52 minute read
fabrication
The rise of the robots
Martyn Day evaluates the latest projects and technologies involved in deploying robots and 3D printing in construction.
While the general serve of the automotive industry. Laings media seems is doing so with its Design for happy to stir up Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) fears of mass- approach to modular construction. unemployment A number of other highly-publicised and social insta- projects are also seeking to demonstrate bility brought about by the infiltration of that robots and 3D printing can be utirobotics into traditional middle-class lised effectively on large-scale projects. jobs, the construction industry remains relatively untouched by automation, Modular and Prefab despite decades-old flagellation over mar- Modular design and prefabrication has ket inefficiencies. long been a popular subset of AEC. It
Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been proven to work for ‘protocabhas been touted as a way to reclaim some ins’, McDonalds restaurants, emergency of this inefficiency but, looked at a differ- shelters and caravans, which need to be AEC industry towards embracing prefabent way, it is also the entry point to robotic ‘manufactured’ rapidly and deployed in rication. (lineshapespace.com/future-offabrication. weeks. construction).
In the manufacturing world, the move However, despite many attempts, pre- Mr Bernstein envisions that buildings to 3D modelling enabled Computer fabrication has generally failed to get will be ‘assembled’ and then mass cusNumerical Controlled (CNC) machining much traction in construction until rela- tomised, enabling sophisticated design and 3D printing, the core asset of which is tively recently. There are now a number changes even though components are the creation of a 3D model to drive the soft- of firms, such as China’s Broad configured within a production line ware, to drive the machines. environment. As a model-centric approach becomes more mainstream in AEC, it will ‘‘ Robotics use in construction remains Mr Bernstein gave a number of examples that, he said, prove that it is possible inevitably drive the digital fabrication of components or embryonic, with today’s plinth-located to utilise digital fabrication and have a unique end result. complete buildings. However, manufacturing robots making Doctor Who’s For example, BSB built a today’s attitude towards creating BIM models is more Darleks look positively advanced 57-storey tower, with 800 apartments in 19 days (proabout documentation than driving fabrication and will ’’ ducing an amazing three sto reys per day) by using pre need another step-change to enable mod- Sustainable Building (BSB) company, fabricated components. el-driven fabrication. which are working out how prefabrica- The B2 Pacific Park building in
While much of this work resides in the tion can have benefits without the old Brooklyn’s Navy yard had a very comresearch labs of universities, there are drawbacks. plex design that used prefabricated comcompanies like Laings, which is actively Autodesk VP strategic industry rela- ponents to build 32-storeys, 363 apartseeking to deploy rapid fabrication tech- tions Phil Bernstein recently examined ments, and 930 modules. nologies that hitherto have been the pre- how technology changes are pushing the Facit Homes (facit-homes.com) has
MX3D is planning to build a 15-metre long bridge using robots
developed a unique way to employ digital fabrication within its BIM process for domestic dwellings. Using Revit, customers work with the firm to design their individual home.
The Revit model is then used to generate GCODE to run a CNC milling machine, which is shipped to the construction site in a shipping container. The building is assembled from insulated wooden box sections, which are cut fresh each day wherever the building site is and controlled back at base in London.
Facit Homes managing director Bruce Bell explained to AEC Magazine why the traditional view of prefab buildings from factories will not work in the residential sector. “There is a direct correlation between factory fabrication and repetition because you can’t have factories sitting idle due to the overheads. So, as soon as you have a factory, you need turnover and in order to have turnover, you need standardisation and you end up producing the same thing over and over again.
“If you build on-site, which the vast majority of buildings are, the constraints are completely different and fabricating on demand has benefits such as having no heating, storage costs etc, as running a factory would.
“The economics (of prefab) just don’t stand up. It leads to standardisation and people don’t want the same, and every site has its own requirements. There is no one size fits all.” The robots are coming Robotics use in construction remains embryonic, with today’s plinth-located manufacturing robots making Doctor Who’s Darleks look positively advanced.
However, there are a number of projects that aim to teach robots to weld and lay brick. To do this it is important to overcome platform immovability, limited arm reach, onsite spatial awareness and real time clash detection.
Safety is also a major concern as these robots will be more than likely working alongside humans. (See box out on page 14 for some of the latest developments). 3D printed Buildings Given that 3D print technology has been around for such a long time, there remains considerable hype around its application. This is probably, in many ways, due to its fall in price to address the emerging ‘maker’ and consumer markets.
Now that hoopla has died down, the reality is dawning on AEC professionals that those with engineering knowledge and CAD skills can manufacture with a growing range of desktop machines. While the print technology progresses slowly, there has been a great leap forward in materials that can be used.
I have seen 3D printers that use chocolate, mud with seeds, plastic, cake mix, candy, ceramic, rubber, colours, UV curing liquid and various metals. It was only a matter of time before concrete and clay became available on the 3D print menu.
Many 3D printed buildings currently come out of China, although many do not appear to live up to the 3D printed label. For example, Zhuoda Group claimed to have produced a 1,100 square metre ‘neo-
classical mansion’ featuring multi-storey hours. Each ‘house’ was made for less issues should anyone actually live in (five floors) and decoration in just 10 than £3,000. these buildings. The materials science of days. However, further investigation So far the Chinese company has spent 3D printed buildings is still some way off. reveals that 3D print was used to generate 20 million yuan (£2 million) and taken 12 Amsterdam’s Dus Architects components in a factory, which were years to develop its additive manufactur- (dusarchitects.com) has been experimentdelivered on site, not ‘cast’ in situ from a ing device. The only sections not pro- ing with plant-oil based materials to creroving 3D print head. ate a 3D printed house on its WinSun has developed its own system — a 3D printer array that stands 6.6 metres ‘‘ To effectively employ these methods, open source KamerMaker (room maker) 3D printer. Again, due to build size high, 10 metres wide and 40 designers will need to understand the limits of issues, 3D printing is used to metres long. The ‘print engine’ sits in the construction, materials and fabrication create 2 x 2 x 3.5m high sections of the design, which are WinSun’s factory and fabri- technologies far better than they do today stacked up like Lego bricks to cates building parts in large pieces. These are shipped and assembled on-site. ’’ create a 3D printed equivalent of a Dutch gabled canal house. The project started in
WinSun claims the process saves duced by the printer were the roofs. 2014 and is set to last three years. between 30%-60% of construction waste, Chinese companies are also keen to can decrease production times by find new materials, such as using recy- 3D printing concerns between 50% to 70%, and labour costs by cled concrete from unwanted buildings to There are many challenges for 3D printbetween 50% and 80% percent. produce new 3D printable concrete. ing buildings. Physically there is a need
Yingchuang New Materials claims to However mixing concrete with fibreglass to have a huge frame around which the have ‘printed’ up to ten buildings in 24 and different resins could lead to health 3D print head can move, otherwise it will
The rise of the robots — five technologies to keep your eye on
HAL robotics
Originating from an academic Masters project development, HAL robotics offers a popular Rhino grasshopper plug-in to enable control of ABB, KUKA and Universal Robots machines. The software enables fabrication directly from a digital model, supporting hotwire cutting, milling and pick and place, without having to go through any additional programming steps.
