CC Jul-Aug 2021

Construction 

Computing 

WWW.CONSTRUCTION-COMPUTING.COM 

JULY/AUGUST 2021 

VOL 17 NO 04 

The small print 

Smplifying the workflow of construction 

documents with Viewpoint for Projects 

The buildup begins 

Nominations open for the 2021 

Construction Computing Awards 

The Eight Gardens 

The A&Q Partnership tutors 

project members in BIM 

A bridge into the future 

Bentley AssetWise, digital twins 

and HoloLens create immersive 

bridge inspections 

@CCMagAndAwards

Duke Ellington School of the Arts 

Architect: cox graae + spack architects / LBA Joint Venture 

Photo © Chris Ambridge 

ARCHICAD 25 

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CONTENTS 

JULY/AUGUST 2021 

CONTENTS 

THE EIGHT GARDENS 9 

Nick Lawrence of the A&Q Partnership details 

how his practice is tutoring fellow project 

members on the ambitious Eight Gardens 

Watford development who are less familiar 

with BIM 

A BRIDGE INTO THE FUTURE 14 

Dan Vogen of Bentley Systems explains how 

Bentley's AssetWise, digital twins, and 

Microsoft's HoloLens are being used to create 

immersive inspections of bridges to plan 

maintenance, repairs, or replacement 

SILVER SERVICE 22 

Graphisoft introduces the 25th version of 

Archicad, setting new levels of growth despite 

the ravages of the pandemic 

THE SMALL PRINT 24 

Keeping track of construction documents is 

easier when you look at the details that simplify 

the workflow. Viewpoint asked one of its 

customers to expand on how they managed 

documents on their projects 

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

• ENSUITE-CLOUD REVUE EXPANDS TO BIM • GROWTH TRAJECTORY OF IFS CONTINUES 

INDUSTRY FOCUS.............................CLOUD CONTROL.............................................................................................12 

• DAVID CHADWICK TALKS TO KENNY INGRAM, VP OF IFS, ABOUT THE CHALLENGES FACING THE INDUSTRY 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS......................DEEP LEARNING...............................................................................................16 

• ENSCAPE INCORPORATES NVIDIA'S DLSS TECHNOLOGY INTO ITS REAL-TIME RENDERING CAPABILITIES 

AWARDS.............................................THE BUILDUP BEGINS......................................................................................18 

• NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2021 CONSTRUCTION COMPUTING AWARDS FINALISTS ARE NOW OPEN 

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS......................CHALLENGES FOR CONSTRUCTION..............................................................20 

• SHOULD CURRENT GLOBAL CRISES BE CONSIDERED AS CHALLENGES OR OPPORTUNITIES? 

CASE STUDY......................................LIGHT METAL FRAMING....................................................................................26 

• HOW TEKLA STRUCTURES IS BEING UTILISED FOR OFF-SITE MANUFACTURING AND MMC 

CASE STUDY......................................CAN CAD HELP CONSTRUCTION BUILD, BUILD, BUILD?..............................28 

• WHY DESIGN TECHNOLOGIES AND OFF-SITE MODULAR CONSTRUCTION GO HAND IN HAND 

SOFTWARE FOCUS...........................AUTODESK DOCS..............................................................................................30 

• AUTODESK INCORPORATES AUTODESK DOCS INTO ITS CONSTRUCTION CLOUD APPLICATIONS 

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

• YOUR GUIDE TO AUTODESK TRAINING 

SOFTWARE FOCUS...........................A BOOST FOR BIM..............................................................................................34 

• GRAPHISOFT BIMX AND BIMCLOUD HAVE BEEN ENHANCED WITH THE LAUNCH OF ARCHICAD 25 

July/August 2021 3

COMMENT 

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Comment 

Affordable is a relative term 

by David Chadwick 

Iwent on a mini-cruise a couple of 

weeks ago, taking in a steam train 

trip from Paignton to Kingswear on 

the River Dart and then a jaunt on a 100 

year-old steam driven paddle boat. The 

steamer crew's commentary was quite 

illuminating as it pointed out a (quite 

literal) wealth of riverside homes being 

built, but in local stone so that they 

blended in to the rocky shoreline. 

Apparently, being on the shoreline, 

there was little access from Devon's 

network of lanes, and all building 

materials had to be shipped in by boat 

or, in one case, rolled down on steep, 

custom-built rails from a nearby track in 

the overhanging woods. Hardly a 

problem for the owners, as the property 

values in this neck of the woods are 

already going through the roof. 

Further upstream, he pointed out a 

local shipbuilder's yard which had been 

bought out, and which was being 

converted into a new housing 

development. The original, approved 

plans were for a resort centre with 

plenty of amenities - but you know how 

these things go. The local population 

was delighted to hear that the 

development would incorporate a 

number of 'affordable homes', but their 

delight turned to dismay a week later 

when the local paper revealed that their 

starting price was around £750,000. 

The housing market in the UK is in 

disarray. The cost of getting on the 

property ladder is soaring and private 

renting is a minefield of increasingly 

expensive rents, hidden costs and 

opportunism. Estate agents have 

discovered there is a wonderful and free 

advertising tool, Facebook Marketplace, 

which gives them widespread coverage 

for the price of a few photographs. 

With a growing population we need to 

build more houses, more quickly. 

However, as we explore in the article on 

The Access Group in this issue, the 

shortage of skilled labour and materials 

in a further challenge for the sector. The 

UK Government is now trying to relax 

planning regulations to open up more 

land for building and to encourage - or 

to coerce builders who have snapped 

up land to actually build on them - but 

they in turn point to the lack of 

resources to do so. 

The last time we had this problem, 

after the second World War, we built 

massive estates of prefabricated 

houses, which thoroughly deserved the 

reputation they had for poor quality and 

design, but did the job and housed 

large populations driven from warravaged 

towns and cities. 

