It was a quiet year - at least here on the blog! 🙂
I regularly worked on the Autodesk BIM Blog and have also spent a lot of time in our VR Center in Munich and various events where I presented exciting use cases of virtual and augmented reality to Autodesk customers. It's always great to see how this technology generates enthusiasm and brings a sparkle to the eyes of even the biggest skeptics! VR and AR will certainly also play a major role next year and have a strong influence on the way we work.
But there was another topic that shaped 2017 for me: the topic of IFC, for which I initiated a small guide at the end of last year, which is now also part of the Autodesk openBIM campaign is available. What makes me even happier is the fact that the guide has grown thanks to the help of some great IFC experts and will be available next year as a Extended Version appears - stay tuned! 😉
IFC is an important topic, and as I have a lot of contact with a wide variety of customers, I realize time and again how many misunderstandings there are in this area. On the one hand, IFC is not a magical and completely loss-free format, but with the right settings and precautions you can still get to grips with many problems.
Last but not least, I wanted to leave you with some impressions of this year's AU Las Vegas - as always, it was an inspiring experience with lots of great presentations and interesting encounters. I was also able to hold another session - this time on the topic of virtual reality, which you can also watch on the AU online can see.
A little tip on the side - the new Logitech Spotlight (quasi the Next generation clicker) may not be compatible with navigation in a gaming engine - so be careful with new toys during live demos! 😉
Other lectures worth seeing that I can highly recommend to you:
IKEA VR, AR, MR and Meatballs is definitely a session to watch over the Christmas holidays, as it is very entertaining and provides a great overview of the use of new technologies at IKEA.
Tools Not Toys: Estimating/Scheduling in Virtual Reality with BIM Data Sources and Stingray is again about VR and AR, but is a bit more serious than IKEA 🙂 and deals with the use of gaming engines for cost estimates and scheduling at SKANSKA. It's definitely an interesting session, no matter which gaming engine you work with.
Applying Generative AEC Dynamics to a Parking Garage shows a very interesting use of dynamo and generative design for a system parking garage - so it doesn't always have to result in free forms or fancy designs!
And of course once again the Computational BIM Workshopswhich offer a great introduction to the Dynamo and were also recorded in full this time.
I still have a few sessions on my list, as the selection was of course far too large and I was only able to see a fraction of the interesting presentations live on site. But thanks to AU online, you can easily catch up on everything - maybe I'll come back in the new year with a few recommendations!
Whenever I fly to such events, I always try to add a few days of vacation nearby before/after and see something new - this time I was in Los Angeles for a few days and therefore say goodbye to 2018 with a few nice photos!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
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