What You need to Make Full Use of
Engineering for Architectural Projects
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Engineering for Architectural Projects volumes use WWW browsers as "meta-
front-ends," serving as graphic user interfaces and managing the launching of locally
stored "helper applications." Helper applications, such as Excel or
Autocad, allow in-depth study of particular design issues, such as building
envelope thermal performance and its relationship to a building's details. If helper
applications are unavailable on a user's computer, the usefulness of the volumes is
reduced. Following is a summary of helper applications required to work effectively
with various parts of each volume.
- To do anything with this package, you need:
A graphically oriented WWW browser.
At a minimum, your browser must be able to
display, or launch helper applications to display gifs, tifs, and mpegs. It must also
allow you to download and locally store files that it doesn't know what to do with.
Finally, it must be able to print or save to disk anything you see on the screen.
- To work with building enclosure heat loss analyses, you need:
An Excel-compatible
spreadsheet program. On PC's and unix systems you can set
up your browser to automatically launch Excel with spreadsheets contained in this
package. Consult your browser's technical manual for details.
- To perform structural analyses of the buildings, you need:
A finite element analysis program that accepts either Staad or Ideas
compatible input. As with spreadsheet data, you can probably set up your browser to
automatically launch these programs to work with input data contained in this
package. Again, please consult your browser's technical manual and FEM users
manual for details.
- To manipulate at 3-D models illustrating building construction and structure, you
need:
A three dimensional modelling or viewing
program capable of opening .vrml, .dxf or
.dwg format vector models. The 3-d models that require this feature are particularly
important in as much as they allow students to understand structural systems in three
dimensions, and to understand the constructive reality that determines a building's
thermal, structural, and waterproofing performance.
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