International Newsletter vol.27 2010/1
1.8.2010 FORUM8 Co., Ltd
----Headlines----

--------What's New at FORUM8--------
Seminar reports, new product introduction and user introduction are
on New Year Special Issue of Up and Coming: vol.83
-FORUM 8 Design Festival 2009-3Days report
-User Introduction Vol. 83 Ourston Roundabout Engineering, Inc.
-New Product Introduction: VR StudioTM ver1.1
-New Product Introduction: UC-win/Road for 12d Model
-New Product Introduction: UC-win/FRAME (3D) Ver.4

-Overseas Training and Seminars
Seminar schedule in Shanghai is announced below.
 --------What's New at FORUM8--------
 
FORUM 8 Design Festival 2009-3Days
A variety of civil engineering and construction design solution and advanced research of VR gathered at the festival.
FORUM 8 held the 1st FORUM8 Design Festival 2009-3Days" for 3 days beginning from November18th to 20th, 2009 at Tokyo Conference Center Shinagawa. The year 2009 marked a release of Engineer's Studio, 3 dimensional plate dynamic non-linear analysis program, in February and VR-Studio, large scale multi VR simulation program, in October, both of which we have developed for years.

The Design Festival is divided into three events: The Design Conference, which is based around the UC-win/FRAME (3D) User Group, which started in October 2003 after the release of UC-win/FRAME (3D), 3 Dimensional Analysis Program for Space-Framed Structures, in 2002. The User Group has been integrated into Design Conference, combining it with UC-win/UC-1 User Group, and this year marks the 3rd conference. International VR Symposium is held for customers to discuss and utilize the researches, technologies and ideas about Virtual Reality. The symposium started in 2007 as the opportunity to present research activities by World8, an organization of international 3D VR academics from architecture and construction backgrounds. In the year 2009, 3 years after the conception of World8, the number of member doubled. Under the leadership of Yoshihiro Kobayashi, researcher of Prism Laboratory of the Arizona State University and C.E.O. of FORUM8 AZ, the academic group has been carrying out various research activities. At the symposium, various findings from the research activities were presented.

"3D VR simulation contest by UC-win/Road" was launched after UC-win/Road won the software product of the year in 2002. This year was the 8th contest and saw various advanced projects both from Japan and abroad. Design Festival 2009 comprised of "Design/Analysis", "Architecture/BIM" and "Water Engineering" sessions on Day 1, "CAD&VR", "Technical" sessions" and "The 3rd International VR Symposium" on Day 2 and "3D VR simulation contest by UC-win/Road" on Day 3. For the convenience of visitors from abroad, we combined our annual events in one festival and had simultaneous interpretation service in 4 languages - Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. Sessions in the main conference room was broadcast to visitors in our Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Beijing offices. We are going to report the Design Festival in the New Year Special Issue and the following Early Spring Issue of Up&Coming.
<Day1> 3rd Design Conference

The 3-day-long Design Festival was kicked off with the opening speech by the host, President Yuji Ito of FORUM 8. The initial lecture was the keynote speech by Koichi Maekawa, Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo titled "Nonlinear Analysis of Deteriorated RC Structure and Method of Knowledge Structurization.

Following the keynote speech, 4-hour-long "Design and analysis" -main- Sessions, "Architecture/BIM Sessions" and "Water Engineering Sessions" were carried out from 1P.M. simultaneously at 3 different conference rooms.
Professor Koichi Maekawa, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo

Design and analysis sessions (Stream-1)

The first session was presented by Brent Fleming, director of FORUM8 director in charge of development, titled "Engineer's Studio(TM) and Future Development". He introduced the overview and new features of Engineers Studio and UC-win/Frame (3D). He also shared the future development plan and presented features in development by showing the operation process.

Following the first presentation, next special lecture was by Mr. Hiroki Aoto, Researcher of Tokyo City University, titled "FRAME (3D) Analysis Case and Engineer's Studio's Challenge" Using the case of metal arch bridge, Mr. Aoto talked about utilizing dynamic non-linear analysis by using UC-win/FRAME(3D)'s fiber element for earthquake resistant performance of existing bridges. He also mentioned the request for the future development of Engineer's Studio.
>> See report on special lecture2

Mr. Hiroki Aoto, Tokyo City University

The next presentation was by our analysis support team leader, titled "FRAME (3D) Analysis Case and Analysis Competition Report". Kai introduced the latest analysis case by using UC-win/FRAME(3D) analysis support service of FORUM8. He also introduced the award-winning result from the analysis contest held in "E-defense", the world largest earthquake experiment site, as well as sharing in the methods of modeling.

