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PRESERVING BORN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS
Between Paper and Pixels: Transmedial traffic in architectural drawingTU Delft and Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Nov 30 – Dec 1, 2016
Henk VanstappenDATABLE
Developing preservation strategies in relation to the design process
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Analog drawings• Carrier: paper• Information: ink• Hardware: eye• Software: brain• Context, scale: legend
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Born digital drawings
• Carrier: disc• Hardware: Intel PC• Software: Windows + AutoCAD• Information: shapes, attributes• Context: file properties, metadata
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availability openess intelligence other
3DM ✖ ✖COLLADA ✖DGN ✖ ✖DWG ✖ ✖DXF ✖ ✖ ✖IFC ✖ ✖ ✖IGES ✖ ✖OBJ ✖ ✖ ✖PDF/A-2/3 ✖ ✖PDF/E ✖ ✖PDF/E-2 ✖PRC ✖ ✖STEP ✖ ✖SVG ✖U3D ✖ ✖VRML ✖ ✖XRD ✖
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III. The use cases
• Administration (e.g. construction permit)• Re-use in architectural practice• Architectural history: “documenting the design
process”
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III. The use cases
• Administration (e.g. construction permit)• Re-use in architectural practice• Architectural history: “documenting the design
process”
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A simple design process typology
1. Analog creatives2. Digital creatives3. Born digital designers
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1. CAD as a digital drawing board
• Creative process is analog (sketching)• 2D drawings by collaborator
• Preservation strategy:– migration to PDF/A-2 or DXF– printing is an option…
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2. Creative use of digital tools
• Multitude of tools and formats• Often mixed analog/digital process
• Preservation strategy:– Document creation process and tools– Rigorous selection–Migrate key documents to open formats (dxf, dae,
tiff, iges, pdf/a-2, …)
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3. Born digital design
• Parametric design and scripting• High information level in files (BIM)
• Preservation strategy:– Document creation process and tools–Migrate documents: PRC, PDF/E-2
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IV. Conclusion
1. No turnkey solutions2. Significant properties depend on:
a. creative process b. use case
3. Significant properties determine appropriate archival formats