computer aided architectural design

[avantgarde]

a new dimension (in the indian context) in the field of architecture......
lets generate a discussion on using computer as a process tool than using it as a mere presentation tool...
where the design process moves forward by interacting with the computer...
where the design process in governed by the feedbacks from the computer...
can such a methodology be useful in architectural practice in india?

[shamit]

Whatever happed to Sabu Francis's TAD.

[Sabu]

Hi:
TAD is still alive and worked upon. It was used in two research projects at Bombay IIT for energy calculations. Expect to see something at http://www.teamtad.com (http://www.teamtad.com) shortly

Regards
Sabu

[sabufrancis]

Hi:
I've released the new version of TAD Designer Lite. Kindly read this post:
http://forum.indianarchitecture.net/index....=findpost&p=237 (http://forum.indianarchitecture.net/index.php?showtopic=48&view=findpost&p=237)

-Sabu Francis

[sabufrancis]

New version of TAD Designer Lite 5.5.075 build released. It has export to DesignCAD, Intellicad and Autocad and any other CAD software that supports OLE automation through Visual Basic for Applications. Also has bug-reporting feature
and other improvements

Download it from here http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads (http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads)

Register at http://www.teamtad.com/ (http://www.teamtad.com/) in order to use the software

A full day workshop is being held at Pune, Sinhgad Univ. where I'll be teaching
TAD Designer Lite.  This is organized by someone else and they have their own
formalities and charges. Seats are limited as everyone would be at a computer

Date: 19th February, 2006 10.30 am to 5.00 pm
Venue: Computer Lab, Sinhgad College of Architecture,
STES’ Vadgaon Campus, Pune
Registration fees: Rs. 300 (includes lunch, tea and software
CD. Registration will be confirmed only upon the payment at
the college office.
Please convey your registration to Ar. Supriya Nene (email: Supriya.nene_at_gmail.com, sms: 9823777151), along with your
details: Name, Institution/firm, Designation, email address, contact number)

 

[sabufrancis]

Notification: TAD Designer Lite 5.5.280 has been released. It now has VRML export. Kindly download it from www.sabufrancis.com/downloads To use the software, you would need to register at www.teamtad.com

Regards
SF

[sabufrancis]

Notification:
TAD Designer Lite 5.6 released. Download from http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads (http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads)

TAD Designer lite now has parameteric shapes and export to Virtualight; an excellent photo-realistic rendering sytem and export to VRML 2.  

Take a look at the renderings that Virtualight can create at http://www.3dvirtualight.com/ (http://www.3dvirtualight.com/)  Most of that is now possible from TAD itself

VRML 2 files exported from TAD can have full color, textures that VRML supports. We recommend that you download VRMLview from http://www.sim.no/products/SIM_VRMLview/download/ (http://www.sim.no/products/SIM_VRMLview/download/) (The license is free for individual use) Its an excellent and fast VRML viewer

Parametric shapes are intelligent shapes that "remember" the way they were created. For e.g. if you create an object 'a' whose shape is a parametric outline of another shape (say of object 'b') then if you change 'b' you would find that 'a' also would change accordingly

This means you can be a lot more efficient while dealing with repeated/mirrored shapes, steps, etc

TAD Designer Lite now also has different colors to denote the SFA classfication system. Envelopes are drawn thicker too. Good for the eyes!

Files created with this version may not open in earlier versions. So we've changed the extension. Now TAD uses the .td5 extension

Hope we all do good architecture

Regards

Sabu Francis

 

[sabufrancis]

Notification:

The Mantis Bug tracking system is now online for handling bugs in TAD Designer Lite

http://www.teamtad.com/bugs (http://www.teamtad.com/bugs)

Please register there separately if you want to systematically follow up on bugs found in TAD Designer Lite. It will be used for reporting bugs in other products that teamtad.com would manage (Though, please note that developers would be only intimated in case of products not developed by us)

Your login and password at TeamTAD would not be applicable at the bugs page as it is an independent system. You could even ask your office staff to register at the bugs page in order to report bugs you find. In fact, a bug reporter would not even require to have an account at teamtad.com

Kindly follow net-etiquette while posting bugs.

