While CNC [computer numerical control) and 3D digitally driven fabrication have been trumpeted in the design and construction press over the past 10 to 15 years, another revolution has been quietly growing within the architectural fabrics industry. Using computer digital patterning and precision cutting of flexible composites (such as PVC-coated laminates or PTFE-coated polyesters), the digital revolution has transformed the fabrication of awnings, canopies and fabric structures in shops small and large across the world. The tools are enabling even modest-sized companies to handle large-scale projects that before only fabricators of wood paneling, precast concrete units or CNC manufactured metal cladding systems could claim. Many of the advancements in computer patterning have evolved out of the software developed by structural engineers in Europe and the U.S., used to help with analyzing and designing more and more complex structural designs. These have been pushed forward by innovative architects demanding design and fabrication capabilities that could allow architects like Frank O. Gehry or Zaha Hadid, noted for their highly sculptural buildings made from thin metal plates or FRP composites, to realize their visions. The revolution in finite analysis structural engineering has opened up vast opportunities for free expression in fabric structures. Most standard structural analyses use statics, taking into account the stress and strain of materials under dead and live loads. The more dynamic finite analysis programs come much closer to true tension structure design forms.
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