THE POWER OF FIVE™

The Next Step in Building Information Modeling Technology: The Flexible Immersive Visualization Environment™

In recent years, BIM (Building Information Modeling) has become a popular tool for builders, engineers, and architects who want to get an inside look at building elements and infrastructure while still in the planning stage. This has driven a need for better model perspective during collaboration, one solution to this need is a BIM CAVE (Building Information Modeling Computer-Aided Virtual Environment). This is a specialized room that uses an array of display screens, combined with advanced modeling and visualization technology, to create a virtual environment in which users can view and explore a building before construction begins.

As exciting as this new technology may be, a typical BIM CAVE application creates certain challenges. Most BIM CAVE installations are dedicated to a single use, making them an impractical luxury for businesses that would use the technology only on occasion.

The FIVE™ (Flexible Immersive Visualization Environment™) concept was developed to solve this problem. A FIVE is a versatile environment that can be used for immersive visualization when needed, while allowing users to harness the BIM CAVE resources for other essential activities such as training, working sessions, videoconferencing, and more.

Summary

Todd Sullivan and Keith Neubertby:

© 2016 The Morse Group™ All rights reserved.

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Seeing the Future from InsideEveryone wants to see the future. In the early stages of any construction project, designers and engineers put tremendous effort into their drawings and renderings of the finished structure. These depictions are critically important: owners need to see them before they can approve the design, and contractors need to see them before they can plan their work.

Of course, even the most carefully planned construction projects rarely go off without a hitch. Contractors at the site often encounter unexpected clashes between the placement of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components. Owners often find that their new building has a different look or feel than they had hoped.

In many cases, these problems can be traced to a lack of communication or collaboration on the final design. Despite the sophistication of today’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) systems, a two-dimensional drawing or small three-dimensional rendering can never fully represent a completed structure. When different project teams create their designs independently, the chances for errors and misunderstandings are multiplied.

However, there is a way to avoid many of these problems. Engineers, architects, and builders have begun to use an innovative technology known as a Building Information Modeling Computer-Aided Virtual Environment, or BIM CAVE, to get a more lifelike view of a planned building.

A BIM CAVE is a room equipped with wall-sized video screens that partially or completely surround the viewer inside. A three-dimensional model of a building is displayed on the screens, allowing the viewer to navigate through the design and see building elements from multiple angles.

BIM CAVE technology allows all of a project’s stakeholders to get a more realistic view of a design before construction. Architects and designers can use these virtual environments to discuss design concepts with owners, and contractor teams can use them to “walk through” their designs together and fix design clashes without creating construction delays or generating change orders.

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The Value of Immersion

A growing body of research indicates that immersive visualization actually enhances the human brain’s ability to process information, allowing users to gain insights and make connections that might not otherwise have been possible. For this reason, immersive environments are gaining popularity in a wide range of fields, including chemical engineering, oil and gas exploration, theoretical mathematics, and medicine.

When applied to construction planning and BIM analysis, an immersive environment provides a wide range of benefits:

n An immersive environment allows the user to move around within a BIM model, creating a lifelike experience that can aid in the early detection of design clashes and facilitate innovative solutions to difficult design problems.

n Planned building elements can be viewed in 1:1 scale, allowing users to make faster, more accurate assessments of a potential design.

n If the room is designed to accommodate multiple people at once, the planned building’s owners, designers, and other stakeholders can review the plan together in real time. Collaborative sessions of this sort are a key element of the increasingly popular IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) approach to design and construction.

n In addition to solving potential problems with a building’s infrastructure, BIM CAVE visualization can help identify potential aesthetic or usability issues that might not be apparent in two-dimensional drawings or small-scale 3D renderings.

Contracted Engineering Development is applicable to a wide range of projects, including the development of automated systems, manufacturing equipment, control systems, assembly and test equipment, and audio/visual systems. A CED engagement can begin as early as a project’s concepting phase, or as a final step before a customer releases an RFP.

The wall-sized display screens of an immersive visualization environment allow users to view large amounts of building information at once, but the benefits of an immersive environment go well beyond that.

Obstacles to BIM CAVE Adoption

Immersive visualization environments have been in use in one form or another for more than 20 years, but despite their wide range of applications, they have primarily been constructed only at large universities and other well-funded research institutions.

As the technology needed to create a BIM CAVE has become more affordable, businesses such as engineering firms, architecture firms, and construction companies have begun to explore the possibility of using visualization spaces for design and planning. However, companies face two obstacles that can make an in-house BIM CAVE impractical:

n Creating and operating a visualization environment requires specialized equipment and software. Universities and other large organizations often employ their own scientists and engineers to build and maintain a CAVE, but very few construction or engineering firms have personnel on staff who are familiar with the technology.

n A typical implementation is single-purpose, meaning that the room is dedicated entirely to BIM CAVE use and has no other function. This may not be feasible for companies with limited office space, or for companies that would only make occasional use of their room.

