AEC Technology Updates, 2019

The pace of innovation is continuing to ramp up in the AEC Technology industry, as evidenced by this annual collection of updates, which go all the way from design to construction, not just of buildings but of larger neighborhoods as well as infrastructure. There are updates related to BIM from Ideate, Xinaps, and IMSI Design; developments in laser scanning from Paracosm and Pointfuse; preconstruction and construction updates from Join and Autodesk; a move to apply sustainability principles to larger communities in addition to individual buildings from IES; the start of integrating GIS with BIM from ArcGIS; and the expansion of Transoft’s transportation engineering portfolio with a key acquisition, Keysoft. There is also a simple but important productivity tool launched by 28Hands, a spin-off from Arup.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2019/issue_99.html

Visicon: Model Review and Validation

Visicon is a new solution in the AEC technology field which, at first glance, seems to be entering into an already crowded field of BIM viewing, model checking, coordination, and collaboration solutions. On a closer look, however, I found that it not only has a unique mix of capabilities that span model viewing, data visualization, model interrogation, and design coordination, it also has a fresh take on many of these features, the benefit of being built from scratch. The ultimate objective, however, remains the same—to create an accurate design model that meets quality control standards, which allows the data needed for downstream processes to be easily extracted from it, and which can be reviewed by anyone (for free) without requiring the original authoring application.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2019/Visicon.html

Integrating Construction Technologies to Enhance the Value of Design Deliverables

In this Viewpoint article, Graham Twigg, CTO of Multivista, emphasizes the importance of integrating visual as-built data directly into the BIM models created for a project by the design team for real-time validation and a more accurate representation of the building through each phase of construction. Integrating data from different construction solutions with BIM models allows a true digital twin of the completed building to be created, which would be a valuable resource throughout its lifecycle.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2019/issue_89.html

AIA Conference on Architecture 2019

This article provides an overview of the technology applications for architecture that were exhibited at the annual AIA conference last month. Broadly speaking, they fell into the categories of BIM, performance analysis, project information management, specifications, model checking, and, of course—this being an architectural conference—visualization. The products covered include ARCHICAD 23, Twinmotion, OpenBuildings Designer, Vectorworks 2019, IESVE 2019, PlanIT Impact, TonicDM, Newforma Project Center, Deltek PIM, Layer, Overtur, Solibri, Unity Reflect, VIM AEC, and IrisVR Prospect.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2019/issue_98.html

GRAPHISOFT 2019 Key Client Conference

GRAPHISOFT’s 2019 KCC event, that was held earlier this month in Las Vegas, included updates from GRAPHISOFT, the global launch of ARCHICAD 23, and presentations from several firms across the world on how they are using GRAPHISOFT solutions. Dubbed the “Reimagine” conference, this event was the first to also introduce GRAPHISOFT’s new CEO, Huw Roberts, an architect and AEC industry veteran who was with Bentley Systems for 18 years. (GRAPHISOFT’s former CEO, Viktor Várkonyi, has moved on to head the Planning and Design Division at GRAPHISOFT’s parent company, Nemetschek.)

The KCC is a small invitation-only event rather than a user conference as such—this year’s roster included about 400 attendees—and it provided me with the opportunity to learn in depth about GRAPHISOFT’s current outlook, upcoming releases, future plans, partner products, and implementation stories. The smaller setting also enabled me to get a better understanding of some of the more technical aspects underlying AEC technology solutions such as the APIs that are used to integrate different applications. I will cover this in a later article, as well as the customer implementations that were presented. For now, a broad overview of the event and the main updates from GRAPHISOFT are presented here.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2019/issue_97.html

TonicDM: Project Information Management for AEC

While the AEC industry is more than amply served by solutions for project management (PM), construction management (CM), and team collaboration for our increasingly complex buildings and infrastructure projects, the field of project information management (PIM) has, until now, been relatively sparse. However, the need for a good PIM solution has intensified, and one of the new solutions that has emerged in this space is TonicDM.

While organizing project information so that it is easier to find and eliminating duplication is the basic function of a PIM solution, it can further streamline many common PM tasks such as creating and tracking submittals and RFIs. While TonicDM provides all these capabilities, what sets it apart is its strong focus on ease of use and the use of smarts to automate many routine tasks, minimizing the work users would have to put in towards managing project information.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2019/TonicDM.html

Nikken Sekkei: An AEC Technology Case Study from Japan

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This article, which was originally published in the Q3 2014 issue of AECbytes Magazine, looks at the AEC technologies implemented at Nikken Sekkei, a 2,400 person firm providing architecture, engineering, planning, and construction management services around the globe. Ranked as the fourth largest design firm in the world, Nikken Sekkei is headquartered in Tokyo, with additional locations in several cities in Japan as well as in cities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

URL:  http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2019/NikkenSekkei.html