TOOLS FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Announcing an online collaboration project to build tools for Landscape Architects in Civil3D! Check back to this thread as I will post updates, downloads, screencasts, ect. as I develop the project further, or reply to join the project.
PART I: DESIGN MANIFESTO
Help! Quick which new software should I learn to do “BIM for landscapes”? There has been much buzz of late about a new generation of softwares to design to the new BIM paradigm. Choices such as Revit, Vectorworks, Eaglepoint, LandFX, microstationMX, archiCAD, intelliCAD, and an ever growing array of nifty plugins. It can feel like a daunting maze and that project is due NOW.
Before the question of which new software keeps skills current, ect. It is essential to understand the background context. The profession of LA is fundamentally shifting, driven by highly engineered construction products, powerful modeling software, and LEED. BIM replaces DRAFTING images with virtual building MODELS. Thus the role of the designer is no longer to draw in the computer, but rather to construct in the computer. The new task of BIM is the meeting point of computer programing and drafting. And this is essentially what the array of new products facilitate.
The virtual buildings (BIM) can be subjected to simulations of light, energy, ect. This is the paradigm shift. The lighting consultant, engineer, ect. can be replaced by the computer. Much of the traditional task of the designer are automated by computer, but at the same time they are required to consider more realistically issues of energy, light, cost, time, ect. The role of the designer moves more into engineering assisted by computer simulation.
The second major change is the Data cloud. The collection of all the “stuff” people put on the internet. professional forums, Google 3Dwarehouse, Google Earth, ect. All of the things that once were the guarded secrets of a firms library are now freely available online. The profession has been democratized. And far from spelling the end rather it allows LA to come of age as a rigorous multidisciplinary profession.
Where is the LA in this shifting landscape? There has never been a great easy tool for building an accurate model of terrain and placing objects on it, nor has there been a great and fast way to depict plants. The LA of the past had to try to a push architectural engineering software to the limits to get any decent looking results. Someone even posted about “Revit for landscape architects?” and “BIM tools for site?” All of the new softwares are trying to fill in this gap in various ways. But really the only solution is Civil3D.
Before the why, first consider a vision of the future: GIS+SIM+BIM designers will mine the data cloud to make GIS maps and Site Information Models and Building Information Models which are all referenced into one another across the internet and responding intelligently to each other. Beautiful final rendering are done in Visualization software with Video Compositing. All the “stuff” to make a design is shared online in virtual warehouses where product vendors go directly to designers to download, all data is configured by ISO and XML standards for universal access.
Civil3D is the best choice for this future, in short because of its depth. It is the only SIM software built on top of a GIS application on top of a CAD application. Therefore, it is the only where an LA can seamlessly move data between Geospatial analysis, Site Modeling, and Drafting. Moreover, it is designed to reference Revit BIM. The LA sits between the civil engineer and the architect, thus by using the platforms as them allows tighter communication.
PART II: PROJECT OUTLINE
The big black hole in Civil3D is planting design. At first glance there is no special set of tools for planting design. There is however a latent capacity to do planting design out of the box by a proper configuration. The problem of planting design is larger then just setting up Civil3D it extends into the other parts of the BIM/Data-cloud revolution. In order to implement planting design two things are needed. First a set of styles and procedures for Civil3D that is a form based code, this part is relatively easy. Second a database of plant records. This part is more complex. A plant record should contain all horticultural data about a plant and images. These plant records should be open source and stored in the data-cloud. To a certain extent Vectorworks and LandFX do this already. However they can never really match the content that a universal open source format could. Therefore I propose a new XML schema to be certified by W3C and the Nursery Association hortoXML a child of phyloXML. The cloud of Plant images embedded with XMP meta data in hortoXML format should be stored on SEEK as a product from nursery vendors. The images should be Creative Commons licensed. All firm private libraries can be consolidated into a pool that all firm draw out of. Very similar to what has been done with construction details on Sweets.
PART III: SUMMARY
what is needed:
1. Library of Civil3D Mvblocks for single plants to match form based plant code
2. Library of parcel styles for planting beds to match form based plant code
3. A method or LISP to use the FDO connect feature of Civil3D to insert XML data from the external plant database into plant schedules (tables), parcels, Mvblock attributes in the CAD document (.dwg)
4. hotoXML schema for storing plant information
5. AJAX tool for managing a visual database of plant images serialized with XMP meta data according to the hortoXML schema
6. web space to host the Data-cloud of plant images from which the client AJAX content management tool upload and downloads
7. fileinfo toolpanels for Adobe Bridge to use hortoXML
Taken together the LISP tool + the AJAX tool + Data-cloud +Civil3D native functionality will create a basic toolset to fill the missing gap Landscape Architects need for planting and site design. This project will be opensource.
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