CC2311

TECHNOLOGYfocus
Immersive design reviews
Launched at the recent Autodesk University 2023, Autodesk Workshop XR has been created to
facilitate design collaboration on projects using Extended Reality
Autodesk Construction Cloud
(ACC) is Autodesk's principal
collaboration tool for designers,
engineers and project teams. It
provides them with a 'single source of
truth' by enabling them to share
information in real time and helps keep
projects on schedule and within budget
by keeping teams aligned.
ACC comprises three main elements:
Autodesk Build for managing
construction drawings, RFIs and
submittals, Autodesk Takeoff, which
enables estimators to perform 2D
takeoffs and generate quantities from
3D models, and Autodesk BIM
Collaborate, to handle clash detection,
and manage design collaboration and
model coordination.
The capabilities of ACC were further
expanded with the introduction of
Autodesk Workshop XR at the most
recent Autodesk University. Autodesk
Workshop XR is an immersive design
review workspace, integrated with
ACC, which facilitates interactive
design reviews for architects,
engineers and other disciplines within
the construction industry.
Working with Meta technology,
Workshop XR enables teams to review
3D models and their data from
anywhere, providing more effective and
efficient design reviews in real time, and
can be used with Meta Quest 2, Meta
Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3 headsets.
WORKSHOP XR
Aimed mainly at the planning and
design stages of a project, Workshop
XR enables dispersed teams to walk
through models on a one-to-one basis,
thereby gaining a spatial understanding
of a project and how it will come
together. It also gives teams the ability
to track issues and catch errors before
the project goes to the construction
stage, reducing rework, cutting out
waste and providing more informed
design decisions.
Workshop XR provides a dynamic
virtual workspace, specifically designed
to streamline AEC collaboration using
Virtual Reality headsets, allowing teams
to explore every aspect of their designs
with other team members, or even their
clients. 3D models of any size, hosted
by Autodesk Construction Cloud, can
be directly accessed, allowing users to
access any detail and analyse any
aspect of the design, with project data
being streamed directly from ACC into
Workshop XR.
Autodesk believe that Workshop XR is
the most accessible and connected
virtual workspace for AEC design
reviews. Besides providing access to
the model from other construction
professionals, it allows future occupants
to walk through their unbuilt spaces and
point out non-technical issues, such as
manouvering wheelchairs through
constricted spaces in hospitals, or
construction elements blocking views
from parts of the stands in sports
stadia. Modifications can be made on
the spot, updating the associated data
within ACC.
Where several solutions to problems
become apparent, Workshop XR can be
used to run simulations through
different scenarios to select the most
effective, or to analyse the effect of
external factors - noise pollution,
environmental hazards and other
sustanability issues.
Extending this further, as projects
move towards the construction phase,
Workshop XR can be used to analyse
construction issues, using feedback
from project managers to pinpoint
areas of concern, for example the siting
of temporary structures to facilitate
construction such as cranes and safety
barriers, and the supply and removal of
materials and waste.
EXTENDED REALITY
Workshop XR combines virtual reality
(VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed
reality (MR), combining digital
information with live (context captured
data) information and virtually any form
of associated data within ACC,
providing fertile ground for detailed
analyses of increasingly complex
models and fundamentally changing
how people interact with their data and
one another.
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November/December 2023