Will solid modeling enter Residential/light Commercial 1

[dmthurman]

Coming from the Construction management side of the equasion I thought I would ask the experts in This area (engineers) how you folks see the future of Solid modeling/PLM in relationship to smaller scale Construction. Obviously Gehry has been pushing the envelope from an architectural side for larger structures, will this happen in smaller structures, and if yes, what system is poised to best exploit this. We've been looking at Revit (poor), Catia(BIG) and have been recently looking at Solid edge. From the Engineering side, does this make sense for you folks in the work flow of design/engineering/production.

Builder looking for a better way,or (could be just nuts..)

David thurman

 

[flamby]

Software companies around the world realise that Civil Construction is a really big market. They are trying to make inroads into this since several years and I don't think their achievements are anything that deserve a mention.

In short, construction-industry has rejected the 3-d modeling approach right since the beginning and does not look receptive to this shift. I don't think it is going to change in next 5 years.

Ciao.

 

[GregLocock]

Yes. That's what the aerospace/automotive people would have said 15 years ago.

There is undoubtedly an up-front investment required in switching to solid modelling, and a proper PIM strategy. If every job is unique, and version control is not an issue, and your analysis tools can't or won't work from the solid model database, then there is no particular reason to switch. For our jobs we try to work on 70% carryover parts, version control is a huge issue, and our analysis tools are integrated (to some extent) into the CAD database, at least to the extent that we rarely have to type in the geometry twice. So for us it is now a no-brainer.

Incidentally one aspect that is easy to overlook is that if you have a true solid model then ANYONE in your organisation can interrogate it if they have an appropriate program. That may not sound significant, what it means is that everyone is working off a model that is at most a week old. I'd say almost all of our design discussions use this approach now, rather than looking directly at a CAD screen.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[PSE]

3D might help from the marketing standpoint of being able to present to your customer a rendered model that they can "walk through" and potentially change up front rather than downstream. Many 3D programs with assembly capability can provide bills of material that would be of use in costing out projects. Also as Greg points out, the integration capabilities and revision controls are enhanced.

I have worked with Pro-E and a bit with Solidworks. There are Pro's and Cons associated with any software and all need to be evaluated based upon your need. Don't just follow a "canned" demo as you can only find out usefulness by throwing a real application (from your standpoint) at it. I have seen numerous demos fall flat just by asking "can it do ... for me?"

Regards,

 

[dmthurman]

Flamby
I agree Civil engineering isn't going to lead the way, it'll be a part of an intergrated aspect coming from other aspect of the work flow.

Greg
you brought up what I wanted to know from a manufacturing side of the equasion. Right now we work off 2D's plan/elevation are always in conflict and often times critical design issues aren't addressed until we all get up to the point of doing it and it's OOPS we didn't figure for that and it's a mad scramble to fix it. Not that solid modeling would fix 100% of this but working off the model gives everyone a clearer picture of what's going on. That's been at least very limited experience.

PSE
In custom construction the process is much more complex with the owner being so involved. Visualization tools to help bring those who can't visualize in 3D up to speed more rapidly. I think you brought up a valid point, which program. My question back to the Engineering community would be Which program do you think would be a great solid modeler for Building woodframe construction. I'm getting a Demo on Solid Edge and am going to try it out. From what I understand they've expanded it's ability to handle more parts, it's relative easy to use, and it sounds like the creation of standard parts for reuse is good. I suppose the Ideal program would be one that could encapsulate the residential/custom construction industry and at the sametime be powerful enough to move into more complex forms and techniques of construction. Obviously it would need to tie into the backend Database, for specs, estimation, scheduling, accounting, group collaboration and what ever else might be relevant to that...

 

[Heckler]

Certain aspects of civil engineering have been using 3D data for the last 10-15 years. With the introduction of GPS in area of Surveying this data is now captured and displayed as a 3D map. This helps in visualization of cut & fill analysis, & GIS data to name a couple of applications. I don't think it will be as widely excepted as it is in mechanical design.

 

[MadMango]

3D is used more as a visulization tool rather than a manufacturing tool in construction. Except for detail work, I would think it would be cost-prohibitive and cumbersome to model every 2x4, drywall screw and shingle.

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[CorBlimeyLimey]

Although the mainstream mechanical solid modelling systems could do the architectural stuff, it simply isn't designed for it & wouldn't be efficient.

Check out

http://www.caddprimer.com/cad_software_vendors/cad_lab_architectural_software.htm

I don't know about the others but in Archicad you dont have to model all the studs, shingles, etc ... it calculates that for you.


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