Gerhy’s firm, and his legal counsel, insist any problems with the building are the result of sloppy construction, not design. The general contractor, Skanska USA, insists construction documents were not explicit enough and that in some instances the design was unbuildable. If the initial third-party analysis is correct, it will cost tens of millions of dollars to fix the building.

The Stata Center, like every current Gehry project, was designed using Digital Project, an architectural expansion of CATIA, the 3D CAD product from Dassault Systèmes better known as the CAD behind Boeing and Airbus. DP and other cutting edge architectural products are making it easier than ever for signature architects to harness their imagination. But could it be that such CAD products are too empowering for contractors? One suggestion made in the Fast Company article is that signature architects should be much more closely involved in the construction process, to help interpret design intent and to insure consistent quality in adherence to the architect’s vision.

When the concept of Building Information Modeling first started gaining traction early this decade, there was talk of the need to revive the ‘master builder’ concept. Others, including me, speculated that BIM would be first and best embraced by design-build firms, where there is no tug-of-war over responsibility and liability and the lines of communication stay in-house.

Clearly, advanced design software is not enough to propel the construction industry into a new era of fantastic buildings. Vision is useless if it is not executable; there remains much work to be done to make sure that, across the industry, all the players can be on the same playbook. As attention turns to sustainable (“green”) construction, it becomes more crucial than ever that all the stakeholders need to work together to unite art and craft, vision with business, plan with product. 

Excerpts from the Fast Company article “Lost in the Funhouse:”

“This was incredibly dumb.” I am standing at a Stata Center side entrance with Joseph Lstiburek as he points out a brick wall that meets a glass wall with a superficial connection, allowing moisture to seep across the porous brick from outside to inside. Lstiburek (pronounced STEE-bu-rek), an engineer with a Ph.D., is a frequent expert witness in construction lawsuits and an international authority on leaks who gets paid tens of thousands of dollars to cut holes in the sides of buildings and inform the owners how theirs were built wrong. As an independent, unpaid, informal observer, he has had his eye on the Stata Center for several years: “It was obvious it wasn't going to work from watching it go up.”

So who is to blame? Lstiburek posits that the architects should have done a better job of specifying materials and techniques. And the construction firm should have been more rigorous in its quality control. On both fronts, though, these are fundamental errors of craft, not design. In other words, Gehry’s billowing sheets of metal and unexpected angles aren’t at fault: It’s how they were spec’d out and implemented. Two of Gehry’s more prominent creations—the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Seattle's Experience Music Project—haven’t had any construction problems.

“It’s hard for people to believe that something so simple is screwing up these buildings,” Lstiburek says. “But this is an industry-wide problem. It’s not because you have a famous architect.” He adds that basic errors like these occur in up to 20% of all new buildings going up, concrete boxes as well as soaring landmarks. (In another high-profile example, Daniel Libeskind’s Denver Art Museum has suffered leaks similar to the Stata Center.) “The more complicated the building,” Lstiburek says, “the more critical workmanship becomes.”
 

  --RSN

Ever wonder how the big Autodesk resellers attract the attention of company executives? We asked freelancer Scott Sowers to mingle with the swells at a recent Revit sales event in Washington DC sponsored by Autodesk reseller Microdesk. You can read his report in the new article, “A Night at the Embassy: An Inside Look at Selling BIM."

--RSN

Every year COFES releases a list before the event of confirmed attendees. This year’s roster of AEC-related attendees reveals a broad cross-section of industry thought leaders. 

