AutoCAD, Internet tech reshape industry methods

In the past decade, technology has revised and redrawn the design industry.

The technological leap from pencil and eraser to PC started with AutoCAD software CAD stands for computer-aided drafting more than 10 years ago. Now it is routine for most architects and engineers to produce construction drawings on the computer, said Tim Rosenbury, vice president with Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc.

The importance of AutoCAD software "has to do with the ability to save past information electronically for current and future use, and to quickly share information with consultants. In the past we had to rely on hand drafting, and if a change needed to be made during the design process, we had to either redraw it all by hand or erase it and redesign it," said Randy Russell, president of Lohmeyer-Russell PC.

"With AutoCAD the process of making changes or redesigning to suit the wishes of clients is more efficient and cleaner than drafting by hand," he said.

And technology's reach in the industry goes well beyond AutoCAD. The Internet is of vast importance in the way firms now conduct business.

"We are capable of accessing the Internet to find information for written specifications. Through e-mail we send drawing files back and forth from our office to our consultants mechanical, structural, civil engineers, etc., and we use it daily for correspondence," Russell said.

"We are now using the Internet to manage our projects. As a result, all participants with Internet access can check project information. We can post drawings that were produced on the computer to the Internet, issue instructions to the field and they can post to us. Rather than use the push technology we have used for decades (postal service), now it is pull technology if you need information everyone goes to the same sources to get it," Rosenbury said.

High technology has brought the opportunity for higher profit taking. A survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects shows the average contract value per project of high-tech firms exceeded those of firms that aren't high-tech. They also designed more projects on the average than did their lower-tech counterparts in 1999, according to information at the AIA Web site, www.e-architect.com.

Since cost is an issue in equipping high-tech firms, it was significant that AIA found the ability to generate more and larger design projects outweighed the costs of the technology.

Another impact of technology is that design graduates are being drawn away into alternative careers created by new technologies.

"Many architects graduating from school are enamored with 3-D visualization tools and don't really want to go into the traditional brick-and mortar-architecture, said Chuck Foster, a principal with Pellham Phillips Hagerman Architects-Engineers.

"Instead, they become computer illustrators for software development or the movie industry," Foster said. "A lot look at the product as a computer image, not as something that gets built. They have design talents, but work in a virtual reality world where their talent never matures. They don't have the desire, time or patience to become all-around architects and develop that comprehensive understanding."

But high-tech design has its problems, as well.

"In computer aided-drafting you work in layers electrical plan, structural, mechanical, and architectural layer all independent of each other. Then, when you superimpose them on top of each other, there can be conflicts. When you did it by hand, you were not going as fast and there was more day-to-day checking and control. To bring it all together takes a lot of coordination and checking," said Dick Scott, president of Scott Consulting Engineers PC.

While technology has made some things easier, Walter Warren, engineer at Warren & Goodin Architects/Engineers Inc., said it also made things harder.

"It created a different mind-set. Architects those in the business for a while are having to change the way they go about designing to fit the computer's methods."

"It's difficult to keep up with the technology: training, purchasing software and hardware," Scott said.

"It's compressed schedules and made things much easier, but on the other hand it raises the expectations among the people who use our services. They expect it faster, better and cheaper. The spiral of technological improvements is enabling us to do a lot more things, but the expectations are rising along with the new power," said Jeff Wells, chief executive officer of Pellham Phillips Hagerman Architects-Engineers.

"One other thing: It seems to have drawn a divide between the new technologically literate people and those who honed their skills before the advent of the computer age. It's meant that the younger people entering the design profession have more opportunity to play a larger role in projects that otherwise might have been done by senior employees," Wells said.

On the plus side, however, "technology has made it possible to design more abstractly. In the past we were often limited by the ability to draw by hand and our ability to make three-dimensional models. What's happening now is that you can draw almost anything on the computer, and the data in the computer can be used by a fabricator to fabricate the actual components of a building," Rosenbury said.

What lies ahead for design and technology? Besides the Internet playing an even bigger role, Warren said he hopes architectural software will "get smarter and intrude less on the design process." Right now, he said, "any computer program requires you to adapt to its method of doing things; hopefully as technology advances, the programs will become more flexible."

From a design standpoint, Russell said he expects some of the bigger changes will be in 3-D renderings, videography and how they are incorporated into the design process.

Rosenbury forecasts even greater changes to lighting, heating and cooling technology, and a focus on energy concerns. Recycling, renewable resources, air quality and ergonomics are all factors he sees coming into play.