CASE Releases Innovative Suite of Building Tools

admin — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:56:50 +0000

NEW YORK, New York - April 1, 2014 - After extensive research and user-testing, CASE is pleased to release the CASE Building Suite, a collection of building tools aimed for the AECO industry. Known for developing CASE Apps, the release of these customizable tools are poised to revolutionize the way the building industry manages building information.

“Whether it’s about rethinking the tools we use or finding new and innovative ways to advance the building process, we believe in exploring every possibility out there,” said partner David Fano. “Today’s tools just don’t cut it. The CASE Building Suite fills the void that the building process has been missing. There’s something for everyone and we’re confident that architects, engineers, contractors and building owners will adopt these tools with such ease that it’ll wipe away any fears about adoptability.”

Simple, tactile and user-friendly, the Building Suite increases productivity and efficiency while reducing the costs of software updates and hardware upgrades. CASE is passionate about developing the latest technologies and methods to help the building industry make better informed decisions and build better built environments. The Building Suite takes us another step closer to achieving that. To learn more about the CASE Building Suite, please visit the Building Suite website.

AU 2013: in review

admin — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:52:49 +0000

Lips cracked from dehydration, eyes blackened from exhaustion, we sat jaded in the back of a limo as we tracked past Venice, the Eiffel Tower, and New York. Autodesk University had ended and we were returning to the real New York. A woman sat next to me in the plane, blackened glasses hiding similarly blackened eyes, she instructed her friend “we are not going out this weekend” and promptly slumped into sleep. A week in Vegas does that to you.

This was my first AU. The scale is unfathomable. With as many as fifty sessions running in parallel, at best I saw 2% of AU. Taking into consideration all the parties, booths, and training opportunities, I probably saw less than 1%. It is therefore impossible for me to summarize the conference in its entirety although I can provide a summary of my experience.

The scale of AU speaks to the challenges of Autodesk. They have a huge development team serving an equally large range of customers. At AU I saw presentations on computational design, MEP services modeling, field based data capture, the simulation of wind, the creation of point-cloud data, the cloud, the future of manufacturing, and on and on. There was even more to be seen outside the architecture presentations I mostly occupied myself with. Considering the amount of iron they have in the fire, Autodesk do a remarkable job. But attending AU makes it easy to see why certain products, like Revit, may receive – what more than one delegate I spoke to called – ‘unremarkable’ updates for the next revision.

The two big trends I saw were: computational design and cloud-based services. I’ve already written to long posts on the computational design symposium and the Dynamo workshop. To recapitulate: Dynamo has quickly gone from being a proof of concept to being an enlightened new direction for Autodesk. As a visual programming interface with access to Revit’s API, Dynamo has the power to not only generate the complicated geometry synonymous with parametric modelling, but to also automate the complicated and time-consuming parts of Revit. The Dynamo development team is moving very quickly on this project, releasing everything as open-source software and eliciting community development through a plugin ecosystem. Carl Bass, the CEO of Autodesk, publicly blessed the project, both in the keynote and at the computational design symposium. This puts the development team undrepressure to deliver for 2014. By all indications they will. If I had any advice to give after seeing AU 2013, it would be to try Dynamo.

The cloud has been a focus of Autodesk for a number of years. At AU2013 they continued to push their growing range of 360 offerings and their subscription pricing model. Announced at AU2013 was CAM360, a cloud based product for machinists. According to Autodesk press release, this “provides users virtually anytime, anywhere access to flexible, next generation tools to create, simulate and turn their digital prototypes into physical reality”. I’ll leave you to decipher what that actually means. On a meta-level this means Autodesk are continuing to bank on the cloud as a way to ‘make it rain’ in the future. Whether the clouds cumulate above where Autodesk is positioning itself, remains to be seen.

In general I found the quality of the speakers at AU to be not much better than an Autodesk Press release. There were pockets of really engaging presentations, like the Computational Design Symposium and the Manufacturing Panel Discussion, but overall I was disappointed by the presentations that I saw. With so much going on, it is hard to know if I saw a representative sample or just encountered bad luck. Certainly one of the challenges of AU, and something I would put more effort into next time, is selecting the sessions when so much is going on.

To be honest, the presentations were primarily a side-show to the main attraction: the other 9000 people. Most of the major presentations could be watched at home, but being able to meet people face-to-face – often for the first time – was invaluable. The irony being that while we were all discussing the value of distributed, cloud-based work, one of the most valuable parts of the discussion was that it occurred in person rather than being mediated through the cloud. The truth being that while technology advances, success will always come down to the people.

The parties in Vegas are legendary. Autodesk University was no exception. As a newcomer and an introvert, parties are not always my thing, but I found the people at AU to be extremely welcoming and I had a good time at all the events I attended. CASE held two parties. A hackathon inside a bar where we all opened our laptops, did some coding, drank, and shared what we were up to. The next night we packed 500 people into the same bar and celebrated long into the night.

I can see why people don’t like Autodesk University. It is overwhelming, the presentations are not always brilliant, the venue is not to everyone’s tastes. Yet for all of that, I found it valuable to attend. I got to meet many of the people I’d only seen on Twitter, I got a feel for the vastness of the industry, and I got some insight into the issues we are collectively facing. But like the woman on the plane next to me, I’m about to slump into sleep and vow not to go out this weekend.

- Daniel Davis of CASE

Review day by day:

Other reviews of the week:

Links to key videos:

AU Day Three: Manufacturing is about to reverse itself

admin — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 19:24:37 +0000

I went to this session this morning on a whim. Expecting marking jargon and handwaving, I was surprised to be greeted by a panel of four people making their living by exploiting new manufacturing methods. They discussed the major trends, the limitations of patents, and where it might go. Transcript below.

