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 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 Maybe the firm's outdated retention policy has created too many
Developers of the first open consensus standard for the exchange of building information models hope to wipe out "lonely BIM" by greasing the wheels of collaboration among all parties involved in the creation and exchange of all different types of building information models.
An industry group that hopes to automate code compliance checks for 3-D building information models scaled back its proof-of-concept project recently because the process it hoped to measure against—manual 2-D plan review—turned out to be wildly erratic.
Image by Tom Sawyer Full Picture Photos are assigned to points called "rooms" on plans. Opening a plan and clicking a room delivers a gallery of all photos assigned there. Photos are further tagged by trade and will show up on the appropriate plans in a set. A new cloud-based construction photo-and- plan managing collaboration service is drawing praise from beta testers who started throwing projects on it within hours of its April 30 release."It's brilliantly simple. I can't believe we've been living without it," says architect Oscia Wilson, Boiled Architecture, San Francisco. Now launching a project, Wilson is tagging
On May 30, Budapest-based Graphisoft will release ArchiCAD 16. A few key advances separate the version from other BIM software.One feature, the trademarked MORPH tool, allows users to transform simple forms into complex, customized objects. The tool is 100% integrated in the BIM environment."There is nothing else out there in the market that does what the MORPH tool does," says Richard Crowe, a beta tester of the software and founding partner of GRC Architects, Tallahassee, Fla. "You can grab any object, saving the original, and pull or stretch it in any way."Any element in the software, such as a slab,
Members of the construction community are a famously inventive lot. You don't get shut down by problems; you invent your way through them. From methods to materials, and tools to techniques, you innovate equipment, software and communications systems, and often do it by combining commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) components in new and clever ways.Indeed, in 2011, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued 1,360 patents in the field of static structures (e.g., buildings) alone, and many more in other fields related to construction and infrastructure. Another indication of the broad range of construction innovation is the listing of recipients of the
Photo courtesy Mike Shahan and North Texas Regional Airport Replaceable? Some small airports can afford manned control towers, such as North Texas Regional Airport, shown here. Related Links: More ENR Information Technology News NextGen Ramps Up Amid Flat Airport Improvement Funding Air Traffic Is Reviving and Construction Is Back To Basics Deterred by the $2-million cost of constructing an air traffic control tower and the $400,000 annual cost to operate and maintain it, managers of the Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beckley, W.Va., are considering the installation of the first unmanned, virtual control tower as an alternative."This would answer all
Photo courtesy of Lloyd's Register Deeper Insight New software mines historical equipment-failure data down to the component level to improve management strategies for rotating equipment. Related Links: Engineering News-Record Lloyd's Register Energy Americas Facilities engineers often manage rotating equipment on a time-based schedule. Absent that, they may have to run systems to failure or until something breaks as part of their maintenance plan.A new software tool is helping them get a better handle on life-cycle performance by diving into historical data about the machines.The software, called Capstone RBMI Rotating Equipment, is from Lloyd's Register Energy Americas, part of the 252-year-old