The latter half of the sessions started with the Special Lecture 3 by Mr. Keizo Ugai, Professor of Gunma University Graduate School of Engineering, titled "Ground analysis: Present Situation and Future Development"

Professor Keizo Ugai, Gunma University

Following Mr. Ugai's session, Mr. Toshihiro Hanada President, Bulld Geotechno Co., Ltd. Gave a special lecture, titled "Ground Analysis Customer Case: Design Overview and Challenge". He introduced case studies of ground analysis by GeoFEAS, such as developed land including cliff for housing complex, deformation of land at the time of repair of pond and earthquake resistance check of existing retaining walls.
>> See report on special lecture4

Mr. Toshihiro Hanada, Bulld Geotechno

The last lecture of the sessions was "Latest Functions of Ground analysis Series and Slope stability analysis Compliant to New Civil Engineering Construction Guideline" by FORUM8 development manager. He talked about the link between GeoFEAS and VGFlow, ground analysis software, and UC-1 design calculation series. He also explained the overview of the revised Civil Engineering Construction Guideline and Slope Stability Calculation's new features for the latest guideline.

Architecture/BIM Sessions (Stream-2)

The sessions started with the special lecture by Mr. Ryota Ieiri of Ieiri Laboratory, NikkeiBP , titled "Beyond World Class! Improving BIM of Japanese Spirit with Western Technology" He discussed the positioning of BIM in Japan Build Live Tokyo, overview of BIM, sample cases in other countries, possible innovation by BIM and his expectations about the spread of BIM.

Mr. Ryota Ieiri, Ieiri Laboratory, NikkeiBP

Following Special Lecture 6 was "Allplan(Architecture)Japanese Version" by Mr. Sven Elbl, Director of Product Management of Nemetschek Allplan Gmbh and "Allplan Case Study in Korea -Architecture by Kim Gibom, Basissoft Inc.. Mr. Elbl explained NEMETSCHEK and Allplan software suites, NEMETSCHEK's view on BIM and Allplan's features for BIM. Kim Gibom shared Allplan case studies in Korea and Allplan's functions and customer's merits.

Mr. Sven Elbl, Nemetchek
Mr. Kim Gibom, Basissoft

The next presentation was "BIM Solution at Build Live Tokyo" by FORUM8 manager in charge of BIM. He talked about FORUM8's participation in "Build Live Tokyo 2009 2" competition, organized by IAI Japan. He also explained that Allplan and our analysis and simulation products for BIM solution was fully utilized for the Engineering award-winning result at the competition.

The latter half of the sessions was started with the Special Lecture 7, "MultiframeVer.12, Plate Element" by Mr. Jake Hannah of Formation Design Systems. Mr. Hannah talked about Multiframe features and its related products. He also discussed plate element, the most significant feature of Multiframe ver.12 and its application to plate models and other plain items and case studies.

Mr. Jake HannahFormation Design Systems

These presentations were followed by presentations by technical managers of FORUM8. In the session, titled "Energy Analysis Design Builder Ver.2". Imaizumi talked about the procedures of thermal simulation of buildings and the simulation of CO2 emission by using Design Builder and Energy Plus, building energy simulation software. He also mentioned the possibility of link between Design Builder and FORUM8 solutions.

In the session, titled "Exodus, Fire Evacuation Analysis, Example Case and Proposal", Nakamura introduced features and functions of EXODUS, evacuation simulation software, and SMARTFIRE, fire simulation software. He also mentioned the application cases of EXODUS including evacuation examination for apartment blocks, evacuation training from high rise towers and examination of evacuation from car fires in tunnels.

In the last session, titled "Analysis Functions by UC-win/Road, Noise, Wind Analysis, Lighting simulation", Okaki discussed the features of noise analysis functions, the latest option of UC-win/Road and thinking method of sound propagation and the procedures of preprocess, data input, analysis calculation, output and post process. He also mentioned the development status of the lighting calculation simulation as well as the wind analysis function.
Water Engineering Sessions(Stream-3)

This session is jointly held with xpswmm Customer Meeting , which is organized by SWMM customer association and supported by NPO Water Environment Construction Club, FORUM8 and XP Software with the theme "Flood Seminar: Latest Information on Flood and running water analysis model.

After the opening speech by Mr. Yosihisa Kawahara Professor, Hiroshima University Graduate School, Mr. Kawahara gave a presentation, titled "Challenge for Application of Flood Analysis Technology". He discussed analysis by combination of aero laser survey data and non-structural grids, modeling smaller phenomena by interaction of building-fluid body and calculation grid, and presumption method from the amount of running water from rivers.