Austin Carr, a senior writer from Fast Company gets up to introduce the session. Theme for today is the disruption and democratisation of the manufacturing market. For a long time Apple and Sony were the only ones that could be in the manufacturing market. This model is flipping on its head thanks to rapid prototyping, and crowd funding platforms like Kickstarter. Four speakers join him: Aaron Davies, Oculus VR; Alice Taylor, MakieLab; Nelson Zhang, Warehouse; Jay Rogers, Local Motors.

Austin: What has changed about the industry that has enabled you to start these companies?
Alice: Price and quality. Ten years ago this would have been impossible for any company without a lot of money. Our first prototype cost 120 euros.
Aaron: Smart phone advances – cheap, affordable, high quality components. Combined with 3d printing to quickly prototype ideas.

Austin: Will designed in American and built in China be the paradigm going forward?
Nelson: Manufacturing will stay in China for at least the next ten years, but what will change is that it will be much more assessable to smaller companies. Incubators starting to help connect designers to places like Foxcon.
Jay: I disagree. Making large things overseas is a bad proposition. Local manufacturing has a bright future. If you can make an object more simple you can make it locally much more easily. Taking weight and complexity out of the car to help this. You can’t have a world where things are made in one place and things are used in another place. You will go into a world where no one has control over what is made.

Austin: When is all of this going to take off, it always feels like it’s just ahead of us?
Alice: It’s like the early days of the web. Every one can see the potential, everyone know its coming, but it’s not here. We are the point where it is no longer a fantasy but prices are still hard at the moment. Margins are low because of the manufacturing prices.

Austin: What industries are going to be disrupted in the next year or two?
Jay: Any industry with lots of customers and lots of solvers (opposite of space shuttle). But to disrupt an industry is not the holy grail. There is a lot of manufacturing that needs to happen and that doesn’t necessarily take away from what already exists.
Aaron: There is a software component to design and there is a hardware component to design. I expect creation tools will transfer casual making like Minecraft into something more productive.
Alice: If big companies don’t move they will turn into something like Nokia. If you look at how fast Maker Fair has grown, every major company needs to be looking at it.

Austin: How did you get started, what was the challenge?
Alice: The main challenge was money. Half of my job is raising money.
Nelson: I started in China, and the maker movement in China really started in 2010. Because manufacturing is in China, if you are based there you can really quickly get something made and iterate. This wasn’t available in America. 3d printers are one example of making this easier. But this needs to happen for other things like electronics. A desktop circuit printer.

Austin: Advice do you have for young people coming up?
Aaron: The connection to the community is absolutely vital. Lots of great ideas come out of the community and they will surface good stuff.
Jay: Never stop making. If you don’t live next to the machine you won’t iterate and you won’t make. You should always know what the machine can do. You must learn what the machines can do.

Austin: In software software there is a trend towards small teams making huge companies like Instragram. Are we at that stage in manufacturing?
Alice: The margins on digital stuff isn’t the same as physical stuff.
Nelson: There are always going to be cost. The business model is going to be make stuff and give it in exchange for cash.
Alice: We are making stuff on demand, so that is new.
Jay: Silicon Valley VCs are chasing white whales looking for huge exits. But for entrepreneurs they might be able to skip the VCs and get funded by their customers.

Austin: What are the keys to getting funded by Kickstarter?
Aaron: I think ours came down to some promise of achieving the holodeck. The reduction in component prices meant it could be sold for $300, which wasn’t a huge risk for people. This price point is important.
Alice: We used a traditional VC. Three years ago Kickstarter suited add-ons for Apple but not dolls. Today you need a really good video, someone famous, and a really good mockup. There is also a random factor.

Austin: To Apple, design is about having a point of view. They direct the product, they tell the customer the best way. But now this is flipping on the head by giving power to consumers. How to do you balance these two competing paradigms?
Jay: We crowd source all our designs. That doesn’t mean it’s design by committee. You are not trying to cobble ideas together, you are trying to give the next Steve Jobs a platform to bring an idea to market.
Alice: I don’t know how you combine a single vision and leadership with constant feedback from customers. It’s a hard problem.
Nelson: Our philosophy is to get as much data as possible and work from there. Most important thing is understanding who your users are.
Jay: There is no single answer. You have people who have a vision like Steve Jobs, or you can be constantly testing. They are all just ways to come to the best idea that is out there.
Aaron: There are a bunch of companies putting out expected products. Apple will put out a new phone next year. The maker movement might not produce something that competes with Apple, but they might be willing to tradeoff things like time or unexpected products.

Austin: What will the world look like in five or ten years?
Aaron: The future will be a perpetuation of what we have now.
Jay: I bet on optimism and action every day. Why now? Because of the internet, we are transferring data and then able to make it instantly.
Nelson: Identify matters. For wareables it will be about self-expression. It’s not going to be a world designed by tyrannical individuals. Everyone is going to be a designer, maker, and consumer.
Alice: Machines are a distributed manufacturing network – like the internet. Once the network is up, it’s just going to grow. Patents are about to expire, which will make some machines cheaper. It will become completely normalised, it will just be there and assessable.

Question from the floor: What are you selling: the process or the product?
Alice: The process is part of the product, they are completely intertwined.
Jay: Starting out we thought the process would be more important. But now we have come to realise, like Alice, that they are completely intertwined.

Question from the floor: The materials are still really expensive. Is anyone thinking about how to reduce the price?
Alice: It comes back to the patents. You buy our machine and you have to use our material or it will void your warranty. There is no market for 3rd party materials because people are terrified of breaking their machines. Once the patents come down there is a potential for a significant reduction.

Austin: Two take aways: the world will soon be 3d printed; patents suck.

