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Software: The Latest Architecture and News

How to Use Lumion: Tutorials to Enhance Your Architectural Visualizations

If you are creating architectural visualizations through Lumion, the following tutorial can be of great use to you. These tutorials will maximize your output and teach you easy-to-master practical and technical tips.

Learn how to add objects, use lights, modify materials, and also create panoramic and 360° images, movies, and more.

We hope you enjoy the following videos.

How To Create a 360 R​ender (And How to Improve your Presentation with Virtual Reality)

If you're looking to upgrade your standard architecture presentation, SENTIO VR's tutorials can be very useful. They allow you to accurately use Revit, SketchUp, V-ray, 3Ds Max, Lumion and Cinema4D to create 360 renders and perform virtual reality experiences, with both technical and visual advice.

Below, we've compiled a list of useful videos. 

Architects and the New iPadPro: Should You Buy One?

Can tablets help architects better conceive and execute their designs? If you’re skeptical, you’re not alone. To a certain extent, architects are still unsure if meaningful work can be created on an iPad. As the novel of virtual reality wears off, it’s worth asking if portable augmented reality is the push forward that will combine the best of traditional and digital architectural technology. So beyond their utility as lightweight, untethered screens, what can tablets offer the professional architect?

A Library of 100 Downloadable Photoshop Textures

Among the dozens of software programs exploited by architects today, Photoshop is one of the most universal, enduring, and valuable. The go-to tool for students and architects for image-based editing, collages, and rendering, the popularity of Photoshop has given rise to countless online tutorials, tips, and resources.

One of the most frustrating and time-consuming exercises in using Photoshop is the endless search for high-quality material textures. This demand has led to the creation of many dispersed online libraries, allowing users to download royalty-free, high-resolution textures for almost any material. One such site is Texture Palace, offering an extensive, Flickr-based library with high-quality concrete, timber, steel, and many other textures.

Below, we have collated some of the best textures from Texture Palace, creating an easy go-to resource as you create your next masterpiece. The site is steadily updated with new textures, so be sure to visit the official site here, and their Flickr page here. To access the full range of resolutions for each texture below, simply follow the link in the image caption.

The Tools You Need to Easily Meet BIM Mandates

 | Sponsored Content

For bpr architects, BIM Level 2 is becoming business as usual. This medium-sized, employee-owned firm based in the UK focuses on how good design can add value to a client’s vision. Led by Directors Paul Beaty-Pownall and Steve Cowell, the firm specializes in three core sectors: higher education, rail stations, and regeneration.

Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D Create "Drag'n'Fly" to Streamline Sketching and Modeling

Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D have joined forces to imagine a new workflow for iOS 12. Their new feature named “Drag’n’Fly” allows users to “literally put a live 3D model into their Trace sketches, create infinite views and then, automatically generate the perspective grids to draw over.”

Designed for the iPad Pro, Drag’n’Fly seeks to streamline the existing process of architects exporting one view at a time to sketch over. The new feature offers an infinite number of views to draw over, allowing designers to navigate around a 3D model from sketch to sketch to create a narrative, or zoom in on spatial details.

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The Best Architecture Software of 2018

When you think of the age of hand drafted architecture drawings, what images come to mind? Is it the iconic plans of the Palladian Villas? Fast forward to present day, where architecture software is favored over hand drawings due to its efficiency and ability to create increasingly innovative structures. With all of the software available to architects, have you ever wondered which one might be the "best"? Luckily, TechRadar has just released their list of leading architecture software for this year.

How an Optimized Workstation Accelerates Your Design

 How an Optimized Workstation Accelerates Your Design - Image 2 of 4
Courtesy of BOXX

Which processor? How many graphics cards? How much RAM? For architects, engineers, civil engineers, BIM managers, and other CAD pros, navigating the computer workstation marketplace can be an arduous task, hindered by unknowledgeable sales reps, inaccurate information, and other pitfalls.

This Simple VR Tool Instantly Communicates Your Design Intent in 1:1 Scale

Communicating design intent and conveying space to non-technical clients has always been a challenge for architects. Fortunately, advancements such as virtual reality (VR) are starting to pave the way for new tools to address this challenge. The most immersive and effective solutions are ones that empower you to fully navigate 3D models, like Prospect by IrisVR. Created by architects, Prospect enables designers to easily jump into a 1:1, true to scale VR version of their 3D model.

Morpholio's "Smart Fill" Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch

Morpholio has released details of Smart Fill, which they describe as “the world’s first area calculator for live design sketching.” Designed for the TracePro app on iPad and iPhone, Smart Fill calculates the area of spaces in active sketches, without the need for further drawing or alterations.

The Smart Fill calculation evolves as space is altered through further sketching. As rooms are sliced in half, the area reduces, while as walls are erased, the area expands. The app also allows for the space to be filled in with color, text labels, or numerical data.