Professor Yosihisa Kawahara, Hiroshima University

The next session was by Mr. Ishikawa Takateru, Water Environment Construction Club, titled "Future Utilization of Running Water Analysis Model for Climate Change" . Mr. Ishikawa talked about the running water analysis models, usage and history of 1D analysis models and 1D/2D analysis models. He also talked about new measures for record-breaking heavy rainfalls caused by climate change and the future utilization of the running water analysis model.

Mr. Ishikawa Takateru

The following special lecture was "Modeling of Flood Risk of Urban Rain Water Drainage" by Mr. Masaru Morita, Professor of Shibaura Institute of Technology. Professor Morita discussed the overview of flood risk management, the evaluation model of flood damage, the method of flood risk assessment, and the application of flood risk assessment.

Professor Masaru Morita, Shibaura Institute of Technology

The latter half of the session started with special lectures by 3 lecturers. Mr. Tatsuo Yamada, Assitant Manager of Nihon Suikou Sekkei Co.,Ltd. gave a presentation, titled "Introduction of Commn MP-Common Platform of Water and Material Circulation Analysis" and introduced the object of developing CommonMP and feature and its development and operation policy, foundation of the consortium, merit and the road map of development.

Mr. Tatsuo Yamada, Nihon Suikou Sekkei

Mr. Shigenori Kawasaki, Technical Manager, Nihon Suikou Sekkei Co.,Ltd. gave a presentation, titled "Measures to Flooding by Running Water Analysis" and discussed the measures to lower the risk of flooding for flood suffering housing area.

Mr. Shigenori Kawasaki, Nihon Suikou Sekkei

Mr. Kiyotaka Naganawa, Assitant Manager, Nakanihon Engineering Consultants gave a presentation titled, "Analysis of Rivers and Water Channels in an Area by xpswmm". Mr. Kiyotaka Naganawa clarified flooding mechanism and measures by analyzing tunnel covered rivers and water channels in low land area by xpswmm.

Mr. Kiyotaka Naganawa, Nakanihon Engineering Consultants

Mr. Ashis Dey Principal of XP-software Pty Ltd. gave a presentation, titled "xpswmm2009, Latest Trend of Flood Analysis Software and Overseas Case Study". He shared basics of hydrology and hydraulics and the functions and possibility of xpswmm. He also introduced the analysis case of 1D/2D integrated modeling.

Mr. Ashis Dey, XP-software Pty Ltd.

The last presentation of the sessions was by FORUM8 technical manager, titled "3 Dimensional VR of Flood Analysis: xpswmm Collaborative Functions by UC-win/Road" He introduced the functions and case study of UC-win/Road for xpswmm plug-in option and development schedule of UC-1 series water engineering software. He also shared information about guideline of water supply facility and its revision.

Day 2 report will be on the next issue of Up and Coming: Up and Coming 84, Early Spring Issue.
"Design, CAD and VR Sessions", "Technical Support Sessions" and
"3rd International VR Symposium" will be featured.

Japanese
User Introduction Vol. 83
Ourston Roundabout Engineering, Inc. http:://www.ourston.com/

North America's Leading Roundabout Design Team, Ourston has made efforts in Illustrating and Spreading Them: Explaining Mechanisms and Advantages of Roundabout Intersections as an Effective Solution, by Modeling them Using VR
A "roundabout" is a form of circular road intersection at which a vehicle slows down its speed to yield on entry and enters a one-way path around a central island. Improving conventional circular junction types, which are called "rotaries", roundabouts have come into wide use especially in America and Europe, including the U.K. and France, because of their advantages of high level of safety and efficiency.

This issue picks up Ourston Roundabout Engineering Inc., one of the leading roundabout design teams in North America.

Its subsidiary company Ourston Traffic Solutions, Inc. specializes in traffic modeling, providing state-of-the-art software solutions. As a part of this, Ourston Traffic Solutions adopted the license of UC-win/Road, 3D real-time VR (virtual reality) software of FORUM8. In early autumn in 2009, the Company became a FORUM8 Premier Partner in North America.

In recent years, advantages of modern roundabouts have been recognized in the United States, too. However, there seems to be confusion with the older types of circular intersections such as "rotaries" or "traffic circles". Thus, it was required to get appropriate understanding of the parties concerned by explaining in advance the structure and uses of a roundabout design depending on its individual location as well as its effects and benefits. In searching for the way to satisfy such needs more effectively, Ourston Roundabout Engineering Inc. introduced UC-win/Road in early summer in 2009.

