Year: 2015

The AEC industry has experienced a major shift in terms of innovation and transition. With every year expected to be a step ahead of the previous one, the shift of trends seems to follow one another with the implications of new technology and new integration. As observed the AEC industry with relevance to its heartbeat CAD has experienced a building of social good getting transformed from thoughtful conversations and unique imaginative ideas, to the robust development of industries and an increase in their standards.

The standards of the AEC industries are all set to increase with the cost of technological advances considerably driving down. A long term process is what the industry is focusing on in order to initiate a long term business and work towards building a more specific goal oriented purpose in reference to added focus on designing and building.

We also witnessed in these past years that how with the development of technology, the real estate developers have already enjoyed privilege in terms of the initial construction cost as they experienced various benefits arriving due to the advancements that came along with the shift of trends in the AEC industry.

Now there has been something worth considerable in terms of development factors where the building for social good has been a subject to a massive growth which showcases the progress of understanding among individuals and not just the AEC. This understanding is set to grow further and will aid the plans for future as the next five to ten years are basically going to be purely empathized on the technology and the workflow where the feel good benefits will be hard to resist.

Along with the AEC, the unmanned Aerial Vehicles are expected to grow exponentially with the devices nowadays are becoming more than efficient and capable of carrying out the specified oriented task because of their small size and their less expensive rates. It is capturing the existing conditions which are one of the most difficult and costly aspects during the process of getting a project completed.

With the increase in time and an increase in optimization and specialization, the use of Reality Capture and UAV’s are expected to develop more and improve greatly as these companies are expected to deliver a high level of accuracy at a very low cost in terms of conducting the mass data, a task which they are empowered to carry out.

For the AEC community, one thing for sure is going to become the hot ticket and that’s the Virtual and augmented reality. The real estate owners and the managers of property have now started to request for the structure design or being more specific the building design before it is built. They now have realized that how they would experience the environment and landscape with the help of the unique virtual and augmented reality.

The world is harnessing the terms innovation and experimentation to the core and as a result of it, we already have something very compelling with us, which in today’s time can provide us with a realistic 360-degree of a project. This already has been proven out to be a major boost for those AEC professionals who can engage their senses and interact within a model and then emphasize and stress their mind on how to make better design decisions during the planning process – before the start of construction.

Ask most engineers about the possibility of running their CAD or CAE programs in the cloud and you’re likely to get a blank stare or an earful about why the software delivery model poses problems. Critical design IP (intellectual property) isn’t safe in the cloud, they contend, or they question whether graphics-intensive applications like CAD can run optimally when solely dependent on Internet bandwidth. Many are quick to shrug off cloud computing as just another passing technology fad.

Major players in this space, from Autodesk to Dassault Systèmes, to a handful of smaller companies like Arena Solutions, have stepped up to the plate with serious strategies around the cloud to deliver CAD, PLM, and CAE offerings. While many of the services are still clearly evolving and some still semi-experimental, the new generation of 3d modelers see real potential in leveraging the cost benefits, scalable computing horsepower, and ease of collaboration capabilities of the cloud to push product development to the next level. Outside of the engineering world, the cloud has already gained significant traction. Companies have moved many of their core enterprise systems around finance, sales, marketing, and even HR to the cloud via software-as-a-service platforms, and many of those same engineer skeptics are already working with cloud-based tools without necessarily knowing it.

“Most engineers today don’t spend eight hours a day doing pure engineering work, they are in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, they are in supplier systems, they are doing collaboration, and believe it or not, those systems are all in the cloud,” said Brenda Discher, Autodesk’s vice president, manufacturing strategy and marketing. She explained: “It’s not about moving manufacturing or design to the cloud, it’s about moving the right processes to the cloud. We are now just learning about the different industries and different development phases that really fit nicely with the needs of customers and capabilities of the cloud”.

Cloud-based collaboration
so, while heavy-duty 3D CAD modeling may not make sense in the cloud just yet, experts argue that a number of tried-and-true engineering tools and practices do. Leveraging the infinite and highly scalable compute power of the cloud lends itself to simulation, and Autodesk, as well as others, are releasing services around plastics and CFD simulation that enable companies to tap the cloud to run huge simulations that they otherwise couldn’t run or could run only with an arsenal of dedicated, expensive compute horsepower. Beyond the ability to handle larger and more complex problems, simulation in the cloud also means engineers can run more studies simultaneously — a change in design workflow that can lead to better exploration of different design variations and optimization of products.

Is this a next-level CAD HMI (human-machine interface)? Miraisens Inc., a Tokyo-based company, recently unveiled what they are calling “3D-Haptics Technology.” This new technology allows users to “feel” virtual 3D objects, and move them around in virtual space. The technology is a first and has a lot of promising applications in the gaming world, the medical industry, and 3D printing.

Miraisens is a spin-off company from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Tokyo. Their new technology opens up avenues for innovation in a wealth of different fields. It is interesting as it expands technology’s ability to engage our human senses. While we haven’t yet been able to touch something within the digital world, 3D-Haptics Technology now makes this possible, virtually. The current technology works using a virtual reality headset, a bracelet with hardware attached and a fingertip molding that is wired to the hardware on the wrist. The technology can also be wired into a coin-shaped mold, a stick, or a pen. The handheld molding emits vibrations on the fingertips that allow users to “feel” 3D objects in virtual space, which they see on their virtual headsets.

These vibrations trick the mind into recreating sensory feelings of touching, pushing, pulling, and experiencing resistance from 3D virtual objects. For instance, the device can allow a user to feel the resistance of pushing a 3D button in virtual reality. It can also allow users to push, pull, and move 3D virtual objects around, emitting vibrations that recreate a sense of object resistance, even though it’s only occurring in virtual space.

The technology literally makes virtual reality “feel” more real. The applications within the gaming world are self-evident. The company is also considering using the technology to allow users to create 3D prints via touch. This would eliminate the need for a professional design, and allow novices to create 3D prints at the touch of a virtual button.

More interestingly, there are talks of implementing the technology within the medical industry as a new tool for performing remote surgeries. Some think that the technology could be used to help visually impaired people navigate more easily through haptic sensory information. This is all promising, and it looks like we’ll be seeing companies implement better haptic controls in the future.