CU1711

CAD User 

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 

VOL 30 NO 06 

WWW.CADUSER.COM 

Every BIM is awesome! 

Lego Architecure meets BIM with Bond 

Bryan's award-winning guide 

iModelHub 

Bentley Systems 

embraces change 

Getting on track 

Willmott Dixon uses 

Viewpoint for the NCHSR 

Bracing stuff 

Ensuring temporary structures 

are both safe and spectacular 

INDUSTRY NEWS • CASE STUDIES • HARDWARE & SOFTWARE FOCUS • PRODUCT REVIEWS • FEATURES

City of Coatesville Brownfield 

Redevelopment Project 

Site revitalization project leveraged 

reality modeling to prepare plans for future 

commercial development and to quantify 

22,400 cubic yard of available clean fill. 

High Fidelity, Engineering 

Ready Reality Context 

ContextCapture Saved the City of Coatesville $300,000 

With ContextCapture, you can quickly and automatically generate a high fidelity 

geo-referenced 3D model from ordinary digital photography captured from 

UAVs, vehicles, or handheld smartphones. The resulting 3D mesh is precise 

and extremely accurate, available the day you take the photos for the most 

demanding projects. The model is engineering ready and does not require 

any further processing, translation, or manipulation. 

» 750 aerial photos in 20 minutes 

» 3D engineering-ready model 

in 8 hours 

» Final engineered plan in 3 days 

“ContextCapture has changed the way 

we work. It helped us reduce risk, ensure 

safety, and deliver a superior project 

result. And, we accomplished it all with 

a dramatically compressed timeline and 

with significant cost savings.” 

April M. Barkasi, PE, Coatesville’s 

City Engineer, CEO/President, 

CEDARVILLE Engineering 

To learn more and try it out yourself visit www.bentley.com/CoatesvilleFidelity 

© 2017 Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Bentley, the “B” Bentley logo, and ContextCapture are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct 

or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTENTS 

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 

CONTENTS 

BRACING STUFF 8 

The Braceworks add-on for Vectorworks helps 

designers ensure that temporary structures are 

both spectacular and safe 

TAKING CONTROL 18 

David Chadwick reports back from November's 

Construction Computing Seminar on 

Information Management, held in association 

with Newforma at the Institute of Civil Engineers 

LEGO ARCHITECTURE MEETS BIM 20 

Bond Bryan Architects, early proponents of BIM 

through their use of ARCHICAD, have 

produced the 'LEGO Architecture meets BIM' 

guide, taking LEGO's popular building blocks 

as its focus 

CONSTRUCTIVE PRAISE! 26 

The 2017 Construction Computing Awards 

were held in London this November. Discover 

more about this year's winners in our extended 

round-up this issue 

I NEWS................................................INDUSTRY NEWS....................................................................................................6 

• EASYPARK UNVEILS ITS SMART CITIES INDEX 2017 • FARO SETS THE SCENE WITH VR 

CASE STUDY....................................GRANDFATHER’S BRIDGE...............................................................................12 

• A RECENT TEKLA BASED PROJECT TESTED BIM FULLY, FROM CONCEPTION TO COMPLETION 

SOFTWARE FOCUS.........................WARBOARD STRATEGIES.................................................................................14 

• WARBOARD ENABLES USERS TO MARSHALL THE INFORMATION IN MODEL ANALYTICAL TOOLS 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS....................iMODELHUB......................................................................................................16 

• BENTLEY’S iMODELHUB HAS BEEN CONCEIVED TO LEVERAGE CHANGE RATHER THAN FIGHT IT 

CASE STUDY...................................GETTING ON TRACK...........................................................................................24 

• WIMOTT DIXON UTILISES VIEWPOINT SOLUTIONS FOR THE NATIIONAL COLLEGE FOR HIGH SPEED RAIL PROJECT 

TRAINING MAP................................AUTODESK TRAINING........................................................................................32 

• YOUR GUIDE TO AUTODESK TRAINING 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS...................FORGING AHEAD...............................................................................................34 

• AUTODESK USED THEIR LATEST AUTODESK UNIVERSITY EVENT TO OUTLINE THE ROAD AHEAD FOR FORGE 

November/December 2017 3

COMMENT 

Editor: 

David Chadwick 

(cad.user@btc.co.uk) 

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Comment 

Beyond BIM 

by David Chadwick 

The last decade in the construction 

industry has been dominated by BIM. 

Halfway through its implementation and 

careering towards the milestones of BIM Level 

3 and 4, it's salutary to look back and reflect 

on the changes that have already been 

accomplished. We've had the benefit of being 

involved in two seminars this year dedicated 

to BIM, COBie and information management, 

and they have given us the opportunity to look 

at the subject from a fresh perspective and in 

greater depth, with input from some of the 

leading experts in the industry. 

Two things stand out. The first is the 

complete transformation of an industry that, 

arguably, has not significantly changed since 

the days of Sir Christopher Wren. Wren, who 

conceived the original design for St Pauls in 

1633 after two earlier failed attempts, 

employed specialists Grinling Gibbons for the 

woodwork, Francis Bird for some of the 

masonry and Sir James Thornhill for the 

interior decoration. He spent 35 years on the 

project with, presumably, the whole plan 

floating around in his head and nary an Excel 

spreadsheet in sight. 

Fast forward to 2017 and I had the 

(dubious?) honour of presenting a much 

humbler, aborted project at the Take Control 

Seminar on Information Management in 

November that had learnt nothing from our 

illustrious past, resulting in complete and 

utter failure in terms of information 

management, collaboration and project 

management (see the article on page 18 of 

this issue for more on this). 

The emphasis on BIM has revitalised the 

construction industry with its emphasis on 

information sharing and collaboration, the first 

fruits of which I remember experiencing when 

I visited Mervyn Richards OBE at the Terminal 

5 headquarters. 

Although it may not have delivered at all 

levels, particularly when it comes to asset 

management, where traditional methods of 

information handling sometimes still hold 

sway despite the availability of massive 

amounts of digital and strategically structured 

information, there is no doubt that BIM has 

delivered substantial increases in productivity 

and efficiency. 

The second important factor, for me, is the 

education of a generation of construction 

specialists - and the promise of more to 

come. We complain about the lack of 

experienced workers in the industry, but the 

emphasis on BIM and collaboration and 

access to integrated architectural, 

engineering and analysis tools which have 

been developed to leverage such 

collaboration, has enhanced the knowledge 

and application of every construction worker's 

own specialisation. Team members no longer 

work in isolation on their own tasks, but have 

insight on the total project and where their 

contribution fits in - and why. 

By way of illustration we have featured two of 

the BIM projects nominated for the 2017 

Construction Computing Awards in this issue: 

the winner of BIM Project of the Year, Bond 

Bryan Architects for 'LEGO Architecture meets 

BIM', and the runner-up in the same category, 

Viewpoint for its BIM for the National College 

for High Speed Rail. 

We are in the early stages of even greater 

utilisation of information at all stages of the 

construction process, from initial planning 

using resource analysis, demographics and 

artificial intelligence to assess future 

requirements, and the development of smart 

cities, to environmental intelligence and 

material capabilities to build and inhabit 

sustainable environments - and these two 

projects show how training for the future can 

be achieved 'in project' and (the best way) as 

a 'fun' exercise in and of itself. 

You will find much more information on the 

winners of the 2017 Construction Computing 

Awards on page 26 of this issue, among 

them my pick for this year's Editors Choice 

award, Human Recognition Systems - a long 

overdue acknowledgement of the important 

work being done to bring safety and security 

to construction sites. 

4 November/December 2017

A customisable 

costing tool for 

projects of all sizes 

Combined with 

Asta Powerproject BIM, 

Bidcon provides a tool kit 

for 5D planning 

To find out more please visit: 

elecosoft.com/bidcon 

elecosoft.com/bidcon 

Bidcon: The modern approach to cost estimation

INDUSTRY news 

FARO SETS THE SCENE WITH VR 

FARO has announced the 

release of VR-ready FARO 

SCENE 7.1 software. FARO 

SCENE 7.1 enables an 

immersive VR experience with 

integration of detailed photographic 

textures, i.e., surface 

details of an object and rendering 

of 3D scan data so 

quickly that it appears to be 

generated in real time. 

While SCENE 7.1 is optimized 

for the FARO laser 

scanning product portfolio, 

e.g. FocusS or Freestyle, it is 

also device agnostic, so it 

can seamlessly accept and 

manage 3D scan data from 

other, non-FARO laser scanner 

products. 

SCENE 7.1 enables users to 

view an entire project, i.e., 

the full range of related scans 

in full 3D virtual reality 

through a compatible VR 

headset from the comfort of 

the user’s office or workstation 

chair. This can help to 

significantly reduce project 

cycle time by enabling architecture, 

engineering and construction 

professionals, public 

safety forensics experts 

and product designers to 

quickly simulate and compare 

reality for such tasks as 

evaluating as-built documentation, 

reconstructing crime 

or accident scenes, or optimising 

design plans. 

SCENE 7.1 advances 

beyond the ''see it better to 

understand it better'' concept 

common in most industrial 

VR solutions. It enhances 

productivity by enabling 

users to take/capture screenshots, 

tag comments or 

notes specific to images and 

navigate the system overview 

map in real time, all without 

needing to exit the Virtual 

Reality environment. 

Historically, the FARO Focus 

and Freestyle products have 

had their own unique, coded 

targets (markers that identify 

scan areas/specific targets), 

which could not be shared by 

the other scanning device. 

With SCENE 7.1 enhanced 

functionality, not only can 

both devices share coded 

targets, but they can also 

now verify registration of 

scans from both devices in a 

single, real time registration 

report. This ensures a more 

cohesive workflow between 

these devices and also 

enables projects to be completed 

faster. 

A free 30 day trial of SCENE 

7.1 is available for download 

at the link below. 

www.faro.com/resource/scene 

EASYPARK UNVEILS SMART CITY INDEX 2017 

Smart parking app, EasyPark, 

have released the 2017 

Smart City Index, revealing 

Copenhagen, Denmark as the 

smartest city, followed by Singapore, 

and Swedish city Stockholm. 

EasyPark undertook the 

study not only to highlight those 

metropolises which are on the 

forefront of smart urban growth, 

but also to learn from those 

cities which are showing 

impressive acceleration towards 

making life smoother for their 

citizens through digitalisation. 

EasyPark first created a list of 

500 carefully selected cities. 

They were then analysed for 19 

factors aiming to define what 

makes a city ‘smart’, beginning 

with digitalisation - meaning 4G, 

high-speed internet and high 

smartphone penetration. Next, 

they looked into transport and 

mobility, which should be knowledge-based 

with smart parking, 

traffic sensors and car sharing 

apps. A smart city should also 

be sustainable, with a focus on 

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN BIM AND GIS 

clean energy and environmental 

protection. Lastly, there should 

be excellent online access to 

governmental services and a 

high level of citizen participation. 

All of these factors were then 

analysed to determine the final 

index of 100 cities. To round off 

the study, the research team 

then asked 20,000 technology 

and urban planning journalists 

to rate how smart their cities 

are. The top ten smartest cities 

according to the survey are: 

1. Copenhagen, Denmark 

2. Singapore 

3. Stockholm, Sweden 

4. Zurich, Switzerland 

5. Boston, United States 

6. Tokyo, Japan 

7. San Francisco, United States 

8. Amsterdam, Netherlands 

9. Geneva, Switzerland 

10. Melbourne, Australia. 

London ranked 17th in the 

index. For more details visit: 

https://easyparkgroup.com/ 

smart-cities-index/ 

Autodesk and Esri have 

announced a new relationship 

to build a bridge between 

BIM and GIS mapping technologies. 