Confirmed attendees include:

·         Bill Kemper, CEO, Magister Operis

·         Bob Mayer, COO, IMSI/Design

·         Bob McNeel, President, Robert McNeel & Associates

·         Bruce Bartolf, Vice-President & CTO, Gensler

·         Bruce Jenkins, President of Research, Spar Point Research

·         Carl Bass, President & CEO, Autodesk

·         Chuck Eastman, Professor & Director, Georgia Institute of Technology

·         Dallas Beddingfield, Research Analyst, Evolution Computing

·         David Jordani, President, Jordani Consulting Group

·         Deke Smith, Senior Analyst, Cyon Research

·         Dirk Johnson, IS Manager, Mortenson Construction

·         Evan Yares, President, Purecor

·         Gary D'Arcy, CEO, DRCauto

·         Grant Rochelle, Industry & Competitive Intellegence, Autodesk

·         Hans Ehrnrooth, President, Tekla

·         Ian Howell, CEO, Newforma

·         Jerry Laiserin, Editor/Analyst, The LaiserinLetter

·         Jesse Devitte, Managing Director, Borealis Ventures

·         Joe Morray, President, Trinity Technologies

·         Ken Hall, Manager of Sustainable Design Systems, Gensler

·         Khaled Moussa, Business Development Manager, Adobe Systems

·         Lowell Walmsley, Vice-President, Robert McNeel & Associates

·         Lynn Allen, Technical Evangelist, Autodesk

·         Malcolm Davies, CEO, GDM

·         Mark Andersen, Vice-President, Environmental Systems Design

·         Mark Butler, Senior Systems Analyst, HDR Architecture

·         Mark Kalin, President, Kalin Associates

·         Martin Fischer, Director, CIFE

·         Mauritz Botha, CTO, IMSI/Design

·         Mike Riddle, Chief Software Architect, Evolution Computing

·         Nail Sudin, President & CTO, ShareVis

·         Paul Kellenberger, President & CEO, Infinite Z

·         Peter Lawrence, Product Manager, Océ North America

·         Ragnar Wessman, CTO, Tekla

·         Rainer Gawlick, Vice-President Worldwide Marketing, SolidWorks

·         Rob Glasier, Executive Vice-President, Americas, AVEVA

·         Robert Anderson, Vice-President, Integrated Products, Nemetschek North America

·         Scott Green, Engineering Site Director, Google

·         Scott Vollmar, Director of Business Development, Autodesk

·         Scott Harris, Vice-President, New Product Concepts, SolidWorks

·         Scott Simmons, Vice-President of Research and Development, TechniGraphics

·         Stacy Doyle, PR Manager, Autodesk

Stacy Scopano, Business and Product Development Manager, Tekla
 

AECnews will, as always, be attending COFES. I’ve been to all nine; I look forward to this event every year.

  --RSN

Bentley announces today that Volker Mueller will become the company's new research director for computational design, part of Bentley's Applied Research group. Mueller has a resume well worth this new position; he has spent years on the cutting edge of both architectural practice and architectural software development.

Bentley says Mueller is responsible for “identifying and pursuing innovative ways to employ computation in the infrastructure design professions. In addition to exploring new approaches to rules-based design, generative design, and analytical design, he will investigate new opportunities for providing real-time design performance feedback to architects and engineers, as well as create the vision for future strategic initiatives.”

Mueller fills the void left by the departure several months ago of former Director of Research Dr. Robert Aish, who was the guiding light behind Bentley's GenerativeComponents initiative. Aish is now at Autodesk. Mueller will not be the pure research and theory guy Aish was, given his years in architecture practice at NBBJ and his former work auto.des.sys, Inc., where he contributed to the development of the 3D modeling package form.Z.

Mueller is an excellent fit for Bentley. He is an experienced user of Bentley software (NBBJ is one of Bentley's largest architectural clients), and he personally knows many of the people doing the cutting edge work in analytical design for architecture. His connections and experience mean that he will be less of a hands-on developer/researcher than Aish and more of an evangelist for the use of GenerativeComponents.

GenerativeComponents is an extention to Bentley Architecture software that facilitates the quick exploration of a broad range of “what-if” alternatives. You can also think of it as Bentley's entry in the sweepstakes to create software for “blobby architecture.” The leading software products right now for free-form architectural design are Rhino 3D from Robert McNeel and Associates, form.Z, ArchiCAD from the Graphisoft division of Nemetschek, VectorWorks from Nemetschek North America, Digital Project from Gehry Technologies (with help from Dassault Systemes) and Bentley's architectural line. Autodesk isn't in this race yet, but will be soon enough with Aish on board.

