Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference

This article describes the technology updates shared by Bentley at its recent Year in Infrastructure (YII) conference, including several new products such as LumenRT, a real-time animation and visualization application for infrastructure design; ContextCapture, a reality modeling application that can create detailed city models from 3D meshes captured with photographs rather than point clouds; OpenRoads ConceptStation, a tool specifically for conceptual infrastructure design; ProjectWise Scenario Services, which can compare and contrast different design scenarios; Structural Insights, which provides key at-a-glance indicators summarizing the performance of a structure; EADOC, which enables cloud-based construction management; and many others. Bentley also showed the updated features of the new CONNECT editions of its products, which continue to be extensively used by leading design and construction projects for a vast range of infrastructure projects around the globe.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2015/issue_77.html

Automating Code Compliance in AEC

This article looks at why the process of getting building approvals from regulatory agencies remains very much a 2D process, with the building drawings still being checked manually for code compliance, when much of it could have been automated if a BIM model was being used. It explores the various automated code-checking efforts that have been initiated so far like CORENET e-PlanCheck, SMARTcodes, and AutoCodes and their current status, as well as the technologies that are needed to actually automate the code-checking process.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2015/AutomatingCodeCompliance.html

Building Information Modeling: BIM in Current and Future Practice (Book Review)

This review explores the book, Building Information Modeling: BIM in Current and Future Practice, which brings together many of the leading academics and researchers in the field of AEC technology writing about some of their current BIM-related research. It is published by Wiley and edited by Karen Kensek and Douglas Noble, who are both long-time faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) and actively involved in academic research and teaching. While most of the book’s 26 chapters come from academia, there are a few contributions from the industry as well. After a brief overview of the content of the book, the review explores its relevance to practicing AEC professionals as well as the integration—or lack thereof—between the industry and academia in the AEC technology field.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2015/BIMinPractice.html

AEC Technology Updates, Fall 2015

This article captures the semi-annual update of the main developments from AEC technology vendors in the last six to seven months, following the AEC Tech Updates articles that were published in the beginning of the year. The updates covered in this article run across the spectrum of AEC applications and include the 2016 release of the Vectorworks product family that has just been released; a number of mid-year product releases from Autodesk and its new Stingray product for design visualization; several Revit plug-ins including those from Vabi Software, VisionRez, and the new FenestraPro Premium for energy analysis of façade design; additional analysis applications include Sefaira for energy and daylight and Oasys’ MassMotion Flow for pedestrian simulation; the interactive 3D presentation and visualization tool, CLEVER; and finally, a BIM plug-in for SketchUp—at last!

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2015/issue_76.html

Bentley EADOC: Cloud-Based Construction Management

After the AEC dotcom boom and bust debacle in the late 1990s to early 2000s, the last few years have seen a remarkable resurgence in the growing number of cloud-based solutions for different aspects of design and construction. One cloud-based solution that has remained largely out of the spotlight until now is EADOC, a collaborative construction management application that was just acquired by Bentley a few months ago. Not only does EADOC include construction management functionality that Bentley’s flagship project management and collaboration application, ProjectWise, does not have, it also integrates this functionality with project financials and cost capabilities, making it very unique in comparison to other construction management solutions as well. This review takes a closer look at EADOC to explore how these two sets of capabilities are integrated.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2015/EADOC.html

ArchiCAD 19

This review explores the main developments in the new release of ArchiCAD, including its patent-pending “predictive background processing” capability that significantly enhances the speed and responsiveness of the application, the ability to open multiple views in tabs, point cloud support, smoother and faster 3D navigation with OpenGL, easier application of materials to surfaces, IFC improvements, and additional interface and documentation enhancements.

It also raises the provocative question of whether the never-ending quest for better speed, performance, and power from our BIM applications is simply encouraging the “do more and more” mentality in the AEC industry.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2015/ArchiCAD19.html

Augmented Reality in AEC

While the concept of virtual reality is now very familiar to most technology professionals and its use commonplace in many industries including AEC, there is another concept that is slowly emerging and gaining ground in technology—that of augmented reality (AR) which “augments” physical reality with additional relevant content instead of replacing it altogether. This article describes the basic workings of the technology and captures the highlights of the “AR in Real Estate, Urban Design, and Construction” track at the recent Augmented World Expo (AWE), which provides some insights into the potential application of AR in AEC.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2015/ARinAEC.html