Conceptual Design and Visualization for Architects and...

Conceptual Design and Visualization for Architects and Designers Jorge A. Tiscareño – SHW Group

AB5589

A napkin sketch is still a very powerful tool but imagine what you could do if that sketch was digital, if it was a 3d model, do real-time visualization and even do solar and energy studies of that original design idea? Well all of those tools are here for all to use in the new fully integrated Product Suites. Designers with all levels of digital experience can take full advantage of these new and exciting tools like SketchBook Designer 2012, Project Vasari, Showcase 2012 and more. In this session we will explore all of these new tools and show how you can take advantage of them by showcasing several real-world examples of their integration and interoperability. So if your passion is design and you are interested in Autodesk’s new digital design tools this session is right for you!

Learning Objectives At the end of this class, you will be able to:

• Define what a Digital Design Workflow is and understand how to apply it. • Create multiple design iterations and explore them in a Digital Workflow. • Avoid falling into a one-source solution trap. • Learn how maximize exporting/importing data and accelerate your turn around. • Create the “right” look for every level of your presentation cycle.

About the Speaker Jorge, a Senior Designer at SHWGROUP, has been a CG Artist/Manager and Architectural Designer for the past 16 years. He has won several AIA Design awards while working in several Architectural firms and won the prestigious Gene Watanabe Award in Gensler for excellence in Design Visualization; at Gensler he was the Director of Design Visualization overlooking local, regional and firmwide Digital Design issues. Jorge is a well-known fixture in the Design Visualization community, where he has been a speaker at several major conferences such as Autodesk University and VisMasters; he was also a judge for the 2010 CGArchitect.com Architectural 3D Awards. This is Jorge’s third year as a presenter at Autodesk University.

Conceptual Design and Visualization for Architects and Designers

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Index

• Digital Design Workflow and Interoperability o Analog Design vs Digital Design Workflow o Basic Workflow and interoperability o Autodesk Suites Workflow and interoperability o Extended applications workflow and interoperability

• Conceptual Design

o Conceptual Design Process o Sketch to 3D Mass o Energy Study 3D Mass

• Iterative Design

o Showcase Design Alternatives

• Solar and Daylight Studies o Solar Study in Autodesk Revit o Hallway Daylight Study in Autodesk 3dsMax

• Design Visualization

o Design Visualization Project Life Cycle


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Digital Design Workflow and Interoperability

“Analog” Design vs. Digital Design We all work in a digital design manner in one way or another; there is no question about this. But the majority of us usually stay within one or a couple of applications, we become “specialist” of one application, and although that is not a bad thing we might be missing an opportunity to exploit all of the other advantages that open to us if we move within one application to another within the Autodesk Suites and even going beyond them.

In addition another great advantage of working in a true and fully digital workflow is the increase of the ability to control the cost of a project by making a vast majority of design decision early on thus decreasing the possibility of adding cost to the project due to design changes made in the later stages of the project.

The graphics below where made for the AIA to compare the advantages of a digital workflow vs an analog workflow. Something similar can be said of a comparison of sole application workflow vs an array of application workflow (Graphics originated by Patrick MacLeamy, AIA/HOK).

o 2d digital sketching: Sketchbook designer

o “easy” 3d modeling: 123D, AutoCAD, Sketchup

o BIM: Revit, ArchiCAD o Rendering: 3dsMax, Mental Ray,

Vray o Real Time: iray, Vray RT, Maxwell o VR: Showcase, Lumion, Twinmotion


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Basic Autodesk Application Workflow and Interoperability

This basic Autodesk application workflow is made up of the most common used applications in architecture today. AutoCAD and Revit have a two way street in regards interoperability, the common file between them is a DWG. 3dsMax also has a high degree of interoperability but usually (but not always) the information flows to 3dsMax from AutoCAD and Revit, either via a DWG or FBX file.