The two companies 

plan to enable a broad range 

of industries to gain better 

context by visualising data of 

the man-made world, the environment, 

citizens and the networks 

that weave it all together. 

At the recent Autodesk University 

2017, Esri Founder and 

President Jack Dangermond 

and Autodesk CEO Andrew 

Anagnost explained how the 

new partnership would bring 

together the power of building 

information modeling and GIS 

mapping data. 

''It is important to consider 

the needs of future generations 

during the design and 

building of projects today,'' 

said Jack Dangermond, president, 

Esri. ''The benefits of 

partnering with Autodesk will 

include securing sustainable 

resources for the growing 

population, a responsible 

human footprint on our natural 

environment, better use of our 

planet’s resources and more 

resilient cities.'' 

''Our goals are to provide 

industry and city planners the 

ability to design in the context of 

the real world. This will allow 

communities to build more connected, 

resilient cities, and infrastructure 

with a focused eye on 

sustainability,'' said Andrew 

Anagnost, CEO, Autodesk. 

www.autodesk.com 

6 

November/December 2017

From design 

to reality 

Louis Vuitton Foundation (France) 

Tekla Structures is intelligent 3D modelling software at the heart of the digital 

construction process. From concept drawing to reality, collaboration between 

people and across technologies becomes more efficient and rewarding. 

Together we are shaping a smarter future for construction. 

www.tekla.com/uk/solutions 

TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

SOFTWAREfocus 

Bracing stuff 

The Braceworks add-on for Vectorworks helps designers ensure that temporary structures are both 

spectacular and safe 

Vectorworks Designer and Vectorworks 

Spotlight, which both already include the 

design tools you need to model 

entertainment and event rigs, are 

supported by the Braceworks load 

analysis add-on module, aimed 

specifically at designers and riggers 

working on temporary entertainment 

structures. Braceworks provides an easy 

way to gauge the performance and 

satisfy designers of the safety and 

compliancy of these temporary structures 

under load. 

It's been a while since we looked at the 

application of Finite Element Analysis 

(FEA) in construction projects, and I 

am delighted that the release of 

Vectorworks 2018 gives me the 

opportunity to cover it again. It has to be 

said though that this particular form of 

FEA won't be for everyone, as it is very 

much aimed at designers of those 

colossal structures that are now de 

rigueur for concerts, gigs, outdoor 

performances, and indeed any temporary 

structures for TV and film production, 

sporting events and exhibitions, 

complete with lighting, seating and other 

components. It's a limited field perhaps, 

but one that has more than its fair share 

of safety challenges. 

Vectorworks Braceworks was never 

going to be a mass-market product, but 

its appeal as a set of unique problems to 

be solved is fascinating. Designing 

temporary structures that are capable of 

carrying assorted lighting and other 

equipment in myriad venues and hooked 

up to temporary power sources, whilst 

occasionally catering to the wilder 

ambitions of the artists themselves, 

demands the highest levels of safety in 

design and construction. 

VECTORWORKS SPOTLIGHT 

Spotlight is an intuitive design tool, 

allowing users to transform their creative 

concepts into award-winning and 

stunning productions. It's aptly named 

too, as the finished creations, illuminated 

by dazzling light shows, pyrotechnics 

and animations, are often every bit as 

interesting as the artists themselves! 

The software includes 2D/3D hybrid 

lighting symbol libraries of conventional, 

LED, and moving lights, video screens, 

diffusers and other lighting effects. There 

are additional lighting features within the 

Vectorworks' Renderworks feature set 

(based on Cinema 4D) which allow 

designers to visualise their work as they 

develop the design, before using Vision - 

a previsualisation solution made by 

Vectorworks - to see how all the bells and 

whistles come together for a full 

performance. 

Spotlight has libraries of objects - lights, 

TVs, projector screens, LED screens, 

speakers - that can be hung on to the 

trusses and pipes for inclusion in the 

Braceworks analysis either singly or in 

arrays, as well as cables and soft goods 

like drapes and screens, which all 

contribute to the load on the truss. 

Cross-sections, used to strengthen parts 

of the structure, or hoists for moving 

8 


TRANSFORM THE WORLD. 

DESIGN WITH 

VECTORWORKS. 

The Vectorworks ® line of design software and BIM solutions 

delivers a robust suite of capabilities that will enhance your 

modelling process and simplify your workflows. 

VISIT US AT VECTORWORKS.NET/UK 

CALL US TO FIND OUT MORE ON 01635 580318 

EMAIL US AT UKSALES@VECTORWORKS.NET 

IMAGE COURTESY OF CAIQUE NIEMEYER.

SOFTWAREfocus 

equipment during a performance, can be 

added from previously defined libraries 

or, if appropriate, designed and added 

from scratch. 

Each object comes with its own symbol, 

which is recognised and included in the 

Braceworks calculations. If additional 

objects are created and added to the 

design then custom symbols have to be 

made, and taken through a number of 

steps within the software to make them 

Braceworks compatible. 

BRACEWORKS 

Using Vectorworks Spotlight gives users 

the means to produce stage sets 

capable of providing the ultimate in 

performance, and to fine-tune the 

spectacle using Renderworks and 

Vision. Just as important, however, is 

ensuring that the structure is strong 

enough to carry the weight of its 

equipment throughout a complete 

performance. To this end, Braceworks 

allows designers to calculate the forces 

involved in complex 3D structural 

systems in unique, and widely different, 

configurations. 

Braceworks includes algorithms that 

can analyse point and distributed loads, 

straight and curved structural members 

and multiple materials, using FEA to 

perform static analyses. As the intended 

users are not always going to be 

seasoned FEA professionals, the results 

of the different analyses are displayed 

graphically on the model for easy 

reference, and to test different truss and 

load configurations. 

After the design has been established, 

detailed reports can be created and 

exported in either DSTV and PDF formats 

to allow structural engineers to check 

them out, or to perform more detailed 

analysis using other FEA software. 

So do you need to pass the model on 

to the professional structural engineer, 

as Braceworks appears to cover all of 

the loads involved? Well, yes and no. 

Braceworks does allow designers to 

create designs to EC3 standards for 

steel structures and EC9 for aluminium 

structures, but if you want to get the 

structural drawings certified or stamped 

in order to satisfy local safety standards, 

then that will have to be done by a 

qualified structural engineer. 

Braceworks uses standard, authorised 

FEA calculations, but that alone doesn't 

allow the software to replace the 

structural certification process. It does 

however save the designer, or even the 

in-house structural engineer if you are 

designing larger and more complex 

projects, a huge amount of time, by 

being able to generate the calculations 

directly from the model instead of having 

to do it by hand - the current situation in 

most of the industry. 

As designers, however, you would be 

ultimately responsible for ensuring that 

all loads, forces, connections and 

calculations comply with manufacturer's 

load tables, equipment labels and 

engineering specifications, and that 

equipment, structures and designs 

comply with applicable standards - 

ANSI, Eurocode, etc. - as well as local 

rules and regulations. 

You can get a bit of help here. To 

reassure users of the accuracy of the 

software, Vectorworks has checked the 

results of Braceworks calculations 

against well-known structural 

engineering packages - Dlubal RSTAB 

and SCIA Engineer - and have published 

the results in the Vectorworks 

knowledgebase, the support site which 

enables Vectorworks and its users to 

share information on all aspects of 

Vectorworks software. 

Some of the major truss manufacturers 

have already agreed to provide truss 

information ready for use by Braceworks, 

and if the ones you want to use aren't 

included then you can always create 

your own truss library. If you wish to 

collaborate with other set designers, you 

can share 3D models and add objects if 

you are both using Vectorworks 

Spotlight, but only those users licensed 

to use Spotlight with Braceworks will be 

able to carry out calculations. 

VECTORWORKS SOLUTIONS 

Braceworks is a significant step forward 

for Vectorworks. The software is already 

well known for its range of features, 

which cover all aspects of architectural 

design and construction, from terrain 

development, concept design and 

landscaping to the latest visualisation, 

cloud and collaboration tools, including 

its handling of BIM and Information 

Management. Braceworks takes it into 

the realms of design and structural 

analysis, and whilst the focus of the 

software is on Vectorwork's 

entertainment set and stage design 

tools, it whets the appetite to see similar 

analysis software emerge for use with 

Vectorworks Architect. 

www.vectorworks.co.uk 

10 


LINDE AG Engineering 

embraces HP PageWide XL 

Thomas Riedl, 

Reprographic Department Manager at Linde AG 

The installation of a HP PageWide 

XL 8000 Printer plus online folder 

marks the end of a time consuming 

and costly printing process 

at Linde AG Engineering. With HP 

PageWide XL the overall costs for 

printing large format documents 

could be reduced by 40%. 

Prior to installing the HP Page- 

Wide XL 8000 MFP plus online 

folder back in October 2015, the 

company was using three large 

format printers to manage their 

print volume which in peak times 

could reach up to 10.000m² per 

month. One black & white LED 

printer was used for printing pages 

and two additional color printers 

based on waxed toner pearls were 

needed to print an ever increasing 

number of coloured pages. “In the 

past technical drawings used to 

be printed only in black and white 

but lately we have seen a significant 

increase of colour pages,” 

says Thomas Riedl, Reprographic 

Department Manager at the Linde 

Headquarter in Pullach, Germany. 

The value of color 

“Already five years ago we were 

dreaming of a large format printer 

who could produce black and white 

and colour pages in one go. However 

the available solutions back 

then didn’t meet our expectations 

in terms of cost and quality”, remembers 

Mr. Riedl. 

It has been proven that color documents 

are more easily understood 

and the information is retained at 

higher rates versus monochrome 

documents - it can decrease human 

error rates 1) . 

Significant cost savings from 

day one 

The consolidation of the previous 

printers into one HP PageWide XL 

8000 plus online folder has paid off 

rapidly: the internal reprographic 

department could cut their overall 

large format printing costs by 

40%. In addition Linde AG is very 

satisfied that there is no minimum 

purchase commitment anymore. 

“The price per square meter is very 

competitive and we have gained 

a lot of flexibility”. Another positive 

side-effect is the low energy 

consumption compared to LED 

technology. “We are very conscious 

about our environmental impact 

including energy consumption, resources 

and materials,” confirms 

Mr. Riedl. 

Seamless integration with existing 

output management system 

Another argument in favor of the 

HP solution was the seamless integration 

into Linde’s corporate 

output management system called 

Plossys Netdome. The System 

now meets Linde’s requirements 

for enterprise-wide print and distribution 

of documents and information. 

The HP PageWide XL 8000 printer 

offers the fastest large-format 

printing available in color 

and black-and-white with speeds 

up to 30 D/A1-size prints per 

minute, as well as two 775 milliliter 

ink cartridges per color 2) . 

HP PageWide Technology consists 

of more than 200,000 nozzles on a 

stationary print bar and spans the 

width of the page, enabling breakthrough 

printing speeds. Extended 

time between service station cycles 

also enables outstanding sustained 

productivity capacity. 

More information: www.linde.com • www.hp.com/go/pagewidexl 

HP 841 PageWide XL Print head 

1) 

According to “Why Color Matters,” by Jill Morton, 2010. 2) Printing at up to 30 D/A1 pages/minute and up to 1500 D/A1 pages/hour, the HP PageWide XL 8000 Printer is faster than alternatives for large-format printing of 

technical documents, GIS maps, and point-of-sale (POS) posters under $200,000 USD as of March, 2015 including 36-inch wide LED printers (printing up 22 D/A1 pages/minute) and wide-format printers based on Memjet 

technology (printing up to 800 D/A1 pages/hour). Based on internal HP testing of the HP PageWide XL 8000 Printer in line drawing print mode on uncoated bond paper printing in D/A1 landscape.