The term prefab was a derogatory one 

for a long time. That is no longer the 

case though, and modern off-site 

fabrication and modular building are 

now regarded as the key to rapid and 

cheaper housebuilding, enabling 

modular building companies to quote 

ridiculously low figures for the amount of 

time it takes to erect a prefabricated 

building on a prepared platform. Multistoreyed, 

fully-fitted units with all mod 

cons installed can also now be stacked 

just as quickly using modular 

technology. 

Read the article by Chris Powell of 

Pasquill in this issue to get the full 

flavour of the benefits of off-site 

fabrication, then ask yourself how we 

can translate this into action throughout 

the country to create a bigger bank of 

'affordable' homes. 

4 July/August 2021

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Adaptable BIM for every design phase. 

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INDUSTRY news 

ENSUITE-CLOUD REVUE EXPANDS TO BIM 

CCE has released a major 

upgrade to its flagship 

real-time 3D Collaboration software, 

EnSuite-Cloud ReVue. 

Users can download ReVue 

LiveLink integrations for 

Autodesk Revit, with the option 

to download LiveLink for Revit 

2021 or 2022 versions. This 

new release expands CCE’s 

support to the rapidly growing 

BIM space, and follows the 

release of LiveLinks for 

Autodesk Inventor and Solid 

Edge announced in June. 

EnSuite-Cloud ReVue is 

CCE’s flagship real-time collaboration 

product using 3D digital 

assets while maintaining complete 

control of the users' intellectual 

property. Participants 

can use 3D multi-CAD data 

from all major CAD formats like 

CATIA V5, CATIA V6 (3DXML), 

SOLIDWORKS, NX, Creo, 

Autodesk Inventor, Revit, Solid 

Edge, JT, IFC and glTF, among 

others, to conduct engineering 

design reviews directly in the 

browser or access it from an 

active CAD session using 

ReVue LiveLink. 

ReVue LiveLink is useful for 

collaboration during conceptual 

design or engineering changes, 

where the CAD model needs to 

be edited and the results 

updated in real-time with participants 

in the collaboration session. 

This one-step access 

saves time and makes realtime 

CAD collaboration natural 

and easy. Users can download 

ReVue LiveLink for the CAD 

systems for free, however an 

Organizer license is needed to 

access the LiveLink products. 

www.cadcam-e.com 

GROWTH TRAJECTORY OF IFS CONTINUES 

IFS has announced its financial 

results for the first half of 2021. 

All software revenue line items 

grew double digit, driven by a 

steep acceleration in cloud revenue 

(+79% YoY) and recurring 

revenue (+27% YoY). H1 also 

saw some key milestones, 

including the acquisition of 

Axios Systems, the launch of 

IFS Cloud and the global launch 

of the company's new branding 

and Moment of Service. 

IFS CEO Darren Roos, said: 

"IFS is a technology led company 

with the single goal to 

make the latest technology 

advancements available to our 

customers in a way that creates 

value fast, has a low total cost 

of ownership, and is easy to 

consume and use. H1 is evidence 

that our strategy to 

focus on this and to build agility 

into our product operations, so 

customers can respond to the 

market fast is working." 

www.ifs.com 

NEW AI PREDICTS BUILDING ENERGY RATES 

Computer scientists at 

Loughborough University 

have created an AI system that 

can forecast building emission 

rates of non-domestic buildings. 

Dr Georgina Cosma and 

postgraduate student Kareem 

Ahmed have designed and 

trained an AI model to predict 

emission rate values with 27 

inputs. Dr Cosma said: "It's an 

important first step towards the 

use of machine learning tools 

for energy prediction in the UK 

and it shows how data can 

‘improve current processes‘ in 

Anew map detailing the location, 

height and canopy for 

trees over 3 metres in height is 

helping Sevenoaks District 

Council manage its iconic 

ancient trees and natural woodland. 

Derived from Bluesky's 

National Tree Map, which provides 

geospatial intelligence for 

more than 300 million trees 

across the UK, the data has 

already been used to create a 

district wide map of tree cover, 

to create 3D visualisations to 

inform development decisions 

and to support planning 

enforcement investigations. 

Sevenoaks District Council 

originally purchased National 

Tree Map data from Bluesky in 

November 2019 and the data 

is widely used across the 

Council with specific applications 

in planning. Updated this 

year, the original and new tree 

the construction industry." 

Current methods can take 

hours to days to produce emission 

rates and are generated 

by manually inputting hundreds 

of variables.The AI model was 

created with the support of 

engineering consultancy Cundall's 

head of research and 

innovation, Edwin Wealend. It 

was trained using large-scale 

data from UK government energy 

performance assessments 

to generate an emission value 

in a split second. 

www.lboro.ac.uk 

MAPPING SEVENOAKS' HISTORIC TREE COVER 

map layers are stored in the 

Council's GIS alongside multiple 

years of aerial photography, 

Ordnance Survey maps, 

data such as Ancient Woodland 

and Biodiversity Opportunities, 

and council data including 

Tree Preservation Orders 

and Planning Applications. 

The tree data is accessible to 

all staff via the Council's 

intranet mapping system 

GISMO (GIS Online). 

The name Sevenoaks dates 

to circa 800 AD and is thought 

to be derived from 'Seouenaca' 

the name given to a 

small chapel near seven oaks. 

Records of these trees 

through the ages are sparse 

and it is not until the nineteenth 

century when a group 

of seven trees appears on an 

Ordnance Survey map. 

www.bluesky-world.com 

6 

July/August 2021

INDUSTRY news 

AUTODESK'S DIGITAL TWIN PLATFORM DEBUTS 

Autodesk has announced 

the commercial availability 

of its cloud-based digital twin 

platform, Autodesk Tandem, following 

its successful public 

beta. As plans and files change 

throughout the design and construction 

process, keeping data 

together is challenging. A recent 

FMI report revealed that more 

than 95 percent of all data goes 

unused in engineering and construction, 

which results in inefficient 

processes and lost revenue 

for AEC firms and owners. 

