Only 10 days left for early registration! Also check out our updated speaker list and the details on AIA/PDH credits. Join us this September for the 2011 Symposium on Wood Engineering, Architecture and Construction at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Presentations will cover passivehouse technology, environmental benefits of using wood and new, innovative wood building [...]

When I went to the 2011 Google Geo User Summit United States in Mountain View, CA this July, I had the chance to present two projects that I have worked on in the recent past here at the University of Massachusetts. “Building a 3D World” The first presentation was on our campus modeling project in [...]

We now have the symposium website and the registration up and running – feel free to browse it and make sure you tell all your colleagues about it. The 2011 Wood Structures Symposium will be an exciting venue with experts from the University of Innsbruck in Austria presenting on Passivehouse construction and Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) [...]

While browsing through construction-material supplier catalogs to get some data for my classes, I came across some hand-drawn instruction comics. These were safety-related sketches of goofy-looking construction workers illustrating mostly what not to do. I am sure these kinds of illustrations exist in other industries, too. And there’s nothing wrong with exaggerating visuals to make a point. [...]

Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2011 System Requirements Let me make this point clear first: I fully understand that professional-grade software packages are complex and extensive. They use high-powered computation and extensive libraries and therefore need resources. But my goodness – does Autodesk ever fill up my hard disk! Now that the spring semester is coming to [...]

I had read about this trick before but had never had a need to try it out – until now. So here’s a nifty trick for any self-hosted WordPress installation: If you want to add a webpage outside of a WordPress installation that has its own design, yet relies on some of the functions of [...]

Now that the Autodesk 2010 versions are finally available, it is time to get familiar with them. I am particularly looking forward to the new Revit functionality (3D modeling and paneling tools), but there’s far more than that in the Autodesk software roster. Maybe the main change to grapple with is the ribbon menu UI. [...]

Coming from a wood background, it is a bit disappointing that most (low- to mid-rise) curtain-walls or storefront glazed walls contain only aluminum mullions as their support around here (US). It appears that many architects simply don’t specify these in wood. This fact came to my attention again last weekend when I visited the recently [...]

Some CAD news that landed in my inbox recently: SketchUp: This year’s SketchUp modeling competition for students has nothing to do with campuses. Google wants you to model a bridge over your favourite crossing instead. Deadline is June 15, 2009. Another competition has been announced by Dwell Magazine together with Volkswagen. For this one, you [...]

With the economy where it is, any free help is greatly appreciated. So if you are an engineer or an architect who works with wood (or would like to if you knew more about it), sign up for any of these webinars by WoodWorks and learn about this great material from the “comfort” of your [...]