Archinect - News

Cloud computer startup vagon announces a COVID-19 support package for architects and students

2020-04-27T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by vagon

We are all looking for ways to continue creating as much as we can during the Covid-19 pandemic. Plus, some designers and architects all over the world are doing their best to contribute collaborative design efforts. However, not being able to access a good workstation is a limiting factor for all. The cloud computer startup “vagon” has announced a special support package via Archinect for architects, designers, and students to solve that.

vagon provides private cloud computers built to run high-performance applications. They began out of the frustration a lot of us have faced – the lack of computer power required for the software we use and other options that are just too complicated. Their focus was a “Click & Use” computer system that would provide the power whenever you need it with the ability to add more power with one click.

Courtesy of vagon.

It’s a computer in the cloud you can use, install software, render, etc, just as you would on a c...

The “infrastructural excess” of data centers and cloud-computing colonization

2018-05-22T14:20:00-04:00

With the cloud being increasingly lifestyled and infrastructured into a range of everyday social and economic practices and processes, data centres continue to grow in size. Far from a massive database in the sky, it is the planet’s surface and our everyday lives that are gradually being colonised by the cloud.

This piece by Alexander Taylor, a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, looks back on the evolution of data center infrastructure, which continues to grow larger as our everyday lives become increasingly influenced by cloud computing.

Scan-to-BIM Starts with Reality Capture

2017-11-13T13:05:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Autodesk Reality Capture

Unless you’re designing a new building that’s slated for construction in the middle of a flat and empty landscape, context matters.

Whether it’s a renovation, an addition, or new construction, the as-is geometry of adjacent buildings, nearby structures, and the surrounding terrain is critical for the design process. But conventional as-built drawings are notoriously unreliable, prompting expensive surveys and time-consuming manual measurements.

However, new technology is quickly changing this situation. Laser scanning and photogrammetry solutions enable the digital capture of spatial information for integration into building design processes. Reality capture technology is not new, in fact, laser scanning originated in the early 1960s. But historically, the technology has been very expensive, data-intensive, and difficult to use.

In the last several years, the cost of capture technologies dropped significantly while ease of us...

A sketchbook you can draw on by hand, upload to the cloud, then erase in your microwave

2017-07-27T13:10:00-04:00

For designers who love to draw by hand on real paper but want to store those sketches in the cloud, there is now a kind of a refined, tech-savvy etch-o-sketch in the form of the Rocketbook Wave Smart Notebook from self-described "notebook innovators" Joe Lemay and Jake Epstein.

Using a special pen known as a Pilot FriXon, one can write or draw in the notebook by hand, and then choose a symbol at the bottom of the page that is linked to a particular app in the cloud. The information on the physical sheet is uploaded to the cloud by taking a picture of it with one's phone, but the ink in which it is written turns invisible once it is microwaved, making it unneccessary to own more than one notebook (presuming, of course, that access to the information on the cloud remains unobstructed).

Mr. Lemay and Mr. Epstein were motivated to attempt to reinvent the notebook partly because they were tired of the stagnancy in the spiral-bound market. The product, which officially dropped on June ...

Designing Together in the Cloud: How architects and engineers use cloud collaboration to increase productivity

2017-02-13T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BIM 360 Team

Your latest building design project is moving forward quickly. But you discovered a small hitch yesterday: the MEP engineers referred to an old version of the structural model while modifying the duct work. Luckily, the team spotted and resolved the issue before it created serious problems or caused more than a couple hours of rework. Not a big deal, but it could have led to the kind of design error that 21% of architects consider to be a top cause of uncertainty and potential issues on projects. Working in the cloud delivers the power to prevent those kinds of errors.

According to the Construction Industry Council, cloud computing is on track to become the leading way firms store and share design models. That’s because when design teams work in the cloud, they get anytime, anywhere access to the latest design information. They can also quickly review any up-to-date changes without even opening the latest version of the model in their Build...