The FBX file works great if you have applied materials to your 3d model either in Revit or AutoCAD (also works great for lights and cameras), the FBX exported file “carries” with it all of this information into 3dsMax and makes visualization that much easier, it even carries a daylight system (sun) if you have activated it in Revit and/or AutoCAD. But the DWG file is still a very good file to export/import with, it usually is a smaller file then an FBX file, not as “smart” but it does export it’s layers, thus making material application in 3dsMax easier.


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Autodesk Suites Workflow and Interoperability

Autodesk has added to its Suites two very useful and powerful new applications to its roster, Sketchbook Designer and Showcase. Sketchbook is a digital “hand sketching” tool that mimics the action of hand sketching but in a digital format. The main format of interoperability with the other applications is through a DWG. Sketchbook also can export as a PSD to Photoshop and other image based files.

Showcase is a real-time visualization and presentation tool that makes it possible to study our projects instantly. Very useful in the study of material and finishes and design options, as well as to use it for virtual presentations. Vasari is currently under development at the Autodesk Labs, it’s a sort of “Design Revit”, perfect for the designer that is thinking of jumping into BIM as well as for the BIM veteran because Vasari carries all of the conceptual design tools that Revit those as well as a very robust energy analysis report tool.


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Extended Application Workflow and interoperability

This extended workflow reflects in my opinion the other two applications that are highly used amongst the architectural/design field. I understand that there might be other tools used out there like Rhino, ArchiCAD, Illustrator, etc. and although they also interject perfectly with this digital workflow I feel that for the most part Google Sketchup and Adobe Photoshop are the tow other big players in the workflow.


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SketchUp is used heavily at the schematic and design development phases which then the model and the information evolves into Revit or 3dsMax. The most common interoperability file is a DWG file but and FBX or 3ds or other files extension might be used. Because of theses SketchUp can communicate with an array of Autodesk products thus making the information generated not go to waste. One very useful workflow is between SketchUp and 3dsMax, 3dsMax 2012 can import native SKP (Sketchup file) files that “carry” with them materials, UV scale, layers, cameras scenes, daylight system if using Mental Ray as the rendering engine within 3dsMax. This workflow is extremely efficient because it avoids making and applying materials twice.

Photoshop is somewhat if an “oddball” in compared to all of the other applications presented because it does not create 3d masses or renders, but it’s an essential tool in our digital design arsenal, because it can manipulate any image exported from all of the applications presented and it’s very useful as our “polishing” final stop to our renderings that can originate in any of the Autodesk family of products.


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Conceptual Design

Conceptual Design Process The following diagrams represent the design process for a new Science and Technology Center for a Texas school district. This center is not something typical that the school district was accustomed to do, like schools for example, so in order to arrive to the right solution for the district we engaged in a design exploration process that started with a “word cloud”, move through imagery, defined the key words for the center, program diagrams, circulation and learning diagrams, programming, plan layouts, massing and eventually to solution.

These boards represent the not only the actual design process but as well the digital and analog output of every stage as well as the delineation of all of the applications used to arrive to such solutions. In this instance as in many others the digital applications are not the driving force behind the process but the vehicle in which this process takes place. But saying that we should also understand that the tool also affects the process and as such affects the solution, hence understanding this symbiosis, understanding each application and their interoperability will makes us more efficient, faster and hopefully will makes us arrive at an optimal solution!


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Sketch to 3D Mass We all love the look and feel of a well done design sketch, and although the necessity and simplicity of a good sketch will never go away they do have their limitations. Granted nowadays we can scan a sketch turning the analog into digital, take it into Photoshop or another editing application, manipulate it as necessary and go from there. Or use that digital scan and take it into AutoCAD or another modeling application and trace the lines and turn that hand sketch into a 3d mass.

But with the advent of Autodesk Sketchbook Designer we can forgo of many of those analog steps and we can dive right at the onset of our design process into a digital process. There are many advantages of having a “digital sketch”, from the use of layers to control or study options to the benefits of exporting that digital sketch directly as vector lines to scale and even on the correct layer either into AutoCAD, Autodesk Vasari, Revit, 3dsMax, Photoshop, etc.

