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AEC Design Review and Technology PDF

This document discusses new trends and technologies impacting design review in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. It identifies challenges with traditional design reviews, such as delays, costs, and difficulties collaborating across different locations. The document then outlines several new technologies, like virtual reality and GPUs, that are helping AEC professionals address these challenges by improving communication and productivity. It provides examples of how leading AEC companies are adopting these technologies to reduce the time spent on design reviews by up to two-thirds and lower project costs.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
152 views7 pages

AEC Design Review and Technology PDF

This document discusses new trends and technologies impacting design review in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. It identifies challenges with traditional design reviews, such as delays, costs, and difficulties collaborating across different locations. The document then outlines several new technologies, like virtual reality and GPUs, that are helping AEC professionals address these challenges by improving communication and productivity. It provides examples of how leading AEC companies are adopting these technologies to reduce the time spent on design reviews by up to two-thirds and lower project costs.

Uploaded by

alberto5791
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2018

New Trends and Technologies


Impacting Design Review in AEC

Virtual Reality in Design Review by HGA

A report on the latest technology trends for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry sectors by
The Business Advantage Group Ltd.
Contents Executive Summary
Page # The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is constantly looking for process improvements

Executive
3 Summary to better manage potential project delays and costs. These result from project complexity, size, uniqueness, and
regulations, as well as the need for virtual team collaboration.
4 AEC Workflow and Design Review Design reviews are a critical part of this process and present some unique challenges. Key team members are

5 Latest Trends and Technologies often located in many locations, on diverse computing platforms, and face difficulties working on the entire

project at once. It’s also often difficult for all stakeholders—especially owners, developers, and other non-AEC
7 Benefits of Adopting New Technologies
industry professionals—to easily understand design intent or visualize the proposed final solution. As a result,

9 Customer Spotlights there are usually multiple discussion cycles and proposed design modifications
“Let’s just say we
that can delay decisions, push out project timetables, and increase costs.
12 Background Information used to spend triple
The solution lies in advanced, scalable technologies that can bring efficiency the time on a project

to the project life cycle and deliver substantial savings in both time and costs. than we do now...
especially the design
In this report, we’ll highlight:
review part was the
• Challenges related to the design review within the AEC workflow
most time
• How new technologies are helping to manage these challenges
consuming.” (Sun,
• Which new technologies are being adopted by leading AEC companies
Senior Architect,
• The quantifiable benefits brought about by these technologies
Dalian Jinguang
• Three use case studies on leading AEC companies
Construction Group
The research findings are based on in-depth telephone interviews with more than
Co Ltd, China)
30 AEC professionals (please see background section for more details).

Design Review of Hospital Services in the FULmax CUBE VR system, Fulcro Ltd.
22 3D Rendering of BEIJING CBD CORE AREA China, Design by Zaha Hadid Architects with Patrik Schumacher
3
AEC Workflow and Design Review Challenges Trends and Technologies Impacting AEC Design Review
Design review is one of the most critical phases of the AEC workflow for ensuring that the final building meets New technologies are making tremendous improvements to the workflow processes, yielding better
expectations. This consists of both formal design reviews that include communication and increased productivity. Companies can now work smarter and save money with new
the client(s) and almost continuous informal design reviews in which “Sometimes the feedback and capabilities like enabling collaboration on designs with team members anywhere, conducting design reviews in
changes can seem endless. It’s
design teams discuss and iterate improvements. 85% of the companies virtual reality, and rendering complex 3D models faster. The following is a primer on some of the most impactful
definitely the most time
agree with the statement “Design reviews are a time-consuming technologies benefiting the design review process.
consuming part of AEC workflow”
aspect of the AEC workflow and often result in delays in moving the
(Zhou, Senior Designer, Yu City
GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT (GPU)
project forward…”. This is most often due to business challenges, lower Architectural Design Co, China)
workplace efficiency, and the resulting economic, and financial impact. AEC firms rely on professional GPUs to let
their architects, engineers, and designers

