Which types of structural framing systems and materials are most commonly used in the US for residences? For office buildings?
What factors determine why these are the most used materials?
Why do different teams of designers and subcontractors link and share their models during the design process?
What are the advantages of linking models?
Are there any disadvantages to linking models?
Designers link models so they can sync changes across files which are optimized for certain types of editing. For example, if the architect wants to make a room larger, they can do so in the architectural model, an the changes will then be synced to the structural engineer’s model. Syncing models can mean that certain aspects of the design are more hidden to users, and clashes can be created, so more collaboration and coordination is required.
How do you think design coordination was done before we started using digital models?
What advantages does doing this coordination digitally have over previous methods?
Design coordination was done by sending drawings back and forth between architectural designers, structural designers, and other engineers, which was a time consuming and costly process. Linked models and cloud sharing has allowed designers to work much more quickly.
What strategies can design teams use to find and avoid clashes prior to the start of construction?
What can be done besides sharing the models digitally?
At what point in the project development process should design coordination start?
Is it ever too early?
Design coordination should start from the beginning. Personally, working on this project, most of my time was spent altering my structure and architecture to resolve difficulties which came up due to the fact that I was not thinking about structural design in Project 6.