Interactive 3D building configurators allow project stakeholders to evaluate alternative designs and building materials/products of the project. Building product suppliers can integrate their offer into the architects, engineers and constructors proposals. In one single engaging presentation architects are able to communicate their design intent to clients and include alternative solutions to make them effectively participate on the decisions making process. Building configurators are the perfect tool to engage stakeholders with an interactive and “wow effect” presentation.
The main benefits of offering stakeholders and clients a building configurator are the following:
Quicker reaction to customer inquiries by offering several solutions/options
Error elimination throughout the decision process
Quality improvements in customer satisfaction
Improvements in stakeholder participation and engagement
The 3D model
The 3D model is a generic campus type building (office/hospital/headquarter/etc.). The model was exported using the CL3VER plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max. Lightmaps have been created in Autodesk 3ds Max using VRay (we are currently working to improve our automatic lightmap system). The original model has 150.000 polycount and after importing the model into CL3VER, it has been compressed to only 5Mb thanks to our optimized automatic compression system. The same HDR image used in 3ds Max was applied in CL3VER as the reflection map to maintain the same quality look of the Max scene.
The User Interface
In this demo we introduce a new UI type with a design style webpage like. The main menu is positioned at the top left of the page and a sub menu is opened when clicking on a tab of the top menu. This is a demonstration of what at CL3VER we mean by easy and simple navigation.The end user already knows how to explore the interactive 3D scene even though he/she have never interacted with a 3D environment (read our blog post The CL3VER approach to UX and Design for browser based 3D).
Fast navigation is also available for some building product using the interactive points appearing on the 3D while selecting the product from the menu. The mouse over effect shows which part of the presentation the interactive point refers to and by clicking on it the presentation is opened at the right step.
The design/product configurator
Different selectionable variations of construction components of the project are available in the presentation which starts a learning-by-doing process for the user. Configurators integrated in presentations enable the stakeholders to explore, discover and understand a building by interacting with it, generating engagement and satisfaction.
In this presentation the user have a navigable description of the product, and the possibility to configure it at his/her liking to see the final result and impact on the building.
CL3VER new feature: UI Animation
In this 3D presentation a new CL3VER feature has been used to give it a more dynamic look and feeling. When moving between steps the description panels enter in the presentation with an animated effect, like in a Power Point presentation. This is a new feature of the CL3VER Actions that we will include in the tutorial really soon.
In the next series of blog posts we will go through each building product available in this campus presentation, explaining the possibility and the potential of CL3VER presentation for each one of them.