AIA 2006 National Convention and Expo

This article captures the highlights of the main AIA National Convention and Expo that was held in Los Angeles from June 8 to 10, and concludes the three part series on this set of conferences, including the AIA TAP conference and the AIA Integrated Practice conference. This year, the AIA Convention attracted 24,860 registrants, a slight increase over the 24,444 registrants from the year before, but which still marks an attendance record for the AIA. The Convention was entitled "Architecture on the Edge: Innovation, Engagement, Inspiration" and it featured theme presentations on each of these topics over the three days of the Convention, with well-known speakers such as Arata Isozaki, Jose Rafael Moneo, Craig Webb, Thom Mayne, and William McDonough. From a technology perspective, it was a little disappointing that BIM wasn't the focus of a theme presentation as it was last year (see AECbytes Newsletter #22). However, there were several sessions related to technology and BIM as part of the main Convention. I didn't get the chance to attend any of these and focused exclusively on the technology products on display on the Expo floor, an overview of which is provided in this AECbytes feature.

BIM Applications and Supporting Technologies

All the three leading BIM vendors took the opportunity to showcase the new releases of their BIM applications for architectural design, including Autodesk Revit Building 9, ArchiCAD 10, and Bentley Architecture V8 XM Edition. All of these products will be reviewed in AECbytes shortly, starting with Revit Building 9 and ArchiCAD 10 next month, so we will not get into the details of these new releases here. Another BIM application that was on display was the latest release of VectorWorks ARCHITECT, version 12, which was described in some detail in the January article on Macworld 2006. Its developer, Nemetschek North America, has been a little late in jumping on the BIM bandwagon, and was still pitching VectorWorks ARCHITECT as "CAD for the Smart-Sized Firm" at last year's AIA Convention. The latest product literature for VectorWorks ARCHITECT version 12 now refers to it as a BIM application, but it will take some time for it to be widely acknowledged as a BIM solution in the industry.

While BIM may seem the main focus of AEC technology at the moment, it is, in reality, only just the beginning. BIM is going to spawn a whole new generation of what I refer to as "supporting technologies," which will extend its capabilities to cover many different aspects of building planning, design, and construction. There were already a number of such technologies on display at this year's convention—a noticeable first—and we should continue to see more of these every year.

A good example of a supporting technology that made its debut this year is Trelligence Affinity, which is an architectural programming and schematic design application that extends BIM to the pre-design phase of building projects (see Figure 1). Trelligence Affinity was demonstrated at last year's AIA Expo in the Graphisoft booth as a supporting technology for ArchiCAD, with which it has a bi-directional link; this year, it had its own booth. Affinity includes customizable questionnaires that can be used to capture project and client requirements, which can then be used to drive the creation of schematic designs using integrated space planning tools. Additionally, requirements that specify spatial relationships, finish details, and size/cost constraints can be added to a project. All these requirements are then tracked by a data analysis engine as the design is modified within Affinity, and can be reviewed to ensure validity in the design. Once the schematic design has been finalized, it can be exported as intelligent objects to a BIM application like ArchiCAD or in DXF format to any other CAD or BIM application for further development. Relevant project information can also be exported to cost estimation and project management tools if required. The bi-directional link with ArchiCAD allows the design development in ArchiCAD to continue to be tracked against the client's requirements captured in Affinity. Trelligence is working on developing similar integration capabilities with other BIM applications like Autodesk Revit.

With the increasing importance of energy efficiency and the push to design green buildings, an application like Green Building Studio plays an important role in supporting the use of BIM for energy analysis. This is a web-based service that works with a gbXML file exported from various BIM applications including ADT, Autodesk Building Systems (ABS), Revit Building, or ArchiCAD, and uses the building information to perform an energy evaluation using established tools such as DOE-2, eQuest, and EnergyPlus. It is intended to be used in the early design phases, so that the results of the analysis can be gainfully incorporated into the design. In past AIA shows, Green Building Studio has been demonstrated at the Autodesk booth as a supporting technology for Revit, but it had its own booth this year, where the new release, version 2.0, was being demonstrated. The key new feature is "Design Alternatives," which allows various changes to the building design such as orientation, glazing options, envelope constructions, lighting, and HVAC, to be quickly analyzed to determine which are the most energy-efficient options. It is also starting to include links to actual manufacturers' products so that designer can evaluate how specific building products perform in the context of an actual design.