On November 20, Ourston Roundabout Engineering Inc. took part in the 8th "3D VR Simulation Contest" sponsored by FORUM8 and held in Tokyo. Ms. Amanda Stubbe, Design Engineer of the Company visited Japan to make a presentation at the contest. As she uses the software as a tool, we asked her to talk from her point of view. In addition, Mr. Mark Lenters, President of the Company, answered our questions by e-mail to complement the interview.
To see the full report, visit Ourston Roundabout Engineering, Inc.
on Up and Coming 83



Front view of the corporate HQ building
Animation capture toshow how to drive through roundabouts (Ourston's website)
View of interchanges from the sky
View from the driver's seat
New Product Introduction
VR-StudioTM Ver.1.1 Large scale multi VR

Following the release of the VR Studio(TM) ver1.0, FORUM 8 is set to release VR StudioTM ver1.1, which has improved features from the previous version. This version has revisions including the data creation function and improved performance. Major revisions are as follows.

Improved usability
  • Background processing
    With VR-Studio, a 3D road model is being created while the users are editing the road. It allows users to check the newly created road in an instant. Using this function, the multi thread option of VR Studio is applied to the road generation process. While users are editing the road, another thread is generating the road. With this separate process, response of the editing screen becomes improved and allows users to operate seamlessly without being affected by the system’s road generation process.

  • Improved view control
    3D mouse automatic connection:
    Users can always use a 3D mouse in the 3D view. In addition, while using the editing screen, except for the main screen, users can check the 3D shape by using the 3D mouse.

    Spin mode：
    In the 3D view, users can see the view revolving around the selected model. It is very useful when users wish to view the position of the model and also for making presentations.

    View setting：
    From the plain editing screen, users can check and set the view.
  • Improved vertical cross section alignment editing screen
    When there is a cross road on the road you are making, you can check the point of the crossing. It allows this whether the intersection can be generated. The intersection has been made successfully by seeing the change in color. It is useful to adjust the vertical cross section alignment. The new version also shows bridges and tunnels more clearly. When you edit the transition point of the section by the mouse, you can check the vertical cross section which is expressed with a broken line.
  • Resource management, quick filtering function
    Each resource can be copied or output to files. Users can change the name directly where the reduced resource is displayed. On the resource management, resource selection, and table editor, quick filtering function allows you to see the selected items by entering only part of the name. When you have a lot items to input, this function can be used as a quick retrieval function.

  • Aerial photography, street map
    In the latest version, users can use the multiple pictures on the screen by setting the photo end pixel to transparent. It allows you to edit the horizontal alignment of the road with overlaid drawings on the pictures. Other revisions include the newly added grid display function for the picture editing screen and the improved usability when setting the position in the grid and the photo selection.

    Quick filtering function Combination of aerial photography and street map


Improved drawing function
  • 3D model LOD
    For the improved performance, users can set 4 level LOD(Level of Detail) for 3D models.

    #What is the LOD for?
    The further the view becomes, the wider the displayed area becomes and the number of models displayed increases. In the remote view, the LOD level changes to keep the drawing speed with the high resolution. By showing the elaborate model in accordance with the size on the screen VR Studio enables high quality and high performance at the same time.

    #Case of LOD:
    For example, in the close up view of the building, each one of the columns is displayed in the highest level, while the 2D image of the columns are displayed in the remote view to reduce the number of the polygon. If you change the 3D columns to the 2D image using enough distance so not to be noticed, you can keep the balance of the display quality and performance.
  • Anti-aliasing
    Anti-aliasing process is available on 3D screen and editing screen. You can see the improved quality on the 3D screen and the editing screen. Without the anti-aliasing, the color of the polygon is described by the pixel. It leads to the step-like roof line of the building, this occurs if the polygon or the boundary line is not set to the horizontal or vertical of the screen. Anti-aliasing processing is generally used to avoid this.
    Screen shot of the building: enhanced image of the red-circled part shown right Not anti-aliased Anti-aliased
UC-win/Road for 12D Model 3D Realtime Virtual Reality

Preface
UC-win/Road for 12d Model is the new plug in tool for the data link between UC-win/Road 12d Model. 12d Model offers a total civil engineering solution including surveying. FORUM 8 has developed the plug in, thinking that the bilateral linkage of these 2 software packages contributes to our customers' improved efficiency.

The data file is basically based on “12d Ascii File Format", which is a text file, easy to read and its data can be output easily by a string. For details see the following URL.
http://www.12d.com/downloads/12d_ascii_file_format.pdf


Major functions and features

(1) Data link from UC-win/Road to 12d Model
  • Link of terrain data
    Terrain data of UC-win/Road can be converted and exported to Tin file of 12d Ascii File Format.

