DesignTracking: Track and Replay BIM-based Design Process

Among different phases of the life cycle of a building or facility, design is of the utmost importance to ensure safety, efficiency and sustainability of the building or facility. How to control and improve design quality and efficiency has been explored for years, and more studies emerged with the popularization of Building Information Modelling (BIM). However, most of them focused on the extraction of design behaviors, while paying less attention to how a design is formed. Therefore, this study proposes an approach to tracking and replaying the BIM-based design process by integrating data logging and 4D visualization techniques. First of all, potential design behaviors and procedures are analyzed and extracted by observing how a designer designs a BIM model. Meanwhile, the required data for logging design process is defined and a relevant method to collect these data is developed based on the APIs of BIM software. Then, strategies on how to visualize different design procedures are designed and implemented via 4D visualization. Finally, a prototype system is developed based on Autodesk Revit and validated through a case study. Result shows that the proposed approach enables intuitively and interactively review of the design process, and makes it easier to understand design behaviors and even identify potential pitfalls, thus improving the design efficiency and quality

PENGGUNAAN SOFTWARE CABRI 3D DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA UPAYA MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN VISUALISASI SPASIAL MATEMATIS SISWA

The purpose of this study was to improve the mathematical spatial visualization ability of SMK (vocational high school) students through learning with Cabri 3D software on space geometry material. The study used quasi experimental method with posttest control group design. Experiments were conducted in two classes each used learning with Cabri 3D software, and conventional learning. The population used in this study was the students of class XI TKJ 2 SMK Rosma with 30 students as samples. Data collection techniques used in this study included spatial visualization ability test, the observation of students dan teachers’ activities, and students’ response questionnaire to learning with Cabri 3D software. The results of data analysis showed that learning used Cabri 3D software provided an improvement to the ability of mathematical spatial visualization on space geometry material. Learning with 3D cabri software had a positive impact between students’ activities and students' mathematical spatial visualization

Visual literacy and the integration of parametric modeling in the problem-based curriculum

This quasi-experimental study investigated the application of visual literacy skills in the form of parametric modeling software in relation to traditional forms of sketching. The study included two groups of high school technical design students. The control and experimental groups involved in the study consisted of two randomly selected groups of students. The participants were exposed to eight weeks of technical drawing and parametric modeling instruction prior to the start of the study. The potential applications of emerging technologies for the purpose of integrating visual literacy into the curriculum are not fully understood. Society is moving towards a more immediate form of communication (Galante, 2011). Visual forms of communication are becoming more prevalent methods for sending and receiving information. Research suggests that visual literacy skills have a correlation to the ability to problem solve, which ultimately can be beneficial to student learning (Matusitz, 2005). The application of visual literacy skills through the use of parametric modeling software may provide students with better learning experiences in visualization, conceptualization, and communication of images that will allow them to become better problem-solvers. Through this study, the researcher focused on the relationships between the independent and dependent variables in order to perform a statistical analysis of the data. The participants of the study were presented with a pre-test, a treatment, and a post-test relating to visual literacy. The treatment was presented to the participants in the form of a technical design problem that required the participants to apply problem-solving skills in order to devise a solution through the use of either traditional forms of sketching or through the use of parametric modeling. Data were collected and recorded in order to assess the outcome and effects of the variable. Although the research suggests that there is a correlation between visual literacy skills and the ability to solve problems, this particular study failed to show this correlation. Struggling learners showed no improvement in visualization skills after using parametric modeling software. The two methods used to create the technical design problem showed no statistical significance between the success of the design and the method that was used to create the design. No statistical differences were found between the visualization skills of any of the participants regardless of the methods used in the study. In addition, gender seemed not to be a significant factor in the study when comparing the visualization skills of the participants. There are recommendations, based on the results of this study, for future investigation in this area. Increasing the duration of the study over the course of a school term, could produce different results that were difficult to determine by the limited time constraints of this particular study. Other testing methods could be investigated for future studies that could produce additional information that was not produced in this study. Limiting the prior knowledge of the participants could also produce different results in the outcome of visualization skills. Investigating specific demographics that were not included in this study would also be of interest to be the academic community

An Interactive Visualization Web Application for Industrial-Focused Statistical Process Control Analysis

Statistical process control (SPC) implementation plays a major role in quality assurance during the manufacturing process. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of SPC commercial software solutions is unsatisfactory in most Malaysian manufacturing companies due to high software subscription costs and difficulties in applying the software without proper know-how, guidance, and training. This study proposes the development of a purpose-built interactive data visualization web application for rapid SPC analysis in the manufacturing industry using open-sourced software packages. An agile software development model is applied as the software development methodology. In the requirement phase, an interview session was conducted to identify project requirements among stakeholders, i.e. industrial practitioners that are involved with SPC analysis. Based on the feedback and expectations from stakeholders, a design of a web application for SPC analysis that incorporates interactive parameter settings and automated reporting was proposed. The web application was developed using the R programming language and the Shiny package library, and deployed at ShinyApps.io, a web service provider. For evaluation, a usability testing procedure was designed and conducted with five industrial SPC practitioners to determine the usefulness of the web application. The outcome of the usability testing indicated positive results and feedback from evaluators. In conclusion, the developed web-app can assist users, particularly from the manufacturing industry sectors, to perform fast SPC data analytics, visualization, and reporting with ease