Founded by a multi-disciplinary team of architects and engineers HAL robotics is involved in over 200 research and commercial projects, which have both on and offsite fabrication, and may require collaborative robotic interaction or real time sensors.
The company is currently working on its next generation tool, which will be platform and format agnostic, so it could be pumped into Revit, ArchiCAD or a Raspberry Pi. As most of the major six-axis robot manufacturers run proprietary operating instructions, HAL is looking to produce a single tool that will be able to talk to them all. Called the grammar engine, it can translate into any required robot language for offline programming.
HAL Robotics’ VP of human machine interactions Sebastian Andraos explained, “Construction is the holy grail of robotics, it’s very much in line with industry 4.0 – it requires autonomy of machines, awareness of their environment, collaboration between man and machine and error correcting in real time.
“As things stand construction is an incredibly complex task, for the current generation of robots. For the time being it’ll be complex, more expensive projects that will see the benefits in using digital fabrication.
“There is huge inertia yet to be overcome for the adoption of digital fabrication. There is a huge amount of education that is required before we start to see these kind of technologies used. If you use the example of BIM in the construction industry when considering inertia, ArchiCAD came out in 1982 as the first BIM tool. Here we are 35 years later and there are people that have still not got on board. And instead of digitally fabricating directly from the model we are generating 2D drawings to hand downstream where errors can be introduced.”
“One of the most interesting aspects about robots is their ability to change tools. So you could have one robot in a room, one minute it could be running cables through wall, then plastering, then painting.
“We are already seeing many more experiments with 3D printing in construction. But nobody is really using it to its full extent, as most experiments are limited to extruding with the 3D printer, which is like using a nail gun to hang a picture.
“Meanwhile firms like Xtree are trying to experiment with forms and shapes. But I don’t really see 3D printing as a way to create a whole building. On site construction will remain modular, with bricks, breeze blocks, and large panels with prefabrication of certain elements.
“The real advantages will be from the logistics of timing the on site preparation with the production of prefabricated components. We could have half the building ready by the time we have planning permission and turn up on site.” ■ hal-robotics.com
MX3D
Based in the Netherlands, MX3D is a startup that has ambitions to build a steel 15-metre long bridge using multi-axis robots. The plan is to combine robots, printing in metal, and all the while doing it above water (something which most robots don’t like too much).
The robot arms will be fitted with welding heads and fed with metal rods of material to produce layers of welds, one on top of the other, fabricating the computer-optimised structure of the bridge. The robots will either sit on the bridge as they weld, or on barges.
The project is estimated to take three months to complete. Autodesk, Heijman (a Dutch construction firm) and ABB, a Swiss industrial robot manufacturer) are all supporting the project. ■ mx3d.com/projects/bridge
Hadrian
Hadrian is an Australian brick and mortar laying robot, devised by Mark Pivac of Fastbrick Robotics, that can lay 1,000 bricks an hour at an accuracy of 0.5 mm by using site-wide laser scanning.
Hadrian seems to mainly comprise of a special attachment and feed system to a crane with a 28-metre boom, giving it incredible reach. It is estimated that Hadrian could produce a standard size house in two days. Although apparently it is not too hot at doing corners. ■ fbr.com.au
SAM (Semi Automated Mason)
Created by Construction Robotics of New York, SAM is a robot that works alongside a mason, taking the strain and enabling the laying of two to four times the amount of bricks that the mason could typically do on their own. Again, it does not like corners and excels at long straight runs.
SAM sits in a self-contained metal box that has a small robot arm and brick/ mortar feeder, which all together weighs 3,000 lbs, and runs on a propane generator. It moves along a scaffold wall and uses laser measurement so the system can dynamically apply mortar and place bricks. ■ construction-robotics.com
asmbld
One of the more bizarre projects is the Project Dom Indoors by New York-based construction robotics company asmbld. The concept is that rooms are broken down via a raised access floor into pixel like grids. A number of small robots move about within the raised floor to assemble structures that get lifted, raising the floor level to meet the design. This essentially means the room can be ‘built’ and sculpted on the fly like the terrain in minecraft. ■ asmbld.com/dom-indoors
Foster + Partners is part of a consortium set up by the European Space Agency to explore the possibilities of 3D printing lunar habitations
(Top) Hadrian is a brick and mortar laying robot that can lay 1,000 bricks an hour (Above) MX3D uses robot arms fitted with welding heads to produce layers of welds, one on top of the other (Right) Multi-robot steam bending of timber elements. All Bent Out, Robots in Architecture 2014, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014, Joshua Bard, Thibualt Schwartz and Richard Tursky
remain as print sections and assemble. The materials need to be durable and fit for purpose and consistent — you do not want air bubbles or material weakness in supporting loads, for example.
There are also many problems with printing 3D buildings in concrete. The first problem is the model has to be constructed in a way to get the best fabrication success rate, which will certainly not be the same as producing a BIM model to produce drawings. In addition to the BIM model for architecture and a BIM model for construction, at the moment it would require a model for digital fabrication too.
Concrete curing times have to be taken into consideration. The print head needs to travel as fast as possible and the material deposited needs to solidify and harden within minutes.
Suddenly architects will find themselves being faced with questions that engineers and industrial product designers face every day when designing cars, planes and consumer products. When buildings are made of prefabricated components or 3D printed, they become more like machines, more an assembly that needs to be durable and repairable.
