Bluebeam Software has officially launched its new Revu iPad app in the iTunes App store .The tool enables users to access, navigate and annotate PDF files on the go. With Revu iPad, company officials say, comments and annotations display clearly and accurately so nothing is missed, reducing the ping pong effect of ambiguous communications.The company says Revu iPad officially expands Bluebeam’s platform solution, Revu for Windows, for use in other industries. “Bluebeam Revu iPad removes current barriers to productivity, and enables technical and mobile professionals to work without limits,” said Richard Lee, President and CEO at Bluebeam Software, in statement.
Courtesy Gensler The health-care industry is on the brink of being overrun with oceans of digital data. Small, modular data centers may provide the best means for midsize operators, say experts who addressed the issue at the Greater Chicago Data Center Summit in early June.In accordance with an Executive Order issued in 2004, health-care providers have until 2015 to incorporate electronic medical records into their operations or face penalties. While providers have been slow to adopt the technology, financial incentives included in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act are
Courtesty SolFocus Inc. SolFocus, San Jose announced plans to build a 450 megawatt concentrating solar power plant in 50-MW modules in Tecate, near the border town of Tijuana, Mexico. Another example of the country's growing investment into solar power. Mexico's national electricity agency recently commissioned construction of the $19.2-million, five megawatt Cerro Prieto photovoltaic plant in Baja California, to begin in early December. Located near Mexicali along the U.S.-Mexico border, the plant's four different solar technology lines are expected to help its owner, the Comisión Federal de Eletricidade, determine what type of utility-scale solar plants should follow in the region.
Figure 1: MacLeamy Curve Figure 2: An owner's long-term view. Whatever happened to integrated project delivery? IPD was hailed as a formidable innovation to change they way buildings are designed, bid and executed. But IPD wins the innovation title only when it is compared to conventional design and construction delivery methods, and we're not seeing enough of IPD to make the comparison. What actually is happening falls somewhere between the IPD ideal and traditional, non-BIM design and construction. We are creeping away from traditional methods. Architects are BIMing, builders are clash detecting and owners are upgrading their facilities management software. The
Faith in the quality of structural-steel building-information-model file transfers between different BIM platforms increased recently, thanks to a series of digital-data-exchange validation tests performed under the auspices of the American Institute of Steel Construction. The news is good: Each of the six transfers studied was extremely accurate. Some even had as little as 0.3% error, which matches human error, say researchers."We have established a trust and comfort level with the [data exchange] process," said Brian Cobb, chief operating officer of Structural Detailing LLC (SDLLC), Brentwood, Tenn., at AISC's 2012 North American Steel Construction Conference, held on April 18-20 in Grapevine,
Social media platforms are influencing AEC firms in ways that are transforming their practices. That was one theme among many participants explored at the "KA-Connect: Building Knowledge" two-day conference, held in San Francisco April 11-12.Major design firms, such as SOM, Rutherford & Chekene, Psomas, HOK, and T.Y. Lin, shared tales of interoperability successes and pitfalls. As many of them have discovered, the more interactive the social media tools, the better.Take design firm Arup's blog and tweet platform (http://thoughts.arup.com). Carmen Whitelock, head of Arup's online strategy, says the effort goes beyond the traditional web homepage, which for many firms acts as
What do we talk about when we talk about mobile? Increasingly, the landscape is muddled. At a host of technology conferences over recent months: ad:tech San Francisco, Advertising Week, IAB MIXX and even the Mobile Media Summit, not once did a speaker explain specifically what was being talked about when using the term "mobile."To contextualize any discussion of mobile marketing or media these days, the entire arena must be addressed with a much greater level of specificity. Raise this point with people who live and breathe mobile and the first reaction is, "Oh! I get it. You mean whether it's
Courtesy of Fiatech Matthew May, opening day Keynote speaker at Fiatech 2012. Related Links: Procurement Key Tech Goal for Fiatech in 2012 What are the secrets to innovation? How can the construction industry find new ways of innovating tools for the trade or to improve productivity? Sometimes, the answer is not in the black, but in the white space between the lines. You just have to challenge how you think about innovating.That's the word from Matthew May, a popular motivational speaker on business processes, who also writes a blog and columns for the small business website OpenForum.com. Sometimes, he says
By Tom Sawyer Insight-sharing about advancing the effectiveness of IT in project delivery is non-stop, focused and intense during breaks at Fiatech2012 in Miami, Fla. During formal sessions things really heat up. Related Links: Fiatech: Collaborating to Advance Technology and Innovation By any measure, 2011 was a great year for the construction technology consortium Fiatech, with over 20 active projects that year and 17 deliverables buttressed by industry advancements, says Ray Topping, PE, the director of Fiatech.Speaking at Fiatech's annual technology conference and showcase, held at the famed Doral Hotel Resort in Miami, Topping says 2012 is shaping up to
By Zlatko Batistich Roof-mounted air handling units feed outside air to supply ducts to deliver cooling for a unique data center located on the urban NJ waterfront that is cooled by 100% outside air. The U.S. Green Building Council is drafting its first set of standards for data-center projects as the growing sector has struggled to meet energy-efficiency benchmarks.The U.S. data-center construction market increased to about $15 billion today from about $5 billion in 2000. According to a study commissioned by computer software giant Microsoft, that number is expected to increase to $20 billion by 2020. But the amount of
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