"Autodesk Tandem is a cloudbased 

digital twin technology 

platform that aims to turn that 

Scott Griffiths 

stat on its head," said Bob Bray, 

senior director and general 

manager, Autodesk Tandem. "It 

enables projects to start digital, 

stay digital, and deliver digital, 

transforming rich data into business 

intelligence." 

By embracing digital transformation 

and harnessing BIM 

data throughout the design 

and construction process, AEC 

firms can create and handover 

a digital twin to customers. The 

easily accessible, contextual, 

and insightful data in a digital 

twin makes for ready-to-go 

operations. 

https://intandem.autodesk.com 

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP 

ACoventry University student 

is among a small group of 

apprentices who are the first in 

the UK to have completed their 

Civil Engineer degree apprenticeships. 

Scott Griffiths, who 

works as a structural engineer 

at Waterman group in Birmingham, 

passed his Level 6 Civil 

Engineering degree apprenticeship 

end point assessment 

in June, achieving Incorporated 

Engineer (IEng) status with the 

Institution of Civil Engineers. 

Scott began on a Level 3 

apprenticeship at the age of 18 

and progressed through a parttime 

Higher National Certificate 

(HNC) at CU Coventry, before 

starting on the Civil Engineer 

degree apprenticeship Scott 

learned to manage the challenge 

of balancing a full-time 

job and part-time study. The 

discipline he mustered from 

this experience has helped him 

to be better organised and 

goal-oriented, which has driven 

him to achieve more in his personal 

life, work and studies. 

On the benefits of studying 

via the apprenticeship route, 

Scott said: "Working day-to-day 

in the industry that my studies 

applied to allowed me to see 

the value in every portion of the 

qualification. I could take more 

information in because I had 

somewhere to place it, and as 

a result, I was able to achieve 

much higher grades than I 

would have done in a full-time 

scenario." 

www.coventry.ac.uk 

NEW HOMES FROM TFL'S PROPERTY COMPANY 

Up to 46,000 new homes in 

the capital could be delivered 

by Transport for London's 

new property development 

company over the next 25 

years. The proposals would 

form part of TfL's bailout settlement 

with the government. 

TfL director of commercial 

property Graeme Craig said: 

"As part of our long-term strategy, 

and building on the successful 

work that has already 

taken place in recent years, 

we are now looking to take forward 

development activity in a 

commercial property company 

VECTORWORKS JOINS THE OGC 

that is wholly owned by TfL." 

Craig said half of the new 

build homes would be affordable 

with the revenue to be 

reinvested in public transport. 

Brokers Hank Zarihs Associatessaid 

SME builders would 

be keen to be involved and that 

property development finance 

lenders would support them. 

TfL already has more than 

6,300 homes with planning 

committee approval with 479 

homes for Nine Elms and 51 

homes for Old Brompton Road 

the most recent consents. 

www.hankzarihs.com 

Vectorworks, Inc. has 

announced its official membership 

in the Open Geospatial 

Consortium (OGC), a global 

resource for geospatial information 

and standards. As a 

technical member, Vectorworks 

will offer its experience and 

expertise in connecting BIM 

and GIS workflows to the OGC. 

"Joining the OGC is a milestone 

that not only shows our 

commitment to standards for 

BIM and location data, but also 

demonstrates how we’re continually 

progressing to advocate 

for the needs and standards 

of the AEC and landscape 

industries," said Vectorworks 

CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. 

Through their member-driven 

consensus process, OGC 

serves as the leading authority 

on geospatial standards, 

ensuring that location information 

is findable, accessible, 

integrable and reusable. Vectorworks 

global architecture, 

landscape architecture and 

planning customer-base, along 

with the use of geospatial data 

across BIM and BIM for landscape 

workflows, are leading 

priorities for the company. As 

such, together with the OGC, 

Vectorworks will participate in 

discussions that ensure interoperability 

of geospatial data 

within design and BIM projects. 

www.vectorworks.net 

8 


CASE study 

The Eight Gardens 

Nick Lawrence of the A&Q Partnership explains how his practice is tutoring fellow project 

members on the ambitious Eight Gardens Watford development who are less familiar with BIM 

Nick Lawrence didn't get his start in 

architecture. Now a practice 

director who leads the BIM 

strategy at A&Q Partnership, he actually 

pursued engineering in his 

undergraduate studies - knowledge 

which he finds helpful in architectural 

design. 

Whereas engineering may be purely 

technical with an emphasis on applied 

mathematics, architecture is more heavily 

focused on design and aesthetics. For 

Lawrence, these two seemingly disparate 

mindsets intersect with building 

information modeling, or BIM, which 

merges his technical background with 

architecture's more visual nature. 

"I've enjoyed producing technical 

drawings which can be pieces of art in 

their own way," Lawrence explained of his 

career path, which turned towards 

architecture over 20 years ago. "I was 

considering getting into product design 

and moving away from the mathematical 

purity of mechanical engineering." 

Working as a technician for an architect 

at A&Q Partnership, Lawrence was able 

to pursue a degree in architecture, then 

capitalise on relationships he built as a 

technician for A&Q Partnership to pursue 

his own architecture career. 

"Basically, someone took me out for 

lunch, sat me down, and suggested 

architecture was a good idea," he said. 

"And looking back, I can't really imagine 

what else I'd prefer to be doing at the 

moment. I like the artistic side of 

architecture, but I also like solving 

technical details in construction work. It's 

one of the few jobs I can think of where 

you can do that, you know?" 

His first job with A&Q Partnership was in 

1998, and after a few years running his 

own practice with his wife, Lawrence 

returned to A&Q Partnership as a director, 

where he's been expounding the merits 

of BIM for over seven years. 

GETTING TO KNOW A&Q 

PARTNERSHIP 

Founded in 1984, the UK-based A&Q 

Partnership has around 60 staff 

members across four offices and is led 

by nine directors and six associates. 

They work on a variety of architectural 

project types, including residential, 

workplace, retail, hospitality, data center, 

banking, and mixed-use schemes. 