AEC professionals need to consider how to build in structural elements, reinforcement and lighten non-supporting walls. Should the walls be fabricated in one long continual ‘print’ or be broken down? Should ducting or spaces for ducting be included in the 3D model and what would that mean to later refurbishment or alterations/repairs?
How will the material consistency change over the time of the 3D print? Will the weather negatively impact cure times? How long is the material guaranteed for?
What’s the toxicity of the material? Can one material fulfill all criteria for each part of the design? What are the legal issues?
There are also fundamental problems with devising shapes for manufacture in today’s AEC tools, which quite frankly were never designed with 3D print or direct manufacture in mind.
This area should improve over time as cement companies like LafargeHolcim experiment with extrudable and quick curing materials. Complex forms Signature Architects like Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners find themselves drawn to the possibilities of the technology.
We are seeing an increasing use of nonstandard fabrication materials and methodologies to achieve stunning forms that could previously never have been built for an acceptable budget. As many of these shapes are derived from generative and computational methods, connecting them to automated fabrication machines sounds like a good idea.
Many of Frank Gehry’s designs could not be built because the cost estimates from fabricators had huge ‘risk’ fees
Fabricating buildings with 3D printing
Xtree
Xtree is an impressive consultancy for advanced digital processes in architecture, which also offers fabrication services and technology development in the space. It has been involved in a number of European research projects for 3D printing complex walls, optimising lattice structures for 3D print. ■ xtreee.eu
D-shape
Using sand and a binding agent, the D-shape 3D printer creates layered ‘sandstone’ models, which the company claims is superior to Portland cement and does not require reinforcement. With a build volume of 2,500 metres squared, each sandstone layer is 5mm-10mm and can produce models from foundation level to the roof, including stairs, partition walls, concave and convex surfaces, bas-reliefs, columns, statues, wiring, cabling and piping cavities. ■ d-shape.com
WASP
World Advanced Saving Project is an Italian project aimed at producing low-cost sustainable housing that does not just use concrete. The team has developed a number of products including PowerWASP — a 3D printer that uses a unique mixture of print complex structural comthat mills wood and alumini- ABS plastic and carbon fibre, ponents, curved cladding panum and can print ceramic which produces 3D-printed els and architectural features. mixtures. The six-metre tall matrix support structure, over Using this technology, Skanska Big Delta WASP printer can which traditional materials hopes to reduce the time needbe assembled by three people can be layered. Branch ed to create complex elements in an hour and print modular Technology says its printer of buildings from weeks to reinforced concrete beams can cover an area of 25ft-wide hours and is seeking to develthat eliminates the need for by 58ft-wide. op a 3D printing supply chain. moulds and can print ceramic For now the company is mixtures. The system consists focusing on interior spaces, Contour Crafting of a large aluminium space art installations and exhibition University of Southern frame and print head and the structures but will eventually California’s Dr Behrokh design will be able to use local expand to produce load-bear- Khoshnevis has spent over 15 materials, such as mud and clay and run off solar panels. The company ‘‘ The team has developed a years developing what he calls the contour crafting system, which has also really series of autonomous robots uses a fast dryscaled things up with a 39ft-high, that harvest on site materials ing concrete mix. The system has 20ft-wide WASP to fabricate buildings created walls up print structure, capable of producing large buildings. All the revenue from ing and exterior walls. ’’ to 6ft high, with layers that are six inches high and four inches thick. It could sales of the WASP machines is ■ branch.technology be mounted onto a gantry invested in to material frame and potentially do the research. Skanska plumbing, wiring and painting. ■ wasproject.it/w/en/wasp Loughborough University has ■ contourcrafting.org signed an 18-month developBranch Technology ment programme with Apis Cor Branch Technology, a new Skanska, Foster + Partners, One of the more intriguing start-up based in Chattanooga, Buchan Concrete, ABB and 3D print technologies is the Tennessee, has developed a Lafarge Tarmac to develop a Apis Cor printer, a Russian process called C-Fab or commercial concrete printing design that consists of a sinCellular Fabrication. The sys- robot. Now in its second gen- gle arm. Weighing in at 2.5 tem uses a Kuka Robotics eration of development the tons, and folding into a com12.5ft robotic arm attached to a system is fitted to a gantry and pact shape for transport, the 33ft rail. At the end of the features a robotic arm and printer can be assembled robot arm there is a print head print head and can already within half an hour.
The arm has a print zone of 192 metres square from a single point of print. The design features a rotating extraction head that allows for the creation of sloping walls both horizontally and vertically and uses as much power as five kettles.
If there was a machine designed to convince me that you could actually print all the walls of the residential building in one go this would be it. ■ apis-cor.com
Minibuilders
The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia has been developing a community of small robots, which have their own tasks and collaborate to create big structures.
The foundation robot is an extruder that creates he first 15 cm (20 layers) of the structure through 3D printing, using infra red follow lines on the floor. The second robot clamps onto the foundation layer and is called the Grip Robot. This 3D prints on the foundation and builds up the walls and can tilt to build walls that tilt in or out.
The third robot uses suction cups to climb up faces and is called the Vacuum Robot. This robot can print on the surface of the 3D printed walls. ■ robots.iaac.net
6-axis hot wire cutting of a 3.4m Abeille vault (reciprocal structure). Credit: Nexorade & Reciprocal Structures, workshop at The Bartlett GAD RC5, UCL, 2012, Tutors: Philippe Morel, Thibualt Schwartz with Lucia Mondardini, Martina Presepi and Tristan Gobin
MUPPette
Gensler’s research project, the MUPPette (Mobile Unmanned Printing Platform) equips a drone with a 3D print head. The logic behind this is that drone-based printers can print as big as you want, in X, Y and Z axis.
Started in 2014, the project consist of a hexocopter platform, a gimbal and a 3D printer attached to the gimbal. The gimbal is an essential element here to stabilise the print head from the copter base, which may be moving with the wind. The PLA plastic enabled print head can print in flight.
