Welcome. Just a recap on last week – for the coming year there will be the following new features;

Weekly YouTube videos sharing news videos on construction technology, Contech and Proptech, and primarily new software in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) which are more in depth and offer insights. These will be longer format than they have been previously and more explanatory.

I am going to create YouTube videos are going to share new software in use, compare these head to head, and review this software taken from a database of 500 AEC software available which I have. The frequency will be bi-weekly.

Please follow our new YouTube channel – new content each week! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1zFhxCZnQATJJ7r4oyhJ2A

MOST VALUABLE THINGS TO KNOW IN CONSTRUCTION TECH THIS WEEK!

NEW SOFTWARE OF THE WEEK

Snaptrude helps design better buildings faster, by bringing project teams together. Snaptrude is one of the first new BIM start-ups around and has just launched its official Version 1 product. Now developing at speed, the first release is going to surprise everyone. Snaptrude is being developed as a full cloud-based BIM system.

Over the last six months, the team has built a bi-directional link between Snaptrude and Revit, this enables Revit models to be imported and then shared via the cloud for mark-up, editing, rendering, daylight and energy and quantity take-offs, via a browser or even a mobile phone. It has a conversion from Revit file to a Snaptrude BIM model which is editable.

Other features include;

Workspaces & teams
Design sign-off (digital signature for approvals)
Better visuals in 3D
Advanced daylight and energy analysis (in collaboration with cove.tools)
Comments & revision clouds for async collaboration
Improved automated quantity take-offs (even from imported Revit files)

Also, Snaptrude has partnered with Cove.tool to bring daylight and energy analyses and enable the achievement of LEED credit.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Keir Regan Alexander from Morris and Co provides a deep dive into AI and architecture and predicts that Architecture should prepare for major disruption by AI. He says that latest wave of AI tools that have emerged in 2022 are quickly challenging the narrative that knowledge workers (i.e. architects) don’t need to worry about AI. And new “previously unimaginable” applications of this technology are being deployed on a weekly basis. He talks about Midjourney (see next section), Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E Open Ai Labs as examples that are ready to disrupt architecture. The wave of innovation that approaches can be put to enormously productive and positive use, but it does require us as architects to engage and get involved in the development of these datasets and tools and not be passive onlookers.

5 targets for this kind of co-design work are illustrated here with real world examples that I found.

1. Automated massing option testing for predetermined area briefs and measurable 3D site constraints.

2. Data-based urban analysis tools that estimate commercial activity and pedestrian behaviour to improve design of ground floor and street activation and transport and access strategies.

3. Deep dive contextual analysis and facade study elevation option generation.

4. Dynamic building core auto-design from areas, with preset criteria for each typology and structural / mep combination.

5. Live Building Regs and fire compliance flagging and redesign suggestions.

SOFTWARE TUTORIAL

Do you want to learn and understand more about AI rendering and midjourney? Stephen Coolas provides a simple and effective tutorial that shows how to learn to use midjourney to create a variety of images. This tutorial is a simple and short guide on how to use the text to image software and discusses the impact in the future for architectural rendering. Stephen has a fascinating set of options he displays towards the end of the video which are worth seeing!

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence in Architecture with Neil Leach | The Blessedarch Lounge. BlessedArch has interviewed Neil Leach about his upcoming book the death of the architect. In his live chat, he talks about Artificial Intelligence in general and what impact will it have on the architecture and the architect of tomorrow. Check out his book for a brilliant introduction to the subject.

SOFTWARE TUTORIAL

Bluebeam Tips and Tricks for Architects – a simple and effective tool to help mark up and review drawings.

Bluebeam helps architects improve communication, design quality and document management with customisable markup, measurement and collaboration tools. The webinar covers how Architects can make sure of Bluebeam’s advanced Project Communication, Markup, and Automation tools.