Source: Autodesk Journal
The architecture and the manufacturing industry are about to undergo a radical change in the way we do things. In the near future, designers and engineers will be able to create products, buildings and cities in real time, in virtual
Source: Autodesk Journal
The architecture and the manufacturing industry are about to undergo a radical change in the way we do things. In the near future, designers and engineers will be able to create products, buildings and cities in real time, in virtual reality.
In a predictable dramatic evolution of virtual reality, as a legend explained, when the first movie camera appeared, the actors were filmed in a set, in front of fake trees. Then someone said, “Why do not you put the camera in the woods?” Simple, but the game changed. Virtual reality technology is now available, and it’s only a matter of time before it gets the most out of it.
What is there now: Visualization
In a center dedicated to virtual reality inside the Los Angeles office of John A. Martin & Associates, the classmates hold their glasses and navigate using portable controllers through 3D models created by the BIM software. Visualizing a design in this context allows users to detect structural irregularities that might otherwise be overlooked.
For example, in virtual reality, you can see if a beam is not properly connected to another beam. Of course, this is possible without a virtual reality, but being completely immersed in a 3D environment makes you feel as if you were in that real physical place. It is easier to detect construction components that are not in the correct location.
This revolution has achieved great advances as a visualization tool, its use is predominant in the architecture, engineering and construction industries, both within companies and for use with customers. Through the use of portable controllers engineers and designers can move through 3D construction representations as if they were in a first-person video game simulation. They can climb stairs, teleport through corridors or look through the windows of the upper floor. It is really surprising.
Design visualizations can also help companies sell ideas to interested parties. By implementing 3D construction models as reproducible “games” with software compatible with virtual reality such as Revit Live, 3ds Max and Enscape, designers can invite clients and owners to exhibit their prospective projects.
What is to come: Creation
Even so, these examples only touch the surface of the potential of virtual reality. The next big opportunity for designers and engineers will go beyond visualization to create structures and products from scratch in virtual reality. Imagine virtual reality for Revit: What would happen if you could put on virtual reality glasses and with the movement of your hands and feet you could scale a model, push it, turn it and change its shape? That scenario may not be far away. Programs like Google Tilt Brush, which allows you to paint in a 3D environment, could indicate what is to come to create design projects in virtual reality.
Simply turning the wrist with the painting tool, you can color an object in a virtual reality environment. That type of physical-responsive design functionality is not available on the virtual reality platforms used by most architecture and manufacturing companies, but its existence outside of industries suggests that it could migrate.
If designers could create directly in virtual reality, instead of using external software, they could look around the back walls and teleport to narrow places, like joints and moldings.
By working in a closer and more manageable range for objects, designers could create more organic shapes with a greater level of granular detail. Artists and craftsmen le