A swarm of these could turn up and print a structure at a remote location. The reality of getting a precise build from this type of technology would seem next to impossible and the video of the Muppette in action suggests it is lucky to get more than a couple of blobs of plastic on an A4 sheet of paper. However I have to admire the ambitious concept. ■ gensler.com/projects
AADRl Swarm Printing
Architectural Association School of Architecture’s Design Research Laboratory and the work of Robert StuartSmith from the Kokkugia experimental architecture research collaborative with students is certainly ‘out there’: Swarms of UAVs to thread fibres to create ‘bridges’ and spanned woven structures. ■ kokkugia.com
Swarmscrapers
Talking of swarms, a research team at the California College of arts have been developing a series of autonomous robots that harvest on site materials to fabricate buildings. For now the machines just turn sawdust into termite-like structures using glue but this concept could be of use to NASA when requiring the fabrication shelters on moons and planets, where you do not have access to a handy builders’ yard. ■ instructables.com
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley researchers, led by Associate Professor of Architecture Ronald Rael, who is world-renowned in this field, have devised a new 3D print process for buildings that lays down dry cement powder, an iron oxide-free Portland cement polymer, which is then sprayed with water to harden. The system does not need to extrude wet cement or clay-based materials. The advantage of the powder approach seems to be the quality of the finish, the precision of placement and the ability to make lightweight structures. ■ iced.berkeley.edu/resources/digital-fabrication-lab/
Gensler’s research project, the MUPPette (Mobile Unmanned Printing Platform) features a drone with a 3D print head
included as it was not totally clear from many active research projects and invest- make this work. 3D print industry guru the 2D drawings how components could ments being made in materials and robotic Terry Wohlers said: “When considering be manufactured. When Gehry’s practice technology, some will eventually stick. the time and cost of constructing an entire started using the CAD tool Catia to However, it is going to take a while for building, the skeletal walls are a small part produce detailed 3D models his contrac- the various dots to get connected, as of the project. You also need floors, ceiltors and fabricators better understood the changes are required to software, hard- ings, roofs, stairs, and kitchen and bathdesign and could reduced costs by using ware, contracts and mindsets. room fixtures. Consequently, I cannot see the model to cut the steel and aluminium. The idea of a machine or robots creating how the use of 3D printing technology Gehry is still proud that he can have a a building in a single 3D print still seems could save any time or money. sculpted wall for the same price as a like science fiction still to me. “When you factor in the added cost of a straight one. At best, it may work in space, for quick very large, expensive, and not very porta-
Foster + Partners is part of ble 3D printer, the cost of a consortium set up by the European Space Agency to explore the possibilities of ‘‘ In addition to a BIM model for architecture these walls are likely far more expensive and timeconsuming than conventional 3D printing lunar habitations. As it is prohibitively and a BIM model for construction, at the walls. The use of 3D printing may be good for marketing expensive to ship heavy moment for 3D printing you would require a and attention, but that’s all.” materials to the moon, Foster + Partners is looking to proc3D model for digital fabrication too For now, prefabrication and assembly on-site can lead to ess and print a lunar soilbased material into an inflat’’ incredible productivity benefits, if perhaps not to stunning ed dome. Simulated lunar soil has been military fortifications, or in emergency architecture. used to create a 1.5 ton mock-up using a shelters or homes. But single continuous Robots work best in environments that D-Shape printer. pour does not seem to make much sense. I are controlled and predictable. They are
SOM, together with the Oak Ridge also seriously doubt that 3D printing a flat therefore much more likely to be of use in National Laboratory have been working wall is actually any faster or better than a a factory fabricating components. on research for a 3D printed structure traditional block wall, unless you have To effectively employ these methods, made of C-sections called AMIE, which severe labour shortage. This is a misappli- designers will need to understand the generates solar energy and has a symbiot- cation of the technology. limits of the actual construction, materiic power sharing relationship with a 3D Much of the 3D printing hype from als and fabrication technologies far better printed electric car. China seems to really be a story about pre- than they do today. fabrication and assembling it on site and Even in engineering, which is typically Conclusion most just look like concrete sheds. much more connected to fabrication, engiDigital fabrication is undoubtedly coming There also needs to be considerable neers still create designs that cannot easily to the construction industry. With so technological advances in all fields to be produced digitally or otherwise.
Bentley merges design with reality
From reality capture with drones to augmented reality, Bentley Systems is embracing the real world to excite the next generation of engineers and designers.
by Greg Corke and Martyn Day
Bentley Systems chief executive 60 acres of downtown Philadelphia in just tomers to try the new Bentley Navigator officer Greg Bentley believes one day (see box out on page 21). Connect Edition (Windows or iPad), which that, as an industry, we really Much of the London event was flavoured has just been released. As an added incenneed to start appealing to the with big chunks of new capabilities in the tive, each month there is a prize draw for a next generation of designers, engineers concept side of the business. Bentley Microsoft Surface. Navigator Connect and construction planners. For decades talked of ‘conceptioneering’ and how with Edition offers collaborative model review we have lost the best talent to areas like MicroStation Connect, ContextCapture for co-ordination, queries, drawings / docs business studies and banking, which may and LumenRT, it was possible to start the and models and connects to ProjectWise. have, until recently, appeared to be better conceptual design and move this seam- Talking of ProjectWise, the Connect career options. lessly throughout the Bentley software Edition is now in General Access, with
But through exciting new interactive suite for continuous project delivery. AssetWise Connect Edition coming out visualisation tools and slick new reality All too often, conceptual models have to next year, alongside many of the modelling capture technologies, design and engi- be ditched, as they are incompatible with applications. In passing Bentley stated that neering has suddenly two thirds of its subscribing become highly visual, and customers use the project enlivened. collaboration software.