Although they have worked on smaller 

residential and commercial 

developments, they now specialise in 

large urban regeneration projects. 

Their online portfolio includes images 

and a write up for the Royal Arsenal at 

Woolwich, the largest regeneration site in 

Europe at 25 acres. The development has 

won numerous design awards and has 

helped established the firm's reputation. 

In the UK, architecture projects are 

categorised by the Royal Institute of 

British Architects', or RIBA's 'Plan of 

Works' which outlines the breakdown of a 

project into seven stages, comprising: 

Preparation and briefing 

Concept design 

Spatial coordination 

Technical design 

Manufacturing and construction 

Handover and closeout 

Use 

"We take on a lot of work towards the 

end of Stage Two, which means that 

before us the concept architects on the 

project have already produced a 

proposal," Lawrence said. "We take the 

scheme from a very loose concept and 

preliminary drawings into something 

deliverable for design and construction. 

We've developed a reputation over the 

years as being a safe pair of hands to 

have on site to develop technical 

working drawings." 


CASEstudy 

A&Q PARTNERSHIP'S PATHWAY 

TO BIM 

A&Q Partnership use BIM workflows on 

all projects, in part due to Lawrence who 

has been interested in BIM since before 

the UK government's 2016 mandate. "I 

like to keep up with what's happening on 

a technical front," Lawrence said. "Most 

of our clients are private developers with 

no statutory requirement for us to 

conform to the mandate. But prior to 

2016 BIM was on my radar as something 

we should be competent at. We didn't 

want to miss any jobs or contracts which 

required BIM." 

Lawrence plays a major role in training 

staff to office standards, particularly in 

resource management systems, which 

keeps projects organised and consistent. 

This helped prepare them for a recent 

job, a massive 1200-unit residential 

project for Berkeley Homes, one of the 

largest housing developers in Europe. 

THE EIGHT GARDENS AT 

WATFORD 

With claims of the project 

"Manhattanising" Watford, which is just 

outside of London, the Eight Gardens 

development aims to deliver over 1,200 

new homes to the area. Alongside 

future plans for a primary school and 

community amenities like a dentist's 

office, the Eight Gardens development 

is part of a much larger modernisation 

of the area, according to Watford 

Borough Council. 

Currently at Stage 3 of the RIBA's Plan 

of Work, the Eight Gardens scheme sits 

close to Watford Junction, a large train 

station through which passengers can 

reach Central London in just 20 minutes. 

Lawrence said the location itself is a 

good development opportunity 

comprising two distinct phases, though 

at the time of writing this article A&Q 

Partnership is mainly working on the first 

phase - the Eight Gardens south of 

Penn Road. 

OPEN BIM: COLLABORATION WITH 

CONSULTANTS 

Among the landscaped elements in the 

Eight Gardens project are amenity 

spaces and shared gardens exclusively 

accessed by the private residents on top 

of the shoulder blocks, and publicly 

accessed landscaped steps, squares 

and streets at ground level. 

With some consultants not as familiar 

with BIM workflows as A&Q Partnership, 

the initial appointments did not formally 

stipulate a BIM workflow. However, the 

teams were keen on developing a good 

working relationship and agreed to 

proceed as a BIM project even though it 

wasn't obligatory. 

"We developed it as a BIM job, partly to 

help others in the learning process," 

Lawrence said, explaining that the team 

got together and set expectations for 

each other, following it up with a tight 

execution plan. A&Q Partnership worked 

with the .dwg files and .ifc files by 

referencing them into Vectorworks. 

MAINTAINING HARDWARE 

PERFORMANCE WITH LOTS OF 

INFORMATION 

Lawrence and his co-workers at A&Q 

were aware of hardware constraints as 

the Eight Gardens project contains 

multiple large buildings and a high level 

of detail. The Partnership relies, therefore, 

on a multi-file method to ensure files run 

efficiently. The project's six buildings each 

have their own file separate from the 

master file, and they reference each 

building into the master file for 

coordination after completing design 

10 


CASEstudy 

work in each distinct building file. 

Furthermore, site-wide assets such as 

wall styles and window types are 

contained in separate "asset library files." 

"For coordinating changes, you have to 

manage them from each building file or 

library file, then update the link in the 

master file," Lawrence said. "It means that 

when one person makes a change, it's 

then changed across the entire suite of 

drawings. Besides saving time, it controls 

and limits people from making changes 

on a whim." 

He adds that this method frontloads 

coordination so that when inevitable 

changes occur later in the design 

process, they're done smoothly and 

without significant effort. 

"Broadly speaking, we have a separate 

Vectorworks file for each building and a 

separate Vectorworks file for the twostory 

podiums in between them. Each of 

those files has within them 'plot' files, 

from which we generate sections and 

elevations for that building. We then have 

a separate mega-Vectorworks file to 

reference all of those in for our site plan." 

He noted that doing this allows them to 

limit the information they add into the 

master file, which merely contains the 

information needed to produce 

coordination deliverables. 

Lawrence considers this a crucial 

aspect of overall BIM strategy - relegating 

heavily detailed work to the in-progress 

design files, and only including 

necessary data in the master file. "People 

get too caught up with modeling," he 

said. "It's about understanding what 

needs to be modeled, what needs to be 

run through a clash detection process 

and what is actually useful to people." 

By maintaining Asset Library Files 

containing such things as façade panels, 

wall styles, door styles, and other details, 

resources could be referenced with each 

individual building file, keeping detailing 

and architectural expression consistent 

with each building, a necessity for a 

scheme in which the buildings are 

intended to share an architectural 

language. 

SUCCESSFUL OPEN BIM CARRIED 

BY RIGOROUS DATA CONTROL 

According to Lawrence, A&Q 

Partnership's BIM data management 

strategy centres on one word - rigour. 

"Particularly for a job this size, it was 

important to have a way to control data 

across all of the six buildings. They're all 

different buildings, but there are certain 

details we want to be the same across all 

of them," he said. 

