Visualisation in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC)

In the architecture, engineering and construction industries, computer visualization usage can cover the whole lifecycle of a product from presentation of initial concepts to the final stages of production and can also extend to maintenance issues. Three-dimensional walkthroughs can be created from hand drawn sketches at the very early stages of the design process. Three-dimensional models can be used by design teams to communicate design intent to client and users and to compare and evaluate design options. During more advanced stages of design, three-dimensional representations can be used to check the integrity of services coordination, accessibility and maintainability. During construction, visualization can facilitate the interpretation of design details by site operatives. The concept of visualization is not limited to modeling physical objects but can extend to the representation of abstract data sets of the type obtained from simulation programs used in performance assessment or from Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications. This paper will review the application of visualization in the process of design and construction and then present findings from three research projects that made use of some of these techniques at various stages of the process: for collaborative working during concept design stage, for design development and marketing in the house building sector, and for the modeling of design details during the construction stage. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.