To gain full advantage of innovations in technology, the construction industry must sometimes appropriate technology that was not developed specifically for construction. Visolu, a photo management app, is one such technology. Image courtesy of Underground Imaging Technologies Berlin-based Pixolution uses visual-image compression to find, sort and simultaneously display thousands of photos on most mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android). Visolu can arrange the photos in a list view, a grid view or a color view, which groups photos by visual similarity and ends up looking like a pointillist painting by Seurat. Among other applications, construction managers could employ Visolu to find,
Since subsurface utility maps are so essential to reducing risk on many construction jobs, research continues to improve buried-utility detection and mapping tools. Image courtesy of Underground Imaging Technologies Combined sensors help map buried features in difficult soil conditions Several concepts were showcased at a conference produced by FIATECH, an industry consortium working to improve project delivery through technology, in Phoenix in late April. One presenter, James Anspach, chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers' codes and standards committee, noted that the U.S. has trillions of dollars invested in some 20 million miles of known, buried utilities. “Existing utilities
Attendees of the Society of American Military Engineers' annual agency briefing burst into applause last month upon hearing the news the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving to a platform-neutral approach to building information modeling software for its standardized building designs contracted through its Centers for Standardization. Rendering: Courtesy of STV Inc. Virtual model of Ft. Stewart, Ga., Army brigade building was used for structural erection. Their delight may be short-lived. The Corps' apparent reversal of a policy that mandated use of only Bentley Systems Inc. software for BIM project models has a few more twists. Each of the
Conferences are driven by themes, and the most telling themes are expressed by succinct quotes. Presenters at ENR's FutureTech conference, held in New York City in early April, offered plenty of both as they outlined key takeaways about construction and tech. Photo: Art Credit Here “Government didn’t put the data up. It just started to appear,” said Duncan Wilson, describing the radiation reports flowing from personal Geiger counters in Japan and appearing on the site www.failedrobot.com. A quotation from science-fiction writer and visionary William Gibson—“The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed”—was referenced more than once. That quotation
The annual marathon in Baltimore is a tricky affair to coordinate among the city’s agencies, especially amid a full spate of construction and infrastructure projects. Conflicts between new construction and the race route are a key challenge for officials to manage. Enter Envista, a web-accessible infrastructure coordination software system that Baltimore’s chief of design and construction calls a game changer. Image: Tiop Courtesy of Envista Envista displays integrated construction scheduling data from public and private utilites, municipalities and highway agencies on an online map to prevent conflicts and synch operations. “Last year, we coordinated the Baltimore Marathon on Envista,” says
The draft horse pulling workflow into thepaperless world is the open-standard, portable document format, or PDF. Over the years, that plodder has become more and more like a thoroughbred racer. Developers at Bluebeam Software Inc., Pasadena, Calif., came out of the gate on March 22 with Bluebeam Revu 9, their latest release of PDF products crafted for design and construction. The company says V.9 has more than 30 enhanced features to streamline PDF markup, viewing, processing, collaboration and sharing. While some of the features—such as 3D viewing and manipulation—play catch-up with the competition, at least one is a new capability:
This app is not a toy; it ’ s a powerful, easy-to-use structural engineering calculator with ambitions to reach the clouds. Image: Courtesy of Iproblue Tech The developer, IProBlue Tech., Fort Lee, N.J., says [steel hd], for the iPad, is based on a database comprising American Institute of Steel Construction manuals. It also has libraries with all the structural-steel profiles available in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. An Android version is on the way. The tools are parametric calculators based on the AISC libraries 13.2, 13.2-SI, 13.1.1, 13.1.1 SI, 13, LRFD 1 through 3, ASD 6 through 9 and
Everyone in the A/E/C industry uses email to manage the multifaceted communications that zip back and forth among key players on design and construction projects. But tracking emails and searching for key discussion threads amid complex, far-flung projects has become even more difficult in an era of overloaded in-boxes. Mail Manager, an email plug-in that works with Microsoft Outlook, claims to offer unique features to ease the process of tracking, filing, searching and organizing project communications for A/E/C firms. Built by Arup’s Oasys Software division, Mail Manager has been on the market for more than six years. But recent improvements
Imagine this: You are a general contractor out on a job and you need to access your private network of subcontractors to select the ones you want to invite to bid. Thanks to SmartBidNet’s 99-cent app, which recently hit the iTunes store’s “what’s hot” list, you can use your iPhone or iPad to get the process started. The app, a mobile version of bidding site smartbidnet.com, is available to subscribers. It works with contact lists to send e-mails to the subs of your choice or to synchronize your list organized by services provided and needed. “We finally have the hardware
Retrofitting a building, especially an old building, is one way to improve energy efficiency and even attain LEED certification. But hiring professionals to research efficiency solutions can get pricey. Boston-based start-up Retroficiency Inc. has produced software that streamlines the process and—more importantly—saves money. “Our goal is not necessarily to replace the guy going out auditing,” says company founder Bennett Fisher. The goal is to “put a tool in his hands to make him 25 to 50% more efficient.” The software can be used in pre-bid evaluations. It can be deployed to predict the current energy consumption of a building, based