While our Manchester, New Hampshire team has been focused on extending the capabilities of model-based design, our group in Ithaca, New York, has been investigating ways to recapture the essence of the traditional designer's workspace and bring back the joy of creation within a digital design environment. Persistent data in the form of drawings, bitmap images, animations, and 3D models is maintained in a Web-based database that is accessible anytime, anywhere via the Internet. An unlimited number of participants can work jointly in realtime collaboration or individually online or offline. By inviting all participants in the process to create, gather, and share information within a virtual desktop, it represents a new attitude towards the use of digital tools. Like StudioDesk, these applications will have an interface that suits the task at hand while masking the underlying technical infrastructure.
Collaboration is the key to such processes.
The Internet provides the first infrastructure for such collaboration, and both ADT and StudioDesk take full advantage of its power to communicate. Design applications with XML capabilities will be enabled to transmit data easily between functions. Autodesk will continue to support XML capabilities, and is working closely with the IAI to further understand the marketplace and the potential role of IFCs in that process. Now that the problem of automating hand drafting has been well solved, technology's challenge for the future is to provide a consistent, integrated source of building data information that can be used throughout the building lifecycle. Our goal is to empower architects and engineers by providing the ability to leverage and access building design information, and to create an environment where successful design can evolve and prosper.