Companies already using GenerativeComponents include Arup, Buro Happold, Foster + Partners, Grimshaw Architects, HOK, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Morphosis, and SHoP Architects.

  --RSN

Specific details are still sketchy. Google says there will be no attendance fee, although attendees will be on their own for lodging, food, and travel. The program will include workshops, presentations, and hands-on sessions (hands-on if you bring your laptop).

On April 15th, the SketchUpdate newsletter, SketchUp Free Newsletter and Official Google SketchUp Blog will include a link to a website where readers can request an invitation. Google will randomly select up to 250 people to invite to the event from the requests received. The link will be open for seven days. “Since space is limited and we expect interest to be high,” says a note in this week’s SketchUpdate newsletter, “we think this is the fairest way to decide who will be invited to attend.”

AECnews attended the first SketchUp Basecamp in 2005; our coverage of the event was at that time our most highly read work. Since then, only our coverage of the Google purchase of SketchUp and some of Autodesk’s legal troubles have generated more page views. The total user base (both free and professional versions) is now in the millions thanks to the increased visibility SketchUp has received since the Google acquisition; I expect Google will be inundated with requests for a seat at the conference. (An opportunity to visit the legendary Googleplex will no doubt also stimulate interest.)

Here’s a summary of relevant dates:
April 15—Link to invitation sign-up announced in SketchUpdate, SketchUp Free Newsletter and SketchUp Blog
April 22—Sign-up ends at 11:00 pm US Pacific time (GMT-7)
April 25—Email notifications (invitation or waiting list) sent out
May 6—Email to invitees asking to confirm attendance
May 7-14—Second-round invitations extended to people on the waiting list
June 11-13—Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2008 in Mountain View, California

  --RSN

The all-star legal team representing eBay seller Timothy Vernor against Autodesk has filed a response to Autodesk’s defense. The 27-page document is—for a legal filing—exceptionally well-written and clear. It makes a strong case against current software licensing practices as practiced by many firms, not just Autodesk.

The following passage, taken from the document, gets to the heart of the case Vernor makes against Autodesk:

Although Autodesk primarily relies on copyright infringement as a basis for interfering with Vernor’s eBay sales, its brief at various points makes use of doctrines from both copyright and contract law. Only by improperly merging these concepts can Autodesk claim, on the one hand, that a purchaser’s consent to the terms of a license agreement overrides the Copyright Act’s explicit grant of the right to resell copyrighted works, and, on the other, that this rule applies even to those who have not consented to the terms of the agreement. Regardless of how Autodesk characterizes its claims, however, it has no right to cancel Vernor’s sale of authentic, lawfully purchased software.

Vernor makes his living selling on eBay, where he goes by the eBay handle “Happy Hour Comics.”  The legal response recaps the entire history of Vernor’s troubles that started when he acquired copies of AutoCAD Release 14 at a garage sale and tried to resell them, one by one, on eBay. Each time Vernor would post a copy of AutoCAD for sale, a lawyer representing Autodesk would ask eBay to remove the sale; Autodesk claimed in each instance that Vernor was violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). eBay would remove the sale, Vernor would appeal, and eBay would allow the sale to continue. After several such sequences, eBay cancelled Vernor’s account. It took over a month for Vernor to regain the ability to sell on eBay, his sole source of income. After that, without benefit of legal help, Vernor filed a federal lawsuit against Autodesk. Based on AECnews’ original coverage of the case, the non-profit public watchdog agency Public Citizen offered to provide legal council to Vernor. Public Citizen had been looking for an opportunity to test the validity of software licensing schemes in federal court, and saw the Vernor case as the ideal opportunity. Later, famed Seattle lawyer Michael Withey  also joined the Vernor legal team. Withey is best known as the attorney who successfully sued former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in US court, winning a judgment in the millions for his clients.