Bentley is certainly doing Data mobility has been its bit to capture the imagi- identified by Bentley a nation of the ‘digital number of times as a critinatives’. It is investing cal component in a BIM heavily in a whole number process and the company’s of new generation tools, ‘i-model’ format is a flexifrom augmented reality to ble and extensible package mobile technologies. for collating and sending a
LumenRT, for example, wide variety of intelligent which was recently data between project acquired from e-on soft- participants. ware, puts immersive With so many standards games-like visualisation in flux and so many capabilities in the hands of OpenRoads ConceptStation is designed to help users explore more preliminary design options countries chasing their engineers and architects. own standards, Bentley
Meanwhile, Bentley’s ContextCapture the documentation tools used for detailed explained how the i-model format comsoftware can generate mm accurate 3D design. Now it is possible to stay within a bined with ProjectWise was an enabler reality models from digital photographs. single common environment. for visual ‘widespread work packaging’
The AEC industry used to be about line The first noticeable delivery of this is a for controlled, tracked information drawings, engineering calculations and product called OpenRoads ConceptStation exchange. We expect to hear more on this theodolites, now you can immerse your- which offers a highly interactive front end next year. self in an interactive virtual reality of a and allows designers to quickly evaluate proposed design or pilot a drone to cap- and see design vs financial, environmen- Driving BIM advancement ture as-built site conditions. tal, and engineering performance. Bentley Greg Bentley’s keynote was filled with
Bentley calls this Reality Modelling and also showed that by combining AECOsim compliments for the UK and its commitat its annual Year in Infrastructure event Energy Simulator and Generative ment for not only sustaining its infrastrucin London last month showed the exciting Components inside AECOsim Building ture but also pushing BIM advancement role its technology played in planning the Designer, designers can get early stage by requiring the industry to adopt cutting Pope’s visit to Philadelphia. Using photo- energy performance feedback on a whole edge design, construction, tools and procgraphs taken from a helicopter it helped range of different design options. ess. With BIM level 2 targets looking like ESM Productions create a reality model of The big, little product push was for cus- they will be achieved, Bentley said the UK
Reality Modelling, ContextCapture and the Pope
Reality model of Philadelphia, used to plan the Pope’s visit
In early 2015 Bentley acquired a French developer called Acute3D, which created a product called ‘Smart3DCapture’. The software essentially converted high resolution photographs into accurate, bitmapped 3D meshed models through photogrammetry.
A similar technology was championed by Autodesk under the 123D Catch brand. This was actually a past licence deal between Autodesk and Acute3D. So Bentley also appears to have pulled off a bit of a coup.
While laser scanners remain high ticket items, it seems lots of humble photographs when combined with good algorithms can produce up to 1mm accuracy meshed surveys of buildings, landscapes or cityscapes, combining aerial photos from drones of helicopters, together with terrestrial photographs.
It is possible to rapidly create lifelike 3D models out of photographs. At YII in London we were shown realworld uses of Acute3D’s impact on civil, city, power, and planning, all within a seamless Bentley ecosystem. It was incredibly impressive.
Greg Bentley explained that at the beginning of 2015 ESM Logistics imported better decision making, Bentley, while demonstrating the mesh into MicroStation exceptional timeliness, and MicroStation Connect Edition and the company’s design- greater efficiency. The goal to an existing client, ESM ers set-to adding in the we set with Bentley to test Productions, also showed 56,400 temporary facilities the applicability of reality Acute3D’s technology. in detail using MicroStation’s modelling as a mission-criti-
It turns out ESM standard 3D and 2D com- cal event planning technoloProductions had been tasked mands. The resulting mod- gy was completely validated, with planning the Pope’s visit els can be easily shared via a and we are now planning to to Philadelphia in September browser or tablet. offer this new value to our 2015. At 60 acres, the size of The success of the use of clients going forward. In the public venue was huge so reality modelling for ESM fact, we were so impressed it was a Herculean task. Productions meant that the that we are creating a docuBetween Bentley and ESM, a plan was hatched ‘‘ With ContextCapture it truly mentary highlighting our use and the outcomes we and Bentley seems that laser scanning / achieved.” took thousands of photos of point clouds has some View the documentary at Philadelphia from ground serious competition tinyurl.com/ pope-capture. level and from helicopter. A reality model was then creat- company now wants to use it ’’ The photographs for this project were all taken in one ed for the design team to on all of its events, irrespec- day and processed overwork off. tive of size. Having sweated night, which would have
Considering Acute3D had alongside its customer on this been impossible to achieve only just been acquired by major job, Bentley has also with traditional laser scanBentley and it had yet to be speedily integrated the tech- ning methods. properly integrated into nology into MicroStation and It seems that laser scanning MicroStation this also put produced a flavour called / point clouds has some serisome pressure on the Bentley ContextCapture. ous competition. development team. Scott Mirkin, co-founder There are a number of
The net result was 28,000 and executive producer, interesting applications from photographs (28GB of data) ESM Productions, said of as-built modelling to site turned into one reality mesh, Bentley ContextCapture, “In progress monitoring (it is a from which one square mile the end, we experienced whole lot easier to mount a was refined. dramatic risk reduction, consumer camera on a drone than a laser scanner). However, photogrammetry’s key requirement is that it needs light, so not ideal for overnight surveys or when down a mineshaft!
Taking the Philadelphia reality model one stage further, Greg Bentley also showed one of Foster and Partner’s designs for Comcast’s new HQ in context within an Acute3D generated city model.
We were then taken inside the building and using LumenRT various lighting and shading options were demonstrated, as seen throughout the year with views out over Philadelphia. The potential for conceptual design and checking design options / impacts is truly mind-blowing.
ContextCapture uses GPUs to process the hundreds or thousands of photos needed to create a reality mesh. To speed processing time for very large models (typically involving more than 30 gigapixels of imagery) users can use the dedicated ContextCapture Center in the cloud, which is architected for grid computing with multiple GPUs. ■tinyurl.com/contextcapture
SITEOPS uses the power of the cloud to weigh up hundreds of thousands of options for preliminary site design
had a national consensus on return on investment for infrastructure.
From many of the customer projects highlighted both this year and previously it is clear just how engaged Bentley Systems is with the major projects or infrastructure in the country.
London Underground, a long-time customer, the master plan for the Olympics, Crossrail, and Thames Water, are just some of the names. Now both Network Rail and Highways England are engaged in deploying Bentley’s asset management and tracking technology — and from what we hear HS2 is also being planned using Bentley’s tools.
While MicroStation has always been popular with London architects, Bentley’s popularity in government, or governmentsponsored infrastructure projects, has been a major success for the company in both document and asset management.
Greg Bentley usually gives an update
Bentley Systems ProjectWise Scenario Services Connect Edition has finally arrived as an Early Access technology preview. The Microsoft Azure cloud-based ‘optioneering’ service uses largescale simulation to help engineers find the best performing design options.
Rather than just using analysis in the traditional way to validate a handful of design options, Scenario Services is all about helping engineers explore many more alternatives and then easily compare their relative performance.
It uses the vast computational power of the cloud to run simultaneous analyses of tens, if not hundreds of different designs. Then, once complete, engineers can use the software’s web-based visualisation dashboard to compare and contrast alternatives against key ‘performance metrics’ and very quickly hone in on one or more solutions that they want to explore further.
