyan Chen: I agree with you the sharing data repository is a key feature for Revit. The families can be sharing in Revit will help a lot regarding to connect the whole industry. The data repository will help the fields to better innovating. I believe it will help in delivering more intelligent and environmentally friendly designs.

Ren: I agree with you about the economic efficiency is a factor for BIM to be practical. The community lack of experience of BIM is also my concern. Some of these people even do not concern the new technology as opportunity to them but in the contrary, they regard it as the threats. I believe the BIM’s development leads and relies on the industry to development at the same time.

Blog post 3 - Technology in the AEC industry in 10 years

The technology used in the AEC industry has developed a lot since the computer became a common tool for everyone at the office. BIM have been implemented more and more, though in different levels. But the fully opportunities that BIM can give for the architects, engineers, contractors, and building owner are still only used few places compared with how large the trade is. How it will develop during the next 10 years is a very good question. I think that the implementation of programs like Revit will be larger and it will be a tool that almost very one in the trade will use during the next 10 years. The program have  been on the market since 2000 and is now taught for both architects and engineers at the universities as a necessary tool to know. So with young graduated engineers and architects working in the field during the next 10 years more and more will have the ability to use the tools and companies will have to use less money on training the employees. Though the license are very expensive so the company have to know how much time and money they can save by using the tool, before they invest in the program.

Though I think that the fully implementation of tools like Rhino/Grasshopper and Dynamo in the AEC industry will take more than 10 years. When the industry still have not fully have implemented Revit yet, which has been on the market for almost 20 years, I think it will take more than 10 years to implement the next steep of BIM. But I think that more and more people will start using the tools and see the many opportunities it can give to optimize e.g. the design, geometry, materials, and time. Maybe the implementation of the tools will develop in relation to the larger focus on sustainability, because the tools can be used to minimize the materials for the building and do integrated design easily. But I think it really depends on the size of the projects. For a large project the time which is put in the building up the models can be a large saving in the  end because it will be easier to change the parameters. But for a smaller project the time and money probably will not be saved in the end because only few changes will be made during the design, which could be done without the tools.

So to sum up my assessment of where the technology for the AEC industry will be in 10 years I think that Revit will be almost fully implemented but the next step of using the dynamic and parametric tools like Rhino/Grasshopper and Dynamo will take more than 10 years to fully implement in the industry.

Matt Mullen: Interesting that you also can use VR walkthroughs as a tool to minimize changes orders given by the owners, because they can see the walk around in the building before it is built. I think that also shows that more and more tools are being developed to investigate problems before they occur.

B3 - Future of BIM

From personal experience, I think BIM will be made the priority for training in the upcoming 10 years. Right now, it seems like the majority of big firms are currently using some version of AutoCAD. I work at AECOM and we use CAD Civil3D every day and throughout all of our projects. Most of our clients still utilize CAD and require we work in it as well. While CAD is a great tool, it isn’t as intuitive as Revit or other software, which is why we are starting to see a push towards BIM.

Recently, our team has been required to go through Revit training for one of our clients. Through the training, the PM has been discussing the benefits and limitations of Revit. The main use we see for our team is the cohesion of all disciplines working in one document. This crucial change will allow companies to grow and complete projects more efficiently. Another aspect to BIM is how user-friendly and intuitive it is with users. The only drawback right now to Revit is the lack of compatibility in between versions. For example, I did my entire A.1 project at work on 2019. The school computers only had Revit 2018, so I had to redo the entire project because there was no way to save back or convert or open a later version of the software. Once this issue is taken care of, I feel that BIM will be prevalent in all offices with CAD only as a backup for companies that have not made the push to advancing technologies.

Aside from just Revit, BIM and robotics are making a push now to become more widely used. In 10 years, the benefits will outweigh the costs and limitations for companies and I feel like it will be the standard for firms.

Comments:

Hailey Ihlow – I agree with your post. I’m seeing more and more companies look into the benefits of using Revit vs. CAD. In later years, the companies that have already made the push into Revit will be pursuing other programs while the rest of the world plays catch up.

Hanyan Chen – I agree that the use of robotics in construction will be the future. Why would companies spend time and money on man power when the potential for robots to perform is there? Also the companies are liable for workers on a job, whereas should something fatal occur while the robot is working, it’s much less cause for lawsuits.

Nana Rasmussen – I’ve never worked with Rhino or Grasshopper, which is why I can see your point in companies spending time and energy to train employees. I think that when these programs are more widely accepted, universities will start spending time offering courses on these topics.

Implementation of BIM for Engineers in 10 years

I would like to write this blogpost from the discussion in class last week. As I was discussing with my group last week, I believed that the AI of BIM could be implemented for Engineers in 10 years. After the class discussion from the other groups, I did start to wonder if 10 years might be too short time.

From personal experience with Rhino and Grasshopper I briefly learned to use in a course back home at DTU (Technical University of Denmark), I believe that this technology and parametric design will fast be implemented in the industry. More and more Architectural Engineering firms in Denmark are beginning to use theses design tools for parametric designs, why I believe that it will become more and more implemented in engineering firms. On the other hand, I found the programs very difficult to learn due to the complexity of the spaghetti like structure in which you build the model. Some of my fellow classmates picked up on how to use the program very quickly and they are very good at using it. People like these will easily get a job within this field. As we were discussing in class last week, a problem for implementing this AI of BIM is the time and cost, which made me realize that 10 years might be a little too short time for it to be implemented properly. Another problem in having this implemented within 10 years is the steep learning curve that comes with new technology and software. This technology needs to be implemented more widely at universities so students that will be joining the labor market after school have learned this technology and can implement it in the engineering firms. Another issue is the older generation of engineers. They will probably find it more difficult to adapt to this technology, just like when Revit was introduced. Some firms and engineers still use AutoCAD instead of Revit. This I believe will also be the case for AI BIM technology; it is the new generation of engineers that will be implementing this technology to the industry. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that I think 10 years is too short time, but AI BIM will be implemented more and more widely in the future.

