Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

danny-cooley — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 03:06:07 GMT

Csaba

If you are running, I guess you realise that it effectively has Microsation running 'inside it'

You could set up an AECOSim Workspace just for the heritage buildings, then selectively remove some of the tools that you feel are excessive/might get in the way.

It is my understanding that you can use the 'regular' MS solids and surface tools and 'attach' a family part to them and at least start getting some BIM functionality from that.

I would have though that even for heritage builings, some of the features you get with AECOSim would be very valid: FloorManager, some of the features for setting up Views and Drawings, ...

Good luck with it!

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Marc Thomas — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 14:52:02 GMT

When ABD is started from the MicroStation shortcut the Building disciplines are not available. It must be restarted using the Building Desgner or discipline shortcuts.

Architectural, Structural and Mechanical modes can be unloaded or loaded from the Building Designer menu but at least one of them must remain loaded.

Once loaded Space Planner and Electrical cannot be unloaded.

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Csaba Szabo — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 12:58:54 GMT

Hi Mark!

Yes, we mainly use MicroStation. Right now we're experimenting with ABD, trying to figure out if it provides some methods to ease and quicken our workflow.

Our decision now is to use ABD to model modern era buildings and MS solid modeling to heritage structures.

The ABD's built in MS mode is new to me. Is there a way to change these modes inside the running program or do I have to close the running one and start with the other?

Best regards,

Csaba

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Marc Thomas — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 11:36:52 GMT

[quote user="Csaba Szabo"]

ABD doesn't provide much benefit over MicroStation

[/quote]

Hi Csaba,

Note that there is a MicroStation mode in the current ABD releases so you can start it up with a less busy interface without the BIM tools. Use the MicroStation Building Designer shortcut. ABD running in MicroStation mode still uses an ABD licence.

Are you also using MicroStation?

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Andreas Zieritz — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:37:54 GMT

Not sure if the IFC format is capable of holding this information. An ifcslab assumes an area which is extruded for example.

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

dominic SEAH — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 07:21:40 GMT

[quote user="Nasir Ghani"]The BIM tools will unlikely apply since they are more applicable to standard design conditions. [/quote]

Not if you are required to provide 'BIM-ready' deliverables.... which is increasingly common these days. I suppose you need to check what your deliverables are.

The mesh geometry may be all you need initially, but there will be a need to 'rationalise' a lot of these elements into 'parametric' elements so that they can fully participate in the BIM model. Example would be pipes.

And at some point you will need to tag the 'meshes' or whatever is generated from the point clouds with IFC / COBie data... to be BIM.

Also, most BIM authoring tools will not resymbolise meshes properly.... a mesh wall will not display as a wall when cut in plan. You would need to convert the mesh wall to a solid or TF wall to get it to clean up and display properly.

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

fostertom — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 15:35:38 GMT

Are we saying that even with amorphous forms, much of the intelligence of ABD can still be applied to them? Actually, why would you want to, when modelling 'as existing solid'?

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Nasir Ghani — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 14:51:15 GMT

The geometry you are trying to capture is more of the nature of mesh geometry. The BIM tools will unlikely apply since they are more applicable to standard design conditions.

Most of the geometry definition you can create using the modeling toolset and then assign Parts to have them display as representative materials for documentation.

I would also recommend to include Descartes as it will asset with the Point Cloud data and manipulation.

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Csaba Szabo — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 13:37:38 GMT

Thanks for the answers!

We're based in Budapest, Hungary!

So basically ABD doesn't provide much benefit over MicroStation (in this stage of work) if I have to use the modeling tools (solids, surfaces, etc) of the latter. Or at least in case of buildings with very irregular geometries.

Csaba

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

Marc Thomas — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 13:14:03 GMT

Dominic's suggestion of adding Descartes is a good one, it contains a number of tools aimed at working with point clouds. I'll run this by some colleagues for further advice.

In addition to the Building tools for placement of walls, etc, you have all of the fundamental solids and surface modelling tools provided by the MicroStation platform. These are often more appropriate for existing structures, the Building (BIM) tools coming into play when alterations or additions are made.

Where are you based?

RE: Is AECOsim suitable for heritage buildings?

dominic SEAH — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 09:42:36 GMT

I would say yes.

ABD / Mstn's hypermodeling tools and support for point clouds make it particularly good for modelling existing buildings. You may want to speak to your Bentley rep to see if they can set up your ABD to run Bentley Descartes in the same session as ABD.