From Visual to Virtual at 30 Frames per Second

George Matos, Senior Applications Expert, Avatech Solutions Originially published in [acronym] magazine, Issue 9 Imagine you are standing in the lobby of your new civic center. To the left, you see the reception area and foyer meeting space. With a movement of the mouse your view switches to what you would see if you were looking outside the south window. Switch off the structural view to see all the electrical and piping systems tracing their outlines above and around you as you walk toward the elevator. No, this is not a movie and no you are not on the holodeck of Star Trek’s Enterprise. You are experiencing a building information model where design visualization crosses the line into design virtualization. Real 3D design is now pervasive; driven by the vast improvement in understanding that designers and clients gain. Today, anyone can walk down the street to Home Depot to obtain 3D drawings of a new custom kitchen renovation project from multiple angles. They aren’t in color and don’t show the details of materials and lighting effects, but they are a vast improvement over that of a 2D plan, which most people cannot picture. Large building projects are taking the pervasiveness of 3D, combined with the power of building information models a step or two further down the visualization line – adding color, materials and lighting effects at the basic end, and comprehensive, animated, virtual walking tours at the higher end. Three Reasons to go the Virtualization Mile Technologies that originated in the entertainment and gaming industries, like Autodesk® 3ds Max®, are being reconfigured and made available to the design industry to help move drawings from hard-to-visualize 2D plans to virtual 3D walkthroughs that provide people with a life-like experience. For large government projects in which millions or billions are spent, taking the extra time to produce a virtual model for designers, construction companies and owners can make sense not only fiscally, but also for security, sustainability, safety and overall building efficiency. Today a building information model from Revit® Architecture seamlessly exports to Autodesk 3ds Max® Design, where designers can explore far more, placing the project into multiple levels of context.   Super-Visualization Simulate what a building will look like using a variety of materials and explore options. Or see how your building lobby works with people milling about. This comprehensive approach gives you the ability to validate your design in context. Here, design virtualization enriches your concept by helping team members do more than just see it. You can convey design concepts in whatever way is appropriate for the stage of the design process you’re in – from non-photorealistic, basic animations to interactive walk-throughs or full cinematic presentations.   Improving Safety and Security One compelling reason for using virtual walk-throughs, especially for government and military projects, is to identify potential safety and security risks present within the design prior to construction. Emergency exit paths can be simulated and then explored for pitfalls in planning which will allow for corrections prior to construction. For example, I worked on the animation for the new Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. We used 3ds Max to create an animation to show how concrete walls would be impacted in the event of an explosion. We also showed how the planned memorial would look from every angle to help security officers picture whether or not there were any potential security threats intrinsic to the building design.   Keeping Construction on Track Getting things right in the field is critical to project budgets and timelines, and 3D animations can help construction workers at all levels. One client created full motion videos showing how to construct custom concrete walls for a project. The animation exported from Autodesk Inventor® to 3ds Max to show all the parts, and then moved right inside the form so they could see how the structure tied together. A 2D diagram would never give you all this information, nor would static 3D drawings, since you would not have the ability to the see inside structural elements. The video gave them the ability to see right inside the form. After initial training, construction companies can revisit how the wall system can be modified. Getting the Necessary Horsepower for Virtualization There is really no question about the value of going to the extra effort to experience a structure prior to its construction, and the move is starting to happen. One impediment to creating animated renderings to “virtualize” designs has been computing power. For near lifelike visuals, an animation must sample 1800 frames mer minute (FPM) or 30 frames per second (FPS). The math behind what seems simple on screen is sophisticated and complex – requiring mega-horsepower from the CPU processing the graphical information. By importing a building model from Revit into 3ds Max, rendering becomes easier because Max offers two features that support distributed rendering. In the first method, you use more than one computer at your site to perform the calculations. In the second, you can send the model to an out-of-house server farm that will perform the animation for your company for a fee. Tests I have performed show that the same rendering that took one computer more than four hours to complete takes only 49 minutes when harnessing the power of six computers using the ‘distributed bucket rendering’ available in 3Ds Max Design. You can set the rendering to take place when people are not working so their machines are not tied up during the day and still get your animation done in-house.   Coming Up Next For all of their sophistication, virtual models still just work on static animations that choose a path and present that to the viewer. A true virtual experience would allow the user to choose their own path through a building, designating what time of day to ensure lighting aspects are corrected as they move through their virtual world. While these features may be a while in the making, it’s amazing how much value customers find in the comprehensive virtual models of today. I can’t wait to go to a client review meeting to hear feedback based on a comprehensive virtual model we have created.   Bio: George Matos

Prior to working with Avatech Solutions (www.avatech.com), George worked as a professional renderer at various architectural firms. As senior applications expert at Avatech, George shows organizations interested in producing high quality renderings which software and hardware combinations are best to achieve their goals. George’s knowledge of industry best practices and technologies allows clients to obtain attractive, accurate and intelligent renderings at both the big-picture and detail levels. You can reach him at george.matos@avatech.com.