Last month I had the opportunity to speak at BIMForum, my first time as both an attendee and speaker. The Spring BIMForum was held at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel in beautiful sunny San Diego California. An evening watching baseball in the shade with hotdogs, peanuts and beer while geeking out with other BIM Gurus could not have been a more perfect start to the conference. I had fortunately finished my slides the evening prior to headed down, so I actually enjoyed the evening.
I was not sure what to expect as my interactions with the BIM Forum organizers had been more casual than past conferences I have spoken at, but when I joined everyone for breakfast I was already impress. They had a room full of software vendors, a nice simple spread of morning chow, and when I made my way into the main hall – wow! They had a huge room with a stage and a camera crew – straight up professionals here. I had been honored to speak, but my butterflies kicked in at that moment because these folks were serious about BIM and education. I was excited all the more to take the stage soon.
The morning kicked off with the usual welcomes and thanks and John Tocci shared the long history of the Forum and when the AGC and AIA joined forces on the effort. The format was effective. The morning sessions were big topics, broad and relatable by all followed by a Q&A session in review of a grouping of presentations. The lunch break offered the opportunity to network and speak with the vendors. If I were a technology vendor trying to speak with leadership at AEC firms, I would be at this conference. We all could speak to one another at a higher level, very few newbies here. There is no “convincing” going on here, everyone gets it and wants more at the next level of knowledge sharing. Two solid days of content and networking.
Here is a direct link to my talk on Data Management Project a Lifecycle. It was a short talk, but my general message is to share the data and only ask for the data you need when you need it. My position is that is all does not need to be in the model, but that data in a external database linked to a model makes more sense. What do you think? Let me know on LinkedIn or @brokhoward. I would love to hear your position.
In general I was impressed at the professionalism of the show, refreshing to the quality and care taken in pulling it all together. The format of morning talks followed by smaller (still large) specific tracks was a great way to share a lot in just a few days. I got to meet a ton of people across the industry and learned more than I bargained for. I will be back for sure.
The next BIM Forum is October 20-21 in Orlando. Go here to learn more.
Every venue owner wants clients to come and see their space so they will see the potential of booking an event. Using virtual reality they can bring the client to the space using nothing more than a cardboard viewer and a url.
Using standard a BIM provided by the architect and clound rendering resources the process can be simple. Upload, render, convert and share the link.
In the example below I started with a floor plan provided by Galvanize of their space. After spending about 48 hours on this effort I was able to build a model, render it and put it online in a VR ready link. You can review my process from earlier links, but here is the final product.
Here are 4 360 Panoramics of the venue. These images could be examples of the spaces in use. (No cardboard viewer need)
So this morning was a slow start after a full day of hacking yesturday. I am hoping to pull it all together this morning. I got to meet a few people from Galvanize last night and got to show them the progress and they really liked what we were able to pull off so far and are looking to work with me to pull together a few more ideas. Venue Layout Options was one great ideas that came out from our quick chat. I had already thought of it, but it was more of a reassurance that they were thinking of it without needing to suggest it.
9:30
I want to do a few more things before I present after lunch. I want to update materials, create some layout options from the same point of view and build a quick presentation prezi to show.
11:00
I have the materials mapped and just working on some lighting (which we all know is soooo easy in Revit). Going to re-render, convert to stereo and setup a site. Then move to layout options and finally pull together a quick demo/presentation (maybe video).
12:45
Renderings are being converted to stereo now and I am updating the VR Venue Review page.
3:00
Just waiting on the judges now to take a look at my final efforts.
I thought it might be worth documenting my experiance in realtime as part note taking and for my own enjoyment later on.
So what am I interesting in learning/hacking today? I would like to see just how hard or easy it is to get real architecture projects in a virutal environment. What software workflows are required and can I, with no experienace figure it out (with help while I have it here at the @vrhackathon).
10:00
Installed Unity, Installed Revit 2016, Installed 3D Max 2016. I have my M3800 Dell laptop, iPad mini and plenty of power and wifi. Let’s do this.
Started in Formit on my iPad as with many potential workflows – designers start with a sketch. Imagine the designer is on an airplane and they want to test an idea (offline). They start working – land, upload to Autodesk Clound account. I simply loaded a few furniture items from the free Formit library as an initial test. Synced with ADSK account and the file has been converted to a Revit model.
Launched Revit – I can add a few more items here, like walls, doors and a floor. I then export to fbx as I have heard I can live link MAX to Revit using fbx…lets test this workflow.
<still waiting for MAX to install – all 5.89 GB> While I wait, lets look at any online material on the workflow.
I found this link on ADSK site (read half way down) so it looks like I don’t even need to generate the fbx, hmmm.
Max is almost installed, going to test this workflow soon.
10:30
Finally installed, now a quick restart.
Now we are cooking. Can I link my native Revit model to Max?
so far so good.
Now I am really feeling how lost I can be. It has been 10 years since I used Max. Can I just use Max to simply upload to Unity?
Done. So easy. I linked up Revit to Max. Next was to figure out how to get my model in Unity. So, I did a quick good search and found this video. And while I watched the video, I had a live working Unity model.
Awesome! No, I realize I have no lights in my model and the scene is going to be dark. So, lets test the workflow going back to Revit and add a few lights.
