Photo courtesy of Getable Getable has grown its service area, bankroll and app functionality. Related Links: Is That Old Loader Worth More Than You Thought? Getable: Official Site On Feb. 25, Getable, an on-demand equipment-rental app previously available only in California, announced its nationwide availability, a $5-million round of venture-capital financing and an update to its app."To date, Getable was the third-party rental-equipment aap. Now, it is the equipment app and will track 100% of equipment on a jobsite," says Tim Hyer, CEO Getable, San Francisco, about the app update that allows users to manage all equipment from within the

Courtesy of Acute3D Photo Magic Image frames captured from multiple vantage points are automatically analyzed for common points to generate 3D models. Related Links: ACUTE3D SPAR Point analysts' review Reality capture has been a foundation of design and construction since the age of chains and transits. Now, the technology is rapidly improving in sophistication, automation and integration.In one of the latest examples, Bentley Systems Inc., Exton, Pa., on Feb. 6 acquired a four-year-old French company, Acute3D, whose Smart3DCapture software already has an international clientèle for the automated transformation of batches of digital photos into 3D models up to city scale.Bentley

Courtesy: Stockpile Reports Inc. A model of a 100,000-cu-yd pile, made from iPhone video. Related Links: Stockpile Reports The Texas Dept. of Transportation has benchmarked and adopted an iPhone app to measure its stockpiles. The app works by uploading a video of the stockpile to a cloud server, which turns the data into a 3D model to calculate its volume.Stockpile Reports Inc., Redmond, Wash., developed an app of the same name for aggregate suppliers measuring stockpiles 3,000 cu yd and larger, says Mark Bradshaw, TxDOT procurement administration manager. "They documented accuracy of plus or minus 2% on these large stockpiles"

New U.S. Air Force Research Lab contracts aim to advance metallic-powder 3D printing for aerospace manufacturers. Related Links: An Enabler For Inspired Thinking: 3D Printing Metallic Printing Tested To Fabricate Structural Nodes The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is awarding contracts to a partnership of aerospace and defense contractors and a 3D printing company to refine innovative 3D printing methods for use in manufacturing aerospace parts.The lab on Feb. 3 awarded $1 million in contracts to underwrite two projects aimed at enhancing intricate control during 3D printing. The awards were made through America Makes, an additive manufacturing innovation institute in

Related Links: Rob McKinney -- Construction App Guru blog on SkySite Rob McKinney -- Construction App Guru blog on SkySite Rob McKinney -- Construction App Guru blog on SkySite An old ship in the reprographics business is taking a new tack. The drive to create a construction-document management system to give every participant accessible, up-to-date versions of every required document, with revisions pushed instantly, audit trails and superseded versions archived for review, is moving to the cloud.ARC Document Solutions, launched in 1989 as American Reprographics Co., introduced SkySite, a cloud-based "enterprise-level" construction-document management system, on Jan. 29. The firm went

Related Links: 2014 Construction Technology Report Texas A & M Dept of Construction Science Construction Financial Management Association The construction industry's embrace of technology and data security is, at best, casual, suggests the results of a technology-practices survey with more than 1,000 responses released in January.Technology consultant JBKnowledge Inc.'s third annual "Construction Technology" survey had 300 more participants than the year before and was up from about 450 the first time out. This year's survey was also a cooperative project, with the Construction Financial Management Association and Texas A&M University's Dept. of Construction Science. The report can be downloaded at

Image Courtesy of Sefaira Systems Light Load Sefaira Systems compares peak loads and mechanical system size between several building models or iterations to find the best fit. Image Courtesy of Sefaira Systems Related Links: Sefaira Systems Sefaira Releases Energy Analysis Plug-in for Revit A new web-based tool, Sefaira Systems, combines the U.S. Dept. of Energy's building-energy- modeling simulation program, EnergyPlus, with 3D models to quickly analyze mechanical systems and building-envelope options during a project's early stages."Our chief engineers used to calculate all these loads and would crunch through processes and make their best assumptions," says Brian McGuire, director of building-information-modeling

By AutoCASE A new web-based evaluation tool works via a plug-in available to Autodesks infrastructure design tools. It automates calculation of a proposed projects net present value based on its likely social, environmental and financial impacts. Related Links: Free Preview of AutoCASE AutoCAD Civil 3D A cancer diagnosis changes your life, says John Williams, chairman and CEO, Impact Infrastructure. When Williams learned he had the disease, he retired from his role as principal owner of an architecture and engineering firm on his 25th anniversary with the company.He then chose a new quest: Supporting the industry's growing commitment to the creation

Related Links: Download USIBD as-built documentation standards Laser Scanning for Building Documentation: Illuminating, But Not Necessarily Enlightening The U. S. Institute for Building Documentation has published the first standards for specifying contracts for as-built building-measurement capture. The documents are designed to complement previously developed standards specifying 3D building-information-model level of development but are not limited to any measurement-capture technology."In the building documentation industry, there is really nothing that people doing the work could rely on and quote to their clients," says Bryan A. Merritt, a principal associate with engineering consulting firm Erdman Anthony, Rochester, N.Y. "It gives owners and clients

Image Courtesy Trimble The ProjectSight iPad app allows for RFIs, check lists and other field management tasks to be performed and synchronized in a shared, cloud-based environment. Related Links: Trimble ProjectSight Expanding its offerings for mobile devices, Trimble has introduced ProjectSight, a subscription-based project-management software app for iPads.At a base cost of $20 per user per month, ProjectSight covers common field tasks, including RFIs, check lists and punch lists. In addition to paid users, the app allows for an unlimited number of free "collaborator" users on each job.The difference is that only paid users can create new tasks. Collaborators can