- Daniel Davis of CASE

AU2013 Day Two: Computational Design Symposium

admin — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 01:52:31 +0000

The Computational Design Symposium occupied this morning. Organised by Matt Jezyk, the theme for this year was ‘computational BIM’. This has been a trend emerging at this year’s AU, and the symposium’s timing felt perfectly poised to capture, catalyse, and reiterate some of that building energy.

Computation is clearly something Autodesk is anticipating will become an even bigger part of their market. This was underscored by the Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass, giving a shout-out in the keynote and then introducing today's session and staying to hear some of the presentations.

For someone that runs a billion dollar software company, Carl Bass is impressively up-to date with the nuances of what must be an incredibly small part of his overall responsibilities. Coming from a programming background, Bass seems very comfortable talking about computation and, by reports I’ve heard, actually uses computational software like Dynamo on his personal projects. I’m a hard critic to win over, but I was fairly awestruck by Bass and by what he had to say.

From Autodesk’s perspective, computational design is one area (probably the only area) where architects are leading the other design industries. Bass hinted that Autodesk were interested in applying to other products and industries what architects were doing. In this sense, computational design perhaps isn’t an incredibly small part of the company, but rather a major direction in the coming years.

In the architecture industry, we are starting to see computational design become less about curvaceous shapes and more about the business of getting work done. The selection of speakers Matt Jezyk curated all fell into this category, with computation being applied on actual projects and in a much more diverse sense than typically discussed. Nathan Miller and I spoke about projects happening at CASE, but leaving us aside, I think the curation of speakers, the quality of speakers, and the format, was the best I’ve seen at any computational design conference – and I’ve seen a lot of them! Below if a brief summary of all seven talks from the morning.

Jonathan Schumacher, Thornton Tomasetti
Jonathan kicked off the session talking about a number of projects at Thornton Tomasetti. The discussion focused on how computation was changing their design process. Perhaps most impressive was a section titled ‘service as a software’ where he discussed the possibility of parallel analysis rather than the typical linear exchange of data backwards and forwards. Much of this was powered by a cloud-based tools Thornton Tomasetti had developed that allowed their clients to upload model data and receive analysis almost immediately.

Greig Paterson, Aedas R&D / UCL
Greig is a PhD candidate at UCL and a researcher at Aedas. He started off with this remarkable graph of how analogue data has rapidly grown in the last thirty years, and how digital data has exploded in the last ten years. Greig made the argument that we now had a lot of data associated with environmental performance, but that we were still terrible at predicting the energy use of buildings. Greig calls this gap between predicted performance and actual performance the ‘performance gap’. By his estimations, the gap is as large as 50%, meaning a building might use twice as much energy as predicted. He offered a number of reasons for this. They generally came down to the analysis software making bad assumptions about how the building would be used. In the questions afterwards, Greig also suggested that architects could tweak the parameters to simulations to get desirable predictions (important for satisfying clients or regulatory bodies). To counter this, Greig is in the process of designing early stage analysis software that takes the performance data from built buildings and uses it to predict the performance of future buildings.

Antony Viola, Adrian Smith + Gorden Gill
'Form Follows Performance' was the title of Anthony’s presentation. He showed a number of super-tall buildings and the analysis software needed to keep them standing up. A subject that came up in Anthony’s presentation, and a number of other presentations today, was analytic dashboards. More and more we are seeing these high level summations of data used to help inform design decisions and make tradeoffs in the design process. At Adrian Smith + Gorden Gill there were a number of dashboards used to help interdisciplinary teams optimise and hit performance targets.

Nathan Miller and Daniel Davis, CASE
The positioning of Nate and my talk was quite fortuitous. The three speakers that had gone before us had all discussed how computation was making their design process more messy and more iterative. Nate and I expanded on this theme, arguing that the typical conception of BIM as a linear process (from big details to small) was being challenged by the inclusion of computation in the process. We showed a number of projects that CASE has worked on where the linear process either bifurcated into a branching of design explorations, or centred around measurement of design options, or twisted back upon itself to become iterative, or spread through a mesh of interoperability. In doing so we hopefully demonstrated how computation was not about building a good model but about facilitating a process that leads to good decisions that result in a better buildings.

Scott Crowford, LMN
Scott showed off a number of acoustic tools LMN have used on recent projects. Many of these can be found on the LMN blog. Scott argued that if the projects are always changing, and the requirements always changing, the only place to achieve rigour was in the process. It was a good demonstration of how computation can be applied in other fields. For acoustic designers, their role has traditionally focused on analysis, and Scott’s talk showed how the inclusion of computation shifts the discussion to be much more about discovering possibilities. I expect Scott’s talk is prototypical of many others we will see in the coming years as more fields are folded into the computational design world.

Jeff Vaglio, Enclos Studio
Jeff stepped through a stunning project, the Fulton Street Transit Centre. The most interesting part of this was how the parametric model was used to improve the project’s constructability. Jeff explained how the foundations in the model were flexible, so they could be precisely positioned once the surrounding structure was constructed. With the foundations in place and the form finalised, they then used the model to produce an extremely detailed animation of the project being constructed, which helped explain the process of construction to the contractor and the people tasked with doing the work. It was an interesting application that I’d never considered before but that has immediate benefits.

Enric Ruiz-Geli, Cloud 9
The session was concluded by Enric Ruiz-Geli. I saw Enric present at Smart Geometry two years ago and I am a huge fan of his work. He has a number of amazing project and a provocative outlook on the industry. He challenged architects to spend money on research rather than steel, arguing that the investment in research on the Media-ICT building recouped the cost by using 25% less steel than comparable buildings. He said many people at AU were talking about budgets, but none talked about the economy. With construction making up a largest portion of the world’s economy, it was important to take seriously the potentials for savings in an industry he clearly saw as wasteful. Enric walks the talk, and achieves impressive results. Enric concluded by saying the Carl Bass wasn’t the boss, the tree (and nature) is the boss, which brought the session full circle as Carl had spent some time discussing the possibilities designing architecture that grows like a seed. All exciting possibilities that left me wanting more.