CASE study 

Grandfather's Bridge 

A recent Tekla based project tested BIM fully from conception to completion, aiming to deliver a full 

'paperless project' 

Grandfather's Bridge in Finland is 

a full-blown BIM project that 

progressed from the initial call 

for bids to its public opening and 

beyond, aiming at paperless design 

and construction, and creating new 

practices for transferring BIM data 

between project members. The project 

utilises 3D modelling throughout the 

planning phase allowing participants to 

minimise errors and to make the 

transfer of information faster and 

clearer. Throughout the project 

significant savings were achieved in 

time and other resources. 

SMOOTH START TO BIM 

The general contractor, Kreate, was 

fairly new to BIM when they started 

working on the project, but being 

experienced Tekla users meant that 

using the software in a full-blown BIM 

project felt natural for them. 

Aki Kopra, Project Engineer at Kreate, 

explains how Building Information 

Modelling was used all the way from 

the tender phase to delivery. "In the 

tendering phase of the project, the 

Building Information Model was an 

official and binding document. I think 

that this type of method is becoming 

more common, but for me, this was my 

first BIM project. As it turned out, the 

well-built bridge model supported our 

tender calculations throughout the 

tendering phase." 

SHARED UNDERSTANDING 

In the Grandfather's Bridge project BIM 

was not only used for design but also 

for setting up schedules and monitoring 

and supporting the fabrication and 

erection of structures. For example, 

steel structures were given three 

different statuses for scheduling - 

design, fabrication and installation - 

and concrete pours were scheduled in 

the model. The model was used by the 

client for visualising the various phases 

of the project, and also by the 

workshop, which manufactured the 

steel structures, facilitating scheduling 

and fluent collaboration between the 

site and fabrication operations. 

Kopra stresses that visualising the 

structure in 3D with Tekla was a 

significant help in processing the 

information; for example for managing 

site operations. The bridge planning 

process was similarly streamlined, and, 

allowing the project team to avoid 

errors, resulted in time savings. 

"The planning process is simpler and 

clearer with BIM, and also more 

transparent for the different members of 

the project - for instance, BIM allowed 

the site crew to see and understand the 

bridge structure and the way it was to 

be erected. This makes planning work, 

as it allows the entire project to 

become more fluent, quicker and errorfree," 

says Jarkko Savolainen, the 

project's building information specialist 

at A-Insinöörit Oy. 

The project parties chose Tekla Model 

Sharing to access the combined 

model. As a result, the model was 

always up to date and team members 

were able to access the accurate 

information they needed, when they 

needed it. 

FABRICATION, PROCUREMENT 

AND DELIVERY 

The project used BIM throughout its 

fabrication processes for manufacturing 

the different challenging steel 

structures, which were modelled 

originally as workshop models to test 

design and fabrication, and to sort out 

12 


CASEstudy 

possible erection issues. After these 

temporary steel structures were 

removed the whole steel structure was 

able to take on its final shape as 

designed by the architect, and 

subsequently the steel elements of the 

bridge were successfully fitted to the 

concrete abutments erected earlier. 

Using BIM, the reinforcement was 

designed correctly from the beginning, 

and the overall coordination of the 

installation in construction phase was 

especially smooth. Aki Kopra says that 

the procurement and delivery of 

materials was made more efficient by 

using the Building Information Model, 

as the reinforcement for certain parts of 

the bridge was able to be delivered 

reliably, and on time, to the 

construction site. "With the schedule, 

timing the deliveries correctly has been 

easy, and the site is never on hold due 

to a lack of material, but instead the 

work keeps proceeding. In addition, 

punctual deliveries and logistics are a 

great help on a site where space is 

limited." 

Model information also benefits the 

client and owner of the bridge - the City 

of Helsinki. Ville Alajoki, Senior Project 

Manager at the Public Works 

Department of the City of Helsinki, 

considers the project extremely 

successful, saying "Everything in the 

project was done correctly from the 

very beginning, in other words faults 

were anticipate and thus no extra repair 

GRANDFATHER'S BRIDGE IN FIGURES 

Location: Helsinki, capital of Finland 

Longest span: 144.3 meters 

Bridge width: 4 meters 

Shape of the bridge: The bridge widens at the other end, where the traffic 

lanes branch into two directions 

Height under bridge: 4.7 meters 

Cover structure: all steel 

Bridge deck: Hung with 22 tension-rod pairs 

Deck’s installation blocks: Welded together on site 

rounds were necessary. I believe that 

new technology enables new 

innovations, and efficiency will further 

be improved in many areas in 

construction, such as producing 

reinforcement elements off-site." 

GRANDFATHER'S BRIDGE 

The Grandfather's Bridge (the reason 

for the name was not provided, but I 

am sure it harks back to Finnish 

folklore) is located in Helsinki, and 

comprises a number of spans, the 

longest of which is 144.3 metres and is 

4 metres wide overall, but with one end 

widening to enable traffic lanes to 

branch in two directions. It is a steel 

structure supporting the deck with 22 

tension-rod pairs, with the deck's 

installation blocks welded on site. 

TRIMBLE BUILDINGS 

Tekla, now part of Trimble, was used 

throughout the project, and includes a 

number of separate applications 

covering all elements of the design, 

analysis and fabrication of steel 

structures. Tekla Structures makes 

accurate constructible modelling of any 

structure possible. The whole suite also 

comprises: Tekla Structural Designer, 

which gives engineers the power to 

analyse and design buildings efficiently 

and profitably; Tekla Tedds for 

automating repetitive structural 

calculations; Tekla BIMsight, a free 

professional tool for construction 

project collaboration allowing anyone to 

combine models, check for clashes 

and share information, and Tekla 

Field3D, an easy to use 3D tool for 

utilising BIM on mobile devices. 

In addition to Tekla, Trimble Buildings 

brands include names like SketchUp 

and Manhattan Software, targeting 

architects, engineers, fabricators, MEP 

contractors, general contractors and 

construction managers and building 

owners. 

www.trimble.com 


SOFTWARE focus 

Warboard strategies 

Warboard enables users to marshall the information in model analytical tools in order to track 

progress on a project 

The name might bring to mind a 

videogame, but Warboard is 

actually a useful tool for 

organising, presenting and collaborating 

on clash detection information. If you 

are familiar with Navisworks then you will 

know all about its clash detection 

capabilities, the ability to merge 

separate 3D models (architectural, 

structural and MEP) to create a 

federated model and to facilitate 

walkthroughs, and other model 

inspections to detect clashes - points 

where the geometry of one component 

interferes with that of another. 

You will also know that each 

component comes with an identification 

code and a ream of information, and 

that you can tag such clashes and mark 

them for remedial action. 

The clash report is available 

in a number of different styles 

Navisworks has been around for quite 

a while, and it is probably the most 

widely used software of its type. It has 

its limitations though. Back in 2013, BIM 

Technologies were developing BIM 

solutions for some of their clients 

working on major projects. It was in the 

early days of BIM and, although their 

clients used Navisworks, they had no 

way of evaluating the progress of the 

project and their investment BIM. 

Much of the information they needed to 

get at was already available in the BIM, 

but BIM Technologies remained 

unimpressed by the practical access to 

data within Navisworks and the 

software's reporting capabilities. You 

could use Navisworks to produce a 

basic list of clashes compiled from the 

3D model, with a thumbnail that 

displayed the elements involved, 

accompanied by its attributes. How you 

dealt with them, of course, was left to you. 

Realising that more could be made of 

the information, BIM Technologies 

enlisted the aid of Space Applied 

Technologies, whose SAT team set 

about developing a front-end dashboard 

that could track issues and attributes in 

the model, using graphs to show how a 

project had progressed to become a 

fully coordinated model: i.e. all issues 

fully resolved. The dashboard was to be 

supported by details of current projects, 

with team members invited to 

collaborate on them and the tasks 

assigned to each. 

BIM Technologies used the resulting 

application to handle issues raised by 

their clients, who were most impressed 

by the platform's ability to enhance the 

communication and management of 

Navisworks data. 

Initially an in-house tool, architects, 

engineers and contractors started 

asking for their own access to 

Warboard, building up a commercial 

demand for the product. BIM 

Technologies worked with SAT to rebuild 

Warboard from the ground up, retaining 

all of the original features and adding a 

couple of new ones, and rolled it out in 

September this year, available on 

subscription and priced according to 

usage. The new features included a new 

user interface, multiple project 

management capabilities and advanced 

expandable clash results for 

customised reporting. 

With real-time reporting on iPads and 

tablets, Warboard also enabled users to 

produce complete PDF reports with 

detailed information on outstanding 

tasks, who was working on them, and all 

associated communications. 

The name, Warboard, was originally 

14 


SOFTWARE focus 

Adding Warboard Projects 

The Warboard Dashboard 

tongue-in-cheek because of its similarity 

to the display of information you would 

expect in such an environment, but it 

proved a popular choice - and stuck! 

WARBOARD IN ACTION 

The simple display that pops up when 

you load the software is indicative of 

the simplicity of signing up for a 

subscription - at 6 different levels of 

usage for a monthly fee or as a single 

user which is free, but which limits the 

user to just 50 issues - and the ease 

with which projects and team members 

can be added. As an administrator of a 

project you can invite others to join 

your team, either as a guest, where 

your commenting abilities are limited, 

or a team member with full inclusion in 

the process. 

The Warboard dashboard is divided 

into a number of sections. At the top, 

once a project is loaded, are a graph 

and pie chart that display current 

progress levels, and a simple indication 

of the number of projects you are 

involved with, outstanding tasks, and 

how many messages are waiting for 

your attention. For convenience, a 

project can have two or more 

administrators to cater for those 

occasions when one or other team 

member is unavailable. 

The main display has thumbnails for all 

current projects, and collaborators for 

each project. Projects are added by 

selecting a suitable thumbnail image for 

identification in the display, and 

uploading and synchronising issues with 

the model from Navisworks in one 

operation in XML format. Once loaded in 

Warboard, each clash instance is 

displayed, enabling the administrator to 

allocate which team member is 

responsible for dealing with it and 

recording all related communications 

and comments, along with its priority - 

high, medium of low - until it is resolved. 

You can display all of the issues in 

Navisworks using its Clash Detective, 

which shows the quantities of different 

categories and whether they are new, 

active, reviewed, approved or resolved, 

along with a description of each. 

Selecting the report function here 

brings up a list of data available with 

each. All of these must be ticked 

because that is the information that will 

be required by Warboard - except for 

Resolved, as the software then has no 

further use for that issue. 

Although the process is quite 

straightforward, recent enhancements to 

Warboard allow it to be integrated within 

Navisworks as a plug-in, allowing 

automatic and seamless 

synchronisation with the application. 

Both of these activities are brilliantly 

explained in a series of six YouTube 

videos hosted by Adam Ward of BIM 

Technologies, with a promise of a further 

one to come to explain how best to find 

and upload issues within Navisworks. 

Adding team members is quick and 

easy, and once added you can assign 

work, share comments and instructions, 

and record their completion - 

information that is aggregated and 

displayed in graphs and charts and the 

familiar red/amber/green symbology, 

showing how far each project has 

progressed in achieving a perfectly 

coordinated model. 

Below these two lists is a calendar of 

scheduled events and a list of tasks. To 

the left of the main display is a browser 

that allows users to switch between 

different actions. 

SOLIBRI AND BCF FILES 

Warboard is not just restricted to 

Navisworks and Revit. It can be utilised 

by any 3D modeller that is able to export 

data in BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) 

including Solibri. The effect is just the 

same. This means that, theoretically, the 

software can be used for multiple other 

purposes besides managing clashes. 