The first analytical applications to be supported by Scenario Services will be STAAD, for structural analysis, and SACS, for analysis of offshore structures. Next year Bentley will launch an Early Access program for AutoPipe, for pipe support optimisation and RAM Concept, for post-tension Structural Insights time information about lead geometry optimisation. For structural design, Bentley times on concrete and steel,
With AutoPipe and RAM has a much bigger vision for but could also include more Concept the software becomes Scenario Services. A new detailed information relating even more powerful, putting service in development called to construction costs, as Mr engineers on the path to semi Structural Insights will Karp explains. automated design. Rather extend the scope of the serv- “When you build a steel than the engineer manually ice in two key ways. structure you need to use defining a handful of design Firstly it will give the engi- cranes to lift the material. options for evaluation, the neer access to information Cranes up to a certain height software will use so-called typically held downstream can carry a certain sized beam, genetic algorithms to auto- that should help lead to better or certain load. Beyond a cermatically generate a large design decisions upstream. tain height you need a differnumber of alternatives. Secondly, it will allow engi- ent kind of a crane,” he says.
“Ideally what’s going to neers to compare the perform- “Wouldn’t it be interesting if happen down the road is you ance metrics of new designs you could feed some crane will come up with valid ranges of each performance metric that ‘‘ Structural Insights will give information into Structural Insights. It could run through you want your access to knowledge that has your model and design to achieve and then you are historically been locked tell you — hey do you know if going to tell the inside the minds of engineers you were to cloud to go ahead and optimise your design to achieve those goals,” against historical projects. ’’ downsize these two beams at this level, or change the framing a little bit, explains Raoul Karp, vice- Engineers typically opti- the contractor wouldn’t have president Structural and mise designs for strength, to get a whole new crane just BrIM at Bentley Systems. deflections and materials, but to lift those beams?”
In the long term Bentley are not generally concerned The big question is would plans to roll out Scenario with reducing costs relating the engineer really care about Services to a much wider to constructing and maintain- this? As Mr Karp explains, range of applications and not ing the building. with an increase in design / just limited to structural Structural Insights will build and private public partdesign. Optimisation will be give firms the ability to input nerships, the engineer is now everywhere and the perform- all sorts of ancillary informa- incentivised on the cost of ance metrics against which tion that could lead to a more construction and not just designs are assessed will span efficient or cost-effective that of design. multiple disciplines. design. This could be real “You’re going to see more and more engineers interested in understanding when is ‘this’ material that I’m speccing in my design actually going to be available to be constructed,” he says. “This beam is going to take me two months to get from the fabricator. I’ll just swap it out and use this different beam and it can then be built quicker.”
Mr Karp adds that in a private public partnership the team also makes money from the ongoing operations — to the point that they might go for a completely different material if they know they are going to have to maintain it for 20 years.
“They might choose concrete if they know it is going to be more resistant in this environment and only have to do maintenance every five years, versus ‘I’m going to use steel here because it’s quick to get up, it’s cheaper to get up but I’m going to have to come back every three years to paint the thing.’ It changes your mentality on design.”
Structural Insights is also designed to help firms tap into engineering knowledge that exists inside (and outside) the organisation. This will help firms learn from past experiences in order to improve designs. Traditionally, this kind of knowledge is locked
on the company’s financial growth, together with some insight into usage and trends but as the company is intending to go for an initial public offering (IPO), this was not on the cards.
He did say that the financial markets are not ideal at the moment for tech flotations and so the company has decided to wait for the market. This suggests an IPO is not imminent but could be some time next year.
Mr Bentley wanted to reassure the audience that nothing would change and Bentley Systems would still carry on delivering and spending substantial amounts on R&D, moving the MicroStation product stack onwards and upwards.
Naturally, MicroStation Connect Edition and the ecosystem around it was a key focus of his presentation.
The whole concept of ‘Connect’ is to give customers Comprehensive Project Delivery, spanning design modelling, analytical modelling, and construction modelling, through a connected project infrastructure — and now extending into management and construction execution.
With MicroStation as the foundation, Mr Bentley said that the common modelling environment uniquely spanned across multiple disciplines with one file format and a familiar interface.
Many of the vertical Connect products were in the process of being released for testing. Bentley has three status’ for its products: Limited access, Early Access and General Access, relating to which development phase they are currently in — the equivalents of alpha, beta and ‘released’.
A lot of the solutions we saw were in the early access phase, graduating to general access over the next six months. For those that want to deploy the Connect Edition now, it was good to hear that it plays friendly with the previous incarnation, V8i, even happy to sit on the same PC. Structural The big structural news coming out of London was the long awaited technology preview of Scenario Services Connect Edition — for what Bentley calls ‘high-performance optioneering’. The cloud service is all about using engineering analysis to compare and manage large numbers of different design options (scenarios).
Designs can be measured against a variety of ‘performance metrics’, such as vertical deflections, material utilisation or number of connections.
The engineer then creates a large population of alternative designs or scenarios. This can be done manually in desktop products such as STAAD Pro or automatically using Excel or Generative Components. Scenario Services then uses the power of the Microsoft Azure cloud to initiate the simultaneous analysis of all of these solutions.
The alternatives are then compared and
inside the minds of experienced engineers and often lost.
“There are a lot of younger engineers that love their software but don’t have the experience,” explains Mr Karp. “[With Structural Insights] you’re capturing the experience held in the designs and you then can feed it back to the user to the point of time that you need it the most [conceptual to mid-design phase].”
As with Scenario Services, Structural Insights will allow engineers to easily visualise the performance of different designs, current and historical, through a simple web interface.
Designs can be compared against different performance metrics. Then, if any one project shows significant savings, the engineer can open an i-model of the design and investigate what it was about that specific project that helped it get a better ‘score’.
“Users can compare on what they like,” says Mr Karp. “Say, for example, let’s just look at hospital projects, maybe the ones that are concrete flat slab and only over ten storeys. And then you’ll be down to four or five projects anyway.
“Then you can look at the other things: weight, construction time. And then you might see — this project is really doing a lot better than ours, let’s open it and see why. And then you’ll see, oh they are using a shell of a slab with post tension instead of a regular sized slab. So that would be how I would expect engineers would start to learn.”
