Create any 3d printable construction building instantly with modular architecture construction kits

Horsfall, a recognized digital designer presently associated with the construction engineer as a Senior Design Visualizer having expertise in commercial exteriors and interiors, has developed some exclusive modular 3D printed architecture construction kits based on Legos which are useful forarchitectural design of buildings. The motive for creating these construction kits is to produce the virtual designs of certain building through broken modular parts which are amassed to make diverse design patterns.

The technology consists of a printable Architectural model making kit useful for Architects, Design enthusiasts, model makers as well as kids and students that can be applied to generate, print and convey real-world buildable models for effective building designs.

This kit is created with interlocking modular components that fit effortlessly to each other for making design configurations easily and efficiently. Every part is designed to print precisely devoid of requiring supports or rafts on any FDM FFF 3D Printer.

Horsfall has created two dissimilar themed designs accessible for anyone to download without any cost and 3D print easily.

They contain the Victorian Town House Kit having 15 different STL files for diverse modularconstruction pieces, and the more traditional Original Architecture Kit, which comprises of 11 separate STL files for Beams, Columns, Floor Slabs, Stairs, Roofs, Walls, and Interior Partitions.

More of these types of kits will be available in the near future involving blocks to be applied for fabricating skyscrapers, industrial sheds, and modular cityscapes. There will be also an enormous database of building blocks in 3Dprintable formats, symbolizing several architectural styles which will be accessible to schools, designers, architects, hobbyists, and model makers.

Size of assembled model in the rendered previews is:

W: 120mm

L: 240mm

H: 166mm

The largest piece is the Entrance stairs. The dimensions are:

W: 56mm

L: 98mm

H: 26mm

For solving any queries, join 3D Printed Architecture Kits forum

Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Image Courtesy: 3dprint.com

Ref: 3dprint.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Rajib Dey

www.quantity-takeoff.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Build Disaster Resistant Home

The Precise Aluminum Forming System has been utilized very effectively for concrete homes, apartments, warehouses, prisons, as well as in the earth sheltered industry due to the systems versatility and ease of use. Almost any style home can be built out of concrete, including multistory home.

The Precise Concrete Forms will enable you to form and pour the walls, beams, columns, deck, and roof in one continuous pour per level. The window and door openings are cast in place simultaneously with the walls and ceilings. With the rising amount of severe weather, all concrete structures are a definite alternative. The modular design of the Precise System permits unlimited configurations and architectural designs. Precise forms are available in the attractive smooth finish or our popular brick patterns. A pitched ledger is available for homes with a pitched roof.

The Precise Forming System is simple to operate. Few tools are required and unskilled laborers are easily trained. Developers are setting and pouring a unit a day. Entire subdivisions have been built using the Precise Forming System.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Rajib Dey

www.saudiarabia.quantity-takeoff.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GSA Proposes Building Swap for Federal Triangle South Project

The General Services Administration (GSA) has proposed plans to redevelop a deteriorating federal office complex by L'Enfant Plaza. GSA informed that developers have been showing great interest for more than a year ago. The agency has issued a request for qualifications seeking developers to offer construction and development services in exchange for two federally owned properties at Federal Triangle South.

The selected developer would be responsible for offering the space planning, construction service and other aspects of shifting about 1,500 workers from the GSA's regional headquarters to the GSA's national headquarters at 1800 F St. NW. Besides, the developer will also renovate three historic buildings at the St. Elizabeths campus in Southeast D.C. for the Department of Homeland Security.

The winning bidder would take title to the GSA regional headquarters, 301 Seventh St. SW, and the adjacent Cotton Annex, which is currently an empty building near the regional building. Both are expected to present great redevelopment potential.

Dan Tangherlini, GSA Administrator, informed that the idea of a building exchange for services could play a larger role in how the agency does business if the current proposal is successful. The GSA regional headquarters and Cotton Annex are test cases to that end. He also added that doing these exchanges is relatively new to GSA.

