Devin Canton | Associate and BIM Manger | HMFH Architects | Cambridge, Massachusetts – United States

HMFH Architects improved their coordination and design review workflow by using Enscape. Being able to show the client what they are planning to do by easily exploring different design options helped them deliver a better overall quality.

About HMFH Architects

HMFH Architects was founded in 1969 as Hill Miller Friedlaender Hollander and quickly established a national reputation for thoughtful educational design and creating long lasting buildings. The firm grew rapidly, and in 1984 it was renamed HMFH Architects. Based in Cambridge, United States, the company offers services from architecture, master planning, campus planning, educational programming, interior design, graphic design, community engagement, and expert witness.

The interviewee, Devin Canton, is a project architect and BIM manager at HMFH Architects. He has been working in the industry for 16 years and at HMFH for eight years. He has been using Revit since 2008. At his current firm, they are exclusively using Revit for all of their projects. They use it starting from schematic design through project construction including presentations during the different stages of design and to fully explore construction documents.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hmfh-architects-inc./
Website: https://www.hmfh.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HMFHarch

Challenge – Quickly explore what you currently work on

Before using Enscape, HMFH Architects was mainly working with 3ds Max or traditional manual techniques to create renderings. They were satisfied with the results and the level of control in 3ds Max. However, using 3ds max for design exploration was not practical as each presentation quality render would take hours to create. According to Devin, “you are not able to just walk through your project to quickly explore what you are currently working on with 3ds Max.” Additionally, the company was using Revit to walk through their projects but the results were not smooth and satisfying enough to use Revit as a presentation tool for clients. HMFH Architects was looking for an easier-to-use solution, compared to 3ds Max, which creates better looking and more realistic results, compared to Revit.

The process to an easy to use visualization tool

HMFH Architects started to search for a solution that could be used in addition to 3ds Max, which they still use for final presentation renderings. They found out about Enscape in the Autodesk App Store and quickly decided to download it. While Enscape was not the only tool they tested, they soon realized the benefits of the Enscape plugin:

The other solutions were not as easy to use.
What is amazing about Enscape is that it is live within Revit.
No export is needed and you see the updates a couple of seconds later.
Devin Canton

After thoroughly testing Enscape and comparing it carefully with other solutions, HMFH Architects decided to buy several Enscape licenses. Now, the team is using the software as a design and coordination tool for all their projects.

How Enscape helped HMFH Architects

Since they implemented Enscape, HMFH Architects uses it in each project stage, from coordination to design. Enscape proves to be a useful tool, especially during coordination meetings with consultants. “Before we were using Enscape, it was hard to show our clients what we were planning to do.” Most clients find it difficult to understand their buildings through looking at architectural drawings. Having the ability to virtually walk through the spaces while pointing out the location on a plan makes it much easier for clients and consultants to understand our design intent.

Now, with Enscape, our clients are amazed with what we show them.
They are able to actually experience their project before it is even built.
Enscape helps us to do a better job.
Devin Canton

The ability to export a standalone file out of Enscape is another feature that helps the team of HMFH Architects. In this way their clients can explore the project on their own, which makes the coordination of any further steps or changes much easier.

Their results

Overall the team of HMFH Architects solved coordination issues with consultants as well as improved internal communication. With Enscape they are able to explore different conditions, identify details, and consider other conditions of the project.

It is amazing how easily you can explore different project conditions with Enscape.
Devin Canton

The option to send an exported standalone file further improves coordination. “The ability to let people, who don’t know how to use Revit, have a look at the project on their own really streamlines our process.” After sharing standalone files with the team, we often use online meetings where we have the ability to walk through the spaces together. Then we can easily focus on the issues. For example, we would isolate the HVAC, ceilings and structure to better visualize those components.

The ease of use of Enscape enabled a seamless integration into the workflow of HMFH Architects.

The live link with Revit is a major advantage of Enscape.
Devin Canton

Example project

For this project, the “The Carver Elementary School”, the team used Enscape on a daily basis as a design and coordination tool. Although they were not able to apply Enscape from the beginning of the project, it soon became an important instrument to experience the design before it is built.

They came up with ideas and different design options and were able to make quick prints within seconds. Moreover, Devin emphasized the advantage of walking through the project to make sure everything is modeled correctly in order to finalize construction documents. In the end, the team was able to make better decisions that saved them a lot of time and money. Prior to using Enscape, we would encounter tricky details during the construction phase that would need to be resolved, now we are able to explore many more of these conditions during the design and documentation phases.

In this particular project, Enscape was only used internally. Devin mentioned, however, that other teams at HMFH are using Enscape in front of clients and they reported that clients love it.

Final remarks

Overall, Enscape is helping HMFH Architects in saving not just time but also money. Before using Enscape, design reviews required planning, and time for us to generate graphics. Now we can review our projects daily by easily having the ability to generate clear renderings and explore our buildings via live walkthroughs.

