otbdesignworks.com

A VBE™ in a game engine?

Chuck Gailey — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:13:04 +0000

The Game is on! Ian, our in-house gaming and programming ninja has been working on integrating our VBE™ assets into game environments to provide a more immersive and intimate method for our clients to utilize the VBE™. This particular example is more of a proof of concept than a finished product, but I think the benefits are obvious. Still some tweaks to improve the overall experience, but we thought this was worth sharing. Our next endeavor is to get these games onto the iPad and iPhone/Android platforms and integrate gestural navigation control.

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

Work in Progress VBE™

Chuck Gailey — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:05:09 +0000

It has been OTB’s pleasure to be involved with a new, extremely complicated project that will showcase the power and usefulness of virtual builds in the high end residential market.

We work closely with the general contractor, project managers, the architect, and the sub contractors to capture the reality of the home, long before fabrication commences. In what is turning out to be standard operating procedure, we begin by mirroring the existing blueprints and specifications and then utilizing the resulting VBE™ to analyze, trouble shoot, and assist in finalizing any changes to the design deemed necessary.

This VBE™ shows many of the tools we have at our disposal to capture, as close as possible, the actual reality of the site and the structure. We initially shot panoramic pictures of the site at a few pertinent locations and then “wrapped” the model with the image, using natural landmarks to align the picture to the 3D topography we generated from the surveyor’s topo maps. This is a fussy and maddeningly tedious detail due to the realities of parallax, focal length, and the lack of a margin for errors that aren’t visually apparent.

For the first time in our experience, we were lucky enough to have a heating and cooling company that designs their systems in 3D! While their raw exports were unusable in our VBE™, they were fantastic for “tracing” to create our optimized geometry. And it is always nice to meet a fellow 3D warrior! The revolution is coming!

Youtube Success Story

Chuck Gailey — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:39:37 +0000

OTB just passed 63,000 unique views on Youtube! And more significantly, we have gone from 11,000 to 63,000 in less than 2 months. Thank you, everyone, for your continued interest and involvement with OTB.

Long Time, No Update

Chuck Gailey — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:35:28 +0000

Just a quick update about our recent goings on. We have been very busy with a slew of new and interesting projects. In what may be a trend for the future, almost everything we have been working on recently is covered under non-disclosure agreements. It is great to be so busy and excited for the future, but it sure makes it hard to keep our social media cloud updated with recent work. Suffice to say that we are working on projects in 4 different states and are deeply immersed in designing timber frame assemblies, creating architectural visualization products, and designing extensive remodels.

As well, we are currently working very hard to create a innovative and paradigm changing business plan that we will be using to pursue investors for taking OTB to the next level of inovation with the design and visualization services we provide. Can’t go into too much detail, but developing hardware, software, and training aids all feature heavily in our ever evolving plan for the future.

Timber Frame VBE™

Chuck Gailey — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:47:48 +0000

This is the VBE™ for a complicated timber frame assembly that was designed to integrate with an existing steel moment frame. To add to the complexity, the structure was in Colorado and the frame was cut in both Montana and Ohio. After shipping across the country, everything clicked together like legos. This would have not been the case if we hadn’t discovered, while creating the VBE™, that the moment frame had been designed so that the entire great room truss system would have been uninstallable. Having caught this in the virtual build, we were able to redesign and fix the frame before the wood arrived on site and everything was smooth after that.

The Hollander Timber Frame has been raised!

Chuck Gailey — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:49:16 +0000

It with much anticipation and satisfaction the we can announce that the Hollander frame is complete and standing on her foundation in New York! After taking the frame down in Montana, loading it onto 3 semis and shipping it across the country, loading 2 large job boxes with tools and hardware and shipping them, too, and then the four of us flying to New York and putting it back together, it is almost with surprise that everything went together flawlessly.

The weather was, other than two cold and rainy days, amazingly perfect; the on site guys were wonderfully helpful and capable; and with no missing pieces or hardware, the house really did just click together. Well, there may have been a few moments using 20 ton jacks and 2 ton come-alongs, but, after the frame had stood outside for over a year in Montana, been disassembled, shipped, and reassembled, it is a testament to what precision joinery and fabrication allow for that the frame was such a joy to put back together.

It may take some time to compile all of the pictures and video, but we do have a time lapse of the entire 12 days for you to enjoy right now.

First truck rolls out

Chuck Gailey — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:23:09 +0000

After a colossal week of taking down the frame, labeling, fine-tuning, organizing and stacking, the first semi is on the way to NY! 2 more to go, and then we are off to NY. Very exciting and looking forward to a smooth raising, with no weather issues.

Frame Coming Down

Chuck Gailey — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:26:07 +0000

Whew! After 3 massive days, we have disassembled all of the Hollander frame, except for the floor system, in preparation for shipping next week. Definitely a little emotional watching our baby come down for the last time, but also very excited to hand her off to KIm and Steve for the rest of their lives. It has been an honor and a privilege to work on such an amazing project and we appreciate the artistic and technical freedom the Hollanders afforded us.

Box Beam and Flooring VBE™

Chuck Gailey — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:03:59 +0000

This VBE™ concept portrays box beams and intricate patterned flooring designs for a custom residential project. Created over the course of 2 months, this project is located 2500 miles from OTB Designworks, was fabricated 1000 miles from the site and installed by the on site contractors, this project is a perfect example of the power of the VBE™. Please call us at 406.250.7022 for more information.

From VBE™ to Fabrication Demonstration

Chuck Gailey — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:10:20 +0000

A promotional video that we created for the joint marketing efforts of us and Old West Woods, in Ohio. We have been working extensively together for years and the products we are capable of producing, while off site, are truly remarkable.

This video shows the progression from the VBE™ creation, to the generation of shop drawings and animations demonstrating the concept to actual fabrication to installation. This project, involving solid timbers fabricated in Montana, and box beams fabricated in Ohio, all perfectly integrated into a residential remodel in Colorado, was a complete success and a true demonstration of the power of the VBE™.