AECbytes.com Blog » “Building the Future” articles

AEC Exhibitor Highlights from Autodesk University 2011

Lachmi Khemlani — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:08:47 +0000

This article captures the highlights of those products that were exhibited at the recent Autodesk University which are relevant to the AEC industry, including Revit-integrated applications such as Trelligence Affinity, FM:Interact which now provides mobile access, e-SPECS, CodeBook, an interesting new tool called VIMtrek which allows game-like navigation of a Revit model, ClearEdge3D, which develops software for automatically extracting 3D geometry from point cloud data, IMAGINiT’s new ProductivityNOW portal, and updated hardware solutions from Supermicro, HP, Dell, Contex, and Nvidia.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/AU2011_Exhibitors.html

Industry-Wide National BIM Standard: A Progress Report

Lachmi Khemlani — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:08:58 +0000

This article by Chuck Eastman, Manu Venugopal, and Shiva Aram of Georgia Tech describes a demonstration of the initial results of the National Precast BIM Standard that was held at the PCI Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, in Oct 2011. The National Precast BIM Standard is the first domain-wide specification exchange effort in the AEC industry, defined to address all the major exchanges dealing with precast concrete elements throughout the product lifecycle. Five different precast concrete software systems participated in the demonstration; six exchanges were made between these applications using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as the neutral data schema; and two other applications were used to visualize the exchanged data.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/NBIM-ProgressReport.html

iPad Apps for AEC: Project Management and Construction

Lachmi Khemlani — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:24:21 +0000

This article is focused on iPad apps that are available for project management and construction in the AEC industry, including the Vela Systems app for field management, Bentley’s iPad apps for its ProjectWise and Navigator applications, Autodesk’s Buzzsaw and Bluestreak apps, Newforma’s new Mobile Punch List app that has just been announced, and additional construction-specific apps including Onsite:AEC and SafetyNet.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/iPadApps-Const.html

Exhibitors at Revit Technology Conference 2011

Lachmi Khemlani — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:05:31 +0000

Earlier this month, I provided an overview of the inaugural Revit Technology Conference (RTC) in the US that was held from June 23 to 25 in the Huntington Beach area of Los Angeles. While that article was entirely focused on the sessions that were presented, this article is dedicated to providing an overview of the different technologies that were being exhibited by vendors such as Bentley, Newforma, Ideate, and CTC, further pushing the boundaries of what can be done with Revit and adding many more capabilities to the application than what Autodesk could do alone.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/RTC2011_Exhibitors.html

STRATUS: A Private Cloud Server Technology for Revit

Lachmi Khemlani — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:56:11 +0000

This article describes STRATUS, a private cloud server technology for Revit that has been developed by Stephenson & Turner, a medium-sized, multi-disciplinary, Architectural and Building Services Engineering practice based in New Zealand, with offices in Auckland and Wellington. Authored by Des Pudney, the CIO of the firm, the article describes the background and rationale for the development of STRATUS and discusses additional details, including the technology’s features and the benefits afforded by STRATUS to the firm.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/PrivateCloudComputing.html

AGC’s Winter 2011 BIMForum, Part 2

Lachmi Khemlani — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:08:51 +0000

This follow-up article on the AGC’s recent BIMForum event in San Diego discusses additional presentations from AEC firms such as JE Dunn Construction, HNTB Architecture, and PCL Construction Services on using BIM for the design and construction of building envelopes. There were also presentations focused on performance analysis of building envelopes, including acoustical analysis, on fascinating new projects around the world including the Baha’i temple in Chile and the SaRang Community Church in Korea. Additionally, it discusses initiatives by the GSA and NIBS, and the latest offerings from vendors such as McGraw-Hill, Precision 3D Scanning, Scenario VPD, and Eagle Point.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/AGC_BIMForum_2.html

AGC’s Winter 2011 BIMForum, Part 1

Lachmi Khemlani — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:59:15 +0000

This article is the first of a two-part series that provides an overview of the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) BIMForum organization and captures the highlights of its recent event in San Diego. It was focused on the theme, “BIM and Building Enclosures,” given that the building envelope is one of the most litigious and expensive aspects of building construction. The conference had presentations from AEC project teams showing how they used BIM to address the challenges of designing, fabricating, constructing, and managing the building envelope. There were also updates from some technology vendors, including a look at Tekla’s new free model collaboration tool, Tekla BIMsight.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/AGC_BIMForum_1.html

AEC Exhibitor Highlights from Autodesk University 2010

Lachmi Khemlani — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:38:55 +0000

This article provides an overview of several AEC-related applications that were on display at the Exhibit Hall at Autodesk University, including new Revit add-on applications such as Ideate BIMLink, SkyBIM Estimator, Revit Express Tools, and Scan to BIM, the upcoming integration between Trelligence Affinity and IES VE that will faciliate early stage energy analysis, the enhancements in the new release of Solibri Model Checker, MEP engineering solutions by EastCoast CAD/CAM, a promising new venture by Horizontal Systems for BIM-based collaboration and project management, new products by Bluebeam and Transoft Solutions, and the latest in workstations from Dell and 3D printers from Z Corporation.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2010/AU2010_Exhibitors.html

Greener Buildings Through Energy Analysis Tools

Lachmi Khemlani — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:11:48 +0000

This article by Vijay Kanal and Kelly Flores of Kanal Consulting discusses some of the main challenges that architects and engineers are presented with in their quest to design energy-efficient buildings when it comes to software tools and offers tips on how to overcome them. It is based on their research of available tools and interviews conducted with several architects and engineers at leading firms.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2010/EnergyAnalysisTools.html

Revit’s New Server and Conceptual Energy Analysis Capabilities

Lachmi Khemlani — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:34:18 +0000

This article explores two key new capabilities in Revit’s subscription upgrade scheduled for release later this week—a “Revit Server” specifically for server-based worksharing to better support workflows for large, distributed design teams, and a “Conceptual Energy Analysis” feature that brings integrated energy analysis to Revit’s conceptual modeling environment, making it easier for designers to analyze different massing options to determine which would work best from a sustainability perspective.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2010/RevitServer_CEA.html