Specifications is one aspect of the design process that can be readily automated with BIM, and the lead on this has been taken by Interspec with its eSpecs product, which now automates the preparation of project specifications from all the three Revit BIM applications—Revit Building, Revit Structure, and Revit Systems—and also supports the latest release of Autodesk Architectural Desktop (ADT), version 2007. eSpecs automatically creates project specifications based on MASTERSPEC from the walls, doors, windows, and other building objects in the model created in any of these applications, ensuring their coordination and accuracy. Any changes made to the design are automatically incorporated into the specification manual. Other features include the ability to review the history of the specification section to see why a specific product was included in the project, collaboration on the specification documents by the extended project team using markup tools or by publishing to Autodesk Buzzsaw, and a built-in browser for researching available products from suppliers that meet the specifications. A new version of eSpecs, version 3.1, was released in May, and it features more detailed MASTERSPEC library integration as well as various enhancements to the eSpecs Specification Editor, including improved headers and footers, print preview, auto save, global search and replace, and new error and warning messages to guide spec writers. It would be good to see similar applications being developed for other BIM applications as well.

Another application that offers integrated spec writing as well as product selection and schedule generation is ADSymphony, which was exhibited at the AIA show by Architectural Data Systems (ADS), a vendor I first came across at Autodesk University 2005. It does not yet integrate with any of the leading BIM applications with the exception of ADT, but the application is based on the concept of a centralized database of building data and should be able to readily integrate with applications like Revit, ArchiCAD, and so on in the future. ADSymphony has an online version that can be used without CAD or BIM, where the user specifies the products and materials for the project manually, using pull-down menus and entering data in forms. It also comes with a CAD interface that integrates with AutoCAD and ADT, allowing the specs and schedules to be created as you add objects or keynotes to your drawings. A catalog interface allows products to be selected from within the CAD system, which are then integrated into the specifications and schedules. The product data can be standard construction data from the growing ADS library of over 700 manufacturers' catalogs or it can be company-created custom data. In addition to the automated creation and coordination of specifications and schedules, the use of an application like ADSymphony can centralize communication and knowledge management, enabling firm-wide consistency in product selection and documentation.

With regard to models of actual building objects from product manufacturers that can simply be dragged and dropped into BIM applications, it is a pressing need as evidenced by the fact that it came up repeatedly during the TAP conference. McGraw-Hill Construction is supposed to be taking the lead on this with the launch of their Network for Products website at the AIA show. However, while Network for Products does feature a comprehensive library of building product catalogs built on the Sweets' heritage, it has no models yet, only CAD details and specifications. Some smaller vendors, however, are taking the lead on this, for example, Form Fonts, which has launched a subscription-based library of Revit object models. Then, of course, there is Google's SketchUp-powered 3D Warehouse, which is currently only providing geometric (i.e., non-BIM) 3D models, but which could potentially take on the challenge of becoming the hub of BIM-enabled building object models in the future. It would certainly be in line with Google's oft-quoted mission of "organizing the world's information."

A critical aspect of building objects, from a cost estimating perspective, is pricing, and this is where a supporting technology like 1ST Pricing comes in. It provides real-time comparative pricing from many real manufacturers for specified building materials in a design, combined with an online fulfillment capability to support it. So far, 1ST Pricing has worked by incorporating its 2D and 3D parametric architectural symbols into applications like AutoCAD and ADT, and subsequently generating accurate real-time schedules, including specifications and price quotations. At the AIA show, 1ST Pricing was previewing its integration with ArchiCAD, which will bring to it the real-time pricing and quotation capability. 1ST Pricing is primarily targeted at the moment towards the home building industry, but the concept is also relevant to other types of buildings.

Additional Design and Presentation Solutions

Both Autodesk and SketchUp (which is now Google) seem to have an underlying serendipity in some of their product releases. Five years ago, at the AIA 2001 National Convention and Expo, Autodesk launched Autodesk Architectural Studio and @Last Software launched SketchUp. Both products made a very successful debut and attracted throngs of convention attendees at their respective booths. Sadly, Autodesk Architectural Studio did not live up to its promising launch, but SketchUp has survived and thrived beyond anyone's imagination, to the extent that it was recently acquired by what is currently the world's hottest software company, Google.