Comments:

YIDI LI:

I also believe that BIM programs like Rhino and Grasshopper as showed in the video could also help make design decisions for reducing material cost and optimize a sustainable design. I agree that it will take more than 10 years to have this implemented.

Weiyi Tang:

I like how you describe the process of the 3D printing of houses and how it has developed. Here you say that you cannot predict how the 3D printing construction will go in 10 years. I don’t think that the Grasshopper and Dynamo will be fully implemented in 10 years. Yes, humans are making the decisions and the programs are providing the reasonable options, but the humans still have to learn to use and implement the technology and program, so I think it will take more than 10 years.

Jenny Fretta:

I also believe that BIM will have a significant effect on the productivity of building design in the future, from the experience from the past – how Revit has been implemented in many companies so far, making processes faster and less human errors.

Blog 3- What are the possible future advantages of Revit/BIM?

BIM helps collaborate project information for all parties involved using three dimensional design applications that make it simple for everyone to understand the project expectations. This includes, but is not limited to: scheduling, budgeting, operations, and maintenance. This will give companies a an advantage in organization, accuracy, and precision. This is especially useful in budgeting for projects because it is less likely for human error to occur if the program is taking into account the costs as you're creating it.

The programs included in BIM help make visualizing the project easy for the clients, while also allowing all the subcontractors to see what is expected of them and how their interactions with other subcontractors will be throughout the project. An example of this is creating 3D models and providing virtual tours for clients, which we can only assume will advance over time as the quality of graphics and design technologies enhances.

I think in the next 10 years we will not be able to print entire buildings, but we will be able to 3D print components and possibly expedite the process of materials gathering. I think we also will be looking at very advanced modeling, which can either translate to making Revit even more detailed and user friendly or allowing someone in virtual reality to manipulate and create their surroundings. I don't think that BIM is the only thing advancing in our field but I do think that it will have a significant effect on the productivity of building design.

Cited Sources:
(1) http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Accelerating_BIM_Adoption_Action_Plan.pdf
(2) https://futureofconstruction.org/blog/artificial-intelligence-meets-construction/
(3) https://futureofconstruction.org/blog/how-automation-and-technology-will-change-the-buildings-we-live-in-2/

Comments:
Hailey- I agree with you that Revit is much more common in the structural field than AutoCAD and that it's much more user friendly for people of all ages because it's more intuitive. I'm a little surprised that not many companies you've heard of or have had experience with aren't using these programs as much because I feel that eventually it'll be the standard of design.

Nick- I completely agree that someone without an extensive technological degree would be able to edit the AI parameters set by the user inputs. I think that in the next 10 years, the bugs of BIM programing will not be completely solved. But I do think the advancements will make things closer to realistic and allow the user to design more accurately.

Chapter 5: BIM for Architects and Engineers

BIM software can be used in every stage of the construction process. They are commonly used for developing construction level information and the design and analysis of building structures. Another helpful service that BIM software provides is the ability to coordinate design integration. These three services are imperative to intelligent building design. Google Sketchup, IES, Vectorworks, and Revit are several of the most commonly used softwares to mass buildings, meet programming requirements, conduct environmental analyses, execute energy analysis, and create construction level documents.

Revit is often used as a link to other software to reduce redundant design. If a Revit model is constructed well, the amount of redundant data input required from auxiliary software is minimized. Add ons for other software are available to perform even more specific tasks. For example, Apache HVAC, is used by IES to complete HVAC plant calculations. This is an area that I have personally worked in.  The advantage that a central BIM model provides over traditional drawings is that it can be analyzed directly and offers an array of information that can be extrapolated for engineers efficiently. [1]

Structural analysis can also be completed from a central BIM model. By using RAM, structural engineers can ensure design integrity under a varying set of design conditions. BIM also allows for efficient building scheduling. Revit can be used to assign material properties which can be extrapolated into tables within the software. Additionally, construction phases and design sets can be used for different building options and phasing for construction.

Additional advantages that BIM has provided over the course of its life include the fabrication and design of unique parts which was traditionally impossible. However, using BIM models, fabricators can take a 3-D drawing and manufacture abstract shapes. Another advantage of BIM software is the ability to value engineer. Engineers can analyze and compare different building systems to provide the most economical solutions to their clients. Additionally, the ease of early exploration of building massing and programming ensures that architects create the best experience for clients in a building.

Sources:

[1] Sacks, Rafael. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Designers, Engineers, Contractors, and Facility Managers. Wiley, 2018.

Comments:
Adam Raifsnider:

 I have also noticed the lack of access to 3-D models by smaller contractors. I think for BIM to reach its full potential, it is imperative that all parties involved in the creation of a building have access to 3-D models. I also think with the emergence of AI and 3-D printing on construction sites, we will reduce the need for subcontractors, and the subcontractors who do remain will have the technology to allow them to see a real time 3-D model containing addendums and changes to the original design.

Alec Silverstone:

 In order for contractors to make less mistakes in construction design, and for engineers to produce plans that accurately reflect what contractors will actually build, there should be contractors present during the design process of a building. I think contractors and engineers have a responsibility to coordinate physical construction to meet client demands and occupant safety.

Christian Tate:

 It has been the responsibility of engineers and architects to produce an accurate set of plans that reflect industry standards. It is interesting to think about the possibility of this being translated to three dimensions as construction documents shift away from paper and towards building models. Hopefully, this improves as design professionals will have standards built into the software they use.