The following is just a small example of such one use. This process and images were actually used in a school district meeting to present visually our thought process and design approach:

After one is done with the desire sketch (notice at the right we have the layer pulldown bar) in Autodesk Sketchbook Designer we can export our sketch in several different formats, in this figure we are exporting the sketch as a DWG file, turning the sketch lines into vector lines.


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This is what the above sketch looks imported into AutoCAD. The drawing is to scale, notice the same size of the canvas. Another great feature besides having our “hand sketch” be a CAD drawing is the ability to have control of the layers in which the sketch was created, adding to our control and efficiency to study and design options.

And this is what the same diagram sketch looks imported into Photoshop. Again notice the correct scale of the canvas and well as the imported layers.


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In 3dsMax we can see that not only we used the line work from the sketch as our basis for our conceptual mass model but we used the sketch image as an actual underlayment to represent the progress of the design process.

Here is the final rendering result of the sketch; it started as a 2d digital sketch and it turned into a 3d conceptual mass model that was our basis for our design process.


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Energy Study 3D Mass At the early stages of design even if we have a 3d conceptual mass to scale in the past we did not have access to real-time “hard data” of that design massing such as square footage, volume, solar paths or energy consumption. But with Autodesk Vasari we can easily have access to all of this data in “real-time” but to me the most important thing is that we are able to have this data at such an early phase, we can literally be designing and massing a project and be able to generate area and programing schedules, generate solar path studies or energy analysis reports; all in the benefit of augmenting our design process decision.

The following diagrams are of a feasibility study we were conducting to help a school district assess and make the decision to go ahead and build a new high school. By starting our programing study directly in Autodesk Project Vasari (currently free of use at Autodesk Labs) we were able to get immediate feedback in regards to square footage, solar studies and energy reports thus making the deliverable to the client even more valuable than just having a 3d mass.

Screen shot of the High School project in Vasari, notice the very similar UI to Revit. Vasari is very similar to Revit in many aspects but in my opinion it’s a much “friendlier” application for designers but the file extension is RVT (same as Revit) so the interoperability between them both is seamless, making the life cycle of such an early venture continue throughout the design process.


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In Vasari like in many other Autodesk applications we are able to import Goggle Earth images to help us in our design. The above image show a plan view of our massing, the linework was imported from AtuoCAD.

3D isometric view in Vasari of our school mass, notice the orange line on the mass blocks, it denotes the second level of our building. Here as well you can see the linework of the site imported from AutoCAD.


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Decision making of our design process was speed up by being able to get immediate feedback on an array of categories shown in the above schedule.

These are just a few sheets of the energy analysis report we got through Vasari, and we were able to run this report several times through our design process.


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Iterative Design

Autodesk Showcase Design Alternatives Study Recently Autodesk used the phrase “Rendering Revolution” to the recent development of rendering engines and real-time application that permit us to study our models in “real time”, meaning that we don’t need to hit the render button to see what our project might look like in real life. This such rendering engines that work inside of 3dsMax are iray from Autodesk, Vray RT from the Chaos Group, Maxwell Render and I would go even as far to say that the viewport in 3dsMax if set to certain parameters can provide us with an approximate lighting resolution without the need to hit the render button.

One of the standalone applications is from Autodesk and it has been recently included in several of the Autodesk Suites. Autodesk Showcase works seamlessly with other Autodesk products such as AutoCAD, Revit, 3dsMax, Inventor, etc. Its main import file is FBX because that file type will carry with it a data rich model that might include textures and UV mapping, lights, daylight system, cameras and other items. In Showcase we can study in real-time material and finish options, model design options, lighting options as well as provide us with a very intuitive camera and presentation storyboard mode that lends itself for client presentations that happen in real-time. We can also export images, animations and even flash presentations.

The following example is of a community Library at the end of schematic design phase. We used Showcase to augment our presentation material and helps us to make quicker and more accurate design decision with the client.

The 3d model was done in AutoCAD and exported as an FBX. It included design options.


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This is the AutoCAD model imported into Showcase. Some of the material was brought over through the FBX file format; others such as the grass were applied in Showcase.

