Unity creates new open source tool for architects
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Unity creates new open source tool for architects
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Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#2We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm.
Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the layout, move things around, etc. That's where things get bloody awful.
I wasn't expecting full VR tours of the place (though it is doable [1]), but I did expect to be able to walk through the place in 3D and see how it will look like in the winter morning and summer afternoon. Hell no. What are you smoking?
Floor plans. Planimetric facades. Roll your eyes to the ceiling and imagine. 3D renders that looks like from the early 00s take hours to produce, so they aren't done often. That's _still_ renders, mind you. 3D walk-abouts are possible, but they look like butt and they are viewed as the final step of the process, when everything has been done and done.
And this is with firms where principles are in their 40s and generally computer literate. It just seems that the industry is very conservative with its tooling choices AND these tools are also ridiculously expensive, further stifling any desire to switch. So they are stuck with using technical design software like ArchiCAD (good for laying out piping, calculating stress, air flow, etc.) for visual design. And the resulting process is sooooo slow, small changes and iterations take hours if not days to complete, so it takes weeks to converge to a general design of the house.
Painful, painful process. Ugh. Caveat emptor.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#3We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
Sounds like an industry ripe for disruption.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#4We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
>I wasn't expecting full VR tours of the place (though it is doable [1]), but I did expect to be able to walk through the place in 3D and see how it will look like in the winter morning and summer afternoon. Hell no. What are you smoking?
Architecture is a competitive industry. If you want a 3d model you can walkthrough it's not the end of the world - even Trimble sketchup pro has a built in walkthrough tool. You can also export most models to something like cinema4d for a video walkthrough. The models you expect to walkthrough to get some idea of light will require new texture work, lighting, and lots of small details that they otherwise have no reason to add. But those all cost time and money they probably had no idea you expected from them.
The thing is that you probably didn't make your expectations clear up front. If you did architects would quote you a price with that included. But theyd also say something like x revisions and then it's $125/hour so you dont waste their time.
It's a pretty reasonable if you have specific non standard expectations. They'll be happy to mark up the value of having someone else do it and charge it to you.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#5We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
That's because software sucks badly. Architects are used to elegant and simple tools that work all the time: pen, paper and few other things. It's not just CAD software that sucks, it's the interfaces like mouse and keyboard that are slowing down design on computer. And yes, there are other systems but as you say they're not cheap so student architects won't learn on those.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#6We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
Just an FYI, I was able to make a rough design of our small house using the free, opensource sweethome3d program, convert it to webvr using obj2vr, and then virtually walk through it.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#7We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
Sounds like an industry ripe for disruption.
Nope industry running on small margins and client with atypical expectations who probably doesn't want to pay for what the extra work costs
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#8We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
In that same process now.
I can recommend ChiefArchitect. So far it has been great. It is within reach for a technical person to figure out, especially with all the training videos available online for free.
It is also powerful enough to do a lot of the details as well, which we are doing ourselves and then sending back to the architect for review.
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#9Wondering how many commercial products have been jeopardised by this freeware sponsored by a corporation, and how many jobs have been put at risk?
Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects
#10We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…
Sounds kind of like CAD/CAM software a bit.
Where it was so archaic(least in UI/usability) and extremely expensive that AutoDesk has found success following the Unity/Unreal model. Offering a "free" CAD/CAM software with Fusion 360. With plenty of Youtube presence and advertising with it, letting it grow.
However the problem with Architecture and Building itself, is that building homes and structures isn't really a hobby like Game Dev, 3D Modeling or Manufacturing(is becoming).