B6 - Course Reflection

Ten weeks have come and flown by. These previous few weeks I have learned so much about robotics, AI in construction and future, 3D Printing in construction, designing in Revit and much more. In particular, I have learned a lot about digital building. This has been one of the most simple yet, challenging classes. I am grateful that I took this class as my professional elective. This class will ponder my future as an architectural engineer. The number of things I have learned in this class tremendous and to briefly condense what I learned in class, I would have to say that I learned how to use blogger. I have a superior understanding of how different ways of intaking data can prompt different versions of understanding. 
For instance, I believe that the weekly blogs and writing comments to others empower the student to take look at the two sides of arguments and form opinions from incorporating their general and personal opinions to new pieces of information. Also, this class has a lot of exercises that were challenging yet, helpful. For instance, using the MC Access database. The main difficulty I faced with this exercise simply stemmed from a lack of experience. However, as an engineer, I am always looking forward to new challenges and expanding my own abilities. In turn, I embraced the challenges faced with this exercise and was excited to learn more.

Although it took me some time to get used to the new, complex system, I eventually worked my way through my initial troubles to gain a better grasp on how all of the various functions of the database operates. In turn, I can now say that I understand the basics of kinds of databases and how specifically Object-Oriented databases function as well.

In conclusion, I am very thankful I engaged in this class, especially as a senior who is about to enter the labor force and work with new and modern types of programs and databases. 

Comments:


Ina Sison: Ina, I agree with you, following the instructions of the assignments was really straight forward for me as well. Professor Mitchell did an amazing job teaching this class. Also, good luck with your last coop.
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/b6-course-reflection.html?showComment=1583459434620#c8209191462985013245



Amanda Kolar: Amanda, I agree with how the use of relational databases and Dynamo can help with the organization of structural components of design for various buildings or projects. When I first began to work on the database, I became quicker and better at navigating its resources. This especially helped me with defining, finding, and recording sensor characteristics in the database of design for various buildings.https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/b6-course-reflection_9.html?showComment=1583635808830#c4862027143751070328



Mika Awai: Mika, I agree with what you wrote. I am too had no idea what was the database and how it operated. This was my first time using MS Access. Moreover, I agree with how Professor Mitchell has a way of making us learn a ton of information in an easy to manage the way. I watched the video uploaded in BBLearn the process became a lot smoother and easier for me. Professor Mitchell expertly laid out how to use the database and programs and as a result, I found the exercise a lot more simple and straightforward. https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/week-10-course-reflection.html?showComment=1583637126688#c8292613843515964582

Revit vs. The World

Revit, in most firms in the country, has become the go to industry standard for construction projects nowadays. In my own professional career I have found myself using it much more often than any other drafting software I’ve had access to. This also is partially due to my specific field. If my field was architecture I might use programs such as Sketchup much more often, but from an electrical engineering drafting perspective Revit is the leading standard. Second to this however, is AutoCAD. Both software is made by Autodesk but while AutoCAD does have 3D design capabilities, Revit is geared more for 3D design whereas Autodesk is geared more for 2D design; specifically in the ACE industry. With both being created by Autodesk, there is a lot of integration between the two software which has provided a lot of people a smooth transition from a CAD workflow to a BIM workflow. Instead of forcing everyone to jump over to Revit overnight, the software includes a lot of great features to link in CAD files for adding things like drawing details that the engineer has used for decades that they don’t want to update and things of the like.

In my experience, I’ve primarily used this integration between the two to import lighting fixture schedules, typically from lighting designers, into Revit projects. A lot of the time, fixture schedules are done in Excel primarily for ease of use purposes and then linked into a CAD file. This avoids having to use AutoCADs horrible table creating process and allows for a cleaner more efficient workflow. And smaller firms, like a lot of lighting design firms are still using AutoCAD to do a lot of their work. Sometimes linking the two can be an aggravating process if not setup or done correctly.

Revit also allows for you to import files from Sketchup, however this is typically done differently than how AutoCAD files are imported. As I mentioned, CAD is primarily 2D related where as Sketchup is a 3D software similar to Revit. Because of this, the two can interface very differently. Especially considering that they were not both made by Autodesk. A lot of people will you Sketchup to assist in family creation due to its ease of use in creating 3D objects compared to Revit. At least in my opinion. But what is also very common is architects using sketchup to do their massing and then exporting it to Revit to assist in the modeling process.

There are a handful of other drafting software like Civil 3D and ArchiCAD that can probably interact with Revit, but I have no experience in this process, just the ones listed above.

Liam Ossenfort

Hey Liam,

I enjoyed reading your post because one of the things I always found super interesting about Revit was its use of parameters and how the software organizes them. They allow for a lot of control in different ways between changing something that is an instance parameter versus something that is a type parameter. And getting a better understanding between the two has helped me immensely in my work flow.

Brian Mynaugh

Hey Brian,

I thought your post was interesting because I agree that this is the most difficult part of what the future has in store for Revit/BIM. I've noticed in the company I work at which is rather large in comparison, is that we even have people refusing to change their workflow and adapt to the new programs simply because they don't want to have to relearn the process. And those that have HAD to adapt either complain constantly or only use it as a 2D drafting software which is not at all what it was made for.

Michael Manley

Hey Michael,

I enjoyed reading this post because it points out some of the amazing uses of BIM in the future. This technology offers a wide range of advantages for how we do work in this industry and it will hopedully make the process much easier and cooled with a lot of the VR simulation based technology.