In order for more companies to take advantage of the power of BIM visualization, the technology needs to be implemented in a manner that allows users to exploit the room’s capabilities to meet multiple business needs, without requiring extensive reconfiguration between uses.

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n Three-dimensional BIM visualization — using all three video screens

n Two-dimensional drawing review — using one or more screens

n Videoconferencing — using one or more screens

n Internal meetings — using one or more screens

n Training sessions — using one or more screens

The Flexible Solution

The Flexible Immersive Visualization Environment™ (FIVE™) concept is a significant advance in BIM CAVE technology, in which a single room can be used for BIM visualization, video conferencing, training, and other purposes.

At the core of the FIVE concept is an innovative design featuring movable video walls that can be rotated out to create a three-sided immersive visualization environment, and rotated back to create a more traditional space for meetings and training sessions. These adjustable video walls, together with advanced conferencing equipment and video switching technology, allow for a wide range of configurations and activities.

While a traditional BIM CAVE has only one purpose, a FIVE™ allows for five distinct uses, each of which can involve multiple configurations of the room’s resources:

The versatile nature of a FIVE eliminates many of the financial concerns and usability issues that might prevent a design or building firm from taking advantage of BIM CAVE technology today. In addition, the FIVE concept involves an integrated approach the room’s audio, video, and computers systems, allowing users to configure and control the environment without the need for specialized training.

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FIVE™ Comes to Life

Construction Phase

The Morse Group™ FIVE™ is a 28-foot by 42-foot meeting room, retrofitted to accommodate three modular PLANAR video walls. The video walls are mounted on an automated mechanical structure that allows users to convert the room into an immersive visualization environment when needed, and fold the video walls back against the wall when not in use.

An equipment closet adjacent to The Morse Group FIVE houses the room’s video switching equipment, lighting controls, and controls for the movable video walls.

The FIVE™ concept was developed through a collaborate effort between multiple divisions of The Morse Group™.

Not every meeting requires three wall-sized video screens, or even one. The FIVE concept features movable video walls that can be rotated 90 degrees to create an immersive environment, and rotated back out of the way to provide an open space for staff meetings, informal working sessions, and a wide range of other uses.

FIVE™ in use as a BIM visualization environment. The room’s occupants can view the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing infrastructure of a planned building in 1:1 scale and can move through the model using a control interface within the room.

The same room being used to host a clash detection meeting. After walking through the current model in three dimensions, the project team use the room’s large screens and videoconferencing tools to review MEP drawings and make changes to the model in Revit based on their findings during the BIM visualization. A camera mounted above the center conference table can be used to display printed drawings on the video walls.

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Creating a BIM CAVE is a true engineering achievement, and a flexible visualization environment is an even greater challenge. Here’s a look at some of the technical considerations that go into building and operating a FIVE™.

Video Walls

The distinguishing feature of the FIVE™ concept is the inclusion of moveable video walls that allow the room to be configured for several different uses. Video walls can be sized to fit the dimensions of the room and to create and optimal viewing experience.

The video panels themselves can be constructed using many different display technologies. PLANAR displays have several advantages, including exceptional picture quality, simplified processing needs, and small bezels that help create a near-seamless appearance within the wall.

Movement of the walls is accomplished through an automated mechanism designed specifically to create a versatile space for immersive visualization. Controls for the wall mechanism can be located in a secured closet to ensure the safety of the room occupants and the equipment.

3D Rendering

BIM software, while an essential element for visualization, does not have the ability to display a building model that can be navigated in a virtual environment. Before a model

Behind the Scenes

can be viewed in a CAVE, it must first be exported to a gaming engine (such as Unity3D), which renders the model as a three-dimensional environment in which the viewer can move around and interact with the objects in the model. A third software component allows for multiple camera perspectives, ensuring that building elements are displayed properly across all three screens.

Switching and Controls

Primary controls for a FIVE room’s systems, including wall controls, video switchers, and audio components, should be contained in a secure equipment closet, either inside the room or adjacent to it.

Inside the room, a podium and a presenter’s table each contain controls for navigating through the virtual environment when the room is used for BIM visualization. These stations also allow operators to select video inputs, set up video conferences, and adjust the room audio.

The Future of FIVE ™

As BIM software and video technology continue to advance, a FIVE™ can be upgraded and enhanced to take advantage of new opportunities for visualization and collaboration. Future applications of the FIVE concept will involve a variety of technological enhancements:

n Inclusion of ceiling-mounted video walls, creating a four-sided visualization environment that allows users to view overhead building elements without changing the room’s camera perspective.

n Installation of 3D video screens and goggles, allowing for true three-dimensional viewing experience.

n Head-tracking and motion-capture technology to allow users to navigate the environment without the need for external controls.

These advances, and others to come, will allow for even more realistic viewing and modeling, helping project teams develop more innovative design concepts and solve more problems in the planning stage.

Contact usFor feedback and comments about the content of this whitepaper:themorsegroup.com

Todd SullivanDirector - Preconstruction608-856-7267

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