He explains that they set up class 

structures and naming conventions in 

Uniclass 2015, the unified classification 

system by NBS. Their work management 

starts with the in-progress file, which 

branches off into a library folder 

containing standard resources and 

details, then individual project folders 

below the library folders. The resources in 

the library folders can be referenced into 

the project folders, giving the project a 

strict sense of uniformity. 

An added challenge on big projects is 

that the project could span multiple 

years, and for A&Q it's common for a 

project to be in development over several 

versions of Vectorworks. Strict control is 

vitally important in this case. 

"What inevitably happens as a job 

moves on is you get different people 

coming onto the project with different 

abilities, different experience levels, a 

different knowledge of Vectorworks, and 

a different knowledge of architecture," he 

said. "You get input into a file that can be 

quite a corrupting influence on the way it 

was originally set up. It becomes critical 

in BIM not to let that happen, especially if 

those files are going to be used for 

contracts and exchanged with 

consultants. You need to be quite strict 

on it." 

A FAMILIAR SHIFT - FROM HAND 

DRAWING TO CAD, THEN FROM 

CAD TO BIM 

The larger industry adoption of these BIM 

methods isn't dissimilar to the shift from 

hand drawings to CAD about two 

decades ago, Lawrence said. "I think I've 

been in the industry long enough now to 

see patterns repeat. About 15 to 20 years 

ago, the industry was moving to CAD, so 

we ditched the drawing boards. Back 

then, a lot of our consultants were using 

AutoCAD, and there was this sort of 

perception that AutoCAD was CAD. It 

made exchanging information with 

consultants challenging," he said. 

Over time, that perception faded and 

with a broader acceptance of .dwg files, 

exchanging information through various 

CAD programs wasn't so difficult 

anymore. Lawrence believes something 

similar is happening again, that history is 

repeating itself. "I suspect a similar 

outcome will happen with the adoption of 

IFC," he said. "Once everyone gets used 

to it and gets comfortable again, we'll be 

back to working normally." 

Until then, Lawrence will have to rest 

easy knowing he's responsible for one of 

the most successful BIM applications in 

large architecture projects, an example 

for the evolution of the architecture 

industry at large. 

www.vectorworks.net 


INDUSTRY focus 

Cloud control 

David Chadwick talks to Kenny Ingram, Vice President of IFS, about the way companies are 

adapting to the difficulties and opportunities of a very challenging year 

Irecently sat down for a long 

conversation on Teams with IFS's 

Kenny Ingram, where we discussed 

the numerous and ever more urgent 

challenges facing the world and the 

construction industry in particular. Brexit 

was somewhat down the list and even 

the pandemic had to take second billing 

as we delayed focusing on the primary 

purpose of our talk and jumped straight 

into the crisis in the housebuilding 

market, with house prices rising beyond 

the reach of the young and affordable 

homes becoming a sad myth. 

I suggested that prefabricated or 

modular construction methods would 

bring the cost of construction down, but 

Kenny countered, saying that the 

principal cost lay in the land, which is 

purely a speculative item for landowners 

who buy land at low interest rates and 

use it as an asset. They either hang on 

to it, sell off a chunk, or develop a bit 

here and there for commercial or 

residential projects. 

"If they want to develop the land," 

Kenny said, "they provide the working 

capital and don't get paid back until the 

job is done - and they catch a bit of a 

cold if the market crashes but make 

handsome profits as its value rises." 

Cash management and planning are 

therefore critical, as are project cost 

management. 

Building Contractors, on the other 

hand, usually have a single client and 

don't speculate on land acquisition and 

development. Most of them are using 

traditional construction methods, but 

some are using modular and off-site 

techniques, where they bring factorybuilt 

components on-site and bolt them 

together. As such, they are primarily 

concerned with project costs - materials, 

labour, plant, subcontractors and other 

professional services, both committed 

and projected - and their job is to keep 

on top of all of this and handle forecasts 

and variations, and provide complete 

visibility in how the project is 

developing. All of this comprises the 

basic elements required of a decent 

construction-centric ERP system. 

Before we doubled down on this we 

ranged further, discussing issues 

surrounding infrastructure development, 

sustainability, material and skill 

shortages (both of which have been 

blamed on Brexit and the pandemic, 

although the latter has been endemic in 

the industry for quite some time) and 

the numerous technical innovations that 

will change the way we work 

significantly over the next two decades, 

and which are encouraging the 

evolution of some forward-thinking 

companies in the industry. 

ACHIEVING CONTROL 

It was time to come down to earth 

though. As fascinating as it is to 

extrapolate futures, I was more 

concerned with the solutions that IFS 

provided for their clients that enable 

them to handle the immediate 

challenges within the industry. 

Kenny explained that the absolute 

starting point for this is helping them 

achieve control of their current 

operations. At one level that means 

putting a system in place that can 

handle all of the changes and issues 

that affect every project - delivery 

shortfalls, the lack of qualified labour, 

quality issues, engineering and design 

changes, and so on. But it also needs to 

tackle the bigger problems caused 

when you try to assimilate the working 

practices of numerous subcontractors, 

integrated companies and assorted 

suppliers who are all used to working on 

different applications and are often 

determined to hang on to outdated 

paper while generating hundreds of 

individual Excel spreadsheets. 

To illustrate this point, Kenny described 

an organisation in the Middle East that 

had 12 different business units, 75,000 

different spreadsheets and were using 

over 30 different business systems. In 

brief, as useful as Excel is, the data is 

not going anywhere, it can't handle 

variations and can't be used as a 

contract management system. 

The only way forward was to simplify 

and have a digital ERP backbone that is 

integrated with best-of-breed solutions 

such as BIM. This approach provides a 

master asset data source which will 

allow the realisation of an integrated 

digital twin. With this is place everyone 

involved in a project is able to access 

and utilise a common set of accurate, 

timely information. 

How do you do that? Kenny described 

the three key steps that need to be 

taken by every company. The first step is 

to be emphasised once more. Take 

control, don't run before you can walk. 

