Construction engineering and management is different from other scientific and management disciplines. We take advantage of proven technologies and try to turn them into cost-effective solutions in the construction field. We must devise ways of solving problems with clarity and ease, while always thinking of the practical reality of how things should be done.I’m now on the edge of proving out such a product that stands as an example of what we can expect to see in the industry in coming years. It is an automated surveying robot that provides the position of a tunnel boring machine in real time.
Courtesy of GRAPHISOFT ArchiCAD 17 + EcoDesigner STAR will enable architects to produce energy-code-compliance reports, says GRAPHISOFT. Related Links: GRAPHISOFT Autodesk More than 300 ArchiCAD 16 users have signed on to test GRAPHISOFT’s expanded building energy modeling tool, called EcoDesigner STAR Public Beta.The BEM tool will be released commercially by the end of June as an add-on product to the upcoming ArchiCAD 17 building information modeling software. The direct BIM-to-BEM product will enable architects to perform energy-use simulations and to quickly produce energy-standard compliance reports, says GRAPHISOFT.“Our green strategy is to get the energy analysis and green design of buildings
Photo courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology Safety checks Georgia Institute of Technology graduate student Ebrahim Karan prepares to pilot an unmanned aerial vehicle (circled in red) to check a university jobsite. Photo courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology A GIT graduate student monitors the images and video that the UAV's camera is capturing and transmitting back to the iPad from the UAV's jobsite inspection. Related Links: FAA's Website for Updates on Unmanned Aircraft Systems FAA Website For Testing Site RFP Information FAA's Feb. 13, 3013 Call for Proposals on Six U.S. Test Centers Electronic Frontier Foundation Website on Drone
Image Courtesy of university of california, berkeley Shock Waves Harmless shock waves known as primary waves (yellow circle) come seconds before slower, destructive secondary waves (red circle). Related Links: Video of ShakeAlert in Action Detailed ShakeAlert Proposal An early warning system that predicts an earthquake's approaching shock wave up to a minute before it strikes is ready to become operational throughout California. Further, a recently proposed bill would fund expansion of the system.The bill, introduced by state Sen. Alex Padilla (D), would support the ShakeAlert system, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and an international coalition of universities. It is
Related Links: 4Projects The picture of software delivery for managing contractors' business processes, documents, projects and 3D model-based collaboration shifted on Feb. 6 with the announcement of an acquisition intended to consolidate those functions into one in-the-cloud integrated service.Viewpoint Construction Software, Portland, Ore., aims to integrate its enterprise-grade business-management software for contractors with the project management services, including collaborative BIM, of U.K.-based 4Project Ltd., a cloud hosting service. Viewpoint's business tools are offered via either internet software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery or on-premise provisioning.Privately held Viewpoint acquired 4Project for an undisclosed sum in a deal on Feb. 1.Twelve-year-old 4Project's current 2D construction-document
Over the past two decades digital technology has only just begun to permeate the processes and infrastructure of the building industry. While you may see iPads on today’s construction sites and high-resolution digital renderings plastered on the job signs out front, construction itself remains one of the human activities least transformed by the waves of technology sweeping through society.The manufacturing industry, for example, invests four times more in digital tools than do we in construction. There clearly is room to improve. But I think construction is improving and buildings completed in years to come will benefit from three sets of
Related Links: Engineering News-Record Construction Tech Engineering News-Record IT The flow of young practitioners acquiring skills in building information modeling is shrinking, which may affect the industry for years to come. That decrease is one of the trends that is identified in a recently released survey report tracking the adoption of BIM in North America from 2007 through the fall of 2012.The data is reported by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics, a sister business unit of ENR.The latest report, "The Business Value of BIM in North America," analyzes survey data—which was collected in August and September from 582 respondents—against data
Photo Courtesy of APM Terminals Port of Callao workers circle a piece of equipment to demonstrate the 30-ft range of RFID sensors, manufactured by Avonwood Developments. Related Links: Avonwood's ZoneSafe Proximity Warning System APM Terminal's Callao Port In construction, radio-frequency identification devices, or RFIDs, are used for security purposes to monitor jobsites and track workers. At Peru's Port of Callao, the largest port on the Pacific side of South America, RFID technology is being used to avoid collisions between workers and loading equipment."In most ports all over the world, there has, for many years, been a problem to effectively separate
Image Courtesy OF Oracle Primavera Dashboard Schedulers are demanding more business-intelligence complexity and simplified dashboard views of selected project phases. Shown here is a Primavera screenshot of a dashboard. Related Links: Oracle Primavera P6 website Construction CPM Website and Presentations Critical-path method, or CPM, scheduling tools are doing so much more than managing schedules in construction these days. The project- management software platforms are gaining in sophistication and complexity—with better support for 4D building information modeling that gives project teams a more realistic view of the project. Milestones, risk analysis, business intelligence—it's all baked into CPM tools that are lightweight,
Related Links: ENR: Cloud Computing and Marketing ENR: Cloud Computing Makes the Grade Gone are the days of carrying around flash drives and panicking when the office server is full. Online document storage has become the easiest and quickest way for sharing information that can be securely accessed from anywhere within a company.Dozens of service providers offer cloud-based file sharing and storage, but Natick, Mass.-based Nasuni provides a new breed of storage and sharing that combines on-premises hardware with encrypted cloud-based primary storage. Its unlimited storage capability appeals to companies with multiple sites that need access to the same files.Andres
RSS
