A Smorgasbord of Product Reviews

This month, AECbytes will review a wide variety of AEC applications. We will start by looking in detail at Dr. Frame3D, a structural analysis tool that offers direct manipulation and real time feedback for modeling three dimensional truss and frame structures. It provides a single environment within which users can quickly explore structural behavior and the effects of varying loads, support conditions, geometry, topology, material and cross-section properties, and so on. This is in sharp contrast to traditional structural engineering software where the modeling of the structure is done in an independent tool or module and then exported to a complex analysis program for determining various aspects of its performance. Changes cannot be interactively explored; the structural representation has to be updated and exported again to the analysis program to see the results of the changes. The ability to hide the mathematical complexity of structural analysis makes makes Dr. Frame3D a very effective educational tool for structural design.

The second product that will be reviewed is the new version of Piranesi, a customized architectural rendering tool that can be used to transform a plain, computer-generated 3D scene or 2D drawing into a sophisticated, artistic-looking rendering, in varied styles reflecting different moods.

And finally, we will take a look at GPS2CAD, an application that allows you to connect your hand held Global Positioning System (GPS) unit to your computer, download your waypoints, and plot them in AutoCAD.

Watch out also for a Viewpoint article from Ian Howell, CEO of Newforma, who urges building owners to exercise their power of mandate and become the catalyst for driving the transformation that is required across the construction industry.

Thank you
Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials> October 2004