Thursday 12 February 2009

04.02.09 Project Team Meeting



The projects Server is now established and the proposed general user interface [GUI] mock-up has been developed by Darren. X3d models of the first learning spaces on the campus are starting to be developed by Panagiotis. We are still trying different viewers to find the best controls for the model to make it easy for people to manipulate. Examples of building envelope were presented and discussed, with particular reference to the level of detail to be modelled so that users could understand the space, but not become overloaded with information.

Puja has developed a way of tagging the building models in Adobe illustrator – which is good news. All layers can be viewed and Lines can be tagged in groups, which makes for neat coding! A reference grid for the university campus base map has been set on a 100x100m gird. We are developing the an SVG basemap for the campus that can be interactive, allowing people to select buildings and explore them

The first user evaluation event is planned for March 2009, involving Masters students to test the platform and try to upload new design proposals to the platform. Howard has been developing the brief for the students to use with Chengzhi. 2 groups will develop a macro scale project on the Jessops site, whilst2 groups develop a micro design for jessops Edwardian Wing.


Thursday 5 February 2009

Platform, Schemas, and other stories...

Don't mean to sound overly optimistic, but it seems some good progress has been made since the last time I posted something. We have not yet finalized the GUI but there have been enough discussions to establish a base to work on. The main issue remains how to accommodate the demands for a broad overview for the occassional user, and the specialized, particular demands of a "power user". It seems the second category will need an elaborate query tool. These are some examples of a possible GUI that was suggested at some point:


Darren is doing a good job on creating the platform -it seems we are sticking with using svgs on a raster image for now -though we are thinking of providing an option where there will be a schematic map made completely out of vectors, in order to have a resolution-independent case.

We have been talking a lot about the XML schema as well. Various documents have circulated back and forth and we have come to an agreement on the basic principles. The referencing structure is practically completed and it seems to tie nicely with the work Darren is doing. This is a recent document that gives an overview of the ideas:

Recently I have also been doing some work on modelling the Information Commons interior spaces. The process involves using drawings from various source (e.g. Estastes, the architects etc), modelling the spaces in CAD, then exporting them to .x3d. We are concentrating on the teaching & learning spaces right now, but this might change later on if we have more time.

Hopefully the next post will include an xml example as well as snapshots of our first models!