It was very interesting, therefore, to see the launch of two similar products by Autodesk and Google at this year's AIA Convention: Autodesk Impression from Autodesk and Grizzly from Google. Strictly speaking, these launches lacked the element of surprise that was there in 2001 with Architectural Studio and SketchUp. Autodesk had already given a sneak peak of Autodesk Impression, formerly code-named Vespa at Autodesk University 2005 in December (see AECbytes Newsletter #24), while @Last Software had done the same with Grizzly at their 3D Base Camp user conference last October (see AECbytes Newsletter #23). So while the thrill factor was missing for those who had already seen these sneak peaks, it was certainly not the same for the vast majority of convention attendees who were seeing these applications for the first time. In a nutshell, what Autodesk Impression lets you do is to apply artistic effects to a plain 2D drawing generated from AutoCAD, Revit, Autodesk Architectural Desktop (ADT), etc (see Figure 2). Grizzly, on the other hand, includes the same functionality but is broader in scope. It also functions as a page layout tool in which you can place text, images, views of SketchUp models, etc., on multiple pages, with the ability to create background graphics such as a title block that will run across all the pages (see Figure 3). It can generate orthographics and place them at scale, allowing plans, sections, elevations, and perspectives of a single SketchUp model to be placed in a Grizzly document. In both applications, different presentation styles can be created and saved for easy application to multiple renderings; they also remained linked to the original drawing or model and are automatically updated if the original file is changed, while still preserving the presentation style that is used.

Generating artistic renderings from drab-looking computer models is hardly a new concept. An example of an application that has had this capability for a long time, and which has pretty much perfected it, is Piranesi, an image-editing application specifically designed for architectural sketch rendering that understands depth and perspective, a capability that is still missing in both Autodesk Impression and Grizzly. This is enabled in Piranesi by its proprietary EPix (Extended Pixel) file format, in which each pixel in the image stores depth and material information in addition to color. With Piranesi, you can take a plain, computer-generated 3D scene or 2D drawing and transform it into a sophisticated rendering in varied styles reflecting different moods (see my review of Piranesi 4.0). While Informatix Software did not have a new version of Piranesi to showcase at the AIA show, they did highlight its ability to integrate smoothly with SketchUp as well as the latest version of AccuRender, which provides raytrace and radiosity rendering for AutoCAD and Revit. A SketchUp model can be directly exported to the Piranesi EPix format to create artistic renderings; and AccuRender 4 allows you to render to the Piranesi EPix image format, allowing AutoCAD and Revit users to create renderings which they can further develop using Piranesi.

And, of course, let's not forget the quintessential rendering application, Adobe Photoshop, which was one of the first applications to introduce the concept of filters for applying different visual effects to an image. While the next release of Photoshop is scheduled for the spring of 2007, Adobe highlighted the capabilities of the current release, Photoshop CS2 (see its review in AECbytes published last year), at the AIA show, and had some of its key architectural users share their success stories with the application.

auto•des•sys Inc. used the AIA Convention to formally release version 6.0 of its modeling, rendering, and animation application, form•Z, a sneak peak of which had been given earlier this year at Macworld. The key new features in this release are the introduction of object animation and support for 3D printing with color and textures, along with a number of modeling enhancements including skinned lofting, controlled deformations, and morphing. For more details, look out for the review of form•Z 6.0 in the August issue of AECbytes.

Electronic Publishing Solutions

Neither Autodesk nor Adobe had any new developments related to DWF and PDF respectively to highlight at the AIA show. Subsequent to the AIA show, however, Autodesk has released a new version of its Autodesk DWF Composer application, now renamed as Autodesk Design Review. AECbytes will take a closer look at this application and other DWF-related developments in a future article. On the PDF front, Adobe used the AIA show to demonstrate both Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional and the more recent Adobe Acrobat 3D, which allows design professionals to publish 3D design information from most of the major CAD and BIM applications in PDF format and share it for review with any computer user who has access to the free Adobe Reader software. Adobe also highlighted several customer success stories such as the U.S Green Building Council, which is using Adobe's LiveCycle enterprise solutions to streamline the submittal and processing of applications for LEED certification, cutting down the application submission time by as much as 50%.

CADzation, a vendor that is happy to support both PDF and DWF, used the AIA show to launch a new product, AcroPlot Repro, which enables enhanced printing of PDF and DWF files on large format plotters and copiers by replacing the Ghostscript software utility. Most large format plotters and their associated software have not incorporated the latest advances in PDF and DWF, and as more AEC firms start to use these formats instead of traditional plot file types such as .PLT, there is a need for better print quality from PDF and DWF. AcroPlot Repro is intended to be a cost-effective solution that allows firms to plot high quality PDF and DWF files on existing as well as new plotters without changing their production workflow.

