Related Links: Aconex Touts Integration With New Field App U.S. ERP Vendor Viewpoint Reels In U.K. Collaboration Service 4Project For every project team that uses 3D building information models and punch-list apps to improve productivity on a jobsite, the handoff of the building to its owners and building managers is still, for many, a paper-driven affair.Leigh Jasper, the CEO of project collaboration-software company Aconex, is on a mission to change that handoff process to digital documentation with the firm's release of its latest operations-and-management (O&M) suite of tools.Called Smart Manuals, the offering aims to align construction project information through O&M
Related Links: QR Codes Unlocking Secrets of NYC Building Permits NYC Dept. of Buildings Website New York City's Dept. of Buildings has become a hub for apps that help users access building information with their smart devices.The latest release from the DOB's Digital Hub division is a free app that lets users look up information on nearly 1 million properties throughout the city's five boroughs.Available for Apple and Android devices, the app features a basic menu of search functions. After a user types in a building's address and borough, the app pulls up information such as the lot number, building
Photo courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology Safety checks Georgia Institute of Technology graduate student Ebrahim Karan prepares to pilot an unmanned aerial vehicle (circled in red) to check a university jobsite. Photo courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology A GIT graduate student monitors the images and video that the UAV's camera is capturing and transmitting back to the iPad from the UAV's jobsite inspection. Related Links: FAA's Website for Updates on Unmanned Aircraft Systems FAA Website For Testing Site RFP Information FAA's Feb. 13, 3013 Call for Proposals on Six U.S. Test Centers Electronic Frontier Foundation Website on Drone
Image Courtesy OF Oracle Primavera Dashboard Schedulers are demanding more business-intelligence complexity and simplified dashboard views of selected project phases. Shown here is a Primavera screenshot of a dashboard. Related Links: Oracle Primavera P6 website Construction CPM Website and Presentations Critical-path method, or CPM, scheduling tools are doing so much more than managing schedules in construction these days. The project- management software platforms are gaining in sophistication and complexity—with better support for 4D building information modeling that gives project teams a more realistic view of the project. Milestones, risk analysis, business intelligence—it's all baked into CPM tools that are lightweight,
Related Links: Video Demonstration of the MARS App PARWorks Website Augmented Reality for Facilities Management Leaping Into Use Photos of construction projects are as common as hardhats and work boots on a jobsite these days.But what if construction crews could use photos and videos to assemble an updated 3D building information model of their project in seconds, using that overlay to check the building's progress against a 4D BIM schedule?That's just one example of the possibilities and new applications bubbling up from a hybrid 4D augmented reality (4DAR) platform developed by construction engineering professors and students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Image courtesy of Balfour Beatty Construction Related Links: How Balfour Beatty and Autodesk are Driving BIM Use How Ready Is 'BIM-?Ready'? Online Assessment Tells All Technology adoption quickened its pace with more construction professionals in 2012, fueled by growth in cheaper cloud- computing resources, faster networks and a variety of new tablet devices that have lower price points.And then there were apps—lots more apps.If 2011 was the year that tablets took off in construction, then 2012 could be called the year when even more apps found their way on to construction professionals' tablets and smartphones.As ENR's Luke Abaffy noted in
Mobile Devices Are Key to BI in Construction Stats: Construction Industry Dead Last in IT Spend Gartner Research: Big Data Trends How to Avoid e-Discovery Disasters With Big Data Tools (subscription only) Linked Data Working Group Website Dig into the master schedule on any major construction project and you will likely find plenty of examples of big data.
Related Links: Gehry Tech Launches Latest BIM Collaboration Tool Gehry Technologies Website Tallest Residential Tower in NYC Is Frank Gehry Demystified (subscription only) As chief technology officer of consultancy Gehry Technologies, Dennis Shelden spends a lot of his time talking with clients, design professionals and students about the profound changes that technology innovation is bringing to the computation and design disciplines. He would know. Shelden holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Design, a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Ph. D. in Computation and Architectural from MIT, where he also teaches design and computation.But even
E-mail courtesy of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects E-Cards: Firms communicated their status by sending out mass e-cards to their clients and business partners. Related Links: AIA Disaster Assistance Program Temporary Facebook Page of Perkins + Will With NYC Tower Crane Secure, Plan Shifts To Recovery Many design and construction companies affected by Hurricane Sandy harnessed the powers of technology to serve their clients and remain operational in the aftermath of the storm.Investments that paid off the best were virtualization tools and cloud-based private networks, say some firms. To communicate, most firms rerouted e-mail, sent out mass e-cards (see example at
New York City's downtown areas hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy's storm surge were getting pumped out through the weekend as city and federal officials worked to get more tunnels and subway systems back into operation.
