The correct setup of your CAD model for export to IFC

I am exploring today, the correct geospatial set up of a CAD model, so that it may be exported correctly to IFC. You may wonder why, well its simple really, to accurately describe the position of any material, located within a component, in any element, in a 3D model we need to use the X,Y,Z coordinates.

In the past, we have relied heavily on the use of a simple grid to locate column positions, and to describe the position of say a door in a 2D model, and to some extent this will still work in a 3D model, but to accurately describing the failure point within a cavity wall to a computer program, needs a spacial grid, that is linked to the real world. Enter the use of a global position system,

In the UK we use the National Grid Ordnance Survey Geographic Cartesian coordinates system, or Eastings and Northings, its position can be linked to almost any other grid method from the various Lat Long methods, to the variety of country grids operating about the globe, almost always we buy maps as a digital file, which when imported into almost all CAD programs, auto sets the OS grid correctly.

The process as described in the IFC Building Smart support group paper, which the conclusion so well describes the need :

"The conceptual model is used to conceptualize the data structure to capture the required information for all exchange purposes and level of definition. The purpose of the conceptual model is:  Being a means to communicate with the expert panel on the correct data schema definitions;  Being a means to correlate the buildingSMART P6 work with OGC to achieve a common conceptual schema for both, the future GML extensions developed by OGC and the IFC extensions developed by buildingSMART;  Being the starting point to then incorporate the additional data schema requirements into the IFC EXPRESS and IFC XSD schema".

Eric Gradman of Two Bit Circus

You defiantly have to take this in, I mean really, take time and watch the Video from Leo Laport show "Triangulation" where he interviews Eric Gradman, of Two Bit Circus.

You will not be disappointed, believe me, I know the initial shop og hair and Mohican, can be a little off putting, but this guy and his company are worth looking at, some of the technology he is playing with, and I mean playing with, is well cutting edge. Is it part of your Architectural CPD, I think so, how, I have no idea, its the play/construction/construction/Programing that I find so good.

Watch the videos below, it will take time but I think you will enjoy, put it this way, I want an invite to his party.

First Watch the Leo Laport interview



Now watch the Ted presentation


The video below is just the first one, check out the main Two Bit Circus site to watch all in the series,

Indoor Mapping

I have written before, on the need to keep tabs on indoor Mapping. It fits so well with our CAD work, and the ability to keep our drawings up to date, and useful to our clients.

So take a look at this article, on MacWorld, re a hidden App, that works "By dropping ‘points’ on a map within the Survey app, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through,” the app description says. “As you do so, the Indoor Survey app measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data. The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware.”

How this might fit into the final BIM model is interesting, and worthy of further investigation, but for now read the article and follow up the links.

Todays photo is just a reminder, Winter is coming, Some reports are looking at a mild winter, but there is a growing background chatter that says, look out, we are in for a real hard winter.

Google Maps, 5 Awesome Tips

There is no doubt, Google maps has some very fine features for the Architectural Technologist, from the simple street view to maps view, but the best is Street View, dropping the little man onto the road where your property is located, and seeing the elevation.

I use this a lot when setting up a new project, or if I have done a survey and that one shot of a side or from view is missing, then Google Street view has sorted it.

You might want to view this great video, of Google maps use, Steve Dotto has 5 great tips, I think there is more, but the history tab is really cool. It does not always have history my own home is still 2009 as the last street view, but more popular places do, say the centre of Birmingham.

Terabyte,Petabyte,Exabyte,Zettabyte,Yottabyte

When I first got a computer, it was a commodore 64, with, little or no memory, no internal disk, just floppy disks with 64K and the idea of a megabyte of memory, a thing of beauty and wonder, The Mac Plus came out and it had a 1mb of memory, truly outstanding.

We then saw leaps and bounds over the years, till my latest Mac boasting 1Tb ( Terabyte ), of dish space, and 16 Gb of memory it now seems this is not the end, as machines become so much faster, and memory cheaper, we are going to see an increase in memory and now storage, as cloud space becomes the next big leap in computing, I currently have about 1TB of online storage shared between Dropbox and Google Drive.

This article is not about the fast pace, but the buzz words we now are staring to use, :

Terabyte,Petabyte,Exabyte,Zettabyte,Yottabyte

Notice megabyte is no longer listed, the list starts at Terabyte, for a full list try the Wiki site

I

Snow Architects

On a rather frequent basis, I get a text to tell me Snow Architects have issued their paper, 

quick round up of world news

News roughly based around architecture, BIM and coworking

HEADLINES

 PHOTOS

 VIDEOS

LEISURE

SCIENCE

BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

ENVIRONMENT

MORE 

I normally get a mention for a blog post or link I have posted, but its not the real reason for going straight to the site, to read the paper, its simply a nice read.

So often these things mislead, the first issue is ok, but tails off, or when you get there it's not been updated since the last issue, just a refresh.

But I like this paper, it covers a wide range of topics, and it well laid out. Take my advice and sign up.

I call it a paper, but really its a very nice blog site written within a framework called Paper.li, its a sort of blog, assistant, go fetch article framework, that is quite impressive. It say free, but I think youl end up paying a small fee, about $9 month, but well worth it.

Questions on the IoT

I read Scoble, I like the way he moves with new technology, so when I saw his article on the IoT, (Internet of Things), I thought, this is interesting.

He had a conversation with a man called Cédric Bollag, his answer to Scobles questioning, is well worth recording. I suggest that you go to Cedric's face book page and read the short article, then move to the Global Techbox page to follow through, some of the points, I expected, but some, well I sat down and thought them through. But rather than accept the list as the final answer, I sat back and started to add my own thoughts to the list, mostly as I watched the gymnastics on TV, so my mind was not completely engrossed in the subject.

I started to brain storm, when I was at Dow, I went on a course to learn how to make notes quickly and efficiently, I can't remember the chap who gave the lectures, I can't remember where, or what the method was called, but the method he taught stayed with me, even now I note the same way, hence I suppose the way I use Moleskins line eating sweets.

Reading and note taking is a skill, it takes time to learn to efficiently make notes, so they can easily be used, not only by you, but any one else. The latter part I so often fail at, my notes have cryptic clues and sketch's that so often only I can interpret. But I make notes thats the point.

I also store these notes electronically, via Evernote, I have looked at other systems, like Googles Keep, good that it is, it's still way behind Evernote in its use and method of info retrieval. Todays photo is of a screen grab I took from Google Maps, street view, I was showing my students how to make the best of site information, before they visited