- Daniel Davis of CASE

Autodesk Day One: Keynote

admin — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:03:40 +0000

The Autodesk keynote is absolutely packed. I’m down the back with the plebs because Autodesk deems that Design Reform is not worthy enough to be granted a spot on the bloggers table. So I’m here bringing you the view of the common people.

Upbeat dance music is pumping and about five-thousand people are shuffling into a large, converted warehouse cast in Autodesk-green light. The Autodesk logo is on screen, spinning in three-dimensions like a Microsoft Screensaver from the XP days. The atmosphere feels placid rather than palpable.

And it’s on.

An advertisement from Dell. Generic shots of architects turning a literal napkin sketch into a building. Advertisement from HP. Interviews with real people using HP computers to design some pretty sweet cars. Advertisement from Intel. Lots of hollow catch-phrases like ‘limitless imagination’. I declare HP the winner of the advertisement battle, they were the only ones to keep it real.

Now more screensaver.

And it’s really on.

It starts with a huge long disclaimer slide. Penn and Teller are kicking things off. Penn declares the disclaimer ‘bullshit’. It’s like he can read my thoughts – well he is a magician. Teller’s head is in a box. I wonder if this is metaphor…

Another advertisement, this time for Autodesk. Graphics of cars crashing, buildings coming together, scenes from movies presumably using Autodesk software. The screen warps around and is about 30 metres long showing a main image and a background. Amazing setup.

Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski is on stage. “The illiterate of the 21st century are not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”. Talking about ‘mindsets’. Today’s world is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). What is the right mindset for this kind of environment? Breakthrough innovations do not come from books telling use to do what we have always done. Jeff says we need to look outside ourselves.

Outside the tools. ‘Infinite computing’. Jargon for having unlimited computing power via the cloud. ‘Search first, make second’. Look for what is already out there, and then start designing. ‘Reality computing’, scan what exists and the only model the new parts. ‘You no longer need to own our own tools’. Clearly trying to prime the audience for the Autodesk subscription service.

Outside the people. Most of the smartest people work for someone else. ‘Global, virtual, exchange’ is Jeff’s term for open-source. The main limitaiton is with our traditional mindsets.

Outside the work. Both as professionals and companies. As a professional you should be doing not only what you need to do, but what you don’t know you need to do. Go to random classes at AU. Companies can do the same by moving into new markets. ‘Reverse mentoring’, young people teaching the old. ‘Reverse innovation’, I don’t understand what this means but somehow GE used it to make a medical device.

Jeff is going to make one final point. "It doesn’t actually matter if you actually achieve an impossible goal, what matters if do something significant while trying to achieve an impossible goal".

Carl Bass is up. His favourite activity is visiting his customers. Going to run through a number of people using Autodesk products. Guitar company using Autodesk360 to make custom guitars. Carl brought one of those guitars and now he is playing it on stage.

Aston Martin using Autodesk to design their latest car – Sketchbook Pro, Alias, CNC clay model, hand sculpted to refine, laser scanned, imported back into Alias. Running through all of these projects extremely quickly, not at all focusing on the software, just giving a few stats about how the project improved.

Next company is Porex, who use PLM 360 to make valves. Another company that used Autodesk360 to design a prosthetic leg. ‘Like Facebook for engineers’. Also used the newly announced CAM360, the first cloud based manufacturing software.

Now he is talking about people making Denver International airport using BIM360 Glue, which allows access to project information anytime, anywhere. They are also using BIM360 Field, which allows access data in the field. RECAP to pull the existing building into the project.

Next company is BioLite, a Brooklyn based company that build a wood burning stove that burns as clean as propane. I missed the software that they used, but they made a huge stove 500 times as big as their normal stove.

Bot&Dolly, a company from San Francisco that uses cameras attached to robots to make movies like Gravity and the Box video. Hugely impressive demo real. Now there is a disco ball on a robot with spotlights targeting it while Kanye plays.

And with that, the Autodesk keynote is over. No product announcements, no vision for the future, no indication of where this is all going. All in all, a fun hour but not nessesarily inspiring.

- Daniel Davis of CASE

Computation for BIM: AU2013 day zero

admin — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 03:02:54 +0000

CASE has arrived in Las Vegas. The neon lights are shining outside, but we are inside staring at the lights of computer screens. Like the degenerate gamblers outside, we are lined up row-to-row pushing buttons and hoping for the architectural jackpot. It’s a long time coming. It’s Autodesk University.

Our first day at AU was spent in the Computation for BIM symposium. By ‘computation’ Autodesk means Dynamo. Two years ago when Ian Keough demoed Dynamo at AU, it was – by his own admission – not quite ready. Dynamo was rough, buggy, and lacking many basic features. Dynamo looked like an off-brand Grasshopper; a poor bootleg with overdubbed dialogue.

Two years later, it could be argued that Dynamo has started not only to match Grasshopper but to exceed it in a number of key places. The interface is polished, the API is being to be fleshed out, and there is a community beginning to use it.

Compared to Grasshopper, Dynamo’s killer feature and Achilles heel is its integration with Revit. The primary benefit of this integration is that Dynamo can interact with the data inside a BIM model. Rather than generating plain geometry, Dynamo generates objects that can be used directly inside Revit. Dynamo can potentially use any part of the Revit API, giving it the power to do things like automating sheet-sets, automating the instantiation of Revit Family objects, and automating many day-to-day pragmatic modelling activities. In this sense Dynamo becomes a tool not only for creating points, lines, and surfaces, but also for managing the BIM model and the data that flows through it.

The major downside of Dynamo being tied to Revit is that creating Revit objects is naturally slow. While Dynamo has it's own geometry engine (that I still need to benchmark) any interaction with Revit - the key attraction - is dependent upon Revit's speed. In the demos today even basic operations often tied up the computer for seconds at time.

It is therefore perhaps unfair to think of Dynamo and Grasshopper as competitors. Grasshopper helps make geometry, Dynamo helps manage data. They are two related but distinct paradigms.

Having said that, Dynamo’s team of engineers are iterating significantly faster than Grasshopper’s sole developer, David Rutten. Many of the Dynamo features demoed at AU this year are features yet to be built into Grasshopper and schedualed for version 2.0:

Add-in manager: There is already a growing library of add-ins available for Dynamo (including Nathan Miller’s Lunchbox). Rather than going out and downloading each of these from every individual developer’s site, there is a universal interface within Dynamo that handles the installation and updating of add-ins. This should alleviate many of the frustrations of receiving a definition only to find that you need to scour the web for a special add-in in order to run the definition.

Better-code editor: The code editor in Dynamo is always visible in the graph. Any changes to the code immediately change the model. This live programming paradigm has been explored in the past, but this is the first time that live programming has been implemented as anything other than a proof of concept. The advantage for the user is that they receive immediate feedback as to what their code is producing, saving them from the intermediate steps of compiling and running code. Another neat feature of the code editors is that it automatically generates the parameters and outputs for the code block. This also works in the formula tool. In places the code editor is still rough, most notably it doesn’t yet support autocomplete (although it’s on the roadmap).

Node-to-code: Dynamo can covert a group of nodes into a block of code. This helps simplify the graph replacing a tangle of nodes with a single code block. Autodesk also claims it helps people learn textual programming since they can first create a visual program and then see the corresponding textual code. Having used similar systems in the past, I remain sceptical of this claim. Most automatic programming systems produce mangled, ugly, inbred code. Judging by the code produced during the demo, Dynamo has no secret sauce to cover that wreckage.

Multi-threading: This wasn’t discussed in great detail, but it seemed that many of the .NET multi-threading functions worked natively inside Dynamo. We will have to investigate this further since single threaded applications are one of the major limitations to script execution speed.

There are a number of other neat interface features:

Each node has a it’s output values listed below the node.
A preview of the geometry that is rendered behind the graph.
.NET dlls work as an add-ins just by dragging them in, without needing to compile them in a special framework.

However, it’s not all beer and skittles in the Dynamo world. The offensive yellow node background remains – please just change the colour already! As mentioned before, the interaction with Revit is slow and unlikely to get any faster. Design Script remains an ugly language, with an ugly vocabulary. The Design Script demo, which was admittidly an early pre-alpha, failed constantly. It feels like they are throwing good money after bad by still trying to make Design Script at thing when they already have a range of sucessful languages integrated (C#, Python, .Net).

With all that said, the Computation for BIM was an exciting session to attend. It really feels like Dynamo is coming into it’s own. It’s matured past the point of being a Grasshopper clone and is starting to find a direction in the management of building information that is totally unique. For the most part, the platform seemed relatively stable. There is still obviously a lot of work needed to expand the libraries and add features, but it seems likely that Dynamo is going to shine in 2014. I imagine many firms who wouldn’t have use for a tool like Grasshopper will find neat ways to automate parts of their design process using this quickly maturing Dynamo.
- Daniel Davis of CASE
- Edit December 5, 2013: Changed the text to clairify that any slowness comes from the interaction with Revit rather than Dynamo. Added a clause pointing out that the Design Script demo was early pre-alpha.

Practice 2.0: 10 Years of SmartGeometry

admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:26:27 +0000

Practice 2.0 is CASE's ArchDaily column focusing on technology and innovation in the building industry.
For the full article and images, click here.

Practice 2.0: 10 Years of SmartGeometry

admin — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 21:20:03 +0000

Practice 2.0 is CASE's ArchDaily column focusing on technology and innovation in the building industry.

For the full article and images, click here.

Composites in Architecture Conference, May 15 in Denver, CO

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:59:47 +0000

Using composites in architecture will be the topic of a one day conference in Denver, ”A Vision for the Future of Composites in Architecture – Where We Go From Here, and Why” May 15, 2013. The day will feature a keynote address by visionary architect and designer Greg Lynn, and an impressive lineup of speakers presenting technical insight in-depth. All sessions have been approved by AIA, for a total of 7 hours of LU/HSW continuing education credit.

This first-time emphasis on the use of this rapidly emerging material system for architectural applications is part of the ACMA’s (American Composites Manufacturers Association) semi-annual Corrosion & Construction conference, focused on the long-standing use of composites for highly corrosion resistant systems and infrastructure applications.

Click here to register for the event!

SOM and CASE Launch AEC Industry's First Crowdsourced, Web-based Resource for Sharing Innovative Tools and Technologies

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:38:30 +0000

AEC-APPS democratizes how building-industry tools are created, discovered, and shared

April 15, 2013 New York, NY - AEC-APPS (aec-apps.com) is the first Web-based library of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) applications built by and for digital tool users and toolmakers, who share a common interest in the evolution of innovative technologies. Conceived, designed, and maintained by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (www.som.com) and CASE (www.case-inc.com ) to lead the industry toward a model of collaborative knowledge and technology exchange, AEC-APPS connects tools, from snippets of code to established software platforms, and people, from educators and students to practitioners and hobbyists. Part Wikipedia™, part GitHub™, AEC-APPS is a not-for-profit online community that fosters knowledge sharing and problem solving across disciplines, software platforms, geographic locations, and experience levels.

