The pandemic is driving rapid change in design and construction technology, but the same adoption rigor that existed before it still delivers the best results.
At its first all-virtual Autodesk University conference, software vendor Autodesk announced three new construction cloud products, a partnership for electrical design and a new digital twin offering for owners and operators.
Efficiencies in design, construction and building use are being unlocked thanks to analysis and proactive changes informed by construction data. Even 3D printing for a NASA project on structures on Mars is on the table.
Telematics, wearables, online collaboration, 3D model management tools and the ever-evolving ways contractors collect and use data took center stage in the first day of ENR's all-virtual FutureTech construction technology conference.
The premise of a digital twin has become confused in an engineering and construction world with several levels of analysis and approval. How best does a fully digital representation of what will be a physical building or infrastructure asset illuminate its construction process? Is it really as easy as seeing how an exhaust port that goes right to a vessel's main reactor might be a problem?
Data from tech tools such as Procore, Smartvid.io and others are helping firms understand what's going on in state economies and work through the new restrictions. Some are even thriving.
MEP Subcontractors are the unsung heroes of prefabrication and they can help designers and contractors embrace a leaner, better construction process if they'll listen to their prefab sherpas.