A new home for SketchUp

@mike lucey said:

I wonder how far away the day is when designers will just have to attach some electrodes and start 'think modeling' the design?

We'll end up with lots of buildings looking like this.

Boobies.

chrisglasier

@alan fraser said:

@mike lucey said:

I wonder how far away the day is when designers will just have to attach some electrodes and start 'think modeling' the design?

We'll end up with lots of buildings looking like this.

An interesting part of this is how to convert the think modelling into computer commands to produce models and/or the real thing. Make booby x 2 is not good enough but defining appropriate design criteria might just make think modelling the next big thing. Not quite sure if OT but certainly enough for a tremble.

ArCAD-UK

@mike lucey said:

http://www.emotiv.com/index.php

Intersting product and relatively cheap price point, well cheaper than I expected. Try before you buy might be a prerequisite for some people!

I personally would like to see Kinect developed to replace my mouse. It could be almost like physically building lifting windows into place etc and a lot healthier than sitting here getting lazy and developing RSI! With Trimble's gadget focus maybe that interface could be a possibility?

Alan Fraser

I'm not sure that thought modelling is such a great idea...although I'm sure it will arrive at some point. Many of the best artistic solutions are the result of 'happy accidents' as we try to imperfectly replicate on paper what's in our heads. In most cases these surpass the original vision.

If all that thought modelling achieves is to save the trouble of moving a mouse or trackball around, then that's even worse. A generation ago, many designers spent all day standing at a drafting table. Not only did this involve moving all of both arms around (not just the fingers and wrist of one hand) but it also entailed constant, unconscious shifting of weight. This exercises the legs, the abdomen and the back muscles in a small but relentless manner. It's positively aerobic compared to what goes on today.

Human Evolution.

jason_maranto

A bit off topic, but I love this chair (which I use at my studio) for this very reason -- in encourages a ton of movement and keeps muscles working all day.

Best,
Jason.

jeff hammond

more gestures , less pointing at things on the screen with a mouse/keyboard.

I know it probably sounds meh to most people right now but I believe it's the future. apple's implementation is already very good but they're keeping it sort of basic for now.. I think it's in the stepping stone phase..

Rich O Brien

more detail Jeff...?

I recently used Mike's Mac and I must admit the tactile nature of swiping, shrinking etc., is a very natural task. If SketchUp was to recognize swipes/pinches that would be cool. I don't want to draw just undo/cut/copy/hide/unhide...basic repeatable tasks

I used that CAD Control app for the iPad at times but I just didn't adopt to it.

pbacot

We used to have such programs, called draftspersons (formally draftsmen). These programs understood the designers' mind and created drawings and feedback consistent with the designers' style and other design directions that could be input by simple sketches, naming traditional styles, vague cultural references, and even hand gestures.

(Unfortunately they were very expensive, had unaccountable downtime, and could be unstable at times.)

Dan Rathbun

Neo... follow the white rabbit.

findthong

Or the other way around ... work 1 hour a day, go to gym for couple of hours and learn more interesting things and get a life

I want to say technologies can empowered the users, at all level. Architects license still need for long time, there must be someone who do judgement and take resposibility, which computer can't do for sure.

Let's see this research, very interesting they use SketchUp also:
http://vladlen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/architecture-video.mov
http://vladlen.org/projects/procedural-modeling/
http://vladlen.org/papers/architecture-slides.pdf - Slides

Rhino's grasshopper users may familiar with this. I see many generate 1,000+ schematic design to find the best planning, design that fit context, ROI, energy reservation, etc, all done with these AI. But at the end of the day, it's the architect who realized it.

Updated: From the slides, it seem the demo house use up to 100,000 iterations by the AI!!! I'm love my brain so much now

In theory, any thing that can systemetically explained can become procedural.
Do you noticed that there're patterns even our everyday life ?
It's good to have pattern, so we can focus our time on useful stuffs. These AI also.

findthong

Trimble, let's buy this team it is a very nice companion with SketchUp!
I wish I can model a pretty decent rabbit in a few minutes for years.
Otherwise, I bet Autodesk or Pixology would get it pretty fast

RigMesh: putting the fun back into rigging
http://youtu.be/HbOXMuwQlyE
http://www.cgchannel.com/category/news/

Download for Free!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4964558/rigmesh_v1.01.zip
(official links, they're so new and even don't settled a website yet!)

Aerilius

@alan fraser said:

A generation ago, many designers spent all day standing at a drafting table. [...] It's positively aerobic compared to what goes on today.

It could be possible that we'll be moving away from computers again. I mean, most people don't work anymore in front of computers big like refrigerators, but it tends to go into the direction of screens almost as flat as paper and the computer either inside the screen or inside the phone.

I could imagine that modeling with gestures and sixth sense technologies could be like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8&t=1m

Far more physical! (if we want to make our future like this) What is the purpose of technological progress if integrate virtuality/computing so much into the physical world that the technology becomes almost invisible? The only thing that remains is that we can overcome the limitations of matter! All virtual reality objects can be more precise/perfect, and they can be annihilated, multiplicated and reset to any historic state!

I wish that SketchUp and Trimble try being on top of current technology and make the modeling experience more connected to the physical object.

chrisglasier

@alan fraser said:

Many of the best artistic solutions are the result of 'happy accidents' as we try to imperfectly replicate on paper what's in our heads. In most cases these surpass the original vision.

[aside]This would also make a wonderful quote to epitomise the whole British building industry - all gung-ho and gongs.[/aside]

@alan fraser said:

If all that thought modelling achieves is to save the trouble of moving a mouse or trackball around, then that's even worse.

That's a pretty sad thought. The computer is the closest thing to a brain and the internet the closest to a global brain. And yet its only perceived use in this area is some kind of remote control for an invisible prosthetic hand.

How about this? Many buildings are designed to provide the maximum permissible square feet. Within this, areas are allocated based on square foot allowances per person (including allowances for circulation, toilets or whatever). These allowances are rules of thumb that seem to work (happy accidents) but does anyone really know? What is considered excellent may actually be mediocre.

But if the computer is given access to components like desks, toilet pans and human models, reusable regulations and other restraints, designers can set criteria like: workspaces as big as possible, toilets as small as possible, cost less than 20M Drachma, completion by July 2012. The computer then has its opportunity to compute and display design solutions. Contrary to conventional wisdom automating this part of the design process produces not one-size-fits-all but millions of possibilities that need to be reduced by applying new and resetting existing critieria - which might be called thought modelling.

Movable and interchangeable 3D components are an important part of this kind of idea. So it may be off-the-wall but at least not off-topic - new home new use.

Alan Fraser

Yes, I can certainly see the point and usefulness of that scenario, Chris. But surely that could already be achieved with present technology...some kind of Super-Revit that treats the entire building like some kind of parametised part? Just enter all such requirements into a ginormous spreadsheet and let it rip; no electrodes necessary.
Personally, I'd prefer the kind of systems that others are hinting at...large, dafting-board-sized monitors with pinch, flick and squeeze technology that merge seamlessly with other devices...and preferably with the kind of easy-on-the-eye display now being developed for E-Book readers.
Where thought-modelling might really come into its own is for people with certain physical disabilities who would have problems with flicks or even present input methods. And I can certainly see thought-control being of use in software that has to deal with rapidly-changing parameters...like navigation or weapons systems.