In this episode of Wrenches, Gadgets & Hacks, we continue our series on AI in the AECO industry. Host Carl welcomes Craig, the Director of Digital Technology at Ewing Cole, to discuss the transformative role of AI in rendering and design. Craig shares his journey from studying architecture and landscape architecture to leading digital media and design technology at a major firm. The conversation moves into the parallels between the rise of BIM and AI, the practical applications of AI in rendering, and the importance of crafting effective prompts for AI tools.

Be sure to stick around until the end, for the hack and learn about these points👇(just click the CLICK TO CONTINUE READING AND SEE SHOW NOTES)

Key Discussion Points:

• AI in Design: The impact of AI on the design process, including the use of tools like MidJourney, Veras, and Magnific.
• Rendering with AI: How AI is used to generate architectural renderings, the challenges of creating realistic images, and the importance of maintaining design authenticity.
• Prompts and Workflows: The significance of crafting good prompts for AI tools and the innovative workflows developed by designers at Ewing Cole.
• Security and Custom AI: The exploration of different methods for creating custom AI tools while ensuring data security.
• Future of AI in AECO: The potential and limitations of AI in the industry, and the importance of continuous experimentation and learning.

* The above was created with a helping hand from an LLM from the Podcast episode transcript, which was transcribed by AI 😁

You can listen to the podcast, HERE, the Spotify player at the start of this post, or on your favorite podcast app. If you prefer visual content, be sure to check out the video on YouTube.

Show Notes:

• Craig Barbieri is the Director of Digital Technology at EwingCole
• Craig is SMART he has degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Business
• He didn’t choose the technology path, but is happy he was nudged in the direction

“The buildings produced in Midjourney and ControlNet have no intelligence; they are just image generators. But a designer has intelligent, they understand space and how you occupy it.”

Craig on AI vs Designers

• AEC Acoustics – We’re about the conversations after the presentations. The best answers to difficult technology challenges depends on context, project requirements and workflow goals. Conversations create room for questions, clarity, and consensus.
• If a product is free, it’s not the product you are – so true in AI!

AI tools from the episode:

• Midjourney – is an independent research lab exploring new mediums of … We are a small self-funded team focused on design, human infrastructure, and AI.
• Magnific – The most advanced AI tech to achieve insanely high-res upscaling. Not only upscale, enhance & transform! Magnific can reimagine as many details as you wish guided by your own prompt and parameters!
• Adobe Firefly – Firefly models and services power generative AI features in Adobe creative apps. Learn about the latest features in Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and the Firefly web app.
• ControlNet – ControlNet is a neural network structure to control diffusion models by adding extra conditions, a game changer for AI Image generation. It brings unprecedented levels of control to Stable Diffusion.
• Veras – Veras® is an AI-powered visualization app for SketchUp®, Revit®, Rhinoceros®, Vectorworks®, and the Web that uses your substrate for creativity and inspiration.
• FastBots – Create an AI chatbot like ChatGPT to help you or your customers get fast answers about your business in under 2 minutes.
• ChatRTX – ChatRTX is a demo app that lets you personalize a GPT large language model (LLM) connected to your own content—docs, notes, images, or other data. Leveraging retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), TensorRT-LLM, and RTX acceleration, you can query a custom chatbot to quickly get contextually relevant answers. And because it all runs locally on your Windows RTX PC or workstation, you’ll get fast and secure results.
• Microsoft Designer – A graphic design app that helps you create professional quality social media posts, invitations, digital postcards, graphics, and more.

• DALL-E 3 – DALL·E 3 understands significantly more nuance and detail than our previous systems, allowing you to easily translate your ideas into 
exceptionally accurate images.
• Meta AI – is an intelligent assistant that is capable of complex reasoning, following instructions, visualizing ideas, and solving nuanced problems.
• Azure AI – Where innovators are creating the future
• Ollama – Run Llama 3, Phi 3, Mistral, Gemma 2, and other models. Customize and create your own.
• ideogram – Ideogram is a free-to-use AI tool that generates realistic images, posters, logos and more.

You can find all of the WGH links in one place with our 👉 BIO LINK

Also a BIG Thanks to Alex Grohl for our amazing intro and outro music “Indie Hey Song (Lost Fragments)” You can find more great royalty-free music from Alex on Pixabay

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