Add lights in Revit, Reload from Max – wait a moment. And while in Max I discover a link to open A360 Gallery. I click on the link and see this image.
So now I save my Max file and flip back to Unity and will explore the blog post later to see if I can just use 360 for my VR experiance.
While I was in Revit, I sent the view up to render in the cloud as a quick test. And now that I know I can re-render it for VR…why not.
And now my VR scene is already in the works…all before lunch. Not bad. Still not sure what to with Unity. Need a lunch break and will come back to this. I also need some help. Need to go find some…
12:00
Took a break and checked out the roof – here is a link (put on your 3D gear) 360.io/2NQcuY
And here is a quick still rendering (and gallery access as I work) ADSK Share
So I was able to conver the test model to VR using the ADSK technology. Put on your cardboard and check out this link http://goo.gl/zhuFDs
2:00
Quick update, I was able to recruite remote support from Cesar Escalante. We thought we would be smart and set up a Revit model we could both work on and use A360 Revit collaboration in the process. I asked the ADSK guys here to set up a project for us to use. The final step was to upload the model, but I could not figure out how to upload from Revit 2016…there was not upload or A360 collaboration button. I did find this article. 360
and have spent the last hour at this point just trying to get collaboration installed for Revit 2016. So, I made the call to forget trying to use 2016 and revert back to just using 2015 since we already had it installed and with collaboration installed.
2:40
Still download and installing software, to get collaboartion to work on 2015 you need to install UR6, then UR7, then install C4R. Good Lord!
2:50
Team is growing, going to add Tedd Robinson to the team. Going to share the model of the Galvanize space (after we built it) so he can map materials and make it “real” in Max, maybe add some annimation as we explore VR.
5:30
We finally got a model started of the Galvanize space. I am now working with Tedd, passing along an fbx of the model to Max so we can start to map materials and lighting. We are going to seek some help getting the model into Unity and try to get it online after dinner.
7:45
The workflow of Revit to Max in order to potentially use Unity seems to be a bit time consuming unless you are using 2016. So, I have been exploring just using Revit and the cloud. But I would like to integrate the 360 images, so I created a globe family with a url pointing to the online 360 images I made earlier today. Here are the links to the 360 images.
At this point it might be important to define the concept and realize that my skills might not be there just yet, but this idea might get picked up in a future hackathon. Here is my full idea at this point.
Concept
This would be for a venue owner, someone who rents out their space for events, parties, weddings, etc. Let’s call this owner – Galvanize here in SF. They talked to their architect and said, we would like to use the BIM you used for design and construction for marketing and revenue purposes. This is a potential use of that model. The owner takes the model and passes along to the VR Team. The VR Team takes the model and converts it to a Stereo Panorama (two camera 3D rendering)
Galvanize could then post them VR models on a website for potential venue users when VR gear becomes more common (like PINC)
Further, when the event space is used, 360 photography could be taken to capture how the space is used. These real 360 images would be clickup with Leap technology to hyperlink you to those views – of in this case, clickable like the 5 examples above.
There is real potential in client potential use of the BIM effort downstream, that is the basic concept.
So we started with a simple floor plan provided by Galvanize.
Imported this image into Revit and started to build it out.
We then uploaded 4 views to Autodesk 360 Cloud Rendering.
10:30
The renderings are now done and we have 4 views – grab your google cardboard.
I ❤️ Hackathons! I really wish I had taken more classes on writing code when I was in school, except for some HTML and a little VRML…and now most recently a little XSL and XML. My first hack event was the AEC Hackathon at Facebook’s campus shortly after I moved to SF and it blew me away. My personal idea was not picked up to hack that weekend, but that was okay…I still had a good time. Here are a few videos from what was hacked that weekend.
This weekend is the VR Hackathon, Virtual Reality. It takes me back to my Iowa State days when I first learned Form Z and created a VRML Stereolithograph of a staircase….it was so cool! If I had a working Zip drive I could show you with a set of special glasses. I am expecting to see, touch and experience the latest tech and hack ideas with innovative locals. It’s social and fun.
I don’t think I will be writing any code, but I do have a few ideas and I will be bringing my ibeacon developer kit.
So what are my ideas…
VR Browsing – I love the idea of web surfing and sifting through the web in full 365 full immersion. Click, shop and try on virtual clothes and shoes. Watch 3D videos online and catch a live sporting through someone else’s eyes. Have you read Locked In?
VR Pets – I think it would be great to visit your pets when you travel. If you scan your whole home, that becomes fixed….everything else that is moving could be what you see via a web portal, sit on your couch and talk with your pet linking you to speakers in your home with a sensor on your pets collar.
VR Schools – Lets take an online education to the next level, true immersion in real classes with real students. Students put on special glasses to see the virtual students and the remote students sit in a full 3D replica of the lecture hall, combine resources across countries to get the sharpest minds together.
Last night I got a glimpse into the future. I was browsing book face a few weeks ago and noticing @AECHackathon posted a link for a WebGL even hosted by ADSK. I was initially not really interested until I watched a YouTube video from the AECHackathon in Dallas. I was pulled in by what Shiya Luo was sharing how via APIs the opportunity of 3D online was really taking off. I see a future of digital art fed by the Internet. Here is a quick sample of some of what I experienced 3D Web Fest Sampling
