Related Links: Robots on the Jobsite Construction Industry Drones Fly in Rules Vacuum Collaboration Technology for Construction Sees Rapid Improvements Construction Managers Embrace 4D BIM for Safety Information technology for construction delivered on its promise to improve processes in design and construction in 2014, but only incrementally and sporadically, with no industry breakthroughs to report. ENR focused during the year on several trending technologies with promise, including improvements in robotics, mobile devices, cloud services, software for collaboration, the proliferating use of drones in construction, 3D printing and ways to leverage the capabilities 4D building information modeling.All show great potential, and

Related Links: Pong Radiation Case Pong Radiation Case Pong Radiation Case Danalock ENR’s final gadget-review list for 2014 presents three smartphone additions that claim to extend user capabilities. One protects communication data, one amplifies range, a third locks dead bolts.See slideshow for full reviews.

Related Links: Video Explanation of Slab Heave (Cornell Engineers) SoilVision's Site Software designers claim their new release makes predicting house footing and slab movement so intuitive that geotechnical engineers will be more prone to do it.“Some practicing engineers don't actually compute potential heave,” says Geoff Chao, senior engineer and vice president of Engineering Analytics Inc., Fort Collins, Colo., a geotechnical engineering firm that partnered with SoilVision Systems Ltd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to make SVHEAVE, a software designed to be user-friendly and to simplify heave calculations, even in multilayered soil profiles.If these tedious calculations, as Chao calls them, are ignored, builders and

Buoyed by recent project successes, industry advocates for increased application of virtual design and construction are becoming more convinced—and convincing—about VDC’s transformative potential. But hurdles persist—notably the U.S. construction industry’s lagging adoption of digital collaboration tools, as well as a looming generational workforce shift.Industry experts and technologists spoke on the topic and presented project examples at an ENR FutureTech Conference, Dec. 11, in Atlanta. While the use of building information modeling in the U.S. is becoming more commonplace, Steve Jones of Dodge Data & Analytics, the parent company of ENR, showed survey data demonstrating that the United Kingdom—which has mandated

The American Society of Civil Engineers is reminding the nation of its standing D+ infrastructure rating by updating the data and design of its IOS and Android app.The 2013 Report Card for America's Infrastructure, updated on Dec. 11, gives users access to the most recent ASCE data on the nation’s infrastructure, parsed out by segment—Water and Environment, Transportation, Public Facilities and Energy—and state.“What we did was updated as much of the state-level facts and data as possible,” says Brian Pallasch, managing director of government relations and infrastructure initiatives at ASCE. The design and usability of the app, originally released in

Related Links: Ember Explorer program In a rambling Q&A session for media at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, on Dec. 3, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and CTO Jeff Kowalski expanded on themes of their respective keynotes and fielded questions about the company’s strategy for developing products to serve the customers of the future.Central to that strategy is their belief that technology is on the verge of radically changing the way people design and make things. With respect to designing products, they say the massive amounts of parallel computing power in the cloud that can be directed to product design means

Photo by Tom Sawyer / ENR Autodesk CEO Carl Bass tells users he wants a to bridge the gap between real and virtual. Related Links: Autodesk Software for Education Autodesk A360 Responding to an industry changing "more radically than at any time since the Industrial Revolution," Autodesk CEO Carl Bass says that, in the coming months, the company will roll out new offerings to improve software availability, collaboration, fabrication, production and—through free distribution of design software to students, teachers and academic institutions worldwide—workforce development, as well.In an address and in comments to media during Autodesk University in Las Vegas in

Photos Courtesy of Eric Reslock An OSHPD senior structural engineer demonstrates real-time virtual plan review. Photos Courtesy of Klas Berghede HerreroBOLDT conducts a coordination session. California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is piloting real-time electronic plan review and submittal for two San Francisco hospital projects, which have a combined price tag of $2.7 billion and are scheduled for completion in 2018.Sutter Health, the owner, asked "us to pilot some tech they had, and it was new to us, so we jumped on it," says Eric Reslock, OSHPD's assistant director for legislative and public affairs. "The idea is to

Even as other process industries realize significant benefits when they move from primarily document-centric asset management systems to data-centric systems, the nuclear power industry has yet to make the change. At least one study suggests it is time to do so.Managing and maintaining all of the diverse pieces of information that relate to the physical configuration of a large industrial facility like a nuclear power plant is no simple task. Implementation of an advanced configuration management information system (CMIS) provides significant operational and economic benefits. An integrated CMIS encompasses data and information for all phases of the plant life cycle,

Enlarge Related Links: Collaboration Technology for Construction Sees Rapid Improvements Julian Clayton: Apps for Smaller Guys That Make a Big Difference Massive Gigaprograms Come with Layers of New Risk It wasn't that long ago when AEC firms relied on messengers and overnight delivery to exchange voluminous documents with clients and collaborators. The advent of high-bandwidth electronic data transfers and cloud storage has made the process largely a secure, point- and-click process, helping to expedite reviews and updates while saving money and more than a few trees.A number of file-sharing/storage services have emerged to serve firms of all sizes and needs.