ArchVision Celebrates 20 years in the A/E/C industry

ArchVision crew circa 2002

Twenty years ago today, ArchVision was formed. It’s somewhat hard to grasp that it has been 20 years since we started this endeavor.

One of the very first projects we took on was a design visualization project rendered out on SGI boxes. Remember those?

In the process of model making and creating our own assets, we recognized a need for a better process. There had to be an easier, simpler process to place people in an animation. The RPC format was born. Soon after, RPC Sample Content CDs and Plug-ins began shipping with Autodesk products and native support evolved in a series of applications. We’d found our niche.

Our objective then was very similar to our objective now, provide users a solution to placing and managing their content assets into scenes using the RPC format. RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) in it’s basic form, is a collection of image assets that can be easily integrated into your scenes. Today, tens of thousands of RPC objects are in use and users continue to produce more everyday.

The tradeshow circuit, SIGGRAPH 2005.

We extend our appreciation to our many application partners who have adopted our technology over the years: Autodesk, Bentley, Robert McNeel & Associates, Maxon, Autodessys, Informatix, Luxology and many others. And most important, we extend our thanks to our tens of thousands of customers around the globe who integrate RPC technology into their workflow.

Happy Birthday ArchVision and to our founder, Randall Stevens!

SIGGRAPH 2011: Showcases Emerging CG Technologies

Get a glimpse of emerging industry technologies at SIGGRAPH 2011. A variety of ArchVision friends and partners are participating at the SIGGRAPH 2011 Vancouver Make It Home Conference this week. If you are out and about, we encourage you stop by for the latest updates from some of our industry friends:

* Autodesk (#429) will host product demos and unveil a series of top user requests via The Area.
* Chaos Group (#135) will feature in-depth presentations of V-Ray for 3ds Max, Maya, Rhino and the latest in Phoenix FD 2.0 and presentations by industry experts (including Michael McCarthy, David Lesperance, Paul Ghezzo, Graham Fyffe and many others)
* Hayabusa (#679) will present RhinoAR – an AR plug-in for Rhinoceros and Hayabusa Renderer 2.0 for Rhino.
* Luxology (#631) will showcase modo® 501 and Luxology®s newly released Model Bashing Kit in the AMD booth.
* Next Limit Technologies (#625) will offer demos and insights into their cutting-edge simulation software for applications in 3D computer graphics, VFX, science, and engineering with RealFlow, Maxwell Render, and XFlow.
* Robert McNeel & Associates (#778) will provide insights and demos into Rhino and recent releases including, iRhino 3D for iPhone and iPad.

Well Designed Arenas, Stadiums and Ballparks Add to the Experience

FIFA Women’s World Cup is in full swing. Yesterday, Team USA pulled out a win over Brazil at Dresden Germany’s Rudolf-Harbig Stadium. The match was AWESOME — and from an architectural perspective the facilities sports teams use today are awesome.


HKS, AECOM, NBBJ, Populous, Foster + Partners and HOK are some of the more widely known architectural firms of record for larger sports venues around the globe. Creating renderings and animations to share with client, community and other stakeholders is standard procedure. HKS Sports & Entertainment Group designed Dallas Cowboys Stadium marketing video above, showcases the stadium-experience-to-be and demonstrates how RPC Content can be effectively integrated into renderings and animations.

Looking forward to the rest of the World Cup matches! Wednesday’s round features France v USA and Japan v Sweden. GO USA!

YouTube Video Tutorials Can Help Streamline Your Workflow

Seth Godin posted a short and sweet blog entry today: “Time for a Workflow Audit.” No matter the project, taking the time to streamline your workflow benefits everyone involved.

In the case of RPC, video tutorials provide a way to learn how to fast track your workflow. In addition to a series of ArchVision video tutorials, user generated videos abound on blogs and YouTube in a variety of languages. Application partners also publish useful RPC-centric video tutorials, including: Autodesk ADN, Autodessys formZ, Piranesi and others.

Here’s a great example of an available RPC video tutorial:


Do you have tips and tricks to help streamline workflow? We invite you to share them with us.

RPC Support in Navisworks Profiled in AUGIWorld June 2011

The June edition of AUGIWorld arrived in my inbox yesterday. I “flipped” through the magazine and read a couple articles that caught my attention. One features Norton Healthcare, which is just down the road in Louisville, KY and the other profiles Southland Industries use of Autodesk’s Navisworks.

“Navisworks Manage, from a Contractor’s Perspective” (pages 36-40) by Chris Lanahan, BIM/Cad Manager at Southland Industries includes discussion on placing and rendering RPCs in your projects. The expert walks you through a recent large hospital project he completed and provides numerous insights into his workflow. There are several useful screen grabs that highlight materials/texture mapping, lighting, ArchVision RPC placement, effects and rendering. He also discusses the merits of providing clients visuals, to impress, win jobs and communicate design concepts. (Of course, we like this quote: “The next tab to visit is RPC. This tab is used to add fairly realistic people into your renderings.”) If you’re a Navisworks user, the article is worth a read.

Image Credits: AUGIWorld, Southland Industries, ArchVision, Autodesk

How a Trip to Nepal Sparked Conversations about BIM…


Earlier this year, I took off on a trip with friends to Nepal. One of my longtime friends, who resides abroad, was able to join us. He was excited to take a break from the reality of never-ending construction, growth and the finance world of Singapore. He’d recently finished up a contract with the impressive AEC endeavor Marina Bay Sands Casino.

I was looking forward to the Nepal adventure almost as much as I was to catch up on what life is like Singapore vis a vis its explosive growth. Singapore itself is an amalgamation of cultures and it is a wonder (from an outside perspective) that the work ethic and culture is so singularly focused on the betterment of the state. In that vein, productivity and outcome are critical to success. My friend described the process of managing the massiveness of the overall project – “the data and the specifications” and communicating it out to engineers, designers, vendors, marketing and his area of expertise: finance. BIM technology saved the project money and time.

Once we landed, we left the realities of work behind for the surrealism of Nepal and its awe inspiring lands.

Catching up on some blogs today put Singapore back on the radar. BIM expert Phil Read’s recent blog post ‘Revit In The Classroom’ showcases Singapore’s investment in BIM in higher education (Singapore’s Polytechnic Institute Student Projects) . It was nice to see RPC Content featured in student projects and it was a reminder that the use of BIM technology is fast becoming the standard even in this remote island nation. (Autodesk’s Phil Bernstein offered some Singapore BIM insights in his May 11 blog post: Questions of Productiveness, Here and Abroad).


Next week one of the most relevant AEC conferences, the Revit Technology Conference North America 2011 will be held. If you can’t work it into your schedule, I encourage you to follow some of its founders and speakers for BIM insights and industry trends.

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