Navigating Autodesk’s Multiverse to Improve Design Productivity

ELIEL DE LA CRUZ: Hello. We are going to be presenting for this class the Navigating the Autodesk Multiverse to Improve Design Productivity for Autodesk University, 2022. My name is Eliel De la Cruz, and I am accompanied here by John Raiten.

So if you want to know a little bit more about who we are, my name, again, is Eliel De la Cruz. My full name is Eliel Josue De la Cruz [INAUDIBLE]. I was born in the Dominican Republic. I'm currently a Practice Technology Leader in the America East region for HKS Architects.

I was lucky enough to start my architectural career at an early age. I finished a five-year degree program when I was 21 years old, and I did two masters in architectural design and computational design. I've always been passionate about design and computational design.

Later on, I did a PhD in architecture in the University of Sydney in Australia. That's also where my first daughter was born. And, yeah, my studies and professional experience have always been about computational design and design. I'm very passionate about new technologies and finding ways to use technologies to improve our designs and our lives.

I understand that a lot of the times that we have technology, people sometimes struggle to adapt it. So that was the area that I focused my research on-- understanding the variables that influence that adoption of new technology in the architectural design process, specifically.

I am a geek. I love movies. I love all the MCU, and anime, and bowling, and archery, and playing guitar, and learning new things. All right, so, now, I'm going to pass it on to John who's going to introduce himself.

JOHN RAITEN: Hello. I'm also a Practice Technology Leader, but it's for the America Central Region for HKS Architects. I've been in the industry for 29 years-- recently had 10 years on the construction side. Some of the major companies I've been with is Gensler, Friedmutter, Hill & Wilkinson, RO, and then, obviously, HKS.

Been working in VDC departments and BIM departments for long time and have a unique aspect with the BIM and VDC side of things. I've always been very excited about how models come together. And being on the GC side has really been beneficial to prove how models are used down the road.

Some of them next endeavors here at HKS are going to just help move the world closer to the information side of things of BIM. Some of my hobbies include motorcycles, swimming, beaches, travel, and music. Love having to go to concerts. And that's me.

ELIEL DE LA CRUZ: Awesome. So the agenda-- what we'll be covering today. We want you to understand a little bit about alternative workflows using Autodesk tools to deliver a project. We will not be going in-depth into each one of these tools.

As you will see later on, there's a lot of tools. So this is not a hands-on workshop style of class. It's more so that we understand the broad-- the holistic aspect of what these workflows can bring to us. Also about implementing an effective tool to understand limits and different multiple workflows, health checks, when to actually jump into getting into one of these tools into your process.

We will investigate and understand a little bit about having an eclectic and flexible learning process to improve upon each design round. How do you actually manage having multiple tools and when to learn and when to unlearn others and whatnot? And we will also talk about or identify opportunities using generative design and visual programming, mainly Dynamo, and upcoming Autodesk tools for early design exploration.

So, again, a little bit about what this class is about. As technology continues to evolve and provide the AEC industry new tools, the pressure from clients continue to increase-- something that is not new to anyone on this class. I'm sure everyone here has already experienced this themselves.

So owners-- they want us to deliver faster and better outcomes. The owners are also getting really smart and knowing a lot more about the technologies that are out there, and they are demanding more from us, from the AEC industry.

So within the Autodesk Multiverse tool of spanning multiple industries, designers usually need to figure out how to best utilize the tools currently available to them in the most efficient way to produce appealing design results. Also, understanding which tools to use-- there's always that idea of having the best tool for the right task. Organizations can potentially save costs and avoid the dreaded rework in the design process if they have the right tools.

In this class, we'll also discuss the impact and opportunities and, hopefully, we will get in live collaboration with the people who participate to discuss the impact and opportunities of several workflows and trends in relation to the architectural design process. So we will try to find out, also, how we can leverage Autodesk tools and software to derive efficiencies and innovation in your processes that will benefit your company, enable faster decision-making process, and improve your designs and your bottom line.

All right, so, now, let's talk about workflows. And, again, it's something that, to a lot of you, it's not news, right? Everyone here has seen this, and we know what this. It's the architectural design processes. Trial-- tried and tried methodology that everyone has used at some point to some degree, some level of involvement.

And the typical, traditional linear approach is that you start with the predesign or programmatic, and you move on to schematic design. You use a tool-- something that is really available for the designer. Then you move into design development. Typically, that's when we jump into Revit. Then you go into construction documents, building, construction administration, and so on.