You can take a Revit model, for instance, 

and highlight a section of it - perhaps 

the detailing around one of the windows 

- download it into Warboard, attach 

comments, and assign one of the team 

to deal with it. 

WARBOARD DEVELOPMENT 

This release is only the start of the 

development of Warboard, and both 

BIM Technologies and Space Group see 

it becoming a central project tool for the 

monitoring and management of design 

information. Rob Charlton, CEO of 

Space Group said; "We initially 

developed Warboard to allow clients to 

monitor project progress through a 

simple dashboard. Over the years the 

platform has grown into something 

much more valuable, the functionality 

has devolved from many users on many 

live projects and this latest release is 

particularly focused on helping 

designers' workflows." 

www.warboard.co.uk 


TECHNOLOGYfocus 

iModelHub 

Introduced at the 2017 Year in Infrastructure Conference in October, Bentley's iModelHub has been 

conceived to leverage change rather than fight it and represents an evolution in the way model 

information is shared between project team members, writes David Chadwick 

concept in infrastructure - Keith Bentley 

argued in his keynote that we need a new 

method of managing change, a better 

solution for synchronising work in 

infrastructure projects. 

Having spent many years watching 

the industry evolve - more even than 

Keith Bentley, the founder and Chief 

Technology Officer of Bentley Systems - I sat 

up and took notice at the keynote speech at 

this year's Year in Infrastructure Conference 

when Keith announced that, instead of 

fighting change and trying to force a natural 

occurrence to behave as we would like it to, 

the time has come for us to accept it and 

manage it in a more mature manner. 

Each new technological breakthrough, 

software development and working process 

involves change, and with it attempts to 

minimise its impact by setting up standards 

and formats for users to adopt: from the 

very first operating systems and BASIC 

programming languages, through 

generations of floppy, hard and silicon disc 

drives, to CAD, BIM and collaborative 

worksharing. Bentley have taken part in this 

process as well of course, with releases 

such as the CONNECT Edition, which 

integrates applications and information in a 

CDE Connected Data Environment. 

The latest of these breakthroughs is the 

growth of cloud-based services, used to 

share a 'single source of information', soon 

followed, as Keith Bentley highlighted in his 

keynote, by big data analytics, machine 

learning, artificial intelligence, and 

blockchain - the latest buzzwords for Chief 

Information Officers and other technology 

leaders in Infrastructure. 

The problem is that people take on new 

technological ideas and methods at 

different rates. By the time the most Luddite 

of us has adopted the latest technology, the 

innovation leaders have moved on to the 

next big thing - and companies behave in 

much the same way, despite the pressures 

to work collaboratively. 

This is exacerbated by the increasing 

complexity of infrastructure projects, with 

many collaborating disciplines where work is 

interconnected. As Keith Bentley explained, 

these can require ''Thousands of 

asynchronous decisions and changes for 

material choices, design, aesthetics, 

structural integrity, safety, and more.'' 

Constant and unrelenting change 

characterises infrastructure projects, but 

Instead of trying to fight that fact, Bentley 

believes we should be designing our 

systems from the ground up to manage 

change. Instead of trying to maintain a 

single model of a design as 'the current 

record' - current being an ephemeral 

A MODEL FOR THE FUTURE 

The infrastructure industry has recognised 

the value of the information being collected 

from myriad technologies, tools and 

workflows, believing that they can be 

combined to form a conceptual database of 

engineering decisions, processes and other 

information, which can be used to minimise 

risk and improve project efficiency by 

leveraging new cloud-based services. 

Project Managers and Asset owners 

believe that new insights and benefits will 

accrue from being able to leverage their 

unstructured data through the 

implementation of machine learning, 

Artificial Intelligence and big data analytics 

(those three buzzwords again). 

The digital workflows they envision, 

however, are simply impractical with the 

current generation of engineering design 

and information management tools that 

were conceived and developed for local 

networks of personal computers. The 

conceptual database they worship is in fact 

a disconnected array of ever-changing files 

in formats defined by their authoring 

applications, stored on servers in indivisible 

and indigestible units. 

The problem is how to retain a database of 

consistent units, semantics and structure 

that any authorised user can access without 

impacting other users, and which operates 

under the premise that the only constant is 

change? I suppose we could address the 

problem using quantum physics, but we are 

still in the infancy of its application. 

THE IMODEL 2.0 CLOUD PLATFORM 

Thanks to the power of the cloud, Bentley 

16 


TECHNOLOGYfocus 

Keith Bentley 

has been able to introduce the iModel 2.0 

Cloud Platform, iModelHub, which 

maintains a timeline of changes and an 

accountable record of who did what, and 

when, in a distributed relational database of 

the entire project. It includes physical and 

functional models and related drawings, 

specifications, analytical models and so on. 

Unlimited copies can be made from the 

iModelHub - users saving copies to their 

own servers or workstations or cloud-based 

services, which can be synchronised to the 

iModel if they subscribe to iModelHub's 

timeline of changes - a distributed cloudbased 

database with unlimited scale-out of 

clients and services. 

Subscribers can access, and even name, 

any version of the iModel from the 

iModelHub to suit their own needs and rate 

of progress during the project - or even 

those who may just not want to work with 

the latest version of information - secure in 

the knowledge that, when appropriate, they 

can synchronise it with the original model 

with almost no disruption to it, and without 

risk. Bentley likens this to a bank statement. 

Not only can you see the final balance, but 

how it was achieved. If you want to look at a 

breakdown of the transactions leading up 

to the balance you can, and even run a 

couple of calculations on those that you 

have influence over, knowing that the final 

balance will not be affected. 

THE VALUE OF CHANGE 

Change can be a source of value as well as 

risk. The iModelHub maintains a timeline of 

changes stored as a sequence of 

immutable ChangeSets that capture how, 

when, and by whom the engineering data 

has been changed. This semantically rich 

timeline of changes shows how engineering 

data is changing in a meaningful way, and 

can be shared with project teams in both 

connected and disconnected workflows. 

The iModelHub facilitates distributed 

working - either across multiple 

organisations, individuals or locations, 

including remote locations with poor 

access to the Internet and field workers with 

limited WiFi capabilities. Work is done 

separately until it can be synchronised at 

appropriate milestones.Portable databases 

that can be synchronised when required 

eliminate the disadvantages that 

centralised databases pose, and as the 

iModelHub is designed to facilitate 

distributed cloud scale-out, it avoids the 

bottlenecks that normally occur when 

additional and unforeseen activity arrives at 

a central database. 

PIPE DREAM OR REALITY? 

This all sounds absolutely splendid, but 

how does it work in practice? What 

applications run on the iModelHub, and 

how will the system develop? The iModel 

web access services will make information 

from iModels accessible to cloud services, 

with the iModel Web SDK allowing third 

parties to create custom web applications 

to put together iModels, reality context from 

ProjectWise ContextShare, and information 

from other connected data environment 

sources, with full 3D navigation, filtering and 

property browsing. This enables, for 

instance, Navigator Web to enable viewing 

of any named version of an iModel from any 

web browser, without having to install plugins 

or download the iModel. 

Mobile apps enable complete copies of 

iModels to be downloaded for 

disconnected operation in the field - 

ChangeSets significantly reduce the 

amount of data needed to be downloaded. 

CONNECT Edition desktop applications 

can attach models from iModels as 

'reference attachments and receive 

notifications of changes added to the 

timeline. The ability to extract timeline 

related and unstructured information from 

the relational database allows users to 

extract aligned information from the 

wonderfully named iModel Data Lake for 

analytics and AI solutions. 

Being able to extract any configuration of 

iModel from the data allows project 

managers to provide a proper, as-built 

representation of the asset - the 'as-is 

iModel'. Using the facilities of the 

iModelHub, the aligned as-is iModel can be 

maintained in exactly the same way as all 

other named iModels, rather more easily 

and cheaply than heretofore, and without 

the applications that created them. 

So how do we maintain the viability of the 

asset model after handover? As Keith 

Bentley explained, the iModel's timeline will 

be reset at handover, but the iModel will 

continue to evolve as changes to the 

infrastructure are made. The iModelHub will 

hold the living history of the physical and 

functional models of the asset. 

www.bentley.com 


EVENTfocus 

A civil day out 

The Construction Computing Take Control seminar, held in association with Newforma, raised some 

interesting questions about Information Management, writes David Chadwick 

Following the successful CAD User 

Seminar on COBie in May, we 

decided that the role of information 

within the construction industry should be 

explored further in an event of its own - 

hence the Take Control Seminar on 

Information Management, which was held 

on November 1st at the Institute of Civil 

Engineers in association with Newforma. 

The aim of the Take Control Seminar was 

to take a detailed look at the burgeoning 

mass of information being thrown at the 

construction industry, how much of it is 

relevant and how it should be handled. 

Following the same format of the CAD User 

COBie seminar, the morning sessions were 

used to set the scene with a series of 

presentations, look at the issues involved 

and present a couple of alternative 

solutions, followed in the afternoon by a full 

Q and A session where attendees could 

quiz the assembled experts. 

The presentations ranged from proposing 

a complete reorganisation of a company's 

processes to accommodate an integrated 

project and information management 

system, through to a solution proposed by 

Newforma that provided an organisation 

with the means to leverage the information 

already held within its various departments 

and servers, and which could be up and 

running within days - at much lower cost. 

INFORMATION MISMANAGEMENT 

Before we looked at improving our 

information management capabilities, I 

thought it would be salutary to look at a 

project where the basic rules of information 

management were ignored - namely where 

does it come from, is it accurate, is it 

appropriate and who needs it. 

I didn't need to look any further than my 

own back yard, or more literally, harbour for 

inspiration. The Watchet Marina Project in 

Somerset involves an incompetent local 

Council which contracted the job of 

constructing the Marina in a notoriously 

mudbound location to a company that 

delivered the most convenient, and 

presumably cheapest quotation, based on 

erroneous survey data that misrepresented 

the viability of the project. Vital measures to 

extract the mud were not implemented and 

although the information was conveyed to 

the Council executive in charge of the 

project, it was not passed on to other 

Council members. 

With the project falling apart the plug was 

pulled unilaterally by the CEO of the 

Council, resulting in a project that has not 

been signed off, a Council unable to sue 

the contractor and a mudbound Marina 

that is unusable except at peak tide times. 

The full story and the lessons to be learned 

are worthy of exploring in detail in a future 

issue of the magazine. 

The second presentation was given by 

Andy Stanton at Transport for London, who 

elaborated on the role of information in the 

management of TfL's assets. A recipient of 

COBie information, he explained the 

difficulty of relating that information to the 

most common tasks assigned to his staff - 

to whit, unblocking toilets, which formed the 

largest portion of tasks (around 43%!) and 

which, if left in an unusable state, can 

render whole sections of a building 

uninhabitable. 

The most telling explanation, though, was 

the difficulty in changing a light bulb, which, 

contrary to that asset maintenance joke, 

really does require a team to accomplish! 

Paul showed us a room full of attractive 

ornamental lights. Should one of these fail, 

the wiring has to be located through the 

suspended ceiling, back to the appropriate 

junction box and thence to the switch 

panel, requiring stepladders and the 

removal of numerous panels. 

AN ERP SOLUTION 

The scale of the problem was neatly 

expressed by Kenny Ingram of IFS, who 

described how building information 

accrues on every project even before the 

first concept sketch is made. In the very 

simplest terms, you have a need to fulfil 

and a certain amount of money you can 

spend in the pursuit of doing so. Once 

those parameters are established, 

architects and contractors have to be 

selected, schedules arranged, funding 

organised, and tenders and contracts 

drawn up. By this point a considerable 

amount of critical information has already 

accumulated - and we haven't even begun 

to speak of BIM. 

