Search results

This paper re-visits the basic premises of open building: designing for change as well as for stability, including the users in the design decision-making processes, and disentangling the building systems into the levels and allowing replacement; then, addresses the limitations of conventional design media in terms of the capabilities to support these aims. It is discussed that the design media should be predictive, dynamic, and interactive. Virtual prototyping as an enabling technology is reviewed and proposals are made for the future use of this technology for open building design.

Introduces a way to design geographically distributed virtual prototyping, a new Internet technology, in order to facilitate designer‐customer communication in the product development of small electronic devices, such as mobile telephones. First, we will present our research in the concept design domain with a set of requirements focusing on communication between the designer and the customer. Second, a technique called “smart virtual prototyping” will be presented to elaborate on the virtual prototyping techniques to be used over the World Wide Web. Third, we will present the main ideas, architecture and selected software techniques of WebShaman, which is an application built to demonstrate how a distributed virtual prototyping system could support geographically distant designer‐customer communication. Finally, we discuss the possible impact of the distributed virtual prototyping approach on the WWW community.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with physical and virtual prototyping and propose an approach that utilises a real‐time integration of both methods through an automated process.

Following a literature review, the paper presents the results of a survey investigating the current use of prototyping. It then discusses a series of trials that were developed for the proposed tool.

Physical and virtual prototypes are not competitive but rather complementary. An integrated real‐time system would reduce cost and shorten the product design process.

This paper provides recommendations on how real‐time integration of both physical and virtual prototypes could potentially streamline the new product development process.

Discusses a virtual prototyping (VP) system developed for simulation of rapid prototyping processes. It enables a designer to visualise and optimise an RP process with a set of process parameters. The visualisation of a virtually simulated part prior to physical fabrication helps reduce unwanted prototyping iterations. The implementation techniques involved in the development of the VP system and the considerations in selecting virtual reality interfaces are described. The visualisation capability of the system is demonstrated by comparing virtual parts with the corresponding physical prototypes.

This paper proposes a dexel‐based virtual prototyping system, which builds a virtual prototype with dexels or rectangular strips of solid. The approach resembles the physical fabrication process of most powder‐based rapid prototyping (RP) systems. It simulates an RP process to create a virtual prototype. Colour virtual prototypes may also be fabricated relatively easily. Thus, the designer can perform design validation and accuracy analysis easily in a virtual environment as if using a physical prototype. In addition to numeric quantification of the RP process, the system provides vivid visualisations of the prototype for studying its characteristics. Furthermore, the prototype may be superimposed on the product model, and the areas with dimensional errors beyond design limits may be clearly highlighted for subsequent improvement. The designer may thus analyse and compare the surface texture point‐by‐point of the prototype with the product design.

This paper aims to argue about the involvement of additive technologies (ATs) in the prototyping issues of designing. More precisely, it reviews the literature contributions focused on the different perspectives of prototyping activities for design purposes, searching for both available knowledge and research needs concerning the correct exploitation of ATs.

A two-step literature review has been performed. In the first step, general information has been retrieved about prototyping issues related to design. In the second step, the literature searches were focused on retrieving more detailed information about ATs, concerning each of the main issues identified in the previous step. Extracted information has been analyzed and discussed for understanding the actual coverage of the arguments and for identifying possible research needs.

Four generally valid prototyping issues have been identified in the first step of the literature review. For each of them, available information and current lacks have been identified and discussed about the involvement of AT, allowing to extract six different research hints for future works.

This is the first literature review concerning AT-focused contributions that cover the complex and inter-disciplinary issues characterizing prototyping activities in design contexts.

Despite the importance of the service design process, existing prototyping methods still have technical limitations, thus hampering the development of realistic service-experience simulations that can effectively reproduce service delivery situations and environments. In this study, a service-prototyping method based on 3D virtual reality (VR) technologies, the physical environment of a test bed, and related standard management procedures are described. In addition, a service-prototyping process for a servicescape is proposed based on a case study of an actual duty-free shop. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The study adopts a qualitative approach, using case studies to undertake a design and improvement plans for brand guidance structures for the brand observation convenience of customers in a duty-free shop.

The findings of the study suggested environmental components and concept of 3D VR based test bed as an effective tool at the stage of service prototyping the core of new service development (NSD), and introduced practical methods for service prototyping in actual duty-free shop. The case study is significant due to the fact that it proved validity and practicality of the methods applied to service prototyping topic derivation and test process through target service analysis rather than optimal alternative selection.

This study emphasizes the importance of prototyping during NSD and the value of the service prototyping test bed for practical use. It also proposes guidelines for the establishment and management of the test bed.

In terms of service design research, this study also presented detailed operating procedures and methods through the new concept and in-depth case study of service prototyping using 3D VR technology.

Hybrid concrete construction is a technologically advanced approach to frame construction. It utilizes an optimal mix of structural materials;eg, in situ concrete with precast concrete and steelwork. The process of selecting an hybrid‐optimized solution, however, often requires several factors to be considered, eg, “hard”criteria such as time and cost, and “soft” criteria such as safety and aesthetics (to be considered simultaneously) – the complexities of which can often be a core barrier to implementation. This paper introduces the concept of hybrid concrete construction and presents a virtual prototyping tool to assist the decision‐making process. This model is able to import computer aided design information into a central database – the details of which are then layered with additional information; eg, hard and soft performance criteria and so on. Solutions can be interrogated and demonstrated through an interactive virtual environment, in which multi‐option scenarios can be evaluated against specific user‐defined criteria. Findings have identified several core benefits, including the ability to: justify decisions corroborated with detailed data; evaluate options against each other; interrogate objects at a much greater detail than before; and see the effects of changes in a “real‐time” environment.

Virtual prototyping technologies linked to building information models are commonplace within the aeronautical and automotive industries. Their use within the construction industry is now emerging. The purpose of this paper is to show how these technologies have been adopted on the pre‐tender planning for a typical construction project.

The research methodology taken was an “action research” approach where the researchers and developers were actively involved in the production of the virtual prototypes on behalf of the contractor thereby gaining consistent access to the decisions of the planning staff. The experiences from the case study were considered together with similar research on other construction projects.

The findings from the case studies identify the role of virtual prototyping in components modelling, site modelling, construction equipment modelling, temporary works modelling, construction method visualization and method verification processes.

The paper presents a state‐of‐the‐art review and discusses the implications for the tendering process as these technologies are adopted. The adoption of the technologies will lead to new protocols and changes in the procurement of buildings and infrastructure.

The design process is an uncertain activity which the designer must learn to handle. This is done, to a limited extent, by adopting standard procedures and problem containment strategies. Both can lead to inefficient operations and non‐optimized designs, which affect the time to market and user acceptability. The advances in virtual engineering and rapid prototyping can be seen as elements in a new model‐based approach directed at providing increased confidence in a design at the earliest possible stage. These new techniques can be used to provide early feedback and improvements in products, in areas as diverse as customer response to style and form, through to the evaluation of new operating procedures and training. The resolution of such problems during the design phase will greatly improve not only the quality of the product, but also its time to market. Such an approach is currently being investigated by the author′s research group, and a computer‐aided design environment incorporating these ideas is being created for the design of process machinery.