The big news from Bluebeam Software, another electronic documentation vendor that was exhibiting at the show, was Tablet PC compatibility in the new release of its Bluebeam Revu product, version 4.5. Bluebeam is best known for its Pushbutton Plus product, an electronic publishing add-on to AutoCAD that can convert batches of DWG files into eleven different file formats including PDF, DWF, and TIFF. Last December at Autodesk University 2005, it launched Bluebeam Revu, a PDF viewing, editing and markup application that allows users to easily view large format PDF files and add clouds, lines, highlights, text and other markups. Revu comes integrated both with Pushbutton Plus and Bluebeam Lite (a lower-cost PDF solution without some of the advanced features of Pushbutton Plus), making these products complete PDF creation, viewing, and markup solutions. The new Tablet PC compatibility in Bluebeam Revu v 4.5 now extends these capabilities to users on job sites, allowing them to quickly and easily add markups and comments to design data. It includes features such as a clean interface for easy PDF viewing and navigation on Tablet PCs; high quality markups available through the tablet pen including true text, free text, callout boxes and leader lines; the ability to erase markups using the top of the tablet pen; the ability to zoom in and out of the PDF by double clicking the tablet pen on the screen; and the ability to work with the Tablet PC Auto Recognize tools to automatically translate written text to true text that is searchable in a PDF.

Enterprise, Project, and Construction Management Solutions

In architectural practice, the business of architecture is as critical a component as design, and Deltek was exhibiting at the AIA show to drive home this point. A provider of enterprise management software specific to the AEC industry, Deltek showed the new release of its enterprise resource and project planning software, Deltek Vision 4. It integrates planning, tracking and project administration features with mobile access and a key new feature, Visualization. This is a powerful management tool that empowers businesses to take control of their data and quickly turn it into actionable information; it has been a mission-critical technology in the financial services marketplace for many years. Visualization provides a simple display that depicts mission-critical information about a firm's entire business—including project performance, status, trends and risks—using color and shapes to alert viewers of any performance issues at a glance, and allowing them to focus on the most critical issues. Engineering and architecture firms using Deltek Vision 4 can use it to quickly discover trends and opportunities across their entire project portfolio (see Figure 4).

One of the well-known companies from the dot-com days, Bricsnet, seems to be poised for a comeback with the display of its web-based project collaboration solution, Project|Center, at the AIA show. First launched in 1988, Project|Center is specific to the AEC industry, with various workflow applications designed for engineers, architects, contractors and building owners, allowing project teams to share critical project information that is always current, organize and manage information electronically, track critical items, track changes in scope of work, and determine and track team responsibilities. Bricsnet also provides another Web-based product called Building|Center, which is an integrated platform for corporate real estate management.

Another application in this category that I came across at the show was CM Data Tracking System (CM-DTS), a web-based program for managing the construction administration process and tracking project information more efficiently and reliably. CM-DTS is developed by Psomas, a 50-year old engineering and information technology that is currently ranked as one of ENR's Top 100 Engineering Firms in the US. The company had trouble finding a good contractor-centric construction management solution it could use on large, complex projects, so it went ahead and developed its own solution specific to the AEC industry. The CM-DTS application manages all construction administration process including Submittals, RFIs, Issues, PCOs, CCOs, and so on, and since it is centralized and web-based, users can access the data anytime and from anywhere.

Analysis and Conclusions

There were a lot of technology products and services on display at the AIA show this year, including several that I did not get a chance to check out and cover in this article. It serves as a heartening testament to the vibrant state of the AEC technology industry. We have borne witness to the AEC dot-com boom as well as bust, but the current technological developments are being built on far more solid foundations and should only accelerate in the years to come. It is good to see the emergence of supporting technologies for BIM, many of them being developed by third-party vendors working with multiple BIM solutions. We are starting to see the first steps towards intelligent objects models; hopefully, by next year, some decent progress would have been made in this area. Enterprise, project, and construction management solutions are still being developed without integration with BIM, and while this integration may not be necessary in a solution like Deltek Vision which deals with the business aspect of architectural practice, it will eventually be needed for project and construction management.

I was a little surprised to find some outsourcing firms exhibiting at the show, one of which, Satellier, had a presence as large as any of the leading vendors in the field. It seems that outsourcing is not such a bad word any more, and firms like Satellier are starting to include BIM as part of their service offerings, and in the process competing with established AEC technology consulting firms such as IMAGINiT Technologies, which was also exhibiting at the AIA show. Another outsourcing firm that was at the show was Excelize, which is still providing traditional design and drafting services but hopes to expand to BIM services soon. Many have argued that unlike CAD, BIM is an integral part of the design process, in which case, it would be difficult to really outsource it. The next few years should tell us if BIM can be outsourced as successfully as it has been done for computer programming and other IT fields.

The next AIA National Convention is scheduled to be held from May 3 to May 5, 2007, in San Antonio, Texas. I am looking forward to exploring how far we have progressed by then

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.