But if you look at that and you look at a different angle from the design-thinking approach-- it's a non-linear approach. Because the architectural design, in itself, it's ill-defined, and it's a wicked problem. This methodology can also be applied to it.

Where you see here that is not a linear approach-- yes, you will end up with something that eventually will be signed and sealed, and constructed, and built. But the process on how you get there is much more iterative, right? You actually have to go back and forth between the understanding phase to the exploration and then to actually materialization and whatnot. And, sometimes, you have to go back from prototype to ideate, back to define, back to prototype, and so on.

So if we were to transpose that into the concept of what software is, the traditional, linear software used will look something like this. And, again, big disclaimer here-- should have put that in red, there. We know that everyone does this differently, right?

Even within a firm, there are different groups or different sectors that does these differently. For example, in our firm, the health care sector might do certain things different than the hospitality sector, than the aviation sector, and so on. But, again, this is just one of those many possible scenarios that we see.

In a traditional, linear use of software you could start, sometimes, your programmatic phase with the Excel software. And sometimes you bring up something like SketchUp for the schematic design. Eventually, once you get into the development, then there is some kind of, unfortunately, rerework or rebuilding things from SketchUp into Revit and whatnot.

And then, eventually, you go into construction documentation. You get the BIM 360, ACC, all of that in there. You do your bidding and then your construction administration. Sometimes you use Newforma, whatnot.

That is-- again, it's not new to anyone. But it's often that that is the workflow that happens. But if you were to take a much flexible approach, and if you, again, were to transpose the concept of what the design thinking methodology brings, it might start to look something more like this, where you have a much broader scope of software options that provide a much more flexible design environment for you.

So, yes, you might start with Excel. You might include some-- have some CAD drawings. You might get something from Civil 3D.

You might have a ReCap Pro file-- something that someone used laser scanning or something. You have a cloud point file, or maybe you have a whole bunch of photos that someone took from a drone and that you stitch together and create a 3D model to use in ReCap Pro. All of that is possible.

Maybe you also have some kind of SketchUp tool in there or exploration. If you want to, also, look into programming, let's say, for example for a hospital, you want to use the raw files as a tool, of course, you can do that, as well.

InfraWorks for understanding not just the Civil 3D connection there, but also understanding the context and seeing how the models are start to be included in there one by one. And you can bring everything together as a container for all the models directly into InfraWorks. If you want to do that, that's fine, too.

We have this direct connection, this connectivity between Revit and FormIt Pro, which I really like, now. This is my opinion. There's no excuse for anyone else to continue to use the SketchUp, anymore. Revit and FormIt it has that direct connection, there. Take benefit of that and a lot of other things that you can do with that.

So Yeah you can go straight from FormIt just right into Revit, bring up 3d Studio Max. But once you get into Revit, then you start doing all of those traditional construction documentation development phases, including the solar studies, using Insight, and all of that. And John is going to continue from on to tell you a little bit more about these there.

JOHN RAITEN: Yeah. Once it's in Revit, you can then start porting it out to other things, like 3D Max and Render. You can render inside Revit, but you can get higher-resolution renderings and videos, walkthroughs that are much higher quality with 3D Max.

You can render up in the cloud with the Autodesk Rendering. So you can push it those models to the Insight to get energy modeling. Then you need to start sharing the documents. So you have to push those models and documents to BIM Collaborate Pro, use Model Coordination.

Then, also, the Autodesk Docs can house your PDFs to distribute to all of the contractors, subcontractors, owners, consultants. And then you'll start getting into points where you need to start clash detection, not only with Model Coordination up in the cloud, but you can also port it to Navisworks where you can get very detailed clash detection.

Then distributing to the field, you continue to use Autodesk Docs, port it to Build, or even need to link it out to Procor, Newforma, so you publish those PDFs and models out to there. It allows a one-stop shop from Revit-- from all these other systems to Revit, then all into these other distribution systems. So the software and services that Autodesk has is a lot, very multifaceted.

ELIEL DE LA CRUZ: So that takes us to choosing the right tool. In the perfect world scenario, your company has a $20 million budget to buy all of the tools out there that Autodesk has to offer. But that is rarely ever the case.

So how do you get to choose that? And this is a very trial formula here that has been used many, many times. How do you know when to take the leap? You have to look into that productivity loss. You have to look at, later on, the productivity gain.

