Creating screen print details on various materials with a BIM software: the Casa del Viento project

Beauty should not be told, but made to live.

In architecture, aesthetic care for detail is definitely one of the most important aspects that ends up making the difference when comparing design solutions but it also has a fundamental role when needing to explain those ideas to the client.

It’s very important to be able to communicate design ideas and in some cases even allow clients to experience space and volume in an entirely virtual context as if they were physically in the project.

All this, thanks to a BIM software for architecture, is now possible!

These immersive experiences can be even more immediate if the BIM software has an integrated Real-Time Rendering capability. A visualisation environemnt that allows you to see the choices that are made in real time. This is a very useful support when designing because it allows you to see and modify those choices should problems arise. For example, when choosing materials, objects, lights, etc., the design results can be assessed together and quickly changed if necessary.

The Casa del Viento project revisited with the Edificius BIM software

With the following detail videos, you can see how a decorative screen-printing detail was applied to different material types within the Casa del Viento project, a contemporary residence in the town of Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico, and designed by the “A-001 Taller de Arquitectura” architectural design firm and re-modelled with the Edificius BIM software for architecture.

Behind the scenes: glass screen-printing techniques with a BIM software

Here we’ll see how to create the screen-printing effect on glass, embroidery on fabric and laser cut patterns on metal, using a unique function available in the program: Alpha masking

• 00:00 min – here we’ll select the glazed wall and, in the material category, open the relating editor; right mouse button click to add and name a new item by choosing the Glass option;
• 00:27 min – by clicking on the RTBIM node, we will be able to preview the effects of the current settings and in this same viewing environment, see the changes we are about to make. As a first step, in the Alpha Mask Map category, we’ll upload the image map that contains the screenprint pattern. We’ll set the texture size at (1.3m x 1.3m), set the appropriate amount of transparency and then set the Alpha Mask Map to 90%. If necessary, we can even invert the image map to get an inverse pattern on our material;
• 1:10 min – confirm choices and return to 3D;
• 1:16 min – in the Materials category, and in particular in the Project BIM Objects Library, we’ll select this new material and apply it to our glass wall.

Screen-printing on a fabric base with a BIM software

The process for reproducing a fabric embroidery is the same as seen before with the screen printing technque on glass. The only difference, in this case, would be that the starting material would have to be a fabric texture, upon which we’ll add our pattern using the Alpha Mask Map.

Screen-printing on a metallic base with a BIM software

Again, same procedure as before but this time used to simulate laser cutting on a metal panel.

Click here to download Edificius, the architectural BIM design software