CAD industry analyst Evan Yares, former Executive Director of the Open Design Alliance, comments:  

This is a very solid piece of work. It is clear and convincing. And it is exceptionally well-argued, citing every piece of important law relevant to the case. Vernor's attorney simply takes apart every argument that Autodesk's attorneys make, and exposes them to the bright glare of daylight. He leaves no obfuscation unclarified—from the opposing attorney's careful commingling of contract and copyright law, to their seemingly sloppy (but actually carefully constructed) blurring of ownership.

It is important to understand that this case is not about Autodesk.  And it's not about the DMCA.  It's about making big time case law, setting bounds and limits on software license agreements.  Autodesk has nothing to gain, and everything to lose. They're the defendant... and it's a declaratory judgment case.  There is no discovery to take, no way to run up Vernor's legal costs. There is no money to win, only money to lose. If Autodesk gets this case dismissed on a technicality, another case will come along that doesn't have the technicality. If they win, they're no better than status quo. But the reality is that they are likely to lose.  And, if Autodesk does lose, the entire software industry's argument that software doesn't fall under the Uniform Commercial Code falls apart.   

Links:
Text of Vernor Response to Autodesk with Request for Oral Arguments, as Filed in US District Court
Watchdog Agency Public Citizen Agrees to Represent eBay Seller Vernor in Suit Against Autodesk
Commenting Readers Run Amok about eBay Seller’s Autodesk Lawsuit
Letters in the Vernor Versus Autodesk Case
Vernor Stands Firm in CCNtv Interview
Vernor Gives Autodesk No Ground in CCNtv Interview
eBay Seller Sues Autodesk for $10 Million
The Man Who Dared to Sell AutoCAD Release 14 on eBay
Vernor No Longer In It Just For The Money (Mature warning)

   --RSN

Technorati Tags: eBay Autodesk copyright digital Millennium suit property rights shrink+wrap

Three thirteen-year-old students from Westerville, Ohio are the 2008 winners of the National Engineers Week Future City Competition. They took top honors in the competition with a design for Ra, a city in the Egyptian desert that "provides an ideal quality of life for all citizens."

Glen Gainer, Emma Henderson, and Jeremy Boyd, of Heritage Middle School in Westerville, Ohio, were given support in their winning effor by their teacher Debra Pellington, and volunteer mentor, Ted Beidler, P.E., from Franklin County Engineers.

Teams from 36 middle schools nationwide, winners of regional competitions in January, participated in the Future City National Finals, February 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

From the Heritage team’s Future City abstract:
Like the glorious temple Amon-Ra, honoring the Egyptian Sun God RA, the ultimate city of the sun rises out of the vast sands of majestic Egypt. An engineering marvel, the city of RA was designed to provide an ideal quality of life for all citizens. A flourishing economy is evident in the revolutionary mixed-use Green Living Modules (GLM) and the state-of-the-art EIRS 3000 Educational System. The EIRS provides interactive learning experiences utilizing the latest in educational intercommunication, the Nanosence Glove.

Energy engineers employ a five-point energy system to maximize energy efficiency throughout RA. The use of flexible solar panels, sprayable solar cells, and desert solar farms harness the sun’s energy to the fullest potential. Hydropower in the Nile River and Mediterranean Sea regions, biomass, wind farms and Ewind Towers, located on the upper levels of commercial and industrial structures, all provide renewable power options. Finally, nanoparticles produce hydrogen through photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, completing a clean energy picture.

“Solar cell” phones and holographic image converters provide citizens wireless communication options. Energy engineers have also applied solar technology in the production of pure water through the innovative NanoPure Water System. In conjunction with cost effective nanocatalysts, solar power successfully treats wastewater.

A prosperous economy, progressive research centers, multi-modal forms of transportation, unparalleled recreational facilities, a first rate educational system, an environmentally sound energy strategy, as well as the latest in nanotechnological advancements make RA the ultimate paradise.

Second place went to Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York for their Future City, Mohala. The Farnsworth team, which won the Capital District competition held on January 19 at Hudson Valley Community Center in Troy is comprised of students Kathryn Liotta, Hannah Liu and Brien Miceli, teacher Deborah Escobar and engineer mentor James Liotta.