    Link of road data
    Data is divided into horizontal alignment data, vertical cross section data and cross section data. In 12d Model, horizontal alignment data and vertical cross section data are regarded as input data, while cross section data is regarded as result data. Therefore, horizontal alignment data and the cross section data is converted and exported to 12d Model. In addition, users can define the conversion of the the UC-win/Road 12d to the Alignment of the Super Alignment of the Ascii File Format.

    ▲1 UC-win/Road ▲2 Imported UC-win/Road data to 12d Model

(2) Data link from 12d Model to UC-win/Road
  • Link of terrain data
    12d Model regards terrain data as TIN data structure and the range of the terrain is not limited. UC-win/Road regards terrain data as grid data structure. There are 4 patterns of the grid: 200 x 200, 200 x 400, 400 x 200 and 400 x 400. There are no limits to the range of the terrain, but the size of the cell changes according to the size of the range of the terrain. For example, 10,000m x 8,000m with 400 x 400 grid pattern, the size of the cell is 25m x 20m. To express more detailed terrain data, UC-win/Road can generate terrain patch. Diagram 3 shows the range of TIN data: 24,700m from South to North, 32,500 from East to West with the number of TIN triangle apex 946,215. In addition, TIN model of 12d Model terrain can be converted to UC-win/Road terrain data or terrain patch data.

    Link of road data
    There are two ways: Alignment and Super Alignment in 12d.Users can define the Alignment or the Super Alignment when converting the road data.

    3 Link of terrain data and road data   4 Link of vertical cross section data
To see the full report, visit UC-win/Road for 12d Model on on Up and Coming 83.

UC-win/FRAME(3D) Ver.4 3 dimensional dynamic non-linear analysis
Preface
Followings are the revised points of UC-win/FRAME(3D) Ver.4.00.00
  • Spread sheet style data entry of joint mass
  • Initial section force
  • Eigen value analysis of geometrical rigidity
Spread sheet style data entry of joint mass
In the new version, you can give mass directly to joints. (1) You can give 6 components:3 components (X, Y, Z in global coordinate system) in parallel direction and 3 components X direction revolving, Y direction revolving and Z direction revolving in global coordinate system. Since they are given in spread sheet style with 6 columns horizontally and all joints vertically, users can easily copy and paste them. You can also calculate joint mass out of members. This calculation method is Lumped mass (concentrated mass). In this method, half of the member mass is allocated to the joints calculating the half of the entire member makes the mass of the joint. This concentrated mass is method is not regarded as accurate. However, this method is often used because of the simplicity the method and easy determinant calculation, because diagonal component is the only mass matrix in the member.

1 Input of mass points
The older versions set mass points by making rigid body element with 1 joint and giving mass.
The method required creation of rigid body element and customers had to open edit screen of rigid body element every time you need to define mass points. Spread sheet style input reduces this bothering work. You don't have to generate rigid body element for mass points any more.
Giving mass points by spread sheet style enables the value to be reflected to dead load and horizontal seismic coefficient, which are calculated by the program automatically.
If you select concentrated mass on setting screen, dead load and horizontal seismic coefficient are reflected to concentrated load to the joints. (diagram 2,3) If you select consistent mass, it is loaded as distributed load to members.(diagram 2,4)
3 dead load by concentrated mass method
(concentrated mass to joints)		 4 dead load by consistent mass method
(distributed mass to joints)

For wider analysis needs
These revisions are reflecting request from a lot of customers. Since important functions of analysis will be added in this version, we expect more and more customers can use UC-win/FRAME (3D) for analysis which could not be solved by the previous version.
To see the full report, visit UC-win/FRAME (3D) Ver.4 on Up and Coming 83.
--------Upcoming Events--------
Overseas Training and Seminars

Seminars in Shanghai will be held on the following schedule.

Venue:
Shanghai - Shanghai Seminar room (FORUM8 Technology Development(Shanghai) Co., Ltd)
Seminar Date City
UC-win/Road VR March 3, 2010 Shanghai
UC-win/Road SDK February 24, 2010 Shanghai
EXODUS/SMARTFIRE  January 27, 2010  Shanghai 
Engineer's Studio, 
UC-win/FRAME (3D)		 March 17, 2010 Shanghai
 xpswmm January 13, 2010  Shanghai 
 Maxsurf March 5, 2010 Shanghai 
OSCADY/TRANSYT  March 10, 2010 Shanghai
 Multiframe March 12, 2010 Shanghai 
 Design Builder March 24, 2010 Shanghai 
 Retaining wall design/Temporary sheathing work design Chinese January 20, 2010  Shanghai 
Summary
Participation Fee Free


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