You have to look into things like if-- this formula here that you can actually justify when you're going to pull that-- make that decision and take the leap. So understanding when to use one of those tools requires that you understand, what is the level of productivity that you need? What is your ROI target? Looking at the bigger picture in order to improve upon its design round.

What that means is that if you remember, not too long ago-- let's say, 10, 15 years ago, if you were to look at the adoption of BIM in the architecture industry, it was a much lower percentage than it is right now. It was at-- I don't w-- 45%, 50% maybe 15 years ago, 20 years ago. Probably lower than that.

Whereas, right now, the adoption is over 85% easily. So back then, this tool was used a lot to justify that investment, to justify investing in BIM and saying, yes, once we're learning to use this new tool, we might lose productivity a little bit. But later on, we're going to gain a lot.

And that's something that we don't have to argue about. That's something that is being proven over and over again in all of our projects. Every time anyone is using BIM instead of the old days type of usage of AutoCAD or something like that, then, yeah, that's an easy proof right there.

But, yes, definitely, you will have to sit down and say, this is what we're needing. This is what we need to do. This is where we need to go. How much is it going to cost us to continue to do this for the foreseeable future versus taking the leap and saying, let's just use this one tool that's going to improve our process?

Yes, we're going to lose productivity for a month or two. But after that, think of all the time that you're going to start saving and actually helping your company's bottom line.

So, now, we're going to look, with that in mind, that, unfortunately, you won't be able to buy all the tools. But it is good to know about what tools are out there, right? So let's look at all of the tools-- well, not all of them, but some-- most of the tools that, out of this, the Multiverse of Autodesk software has to offer for us. So I'm going to pass this on to John, now.

JOHN RAITEN: Some of the things you have to think about with all the smorgasbord of different software and cloud services that are out there from Autodesk-- which softwares do you use for your trade or industry? How do these pieces of software overlap between the different trades or industries? And then, how do you need to learn that new software?

For the AEC Collection, we have a number of software that people are using. And here is just a selection of some of those because these are used not only by the building design, but the infrastructure, the construction, engineering.

Here's a look at just the architectural side. And, well, actually, the next slide will be services that are cloud services that are also offered by the Autodesk plans. Go to the next slide.

When you're in architecture, you'll notice that you can start out with FormIt, and that can then port write to Revit. Teams will give you Civil 3D from the civil side, and you can then also use Civil 3D to modify, edit, and then bring into Revit.

AutoCAD files are created by multiple firms that you'll end up having to either export to, fix, clean. InfraWorks will then allow you to do the infrastructure, roads, highways, tunnels, all with that software. And then can also be imported into Revit or back and forth from Revit into InfraWorks.

Navisworks Manage is one of the tools to use for clash detection. Architecture is using that. Then exporting to 3D Studio Max where you have those renderings-- high-end renderings, videos.

ReCap is used in the architecture industry for existing conditions where we have to have-- instead of going out and taking weeks to measure a project, you can use ReCap to bring in point clouds and actually use that as your actual data for measuring and modeling to those point clouds. Insight allows you to do the solar analysis on your projects, lighting analysis.

And then overall plan-- master planning uses vehicle tracking to make sure that the project has good turnarounds for cars. There's simulation design, also. And then you can then take off your models with Takeoff. Get your counts, areas.

BIM Collaborate Pro allows you to have the documents sharing and also work collaboratively in the cloud, along with model coordination with BIM Collaborate Pro. So instead of using Navisworks Manage to get very detailed, you can do overall design review and model checks with the model collaboration and coordination.

Build allows you to house all those documents on and then pass to your construction team, along with Autodesk Docs. You can publish your PDFs to that. Drive allows you to house and hold all your documents and information between your teams.

And then Desktop Connector allows you to have items directly on your machine. For instance, you can add material libraries or your static models that are not live on your Collaborate Pro team. And then Autodesk rendering is up in the cloud, also. You can model from Revit directly to your Autodesk rendering.

Some of the other tools out there-- Assemble allows you to disseminate your model, break it up, and visualize it very easily. You can also port it to Prospect or The Wild and have VR goggles and see-- collaborate with your owner or team members in VR.

And then Dynamo and Generative Design allows you to utilize tools that you can build with visual programming to automate tasks or create intricate designs with, whether it's FormIt or Revit, there's multiple tools you can use Dynamo and Generative Design for.