“Innovation in digital tools is changing the nature of practice, and it’s being driven by many players in different parts of the AEC industry, but they are not often aware of one another’s efforts,” notes SOM’s Technical Director Nicholas Holt. “We saw an opportunity to bridge the awareness gap by creating a new kind of social-media hub for the building industry, where tool users and toolmakers could share ideas on equal footing, from students scripting in universities, to entrepreneurial incubators in the basements of Brooklyn, to the developers at Dassault, Bentley, Autodesk, McNeel, and other major contributors.”

“Developers are constantly creating new tools and applications to improve building design, construction and management. The pace at which these tools are released is rapidly increasing and frankly, overwhelming even for the most savvy of tool users,” CASE Partner David Fano observes. “With this wealth of knowledge scattered all over the Internet, AEC-APPS will exist as the primary resource for the AEC industry to not only stay up-to-date with the latest technology but to evolve their own practices as well.”

In the constantly expanding universe of digital tools dominated by established developers, opportunities for sharing practitioner-driven innovation are limited. Populated by a diverse, ‘maker-driven’ user group, AEC-APPS’s crowdsourcing initiative democratizes tool creation and selection, allowing designers to control their own tools and independent toolmakers to compete on a level playing field. Membership is free and open to the public.

AEC-APPS has three primary components: User Community, App Kits, and Apps. AEC-APPS’s registered users are architects, engineers, contractors, allied design professionals, students, academics, researchers, computer scientists, artists, software developers, and enthusiasts. They post, rate, review, describe, and discuss apps to leverage existing tools and collaborate on the creation and sharing of new ones. The community is largely self-regulating so that no one entity, group, or tool is artificially elevated.

Each user has an App Kit that can be browsed by other users and followers in the community, in which they collect and share applications. Apps, which are presented in a democratically crowd-sourced hierarchy, range from commercially marketed programs to user-created scripts, assets, and utilities. This toolbox approach encourages exploration of existing technologies and provides a shared space for development, customization, and creation of new tools.

Following a four-month beta period, AEC-APPS currently hosts more than five hundred users who have posted some eight hundred apps for use in the design, construction, and operation of buildings, from enterprise software to plugins and other tools.

About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban-planning firms in the world, with a 75-year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,600 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award—in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.

About CASE
CASE exists where building and technology intersect. They combine their experiences as architects, engineers, projects managers, software developers and educators with a passion for technology to improve the way buildings are designed, built and operated. CASE is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) and integrated-practice consultancy based in New York City, and provides strategic advising to building design professionals, contractors and owners seeking to supplant traditional project delivery methods through technology-driven process innovation. Recognized as industry-thought leaders on the integration of technology and BIM principles, CASE helps the building industry identify, implement and manage the technologies and business practices that enable more effective coordination, communication and collaboration.

Smartgeometry Conference in London, Apr. 19-20

admin — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:52:46 +0000

Smartgeometry will take place in London, UK from April 19-20. The conference brings together the brightest industry leaders and showcases the most innovative tools, technologies, and methodologies in one event. As co-founder of the event, Bentley will be sponsoring this year’s Smartgeometry conference as it returns to London where it all started ten years ago. The theme "Construction for Uncertainty" focuses on the transition of computational design from the hard space of the ideal to the soft reality of an uncertain built environment.

The conference consists of a two-day conference that includes a Talkshop, Symposium, and Reception. Renowned speakers will share their insight and expertise during the conference that follows a hands-on four-day workshop, where 100 participants explore various ways using advanced technology.

CASE Apps: Free Migrate Parameter to Parameter

admin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:38:58 +0000

Have you ever needed to schedule an item of data that Revit would not let you? This is a common hurdle for many and now there's a free tool that you can use to get around this. Common uses include migrating Wall Base Constraint Element Names (Levels) into a schedulable parameter. I'm sure you guys will find lots of uses for this one.

http://apps.case-inc.com/content/migrate-parameter-parameter

CASE Apps: Free Family Exporter

admin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:34:50 +0000

We are all aware that Revit can export families to a library, but the control that you get is less than sufficient for large models. This exporter will organize your families into subdirectories matching the names of the category that the family originated from. This tool obviously will not be able to export system families or in-place families of any kind :(
http://apps.case-inc.com/content/export-families-rfa-files-category

Sneak peek of CASE Apps Grasshopper Plug-in

admin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:27:05 +0000

In the past few weeks, Nate Miller has been posting video previews of new components for a new CASE Apps Grasshopper plug-in, which will be released soon. Just to give you an idea of what to expect, check out Nate’s videos which demonstrate creating and updating of Revit Levels and Grids and an Unroll Surface and Brep tool. We can’t deny that it’s looking pretty sweet!

CASE Is Hiring Smart People

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:51:36 +0000

Do you love figuring out the building process? Do you REALLY love figuring out how to use technology to build better? Do you live or want to live in New York City? If you answered “You’re Damn Right I DO!!” to all of these questions then we want to talk to you about working at CASE.

Here is what we are looking for: folks that are critical thinkers about process, folks that work smarter not harder (we need to save time for Ping Pong, Video games and that wonderful thing called the weekend) and most importantly, process oriented thinkers. Even though we are NOT a design firm, we need people that think like designers.

Right now we are looking for a person that enjoys sharing knowledge. Were you that person in school or at work that was always excited to show people a better way to do something? At some point did you find yourself thinking, ” I should just run a workshop and teach people how to do this stuff?” We need people who are excited to get in a room with a group of leading professionals (our clients) and help teach them the processes and tools to deliver amazing projects.

So, if you want to work with really fun, smart, exciting people and with the world’s best Architecture, Engineering and Construction firms you should drop what you’re doing and send us an email at I_want_to_work@case-inc.com with a brief note describing how you meet the qualifications above, a resume and some work samples.

We look forward to hearing from you!

