AE 510 Blog 7

Anthony Yau

AE 510 – Intelligent Building

Blog 7 – Course Reflection

March 10, 2015

Looking back on what we've learned in AE 510, I feel that the group project and the assignments really made me think about how to incorporate computer modeling and information with the design and construction of buildings. The family assignment using Revit was difficult to understand since the tutorial was made for Revit 2009, while the version I was using was 2015. However, the important lesson I took from that assignment was the power of parametric modeling in Revit, which is a great tool offered by BIM software. The database assignment, as much as I admit that I did not find it too interesting, was a great way to learn how to organize physical objects in tables. Like I stated in the blog related to that assignment, I would love to incorporate database tables with the CAD drawings of stacking plans I have to update annually while working with the City of Philadelphia. By linking a database with the drawings, I could easily update the employee name text objects in AutoCAD very fast through Microsoft Access.

However, I found that the weekly blogs were not too insightful and not an efficient use of time. Instead of the weekly blogs, I would suggest that for the future, smaller scale assignments related to the bookcase and database assignments should be assigned weekly. These types of assignments were very effective in teaching us how to apply intelligent building to project design methods and project management. With the new knowledge I've attained regarding BIM software like Revit and its interoperability with other software such as Navisworks, Robot Structural Analysis Professional, and Green Building Studio, I hope to apply these skills to Senior Design in the Spring term and to the projects I will work on during my career.

As a structural engineer, I’m glad to have learned how to draft structural elements in Revit and analyze the same model with software that isn’t typically used in America. Robot Structural Analysis is mostly used by firms in Europe, and it known by many engineers over there to be one of the best. It is capable of calculating reactions, stresses, displacements, and moments of structural members, which are values I know I will be determining when I’m working in the industry (hopefully I get a job as a SE). In conclusion, I learned quite a lot about how technology is going to be like in the future and other computer related stuff over the last 10 weeks and hope that future AE 510 students will learn even more BIM and technological design methods from this class.

Response to Mark Bancroft:

I feel the same way brotha, I think that the amount of BIM I learned in this class (which is the most I've had during my 5 years at Drexel), will definitely help me stay up to date with developing software. As the gentleman from Bentley stated, our industry is in constant flux and staying relevant is the key to keeping a job.

Response to Dmitriy Voznyak:

I really thought it was cool when we talked about point cloud to create 3D views of existing infrastructure and landscape. I recently interviewed with a company that specializes in architectural preservation of historic buildings and they utilized this type of technology to model churches, libraries, and other structures that require repairing.

Response to Ami Amegan:

I thought it was funny how you mentioned how you experienced many errors while working with Revit and then you switch totally off topic and talk about how you hate Drexel lol!!! I wish you luck in getting an MArch and hope that all this work you've done at Drexel will pay off!