Translating design intent is a worthy goal with today's 3D modeling tools, but that vision does not have full control over the reality of put-in-place construction.
Courtesy DreamHammer Inc. Related Links: Dream Hammer Inc. Georgia Tech's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Like a real-life Tony Stark—the engineer-protagonist of the "Ironman" movies—software developer Nelson Paez has created a technology that could help augment and automate operations of everything from military weapons to construction machinery, pushing forward the unmanned-systems industry. But also like Stark, Paez doesn’t want to license his technology exclusively to the armed forces. His new software for controlling unmanned vehicles will be commercially available this August.“Exactly what happened in the mobile and in the PC industry can happen in the unmanned-systems industry,” says Paez,
(ENR) In 2005, the late Steve Jobs told Time Magazine, “One company makes the software; the other makes the hardware…It’s not working! The innovation can’t happen fast enough. No one takes responsibility for the user interface. It’s a mess.”Replace the words “software” and “hardware” with “design” and “construction” and Jobs could just as easily have been describing the AEC industry today. The industry should study his solution.Jobs left us with several remarkable concepts, including how to integrate others’ inventions in uniquely delightful and simple ways, and also with the realization that one can far better innovate superior and unimagined solutions
Related Links: AGC Level of Development Specification AIA Contract Documents Enthusiasts of building information modeling have developed a standard specification that they say will help eliminate poor communication and misunderstandings within project teams using BIM. The 132-page document, coming out this summer, will offer users a common language for determining the specific content of design, construction and fabrication BIMs.The 2013 Level of Development Specification, which is being formulated by the Associated General Contractors (AGC) BIM Forum, will be available free of charge. It is intended as an attachment to any contract as an aid for practitioners to specify and articulate
Related Links: Coordinate Metrology Society Laser Scanning for Building Documentation: Illuminating, But Not Necessarily Enlightening The Coordinate Metrology Society is launching the first level-one certification for portable 3D metrology. CMS members are users of coordinate measuring machines, laser trackers, laser radar, photogrammetry and videogrammetry systems, scanners, indoor GPS and laser projection systems.The first exam will be held at CMS's annual conference on July 22-26 in San Diego. Applicants for the test must meet eligibility requirements, sign a code of ethics and pass peer review.Joseph Romano, a principal at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Elmwood Park, N.J., and vice president for
Image Courtesy of LFM Software One feature touted by LFM is a real-time, smooth 3D view of raw point-cloud data that eases the visual selection of scanned assets. Related Links: LFM Software Software Automatically Translates Some Point Cloud Data to CAD Drawings Automating the laborious process of manually tagging building infrastructure assets within laser-point cloud data is a Holy Grail ideal that promises to save time and money. A recently updated suite of software eases that manual workflow and allows hardware and software platforms from various vendors to work in conjunction."We go straight from the laser-scan data to intelligent 3D
COAST analyzes costs and benefits of protections in Connecticut harbor. Related Links: Blue Marble Geographics Consulting firm started by Professor Merrill leverages COAST Coastal communities pondering adaptations to climate change and sea level rise now have new software for weighing the costs and benefits of various mitigation strategies.COAST (Coastal Adaptation to Sea level rise Tool) is free software built on six years of research led by Sam Merrill, director of the New England Environmental Finance Center at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service, in partnership with Blue Marble Geographics, a vendor of geospatial data conversion software.
By Luke Abaffy The 360 Panorama app for iPhone and Android allows for not only panorama shots but actual 360-degree views of the user's surroundings. Related Links: 360 Panorama App Interior Shot of St. John's Baptist Church in Midtown NYC. Google uses 360-degree cameras mounted on vans that drive the streets of the world to collect data. The data populates Google's "street view" feature in Google Maps. The mobile app 360 Panorama can deliver the same interactive, 360-degree view from a mobile device as well as streamline the process of sharing detailed site photos. "We take many site photos and then
The BIM Forum of the Associated General Contractors has released for public comment a draft specification for levels of development of building information models. Interested parties have until June 7 to comment on the draft, which has been under development for two years by a committee of about 20 people.The 132-page document defines and illustrates characteristics of model elements of different building systems at different levels of development. It is intended as a reference to enable practitioners to specify “with a high level of clarity” the content and reliability of BIMs at various stages in the design and construction process.
ENR's Construction Science Fiction Project is open for submissions Related Links: Science Fiction Prototyping Designing the Future with Science Fiction" Suggested Readings ENR Science Fiction Project Submission and Release Form Check Out A Submission: The Trouble With Bots In response to requests, the deadline for submitting entries to ENR's Construction Science Fiction Contest has been extended for one week to August 7, from the original deadline of July 31. Writers, you now have until midnight, August 7, to send your stories in. Click here for the submission form. First, second and third place cash prizes will be awarded to authors of
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