Ensure that your work processes are up 

to scratch and able to provide an 

accurate overview of a company's day 

to day status. 

The second step is to take advantage 

of new technology. That includes BIM 

and Robotics, and both virtual and 

smart construction technologies - but 

without step one, control, you won't be 

able to exploit them effectively. 

Step three is to widen or change your 

methods of construction. Dispense with 

old working practices and inefficiencies, 

move some of the construction off-site 

and increase the use of prefabricated 

components - or change the way you 

handle work packages. 

Kenny compares the latter to the 

manufacturing industry. In a factory, 

12 


INDUSTRYfocus 

everything is geared towards the job in 

hand - work commences when 

resources are available, components 

arrive on schedule at a rate 

commensurate with the job in hand, the 

task is done and the next one is waiting. 

Compare that with the way construction 

sites seem to have operated for many 

years, as skilled craftsmen hang around 

waiting for deliveries or plant or until 

other trades have completed their 

assignments. 

There is no lack of activity, just a lack of 

coordination. Builders on-site don't really 

understand part numbers and the 

concept of work packages and are not 

really interested in having to accept 

receipts for goods, going through picking 

lists or checking goods against invoices. 

Kenny added a fourth point which is not 

really a step as such, but an incentive. 

Stop being just a construction company, 

and look to take over the complete asset 

lifecycle commitment. Provide clients with 

a service for building, operating and 

maintaining and eventually dismantling 

an asset. Take a leaf out of Amazon's 

book. Or, as an alternative, consider 

setting up your own manufacturing and 

supply chains. To go in either direction, of 

course, the use of BIM is a sine qua non. 

IFS CLOUD 

The key to maintaining control while 

encouraging companies to evolve, is to 

work on a single version of the truth - a 

single source and repository of 

information. IFS Cloud provides that 

environment using a construction-centric 

Digital ERP Backbone, enabling 

everyone on a project to work together. 

Changing a company's culture, though, 

is not quick, or easy. Kenny suggests 

that one step is taken at a time and that 

it could be 9-12 months before the 

benefits are felt from each cultural shift. 

You can see this in the move towards 

off-site/modular construction or what is 

commonly called MMC (Modern 

Methods of Construction). This needs a 

more structured approach and a 

rebalancing of a company's 

infrastructure which can accommodate a 

less-skilled workforce, along with a 

switch from building components to 

buying them and setting up a JIT delivery 

system to prevent components clogging 

up a building site. The obvious next step 

is to become vertically integrated and to 

set up and run your own factories to 

supply your own components. 

This is why IFS recommend the use of 

its IFS Cloud solution to support all the 

project and asset lifecycle processes 

that a company needs to handle both 

current requirements, and the changes 

that will undoubtedly occur over the next 

twenty years. 

The advantage that IFS has is that, while 

there are several companies that provide 

alternative ERP solutions for the 

construction industry, their expertise is 

somewhat scarce outside of this 

environment. If the trend is towards 

companies becoming multitalented, then 

the knowledge that exists within IFS as a 

supplier to a wide-ranging selection of 

industries enables the company to match 

a client's aspirations to its solution. 

Besides Engineering and Construction, 

Service Industries, Manufacturing, Oil 

and Gas, Property and Commercial - all 

of which have some relationship to 

engineering and construction - IFS 

covers both Aerospace and Defence and 

Energy and Utility Sectors. All of these 

industries are involved in designing, 

building, manufacturing, operating and 

maintaining assets. 

The challenge, as is always the case in 

the construction industry, is not just to 

handle change but to make it work for 

you - something that IFS have proven 

time and again. 

www.ifs.com 


TECHNOLOGY focus 

A bridge into the future 

Dan Vogen of Bentley Systems explains how Bentley's AssetWise, digital twins, and Microsoft's 

HoloLens are being used to create immersive inspections of bridges to plan maintenance, 

repairs, or replacement. David Chadwick reports 

We've been building bridges ever 

since the wheel was invented, 

and a method for crossing over 

a rocky-bedded river ford was needed. 

The earliest bridges might have been 

timber contrivances, but these were 

soon replaced by sturdier stone 

artefacts, cemented together by early 

lime and mortar, some of which are still 

standing today. 

Those structures, of course, were 

massively over-engineered by modern 

standards, and the loads they had to 

carry are a mere fraction of those borne 

today. But even they are subject to 

natural decay over time. An evolving 

infrastructure has caused many older 

bridges to be bypassed, which has led 

to them being dismantled. 

Modern bridge building, spanning the 

last couple of hundred years, uses a 

wider range of technologies, each of 

which is subject to its own particular 

form of decay. They are also 

constructed to satisfy different criteria, 

such as cost, strength, location, and 

design elegance - the latter always 

seeking a balance between the 

lightness of a structure and its strength. 

We are not unfamiliar, therefore, with 

the problems that beset each type of 

bridge, and the resources that are 

needed to both detect problems and to 

rectify them. The problem, though, is 

that there are many thousands of 

bridges that need to be maintained both 

here and in the United States. The scale 

of the problem is exacerbated by the 

fact that maintenance schedules can 

only be established by noting the scale 

of a particular problem and the rate of 

its decline through a series of repeated 

visits. We are not only concerned with 

legacy bridges, either, as every bridge 

that has been designed, analysed, and 

constructed requires a schedule of 

asset inspections to ensure they 

continue to operate at their designed 

performance level. 

BENTLEY WORK FEATURED AT 

MICROSOFT IGNITE 

Dan Vogen, vice president of road and 

rail asset management at Bentley 

Systems, was part of a case study panel 

at Microsoft's Ignite conference that 

explored the need to change how we 

deal with bridge inspection compliance 

and other issues that owners of bridge 

assets face. "Bridge inspection and 

management have stagnated over the 

years, and the typical approach is that 

whether we're talking about 

governmental oversight and legislation, 

or just as an asset owner, a scheduled 

inspection involves inspectors going 

into the field, using a range of tools and 

other mobile applications, producing 

photographs, videos, and audio notes 

to record information about the state of 

an asset so that we can compare notes 

on its condition over a period of time," 

Vogen said. "The production of such 

documentation and the submission of 

inventory conditions has been going on 

for many years." 