All these tools are similar to the tools that are done and used and services used in the engineering side-- MEP, and Structural, Civil-- all are using Revit. Some are using Civil 3D for all their landscaping. AutoCAD, InfraWorks-- same group of people are using those three tools to get their [INAUDIBLE] landscaping and civil designs done and also using Vehicle Tracking.

Then you've got the engineering side of structure using Revit, Advanced Steel, Structural Bridge Design, also Robot Structural Analysis. So you'll see how there's some crossover with some of the tools. Those team members are also using BIM Collaborate Pro, and Autodesk Docs, Drive, the Connector.

And here, also, team members can use the Dynamo and Generative Design Tool to automate and create advanced simulations or even automate connection in Civil or Advanced Steel. So you can automate all your steel connections and how each piece is going to be done with Dynamo.

Go ahead and move on. Some of the other softwares that are used in the construction side are also ones that are done in the other two fields or industries. So you'll have FormIt, Revit. The construction side has to have some of these software just to bring in some of the tools that the design side is using.

They'll double-check some things with the Vehicle Tracking, or they'll use Navisworks Manage to bring in all the models and do clash detection. They'll also sometimes use BIM Collaborate Pro with the Model Coordination to do the clash detection.

InfraWorks also has the ability to do layout planning in the site. So they'll build the project site-wise and actually have everything laid out. They'll use Point Layout for actually taking the BIM model and getting points for the walls, the plumbing. And they actually have layout tools in the field to place all those objects.

So accuracy starts to become more of a relevant thing with the models. Teams are finding out that you don't want to model at 1/8-inch accuracy. You want to get a little higher accuracy.

The sharing is being done by use of Build and Autodesk Docs. And they'll also have Autodesk Drive. They'll have the files automatically downloaded with their Desktop Connector.

They'll also use Assemble to tear apart the model. And they'll also have Pipe where they'll get their specs and automatically create submittals. They'll use Building Connected to start getting the subcontractors bids.

And, again, even the design-- or the construction team will use Dynamo and Generative Design to automate some placements of things that they have in the field, for instance, tilt wall panels. You can automatically generate planning of that and layout of those.

Very, very cool tools to be utilized. And you'll notice, all of these tools seem to crossover. Some are new to each industry. Some are the same thing. So you'll notice the overlap, the collaboration between the teams become more and more evident with the use of similar tools. Go ahead and move on.

So then you have to start looking into opportunities. What are our opportunities? The biggest opportunity is to use Dynamo and Generative Design for automation.

Some of those softwares that can use that-- Civil 3D, Revit, FormIt, Alias, Advanced Steel, and Robot Structural Analysis. Imagine, in the beginning of your project, you're designing something with Alias or even FormIt, and you're using Generative Design to morph it or find some way to have automatic placement of things based on an attractor or some sort of advanced thought process.

This is how you do it. You use Dynamo and Generative Design. It can iterate through multiple thousands of versions in the amount of time it takes to go get your coffee, so it's a huge advancement of thought and iterations.

And to have that at your fingertips to plan something out-- how it can go through from one thing to another, to automatically go through 10 steps in one button, it's quite the tool. Do you have any other things you want to say on this, Eliel?

ELIEL DE LA CRUZ: Yeah. No, I would just want to also corroborate on that the efficiencies that this affords. We have in companies-- many companies, everyone wants to have that automation. And just being able to hand out a tool that improves the design aspect and improves, for example, the setup of a project from scratch and saves a team member hours of work setting things up that does it in a few minutes-- that is huge. Everyone really loves that.

And this is, actually, our last slide. But I want to, also-- as a separate disclaimer-- I want to acknowledge that this is not, by far-- it's not intended as an extensive list of all the software that are out there. We are quite familiar that we're just scratching the surface of the ones that we have available within Autodesk Multiverse.

But we are also all aware of all the other tools out there, like Twinmotion, or Rhino, or Grasshopper, and all of that. There are a lot of great tools out there, as well. But, at the same time, we wanted to focus-- for this particular workshop, for this class, we wanted to focus on the ones that we presented now as part of the Autodesk Multiverse because of the way that they collaborate with each other.

As John was saying, a lot of the times that you go from industry to industry, from consultant to consultant, some of those tools start to overlap, and you start seeing that. And that collaboration, that seamless integration is one of the huge benefits that we see.

If you have a tool that does something that is similar to this other tools that is not part of the Autodesk Multiverse, we would rather use the one that comes from Autodesk because it's going to continue to have that seamless integration that we're really after. So thank you very much, again, for being with us. And we really appreciate your time and hope you enjoyed this.