Business Challenges Workplace Efficiency Economic Impact work effectively with all their CAD
software tools. Companies can select from
Business challenges related to Technical issues result in Most professionals within the
the AEC design review process lower workplace efficiency. AEC space mentioned the need a broad range of desktop and mobile GPUs
result in slow decision-making, Typical issues cited by AEC for higher productivity and to match diverse user requirements in their
leading to time-consuming professionals include problems improved efficiency as important organizations. Unlike gaming GPUs,
iterative design improvements. related to software, hardware, success parameters for design
professional GPUs are tested and
or both, as well as integration, review.
interoperability, and security certified by leading CAD ISVs and
limitations. workstation OEMs, so design teams get
the best possible experience from their IT
While design reviews are an essential part of the overall building design workflow, they’re especially critical during
the conceptual design phase, followed by the client approval stage, architectural design stage, and bidding for investment.
projects and engineering design stages. A typical AEC workflow is shown below, along with key design review Learn more
intervention points:

Increasing Design Team Size and Complexity GPU-ACCELERATED RENDERING


o BIG IDEA GENERATION

o EXTENSIVE DETAILS
o The design review happens across all creative stages GPUs are transforming rendering and the
o Typically same 3D model is used across different stages (content density keeps increasing)
o Rapid iteration is a norm entire design process. Combining a high-end
88%
workstation with GPU-accelerated
58% 62%
50% 50% physically based rendering and physically
38%
27%
o COMPLEX DESIGN
o SIMPLE CONTENT

based materials enables fast, accurate


4% 8% design iteration on predictable models.

Bidding Requirement Conceptual Architectural Technical Design Client Construction Sub Architects and designers can make changes
gathering design or design design approval approval stage contracting
schematic development development stage/ stage stage on the fly and quickly iterate on concepts
design Construction
document
while remaining in the creative flow.
o SMALL TEAM

o LARGE TEAM

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Learn more

% of AEC companies doing design review at each stage

4 5
VIRTUAL REALITY (VR)
The Benefits of Adopting New Technologies
Below is a summary of key benefits achieved by AEC companies through the adoption of new technologies:
VR is revolutionizing AEC workflows with
technology that makes it possible to work at
Time and resource Higher quality output and better Positive impact on the
scale. VR provides the ability to walk through optimization comprehension of visualizations business
entire virtual buildings during the design review
process, run virtual construction rehearsals, and • Faster renderings • Improved quality of visualization • Higher client satisfaction
• Faster project delivery (time • Higher efficiency in the designing through shorter rendering time
conduct maintenance and safety training–all in
savings) and rendering process resulting in • Improved client retention
an immersive and collaborative experience. By
• Workforce mobility improved productivity through improved quality of
using professional VR Ready GPUs, companies visualization
• More accurate comprehension
can be certain users will enjoy unsurpassed • Better visualization of client
of designs by end clients
performance with the high level of graphics work to share with prospects
power needed for VR. • Repeat client business
Image courtesy of The Gettys Group
Learn more

“The whole process, especially the rendering process, “One of the big financial benefits is that
got shortened. Before NVIDIA, we needed 2 to 3 days we have been able to explore more design
“NVIDIA allowed for better productivity… we now use [VR] to sit down with clients and go through the options, quicker. We’ve produced more
to render big images. Now we can render 4-8 images
interesting designs which has gotten
building, so it provides a quicker and a faster method to signing off design.” (Stephen Yates, within one day. The impact is big considering labor
attention and new inquiries for our design
Information Technology Director, TP Bennett, UK) cost, electricity bills, and so on.” (Zhan, CEO, talent.”(Kyle Kernozek, Associate, Bower,
Sichuan Chaoyu Group Architect Design Co, China) Lewis and Thrower, USA)

GRAPHICS VIRTUALIZATION

With GPU virtualization, engineers, architects,


and designers can access the applications they
need from anywhere, on any device, while
mission-critical designs remain securely in the
data center. Users get the same responsive
experience in a virtualized environment as they
would from a physical workstation, with the
added benefit of improved collaboration and
version control.
Learn more
Image courtesy of Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf

“‘NVIDIA Quadro Virtual Data Center Workstation [Quadro vDWS] enables 3D rendering on virtual
desktops running in our data center. A lot of standard applications need [NVIDIA virtual GPU
technology] for performance, even Windows 10 itself. When you get into using Revit or other high-end
design tools, you absolutely need Quadro vDWS. Without it, performance will not be like a local
desktop. With Quadro vDWS you can give someone less or more hardware resources based on what
they need.” (Leslie Balazs, Technical Analyst, Clark Builders, Canada)
Image courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
6 7
More specifically, these benefits relate to hardware capabilities, improved efficiency, and BIM related factors.
Customer Spotlights
The use of new technologies has been cited by AEC professionals to help manage several risks associated with a
Zaha Hadid Architects, United Kingdom
typical AEC project lifecycle. These include a combination of intrinsic factors such as higher staff morale as well as
extrinsic factors, like being adequately innovative to combat competitive pressures. Here are a few key benefits Challenge Solution Impact
for the industry: In order to convey Zaha Hadid The application of NVIDIA high spec Armed with NVIDIA products,
Architect’s design solutions to its graphic cards allowed ZHVR Group ZHVR Group has joined several
clients, stakeholders and the to advance beyond limitations. highly acclaimed exhibitions
More immersive experiences
general public, ZHVR Group NVIDIA GPU products and dedicated showing the practice’s work – such
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are specifically helping the AEC design review workflow, taking as the Danjiang Bridge project - to
introduced real-time VR VR assets enabled the team to build
advantage of the fastest hardware for graphics acceleration and rendering. The result is faster design iteration and technology starting three years experiences and run simulations the public. Such VR experiences
have also become the mainstay of
real-time (or near real-time) rendering for higher-quality visualization. In addition, with growing adoption of ago. Being able to present the without artistic compromise while
the firm’s commercial
practice’s work to viewers in fully maintaining high framerates and
4K displays for design workflows, working with large BIM models presentations – reducing
“Quadro GPUs makes it significantly immersive and atmospheric detail GPU acceleration. With the help of
requires even more graphics horsepower to maintain a smooth decision-making time and enabling
easier to manage the use of multiple and adding interactive components, NVIDIA, ZHVR Group also introduced
clients with a new level of insight
CAD user experience. such as loadable design options, real-time VR into the practice’s
applications simultaneously to present and presence. Within the practice’s
requires the use of game engines design workflow - to optimise design wide range of international
good design materials.” (Cori Moran,
running on powerful hardware evaluation and offer an entirely new, projects, numerous teams are
Improved productivity Visualization and Virtual Reality
solutions. 3D toolkit for their designers. designing with the use of VR -
New technologies are having a two-pronged impact on improving Specialist, SLR Consulting, UK)
benefitting from the immediacy
productivity and efficiency. First, they’re enabling designers to iterate of the new interface and from
designs faster, resulting in time savings, reduced labor cost, and shorter project duration. Second, technologies like GPU the enhancement of the dialogue
amongst multinational teams.
virtualization drive better collaboration, especially for remote teams collaborating on a shared model, accessed from a
secure data center. “VR is the new digital platform of today in which we want to show – and connect to – our architectural
ideas.” (Helmut Kinzler , Senior Associate and Head of ZH VR Group)
“[There are] two main challenges.
Better management of BIM models First, is finding the best way to help
As more companies are embracing Building Information clients visualize space and materials
Modeling (BIM)—and the massive 3D models that come with through compelling renderings.
it—there is a growing need for much higher graphics capability to Second is figuring out what tools will
ensure a smooth design and model-development experience. The allow us to visualize more quickly, so
use of new technology in BIM simplifies design reviews and that we can iterate more and better
introduces time savings and efficiency into the project life-cycle. ideas.” (Chris Hinton, Architect, and
It reduces re-work, minimizes conflicts, accelerates changes, Graphic Designer, Lord Aeck Sargent, USA)
effectively controls error rates, and increases overall productivity.
It also makes it easy to update and retrieve relevant information specific to a model.

