Interactive Structural Analysis for the Conceptual Design Phase

The importance of structural demands is usually overlooked in the conceptual design phase. Architects commonly conceive the geometry of a structure without much involvement of an engineer or with regards to structural demands. This is in part because a lack of tools available to engineers in this phase. The common paradigm for structural analysis software interface badly with the iterative and chaotic nature of conceptual design. Developing tools that enables structural demands to be a more prominent part of conceptual design should hypothetically result in overall better performing designs leaving the conceptual phase. This thesis investigates the requirements for, and the development of, a simple structural design and analysis application using a more direct interaction model adapted to the conceptual design phase. Emphasis is on creating a user experience that incite design exploration by developing a suitable user interaction model and a design comparison tool. A game engine was used to aid the development of an interactive and engaging environment. Feedback and observation of users testing the application indicated that a more direct interaction model can enhance user engagement as well as proneness to design exploration, strengthening similar results in previous work done in this field. Feedback also indicated that a developed tool, aimed at design comparison, became poorly used. Testers argued that the tool was potentially powerful, but needs a more integrated implementation than the one used in this application, which did not engage users enough. The developed application is called StructSTUDIO and is available online at structarch.org/ids/.Few tools are available which allows for structural analysis in the conceptual design phase. Common structural analysis software failsto meetsome ofthe demands of this phase, attributing as a contributing factor to why structural demands are usually not incorporated into early design