It is expected that request for qualifications will be due by May 22, and the GSA will be able to issue a more formal request for proposals to qualified bidders over the summer, putting the agency in position to make an award by next spring or summer.

The GSA has obtained funding for both projects after great efforts and the building exchange proposal offers the agency a way around the congressional appropriations process. The project would also set the stage for the possible demolition and redevelopment of the old federal buildings.

Federal Triangle South is bounded by Independence Avenue, Sixth Street, Maryland Avenue and parts of D and 12th streets. The Department of Energy and Federal Aviation Administration are also based there, and their buildings could also be considered for a exchange in the future.

Tangherlini informed that this is an opportunity for them to re-examine how to use these buildings and reassess how this space fits within the surrounding community, making sure they are maximizing the utilization of the assets, getting underutilized or vacant properties off their rolls and back into contributing to the economies of the communities of which they are hosted. He said that the GSA requires considering a range of ideas given the tight budgets with which it has had to work over the past few years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Arka Roy

www.washington.quantity-takeoff.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Latest software for estimating & designing architectural projects

Estimating for architect is required to find out the price of projects before the commencement of bidding process. If the price surpass the budget then the architect have to make redesign until it come up with the budget.

At the time of design phase, accurate estimation can help architect to cut costs, remove RFI's, potential change orders and other supplementary costs that may arise throughout the actual building stage. Thus the architect get benefitted as they can solve the complexities before the drawing are sent to the General contractors. The owner will get an ideal of overall cost before general contractors even send in bids.

IMSI TurboFLOORPLAN Instant Architect
This software is ideal for generating floor plans, cost estimates, landscape designs, and masterful 3D illustrations. This software empowers architect to simply choose a general building shape, put up building dimensions, and set up your floors and foundations. It can precisely calculate square footage, costs and material requirements in familiar spreadsheet format.
The software can easily customize your design with basic floor plan. Just add paint, furniture, appliances, electrical, lighting, plumbing and more. Opt from hundreds of color and material combinations to apply to every surface to make the design your own. The software can quickly transfer 2D floor plan view in realistic 3D. The architect can look at every detail by walking through their design. One can also fly around or look around at everything up close.

Chief Architect Home Designer Suite
This sophisticated tool is intended for designing and remodeling houses, kitchens, baths, decks, landscapes, and interiors. It also includes calculators for estimating the cost of your project. The software can automatically produce a complete spreadsheet for your project costs, broken down by category. compute the amount of lumber for your deck or concrete required for that new patio. The software consists of more than 1,500 Sample Plans for design inspiration. Also includes powerful building tools like automatic roof generation, dormers, stairs, framing and foundations.

IMSI TurboFLOORPLAN Home & Landscape Pro
It is a souped-up version of their Instant Architect software. It comes up with powerful CAD tools and many extra features for advanced users. The ease and adaptability of Home & Landscape Pro make it an especially good buy. The users can select from 2,000 plants to form beautiful landscapes with lush gardens, fences, pathways and more. The software is ideal for outlining your dream home to exact specifications.

DesignWorkshop Lite (FREE)
By applying this cost-free DesignWorkshop Lite software program, the architect can create their own 3D models of buildings, landscapes, exhibits, or any kind of spatial design. The software contains standard material and 3D object library. The complete documentation, tutorials, and additional example building models are also available. The software has a dual platform for both Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

Posted by Rajib Dey
Business Development
Global Associates
A pioneer company in construction estimating
Join our estimating forum 

Is It Possible To Do Estimating Correctly?