CASE

CASE at Percona MySQL University in Montevideo UY, Feb. 5

admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:51:08 +0000

For those of you out in Montevideo UY, mark Feb. 5 on your calendar because Senior Software Engineer (and all-around awesome guy), Diego Sapriza will be the guest speaker at Percona MySQL University. The one-day event will take place at ORT University and is designed to educate and inform developers and system architects on the latest MySQL products, services and technologies. The event is free but be sure to register and say hi to Diego!

CASE at London Revit User Group, Jan. 16

admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:23:59 +0000

Who better to demonstrate the cool new features of FormIt and Vasari workflows than David Light? If you’re lucky enough to be in London, UK then join DLight at the London Revit User Group meeting on Jan. 16 for a presentation on this and more.

CASE 2-Day Revit Workshop, Jan. 29-30

admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:18:33 +0000

If you’ve resolved to learn Revit this year then you may want to consider signing up for a CASE led 2-day Revit Essentials Workshop on Jan. 29-30. The full day (9a-4p) workshop held at CASE HQ will cover an introduction to BIM and attendees will gain a fundamental understanding of Revit, including the project environment and custom family creation.

There will be plenty more workshops in the next coming months if you can’t attend this session so email learning@case-inc.com for further information or to register for the workshop.

Try FormIt to win Revit!

admin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:18:39 +0000

DesignByMany has announced its latest challenge sponsored by Autodesk! This challenge will take advantage of the new FormIt iPad app released by Autodesk at this year's Autodesk University.
Link to challenge: http://www.designbymany.com/challenge/formit-university

Description:
The challenge is to design a school campus in Mumbai using the new Autodesk FormIt iPad App. This slightly primitive but full of potential school campus, dubbed FormIt University, will consist of four classroom buildings, a lecture hall, a gym, an administration building, and parking. Each building/program must be within the required square footage requirements given below. Floor heights will not be assumed, so therefore they must be set for each mass/building/support space for judges to check for total floor area requirements. The campus is also wanting to stand out above the rest and desires a distinctive landmark. The design of the landmark is completely open to interpretation, but must be separate from any other building and distinctly different.

About FormIt:
The FormIt mobile app was just released at Autodesk University in November and is the first of its kind. FormIt helps you capture building design concepts digitally anytime, anywhere ideas strike. Use real-world site information to help create forms in context and support early design decisions with real building data. Experience a continuous Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflow by synchronizing designs in the cloud for further refinement using Autodesk Revit software products and other applications.

Objectives:

Create compelling and beautiful architectural design concepts and form creation.
Remain within defined Program area requirements.
Maximize tool set utilization. (Special attention will be given to those who take advantage of all the tools available in FormIt)

Robert Aish talks DesignScript at AIANY Center for Architecture, Dec. 12

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:51:33 +0000

Join Robert Aish, Director of Software Development at Autodesk, as he discusses “DesignScript: Integrating Multiple Disciplinary Tools to Create a New Design Environment” at the Center for Architecture this Wednesday, Dec. 12 from 6-8pm. The event is free but space is limited so reserve a seat online.

Location:
Center for Architecture, Tafel Hall (Lower Level).
536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY
Admission: FREE; AIA CES Learning Units: 1.5

This program targets firm principals, studio leaders, and other professional staff focused on innovative approaches to design. This presentation will discuss how DesignScript is addressing these issues and will include a walkthrough of the recently released version available on Autodesk Labs.

Computational design is well established as an essential aspect of innovative architectural design, building engineering and digital fabrication. As we move to the second generation tools, new challenges are emerging: How to make computational design tools which are suitable for a range of programming skills from the novice to the expert? How to build systems that scale from simple to complex projects? How to progress from discipline specific applications to tools that support multi-disciplinary design collaboration at a computational level?

Robert Aish is a Director of Software development at Autodesk responsible for the development of DesignScript. He previously developed Generative Components at Bentley and is a co-founder of SmartGeometry. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London and has a Ph.D. in human computer interaction.

CASE will discuss CASE Apps at NYC RUG, Dec. 4

admin — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Our main man, Don Rudder, is scheduled to demonstrate some current CASE Apps at the NYC RUG meetup, “Creating Add-On’s with Revit’s Software Programming Interface” on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m. If you’re in NYC, we highly recommend checking it out. This is your chance to find out how to get the best out of CASE Apps and learn the inner workings of Don’s brain.

If you’re unable to attend the event, the presentation will be recorded and posted up in a week or two so be sure to check back on NYC RUG for updates.

CASE joins Autodesk for Vasari Talk tomorrow, Nov. 21!

admin — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:04:47 +0000

Last minute notice but CASE’s Nathan Miller joins Autodesk’s Zach Kron and Matt Jezyk for a sneak peek at some of the classes they are teaching at Autodesk University 2012.

Register now and log on tomorrow, Nov. 21 at 11:30am EST, as they will cover the latest developments in Python scripting and Dynamo visual programming. Zach will also provide an overview of his class on complex parametric arrays and discuss various methods of repeating rigs. If you’re heading to AU, this sneak peek will totally get you psyched for some ultimate greatness in the next coming days - we are!

Winner Announced for Bus Shelter Challenge!

admin — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:10:50 +0000

The winners of the Autodesk sponsored DesignByMany Bus Shelter Challenge has been announced! The winners and their prizes can be found here!

Coming Soon: AEC-APPS.COM Private Beta

admin — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:52:35 +0000

Great software is now being put to market every day by both major companies and independent developers alike. AEC-APPS.com is CASE and SOM's answer to this growing industry problem: too many applications impacting the AEC industry and not enough time to keep track of them all.

AEC-APPS.com brings order to this overflowing cornucopia of tools by helping users find apps specifically for the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings - from the largest of enterprise software to the tiniest of plugins. Members can add apps from the database to their personal App Kit, a software tool chest that is public to other members. App Kits allow users to stay in the loop on what software is important to them, follow the apps their industry peers are using, and also find new tools that might otherwise remain lost in the internet ocean.

