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Seeing Is Believing: Visualization for CAD
13 Feb, 2011 By: Nancy Spurling JohnsonCadalyst Labs Report: Experts and newbies alike are using the power of visualization to communicate ideas throughout design workflows.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the Fall 2010 issue of Cadalyst magazine. Except where noted, the images that accompany this feature were submitted by Cadalyst readers during our Call for Renderings in October 2010.
Design visualization is coming of age. Once a pursuit that required special talent, dedicated equipment, and countless hours or even days of effort, the process of rendering a CAD model today can be relatively easy and, in some cases, instantaneous. Eddie Perlberg, an application engineer at Autodesk and onetime CAD rendering specialist, said it best: "If you tried visualization before and you thought it was too hard, now is the time to try again."
Why Visualize?
Just because a technology is coming within reach of nearly any individual or organization isn't reason enough to adopt it, of course. Whether you're designing buildings, infrastructure, machinery, or products, adding visualization to your workflow requires funding, training, and long-term support — not to mention new ways of thinking about and executing designs. Is it worth all that?
The sunken plaza design shown here, part of a proposed mixed-use development in Seoul, is the work of Shimi Dahan. Dahan built physical models to develop the concept, followed by 3D modeling in AutoCAD Architecture 2009 for design development and review. The designer reproduced the final physical model by manually measuring and tracing photos in AutoCAD Architecture 2009. Dahan then used Chaos Group's V-Ray for 3ds Max 9 for rendering and Thomas Luft's Ivy Generator for adding vines on the walls. The people and smaller trees were added post-rendering using Adobe Photoshop CS3.
For those who know the power of visualization, the answer is yes, and they would add that the reasons are better than ever before. Communication is critical to today's design workflows, and visualization is a very powerful communication tool. It conveys ideas with clarity, speeds workflow, and even saves money. Visualization is playing an important role in everything we do, from conceptual design to marketing.
At architecture and civil engineering firms, visualizations are so powerful that they can make the difference in winning a bid or in garnering community support. Renderings and animations communicate not only the look of a design, but how it fits into the built environment, how construction phases will play out, and even how construction will affect traffic over time. When all parties clearly understand the vision and impact of an idea — and get excited about it — acceptance can come more quickly and projects can progress more efficiently. Further along in the process, walkthroughs of a virtual model can facilitate client reviews when it's still relatively inexpensive to modify a design.
In the manufacturing workflow, visualizations increasingly serve as engineering support — for example, mechanical cutaways or exploded assemblies. Renderings also are helping to save money when tapped to sell a product idea to a retailer (instead of creating a prototype or to create sophisticated product beauty shots in lieu of a costly photo shoot). Production of commercials and interactive web features can give companies a head start if product renderings become available early in the development process.
Design visualization is no longer an isolated effort; in fact, in many workflows the opposite is true. As early as the conceptual stage, designers generate photorealistic images of various ideas. To help win projects, many architecture and civil engineering firms create sophisticated visualizations based on rough designs to fortify a bid, often finding that the visuals are fundamental to winning the project.
John H. Kennedy, principal/owner of Kennedy & Associates, used this rendering to illustrate proposed zoning standards and communicate the benefits of walkable communities for Washington Square, a neighborhood development outside Philadelphia. The initial layout was done in AutoCAD 2004, then brought into Google SketchUp 7 for basic modeling and color coding. A white-out version of the model was then brought into Informatix Piranesi v5.1, where all entourage, textures, colors, and other paint work were applied.
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About the Author: Nancy Spurling Johnson
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