All of this information is held within the 

various servers and applications of the 

departments involved, which have 

developed over the years to satisfy 

18 


EVENTfocus 

individual storage and archival 

requirements. When architects and 

contractors are subsequently chosen, the 

information they create is added to the list 

as BIM data. 

To make sense of what is happening 

within a project at any time - to see whether 

it is on time or budget - information has to 

be collated from a number of different 

sources and applications, in different 

formats and in different types of media, in 

order to produce an accurate report. IFS 

believes that the best way to accomplish 

this is to provide an all-embracing 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 

document that collates the information from 

all sources and uses it to populate reports, 

dashboards and other distributable 

information templates to keep every 

member of a project up to date. This can 

require considerable analysis of an 

organisation’s requirements and practices, 

and you have to ensure all project 

members are on board - but you will end 

up with an all-embracing, efficient and costeffective 

management solution. 

REUSE OF EXISTING DATA 

Newforma, on the other hand, has taken a 

different approach to the problem of 

managing the growing information 

mountain. The accumulated information 

from each project is aggregated according 

to the needs of each individual department. 

However, instead of requiring massive 

changes within an organisation to 

accommodate an all-embracing solution, 

such as ERP and the various shades of 

project, document and other management 

solutions currently available, Newforma 

proposes to reutilise the data in its existing 

formats and locations, using an advanced 

search engine to locate, extract and 

reformat every scrap of information relating 

to every information request. 

Paul Daynes of Newforma concurred with 

Kenny Ingram that the issue is hugely 

complex, but rather than trying to shoehorn 

all of a company's processes into a rigid 

and proprietary database, which requires 

you to migrate project data into the system 

before you can search it, you connect all of 

your best-in-class solutions, access project 

data regardless of where it is stored, and 

work the way you want to work. Instead of 

breaking and rebuilding xrefs to 

accommodate a centralised and uniquely 

vulnerable single point of failure, Newforma 

Project Center preserves BIM linkages to 

reference files. 

As Paul explained, no data is stored or 

moved - Newforma Project Center simply 

connects and creates relationships 

between information and file types. This, 

when all is said and done, is why we save 

information: to understand what has 

happened and why, and if there is an issue 

to be resolved, to examine how it came 

about. Uniting, or even reuniting, people 

with information reduces risk, provides 

transparency and accountability and 

improves the decision-making process - a 

simpler and more direct process. 

To emphasise the benefits of this 

approach, Paul presented a video from one 

of the company's clients, SimpsonHaugh 

and Partners, who chose the Newforma 

platform for London's Battersea Power 

Station project. In the video, Dave Moyes, 

Information Management Partner at 

SimpsonHaug, explained that "Newforma 

helps me by just giving me more time to 

actually do the things I want to do; to spend 

with other people, looking at problems, and 

talking about the practice and architecture." 

And, as Paul explained at the end of his 

presentation - use the recycling bin, don't 

waste the information you already have. 

GODZILLA! 

The final presentation of the morning gave 

Stefan Mordu of AECOM the opportunity to 

introduce us to the awesome destructive 

power of Godzilla! Godzilla is, of course, 

the iconic monster from Japanese film and 

TV that periodically emerges up from the 

depths to destroy urban landscapes - 

symbolic of the sort of seismic events that 

you can't actually plan for! 

Stefan also brought attendees up to 

speed on the trends that will affect the 

construction industry over the next 20 or 30 

years, and which will fundamentally change 

the way we design and build our 

infrastructure. This is a huge subject in itself, 

and proved so popular with our attendees 

that we are giving space to Stefan in the 

next issue to expand on it further. We will 

also explore the issues raised in the Q & A 

session in our Jan/Feb edition. 

www.constructioncomputing.co.uk/seminar 


CASEstudy 

LEGO meets BIM 

Bond Bryan Architects, early adopters of the principles of BIM and its application through their use of 

Graphisoft's ARCHICAD, have produced the 'LEGO Architecture meets BIM' guide, using LEGO's 

popular building blocks as its focus 

If you have any children that you wish 

to steer towards a career in the 

construction industry, or if you still 

consider yourself a bit of a child at 

heart, then Bond Bryan has produced 

the perfect solution for Christmas. No 

need to risk stepping on sharpcornered 

bits of plastic this year when 

the family gets together - simply switch 

on your laptop and dive into the 'LEGO 

Architecture meets BIM' guide from the 

hallowed offices of the Leeds-based 

architectural practice! 

Bond Bryan Architects' LEGO-based 

BIM Guide won BIM project of the Year 

at this year's Construction Computing 

Awards. Bond Bryan have won this 

award in the past, but the sheer delight 

in going through the LEGO BIM Guide, 

made their work stand out once again. 

'LEGO Architecture meets BIM' was 

developed originally by Rob Jackson, 

Bond Bryan's BIM Manager, and then 

supported by other colleagues within 

the company. Support soon followed 

from other companies such as Hobs 

Studio, who printed the 3D models, 

Soluis Group, who developed the free 

to download Augmented Reality (AR) 

app and Synchro, who assisted with 

the 4D demonstration. 

The LEGO BIM guide uses the familiar 

tools of the popular toy to present 

different aspects of the BIM process. 

The Henry Riley LLP model costing 

process may perhaps be taken with a 

pinch of salt, as not reflecting the true 

cost of a BIM project, and I would be 

delighted to see the results of the Faro 

laser scanning - likewise the posts 

contributed by 3mu about waste. 

The list of software used for the 

project is too lengthy to be included 

here, representing 21 of the foremost 

applications used in the construction 

industry and reflecting the wide scope 

of the project and phenomenal level of 

collaboration it entailed. 

LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA 

As BIM is primarily about collaboration, 

it made absolute sense to use social 

media tools to bring the project to as 

wide an audience as possible. As well 

as setting up a blog to encourage a 

two-way discussion about the project, 

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn were 

also put to good use. 

Having been enthusiastically received 

on social media, Bond Bryan was 

20 


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CASEstudy 

encouraged to present the project at 

different events in Manchester, Leeds 

and London, and as far afield as 

Hungary, Germany and Denmark. You 

may well be one of the lucky people to 

have seen, or even contributed, to one 

of the Blog sessions. Choosing LEGO 

as the vehicle for the project was a 

masterstroke, as it appeals to 

enthusiasts from 3 to 103, and you 

needed to understand the principals of 

LEGO and not necessarily those of 

CAD! 

THE PROJECT SO FAR 

At the time of writing there have been 

31 published LEGO Architecture meets 

BIM blog posts. These range from an 

introduction to the 3D model, to taking 

a look at things like schedules, 

geometry exchange and visualising 

model data, through to information 

take-off, Common Data Environments, 

and, of course, COBie. The latest blogs 

posts will look at BIM to FIM and CAFM 

and 'as-built models', and sharing the 

final project files using IFC models and 

COBie. 

The aim of the project was to 

demonstrate all of the elements and 

uses of BIM as possible - things we do 

on a regular basis - but also to enable 

users to explore new workflows. One of 

the first problems that had to be 

overcome was the lack of a usable 

library of LEGO components (bricks), 

which had to be modelled using the 

authoring tools available in some of the 

architectural applications. 

By and large, the many standard 

processes used had already been 

implemented into Bond Bryan's 

working practices as early as 1994 - 

they were using BIM, thanks to 

Graphisoft's ARCHICAD, well before 

the term became synonymous with 

information modelling and data 

sharing. 

As a proponent of open workflows, 

using structured reliable and reusable 

data across platforms, and being a 

member of buildingSMART UK, Bond 

Bryan developed the model to comply 

with open standards IFC 

(ISO16739:2013), BCF (BIM 

Collaboration Format) and COBie 

(actually covered by BS1192-4:2014, a 

subset of IFC). 

GOING FORWARD 

Now that the project has been freely 

shared, clocking up over 40,000 views 

online and being shown to over 500 

people at the public events, Bond 

Bryan can congratulate themselves on 

achieving their core aims - namely to 

demonstrate the core benefits of 

OpenBIM and encourage all of us to 

work collaboratively with others - and 

all at no cost! The project is even being 

mooted for inclusion in a university 

course and to be used globally to 

demonstrate the benefits of OpenBIM. 

As we saw at the Construction 

Computing Awards this year, there is a 

trend towards providing an enhanced 

training environment for those who 

wish to take full advantage of BIM. This 

is also evidenced by Viewpoint, the 

runner-up in the BIM Project 2017. 

Viewpoint for Projects is being used in 

the National College for High Speed 

Rail project, which is also featured in 

this issue of the magazine. 

Individual construction companies - 

architects and contractors - don't 

always have the resources or expertise 

to embark on full-scale BIM 

implementation. Gearing up a 

company to work in a fully collaborative 

environment, operating under entirely 

new workflows, and learning how to 

manage and share the building 

information they are being inundated 

with, can have a huge impact on 

company's already stretched 

resources. The two examples provided 

by both Bond Bryan and Viewpoint 

explore ways that this can be more 

profitably achieved, first of all by 

simplifying the training and making it 

more enjoyable for all involved, and 

secondly by incorporating it within the 

project. The result is training which can 

be fully costed on the job. 

If you haven't already discovered 

LEGO Architecture meets BIM then you 

can explore all of the instalments to 

date on Bond Bryan's BIMblog, below. 

http://bimblog.bondbryan.com/categor 

y/lego-architecture-meets-bim/ 

22 


DATE FOR YOUR DIARY 

15TH NOVEMBER 2018. LONDON. 

NOMINATIONS OPEN 4TH JULY 2018 

For sponsorship enquiries or more information on this leading industry event please visit 

www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk 

Contact josh.boulton@btc.co.uk 

or call 01689 616000 

@CCMagAndAwards

CASE study 

Getting on track 

Willmott Dixon has used Viewpoint for Projects and Field View to enhance their information 

management and educate their clients during the National College for High Speed Rail project 

It's fascinating to learn that the 

National College for High Speed Rail 

(NCHSR), where the generation 

charged with delivering the project will 

be schooled in its design and 

construction, was not originally intended 

to be a BIM Level 2 project. However, 

having witnessed the benefits of using 

BIM on other projects, Willmott Dixon, 

the principal contractors, made the 

decision to use BIM on all future 

projects, including the NCHSR itself - a 

large facility of over 70,000 square 

metres that includes teaching, workshop 

space and specialist rail equipment, 

such as 150 metres of external track and 

caternary. The project is designed to 

provide a 'real work' environment and to 

prepare students for high speed rail. 

Besides building an establishment to 

educate future employees of High Speed 

Rail, the project was an ideal 

opportunity for Willmott Dixon to educate 

their client and guide them through the 

process of creating their Employer 

Information Requirements (EIR) and 

Asset Information Requirements (AIR). 

Admirable as such a project is - setting 

up a college where industry apprentices 

can be trained in a 'real work 

environment' - Willmott Dixon had more 

pressing BIM issues to deal with. One of 

the most important of these was sorting 

out interoperability between different 

software platforms and the coordinates 

systems they used. Using Bond Bryan 

Architects' authoring system with internal 

standards aligned to ARCHICAD, and 

working with Curtins structural engineers 

and Briggs and Forester, both Revit 

based, they found the coordinates in 

each IFC export to be different. 

The situation was exacerbated when 

the supply chain came on board and 

introduced fabrication software - so that, 

eventually, more time was spent 

resolving rather than federating the 

models. To resolve the issue Willmott 

Dixon had to produce coordinate 

settings themselves for the whole project 

team to base the model on. 

VIEWPOINT FOR PROJECTS 

The solution they found was to use a 

third party to standardise the data 

across the whole project. They 

subsequently opted for Viewpoint for 

Projects, which allowed them to create a 

3D model which incorporated data from 

all members of the project, including, for 

the first time, the supply chain. 

Ben Jowett, the BIM Information 

Manager at Willmott Dixon, described 

the benefits that came with working with 

a model-based viewer, saying "Our 

supply chain just isn't capable of viewing 

models because they don't have the 

means to view these bits of information, 

but it was important to bring them on 

board the whole BIM process - getting 

them to understand what a Building 

Information Model is and what 

information it contains." 

Collaboration was practiced through 

the Scape Framework between the 

consultants and Willmott Dixon right from 

the initial briefing and feasibility stage, 

and whilst creating the initial BIM 

protocols and documentation, resulting 

in greater investment by the whole team 

in the project. Clients and stakeholders 

were also able to explore the design 

using walkthroughs and stereo 

panoramic views. Models were 

exchanged on a weekly basis with 

fortnightly clash resolution workshops - 

initially with just the design team - but 

towards the end of the project the supply 

chain were also invited to experience the 

collaborative workshops. 

INTEGRATED TRAINING 

WORKSHOPS 

Willmott Dixon realised that bringing the 

supply chain into the workshops allowed 

them to be involved in the introductory 

sessions to BIM as well as project 

specific technical workshops, where they 

were able to focus on issues like 

24 


CASEstudy 

software interoperability, classification, 

data validation and verification, CDE, 

data integration and modelling 

standards. 

This was also the first fully digital 

project undertaken by the Willmott Dixon 

site team, who were taken through a 

number of internal training sessions, 

including viewer training for Viewpoint for 

Projects, so that they could learn how to 

access and interrogate the models on 

site, interrogation data enabling them to 

validate specification and performance 

data. They were also allowed to 

participate in clash resolution and 4D 

workshops. 

Viewpoint for Projects is used 

extensively now at Willmott Dixon, even 

from pre-construction and the concept 

design all the way through to 

construction, so that a common theme 

is developed on site with the delivery 

team, allowing the company to "work in 

a common data environment when 

we're delivering projects and BIM Levels 

1 and 2", according to James 

Henderson, Senior Design Coordinator 

at Willmott Dixon. 

FIELD VIEW 

The Tablet based application Field View 

from Viewpoint was used extensively on 

the NCHSR project, providing the latest 

project information to project team 

members on site, and enabling them to 

manage a number of associated 

construction processes more efficiently, 

including things like Health & Safety, 

Permits, Quality Delivery Inspections and 

Site Diaries. 

The supply chain and consultants also 

used both Viewpoint applications, 

particularly Field View, which enabled 

them to manage admin issues on-site 

instead of having to leave the site to 

respond to emails and hard copies of 

project information. Every on-site 

revision of project information was 

immediately made available on 

Viewpoint for Projects, and was therefore 

available for the wider, distributed team. 

Another useful benefit was that project 

teams spent longer on-site, rather than 

utilising their time on burdensome 

administrative tasks common to paper 

based projects. 

Field View is particularly useful for 

handling snags. As Henderson 

explained, "We ran a trial with Field View. 

Snags were broken down into two parts. 

Initially we tried to deal with snags while 

work was taking place on-site to make 

the project run more smoothly, using a 

quality delivery system, with snags being 

signed off as the task is being created. 

That created 523 tasks. Alternatively, we 

started a snagging process when we got 

to the end stage of the job, when the job 

is being finalised - identifying just 293 

tasks with Field View, and allowing us to 

show a 'real time effect' where we work a 

lot quicker. In effect we are snag free two 

days ahead of handover to the client." 

Ben Jowett added that "Instead of going 

back to the office to fill out paperwork, 

Field View allows delivery teams to stay 

on-site whilst carrying out tasks, and a 

recent survey showed we were saving up 

to 5 hours per person a week." 

REDUCING RFIS 

Increasing the level of information that 

Willmott Dixon requested at each stage, 

together with fortnightly coordination 

workshops, resulted in a large reduction 

in RFIs raised when the M&E supply 

chain partner Briggs and Forester came 

on board to deliver the scheme on-site. 

Willmott Dixon were able to quantify the 

numbers of RFIs raised when they 

compared a digital project with two 

earlier, non-digital projects, and found 

improvements of between 59% to 63%. 

They weren't able to compare results 

from the NCHSR project, as they had not 

carried out this type of analysis at the end 

of each stage, but they now carry out the 

exercise on all other projects, which has 

proved very successful for them. 

Looking at the success of the project, 

Henderson said that working in 3D 

enabled them to distinguish the primary 

routing path and highlight issues which, 

if not acknowledged early on, would 

have impacted on the design, 

programme and cost of the project. He 

added "One of the main benefits of using 

the software, in terms of ROI for risk 

mitigation, was the site diaries, which 

enabled us to record what goes in, in 

realtime - so we can go back, as if it was 

yesterday, to find out what has and has 

not occurred, enabling us to resolve 

issues proactively." 

Ben Jowett added, "One of the key 

benefits for us was the control of access 

to information - we work on a lot of law 

and order projects and digital 

information security is very important, 

particularly with BIM. However, I think the 

access controls in Viewpoint for Projects 

are flexible enough to allow us to cater 

for project needs, whilst retaining a 

standardised approach. Both products 

are very flexible and you can mould them 

to what your project requires." 

www.viewpoint.com 


2017 awards 

Sponsored by: 

Champagne Reception Sponsors: 

@CCMagAndAwards 

Constructive praise! 

There are challenges and circumstances aplenty currently 

facing the construction industry, which we can either submit 

to or treat as opportunities. I like to think that the companies 

who get involved in The Construction Computing Awards, either by 

submitting projects, voting or simply enjoying a great evening out 

at the awards ceremony, are the ones who fall into the latter 

category. The next couple of decades are going to see substantial 

changes taking place in the development of smart cities, 

infrastructure and sustainability, and the companies that fail to fully 

engage with these changes are the ones that will fall by the 

wayside. 

This year's ceremony played host to an unplanned common 

theme. Bill Hill, CEO of the award's chosen charity, Lighthouse Club 

UK, highlighted the fact that as an industry we have the highest 

proportion of workplace injuries in the country. It was apt then that 

the recipient of the 2017 Editors Choice award was Human 

Recognition Systems, whose solutions promote Health and Safety 

in the workplace. 

Other winners on the night included Zaha Hadid Architects with 

CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE, who won the Collaboration Project of the 

Year for their work on The Danjiang Bridge, Solibri UK, who won 

Product of the Year for Solibri Model Checker, and UK BIM Alliance, 

who won Team of the Year for their work in digitally transforming the 

construction and infrastructure sectors. You will find more details on 

all of our 2017 winners across the following pages. It just remains 

for us to say congratulations once again to all of our winners and 

runners-up, and a big 'thank you' to everyone who took the time to 

vote online. www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk 

Innovation of the Year 

WINNER: Glider Technology Ltd for GliderBIM 

RUNNER-UP: ClearEdge 3D for Verity 

To win Innovation of the Year for our GliderBIM software was an awesome feat for a company that is still less 

than two years old. Being recognised nationwide for bringing much needed innovation to the construction 

and asset management industries is a real thrill for us. We are so excited about the future of GliderBIM; we 

are only just getting started! We are planning to bring more innovation in the New Year, which will take 

GliderBIM to the next level. Watch this space… 

26 


2017awards 

One to Watch Company 2017 

WINNER: 3D Repo - Award received by: Rob Jackson from Bond Bryan on behalf of 3D Repo 

RUNNER-UP: Mosaic Management Systems 

BIM technology innovator 3D Repo are proud to have scooped the 'One to Watch Company of 2017' award 

at the Construction Computing Awards. The award recognises the role of the tech disruptor in advancing 

the use of the web for sharing essential construction information. The 3D Repo solution - described as an 

online knowledge base - provides a cloud repository for BIM data that enables project stakeholders to access 

the latest 3D models and visualise real time changes, mark up issue and make informed decisions all via a 

web browser. 

www.3drepo.org 

Best Use of IT in a Construction Project 2017 

WINNER: Elecosoft with McCarthy and Stone's Implementation of the IconSystem: The Single Source of the Truth 

RUNNER-UP: Sypro Management Ltd with NEC3 Contract Manager for Nottingham Biosciences 

Elecosoft is delighted to have been awarded The Best Use of IT in a Construction Project 2017. This award 

was made in recognition of the impact the Elecosoft's IconSystem has made on McCarthy & Stone's 

operations, which involved close collaboration between the software team at Elecosoft and its client. 

IconSystem is much more than just a BIM solution. It is a reliable digital data source, which facilitates the 

making of accurate fact-based decisions in construction projects and users such as McCarthy & Stone, have 

reported that they been able to achieve significant operational savings in project costs as a consequence. 

www.elecosoft.com 

Best Use of IT in an Infrastructure Project 2017 

WINNER: Asite with Adoddle for The Thames Tideway Tunnel Project 

RUNNER-UP: Zaha Hadid Architects with CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE on Cloud for The Danjiang Bridge 

Asite's cloud platform, Adoddle, celebrates a win at this year's Construction Computing Awards for the Best 

Use of IT on an Infrastructure Project on the Thames Tideway Tunnel project and runner up for Best 

Collaboration Project on the IFA2 project. Asite are proud to be a part of the prestigious annual event, the 

only event in the UK to showcase and reward the technology, tools, solutions and highlight the leaders of 

technology in the AEC industry. The 12th year of the award ceremony was held in London on 16th 

November, attracting the largest global attendance of AEC Technology providers in the history of the event. 

Speaking on Asite's win, Tony Ryan, Group CEO said, ''We are honoured to be working with the Thames 

Tideway team and to receive this award is a clear sign the collaboration is always a winner''. 

BIM Project of 2017 

WINNER: Bond Bryan Architects for LEGO Architecture meets BIM 

RUNNER-UP: Viewpoint with Viewpoint for Projects and Viewpoint for Field View for The National College for High Speed Rail 

The LEGO project has been something of a hobby for almost 2 years, developed over many evenings and 

weekends, but whilst a lot of it has been fun, it's been a challenge to develop it into a coherent and 

(almost) complete series. The project set out to inspire others to move the construction industry forward 

and to win an award for it really makes those hours worthwhile. To win the award against such great 

competition was great but to have managed to pull off winning the same award three years in a row was a 

really proud moment!" 

Collaboration Project of 2017 

WINNER: Zaha Hadid Architects with CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE on Cloud for The Danjiang Bridge 

RUNNER-UP: Asite with Adoddle for The National Grid IFA2 Project 

We're really pleased that the team at Zaha Hadid Architects won the 2017 Collaboration Project award. It's a 

clear recognition of their innovation in taking on the new CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE software platform we 

supplied and using it to improve the whole design collaboration process on this major international project. 

Given the remarkable outcome in financial returns they obtained we know they are now taking this 

knowledge and skill onto other projects within the company. We applaud their vision. 


2017 awards 

Team of 2017 

WINNER: UK BIM Alliance for Digitally transforming the Construction and Infrastructure sectors. 

RUNNER-UP: Sypro Management Ltd for The Sypro Development Team 

Winning Team of the Year proves that working as a team works. The UK BIM Alliance is just that, a team. A 

team of volunteers who passionately believe in making our industry the best there is achieving our objective 

of making BIM business as usual. 

Cloud Based Technology of the Year 2017 

WINNER: Vectorworks Inc. for Vectorworks Cloud Services 

RUNNER-UP: Payapps.com for Managing the application for Payment, Valuation and Certification process. 

