Introduction4th Dimensional Façade Solutions is a New Zealand-based design and build consultancy, which specialises in glass façades, and also deals in timber and steel works. Founded by Jason Dent, 4th Dimensional Façade Solutions has been operating since 2004 and has been using Autodesk products since 2007.

Today, the two-man façade design consultancy is renowned for accomplishing projects which involve ordering 100% non-site measured materials. The company prides itself on completing projects with unique physical and environmental features and developments that involve highly complex design and building procedures.

4th Dimensional Façade Solutions has recently completed a variety of projects that have provided a number of design & build challenges for the company to overcome. These projects

include the RAL Café that sits atop Mount Ruapehu, 6,000 feet above sea level on the edge of the mountain; Casita Miro Restaurant, a Gold medal winner in the New Zealand Master Builder Awards, with a distinct Moroccan-style design; and a dream holiday home, Jagged Edge, located within the exclusive Lake Ridge Subdivision, Closeburn, Queenstown.

Taking on the impossibleRAL Café is a $10.5 million structure that experiences extreme weather patterns. Despite the challenging weather conditions, the project had to be completed within nine months to ensure it could maximise the revenue from the popular ski season. The project was therefore under a strict nine month deadline. Casita Miro also had a tight deadline of nine months to ensure the venue was ready for the summer wine season and the tourists that would visit the region.

The power of Autodesk Inventor makes the impossible, possible

Autodesk® Inventor® enables 100% non-site measured award winning structures

4th Dimensional Façade SolutionsCustomer Success Story

Autodesk® Inventor® Professional 2011AutoCAD® Mechanical 2011AutoCAD® 2011Autodesk® Inventor® View 2011

With Autodesk Inventor, the entire project team could work efficiently from a single 3D model and use the Digital Prototyping workflow to save time in the building phase. This enabled us to spend more time on exploring our creativity and developing highly innovative designs. —Jason Dent Founder of 4th Dimensional

Façade Solutions

Professional 2011 enabled 4th Dimensional Façade Solutions to confidently order 100% non-site measured materials from overseas manufacturers for each project.

The design team developed complete 3D models of the façades for RAL Café, Casita Miro and Jagged Edge using Autodesk® Inventor®, and used the visualisation tools to accurately demonstrate these models to clients.

Digital Prototyping was used to invent unique solutions such as the window system for Casita Miro, by accurately and clearly visualising how the system would appear and work in the structure.

Also, the ‘Look At’ feature in Autodesk Inventor was used to conduct strike analysis for Jagged Edge, and AutoCAD® 2011 and AutoCAD® Mechanical 2011 were used for 2D modelling to minimise on-site errors and effectively collaborate with architects, engineers and constructors.

For More InformationTo find out how Autodesk and Digital Prototyping can help boost innovation and speed design times, visit www.autodesk.com.au/inventor

Along with meeting tight timeframes both projects also required the purchase of pre-manufactured materials sourced from overseas suppliers to ensure the unique designs were commercially viable. This required the 4th Dimensional Façade Solutions team to have exact measurements four to six months beforehand, based on 100% non-site measured material designs.

Located on a mountain without road access, RAL Café required a helicopter to transport materials to the building site. The helicopter could only carry 800 kilograms at a time, and effectively cost $10,000 for each hour of use, putting pressure on the design team to provide precise weight measurements for each object transported and to ensure the design was right, first time.

Further, the Casita Miro restaurant involved designing a highly complex operable windows system with a completely new operational design. The designers needed a reliable design software solution to invent and develop this system through Digital Prototyping, and to be able to use the measurements in the designs as a basis for ordering materials, again without any on-site measurement.

Jagged Edge’s main challenge was that the design was a half-bridge, half-house structure, involving highly complex trigonometric designs. Each façade on the structure was rhombus-shaped and the design contained no 90 degree angles.

Autodesk delivers the right solution4th Dimensional Façade Solutions created Digital Prototypes to ensure that façade designs were completely accurate. The reliability of these designs developed in Autodesk® Inventor®

4th Dimensional Façade Solutions Utilises Autodesk Digital Prototyping to Build Challenging structures

Images courtesy of 4th Dimensional Façade Solutions

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typo-graphical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

“By using Autodesk’s 3D design software solutions, we could deliver the seemingly impossible for our clients and truly bring their visions to life. The digital prototyping tools in Autodesk Inventor enabled us to design and build projects with 100% non-site measured materials, pre-manufactured overseas to significantly reduce cost.”