Pink City: Character and Contextualism

This is a video of my visit to Pink City, Jaipur India. Shot from the car revealing the character of the place.

Interactive Architecture..the book

Published by PA Press, Michael Fox and Miles Kemp have put together as they call it “a processes-oriented guide to creating dynamic spaces and objects capable of performing a range of pragmatic and humanistic functions. These complex physical interactions are made possible by the creative fusion of embedded computation (intelligence) with a physical, tangible counterpart (kinetics). A uniquely twenty-first century toolbox and skill set-virtual and physical modeling, sensor technology, CNC fabrication, prototyping, and robotics-necessitates collaboration across many diverse scientific and art-based communities. “

It contains a huge number of artists, architects and designers all working in and around this field that I have found so fascinating over the past couple of years. Its more than just a coffee table book, I think they’ve done an excellent job finding themes that run through the discipline and taken on some of the key challenges including asking “Interaction” can be understood to be in a spatial context. Its definitely worth picking up and will appeal to architects, artists and designers alike.

Via interactivearchiture

Feature Videos of iPad Launch

Here is a video of Steve Jobs announcing the iPad. According to him the device will fill the gap between a smartphone and a laptop device providing a much user-friendly and fun experience to do email, watch videos and photos and surf the web. 

Also what makes the iPad so powerful as a consumer device is that it will run all of the 140,000 apps already supported on the iPhone. And the new iBook and iWork app, make the iPad the perfect e-reader and document processor. The video below demonstrates the capability of the device. 

Via Sizlopedia

Apple Launches the iPad Tablet

Apple has done it again!. After all the speculation and rumors, they have finally managed to launch a device that is not only phenomenal and extraordinary, but beautiful in design and powerful at it's core. They call it the iPad.

As predicted and previewed, the iPadOS shares its core with the iPhoneOS and does almost everything that the iPhone does. Good thing is that it runs all the 140,000 iPhone apps (in standard, and full-screen mode) and can also be used in landscape and portrait modes thanks to the accelerometer on board.

For the specs of the device, we have a 9.7 inch IPS multitouch display along with a 1GHz in-house processor chip by Apple. Comes in 16GB, 32GB to 64GB and boasts a battery-time of up to 10 hours in active mode and up to a month in standby-mode.

The iPad will be shipping in late March in two models: The WiFi and the WiFi + 3G. The pricing starts at $499 for the base WiFi model and ascends up to $829. Check out more on the official Apple iPad website.

Via Sizlopedia

Browse models on your Iphone

Looks like you can now browse 3D models on your iphone however it still looks to be in its infancy stages . goBIM is a tool for browsing BIM models on your iPhone. Check there website out for further details:

Highlights From Singapore

Video showing some of the highlights from my trip to Singapore...

Export Revit to EnergyPlus via Ecotect

EnergyPlus is one of the most sophisticated energy analysis tools available and Revit has become somewhat of a standard for the AEC industry at least in North America and Oceania it seems like a natural fit ..

See this recent post on openRevit for some in depth instructions on how to use the Revit gbXML export feature via Ecotect with EnergyPlus for thermal simulations and more.

Via Blgsim

Revit: Exporting to Ecotect Analysis

Here is some more fodder for environmental designers on exporting data from Revit to Ecotect Analysis:

Via Blgsim

3D models come to the iPhone

Interactive, 3D product documentation is going mobile, targeting non-CAD users such as repair technicians. For example, Autodesk Inventor Publisher Technology Preview, a free download from Autodesk Labs, supports the creation of interactive 3D assembly instructions, operating procedures, repair instructions, and the like. These can then be “published” to the Web, paper documents such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint — and the iPhone. The phone app seemed interesting and since I have an iPhone 3G S, I asked company representatives to publish a 3D animation to my phone.

To do this, I first needed the iPhone application, Firefly. Because the program is still in beta, the developers emailed it to me in a zip file (instead of my, say, downloading the program from the Apple site). Installing the software was merely a matter of attaching the iPhone to the computer and launching iTunes. Next came unzipping the content, dragging and dropping it into the Application folder in iTunes, and then “syncing” the phone. In a short while, Firefly loaded. Lightly pressing the Firefly icon opens the application. My phone is always “on” the Internet, so launching Firefly automatically connected it to Autodesk servers and downloaded files named “Bike Assembly,” “LED Light,” and “Guitar Hero,” among others.

Much of the iPhone’s appeal comes from its touch interface and this capability extends to Firefly. For example, tapping the 3D View tab for “Bike Assembly” brings up the 3D model of the bicycle. Pressing the Play arrow displays an exploded view of the bike and then an animation of the steps to installing the front wheel, fork, handlebar, crank, and seat. While the animation ran, associated text instructions for each step displayed at the top of the window. You can also touch and drag the timeline bar to scrub the timeline.

The interface is quite intuitive. For instance, a one-finger touch-and-drag orbits the camera, a two-finger touch-and-drag pans the camera, and a two finger “pinch” zooms the camera. Also, double-tapping a part displays the part name and tapping on the part label brings up another window that shows the part properties. A nifty feature: Touching and holding a part centers the view on the part.

Likewise, opening “Guitar Hero” displays an animation showing how to assemble a guitar. Double-tapping a body panel reveals its name, Body_Bottom:1. Tapping on the label shows part properties include author, date created, density, design status, designer, and material. Pages with a lot of text just take touching and dragging to scroll through the text.

A caveat from the developers: This version of Firefly is an early build of the app, so there were likely to be quirks. I found them to be few and far between. For instance, sometimes the part would not center immediately. But this is just a quibble. Firefly is probably among the first wave of mobile 3D applications. The program could even be handy for non-CAD end users such as a frustrated father needing to assemble a boxed toy for his kid.

Via machinedesign

Photos from Trip To India

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

VisualARQ – Architectural Tools for Rhino

Designed for architects, planners and interior designers, VisualARQ (developed by Asuni CAD) is a Rhino plugin for creating and editing architectural models. It adds parametric 3D objects like walls, columns, doors, windows and stairs that are suitable for 3D modeling and 2D documentation.

For detail on features and to download a trail version go to the VisualARQ website. Here are also some videos showing different tools in VisualARQ.

Via blgsim

Singapore Photos

Photos from my visit to Singapore

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer