Related Links: JBKnowledge 2014 Tech Survey Infographic Construction firms are squeezing out a little more cash on technology investments, but many still cling to the use of spreadsheets for project management, a new survey says.Technology consultancy JBKnowledge queried over 1,000 construction firms of all sizes about their technology investments for the 2014 survey, which it will release in full in early December. The respondents included engineers, estimators, C-level executives and project managers; 74% of all the respondents identified commercial construction as their main business, with every discipline, such as civil, federal and highway construction, also represented."We were really pleased to

Photo by Tom Sawyer for ENR Founder and CTO Keith Bentley spoke at the software company's user conference this week in London. Related Links: Long Courtship Ends as Bentley Buys Site Options Analyzer Bentley Water System Tools Gain Enhanced Access To Real-Time Data Bentley Systems has taken the wraps off a major upgrade for all of its many project lines, including a total remake of its MicroStation design platform and ProjectWise collaboration tools.The new capabilities, especially with data integration and extensibility, reach across all of its product lines but still function in a so-called hybrid environment that honors some customers'

Related Links: From Model to Layout Plan, Autodesk App Seeks To Close Gaps PDF Coalition Making Noise About Standards To take in the many presentations about building information modeling tools at the recent BIMForum conference in Dallas is to see first-hand the velocity of change arriving on construction jobsites, along with the upward move of the BIM adoption curve each year.Chris Heger, a superintendent with Turner Construction, talked through how BIM tools are changing the pace of construction with some keynote examples among many. Modeling tools give his team the ability to create construction patterns and then mine for repeatable

Related Links: Viewpoint Returns to Estimating With Platform Upgrades McGraw Hill Sells ENR and Construction Group to Equity Investor U.S. ERP Vendor Viewpoint Reels In U.K. Collaboration Service 4Projects Private-equity firms looking for opportunities in construction-industry sectors have gone from casual dating to getting downright serious with their investments. Experts say collaboration and web-based tools are their top desires.Chris Daum, president of FMI Capital Advisors, the investment banking subsidy of consulting and research firm FMI Corp., says his group has seen an "unprecedented upturn in inquiries" during the past 18 months, asking for FMI's input to look over deals in

Related Links: Private Equity Goes All In For Construction-Sector Growth Viewpoint Returns to Estimating With Platform Upgrades Merriam-Webster defines the term Tipping Point as when "a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change."Software vendors often use the term to refer to the point when they go from being the one placing phone calls to potential partners— to being the one receiving calls from potential partners.As Bruce Kenny, vice president of global product development for Viewpoint Construction Software put it at the firm's recent user conference, "that tipping point has happened."Viewpoint has

Estimators have never had it easy in the rough-and-tumble world of construction cost estimating—especially when using traditional 2D files or drawings for quantity takeoffs and cost estimates.

Related Links: 3D RFIs, Collaboration With BlueBeam's Latest Revu 10 Contractors Go High-Tech for Daytona Racetrack Rebuild PDF mark-up tool maker Bluebeam and virtualization software provider Citrix are on a mission to reduce the amount of paper that is often chased on major projects. Their latest partnership could do more of that and help users collaborate across different platforms with more ease.The companies say they have integrated Citrix's ShareFile cloud storage service with Bluebeam's Revu iPad app. It works like this: After files are synced with Revu for the iPad, ShareFile users work on project PDFs using Revu's Bluebeam Studio,

Related Links: The Beck Group Grows Through Collaboration, Technical Innovation How About Eliminating the Endless 3D Construction Coordination Meetings? Peter Beck, a managing director with contracting firm Beck Group, is on a mission to improve our understanding of buildings. In his view, designers and contractors have no shortage of software tools to help them design and build buildings. But tools that analyze a building's performance? Not so much, he says. But that is changing with technologies such as IP-enabled sensors (the "internet of things") and Big Data tools to analyze building data. One could argue that Beck Group is helping