project 1

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top 2 images scanned from "Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Homes" by John Sergeant, published by Watson-Guptill


After some initial unrewarding attempts to use the massing tools to create the buttressed roof form of the Sturges house by Frank Lloyd Wright i decided to use another usonian home the Winkler-Goetsch house. It is built on a simple 4x4 grid is single story and has 2 flat roofs. The MASSIVE chimney proved to be problematic, both from the standpoint of its construction as well as implications for the roof plane. I used masonry walls to construct it, but had to offset the base of one wall up above the 1st floor view in order to keep it from showing on the plan, also i had to cap the closed section of the chimney with a small roof, though in hindsight i could have placed a short wall segment at a level 1-2' below the top and then used it to fill the gap. I edited the standard roof to a zero slope inorder to make it flat, and then edited the bounding lines to make the overhangs. I discovered through trial and error that rather than creating a roof plane that was articulated to follow the walls it was more efficiant(at least wit the flat roof) to make a simple rectangle and then make vertical openings that blocked out the unwanted portions. Another challenge was the patio stairs, I used 3 floor planes to create them, as the stair tool was not appropriate for this use. Plotting proved problematic, but i managed it via exporting jpg. to photoshop then printing.

The resources i've found most usefull in this class are the GTFs inclass workshop, which im my opinion could use more time. It may work better if its possible to have some full class time workshops, with the (very informative and much welcomed) guest lecturers and other class disscusions/activities all being done on the other class day in the week. The onlie and offline help/hot_help is excellent.

I think i'm most interested in exploring the use of the massing tool as well as the importing of simple sketchup massings for in model editing of planes into walls roofs floors. This could be a huge time saver for those already familiar with skp, and seems to follow the real world aplicatio of revit. I would also like to use these revit-ized skp files to import to ecotect.

To be honest one of the more unusual/uncomfortable ellements of this class is the blog, i can see it has potential but am as of yet not a bloger nor do i think its something i will pursue outside of the class, although i did frequent BBS in my youth i'm not yet sold on the digital diary...but this may change should it prove useful.

bim diary 4

I think using BIM will give me an advantage when it comes to looking for a job. Its likely that as 15 years ago learning CAD gave a similar advantage to students graduating at that time. My hope is that i can get into a firm which will allow me to develop my skills further.

BIM diary 3

in this week i used revit to create a rough massing model. It was difficult to use at first but later in the term i found revit to be a useful design tool. it may take a while but i feel confident that with more time invested i will be able to use revit to its full capabillity. I still think i'll be using paper and pencile, and posably sketchup for the initial design phase, but plan on moving my designs into revit soon after. The key will be to create my own families and not to just accept what comes in the kit of parts.

Tristans BIM diary 2

The feeling of operating left handed is still present, but I’m finding some similarities to architectural desktop, such as drawing walls clockwise and counterclockwise affects the bias of finish facing. The thing I found most useful from the classroom was the discovery that the selection method differs from other programs, in that control is used to add to the selection, and shift to subtract. This has saved me a lot 1 of time, and was a prime source of confusion/frustration. I’m researching Usonian homes for my first assignment. I like think the regulating grids should help when it comes to drafting in revit. BIM programs have a lot of potential, they allow multiple disciplines to work on a single model; so revisions to the model are available to everyone more or less immediately. This aids in avoiding complications, such as unforeseen intersections of plumbing or electrical with HVAC. But in some ways BIM is still an emerging technology, and promises of easy cross platform file transfers, are somewhat dubious. We have no universal standard. Also the programs are processor intensive, and the control interfaces are evolving so hardware must be updated and employees trained and retrained in the latest BIM applications. I have no doubt BIM will become as commonplace as CAD in architectural offices. Certainly for large projects the benefits over hand drafting and or even CAD are evident, but the environmental modeling tools in BIM programs are useful on smaller projects as well as large office towers. Processors will catch up with the programs soon, and ram becomes cheaper and faster as often as hemlines rise and fall. So the hardware problem is being solved in time. The programs will likely go through successively less dramatic changes from version to version, and this should aid in the development of a common file type, or a solid standard for cross platform import/export; until then it seems a little wild west.

BIM week 1(new)

I have had experience with mechanical drafting in high school. Later i took classes in autocad 2007 and architectural desktop. Arch desktop reminds me of revit in a number of ways, primarily the way one draws lines then defines wall types. Also in the way it can generate documents, although i believe revit will add in symbols to drawings, whereas in cad or architectural desktop the symbols are elements which are constructed of lines. The various views in revit seem like viewports generated by scripts in cad. The nestleing of information within objects was somthing done in cad but it seems streamlined i revit. There are no Xrefs to keep track of. in short alot of things which could be done in cad with scripts,blocks,and xrefs are handled "under the hood" i revit. I look forward to using revit in studio to rapidly generate drawings as well as trying out the rendering engine. I'm familiar with sketchup, but revit "feels" different than cad or sketchup. The active tool bars are something i'll have to get used to. I wonder if there is a way to generate a custom tool pallet which could always be called up, with non applicable tools "grayed out"and applicable tools available, regardless of which object or tool is selected at any time.