Architectural Draftsman AR Tool

Introduction

Simplify your design process for either architects or architectural draftsmen. See your creations in real life, right on your phone before finalizing the product.

As seen in the screenshots of the application, it is possible to choose what object you want to place (Capsule, Cube, or Sphere). After placing it will stay in place, and you can move around freely and place a new object somewhere else, independently of the objects placed prior to that.

Description

Description of the application

The application Architectural Draftsman AR Tool is for simplifying the design process by leveraging augmented reality (AR), especially within the architectural field of work. Inspired by a personal connection to architecture and wanting to simplify the design process in the industry. The application is focused on making the visualization of the architectural spaces easier.

The application serves as a virtual visualization tool, specifically aimed towards architects and architectural draftsmen. Whether it is entire buildings or inside of a building, the goal is to simplify the setup and visualization of architectural designs and create a more realistic way for the user to interact with and see their creations before finalizing it.

The aim of the application is to give a user-friendly tool to simplify the process of viewing and interacting with the product that is being worked with. For architects working with modular buildings, they can use the open space where the building is and virtually construct buildings using different kinds of modules like building something with LEGO’s. For the architectural draftsman the application offers them the freedom to change the different objects within a building designing the different rooms with ease. It allows for detailed planning and evaluation before finalizing any of their design choices. Just as described in the article Is there a reality in Industrial Augmented Reality? by Pierre Fite-Georgel “One of AR's first area of application was architectural design, where virtual models are rendered onto photos to illustrate the visual impact of a proposed architectural project. Since then it has been used to ease the development of many other products such as cars and planes.” AR is already being used to plan design processes and visualize before building them, which only argues for the case to keep building on top of that, and create more tools for working with AR and simplifying some of the processes.

Description of the interface solution

The significance of using AR in Architectural Draftsman AR Tool as the interface, is that it enhances the visualization of the final product, before the product has even been constructed. Whether it is a building, or the layout of what is inside of the building, the application can end up saving both time and money, since by being an AR application it is essentially a window for the user to see their idea in real life before it might be too late or costly to change it. It allows for real time design modifications and to see how different parts fit into the space before filling it. With the application being AR, it makes it easy to navigate through the space that is being utilized. Taking what the future might bring for AR technology into consideration, and the evolution of this application for something like AR glasses, would allow even more creative freedom for the user, whilst creating their product. The article Service innovation: Using augmented reality in the IKEA Place app by Selcen Ozturkcan, describes how AR simplifies the task of placing furniture in peoples how, and helps the costumer better choose what fits their home. The same idea applies to this application, since it is meant to simplify the choices for the architectural draftsman and help them get a better feeling for the room they are working with. As Ozturkcan describes, AR enhances real-world experiences through virtual objects and interactions, which has been achived in IKEA Place, and is the goal of this app as well.

 

Interaction Design

The interactions in Architectural Draftsman AR Tool are needed to place different objects into reality through the user’s mobile device. The interactions are simply clicking on the object you want to place, and then click on where you want it to be placed.

The storyboard illustrates the potential usage of the application in future scenarios. As seen, there is an empty spot between two buildings, where an architect pulls out his phone, opens the application, clicks on the screen to place the building, and after a while the building is fully constructed, and placed there in real life.

The application so far has two interactions so far, being able to place the object through the application, and being able to choose which object you want to place. For future development on the app, the goal is to be able to manipulate the items as well after placing them.

 

Initial Technical Development

Unity was used for this assignment, since it allows for easy integration with AR Core, and thereby makes it an optimal choice for the development tool. To test the application a standard android mobile device was used.

From the very beginning it was chosen to use AR Core for the application, since it easily compatible with Unity and allows the user to trace their surroundings through the phone. At first was the very basics of setting it up in Unity and just being able to trace the floor and walls, to get it started. The second step in the process of developing the app was enabling the ability to place objects in the AR space. This step was not too complicated since there is a lot of help to get on the very basics of working with AR Core in Unity. Thereafter was the manipulation of the object, and after some time used on figuring out how to manipulate objects in AR, the possibility to move, scale, and rotate an object became a possibility. After this was achieved, a lot of difficulties came with figuring out how to make it so that not just one, but multiple objects could be placed through the application. Through a lot of time spent on how to complete this task, a comprehensive guide on how to achieve this was found. Augmented Reality(AR) tutorial with Unity (Make Real world Applications) by JoystickLab, helped a lot in building this prototype of the application and is essentially the reason the application is able to be functional, and it is now possible to place multiple different objects with the application. For the future development of the application, the goal would be to be able to manipulate the different objects individually, which would essentially finalize the applications functionality.

 

Initial 3D Models

The initial models for the prototype are simply basic shapes that already exist in Unity a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder. The decision to use these basic shapes was made, since this early stage of the application is only meant to showcase what it can do and eventually become. Therefore, better looking models will be integrated for the next version of the application.

 

Conclusion

The application Architectural Draftsman AR Tool utilizes AR to help architects and draftsmen visualize and interact with architectural designs before finalizing them. The app allows users to place and move 3D objects like cubes and spheres in a virtual space using their phone. This enhances design visualization, potentially saving time and costs. The app's interface is user-friendly, and future improvements may involve AR glasses. Technical development involved using Unity and AR Core, starting with basic 3D shapes as models for demonstration, with plans to enhance them in future versions. Overall, the app simplifies the design process, aiding in better decision-making and smoother workflows for designers.

 

References

Industrial AR article:

Fite-Georgel, Pierre. “Is there a reality in Industrial Augmented Reality?” University of North at Capital Hill, March 05, 2012.

IKEA Place article:

Ozturkcan, Selcen. “Service innovation: Using augmented reality in the IKEA Place app” Sage Journals, August 13, 2020.

JoystickLab AR guide:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb1h4A0yB978SQuAeBsxup--7ITPCashH