Vectorworks, Inc. is honoured to announce that their Cloud Services is the winner of the Construction 

Computing Awards Cloud Based Technology of the Year 2017 award. With the new and improved Cloud 

Services, released in Vectorworks 2018 software this past September, designers can easily share designs, 

drawings and 3D models with clients and partners by using Google Drive. The Cloud Services web portal has 

also been updated for better file organization, along with an easier-to-use sharing interface and even the 

ability to generate Web View Virtual Reality links of files in the cloud. 

www.vectorworks.net 

Health & Safety Software of 2017 

WINNER: Construction Safety UK for Safetybank 

RUNNER-UP: Lightsout Computer Services for CORONA Health and Safety 

Construction Safety UK are proud to have won the Health and Safety category with Safetybank, the online 

health and safety information management tool for the built environment. Essential yet cost-effective, it's 

transforming end-to-end risk management across the supply chain. For more information please visit 

www.safetybank.co.uk 

BIM Product of the 2017 

WINNER: GRAPHISOFT for ARCHICAD 

RUNNER-UP: Autodesk for AEC Collection 

We are overjoyed that for the seventh year running, Graphisoft ARCHICAD has won the prized 'BIM Product 

of the Year' award at the Hammers. Seven years in succession really makes us feel that we continue go in the 

right direction! Seven years!!! For design and modelling, clearly ARCHICAD is recognised as leading - 

combining BIM capabilities, IFC data exchange and COBie, with a design environment which helps architects 

to succeed. We would like to thank the readership of Construction Computing for taking the time to vote for 

ARCHICAD as the BIM Product of the Year. Receiving this award from users of BIM solutions, and from our 

peers, makes it very special. To contact Graphisoft about ARCHICAD please e-mail mail@graphisoft.co.uk or 

call +44 (0)1895 527590. 

Architectural Design Software of 2017 

WINNER: Autodesk for AEC Collection 

RUNNER-UP: Vectorworks Inc. for Vectorworks Architect 

28 


2017 awards 

Structural Design Product of 2017 

WINNER: Trimble Solutions UK Ltd for Tekla Structural Designer 

RUNNER-UP: Bentley Systems Inc. for STAAD.Pro 

Richard Fletcher, Managing Director at Trimble, commented: "We are delighted to win this award and we are 

so thankful to the readers of Construction Computing, and the judges, for voting for Tekla Structural 

Designer. Winning this award is a real testament to all the passion, dedication and hard work that is 

undertaken by everyone throughout the company. "At Trimble, we're dedicated to always improving our 

software as we understand the challenges our customers face in construction and structural engineering 

industry. We want to be able to provide our customers with products that support the delivery of projects on 

time, at a lower cost and with less material wastage." www.tekla.com/uk 

Collaboration Product of 2017 

WINNER: Viewpoint for Viewpoint for Projects 

RUNNER-UP: Asite with Adoddle 

"To win the Collaboration Product of the Year for a seventh consecutive time is very special and everyone at 

Viewpoint should be very proud of the difference our products are making in the industry. 

Viewpoint has the capacity to transform project delivery by increasing collaboration between project partners 

and streamlining reporting and information sharing." 

- Steve Spark, Vice President of Business Development at Viewpoint 

Document and Content Management Product of 2017 

WINNER: Newforma for Newforma Project Center 

RUNNER-UP: Bentley Systems Inc. for ProjectWise Deliverables Management 

Paul Daynes, Newforma Regional Director for UK, Northern Europe and Middle East, commenting on the 

award for Best Document and Content Management Software of the year, "This award represents 

Newforma's strong presence in the UK AEC market, as the leader in Project Information Management. To 

receive this award three years running is special in many ways, not least that it is our customers voting. It also 

demonstrates our customer confidence in Newforma's hybrid technology platform, as a critical business 

component for improved project delivery." 

Newforma connects project information silos to eliminate waste, promote best practices, maximise 

profitability and enhance company reputation. www.newforma.com 

Enterprise Resource Planning Software of 2017 

WINNER: EasyBuild (Construction Software) for EasyBuild 

RUNNER-UP: IFS for Applications 9 

Winning the Computing Award 2017 for ERP Software is a great achievement for the team at EasyBuild. It's 

also recognition of the importance of EasyBuild software underpinning key processes, providing timely 

information for projects and financial costs. This enables early notification, potential risks or overspend on 

projects. EasyBuild uses best of breed Oracle/Microsoft technology and this award is recognition of us 

continuing to deliver a feature-rich solution to a diverse range of construction industry contractors and 

house-builders. The next generation of EasyBuild mobile products is already in production and will offer 

powerful solutions for the construction industry, working remotely from site and home 

Project Lifecycle Management Software of 2017 

WINNER: IFS for Applications 9 

RUNNER-UP: Bentley Systems Inc. for ProjectWise 

"We are thrilled for IFS Applications to be recognised by the Construction Computing Awards for a third year 

in a row. The competition gets tougher every year, which is a testament to the technology talent within the 

industry today. These accolades further elevate the value of the solutions we deliver to our customers within 

the construction sector and our ongoing commitment to providing innovative, game-changing solutions 

that help construction firms thrive in the digital age, drive innovation and enhances their competitive 

advantage. It's incredible to receive this recognition from our peers and most importantly, the readers of 

Construction Computing." - Kenny Ingram, Global Construction Industry Director, IFS 


2017 awards 

Estimation and Valuation Software of 2017 

WINNER: Construction Computer Software for Candy 

RUNNER-UP: Estimate Software for esti-mate 

Andrew Skudder, CEO of CCS, commenting on the award of Best Estimating & Valuation Product of the year 

said: "Winning this award is wonderful recognition of team CCS's commitment to designing, developing, and 

supporting Candy both in the UK and across the globe over the past 35 years. We today have more than 

9,000 Users in 50 countries who trust and depend on Candy as their go-to estimating, planning and project 

control solution. We are very grateful for the continued support of our passionate and loyal Users and Clients 

who ultimately made this possible." 

Construction Accounting Product of 2017 

WINNER: Integrity Software for Evolution M 

RUNNER-UP: Eque2 Ltd for EVision 

Project Management / Planning Product of 2017 

WINNER: Elecosoft for Asta Powerproject 

RUNNER-UP: GenieBelt for GenieBelt 

Winning the Construction Accounting Product of 2017 award is a fantastic achievement for the Integrity 

Software team. As providers of a construction specific accounting solution, Integrity Software delivers full 

contract management for businesses of all sizes and types across the UK and Ireland. The team is made up 

of industry professionals with many years' experience in solving business and accounting problems for 

construction companies. This award is extra special as it is voted for by the customers themselves. Integrity 

has a core business philosophy of long term commitment to customer service, coupled with providing the 

best possible solutions for their customers. 

www.integrity-software.net construction@integrity-software.net T:03453 40 30 40 

Elecosoft is delighted that Powerproject won the award for Project Management/Planning Product of the 

Year for the fourth consecutive year in recognition of its contribution to project management and planning 

in 2017. We would like to thank all those who voted yet again for Powerproject. 

Winning this award reflects Elecosoft's ongoing commitment to working closely with the many 

construction companies who use our software. The valuable feedback from customers and our close 

collaboration helps us to ensure it keeps evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of the industry. 

Mobile Technology of 2017 

WINNER: Viewpoint for Viewpoint Field View 

RUNNER-UP: GRAPHISOFT for BIMx 

"Winning these awards is a fantastic accolade for Viewpoint. Given that they are voted for by the people 

who use our products day in and day out, it's great to get validation that we are succeeding in our mission 

to make our customers lives easier and their organisations more successful." - Steve Spark, Vice President of 

Business Development at Viewpoint 

Hardware Product of 2017 

WINNER: Faro Technologies for FARO Focus S150 3D Laser Scanner 

RUNNER-UP: NVIDIA for QUADRO P6000 

It was a pleasure to attend the 12th Construction Computing Awards in London. The awards ceremony was 

well attended with many well-known faces from the industry and offered great networking and a fun full 

packed agenda. A delicious three course meal was followed by comedian Ian Stone who was absolutely 

fantastic, he had the entire audience in fits of laughter and really got the night started. It was a great honour 

to accept and collect the award for Hardware Product of 2017 for our Focus S150 3D Laser Scanner. It was a 

really well organised event and we look forward to next year. 

30 


2017 awards 

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Product of 2017 

WINNER: Autodesk for Media and Entertainment Collection 

RUNNER-UP: Synchro Software for Synchro SITE/HoloLens 

Channel Partner of the Year 

WINNER: Excitech 

RUNNER-UP: Cadventure Ltd 

Excitech are delighted to have been named Channel Partner of the Year for the tenth year in a row. The 

Channel Partner of the Year award is voted for by the public and the fact that we have won this award for a 

decade is a testament to our commitment to excellence and customer service. Thank you to everyone that 

voted for us! 

www.excitech.co.uk 

Editors Choice of 2017 

WINNER: Human Recognition Systems 

Human Recognition Systems (with the MSite product) won the prestigious Editors Choice trophy at the 

Construction Computing Awards 2017. We were also shortlisted for Hardware Product of the Year, Product 

of the Year, Company of the Year and Health & Safety Solution of the Year. 

We were delighted to receive this award recognition as it reflects our dedication to the construction 

industry we serve and continuous drive for innovation with regards to our product. After winning One to 

Watch Company in 2015 and One to Watch Product for MSite TV, it was fantastic to see our company 

recognised as the Editors Choice for this year. 

Product of the Year 

WINNER: Solibri UK for Solibri Model Checker 

RUNNER-UP: GRAPHISOFT for ARCHICAD 

We were delighted to be announced as the winner of the Product of the Year at this year's Construction 

Computing Awards. Solibri have been quietly developing a growing and influential customer base and our 

Model Checker now has the reputation of being the go-to software for quality assurance and quality control 

for BIM. As new processes are emerging in construction Solibri Model Checker has really come into its own 

with its unique rule-based checking tools being used to guarantee the quality of required outputs from the 

model and inherent information. We look forward to continued success and feel this award is recognition for 

where we are now. www.solibri.com 

Company of the Year 

WINNER: Bentley Systems Inc 

RUNNER-UP: Viewpoint 

Bentley Systems received the prestigious Company of the Year award at the twelfth annual Construction 

Computing Awards, "The Hammers" XII event in London last month. The awards program, sponsored by 

Construction Computing magazine, recognises technology, software, and solutions for the design, 

construction, and maintenance of projects of all sizes. "We were privileged to be able to attend this year's 

Construction Computing Awards event amongst our peers in the industry, and honoured to have been 

chosen as Company of the Year," said Nigel Eatough, Bentley's Regional Director, Project Delivery and 

Construction. "We value this award as recognition of our commitment to providing the innovative software 

and services professionals need to design and build their exceptional projects around the world," he said. 


