With the theme of "Optimizing Design with BIM," the BIMForum carried into its Spring gathering in Boston a goal of "shining a light on design and engineering and showcase the best examples of collaboration, optimization and sustainability."
The AEC industry today has widely adopted 3D technologies and “building information models” to improve communication and coordination during the designing and building of projects. The models are used before construction starts and early on in the project to extract more accurate cost estimates, resolve major trade conflicts and eliminate rework. This is supposed to help the industry optimize resources, reduce waste and gain efficiency.The reality is that the coordination process is complicated, requires a seemingly endless number of coordination meetings “to run clash detections” and monopolizes important resources as the many participants work to produce weekly coordination materials. What
courtesy of Autodesk Pick Up Autodesk-Revit integration of detailing package is latest in BIM development. Related Links: U.K.s BIM Mandate Driving Major Shift in Digital Tools Adoption BIM Adoption Spreads Globally The annual release of software updates from the dominant provider of building design software in the U.S. includes integration with an acquisition that gives the suite a new dimension: steel detailing and fabrication.Autodesk Inc. inked, in October, a deal with GRAITEC SA to acquire GRAITEC's Advance Steel and Advance Concrete software and R&D teams. The products are used in Europe primarily for automated production of fabrication documents for steel
It is an exciting time in the global construction industry, and building information modeling (BIM) is accelerating the pace of positive change for contractors of all types, sizes and locations.
Photo courtesy of UT Austin Ph.D. student Li Wang demonstrates the design coordination data capture prototype system in the Texas Advanced Computing Visualization Laboratory, at the University of Texas at Austin. It often is said that experience is the best teacher, but what happens if the teacher is absent? How will the rising generation of construction professionals apply the insight of veteran practitioners in an industry where recent economic turmoil has driven droves of them to retire?This is a problem researchers in my lab at the University of Texas at Austin have been studying, and we believe we have a
Image courtesy of Trimble A Trimble SketchUp Pro model of a house under construction with projected shadowing, laid atop a Google Earth landscape. Related Links: Big Data, Point Clouds and GIS Delivering on Promises Building information modeling and geographic information systems should be natural partners. But they use different technology, standards and syntax, so users often find it difficult to exchange information between the two environments.BIM combines performance, scheduling, acoustics and other parameters with physical geometry. GIS analyzes spatial relationships within the natural and built environments. It can also perform complex modeling for a wide range of simulations. Together, the
The 100 million television viewers tuned in to Fox Sports’ broadcast of Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2 saw a new visualization tool that displays on screen the swirling arrows of wind vectors inside the stadium.
In 2008, I tested out an augmented reality mobile app called Nearest Tube that allowed me to use my smartphone camera to navigate my way to the nearest London Underground entrance without having to unfold a giant paper map and confirm my status as a tourist. At the time, this seemed nothing short of magical. Five years later, thanks to Google Glass and many other solutions, augmented reality (AR) is finally getting the hype it deserves.At its simplest, augmented reality is the convergence of data, cameras, mobile devices, and live end users, creating a multi-dimensional, real-time, interactive virtual environment that
Photo from Autodesk University Holder Construction works with Autodesk Navisworks and other modeling tools to create 3D plans for site layout and logistics planning. This example is one part of a model designed to plan the work layout for an airport project. Slide courtesy of Turner Construction from Autodesk University Example of a metric that the Turner BIM team came up with to track their rate of effectiveness on clash detection with 3D models. Related Links: UK's BIM Mandate Driving Major Shift in Digital Tools Bentley: BIM Also Means Information Mobility Autodesk University 2013 BIM Presentation by Tyler Goss and
I have just returned from the compact, intensely urbanized city of Hong Kong. The construction industry there is a cauldron of activity simmering on the fires of competition, political change, shifting economics and demographics, and further heated by the rapidly growing soft and hard linkages to the industries and population of mainland China.These drivers are leading construction firms in Hong Kong to battle for advantage by leveraging process and technological innovation in a way that promises to set up the former British colony, with its history of internationalism as a crossroads of the Asian and Western worlds, as the hub
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