Immersive Representation of Building Information Model
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IMMERSIVE REPRESENTATION OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODEL A Thesis by HUSSAM NSEIR Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE May 2011 Major Subject: Civil Engineering Immersive Representation of Building Information Model Copyright 2011 Hussam Nseir IMMERSIVE REPRESENTATION OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODEL A Thesis by HUSSAM NSEIR Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Approved by: Co-Chairs of Committee, Stuart Anderson Ho-Yeong Kang Committee Member, John Walewski Head of Department, John Niedzwecki May 2011 Major Subject: Civil Engineering iii ABSTRACT Immersive Representation of Building Information Model. (May 2011) Hussam Nseir, B.S., Tishreen University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Stuart Anderson Dr. Ho-Yeong Kang Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an emerging technology that utilizes 3D graphical representations to improve communication, collaboration, and data exchange. Immersive Visualization Environment (IVE) is another promising technology that enhances the 3D graphical representation to achieve a higher level of a sense of presence. The connection between the BIM technology that utilizes the 3D graphical representation and the IVE technology that enhances the 3D graphical representation has led many professionals to visualize BIM in immersive environments. This study is an attempt to overcome a systematic issue presented by available immersive visualization systems. The problem is that in order to visualize an information-rich BIM model from a commercial BIM application in an immersive visualization environment, the BIM model needs to pass through a tough conversion process and loss a large amount of its information. This research study utilizes the Application Programming Interface (API) of a commercially available BIM application to develop an immersive visualization environment. This approach was applied on Autodesk Navisworks software by developing a software program that utilizes Navisworks‟ API to control Navisworks‟ iv camera angle and generate an immersive visualization environment. A prototype of the approach was built in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University and named BIM CAVE Prototype. The overall goal of this research was to prove that it is possible to transform a commercial BIM application into an immersive visualization system. A phenomenological study was utilized by interviewing subject matter experts from the construction industry. The intent of this effort was to explore and develop a phenomenological understanding of how research participants perceived the BIM CAVE system. The results show that the BIM CAVE can be considered an immersive visualization environment because it contains a majority of the immersive visualization environment features. However, a variety of technical limitations must be overcome before it can be called a fully immersive and functional visualization environment. Moreover, even though this investigation was to some extent successful, this research approach needs to be tested on other commercially available BIM applications before generalizations are made. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my co-chairs, Dr. Stuart Anderson and Dr. Julian Kang, and committee member, Dr. John Walewski, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues and the department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience. I also want to extend my gratitude to the industry professionals, who participated in my research. Finally, thanks to my mother, father, brothers, and girlfriend for their help and encouragement. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... ix 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Research Problem ......................................................................................... 3 1.2. Motivation .................................................................................................... 5 1.3. Research Objective ....................................................................................... 5 1.4. Limitations ................................................................................................... 5 1.5. Benefits ......................................................................................................... 6 1.6. Thesis Outline .............................................................................................. 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 8 2.1. Virtual Reality .............................................................................................. 8 2.2. Characteristics of Virtual Reality ................................................................. 9 2.3. Virtual Reality in the AEC Industry ........................................................... 11 2.4. BIM and BIM Applications ........................................................................ 14 2.5. Summary .................................................................................................... 18 3. BIM CAVE .......................................................................................................... 19 3.1. Hardware Components of the BIM CAVE Prototype ................................ 20 3.2. Software Programs of the BIM CAVE Prototype ...................................... 21 3.2.1. Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 ............................................. 21 3.2.2. MaxiVista ....................................................................................... 25 3.2.3. BIM CAVE Software ..................................................................... 26 3.3. BIM CAVE Mechanism ............................................................................. 34 3.4. BIM CAVE Software Interface .................................................................. 35 3.5. Summary .................................................................................................... 37 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 39 vii Page 4.1. Methodology Introduction .......................................................................... 39 4.2. Research Design ......................................................................................... 40 4.3. Data Collection ........................................................................................... 42 4.4. Validity and Reliability .............................................................................. 44 4.5. Data Analysis ............................................................................................. 44 4.6. Summary .................................................................................................... 45 5. RESEARCH RESULTS ....................................................................................... 47 5.1. BIM CAVE as an Immersive Visualization System .................................. 51 5.2. Benefits of BIM CAVE System ................................................................. 54 5.3. Limitations of the BIM CAVE System ...................................................... 56 5.4. Summary .................................................................................................... 57 6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................. 59 6.1. Research Summary ..................................................................................... 59 6.2. Limitations ................................................................................................. 61 6.2.1. Research methodology limitations ................................................. 61 6.2.2. Software related limitations ........................................................... 62 6.3. Future Research .......................................................................................... 63 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 64 APPENDIX A: NAVISWORKS COM API CLASSES ............................................. 67 APPENDIX B: SOURCE CODE ................................................................................ 73 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS .......................................................... 78 VITA .......................................................................................................................... 106 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3-1 The Field Of View (FOV) of the BIM CAVE Screens ........................19 Figure 3-2 Hardware Components of the BIM CAVE Prototype ..........................20 Figure