“Thinking through your design…” What does it mean?
Some time ago after thinking about it for many years, decades, after many half starts and balks trying to scratch at it, I put it down like this. This is what thinking through your design, means, described on 1 page in 2 columns, cyan on black background: Thinking it through, all the way through. Note…
All tech is useful? or All discernment is useful?
Looney Tunes, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (1930-’69) is back! . . .a new film, to release August 28th, 2026: Coyote vs. Acme Sounds right on target, a really good idea: The live-action/animation hybrid follows Wile E. Coyote as he hires attorney Kevin Avery, played by Will Forte, to sue ACME over the countless…
The core work of AEC is developing models and _looking at them_ in ways that facilitate assurance of their fitness and adequacy
This was true 500 years ago, as it is true today.It makes no difference whether models are: This short post is a reminder of: And it ends with a link to another post about how the software industry got tangled up in itself for 30+ years which caused the effect that these fundamentals are more…
What if AEC software companies have no idea what they’re dealing with?
Imagine that. We don’t imagine that leaders of things (of companies for example) don’t know what they’re doing. It doesn’t occur to us that this could be the case.It’s not that we reject that it’s the case, or could be.The situation in our mind precedes that.We remain unaware of the question or possibility.So we never…
Out of the BIM Rabbit Hole
The CAD / BIM industry jumped down a rabbit hole around the turn of the century and hasn’t been seen above ground since. That wouldn’t be a problem but for the damage done to our understanding of the relation between drawings and models. Drawings are equipment for looking at models, for evaluating them. It’s often…
Go ahead, make a movie without a camera
Look carefully like a filmmaker and show that you did, without a camera. Brilliant idea!Innovative! Let’s pitch all these cameras off the ledge into the Grand Canyon.Rip the Beaumont VistaVision out of Chivo’s hands. On and off again over the last 25 years in AEC: “We’ve got models, so, let’s ditch archaic drawings.” Sure! Dumb…
How to revise our thought
We can get stuck on ideas, good or bad.It takes giant effort to revise ideas held tightly.For many it’s impossible. This is a truism well clarified by Max Planck: Even just a few revising edits are impossible: Drawings are still a vital part of the process. I’d omit the word “still”.And “a vital part of”.…
Old Software
Everyone knows it’s all old now. Very old. While I’m apt to ask “who cares?” knowing few do, I’ll tell anyway about my experience with AEC software since 1993 and since ’98 modeling whole projects in complete detail digitally. I found a long lost Compact Disc of mine in a box returned a few weeks…
Looking (seeing) and thinking are a loop
Drawing is the vehicle for looking with intent—at models mental, physical, and digital—and showing that you did. What is the intent?The answer has two components: 1. Notice the loop: 2. Notice the intent (told on the black field below), the whats: The intent really is about getting ourselves into this loop. The set of drawings is…
Types of visualization in AEC
Such a list is like any other list; no matter how many things you list, others will clamor to lengthen the list. I’m not interested in list exhaustion though, so I limit this to two types of visualization in AEC, both workhorses, the latter a war horse. Rendering is about showing what it’s like to…
What mature athletic steps would look like if taken
In one way or another I’ve been after this since 2007 Absurd notions — about the demise of technical drawing in architecture, engineering, and construction — trample over discourse since 2004, and overlap with decades of inconsequential development of the most common software applications in AEC. The situation is stagnant.It starts with the absurd notions. Drawing is…
If I’m passionate about telescopes does that mean I’m against the night sky?
If I’m passionate about telescopes does that mean I’m against the night sky? Here’s how people closely look at, how they study AEC models to both develop and interpret them. It’s what they think about, what they need to think about, and how they think about it. It’s the actual function of drawing. It’s all…
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TANGERINE FOCUS 