Morpholio's "Smart Fill" Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch - Image 1 of 4Morpholio's "Smart Fill" Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch - Image 2 of 4Morpholio's "Smart Fill" Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch - Image 3 of 4Morpholio's "Smart Fill" Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch - Image 4 of 4Morpholio's Smart Fill Extension Calculates Areas In Your Drawings As You Sketch - More Images+ 10

New 3D-Modeling Software Increases Efficiency by Focusing on Fast, Intuitive "Shaping" Inputs

 | Sponsored Content

Get designs out of your head and in front of your client. In the normal world, a building project starts with a client interview. Then you go back to the office to develop your design and build a proposal. Then you meet to sell your concept. Rinse. Repeat.

Wouldn’t it be great if you and the client could sit for an interactive design session? To do this, you would need a tool that acts like “digital clay”. You would need software that is so easy to use, and so responsive, that you could capture, sculpt and modify your concept freely.

What is BIM and Why Does it Seem to be Fundamental in the Current Architectural Design?

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a methodology that allows architects to create digital design simulations to manage all the information associated with an architectural project.

While CAD creates 2- or 3-dimensional drawings that don't distinguish between their elements, BIM incorporates 4-D (time) and 5-D (costs). This allows users to manage information intelligently throughout the life cycle of a project, automating processes such as programming, conceptual design, detailed design, analysis, documentation, manufacturing, construction logistics, operation and maintenance, renovation and/or demolition.

In any design and construction project there are an unlimited number of participants, as well as infinite interactions between parties. The projects are multidisciplinary and include information that is not necessary to all involved. So who is responsible for what in each project? How far does my responsibility go and where does yours start? BIM helps to order the complexity of this process. [1]

Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes

Have you ever been on the construction site and had a problem arise that needed immediate attention? The answer to that question is almost guaranteed to be yes. The Construction Administration phase is not intended to be a time for big design decisions, but with unforeseen field conditions, contractor errors and never-ending client changes, your team can keep designing and problem-solving throughout CA. Morpholio's new update to their Trace app for iPhone, TracePro, aims to transform site visits by "importing key components of the design process into the Construction Administration phase."

Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes - Image 1 of 4Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes - Image 2 of 4Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes - Image 3 of 4Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes - Image 4 of 4Morpholio's Latest Trace App Update Streamlines Construction Administration Design Changes - More Images+ 7

Getting the Data You Need to Run a Successful Firm

 | Sponsored Content

When your firm adopts project accounting—the practice of accounting on a project-by-project basis—you’ll get insights that’ll change the way you do business. You’ll understand your projects, employees, clients, and firm on a deeper level, and you’ll be able to make changes that will dramatically increase efficiency and profits.

Before this happens, though, you need to lay the groundwork. With the right tools, logging and making sense of the data you need is convenient and easy. You just have to be consistent.

Dear Employers: Do You Want an Architect or a Revit Monkey?

We are seeking someone with a Bachelor of Architecture with two years of experience. Knowledge of Revit, Vray, Adobe and Microsoft. Knowledge of RNE and Municipal documentation. Immediate availability - Typical Architecture Job Listing.

Are newly graduated Architects "employable" people according to the requirements of the current market? And are these the right requirements?

Soon, Architects Will Be Able to Create 3D Models From Inside Their VR Headset

This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Next-Gen Virtual Reality Will Let You Create From Scratch—Right Inside VR."

The architecture and manufacturing industries are about to undergo a radical shift in how they make things. In the near future, designers and engineers will be able to create products, buildings, and cities in real time, in virtual reality (VR).

In predicting VR’s dramatic evolution, an analogy to early cinematic history is apt: As one legend has it, when the motion-picture camera first came out, actors were filmed on a set, in front of fake trees. Then someone said, “Why don’t you just put the camera in the forest?” Simple, but game-changing. VR technology is already available, and it’s only a matter of time before it is used to its full potential.

"Autotuned Architecture" Is Endangering the Craft of Architectural Construction

This article was originally published by Common Edge as "Separating Architecture From the Building Arts Produces Soulless Structures."

Truth be told, many architects I know are a little uneasy about their lack of building knowledge. Since architecture without construction is largely a graphic arts exercise, this is either deeply ironic or grimly paradoxical. To bridge this yawning gap, architects today typically hire a slew of consultants—roof, skin, curtain wall, interior, sustainability, preservation—who join the growing influence of software-driven structural and mechanical engineers to absorb much of what architects once assumed they could handle.

Which Computer Is the Best for Architects and Architecture Students?

Buying “the perfect computer” comes with equal parts indecision and excitement—we put in hours of research, weigh brands, compare specs, read product reviews, and ask around for advice and suggestions. For the uninitiated, it often means wading through lots of technical jargon. i7? Intel? SSD? Quad-core? For others, it may mean being spoilt for choice and finding it difficult to shortlist options. Architect, writer, and entrepreneur Eric Reinholdt’s latest video on his YouTube channel 30X40 Design Workshop tackles the tricky subject of choosing the right computer for architecture, breaking the topic down into 6 simple steps.