AEC Tech News (#216)
5 Dec, 2007 By: Kenneth WongTo Our Readers: AEC Tech News will take a holiday break, then resume publishing on January 17, 2008.
We at Cadalyst wish you and your family a healthy, happy holiday season.
Putting People in Their Places
A STEPS animation sequence can help architects determine how crowds might behave in certain spaces.
By Kenneth Wong
There’s one aspect of AEC that has less to do with measurements and aesthetics and more to do with behavioral science. To outsiders, and even to some industry insiders, this specialized discipline seems more speculative than deductive, more artificial (as in artificial intelligence, or AI) than architectural. It’s computer-aided crowd movement simulation, often used to study how occupants might interact with the living space around them.
Game developers and filmmakers routinely use the same technology to digitally populate their scenes. But recent advances in hardware horsepower and visualization algorithms have pushed this technology toward a new science, now trusted by AEC consultancies. At SIGGRAPH 2007 in August, Massive Software, known for its AI engine in the video game and film industries, began courting the AEC market (see “Animation Possibilities for AEC,” AEC Tech News 208).
But Mott MacDonald Group, an engineering consultancy, preceded Massive in this endeavor. Mott MacDonald developed Simulation of Transient Evacuation and Pedestrian Movements (STEPS), a software product described as “a microsimulation tool” to help its clients better understand pedestrian movements inside architectural structures. Read more ». . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kenneth Wong is a Cadalyst columnist and former Cadence editor. He explores innovative uses of technology and its implications in his writing. Reach him at kenneth.wong@cadalyst.com.
Share and Share Alike (AEC Insight Column)
By Jerry Laiserin
Access to files, documents, and information located elsewhere is one of the most valuable functions provided by online media such as the Internet. For collaborative industries, such as AEC/O, the ability to exchange, view, and act upon shared information is the lifeblood of business and business processes.
Almost any form of AEC/O information–based activity -- document transmission, storage, retrieval, mark up, routing, workflow, review, approval, and so on -- that can be performed in the physical world can now be performed by a range of online means and services. Read more »
Mark Your Calendar: AEC Events
Building Performance Analysis Using Revit MEP
December 7, 2007
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This Sustainable Design Lecture Series event sponsored by Synergis will focus on using the integrated IES Virtual Environment (VE) analysis platform within Revit MEP to conduct preliminary Building Performance Analysis. Read more
Ecobuild Fall and AEC-ST Fall
December 10-13, 2007
Washington, DC
This annual event addresses green building, sustainable design, renewable energy, environmental planning processes, and information collaboration strategies for commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential construction. Cadalyst readers are eligible for free exhibit and keynote admission -- a $25 value. To take advantage of this offer, go to https://www.expotracshows.com/ecobuild/fall/2007/ and enter the code HSEOC.
NIBS FEDCon
December 11, 2007
Washington, DC
Colocated with AEC-ST Fall and EcoBuild Fall, FEDCon is the National Institute of Building Sciences' (NIBS') annual review of federal agencies' building and spending plans. Read more
NIBS FEDspec Meeting
December 12, 2007
Washington, DC
Also colocated with AEC-ST Fall and EcoBuild Fall and cosponsored by NIBS and Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice, FEDSpec is for federal and private sector AEC specifiers who work on federal projects. Read more
National buildingSMART Conference
December 13, 2007
Washington, DC
The first National buildingSMART Conference is cosponsored by NIBS' Facility Information Council (FIC) and its National Building Information Model Standard (NBIMS) Committee, and NIBS newest program, the buildingSMART Alliance. Read more
For Cadalyst’s full calendar of events, click here.
