Related Links: ENR FutureTech Conference Agenda FutureTech for Jobsites? CIOs Need to See ROI First Jim Balding, CEO and founder of the architecture and design- technology research firm The ANT Group, has three passions: buildings, technology and improving communication. Balding will be among the presenters who will highlight game-changing technology at ENR's FutureTech conference in San Francisco on July 10. He recently chatted with ENR about key trends. Balding What's an emerging tech trend that will disrupt how the AEC industry works? One of the trends that's starting to emerge is digital fabrication. It [enables me] to model something, highly
Related Links: Vela Systems FAQ on Acquisition In the wake of Autodesk's acquisition of mobile software tools provider Vela Systems, the companies are taking steps to reassure customers about Autodesk's support of Vela's products. The deal brings Vela, a field-management software player with BIM-in-the-cloud expertise, into Autodesk's orbit of CAD and BIM tools for every sector of the construction industry.As the companies merge sales teams and develop marketing strategy at Autodesk's Waltham, Mass., headquarters, customers should see no changes "in terms of what they can expect from their Vela relationship," said Jim Lynch, vice president of Autodesk's Building and Strategic
Courtesy Gensler The health-care industry is on the brink of being overrun with oceans of digital data. Small, modular data centers may provide the best means for midsize operators, say experts who addressed the issue at the Greater Chicago Data Center Summit in early June.In accordance with an Executive Order issued in 2004, health-care providers have until 2015 to incorporate electronic medical records into their operations or face penalties. While providers have been slow to adopt the technology, financial incentives included in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act are
Courtesty SolFocus Inc. SolFocus, San Jose announced plans to build a 450 megawatt concentrating solar power plant in 50-MW modules in Tecate, near the border town of Tijuana, Mexico. Another example of the country's growing investment into solar power. Mexico's national electricity agency recently commissioned construction of the $19.2-million, five megawatt Cerro Prieto photovoltaic plant in Baja California, to begin in early December. Located near Mexicali along the U.S.-Mexico border, the plant's four different solar technology lines are expected to help its owner, the Comisión Federal de Eletricidade, determine what type of utility-scale solar plants should follow in the region.
Figure 1: MacLeamy Curve Figure 2: An owner's long-term view. Whatever happened to integrated project delivery? IPD was hailed as a formidable innovation to change they way buildings are designed, bid and executed. But IPD wins the innovation title only when it is compared to conventional design and construction delivery methods, and we're not seeing enough of IPD to make the comparison. What actually is happening falls somewhere between the IPD ideal and traditional, non-BIM design and construction. We are creeping away from traditional methods. Architects are BIMing, builders are clash detecting and owners are upgrading their facilities management software. The
Related Links: DeWalt Mobile Pro at the iTunes App Store A new mobile app launched on May 2 by the toolmaker DeWalt lets contractors and tradespeople perform hundreds of calculations in the field, with instant feedback to show how the calculation was performed.The free DeWalt Mobile Pro app for the iPhone, iPod or iPad has five basic calculations as well as the option of adding "packs" for hundreds of trade-specific calculations and reference materials at various costs.The basic app includes a construction calculator for solving complex jobsite math, such as estimating the quantity of brick-mortar ties, the sand and cement
Image Courtesy of Trimble Second-stage tests will use Trimble's Ti GNSS Choke Ring Antennas to improve multipath mitigation for even greater precision. Related Links: Commercial Warning Buoy Launched Shipboard researchers from the University of Hawaii whose instruments unintentionally recorded the passing of a tsunami propose that commercial ships be equipped with similar devices to create an ad-hoc tsunami detection network at a fraction of the cost of deep sea buoys.The scientists were returning from Guam, where they had been measuring sea elevation in February 2010, when their precision GPS picked up a long-wavelength, open-water tsunami generated by an 8.8 magnitude
Photo courtesy of Autodesk Balfour Beatty work crew with Vela Systems on an iPad The acquisition by Autodesk of Vela Systems on June 8 pulls into Autodesk's orbit a company known for leveraging cloud computing and mobile devices to link building information modeling with the physical activities of construction.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Jim Lynch, vice president of Autodesk's Building & Strategic Technology Group, says after three years of partnering and working together, Autodesk approached Vela with the proposal and they came to terms quickly. "We signed and closed the acquisition in one day," Lynch says. "We
Photo by Shutterstock/ENR Related Links: Six eDiscovery Vendors Reviewed by Gartner Research Tips For Data Retention Best Practices (Gartner Research) Map of State Laws Regarding Rules of e-Discovery Move To Limit the Cost of E-Discovery in Lawsuits Gains Support More Information Tech News from ENR All it takes is one e-mail among a few million under today's rules of e-discovery. Maybe one was an offhand joke about delays or an angry post to the construction manager telling him to buzz off about the crew's safety procedures (before somebody got hurt). Maybe the firm's outdated retention policy has created too many
Related Links: BIM Standard May Boost Sharing C3 Systems: Beyond BIM Experts say version two of the nation's first consensus standard for the setup and exchange of building information models advances the use of BIM by providing a road map and common language for model building."This is truly a big change," says Deke Smith, executive director of the buildingSMART alliance of the National Institute of Building Sciences and the standard's developer. But he also says there is much work to do and obstacles to overcome on the way to a more mature standard. "We have only scratched the surface on