Our Lady Help of Christians School in Abington, Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia regional competition held January 26 in Villanova took third place honors for their Future City, “Port Tranquility.” The team is comprised of Paul Gennaro, Kiersten Moore, and Maura Nolan, teacher Jane Ring and engineer mentor Julie Gennaro.

Fourth place went to Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and fifth place to Queen of Angels Catholic School in Roswell, Georgia. Queen of Angels also won the special award for Best Essay and Westridge Middle School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas won Best Model.

The Future City National Finals is hosted by Bentley Systems. Bentley also provides the first prize for the Heritage team – a trip to US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. All regional winning teams received an all-expense-paid trip to Washington for the National Finals. Future City is sponsored in part by the National Engineers Week Foundation, a coalition comprising more than 75 engineering, professional, and technical societies and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Engineers Week 2008, February 17-23, is co-chaired by the IBM and the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA). Shell Oil Company is a major contributor to the Future City National Finals and a primary funder of nine regional competitions. The 2008 Essay sponsor is The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

IDX Variable Constraint System incorporates the D-Cubed 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager from Siemens PLM Software. This is the same core engine typically available in much more expensive parametric modeling programs including Autodesk Inventor, CATIA and SolidWorks by Dassault Systemes, and Solid Edge by Siemens PLM Software.

The IDX Variable Constraint System is currently available for AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD 2008 base editions. It will be priced at US $499, but is currently available for no charge through public beta at www.IDX-design.com.  

Believing that current design processes are inefficient when using traditional methods, Onuma, Inc., whose mission is simply “Revolutionize Architecture,” is coordinating this unusual and possibly historic architectural technology event. Nemetschek North America (NNA) is co-sponsoring and participating with a team (“Team V”), along with professionals from rojo Architecture in Tampa, Florida, and Shook Kelley, Inc., in Charlotte, North Carolina.

BIMStorm will use the Onuma Planning System to leverage industry-standard file formats for building information exchange (most notably IFC) in a graphic, collaborative environment. “We think of the BIMStorm events as ‘Rapid City Prototyping,’ using the Onuma Planning System,” says Robert Anderson, Nemetschek North America’s vice president of integrated products. NNA’s Team V will be using VectorWorks Architecture 2008.

The plan is to use IFC-compatible software to increase the speed and value of a design charrette. Kinom Onuma, principal of Onuma, Inc, plans to submit the entire BIMStorm LAX project and process to the 2008 AIA Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP) BIM Awards as the first-of-a-kind, real-time submittal to the BIM Awards.

  --RSN

Bentley has acquired Hevacomp, Ltd., a Sheffield, England provider of building services design software. Included in its portfolio is software for energy analysis, heating and cooling load calculations, pipe and duct sizing, and electrical system design and product catalogs.

This acquisition should help Bentley regain some lost momentum in the market. AECnews is aware of several Bentley accounts that have been testing and deploying Autodesk Revit specifically because of its tight links to the "green" analysis products from IES (Integrated Environmental Solutions).

Hevacomp solutions use the EnergyPlus engine, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. It also has software certified to perform CO2 emissions calculations required under Part L of the U.K. building regulations. Hevacomp’s simulation software helps engineers and low-carbon consultants carry out complex energy analyses to examine room heat losses and gains, summer overheating, peak design months, overheating frequency, and building energy. It also produces 3D external shading graphics and internal solar penetration graphics that show moving sunshine patches within rooms.

Hevacomp building services offerings also include mechanical design packages for load calculations, pipe and duct sizing, and mechanical CAD; electrical design applications conforming to international wiring regulations, including lighting systems design applications and electrical CAD.

  --RSN

Herskovitz will describes his firm’s involvement in such projects as the Alice Tully Hall renovation at Lincoln Center, by Diller Scofidio & Renfro; EMPAC, Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, by Grimshaw Architects (with Davis Brody Bond), and Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, by Rafael Viñoly Architects.

“The digital world has allowed architects to design ever more complexly shaped buildings, but the means and methods for contractors to keep up with and implement such complexity is often lagging behind,” notes Paul Seletsky, chair of the AIANY technology committee. “What may be needed is a specialized team to help decipher design information and make it more accessible to all the trades involved, both during fabrication as well as in the field.”

