Presentation by Dr Max Mallia-Parfitt (COINS:FULCRO & Crossrail) at COMIT 2016: Digitally Building Britain, September 2016 More information: http://www.comit.org.uk/liveblog

1. Visualisation for the AEC Sector:
Past, Present and Tomorrow…
Dr Maxwell Mallia-Parfitt
max.mallia-Parfitt@fulcro.co.uk
@m_malliaparfitt

2. Who are COINS:FULCRO
• Part of the Fulcro Group
• Fulcro Engineering Services
• Metz Architects
• COINS:FULCRO
• COINS:FULCRO is a unique
partnership between Coins and
Fulcro; bringing innovation,
thought leadership and applied
technology to the construction
industry.

3. Presentation Overview
• Data: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Past (ugly)
• Present (bad)
• Future (good?...)
• What is visualisation?
• Quick history
• Visualisation in construction
• How visualisation can help
• User understanding and engagement
• Reducing cost through applied technology
• FULmax by COINS:FULCRO

4. Data: The Past (Ugly)
• Ugly data
• Silo’s of data with no interoperability
• Disparity between data formats
• No linking or analytics
• Paper based data transfer
• Inability to find data efficiently
• Which caused:
• Lots of rework once on site to correct
problems that should have been spotted
• Mistakes in data replication creating issues
down the line such as loss of data
• Contractual disputes

5. Data: The Present (Bad)
• Common problems
• Legacy datasets (still in their silo’s)
• Data is generated and then not used
• Some linking and analytics
• Electronic transfer (little verification)
• TOO MUCH DATA!
• Which means:
• Missed opportunities to spot problems
before arriving on site
• Delays in data transmittals and production
deadlines
• Using tools to manage data but are unable
to link with existing systems

6. Data: The Future (Good? …)
• Connected data
• Whole supply chain engagement
• Interoperable data standards
• Data security built into systems
• Fully integrated analytics
• Data verification on creation/ingestion
• Which will enable:
• Manipulation of live project data on site
with integrated tools
• Performance analysis of the built
environment and potential changes
• Reduction of future costs through
understanding of assets within a building

7. What is visualisation?
• Visualisation is any technique for creating
images, diagrams, or animations to
communicate data or a message
• Visualization through visual imagery has
been an effective way to communicate
ideas since the dawn of man
• Examples from the past include:
• Cave paintings
• Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Greek geometry
• Leonardo da Vinci's revolutionary methods of
technical drawing for engineering and scientific
purposes

8. Visualisation in construction

9. Virtual Reality
• Virtual Reality uses computers to generate
three dimensional models of entire
environments including:
• Buildings, City blocks, Subterranean pipework,
Landscapes
• The models show users how the
environment will look, and lets the users
explore freely using interactive tools
• Keyboard and Mouse, 3D Mouse, Data Gloves,
Body Sensors
• Virtual Reality is becoming more widely
used in the construction sector
• CAD data with BIM models can be viewed

10. Head Mounted Displays

11. Room scale simulation

12. Acknowledgements
• EPSRC
• Design Innovation Research Centre founded as an
EPSRC ‘Challenging Engineering’ exploration group
• Crossrail - Industrial Collaborator
• Access to Europe’s largest infrastructure project,
including data for testing and development work
• Software Providers
• Autodesk, Bentley, I’m In VR, NVIDIA, Unity

13. The 3D MOVE prototype

14. 3D MOVE scale testing

15. Demonstration to Crossrail

16. Augmented Reality
• Augmented Reality (AR) is a live, direct or
indirect view of a physical real-world
environment
• Elements within the view are augmented
using computer generated sensory
feedback and data
• Sound, Video, Graphics, GPS, BIM, CAD data
• Use in construction is being experimented
with as solutions to specific problems
• Access to underlying datasets, such as; hidden
pipes, meta data
• Viewing stages of construction from fixed view
points

17. Augmented Reality

18. Augmented Reality

19. How visualisation can help
• User understanding and engagement
• Case studies have shown that tools including
VR and AR can increase user interaction and
understanding of complex datasets
• With immersive systems users feel closer to
the environment they are viewing
• Reducing cost through applied technology
• Visualisations can help inform decisions
• Collaborative discussions can be performed
virtually with international design teams
• Avoidable on site rework can be spotted and
resolved before issue of contractual drawings
• Virtual H&S briefings using as built data

20. FULmax by COINS:FULCRO

21. FULmax by COINS:FULCRO

22. Visualisation for the AEC Sector:
Past, Present and Tomorrow…
Dr Maxwell Mallia-Parfitt
max.mallia-Parfitt@fulcro.co.uk
@m_malliaparfitt