Tag Archives: CAVE

BIM technology showcase

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The Design Innovation Research Centre is hosting the next Thames Valley BIM Hub meeting on the 6th October 2014.
Dr Chris Harty will give a short introduction and overview to BIM-related research currently underway in the School of Construction Management and Engineering, followed by demonstrations by seven technology providers to show the capabilities of their products.

Visit the BIM CAVE: Dr Maxwell Mallia-Parfitt
Dr Mallia-Parfitt will be giving visitors the chance to experience total immersion within a BIM model. In the BIM CAVE (Collaborative Automatic Virtual Environment) graphics are projected in stereo onto three walls and the floor and viewed with active stereo glasses equipped with a location sensor. As the projector screens form a room-sized environment, it is possible to have multiple users stand within one-to-one scale recreations of BIM and CAD models, which enables collaborative discussion, viewing and navigation of the model in real-time.

Only small groups can visit the CAVE at any one time, so places really are limited.

To book your place please email: Julian@secbe.org.uk

There is no charge for this event. If you book but are subsequently unable to attend, please let us know.

ICCCBE Conference

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The International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE) 2014 Conference in conjunction with the 2014 CIB W078 conference has just concluded in Florida, and was attended by Dr Dragana Nikolic and Dr Maxwell Parfitt. ICCCBE is a leading forum in the area of information technology in civil and building engineering. It is organized by the ISCCBE and is run bi-annually.
Dr Parfitt presented his work at the conference on Visualization of Built Environments using a Mobile Immersive Visualization Environment (3D-MOVE).

A video of the presentation can be viewed here.
For more information, please contact Dr Parfitt.

EPSRC Vacation Bursary

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Following the success of our summer placement students last year [1] [2] we have recruited another student, through the EPSRC Vacation Bursary program, to help develop software to support user interaction within the Fully Immersive Virtual Environment (the CAVE).

Ed Norman, a 3rd year MEng student studying Artificial Intelligence, will join the Design Innovation Research Centre team for 10 weeks this summer to work on Digital Model Interaction: Towards a virtual reality toolbox for BIM data interaction.

3D MOVE Frame Assembly

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The carbon fibre and 3D printed framework to support our 3D MOVE (Mobile Visualisation Environment) screens was tested this week to see how easy it was to assemble by two people.

The frame is about 8Kg when assembled, thanks to the adoption of composite carbon fibre tubes and 3D printed brackets. It encompasses a volume of 2.8 x 2.8 x 2.1 meters, which is the same as our existing CAVE in the Visualisation and Immersive Technologies Centre (VIT-C).

The time-lapse video below shows Dr Maxwell Parfitt and Andy Sears (EPSRC Summer Research Placement Student) assembling the 3D MOVE frame for the first time in under 6 minutes.

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3D MOVE (Mobile Visualisation Environment) 3D Printed Parts

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To rapidly realise the low cost lightweight framework to support our 3D MOVE (Mobile Visualisation Environment) screens, 3D printing has been used to print custom durable parts to join different thickness’s of Composite Carbon Fibre tube.

The time-lapse video below shows a 27 hour 3D print run which produced the rear right bracket, printed upside down at the rear of the printer, the rear tube interconnect, printed vertically at the front of the printer and some miscellaneous parts used for calibration.

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Using 3D printing technology has allowed for quick design modifications at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional subtractive manufacture processes, whilst maintaining the parts strength and quality.