Vogen continued, "There has been 

some evolution in the process, perhaps 

a recognition that we can do better, 

such as differentiating between a new 

bridge and one that is in an area with 

difficult physical conditions - salt, sea 

water, or heavy weather - requiring a 

different approach and more frequent 

inspections. In the United States we are 

faced with the Federal Highway 

Administration's new mandate for bridge 

inspections - the National Bridge 

inventory guidelines. These new 

standards will move inspectors away 

from rigid schedule-based to 

performance-based inspections." 

MICROSOFT'S HOLOLENS AND 

DIGITAL TWINS 

Vogen described the two critical 

processes that has allowed bridge 

inspectors to become smarter in the 

way they handle bridge inspections. The 

first is the use of all available technology 

to view and record the condition of a 

bridge at a particular point in time, so 

that a digital twin can be made of the 

structure and its condition. The second 

is that Microsoft's HoloLens technology 

can be used to create an immersive 

view of the bridge using 

photogrammetry processed through 

Bentley's ContextCapture, so that bridge 

inspectors can view and visually 

interpret data within their own office 

environment. 

The second point is important, as it 

enables successive inspections to be 

14 


TECHNOLOGYfocus 

made in the field more frequently by 

less experienced teams, producing 

accurate data from pre-programmed 

flights to be fed into a digital twin 

timeline. Updated digital twin models 

can then be viewed and analysed in the 

office by immersing the bridge 

inspector in the model to examine the 

extent of degradation over any part of 

the asset over a specific period. 

A digital twin, creating a virtual copy of 

an existing structure, is composed of 

photos and video footage from drone 

and other surveys using Bentley's 

ContextCapture technology, in situ 

sensors and cameras installed to 

monitor stresses and strains, and other 

information. 

I asked about a particular problem that 

we have locally - the rusting of internal 

strands of wire in a cable stay bridge, 

apparently invisible during physical 

inspections, and Vogen explained that 

the problem is not uncommon and that 

magnetic flux leakage cable scan 

technology is now being used to detect 

such invisible issues. 

ContextCapture is able to process the 

imagery captured from a drone flight or 

any other method of producing 

photogrammetry to make a reality mesh, 

somewhat highly triangulated in the 

case of bridges, that could consist of 

tens of millions of polygons. These 

polygons need to be rendered to create 

the immersive model. The reality mesh, 

however, is just one aspect of a bridge's 

digital twin. "We need to add in any 

available extra information that we have," 

Vogen explained. "For a steel beam, for 

instance, we would want to include its 

material strengths so that we can 

perform load rating and other analyses. 

"The photogrammetry and video 

provided to ContextCapture allows us to 

create a virtual model onto which we 

can overlay so much other information," 

he added. 

"To demonstrate how much more we 

can now do, consider corrosion or 

cracking where you can get information 

from sensor feedback, which can be 

used to provide all kinds of overlays 

that would describe or simulate the 

levels of corrosion found. That's been 

easy for many years, but with immersive 

reality you can move around the model, 

zoom in, and inspect the corroded 

element closely and even take 

measurements - a full three-dimensional 

interaction." 

Vogen continued, "You are not 

watching it on a monitor, either. 

HoloLens will create a life-size image 

for you, and you are there, on that 

bridge. Instead of moving the Creeper 

vehicle over a 10-foot section of the 

bridge, you can go into the model and 

walk 10, or a 100 feet, seamlessly." 

Even drones have limitations. They 

provide a primitive limited field of vision 

in spite of their mobility, but full context 

spatial awareness is only possible when 

the drone virtual imagery is 

supplemented by the augmented reality 

of the full digital twin model. 

Using a digital twin has other benefits 

too. Instead of taking two pictures of the 

crack in a bridge's concrete base two 

years apart, with different inspectors 

who might not quite capture the same 

critical detail, we can use the digital twin 

to locate the exact spot and provide a 

true geometric measurement of any 

further deterioration. Furthermore, 

artificial intelligence and machine 

learning algorithms can be used to 

automatically identify such conditions 

and defects during an inspection and 

highlight them for attention. 

Vogen explained that pre-inspection 

set-ups allow the footage from a drone's 

ContextCapture survey to look for such 

issues, using trained learning 

algorithms. The software can then 

suggest areas for inspection - 

identifying what you might want to focus 

on from an AI/ML basis, which can be 

highlighted for closer visual inspection 

on a subsequent ContextCapture 

mission or by visiting the bridge. 

Prediction is also a big part of 

performance-based inspection, Vogen 

said. "With improved analytics we can 

have a really good geometric 

understanding of a bridge's crack 

progression or corrosion levels and 

allow us to take preventive measures." 

"We already know "how bridges 

deteriorate," Vogen concluded. "What 

we are now able to do is to inspect 

them remotely, more frequently, and 

with greater accuracy." 

www.bentley.com 


TECHNOLOGY focus 

Deep Learning 

Enscape's association with NVIDIA on its latest Graphics Cards featuring DLSS technology 

boosts the company's real-time rendering capabilities 

It's not so long ago that you had to resort 

to 'render farms' to turn your 3D models 

and animations into lifelike images. 

There was a step change up from that 

time-consuming process when computers 

with more powerful or multithreaded CPUs 

became available, and you merely had to 

pop off for lunch when you got to the 

rendering stage. Graphics cards have 

advanced considerably, and it became 

obvious that NVIDIA had product and 

technology goals which they saw they 

could achieve through a specific avenue of 

hardware/software development. They 

executed successfully on that strategy - 

and updated their capabilities dramatically. 