Head on over and sign up for our private beta at aec-apps.com!

Import OpenNURBS for Vasari is here!

admin — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:52:48 +0000

CASE is excited to announce the Beta release of Import OpenNURBS for Autodesk’s Vasari Conceptual Modeling Software. The Beta is available for a limited time through the CASE Apps Add-in manager found at the CASE Apps website.
The Import OpenNURBS add-in facilitates early-stage interoperability by allowing designers to import conceptual geometry from Rhino into Autodesk Vasari. Unlike importing and linking with other file formats, Import OpenNURBS will translate geometries as native Vasari elements to give designers the flexibility to further develop their designs using Vasari’s modeling and analysis features.
The Vasari Add-in reads the OpenNURBS file format (Rhino 4.0 3DM) and uses custom algorithms to reconstruct geometry using Vasari API methods. Currently, the Add-in supports a broad range of OpenNURBS geometry. At this stage, some geometry support has yet to be implemented but we are committed to expanding the functionality as new capabilities become available for OpenNURBS and the Vasari API.
We hope you enjoy testing the new Import OpenNURBS Beta for Autodesk Vasari... and we hope you can provide us with valuable feedback about the tool!

East Coast BIM Camp, Nov. 1, 2012

admin — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:05:24 +0000

If you’re looking to gain some BIM survival skills, you might want to consider the East Coast BIM Camp on Nov. 1 organized by Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc. The survival camp, packed with presentations and networking events, will take place at the Center for Architecture in New York City. If you’re unable to attend the East Coast camp session, a West Coast BIM Camp is scheduled to take place on Nov. 9 in San Francisco. For more information or to register, click here.

dRofus 1.5 beta Released!

admin — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:38:51 +0000

dRofus 1.5 beta
PRESS RELEASE

dRofus – now with a new and powerful, built-in IFC model server !

Our Project & Enterprise customers now have access to the latest version of the dRofus beta. This version allows them to load all their design files into a model server for instantaneous visualization and program validation. And, believe it or not - this feature is provided without any additional license cost.

This latest beta has an embedded, special edition, model server from Jotne EPM, - one of the leading providers in the world of this technology. (http://www.epmtech.jotne.com/jotne-epm-technology-as.241684.no.html)

This makes it easy to visualize and validate a project across multiple design models. For the first time, users of dRofus have access to the latest design models and validation reports between program and design without any additional file handling. This allows for the opportunity for several new and improved work flows, better quality control across models and increased interaction with the stakeholders of the projects.

Embedding a model server in dRofus also opens a large market among owners who wants to export project requirements and validate the design entirely through the use of an open data standard, IFC.

This new functionality in dRofus can change the way the industry thinks and works regarding the relationship between program and design, as all parties gets simultaneous access to the same updated data and design models throughout the project.

You can download a short presentation of how the model server works here.

dRofus with model server will be presented at Autodesk University and Ecobuild later this year.

Contact person: CEO Rolf Jerving, rolf@drofus.com, phone +1 917 340 1303.

BIM 360 Glue iPad App!

admin — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:02:12 +0000

Autodesk has released an iPad app for BIM 360 Glue! The description is below:

The Autodesk® BIM 360™ Glue mobile app enables BIM 360 Glue users to more securely access Building Information Modeling (BIM) projects from anywhere, at any time. Building, infrastructure, design, and construction professionals can access and intuitively explore multi-disciplinary models online or offline, access all saved views, and review intelligent object properties. Easy access to up-to-date, multi-discipline BIM 360 Glue projects •“One-click to BIM” access from email notifications to a precise model view
•Navigate through saved views and access intelligent object properties
•Secure, authenticated, anywhere access to BIM 360 Glue projects

Intuitive exploration of multi-discipline BIM projects in the field
•Navigate using intuitive gesture-based pan, zoom and orbit
•Walk through the model with gravity-assisted navigation optimized for BIM
•View project model details with immersive, gyroscope-enabled look-around

Integrated with your BIM ecosystem
•Coordinate over 50 design file formats in BIM 360 Glue for mobile access
•Publish Navisworks models to BIM 360 Glue for access in the field
•Access large project models and data—online or offline

Autodesk BIM 360 Glue mobile app is licensed under the following License and Services Agreement. Your download and/or use of the Autodesk BIM 360 Glue Mobile app shall serve as your acknowledgement to the terms of this License and Services Agreement with respect to your use of the Autodesk BIM 360 Glue mobile app.

Design a Bus Shelter

admin — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:55:22 +0000

DesignByMany has posted another Sponsored Challenge. This challenge is to design a Bus Shelter! If you are interested in demonstrating your mad Revit or RevitLT skills, check out the competition! To follow the challenge and read the full challenge breif go here.

Description:

The challenge is to design a modular bus shelter for an urban pedestrian street. The goal is to provide an architectural solution that is functional, feasible, repeatable, and elegant. The bus shelter must protect people from the elements (rain, sun), while providing ample security, circulation and seating. The designer is free to choose a location, but the documentation should clearly explain the chosen location and how the design responds to its immediate context. The bus shelter must include a signage element for orientation and advertisement.

Objectives:

Protect pedestrians from the elements (rain, sun).
Artificial lighting should be integrated into design
Develop a design strategy that can adapt to various site conditions.
Design should functional, feasible and elegant.
Design should provide an area for signage.
Have fun!

CASE presents for Revit User Group of Nebraska, Nov. 1

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:11:10 +0000

Mark your calendars! CASE’s own Nathan Miller will present at the Revit User Group of Nebraska (RUGON) on Nov. 1. Nate will discuss opportunities for customizing Revit through the use of Add-Ins as well as describe the development process for creating Revit Add-ins. He will also demonstrate several new tools being developed by the CASE crew.