While pioneering firms strive to reduce risk and increase productivity by embracing virtual design and construction, the vendors enabling VDC struggle to anticipate user needs and differentiate themselves from their competition without losing customers in swamps of technological confusion. Slide Show Image: 2009 Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. and buildingSMART alliance Image: 2009 Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. and buildingSMART alliance Related Links: Digital-Modeling-Standard Effort ‘SOS’ Forty Years of Grassroots Development Modeling Pathfinders Impatient To Have A Much Fuller Digital Toolbox Digital Box There are myriad products addressing discrete aspects of virtual design and construction. Most work independently and share their results
Workshare provider Satellier and its 40-year-old CEO Michael Jansen are working to take building information modeling out of the confines of the workstation. "We are experts at sharing work remotely," says Jansen, who has built a thriving outsourcing practice in India that extends the resources of high-profile design firms around the globe. Photo: Satellier New system combines telepresencing and customized work-flow software. Related Links: Tool To Create Interoperability Standards Expected by Year-End Modeling Pathfinders Impatient To Have A Much Fuller Digital Toolbox Digital Box Satellier is implementing a new system that combines telepresencing using iRooms (a kind of video conferencing
With a trend toward integrated project delivery gaining traction, project teams are clamoring for a free flow of data between disciplines. In its latest response to the evolving market needs, on Feb. 9, San Raphael, Calif.-based Autodesk Inc. presented 2010 versions of its architecture, engineering, construction and geospatial products, as well as civil design software for transportation and utilities, with changes designed to ease the adoption of building information modeling processes within and across those sectors. The most ubiquitous change, as presented in a web conference showcasing key features of the new releases, is the replacement of tool bars across
Researchers in Blacksburg, Va., are testing snakelike robots that may prevent slips and falls. The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech unveiled them last spring and has been racking up awards since, most recently last month at a Korea design fair where the 3-ft-long critters took the grand prize. Photo: Virginia Tech Robot that crawls, twists and rolls is designed to work at heights. “These are really wicked cool robots,” says Dennis Hong, lab director, adding that the robots are designed to climb scaffolds, buildings and other high places that might pose risks to construction workers. Using built-in sensors
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