CU1703

TECHNOLOGY focus
Visualising the future
3D Repo bring their cloud expertise to a UK
government-funded smart infrastructure project
Designing, furnishing and
maintaining a building is the
ultimate in custom design.
What's more, the processes are shared
by any number of stakeholders who all
need visual access to the model and
the wealth of information that lies
behind it. The happy coincidence is
that the technology at our disposal is
both keeping up with our needs and
facilitating their evolution - something
of a chicken and egg situation.
As they did with their promotion of
BIM, the government is again leading
from the front, this time with its
promotion of the smart infrastructure
project, VISUALISE. Bringing its
expertise to the project is 3D Repo, a
spinout from University College
London, and a developer of multiaward
winning open source software
for BIM in the cloud. They are actively
promoting the technology of the future
for visualising building information -
and they are using cloud-based
services to do it.
Instead of architects, consultants and
contractors sharing massive proprietary
files in a costly and time consuming
manner, 3D Repo has provided the
tools they need to simply point their
web browser to an encrypted online
repository to examine each project
stage virtually, even on mobile devices.
With 3D Repo users can then manage
model revisions and mark up issues
using live collaboration tools, which
allow the whole project team to work
from a single source of truth. More than
40 different 3D file formats are
decomposed and federated in the
company's big data repository.
3D Repo is applying its expertise to
the VISUALISE project, which is funded
by the UK government's Innovate
agency. Working alongside project lead
Skanska and project partners Building
Research Establishment (BRE), UNIT9
and CartoConsult, 3D Repo will help
develop a single, integrated and
accessible platform where data relating
to every aspect of an infrastructure
project can be visualised and analysed.
The VISUALISE project will also allow
for the sharing of information, bringing
together data from BIM, Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) and other
asset databases.
Organisations such as Skanska are
responsible for building, maintaining
and managing multiple infrastructure
assets on behalf of local authorities,
transport operators, utility companies
and other facilities such as schools and
hospitals. Assets can be distributed
over wide geographic areas, and the
management of different assets is
traditionally isolated within 'closed'
systems. Whilst geographical, asset,
live monitoring and other data may be
available, it is not effectively shared or
used to evaluate large scale data
patterns. This can mean that trends
between different asset types, for
example by ownership, location or
other shared classification, may not
always be identified.
The VISUALISE project will develop a
data integration, visualisation and
analytics solution for smart
infrastructure. Providing better
intelligence and functionality for asset
managers, VISUALISE will enable
better asset management, reduce the
risk of failure and improve lifetime
performance. The additional
intelligence will also lead to
productivity improvements, costs
savings and improved business
offerings to asset owners.
"VISUALISE will utilise a cloud based
Software-as-a-Service environment,
something the company specialises in,
to accept data from multiple sources,
bringing together the previously
disparate fields of BIM, GIS and asset
management," commented Dr Jozef
Dobos, CEO of 3D Repo.
"By working in partnership with other
specialists, such as Skanska, BRE,
UNIT9 and CartoConsult, and with
funding from Innovate UK, we can
develop, assess and commercialise a
unique collaborative solution that
aligns with the requirements of the
major players in the infrastructure
asset design, construction and
management sectors."
The VISUALISE project was awarded
funding by Innovate UK, the
government's innovation agency under
the project theme of 'Smart, resilient,
integrated infrastructure'. The
commercial research project will run for
18 months from spring 2017, and will
develop and demonstrate a Proof of
Concept version of the VISUALISE
solution which will be evaluated with
real world project partners.
www.3drepo.org
34
March/April 2017