In order to get the most out of the system, firms will obviously need to invest time populating it with historical data. Users will be able to add information, such as project type, the function of the building, geographic locations, as well as structural data. Obviously this needs to be easy to do, so Bentley is currently looking at ways to help streamline the process.
Bentley has an ambitious vision for Structural Insights in that it hopes it will become an industry benchmark.
“The expectation and desire is that at some point we will get our users to commit to saying I don’t want to just compare to my organisation’s projects, I want to compare to every other project done by every other organisation in this area,” he says.
Knowledge sharing on this scale is unprecedented and it will interesting to see how the open market embraces it. Collaboration between local government agencies, however, will be a much easier sell.
Should Bentley get firms to buy into its vision, the benefits to the construction industry as a whole could be huge. Structural Insights will be available in limited access in March 2016. (Top) The Structural Insights dashboard gives a snapshot of how a project is performing (Above) Model Comparison across a range of performance metrics including type, steel weight, construction time and safety rating. The current design is in blue while the other lines represent all the historic projects within the organisation. The engineer can filter by any one of these performance metrics to identify better performing projects, then open the corresponding i-model to see what it was about that specific project that helped it get a better ‘score’
Making project data mobile
Bentley Navigator Connect Edition was first previewed in 2014 but it has only been commercially available since September 2015. Running on Windows, iOS, and Android (on mobile and desktop devices) it allows construction professionals on site and in the office to access, interact with and append all manner of project data.
The interface is optimised for touch gestures on tablet and smart phones as well as large touch screens, like the Microsoft Surface Hub, for team collaboration. As you would expect, Navigator has extensive 3D navigation capabilities but users can also search and filter model information, create visual reports, and check for clashes.
Virtually any type of data can be placed in the spatial context of the i-model. This could be Excel data, scheduling data, materials data or estimate data, for example.
The software is said to be particularly hot on issue resolution where everyone can Structural Navigator for iPad makes it possible to view analytical results on site
collaborate on a list of issues associated with the project. Site workers can add notes, append photographs or screen grabs and this information is synchronised and shared with the rest of the team. There does not have to be a live network connection, edits can be made offline and synced when a connection is available.
Bentley has now developed vertical versions of Bentley Navigator, putting domainspecific capabilities into the software. To date there are two versions: one for civils and one for structural.
For civil design, the Bentley OpenRoads Navigator App will enable users to view, analyse, and enhance a wide variety of project information, including terrain, 3D models and 2D topographies.
For structural, Bentley’s Structural Navigator for iPad or iPhone allows users to view or interrogate structural models sent as i-models from any Integrated Structural Modelling (ISM) enabled application, including RAM, STAAD and ProStructures. The app replaces Structural Synchonizer View.
There are a whole host of structural-specific features, including visualisation enhancements, where models can be viewed in plan or by storeys, and a transparency mode where reinforcements and reactions of the analytical results can be exposed. Analytical results can also be attached directly to the model.
Raoul Karp, VP Structural and BrIM at Bentley Systems, told AEC Magazine that in the future users may also have access to some simple design tools directly inside the mobile application.
“If you are in the field and you want to make a change or the load changes, you will be able to do a quick little design in Structural Navigator,” he said.
contrasted through a web visualisation dashboard, with the engineer picking out one or two solutions for further investigation. Scenario Services is powerful way to explore new ideas rather than always taking the safe, well trodden path and using simulation for verification.
Bentley is also working to extend the reach of Scenario Services with a new addon service called Structural Insights. The idea is that engineers will be able to improve designs further by comparing them against industry benchmarks or historic projects within the organisation (see box out on page 22 for more information).
Elsewhere, Bentley launched its Structural Connect Editions for RAM (Bentley’s special purpose building analysis and design product) and STAAD (Bentley’s general purpose analyses and design product). Both of these products benefit from all the core project-sharing and collaboration capabilities of the Connect platform and also give direct access to Scenario Services.
The new applications include a direct link to Bentley Cloud services making it easy to associate a model with a Connect project. There is also a direct link to the new Structural Synchronizer Connect Edition, which allows i-models, complete with analytical results, to be published and shared.
Bentley is also using Connect to roll out standards with settings synchronised across all project members. If anything changes during a project, rather than sharing a new file with all team members, the project manager simply updates the project settings in Connect and the new configurations are updated. This is currently in limited access for STAAD and Autopipe.
Bentley continues to invest heavily in mobile apps, particularly for the iPad. It senses a huge opportunity to put up-todate project information into the hands of mobile site workers and also provide the mechanisms to feed back data to the office.
Structural Navigator, which is available for iPad and iPhone, takes the new capacities of Navigator Connect Edition and applies them to structural engineering workflows (see box out on page 24 for more information). Civils and transport The big news is that Bentley has finally combined its three highway design applications: InRoads, Geopak and MX into a single MicroStation-based application called OpenRoads Connect Edition. It is scheduled for release next year and sounds like a hybrid of the three products.
Over the past few years Bentley has been slowly bringing the three products together under the OpenRoads technology umbrella. This consolidation will come as no surprise to Bentley civils customers but it will still be interesting to see how the fiercely loyal users adapt.
OpenRoads Connect Edition is said to be able to open pretty much any data source, offer 3D / plan / profile and cross section workflows and include storm water modelling and analysis. It benefits from the new MicroStation Connect user interface, 64-bit power, and support for functional components. There are also links to a new conceptual product called ConceptStation, OpenBridge Modeler, and LumenRT.
To give it its full name, OpenRoads ConceptStation Connect Edition introduces the idea of ‘conceptioneering’. According to Bentley, conceptioneering spans context capture through compelling communication of a design proposal. It brings together simplified analytical modelling and design modelling at the early conceptual stages.
