The people at London-based sketch and modeling studio Gravity have found a way to turn Lego blocks into a digital modeling kit.
With the Lego X system, users can transfer the forms they’ve created with Lego into real-time digital files, Dezeen reports. The system recognizes forms built with Lego building blocks, and using location-mapping and gyroscopic sensors, it plots the position and orientation of each block to create a digital 3D model.
The tool models each block individually. If a physical block is moved, turned, lifted, or put down in real life, its digital “twin” in the monitor (a tablet or laptop) will behave exactly the same.
When multiple blocks form a larger cluster, they act as a single entity within the program. The saved files can be built upon more with image processing software, or sent to a 3D printer.
Dezeen believes that when the software is paired with the Lego Architecture Studio Kit, the technology “could provide a new tool for designing buildings” and prototyping.
Read more at Dezeen.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM adoption tops 80% among the nation's largest AEC firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 survey
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design+Construction's premier Top 50 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey. Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and near...
| Aug 11, 2010
Thrown For a Loop in China
While the Bird's Nest and Water Cube captured all the TV coverage during the Beijing Olympics in August, the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing—known as the “Drunken Towers” or “Big Shorts,” for its unusual shape—is certain to steal the show when it opens next year.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: BIM/Information Technology
4. Architectural Visualization through Gaming Technology Before 3D walkthroughs for client presentations were popular, HKS manager of Advanced Technologies Pat Carmichael and his team were working to marry gaming engines with 3D building models. "What's being tasked to us more and more is not just to show design, but to show function," Carmichael said.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Collaboration
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.