Because of Enscape we are able to
deliver a better project quality.
Devin Canton

Enscape allows the team of HMFH Architects to identify problematic areas and conditions. It enables them to deliver a better end-product. As Devin put it, “everyone in our office, even our consultants, has been very happy with Enscape and benefits from it. It is a great product that helps us along our work.”

Thank you Devin and HMFH Architects for your support and the honor of sharing your experience with us and our community!

Explore Enscape yourself and try it for free. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues or give us a like!

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Booth Enscape RTC NA 2016

Inviting Speakers for a Drink

Speaker Reception RTC NA

Already the first evening even before the conference really started was a great surprise. We were invited to the speakers dinner, where networking revealed that we were not only known to many customers, but that we even had a speaker presenting Enscape without our

knowledge. All this took place at over 40° Celsius (or over 104° F). Due to the conditions (let’s blame it on that), the budget for drinks was already used up fairly early.

The RTC would not be the RTC if you could not find a solution for this problem. Jim Balding, a doer and organizer of the conference, stepped up to me and asked if we could help out and match him. Of course, Enscape wants to help the AEC community in every possible way, and so we stepped in here. The people greatly appreciated that.

Changing Perception of Enscape at the RTC NA 2016

VR on a Laptop

While at the first RTC Event for Enscape in Budapest not many people had heared of Enscape, that had already changed in north america. So many of our customers at the RTC and happy to talk to us.  Among them were KPF, CannonDesign, Robert A.M. Stern and BSA LifeStructures to name a few. It was overwhelming to get all the positive feedback. That shows that Enscape by now is an established brand.

At the booth, Enscape had a surprise to offer for everyone. People who saw Enscape for the first time, were just amazed by the quality and the ease of use. The surprise for the existing customers was the new version with improved quality and XBox controller support.

Especially using the controller convinced everyone. Glenn K. from Stanford University gave it go after saying he had never played computers or used a controller before. After literally 10 seconds, he walked around the building as if he had done this for years. Now he is convinced his students will love it even more.

The next surprise was one for ourselves. It was astonishing to see how well Enscape runs with Oculus on a Laptop even with a fairly large project. (Thanks Sean for helping out)

A great Enscape story we heard at the booth came from a student, who amazed his teachers and fellow students with the speed in which he was able to create these beautiful renderings. He kept asking his dad whether he should tell everyone that there was Enscape for that. In the end he told everyone – however after the semester ended Now he really dislikes that his next class will be in Rhino instead of Revit.

Presentations of Enscape Use Cases

Over all Enscape was mentioned in a least four presentations during the conference. In two, Enscape was the main topic they talked about. Thanks to Jacob D’Albora and Brian Mackey for sharing their experience and best practices.

On the images, you can get an impression of the presentations.

So what were the takeaways from the presentations? There are too many, so I will concentrate the top five takeaways:

1. Client approval – Being able to change designs on the fly allows you to leave a meeting with signoff from you customer.
2. Space planning – This becomes much easier since you can directly see the visual reference directly in 3D.
3. User group meetings – Design options from Revit allow you have a well-prepared client meeting.
4. Single data base – Usually there are many different visualization solutions like 3DS Max, V-Ray, etc. throughout the company with different materials applied every time. With Enscape there is only one model with all the information.
5. Quick Demo – You can run a demo of every project in seconds to a few minutes.

Enscape within the Revit Ecosystem

Autodesk Keynote

The RTC allows you to meet not only clients, but also partners. With the next version of Enscape, RPC objects will be implemeted natively. We met with Randall Stevens to discuss further colloaboration between the two companies.

Of course Autodesk is was there and in their keynote they said they wanted to be more open about what comes next – and so they were. One of the more exciting topincs from our perspective is immersion. After that, of course they had to talk to us I am glad to say that they were impressed with what they saw at our booth.

Now we all know Autodesk is working on a project for themselves. It was very sad to hear that their team that is working on it was shying away from a comparison, which was originally planned for one session. I might have become clear that there might be aspects different enough for both to coexist. We are open to further discussion and we will see how things develop.

Then we met our partners form Read|Thomas as mentioned earlier but also CTC and Axoscape who were also showing Enscape at their booth.  This means that  with only one year on the market, Enscape has been able to achive great visibility and standing in the market.

Last but not least – the Parties

The RTC is great to meet people from all over the place. How better to get to know everyone than at a party. This was the message from “the guy with the jacket” who had arganised a party that is hard to put into words. Great show, great band, great artists, great drinks, great food and really, really, really great people. However there was one tiny disappointment – I was not one of the ten persons to sing with him on stage and to get an iPad with lipstick. Maybe he knew that for the listeners not having me sing was the better option.

In Summary

…the RTC for Enscape was hugely successful, very informative, quite exhausting and also a little bit of fun

What is left to say is that we are all a bit sad that this RTC is already over, but we are looking forward to the next one.

THANKS TO THE RTC-TEAM – who did a brilliant job.

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