As big and bad design decisions are Faraz Ravi, Zheng Wu and Mark Smith Faraz Ravi joined Bentley when his made early on and cost more downstream gave excellent updates on what is cooking Pointools company was acquired. The to fix, ConceptStation is intended to help in Bentley’s Applied R&D department. technology is the point cloud engine users explore preliminary design options, Mark Smith demonstrated an beneath MicroStation. Having a deep to assess which ones fulfil the design, per- Augmented Reality case where dimen- understanding of laser scanning, he comformance and cost criteria. sions were ‘projected’ into the view of the pared photogrammetry results against
Then, throughout the project, users engineer looking at a real world building laser scanned images and found the phoexplore design alternatives through what façade. By simply using a positioned QR togrammetry results from image-based Bentley calls optioneering, applying code on the wall, it was possible for meshing to be very similar to that of a detailed engineering analyses to improve dimensions from the model view to be vis- laser scanner. decision making. ible to the engineer. The QR code had to be Obviously there are caveats where ter-
The solution will play well with the new in the field of view for the computer to ref- restrial or LIDAR scanning have advanContextCapture product to bring 3D erence the geometry, so there was some tages but it would seem that photogrammeshed models of existing sites ready for Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it needed to metry with a high resolution camera, in re-engineering. Bentley explained that be precisely placed on the wall to get accu- daylight, gave more than good enough engineers will be able to evaluate designs rate results. results, to mm accuracy. and associated costs faster and more easi- Zheng Wu showed a video on remote ly, present projects through immersive sensing using motion magnification soft- Conclusion visualisation. ware algorithms. It may have looked like This year’s YII was much more of a visual
In action, the software looks very a normal video but when magnified feast than we were expecting. With a conimpressive and offers a visual fidelity could be used to determine the load and centration on conceptual design and similar to Autodesk’s InfraWorks. This vibration on a motorway bridge. He com- Bentley putting two of this year’s acquisiall points towards a very interesting com- pared the camera results against acceler- tions into ‘production’ so quickly, the competition brewing. ometers attached to the bridge and found pany really managed to put out a compel-
In MicroStation, Bentley ling argument for its sinhas the one common envi- gle platform strategy ronment already. However, from concept to asset Autodesk InfraWorks is a management. different code stream to With a new website AutoCAD Civil3D. and rationalisation of
From talking with products Bentley is also Autodesk the intention becoming more transappears to be to flesh out parent and it is much InfraWorks to replace easier to see which prodCivil3D, but this seems to uct does what, and what be a long way off. Bentley makes up the various appears to have a more industry portfolios. This integrated plan. has needed to happen for
SITEOPS also has a a very long time and we new Connect Edition. The wonder if the planned software is a cloud service Faraz Ravi: photogrammetry compares favourably to laser scans in terms of accuracy IPO gave it good reason concept and preliminary to spring clean and dedesign tool for site design clutter its shop front? and is exceptionally powerful — so much the modal frequencies measures were Acute3D and e-on software’s LumenRT so, that it appears to be powered by magic. very similar. are exceptionally impressive products and
It can take site evaluations from days to Stéphane Côté is fascinated with the great additions to Bentley’s technology hours. Simply upload a digital terrain problem of getting accurate positioning in stack. They will transform the richness model and enter design requirements, the real world for Augmented Reality with which we can grab reality and comsuch as building footprints, parking (AR). When inside a structure GPS is no municate our ideas. requirements, setbacks, roadway parame- good. Last year he presented research into For a long time we have wondered why ters and other constraints. various ways to try and overcome this navigating huge, high quality rendered
SITEOPS then weighs up hundreds of problem, using devices such as Apple textured polygon models was possible in a thousands of options, and provides the iBeacons to triangulate internal spaces. £40 game but not in engineering software, most cost-effective grading and storm This year he identified one solution as which costs thousands. water drainage plan that meets the speci- using a laser-enabled total station at a Those days, it seems, are over because fied design constraints. known location to reference. The key products like LumenRT really blow the problem here, however, was line of site. doors off. Visualisation is not just about Research Mr Côté is also experimenting with immersive real time but making it so easy One of the regular ‘must see’ events at YII drones. Having destroyed his first one in a that anyone can do it. is the Bentley Fellows, who give an update fight with a tree, he had more success fly- It is an exciting time to be involved in on their research over lunch. For the last ing the second and produced some excel- design and engineering software and, two years there has been a definite slant lent models. He created an Acute3D model, with applications like these, our industry towards Augmented Reality research and then superimposed it over a MicroStation looks set to become much more appealing we are glad to say it was the same this year, BIM model to compare planned building to the next generation. perhaps even more so. Stéphane Côté, work to 4D data from the CAD system. ■ bentley.com
Immersive real time visualisation made easy
In September 2015, Bentley acquired e-on software, a developer of applications for ‘simulation, and integration of natural 3D environments’, which more famously have been used in the making of blockbuster films such as Avatar, Terminator, The Hunger Games and The Avengers.
Beyond Hollywood, the company’s sweet spot is displayed in its real time rendering tool, LumenRT, which can be used to easily create amazingly detailed environments that feature trees, people, water and even wind.
LumenRT provides highquality ‘movie production’ to architects and engineers, enabling the capture of exist- adjust all the key variables, interface — there are only ing conditions and providing or place nature-elements, ten commands! Objects context for proposed infra- people or other agents / such as plants, shrubs and structure designs. There are objects. trees, are literally painted tight integrations for The really exiting thing in, automatically sized to MicroStation, Autodesk about LumenRT is that you add variety and realism to Revit, ArchiCAD, your scene. It is SketchUp and ESRI CityEngine. The ‘digital ‘‘ The really exiting thing incredibly easy to sketch out paths for vehinature’ you can add is just insane. about LumenRT is that you cles and animat ed characters. Depending on don’t need to be a CG For ultra realthe time of year the fractal trees specialist to use it istic real time vehicle simulashed their leaves, as long as they are the right ’’ tion, it is even possible to integrate traffic data. deciduous variety, of course. do not need to be a CG spe- The software has a direct The software really provides cialist to use it. It was interface to MicroStation a great dynamic context for designed for engineers, Traffic and VISSIM. models and it is all rendered designers and architects It is also easy to share the live with easy controls to and has a very simple user immersive 3D experience with others. Simply package up the project as a ‘LiveCube’, and distribute the self-extracting executable to clients and colleagues.
The developers are working a new ‘streaming’ service called LumenRT Live that will allow stakeholders to view LiveCubes instantly on any device (tablets, smartphones, laptops) through a web browser. It uses Frame’s cloud platform.
LumenRT looks to be a hugely impressive addition to Bentley’s portfolio. The screen shots seen here really do not do it justice so we would recommend you check out some of the videos (tinyurl.com/LumenRT-video). ■ lumenrt.com