Cost estimating is one of the most difficult as well as important aspect in any construction project management. This necessary part of any project is generally handled by professional estimators. As the whole estimating process is so much complex that maximum time the main concern is whether the estimation is correct or not? The answer depends on how much experience, efficiency and foresee capability the estimator possesses. All successful estimating involves a confidence interval and an error band. For example you can say that some project will be completed on or before 5th May 2012 with a 6 percent error band or there is an 85 percent probability of the program costing $320M or less with 5 percent error band.
The probabilistic forecasting of cost and schedule is the core process applied to most of the programs the estimating companies are working on. Along with it Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) is an integrated schedule containing the networked, detailed tasks necessary to ensure successful program execution. The IMS is used to verify the attainability of contract objectives, to evaluate progress toward meeting them and to integrate scheduled activities with all related components.

The estimators need to realize that all project activities consist of random variables and that estimates using those variables based on simple statistics. The common mistakes in estimating services takes place when the estimators ignore the underlying statistical basis of projects and fail to acknowledge the variables. Similar problem can be happen if a project is scheduled in hours and the work extends for more than a few days. The estimator should have a clear understanding about the size, limitation and other things about the project. All these things along with profound experience can help an estimation to lessen the error ration and make it successful. That’s the secret of the art of good estimating.

The Cornerstone of Cost Estimate

The cost estimation is the rapidly growing trend in AEC industry. It helps both the contractors and the owners as a proper budget is really very assistive to them. On the basis of the estimated cost a proper bid will be prepared. A good estimate must start with a complete understanding of scope of work followed by an accurate quantity takeoff. In the process of an accurate estimation, the estimator has to do a vast and depth research. It’s very easy to miss out identifying items of work in the project. This may be for some ordinary reasons like missing drawings, details and specifications. Misinterpretation of the scope is another reason for miss out. That’s why besides updated technology, experience in conceptualizing is also very important in this field of cost estimation.

First of all he has to study the floor plan of the construction. After getting the idea clearly it’s the turn to on site field engineering. The estimator has to visit the spot and consult the geotechnical consultant to perform surface investigation to evaluate the land’s ability to provide the foundation of the structure. The estimator then has to make a proper report about all these factors.

Now the estimator has to get a clear idea about the resource of the construction and more importantly its cost which includes material suppliers, labor force, subcontractors, construction equipment, indirect cost, management and many other nitty gritty of the project. The estimator has to team up with comptroller, accountant, field superintend, project manager, purchasing manager to get all the updated data about the project.

After all the field works and reporting it’s the turn to take help of the estimating software. It will help the estimator to get all the relevant output of cost estimating like the cost, schedule and quantity of resources. In this way the estimator has to determine the cost of the project.

Architectural Project Estimating

We provide model based Project Estimating service from schematic narratives through final construction documents including Construction Estimating & Scheduling for Architects at the concept stage to measure, count, and price best materials & building objects such as walls, doors, and windows, automatically or manually.

We also offer other estimating services like cost modeling, cash flow projection, life cycle costing, change order management, job order costing, best value analysis and hard bid estimates.

Supporting BIM technology we use powerful and efficient object Project Estimating tool like Estimating to assist architect with pre-construction efforts. The quantities are extracted based on object types and their dimensions. Quantity extraction methods are easily customized and are reusable for multiple projects. All quantities and scheduled tasks were represented in production and nothing was overlooked.

With our takeoff services architects can increase the efficiency of the project estimating process, improves communication and coordination between designers, builders and clients. Architects can check, refine & determining the associated materials and labor costs, formulate a bid (or estimate) as part of the bidding process, reduce expensive and time-consuming efforts to redesign projects to meet budget demands.

We also provide standard and customized Project Estimating Reports filled out in MS Excel spreadsheet for construction projects. Each managed quantity group can be assigned a distinctive color code for its 3D objects pasted into MS Excel for easy tracking and identifying objects associated with the quantities. These color codes help architects to identify, visually and clearly, what objects are used to generate the quantities. Architects can also get an estimation of cost to construct a residential building or a commercial building. The final estimation for constructing a property can be reached on the basis of this report.

http://www.quantity-takeoff.com/architectural-quantity-take-off.htm