The current problem with such a specialized team is, who pays for this service? As Seletsky notes, it is never budgeted and often ignored until well too late into the construction phase. Owners are often not aware of issues or conflicts in what they inherently expect to be a coordinated set of drawings. Yet the existing contractors tools needed to check and coordinate 2D construction drawings are clearly outweighed by ever more sophisticated fabrication methods and assembly requirements.

As Herskovitz will explain in his presentation, Virtual Building works by building a 3D digital model from the construction drawings produced as part of the traditional contract documents. In this manner, contractors can then visualize conflicts and ask important questions earlier in their projects, ultimately reducing costs and time usually associated occurring during construction. The Virtual Building, as part of the Virtual Building Process, then uses collaborative construction techniques to jointly resolve such conflicts amongst all the trades through enhanced 3D visualization of all components and assemblies.

AWI is one such company whose work over the past fifteen years has increasingly been tied to this new approach as a means of fabricating and installing fine architectural woodwork and specialty finishes. Based on the success of its experience, AWI now implements fabrication directly from such virtual models as common practice on almost all its projects.

Herskovitz earned his degree in architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and is a registered architect in several states. He worked for his mentor Louis I Kahn, followed by work in urban design, transportation planning, and large-scale construction projects while heading Urban Engineers Architectural Group in Philadelphia. As a member of the Architectural Woodwork Institute he has authored several articles on woodwork, veneer, finishing, and project management; chaired many woodwork industry committees, and recently spoke at the AIA Convention in Los Angeles. He and his firm have been advocates for 3D modeling on all aspects of architectural projects through open dialogue and planning between owners, architects, engineers, construction managers, and the construction trades.

The presentation is Wednesday, January 16 at 6:00pm at the Center for Architecture. 536 LaGuardia Place (Between Bleecker and W.3rd Street), Main Lecture Hall (Lower Level), NYC.  Seating is limited, and an RSVP is required; send email to paul (dot) seletsky (at) som.com.

Manhattan transportation options to the event: 

• 6/F Trains to Bleecker St./BWay-Lafayette (Walk 3 blocks West+1 block North).    
• N,R Trains to Prince St (Walk 2 blocks West+2 blocks North)
• A/C/E/F Trains to W4th St (Walk 3 blocks East+1 block South)

Earlier this month, without fanfare, Adobe did some adjustments to its retail prices and in the process dropped the price of Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8. The original suggested retail price had been US$995; the new suggested retail price is US$699.

The updated price is reflected on the online store (www.adobe.com/buy/acrobat3d/) of the Adobe web site.

According to a company representative, Adobe does ongoing pricing analysis of its products, "and based on recent research believes the new price of Acrobat 3D will help make the product accessible to an even larger set of individuals and organizations in the manufacturing and AEC markets."

By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief

[Editor’s Note: AECnews is unable to display photographs consistently. This article, with photographs, is also published at 3D CAD News.]

An estimated 2,000 citizens of Xujiahui, China (near Shanghai) have taken to the streets this week in what one participant calls “silence and peaceful” protest of a planned rerouting of an extension to the world’s first Maglev (magnetic levitation) train. The group’s stated goal is to embarrass the German financiers of the project by drawing attention to what they believe are inherent environmental and social dangers.

Our source in Xujiahui explains, “As you may understand we may have no power to fight with the government here, but we may try on Germany side. They should understand that they act against the human rights of Chinese people.” The frustration that brings them to the streets, our source says, is rooted in their understanding of safe distances for Maglev placement. “In Germany, they put the safe line at 300 meters for a Maglev line, while in China they put only 22.5 meters as the safe line. … No real Chinese people want Maglev at our homes.”

The protestors believe that the tight distances will expose residents to unhealthy magnetic radiation, as well as increase the possibility of a serious accident should the Maglev train somehow leave its track. Some residents in the public protests carry small posters of a skull with the slogan “Against Maglev.” The photos we have received show families and persons of all ages participating in the protests.