Regards

Sabu Francis
 

[sabufrancis]

Notification:

The latest build of TAD Designer Lite now has Renderman export. Here is an image of a row house I had done a few years back (See link) below. This is exported directly from TAD and rendered using Aqsis (www.aqsis.org) a free Renderman compatible renderer. Its a quick 'n fast rendering (around a minute) without touching the exported file at all by hand. The TAD file is in the samples (It has an extension of .td4, the older format of TAD) Though there are no textures here ... the model is quite complete with interior details.

See image at : http://www.teamtad.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=11#11 (http://www.teamtad.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=11#11)

Renderman is the de-facto standard in rendering. There are various standards that adhere to the standard -- Aqsis is just one of them. 3Delight, AIR and PR-Renderman are commercial ones.  The last one is by Pixar

They all produce stunning images, so realistic that they are used to make animation movies like Toy Story, Stuart Little, etc.

Another excellent Renderman compliant free (for personal use) called BMRT (Blue Moon Rendering Tools) is unfortunately not available nowadays easily. It was removed due to some legal complications with Pixar; the standard setter of Renderman. However, if you do some extensive search on the net, you probably can still find it somewhere on the net

TAD is now fast evolving to a complete system. Some exciting coding is going on... watch for more notifications

Regards
Sabu Francis

[sabufrancis]

Notification:
TAD now has export to Design Workshop from Artifice Inc. Design Workshop is an architectural modeling software, which does not have all the features of TAD but it does have the capability of casting shadows exactly as per the latitude and time of day. That means, it is quite useful in doing sciography and possibly for even climate analyis. Design Workshop Lite can also do sections and elevations.

TAD now also has printing. The currently visible portion is printed (fit to paper). More printng features (like print to scale, print portion of view, etc.) would be given later on

Download TAD from http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads (http://www.sabufrancis.com/downloads), register yourself at http://www.teamtad.com (http://www.teamtad.com)  and use it free

Download Design Workshop Lite from http://www.artifice.com/free/lite_download_reg.html (http://www.artifice.com/free/lite_download_reg.html)
That is also a free software.


(Note: Me or my company has no connection with Artifice. Design Workshop Lite's license allows redistribution and notifications such as this)


Regards
Sabu Francis

[sabufrancis]

TAD is probably the only BIM software that can be extended to handle many issues that we encounter in architecture. Its built in language ARDELA (ARchitectural DEsign LAnguge; a variant of PROLOG) can be used to extend it in many directions.

TAD was used in a couple of research projects at IIT Bombay, under the ministry of non-conventional energy sources. Here is a link to one of our paper now available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Design...ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Design-Simulation-building-TADSIM/dp/B000BEFLYA/sr=8-1/qid=1160072794/ref=sr_1_1/002-3984093-3957620?ie=UTF8&s=books)

Currently, architects handle energy, sustainability, acoustics, etc. separately. This means there are more chances of errors. Current BIM talks about construction and nothing much more.

Here are some useful links:

The Vital Signs Project website has lots of useful stuff for architects/students, especially those involved in climatology and sustainability

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/ (http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/)

Take a look at the "Resources" link on the left

Another useful link is the page for software developed at UCLA
for climo

http://www2.aud.ucla.edu/energy-design-tools/ (http://www2.aud.ucla.edu/energy-design-tools/)
 

[Haridaspal]

Sabu, ignorance is bliss, so ignore the bugger (Ajay?).

Carry on with your superb work!

[dhompad bompad]

hozo. bozo. ozo. gozo. nutter[/B] nutter[/B] nutter[/B] nutter[/B] nutter[/B]
this post is intentionally nonsensical

[sabufrancis]

http://www.teamtad.com (http://www.teamtad.com) invites everone for their participation and comments. Over 117 have registered. Some amount of documentation has started appearing there.
 

[sabufrancis]

Hi
The background on how to participate in the open source movement in architecture is explained here:

http://tad.sabufrancis.com (http://tad.sabufrancis.com)

There are NO costs involved.

Regards
Sabu Francis