As you can see the AutoCAD layers came in named the same, this makes working in Showcase seamless from one application to another. To access the layer window you need to press “O” on the keyboard.


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Here you can see the Material Library, the material shown at the top with a check mark are the materials that are currently in use on the model. At the bottom you can expand several material libraries as well as create your own custom materials. You access the material library by pressing “M”.

If you have setup cameras they will import into Showcase, you will have as well some preset views like animations. Access the Shots menu by pressing “T”.


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The Alternative Lineup menu is the place where you can make alternative views accordingly to your design. As you see in this example we had a Canopy lineup as well as a bookend entry lineup. Access this menu by pressing “A”.

In this scene we changed both the canopy and bookend to one of the design alternatives. These views can be preset and later be shown as part of our design presentation.


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Another iterative design option in the alternative lineup menu is the ability to explore multiple finish and material options on the same object or model. In this example the classroom box was set to green granite on one option.

And in this view it was set to decorative stone. Again this views can be preset for client presentations.


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Another great feature of Showcase is the ability to “render” instantly as many views as we might need, export them as an image file and if desired tweak them in Photoshop or another image editing application. In Photoshop we can adjust the image levels, add additional 2d cell entourage, as well as crop our image (notice the “rule of thirds” preset on the crop command.

This is an example of the views of the library that we generated from Showcase that we used as part of our schematic design presentation.


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Solar and Daylight Studies In the Autodesk Suites application we have a myriad of options to study the effects of the sun on our building, from the solar path studies in Revit and Vasari to daylighting foot candles studies in 3dsMax Design. Also we have been able to study the approximate “real” effect that daylight could have on the interior of our building by taking advantage of the ease data workflow within the Autodesk Suite applications. Here we’ll explore a couple of such examples.

Solar Path Study in Autodesk Revit Revit has made it extremely easy to obtain a solar path study of our project. It is just a matter of turning on the sun icon. We can modify the location, time and date to observe what those conditions do to our project. Below are some images saved from Revit requested by the school district to observe the effect that the sunlight and shadow would affect our interior courtyards.


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Hallway Daylight Study In this case we were worried that a hallway on the same school as the previous example was not going the have adequate daylight. The hallway was long, tall and was only going to have clerestory windows on the east wall. What we decided to do before we went any further was the following:

We made a section box of our Revit model, applied the materials and exported the model.

This is a section of the hallway in question, rendered in Revit to review materials.


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We imported the section of the model; the section came preset with the materials, daylight system and cameras that we had setup in Revit.

This is a camera view of the hallway, notice the preset materials, they have the correct scale and UV mapping. We added reflection and transparency to some materials in 3dsMax.


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As you can see from the image below, we did not have to change our clerestory design for the hallway, as soon as we ran the first rendering we saw that we had good daylight in that space. The renderings were made without any addition of artificial lighting, that in reality we would have but we wanted to assess the space just with daylight.

Hallway at 7:00 am Hallway at 10:00 am


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Design Visualization To me Design Visualization is more than just making “sexy” images of buildings, granted in some instances a “sexy” image is just what we need, be it for marketing purposes, for a design competition or to win over a client. But most often than not the act of making visualizations affects the design process.

It affects it because in the process of making a rendering we sometime discover gaps in our model and in our design, we see how daylight and artificial lighting interacts with our exterior and interior spaces, we have to research and make decision in regards colors and the material palette of our project, we discover a sense of scale when we introduce scale model of people and of furniture, etc.

In my opinion Design Visualization should be implemented as soon as we can in our design process, granted we need to be cognizant of the stage we are in our project, sometimes showing a “sexy” image early in our process can hinder more than help. But with the many applications and their different capabilities in the Autodesk Suites we can find the right “look “for the right time, and being able to move back and for data and information makes it all that much easier and efficient to our bottom line as well as to our design process.

Design Visualization Project Life Cycle The following are some snapshots of the visualization that we used through the life cycle of a new High School. The images snap the gamut of applications and styles that served their specific but accurate purpose at a certain time and place of the design process of the project.


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Conceptual Design and Visualization for Architects and...

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