A new interface between a suite of design products used to create many of the world’s process and power facilities and an explosion-consequence prediction tool shortens the time needed to run safety analyses of plant designs from weeks or months to days or hours. Photo Courtesy Of Intergraph Corp. New interface between explosionanalysis and design software may boost safety. “The interface between Intergraph’s rules-based 3D design solution and GexCon’s FLACS explosion analysis software can help designers increase productivity and enhance safety before plant construction begins,” says Tom Fiske, a senior analyst with ARC Advisory Group, an industry analyst firm. GexCon,
Seeing the chain of project communications breaking down, with subcontractors e-mailing questions to architects and responses going to everyone in blizzards of chatter, Chris Ross, an electrical contractor in Sacramento,Calif., decided to restore order. Photos By Tom Sawyer Mobile Plan Room, an iPad app that works in tandem with the BuilditLive site, provides access to the documents folder so that plans can be opened and viewed while users are out in the field. Related Links: Online Construction: Mobile Plan Room demo He created the project collaboration portal www.BuilditLive.com, which launched in late June with one major twist. “We are not
Geospatial mapping and object- recognition algorithms being developed by researchers in Virginia may soon cut the cost of managing assets like signs and guardrails along highways. Photo: Don Talend, Write Results Inc. The IP-S2 is mounted on a van to survey sign and guardrail conditions at highway speeds. Photo:Eva Kille Sawyer Jesus de la Garza, a civil engineering professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Center for Highway Asset Management Programs (CHAMPS), Blacksburg, Va., expects to start phase two of his research this fall using a TopCon IP-S2 geographic information system—a combination of a Global Positioning System and a
A new pocket wizard developed for energy-aware homeowners may also help contractors give quick-and-easy answers to questions about an electric device’s economic and environmental impact in these energy-conscious days. Photo: Tom Sawyer Small, portable and convertible. The Conserve Insight, a $30 gadget from Belkin to be released this summer, is an in-line outlet adapter that translates electrical consumption into various measurements, including watts, dollars and pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. The adapter has a digital read-out on a six-foot cable, allowing users flexibility when trying to determine energy usage of devices plugged into hard-to-reach outlets. The small screen and simple
In the field of pico-projectors there is a delicate compromise between size, price and capabilities. Photo: Tom Sawyer Small size, low cost and fair picture make it desirable, despite weaknesses. One must expect sacrifices for 3M’s MPro 150’s $300 price and tiny size, considering full-sized projectors run up to $3,000 and can weigh as much as 25 lbs. With limited viewing options—only 12 lumens and unsupportive of most video codecs—the unit is hard to use and its image hard to see in normally lit rooms. But we found it bright enough for small meetings in a typically dim conference room.
In late June, Magellan Navigation Inc. released the IPX-7 waterproof ToughCase for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Designed with the clumsy and adventuresome in mind, the case is meant to make the devices water- and shock-resistant while maintaining full functionality. Photo: Tom Sawyer The exterior looks rugged, but high-tech enhancements are hidden inside. The ToughCase’s $200 price tag buys 30 minutes of protection underwater to a depth of one meter. Although we would not recommend tossing your iPhone into a water-filled bucket, our still-functioning iPhone gives evidence that you can. The ToughCase’s bulky 7.5 ounces do far more than protect
The business of delivering software as a service over the Internet and sending heavy processing and collaboration tasks to high-speed computers in remote data centers is finding a home in construction. For example, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product called SITEOPS applies the horsepower of cloud computing to its proprietary algorithms that will find the most cost-effective configuration, grading and drainage plan for development. It is a site optimization tool that approaches the issue the way a supercomputer plays chess: It thinks through every possible play and countermove to the end of the game to find the optimal solution. Sold on a
Under the gun to stay on schedule with more than $4 billion in Base Realiagnment and Closure Act projects at Fort Belvoir, Va., post program managers have developed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ first 4D, Google Earth-based animated construction model for an entire military installation. Using Google Earth as a backdrop, the model links a mountain of facility and site data with nearly 140 project schedules to enable more effective construction coordination on or around the 8,600-acre garrison. Belvoir New Vision Planners, a joint venture of PBS&J, Tampa, Fla., and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago, developed the model with
A hurricane is rising in the farmland of northwestern South Carolina, and it is going to stay there for the foreseeable future, ripping off roofs, driving rain through walls, shattering windows and shredding buildings. That’s the purpose of a $40-million building materials and assemblies test facility nearing completion in Chester County, S.C. It is designed to attack full- scale test structures with the swirling winds and rains of hurricanes, the pounding hail of severe thunderstorms, or the wind-driven embers of wildfires. The owner is the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), a Tampa, Fla.-based insurance industry group whose member
Texas’ capital city is living up to its reputation as the U.S. city most poised to quickly recover from the economic downturn. Forbes, for one, made this prediction last summer when it said the Austin-Round Rock area tops the list of “best cities for recession recovery.” Then, on June 9, as if on script, Samsung Electronics, Seoul, South Korea, announced it will invest $3.6 billion to expand the capacity of its existing semiconductor plant in Austin. The investment in the 300-acre Austin campus, the company’s only semiconductor fabrication site outside South Korea, will build out the second phase of its