By Ken Feitz
Windows and doors and CAD, oh my! The 2005 American Institute of Architects National Convention and Design Exposition in Las Vegas last week was chock-a-block with building “stuff”—and with the technology to design for it. With more than 850 exhibitors on-hand, the 24,000 attendees could find anything from doors to floors to windows to walls to online product catalogs and building information modeling (BIM) tools.
“This show is starting to be the place where new products and technologies are announced,” said Jim Dinegar, the AIA’s chief operating officer. “There has been about an 18% growth in registration since last year, with more people using the ‘early-bird’ registration option. In addition, for the first time, repeat sessions for the Continuing Education System were held.” According to the AIA, the conference grew by about 4 percent from last year.
“This exposition could have explosive growth, but AIA has decided to manage the growth,” said Dinegar. “Past attendees have asked for quality exhibitions, not just quantity.”
The major AEC CAD vendors were all there. Despite an Autodesk representative saying last year that the company has significantly reduced their presense at trade shows, Autodesk spent a great deal of money on AIA. Autodesk promotional graphics were on display throughout the conference as well as around every attendee’s neck. Bentley was there, but difficult to see. A walled booth prevented anyone from looking inside. To get inside the box, you had to get past the badge scanners. The booth may have been designed to pique a person’s interest—“I wonder what is inside the box?” —but I think it deterred more people than it attracted. It never seemed to be crowded.
The booth for SketchUp, freehand 3D design software from @Last, was very popular. Positioned behind Autodesk, you had to wait in line to see a demo or at the very least knock shoulders with people to get past. The aisles were crowded as people watched the intriguing software demos. Thanks goodness for the large projection screens.
I found it interesting that Rhino, the 3D CAD modeler from Robert McNeel and Associates was there. Rhino has been primarily used in the mechanical market place, but is starting to make inroads into the AEC industry. This was Rhino’s second appearance and they seem to be building momentum.
New this year was Adobe, showing how Adobe PDF and Acrobat 7.0 could help automate processes and improve communications among project members no matter where they were or what software they used. Adobe is continuing the push into the AEC industry started last year when Cyon Research released a white paper titled The Adobe Solution for AEC. The paper studies the implications of moving from a paper-based workflow to a more streamlined and profitable workflow based on intelligent documents.
With the release of the latest Star Wars movie happening the same time as the conference, futuristic visions were hot in my mind. A two-foot by two-foot detailed flexible holographic image that appeared to be floating in the air fitted the idea of the future. And no need for any special eyewear. It was just there. The holographic images were featured by Zebra Imaging. Patented technical advances in lasers, optics and computing are used to produce digital holographic images from virtually any CAD system. Each digital hologram is rendered and composed of thousands of “hogels” (a Zebra term for three dimensional pixels.) The image is then burned into a thin sheet of photopolymer film with a unique, optical imager system. The resulting hologram is portable and can be made transparent or opaque with various lamination techniques. A simple halogen or LED light source is used to illuminate the image. [Editor's Note: Follow this link to an interesting article by Forbes Magazine on the use of Zebra's holograms in mapping and manufacturing.]
This is a great way to collaborate with colleagues or sell an idea to clients. Images can use “channeling” where a 3D holographic image changes as viewing positions are altered. You can see various floors of a building just by moving around one single image.
Technology can help improve productivity when a repetitive, time-consuming process needs to be automated. And that is what American Masonry Supply has done with CS CAD. This innovative tool is just the answer for architects designing cast or cut stone elements. By selecting from a series of images and supplying dimensions, CS CAD will create all the necessary detail drawings for windows, door surrounds, balustrades, columns, mantels and more automatically in AutoCAD format. CS CAD draws correct elevations of embellishments that include a complete parts list in order to manufacture these products with correct sizes and joint placements. CS CAD is a remarkably simple yet powerful product. By selecting pre-drawn profiles and filling out a form, what used to take several hours has been reduced to minutes.
There was plenty of the usual promotional gobbledygook being given away. Key rings, light sticks, pens, notepads, and the likes were rampant. But Wind2 Software (www.wind2.com) has my vote for the best give-away. The Wind2 financial and project management software and client relationship management software struck a positive chord with me by offering a donation to a selected charity in return for my attention in their booth. For me, there could not be a better way to get my business. I have enough notepads and “stress balls” and this is a much better way to spend money.
Listening to comments from the attendees is always valuable. The only criticisms heard at the conference were how crowded and small the exhibition floor was and how the high tech pavilion seemed a little lacking. Next year, the conference will be held in Los Angeles (www.aia.org/ev_conv_aia_06). I’m sure the exhibit floor will be larger. And with the number of companies on the wait list this year, I’m sure there will be more to see.
This report was written by Ken Feitz at the request of AECnews.com. Ken is chief operating officer of Strategic Reach, a market consulting firm specializing in CAD and related technologies. @Last is a Strategic Reach client.