YOUR GUIDE TO 

4 

5 

6/10 

9 

7 

8 

1 

2 

12 

14 

15 

17 11/13 

35 

41 

40 

16 

18 

20 

33 

32 

29 

23/42 

21 

25 26 

24/27 

19/30 

22 28 

3 

31 

42 

*location guide 

not 100% accurate 

SCOTLAND 

GLASGOW 6 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 

Gordon McGlathery 

Tel: 0141 354 8993 

Fax: 0141 353 9315 

training@cadassist.co.uk 

www.cadassist.co.uk 

ACDEGHIJKLMNOPQTX 

FIFE 7 

GlenCo Development 

Solutions 

Contact: Jack Meldrum 

Tel: 01592 223300 

Fax: 01592 223301 

jackm@glenco.org 

www.glenco.org 

A C M K 

ABERDEENSHIRE 8 

Symetri 

Contact: Craig Snell 

Tel: 01467 629900 

training@symetri.co.uk 

www.symetri.co.uk 

A B D H I J K M N O P S X 

ABERDEEN 1 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01224 224421 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

A C E L H O 

LARBERT 9 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01324-550760 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

A C E L H O 

GLASGOW 10 

Excitech Ltd 

Contact: Alan Skipp 

Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 

info@excitech.co.uk 

www.excitech.co.uk/cut2015 

A B C D E H K L M N Q S X 

IRELAND 

DUBLIN 4 

Paradigm Technology Ltd 

Contact: Des McGrane 

Tel: +353-1-2960155 

Fax: +353-1-2960080 

dmcgrane@paradigm.ie 

www.paradigm.ie 

A C M G K L 

SOUTHWEST 

BRISTOL 2 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




NEWBURY 3 

RWTC Ltd 

Contact: Richard Willis 

Tel: 01488 689005 

Fax: 01635 32718 

richard@rwtc.co.uk 

www.rwtc.co.uk 

A M 

Bristol 12 

Micro Concepts Ltd 

Contact: Peter Hurst 

Tel: +44 (0) 8432 898162 

training@microconcepts.co.uk 

www.microconcepts.co.uk 

A B D I J K M N O P S T X 

N.I 

BELFAST 5 

Pentagon Solutions Ltd 

Contact: Tony Dalton – Training 

Services Manager 

Tel: +44 (0) 2890 455 355 

Fax: +44 (0) 2890 456 355 

tony@pentagonsolutions.com 

www.pentagonsolutions.com 

A C D E G K L 

TRAINING COURSES OFFERED KEY: 

AUTOCAD AND LT : 

AUTOCAD P&ID TRAINING: 

AEC/BUILDING SOLUTIONS : 

3D MODELLING & ANIMATION: 

AUTOCAD ARCHITECTURE: 

FM DESKTOP: 

GIS/MAPPING : 

REVIT: 

VAULT FUNDAMENTALS 

AUTODESK VAULT FOR INVENTOR USERS 

A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

J 

VISUALISATION : 

AUTODESK CIVIL : 

INVENTOR SERIES/MECHANICAL : 

NAVISWORKS TRAINING : 

PRODUCT UPDATE COURSES 

INVENTOR PUBLISHER : 

GOOGLE SKETCHUP 

CHARACTER ANIMATION : 

AUTODESK SIMULATION : 

FACTORY DESIGN SUITE : 

AUTOCAD ELECTRICAL : 

K 

L 

M 

N 

O 

P 

Q 

R 

S 

T 

X 

For further information about authorised CAD training or to advertise on these pages please contact: 

Josh Boulton on 01689 616 000 or email: josh.boulton@btc.co.uk

SOUTH/EAST 

GUILDFORD 22 

Blue Graphics Ltd 

Contact: Matt Allen 

Tel: 01483 467 200 

Fax: 01483 467 201 

matta@bluegfx.com 

www.bluegfx.com 

A D R K 

HERTFORDSHIRE 23 

Computer Aided 

Business Systems Ltd 

Contact: Gillian Haynes 

Tel: 01707 258 338 

Fax: 01707 258 339 

training@cabs-cad.com 

A C D E K H 

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 42 

Causeway 

Technologies Ltd 

Contact: Sue Farnfield 

Tel: +44 (0)1628 552134 

Sue.Farnfield 

@causeway.com 

www.causeway.com 

A C D E K 

LONDON 24 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 


Tel: +44 (0)208 622 3027 

Fax: +44 (0)208 622 3200 




BERKSHIRE 26 

Cadpoint 

Contact: Clare Keston 

Tel: 01344 751300 

Fax: 01344 779700 

sales@cadpoint.co.uk 

www.cadpoint.co.uk 

A C D E K 

CENTRAL LONDON 27 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




SOUTHHAMPTON 42 

TRAINING 

NORTH LONDON 28 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




OXFORDSHIRE 25 

Man and Machine 

Contact: Robert Kenny 

Tel: 01844 263700 

Fax: 01844 216761 

training@manandmachine.co.uk 

www.manandmachine.co.uk 

A D I J M N O P Q X 

BERKSHIRE 30 

Mass Systems Ltd 

Contact: Luke Bolt 

Tel: 01344 304 000 

Fax: 01344 304 010 

info@mass-plc.com 

www.mass-plc.com 

A E F 

HAMPSHIRE 31 

Universal CAD Ltd 

Contact: Nick Lambden 

Tel: [44] 01256 352700 

Fax: [44] 01256 352927 

sales@universalcad.co.uk 

www.universalcad.co.uk 

A C M E K H 

MILTON KEYNES 21 

MicroCAD - Milton Keynes 

Contact: David Huke 

Tel: 01908 410026 

training@microcad.co.uk 

www.microcad.co.uk 

A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P Q S T X 

High Wycombe 19 


Contact: Kerrie Braybrook 

Tel: +44 (0) 8432 898162 




Cambridge 29 

THE NORTH 

MIDLANDS 

MANCHESTER 11 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 


Tel: 0161 440 8122 

Fax: 0161 439 9635 




MANCHESTER 13 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




NORTH EAST 14 

Symetri 


Tel: 0191 213 5555 




YORKSHIRE 15 

MicroCAD - Bradford 

Contact: Darren I’Anson 

Tel: 01274 532919 




NOTTINGHAM 33 

MicroCAD - Nottingham 

Contact: George Gubas 

Tel: 0115 969 1114 




NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 32 

AIT Spatial Ltd 

Contact: Philip Madeley 

Tel: 01933 303034 

Fax: 01933 303001 

training@aitspatial.co.uk 

www.aitspatial.co.uk 

A C D E F G K L 

BIRMINGHAM 35 

NORTH EAST 16 

MicroCAD - Durham 

Contact: Chris Swinhoe 

Tel: 0191 374 2020 




LANCASHIRE 17 

QUADRA SOLUTIONS 

Contact: Simon Dobson 

Tel: 01254 301 888 

Fax: 01254 301 323 

training@quadrasol.co.uk 

www.quadrasol.co.uk 

A C M K 

YORKSHIRE 18 

Symetri 


Tel: 01924 266262 




SOUTH YORKSHIRE 20 

THE JUICE GROUP LTD 

Contact: Sarah Thorpe 

Tel: 0800 018 1501 

Fax: 0114 275 5888 

training@thejuice.co.uk 

www.thejuicetraining.com 

A C D E K R 

CHESHIRE 41 

Excelat CAD Ltd 

Contact: Vaughn Markey 

Tel: 0161 926 3609 

Fax: 0870 051 1537 

Vaughn.markey@ExcelatCAD.com 

www.ExcelatCAD.com 

B N 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




Head Office 

Riverside House 

Brunel Road 

Southampton 

Hants 

SO40 3WX 



Contact: Emily Howe 

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 716200 




Armada Autodesk 

Training Centre 

Contact: Steven Smith 

Tel: 01527 834783 

Fax: 01527 834785 

training@armadaonline.co.uk 

www.armadaonline.co.uk 

A D E M K H

TECHNOLOGY focus 

Forging Ahead 

Autodesk used their latest Autodesk University event to outline the road ahead for its developer 

platform Forge, which will help transform the industry over the next decade 

Autodesk's developer platform, Forge 

is set to inspire some truly creative 

thinking in the years ahead. Such 

was the promise made to attendees at the 

latest Autodesk University event, held in 

Las Vegas in November. 

Forge provides a cloud-based 

environment for anyone who wants to 

deploy apps and services in both 

manufacturing and construction 

industries. Single-user, file-based and 

desktop bound CAD solutions are no 

longer capable of delivering the same 

collaborative, highly focused, information 

rich and simple-to-use databases that can 

be offered within a cloud CAD 

environment, and to this end Autodesk is 

set to offer its first end-to-end workflow 

based around a Reality Capture API. 

That's going to be closely followed by a 

host of new Forge capabilities with 

enhancements to the BIM 360 API, 

integrating with Revit, and for the 

mechanically minded a Design 

Automation API for Autodesk Inventor. 

In addition, Forge users will be able to 

use the new webhook API to link their 

applications to the most popular thirdparty 

apps. Autodesk is going to follow 

this up with other platform solutions that 

will use the cloud server and build on the 

Forge platform to deliver custom solutions 

to their clients. The Forge Application 

Framework SDK gives developers access 

to reusable and modular components, 

such as high frequency data 

management, solid modelling and web 

graphics to customise Forge and provide 

tools for app building and publishing. 

Everyone appears to be migrating to the 

cloud - it's the rational thing to do - due to 

its always available, up-to-date and 

collaborative environment, and this is 

epitomised by Autodesk's new partnership 

with Dropbox, which enables users to 

preview native .DWG files directly within 

the popular file sharing app. There are 35 

new .DWG files being added to Dropbox 

every second, and according to Billy Blau, 

global head of business development at 

Dropbox, they already have 1.5 billion 

.DWG files stored there! 

AUTODESK FORGE FUND 

What are the more specific benefits for the 

construction industry? In parallel with the 

roll-out of Forge, Autodesk established the 

Forge Fund (around $100 million) to invest 

in innovators, designers, makers and 

engineers - in short, investing in people 

who are designing the future. 

The latest recipient of the Forge Fund, 

announced at Autodesk University, was 

Assemble Systems, Inc who provide a 

Software as-a-Service (Saas) platform that 

integrates BIM Models, drawings and 

point clouds. This enables construction 

professionals to condition, query and 

connect the data to key workflows - bid 

management, estimating, project 

management, scheduling and finance - 

which, as we are seeing in this country, 

escalates the power of BIM across the 

construction industry. 

Integrating the Assemble Systems 

solution with Forge strengthens the BIM 

360 pre-construction offering with 

enhanced support for data management, 

quantification, estimation and other 

associated workflows. 

Assemble can also be used to extract 

and federate models from Autodesk Revit, 

AutoCAD and other design systems into a 

project, providing the means for users to 

sort, group and filter data from multiple 

models and assemble them into 

construction packages, to facilitate 

collaboration with subcontractors and 

simplify workflows. Assemble can also 

keep track of design changes as they 

update the model, reporting on the impact 

that the changes will have on the project 

quantity, costs and schedule. 

FORGE START-UP INVESTMENTS 

Three other start-ups involved in 

industrialised construction have also 

become beneficiaries of the Autodesk 

Forge Fund this year, namely Smartvid.io, 

ManufactOn, and Project Frog. Smartvid.io 

focuses on using artificial intelligence in 

the AEC industry and the built environment 

as a whole. All construction projects have 

a large number of photos and videos 

taken at every stage of the construction 

process. Smartvid.io has developed a 

"smart photo and video management 

platform" that leverages the imagery using 

synthetic vision and deep learning to tell 

you important things about any aspect of 

aproject - only limited, I presume, by the 

imagination of the user. It can, for 

instance, be used to analyse a photo or 

video and work out how many people are 

using hard hats or safety glasses. 

ManufactOn is focused more on off-site 

fabrication and related issues - a SaaS 

(mobile/web) platform that helps 

construction firms plan, track and manage 

both prefabrication and regular material 

handling. Project Frog sounds very exotic, 

but is in reality a pragmatic tool which acts 

as a transformational cloud-based 

platform to standardise and simplify data 

flow between the architecture studio, the 

factory and the jobsite. 

The development of Autodesk's Forge 

platform reflects similar trends with other 

software developers in harnessing the 

power of cloud technology to deliver 

advanced solutions, leveraging the power 

of AI, reality modelling, machine learning 

and other tools to enhance collaboration, 

analysis and insight within the industry. 

www.autodesk.com 

34

CU1711

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