More on TFC, formZ 5.0, Prefabrication in Norway, and a Viewpoint on BIM

AECbytes starts off this month by continuing its look at the Technology for Construction 2005 show that was held in Las Vegas from Jan 17 to Jan 21. While the highlights of some of the sessions were captured in Newsletter #18 published last month, some of the construction-specific technology products that were on display at the show are described in Newsletter #19. These include solutions for project management, cost estimation, and resource scheduling, as well as a few CAD and visualization applications.

This is followed by a Viewpoint contribution by Lloyd J. James, AIA, Assistant Professor at the
Institute of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University who suggests that the inability of currently available BIM solutions to fully capture detailed and real-world material properties of building components is one of the critical factors impeding a more widespread implementation of BIM.

AECbytes then takes a detailed look at the new release of the popular 3D modeling, rendering, and animation application, form•Z 5.0, that was formally announced at the recent Macworld 2005 show in San Francisco Coming almost two years after its last major release, version 4.0, which made its debut in Macworld 2003, the new version continues to build upon the open architecture that was introduced in version 4.0. form•Z now includes a full-fledged Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows users to customize the application and extend its functionality by writing plugins and scripts. It also includes a host of other enhancements and improvements for modeling and rendering, and in its interface. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the application for those who are not familiar with it, and looks at the key new features in the latest release.

And finally, look out for the highlights of a seminar on the prefabrication of timber buildings based on digital models conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology a few months ago.

Thank you
Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > February 2005