3D Rendering of Danjiang Bridge in Taipei, Design and Architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects, Rendering by MIR and VisualArch
8 9
Fulcro Ltd, United Kingdom Clark Builders, Canada

Challenge Solution Impact Challenge Solution Impact

Fulcro is an innovative, creative NVIDIA graphic cards facilitated Before adopting Quadro, Fulcro Clark Builders, partner of the Turner Most projects are site based, this Virtual GPU technology has made
Construction Company, is among the means collaboration, connectivity an impact. Clark Builders claim that
engineering team using CAD heavy fast rendering and reduced technicians experienced a few
top ten general contractors in and performance are important NVIDIA Quadro vDWS powered
applications on a daily basis. They downtime. It enabled a much higher seconds of delay every time they
Canada and serves the industrial, when working on projects remotely.
wanted to ensure that they had clarity of graphics, quicker model manipulated a CAD model. Fulcro workstations are ‘about as fast as
private and commercial sectors. Clark Builders invested heavily in
improved graphics capabilities for manipulation when rendering and estimates that each user made 5% you can get’ which means
Clark Builders has been listed on NVIDIA Quadro vDWS to manage
these applications. Their technicians the ability to do virtual reality (VR) time savings, which across the performance and mobility are now
Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies
were experiencing significant loss within the construction sector. This entire organization translated into these requirements. With NVIDIA
list for the last ten years thus very easy to accomplish.
of productivity over the course of a helped reduce delays when working significant productivity gains. Quadro vDWS, employees can
earning Platinum status, as well as
project due to slow graphics with clients by removing remotely render 3D models on
being named as one of Aon’s Best
performance each time they misunderstandings of designs virtual workstations and experience
Employers. Clark Builders uses
manipulated a CAD model on their compared to when presented in 2D. the same performance as provided by
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
computer displays. across the organization and wanted a physical workstation.
to boost the performance of
“People are able to view more of a model at once, giving better visibility of a project complexity and to software applications across virtual
see the bigger picture. Using a newer graphics card reduces rendering time, increases efficiency, and workstations.
reduces the stress of our employees because they are not constantly waiting for things.” (Dr. Max
Mallia-Parfitt, Director of Applied Technologies, Fulcro Ltd, UK) “...NVIDIA Quadro vDWS made our applications run a lot faster. We had our team render a 4K video on
a regular low-end virtual machine and it would take about 4 hours. With NVIDIA Quadro vDWS this can
now be achieved in 20 minutes.” (Leslie Balazs, Technical Analyst, Clark Builders, Canada)

• 3D Rendering of Dudley College’s Advance II Building, Fulcro Ltd. The MacLaren - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Renderings produced by Clark Builders and DIALOG
10 11
Background Information
Although sponsored by NVIDIA, the research was conducted and analyzed wholly independently by Business
Advantage (BA). BA interviewed design and IT professionals working in a variety of AEC companies in the USA, UK,
and China. The goal was to understand the new technology trends driving improved efficiency of large project design
reviews. In-depth telephone interviews averaging 60 minutes in duration were held with over 30 AEC design
organizations. The discussions focused on the critical challenges they face in design reviews and what they’re doing
to address them. The interviews were transcribed, translated to English, and comprehensively analyzed and
captured in this report to share key insights and trends. NVIDIA is a strategic player in the AEC industry, not only
providing the computer graphics performance needed for 3D CAD design and visualization, but also powering
advances in leading-edge technology like VR, photorealistic rendering, and emerging generative design software.
They also drive deep learning-enabled video safety monitoring and compliance software and autonomous vehicles
on construction sites.

* Please note that the quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Companies which participated in this research:


• Atkins China Ltd, China • Lord Aeck Sargent, USA
• BLT Architects, USA • Murphy Surveys, UK
• China Architectural Design Consulting Company, China • Perkins+Will, USA
• CITYSCAPE DIGITAL, UK • Platt Byard Dovell White, USA
• Clark Builders, Canada • PLP Architecture, UK
• Dalian Jinguang Construction Group Co Ltd, China • Sichuan Chaoyu Group Architect Design Co Ltd, China
• DLR Group, USA • Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, USA
• EYP Inc, USA • SLR Consulting Ltd, UK
• Fentress Architects, USA • SmithGroupJJR, USA
• Fulcro Ltd, UK • Stephenson Halliday Ltd, UK
• HGA incorporated, USA • TP Bennett, UK
• Jennings Design Associates Ltd, UK • Woods Bagot, UK
• Kleinfelder Inc, USA • WSP (London), UK
• Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, UK • Yu City Architectural Design Co Ltd, China
• LHB, USA • Zaha Hadid Architects, UK

This report is sponsored by: Produced by:

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