The initial planned path for the line also drew protest, so last week Shanghai authorities changed the original plan, shortening the total length of the line by three kilometers, increasing underground routes, and avoiding some densely-populated neighborhoods. But now Xujiahui residents, closer to the line under the change, are unhappy and are taking to the streets.

Maglev technology was first developed in Germany in the mid 20^th Century; a line built from downtown Shanghai to the airport in 2003 was the first commercial project, built using joint German-Chinese financing. The Chinese government announced in 2007 that any additional construction of Maglev lines would use largely Chinese technology and investment, despite the initial involvement of German interests.

Transrapid, the German manufacturer and developer of the technology, describes Maglev as “the first fundamental innovation in the field of railway technology since the invention of the railway.” A guideway directs the passage of the train, while powerful magnets lift the train 10 mm. Other magnets provide propulsion and braking. In tests, the trains can run as fast as 500 kph. Transrapid uses a CAD/PLM combination of CATIA V5 and SAP/R3 for design and engineering.

Founded in 1980, A/E/C SYSTEMS quickly became the must-attend event for learning about new computer-based technology for AEC, GIS, and EDM. Many successful firms today owe their start to attracting customer attention at these shows. At its peak in the late 1990’s, A/E/C SYSTEMS International, Inc., produced the largest CAD and IT-related productivity events for design professionals in the world. Encompassing over a dozen major concurrent shows-within-a-show directed to all segments of the design/construction community, the A/E/C SYSTEMS main event had grown to annually attract 25,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors in more than 1,400 booths. A second fall event attracted 6,000 attendees to a 400 booth show. Additionally there were seven licensed events running internationally. The company also published AEC Computer Solutions magazine, subscribed to by some 30,000 design professionals. In 1997, the shows, licenses, and magazine were sold to Penton Media.

Carl Howk, Chairman of PlantSuccess, LLC, comments: “During the years I owned and published A-E-C Automation Newsletter, we were involved with the A/E/C SYSTEMS show and co-founder Mike Hough. For many years, Mike’s extensive experience, knowledge and positive demeanor contributed substantially to this successful annual event. By this association, Mike also has contributed to the success we’ve had with PlantSuccess over recent years; he will be missed.”

AECNews Publisher emeritus David Weisberg comments: “I first met Michael in the mid-1980s when I was a marketing manager at Auto-trol Technology. This positive relationship continued throughout the 1990’s while I was publisher of Engineering Automation Report and later A-E-C Automation Newsletter. I always found Michael to be a true gentleman and a pleasure to work with. The industry has lost one of its pioneers.”

Hough was a 1963 graduate in civil engineering from Manhattan College in New York. He worked for the Federal Highway Administration and The Maguire Group before co-founding A/E/C SYSTEMS. Hough was a founding member of the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) and lectured and wrote extensively on the various aspects of producing tradeshows, including authoring two books. After selling A/E/C SYSTEMS, he went on to become a business consultant and private investor. 

A/E/C SYSTEMS co-founder George Borkovich remembers: “Mike was the most influential person in my professional career. When no one else would step up to fund my idea for the SYSTEMS show, he recognized the importance of the subject and provided the cash to make it happen. Together we launched the first show in 1980, me handling content and him marketing and promotion. We remained partners on it for 17 years, before selling the business to Penton Media in 1997. I will miss him.”  

Dr. Joel N. Orr, Chief Visionary Officer at Cyon Research, remembers: "Mike Hough was the kind of guy with whom I enjoyed interacting. Conversations with him were always to the point, and I always knew that whatever we talked about would be backed up with action. He developed unusual expertise in a difficult and competitive field - trade shows. He understood the business profoundly, and was able to help others with his knowledge. More than anything, I knew Mike as a 'straight shooter' - a decent person. I'm glad to have known him. I'll miss him."

The family requests contributions in honor of Michael Hough’s memory be made to the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 628, Hartford, CT 06103. For condolences please visit: www.carmonfuneralhome.com. His personal obituary may be read at: http://www.legacy.com/HartfordCourant/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=100463280.

  --RSN