The annual Tygron Community of Practice took place this year on November 11th. This meeting is of and for users: a moment where knowledge, experience, skills, applications, and the latest technological developments come together. During the CoP, various Tygron users spoke about how they apply the Platform, among them the engineers from TAUW.
Climate
Climate adaptation requires smart solutions that are both effective and efficient. Ruben Keizer and Len Geisler from TAUW consultancy and engineering firm show how data-driven design with Tygron can speed up and improve the process of climate-resilient urban projects.
"Today, we are going to take you through the climate design issues we see passing by at TAUW," Ruben Keizer begins. He emphasizes that the challenges in climate-resilient design are often similar and that a standardized approach ensures efficiency. Yet, there is still plenty of room for customized solutions. "Very often still highly project-based, but we have now also created a very standardized approach for this." It is important that both work processes and tooling are set up in such a way that knowledge sharing between parties becomes easier and iterative designs lead to results faster.
Iterative process
TAUW has set up a fully web-based network of tools connected via APIs and connectors. "We have actually built an ecosystem of different tools that have their own place to answer complex questions," says Len Geisler. From FME for advanced analysis to Tygron's 3D client and various viewers for interpretation and communication, the whole setup is designed to work flexibly and efficiently. Geisler highlights the practical advantage: "It helps enormously with quality assurance and validation, but also in having the right models properly integrated and being able to share results quickly with clients."
Keizer shows how data from existing infrastructure, such as roads and waterways, is combined with project data from CAD files of designs (SO, VO, and DO). This allows both 2D and 3D representations to be created, which are useful for further analyses. For example, converted elevation data into a new ground level model for flooding analyses, or converted 3D designs for heat stress calculations. An important aspect is that the process is iterative and supports both policy officers and designers: "We are noticing that there is also more and more attention from the design side, from project leaders, to apply this in projects themselves," says Keizer.
Standardization and flexibility
The duo also discussed the different levels of design information received, ranging from sketches to advanced BIM models via the Autodesk Construction Cloud. "As soon as a designer is finished in their BIM environment and we know it has been updated, we can hit refresh and a new design is immediately in the project area." This makes truly iterative working possible, where a design cycle can relatively easily be run through ten times.
Geisler then went into more detail on the analysis instruments: "An example is working with FME server." This makes it possible to quickly and reliably test climate factors such as heat, shadow, and flooding in the design using standard models. The combination of standardization and flexibility makes the process scalable, from small-scale redevelopments to larger urban projects.
