Note the story here in this post, the trials and tribulations of a tech enthusiast in the AEC industry: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/petruc_this-is-the-story-of-lloyd-bussio-ifc-architect-activity-7165255974738505729-8SAt
I travelled much the same road, but starting already in 1996. The fundamental issue remains always the same and you can hear it, if you listen, in the persistent compelling desire, as mentioned in the post there, of architects and engineers to make technical drawings. I learned finally to think about WHY, and to take that seriously. It’s not ‘because they’re tech laggards’. It’s for fundamental reasons, reasons that are true all the way down.
Technical professionals MUST articulate expressions of visual close study (VCS). And instantiate them in their mental models of the project. This creates a loop, a loop that -is- the engine of thought. It IS a thinking machine.
VCS need not remain stuck in its centuries-old form of expression. It WILL evolve. Here’s a proposal: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robsnyder3333_this-is-t-future-of-technical-drawing-activity-7164600305785991168-7QGM
I used a BIM app before it was called BIM in the 90s to model everything, I mean everything, in the 3D view in the modeler. The app automated the drawings from the 3D model while not allowing you to see those views while you modeled. The result was exactly as I show in this post about one of my projects from 2007. I had done the same since 1998. https://tangerinefocus.com/2023/10/24/model-automation-and-model-quality-on-a-graph/
Scroll down the page and look at the model in the YouTube video. Then below the video are the drawings automated from that model. Except for text and dimensions, all of those drawings, all of them, are 100% automated from that model.
But to reach that level of quality and completeness of modeling, you need to look at those drawings and evaluate them day to day, week to week, month to month until the model is finally good enough to produce those.
Doing that process for years showed me that really, this is a thought loop… from the expansive wide environment that is the model, to the act of narrowing attentive focus that is my drawings, AND BACK, imaging those drawings where they are in my MENTAL model. That is a continuous loop. And that IS a machine of thinking, for thinking clearly and thinking things all the way through. Later I wrote to that software company and asked why that fusion of the drawings back into the mental model wasn’t automated by the software so I can see all the drawings where they are in the digital model on demand automatically. They said yeah good idea and hired me to lead the dev team to build it. That resulted in this fusion: https://tangerinefocus.com/tgn/earlier-media-innovations/
That was nice, and grew to other softwares who did the same later. But it’s not good enough and it had flaws. My new proposal blows the doors off that first gen work. There is a 1 pager on the proposal here: https://tangerinefocus.com
There’s a PDF here describing the 8 proposed features that together define the FUTURE of visual close study (VCS), otherwise known as ‘technical drawing’, in-situ within models of all kinds, here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robsnyder3333_this-is-t-future-of-technical-drawing-activity-7164600305785991168-7QGM
You can click on the caption link under the drawing sheets in the post above and view the PDF drawings at full size.
We all might reflect on the function of every one of those drawings. It is a function inseparable from models (mental and digital). The function is multifold:
1. It’s an expression of the act of looking somewhere specific. The act of visual close study (VCS) and its articulation.
2. There at that location, we evaluate, is everything that SHOULD be shown HERE actually shown here? Is anything that matters HERE missing?
3. Finally at some point after the long work of model development and review, someone with authority to do so, AFFIRMS the status of the questions in (2).
4. Along the way, an INTERPLAY is engaged between these many expressions of visual close study (VCS), which articulate the act of narrowed visual attentive focus, and the wider expansive environment of the whole of the project model. This interplay is a back and forth continuous dynamic. There is good argument that it -is- the basic observable dynamic of thought itself, that it IS a machine of thinking, an engine of thought.
The idea that one side of the interplay can either be discarded, or stuck in non-evolution and externalized from the digital model, is simply self-defeating and counterproductive, Maximally.
I’m searching for technical and business partners who want to make this real with me. I think it’s a big opportunity, in a giant space.
Anyone interested I ask to message me on linkedin.
I’m interested in 2 things:
1\ to develop, share, and promote adoption of a minimum package of software features that make a difference for visual close study (VCS), features that make VCS more effective.
I propose open source development of VCS features available for any individuals or companies to implement in any existing, or yet to come, modeling apps and platforms. I call the core VCS features the TGN Open Core features. They are described here: https://tangerinefocus.com/visual-engagement-with-modeled-worlds/
TGN is for visual close study of digital models, just as drawing is for close study (of mental models) https://tangerinefocus.com
2\ to find technical, industry, and business partners who want to work together to address the very large, and growing, industry need for VCS equipment in digital models of all kinds. VCS equipment is essential in all phases of project work including design, construction, and facility operations.
With the open source core features available for everyone, that makes even more opportunity for adding to the core, extending it, and addressing it specifically to one or more of many available niche or broad market segments in the commercial AEC software market.
Also:
OPEN VCS, a lens for looking at models 