Software Visualization in 3D: Implementation, Evaluation, and Applicability

The focus of this thesis is on the implementation, the evaluation and the useful application of the third dimension in software visualization. Software engineering is characterized by a complex interplay of different stakeholders that produce and use several artifacts. Software visualization is used as one mean to address this increasing complexity. It provides role- and task-specific views of artifacts that contain information about structure, behavior, and evolution of a software system in its entirety. The main potential of the third dimension is the possibility to provide multiple views in one software visualization for all three aspects. However, empirical findings concerning the role of the third dimension in software visualization are rare. Furthermore, there are only few 3D software visualizations that provide multiple views of a software system including all three aspects. Finally, the current tool support lacks of generating easy integrateable, scalable, and platform independent 2D, 2.5D, and 3D software visualizations automatically. Hence, the objective is to develop a software visualization that represents all important structural entities and relations of a software system, that can display behavioral and evolutionary aspects of a software system as well, and that can be generated automatically. In order to achieve this objective the following research methods are applied. A literature study is conducted, a software visualization generator is conceptualized and prototypically implemented, a structured approach to plan and design controlled experiments in software visualization is developed, and a controlled experiment is designed and performed to investigate the role of the third dimension in software visualization. The main contributions are an overview of the state-of-the-art in 3D software visualization, a structured approach including a theoretical model to control influence factors during controlled experiments in software visualization, an Eclipse-based generator for producing automatically role- and task-specific 2D, 2.5D, and 3D software visualizations, the controlled experiment investigating the role of the third dimension in software visualization, and the recursive disk metaphor combining the findings with focus on the structure of software including useful applications of the third dimension regarding behavior and evolution

Extending UML-RT for Control System Modelling

There is a growing interest in adopting object technologies for the development of real-time control systems. Several commercial tools, currently available, provide object-oriented modeling and design support for real-time control systems. While these products provide many useful facilities, such as visualization tools and automatic code generation, they are all weak in addressing the central characteristic of real-time control systems design, i.e., providing support for a designer to reason about timeliness properties. We believe an approach that integrates the advancements in both object modeling and design methods and real-time scheduling theory is the key to successful use of object technology for real-time software. Surprisingly several past approaches to integrate the two either restrict the object models, or do not allow sophisticated schedulability analysis techniques. This study shows how schedulability analysis can be integrated with UML for Real-Time (UML-RT) to deal with timing properties in real time control systems. More specifically, we develop the schedulability and feasibility analysis modeling for the external messages that may suffer release jitter due to being dispatched by a tick driven scheduler in real-time control system and we also develop the scheduliablity modeling for sporadic activities, where messages arrive sporadically then execute periodically for some bounded time. This method can be used to cope with timing constraints in realistic and complex real-time control systems. Using this method, a designer can quickly evaluate the impact of various implementation decisions on schedulability. In conjunction with automatic code-generation, we believe that this will greatly streamline the design and development of real-time control systems software

Algorithm-Program Visualization Model : An Intergrated Software Visualzation To Support Novices' Programming Comprehension

Computer programming is the essential foundation for the other basic skills in Information Technology knowledge areas. Success in this field requires complex knowledge and skill. Mostly, conventional programming courses have been delivered based on the programming textbooks with professional developer tools which focus on the syntax or semantic through the coding task. The role of Software Visualization (SV) has been involved to overcome the complexity and problems in the learning programming. It represents the abstractness of the program in graphical views or illustrations of its entities. Nevertheless, the outcome of the learning still remains poor. Through multi-methodological approach, this research aimed to improve the effectiveness of the visualization as the program comprehension tool. It is found that the interrelated tasks in the programming process, with its various abstractions, and timing in delivering the feedback, need to be addressed with the equal attention in learning to program. Taking into account from those main issues, this study introduces the new model of integrated algorithm-program visualization (ALPROV) for developing program comprehension tool. This model is then to be used in the prototype tool development that is called 3De-ALPROV (Design Development Debug – Algorithm Program Visualization). The efficacy evaluation of the prototype is based on pre- and post- test of the students’ programming performance. The programming performances from the treatment and control group are compared to analyze the effect of using the proposed tool in learning programming. Respondents are first-year bachelor students who lack of programming knowledge and experience.Analysis proved that using the program comprehension tool, which has been developed using integrated ALPROV model significantly improved the treatment group’s programming performance. Conducting other experiments as the extended study, such as seek for a larger group of respondents, conduct the experiments throughout the necessary period, and use various methods for programming assessment and analysis may improve the findings of this research

Evaluation of user response by using visual cues designed to direct the viewer's attention to the main scene in an immersive environment

Today the visualization of 360-degree videos has become a means to live immersive experiences.. However, an important challenge to overcome is how to guide the viewers attention to the video main scene, without interrupting the immersion experience and the narrative thread. To meet this challenge, we have developed a software prototype to assess three approaches: Arrows, Radar and Auto Focus. These are based on visual guidance cues used in first person shooter games such as: Radar-Sonar, Radar-Compass and Arrows. In the study a questionnaire was made to evaluate the comprehension of the narrative, the user's perspective with respect to the design of the visual cues and the usability of the system. In addition, data was collected on the movement of the user's head, in order to analyze the focus of attention. The study used statistical methods to perform the analysis, the results show that the participants who used some visual cue (any of these) showed significant improvements compared to the control group (without using visual cues) in finding the main scene. With respect to narrative compression, significant improvements were obtained in the user group that used Radar and Auto Focus compared to the control group

The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation