An architect’s drawings may be very detailed but still can’t be perfect, finished building will always differ slightly for example. Also an architect’s drawings mean little to anyone who isn’t an architect and it can be hard for a client to visualize a finished project.
Often architecture firms will have detailed models of developments built to help clients and other stakeholders to visualize a building and to help with promoting a development both for sales purposes and also often to convince the local community and council of a development’s merits.
Still though 3D technology including 3D printing services are improving the quality and accuracy of these models, as well as the cost; also the use of digital models is aiding architects themselves and again the clients and stakeholders. 3D scanning is also being used extensively where an existing building is to be extended, redeveloped or renovated.
The Beck Group are a Dallas headquartered national design firm and they have their own Z-Corporartion Zprinter 350 which they use for 3D printing services. What is important about this is that it is one of the few 3D printers that can be used for full color 3D printing services where the color is added to a model as it is made.
Compared to a traditional model a 3D printed model of a building or entire complex is far quicker to make and often better made out of tough resin that allows for a larger models to be made if needed. The 3D printing service also creates highly accurate models expanding their use beyond showing them to a client: the models are completely to scale and so can be used for other planning as well as long as you know the scale. 3D models can also allow an architect to see how a building will look and then go away and change plans as needed.
Beck have won work they tendered for several times now thanks to their 3D models. When presenting a design for a new field house to Duke University the model allowed them to show exactly how the building including the roofing would look in situ on the campus.
Beck also have presented a choice of designs all in 3D Models, thanks to their 3D Printing service this is practical and less costly than it would have been in the past. Church leaders compared 3D designs Beck presented to them for new churches and were even able to pick elements from each.
Perhaps the most important job that Beck have found for their 3D Printing service so far though is where they used models of an entire retail and commercial development to help convince local residents and other stakeholders of the value and quality of the project that a client was hoping to build. The same 30 square foot model will now be used to show the development to merchants and other businesses to sell or let units.
Beck of course still use their digital 3D models as well for presentations and for design offering a lot more than an architects drawing and allowing study of a site in great detail but even scaled down seeing a physical 3D model seems to really make the difference
Source: PR Newswire