With more powerful GPUs and increased 

frame buffer sizes, NVIDIA claims that they 

can now be used to accelerate the 

rendering process by up to 6 or 15 times 

compared to what is achievable using the 

fastest CPUs. A graphics workstation's 

CPU features a small quantity of highly 

complex cores, compared to the hundreds 

or thousands of smaller and simpler cores 

on a typical GPU. Simple cores prove ideal 

for handling the rendering of masses of 

small polygons that you get in a 3D model. 

It is the cores in a GPU that handle the 

computations, and the RAM frame 

buffer stores pixel data so that it can be 

fed to a video display. VRAM stores 

textures and other data that are to be 

used in the rendering. 

Groundbreaking AI technology is also 

used by NVIDIA to increase other elements 

of its graphics performance. Its DLSS 

(Deep Learning Super Sampling) 

technology uses dedicated Tensor Cores 

on its GeForce RTX GPUs to leverage its 

deep learning neural network, boost frame 

rates and generate beautiful, sharp 

images in a render. Together with the RT 

cores ray tracing capabilities leveraging 

deeper tracking of individual light paths, it 

can simulate ultra-high resolutions and 

produce images comparable to native 

resolution even though it might only render 

a fraction of the pixels. 

The deep learning-based upscaling 

technology actually renders internally at a 

lower resolution but is able to output 

cleaner and sharper high-resolution 

images for videos and high-performance 

virtual reality walkthroughs. 

In the gaming industry, DLSS allows 

users to choose one of several quality 

modes, from Quality Performance with 4 x 

AI super resolution (i.e. 1080p render 

resolution) or Ultra-performance levels at 9 

x AI super resolution (1440p or 8K 

resolution). Whille Enscape's rendering 

modes are not dependent on DLSS it may 

be implemented in future releases. 

ENSCAPE 

Enscape, a leading provider of 3D 

visualisations and virtual reality technology 

for architects and designers, recently 

released Enscape 3.1, stating that, 

amongst other enhancements, it will be 

leveraging NVIDIA's DLSS technology with 

the new release supporting the company's 

RTX Graphics cards. This will enable 

Enscape to provide the ultimate in realtime 

rendering technology with lower GPU 

requirements, giving clients the tools to 

create more realistic experiences during 

walkthroughs and exports. Using the 

technology in Enscape's video rendering 

capabilities will mean that the reduced 

GPU requirements are sped up, the quality 

improved and visual distortions removed. 

The images on the opposite page show 

the effect of raytraced sun shadows using 

Enscape with and without using DLSS, 

and also highlight the DLSS performance 

enhancements at 4K and 8K resolutions 

and the improvements that running at 60 

frames per second delivers. 

AI IN THE AEC INDUSTRY 

We are all perhaps guilty of mentioning AI 

technology in any discussion pertaining to 

the construction industry lately. It's a 

technology, though, that can be used to 

enhance visualisations and innovative 

rendering techniques, and it is enabling 

rendering software developers like 

Enscape to both improve their 

photorealistic rendering capabilities and 

make the software easier to use. 

16 



Enscape has developed a closer 

relationship with NVIDIA since becoming 

one of the first rendering engines to 

support NVIDIA RTX back in 2019. This 

enabled Enscape to deliver real-time 

raytracing to architects and designers. 

The first-generation RT Cores in RTXpowered 

workstations provided real 

enhancements to the speed, accuracy 

and realism of their 3D models and 

animations. With accurate raytracing and 

massively accelerated speed from RTX, 

project teams and clients were able to 

interact more immediately with their 

creations, which led to improved decisionmaking. 

Archviz specialists were also 

given time to iterate, or experiment, more 

during the creation of compelling renders 

for competitions and bid submissions. 

DLSS support in Enscape 3.1 will also 

give architects and designers using 

NVIDIA RTX-powered workstations 

improved real-time performances during 

walkthroughs, but with decreased video 

rendering times and increased image 

quality, and, importantly, higher quality 

virtual reality experiences with the latest 

generation of high-resolution VR headsets. 

MATERIALS AND PANORAMAS 

We mentioned Enscape's other 

enhancements in its 3.1 Release. These 

include the introduction of a high-quality 

Material Library, and a new Panorama 

Gallery. Using the new Material Library, 

designers can choose from over 200 

predefined high-quality materials, such as 

wood, fabric, brick, and tile, which can be 

imported into the Enscape Material Editor, 

where material characteristics can be 

edited to provide the exact look and feel 

desired for projects. Improving the render 

quality in a scene is therefore easy and 

quick, reducing time spent in searching for 

particular high-end rendering materials. 

The Materials Library is accompanied by 

an Asset Library which provides access to 

the latest design trends, and Enscape 

continually adds new materials and assets 

with every software release to ensure 

designers have access to the ultimate in 

trends, textures and materials. 

Creating realistic proposals for clients to 

help them better understand their space 

has never been easier, either. With the new 

Panorama Gallery, it is easy to share and 

group multiple 360 panorama images 

together using a web browser to create a 

personalised experience when presenting 

designs. Clients can navigate their way 

around a project from a web link or even a 

QR code and visualise multiple rooms or 

compare different design options. 

The partnership between render engine 

developers and graphics card 

manufacturers is leading designers into a 

new, proactive environment which can only 

benefit their customers. 

"Architects and designers globally are 

looking for ways to quickly and easily 

visualise their designs and bring them 

closer to reality. Enscape is partnering with 

innovative organisations to address this 

challenge," said Christian Lang, CEO at 

Enscape. "We're proud to be working with 

NVIDIA to provide our architecture and 

design customers around the world 

access to high-quality real-time rendering 

and visualisation technology." 

His comments were reflected by Andrew 

Rink, head of AEC Marketing Strategy at 

NVIDIA. "NVIDIA DLSS is a great example 

of artificial intelligence delivering practical 

benefits to improve industry workflows 

and AEC customers using NVIDIA RTX 

GPUs will be delighted at the innovative 

way Enscape has integrated our 

technology to enhance their powerful 

rendering software." 

Enscape's real-time 3D rendering and 

virtual reality solution is available with the 

foremost CAD AEC applications, placing 

its visual exploration capabilities directly 

within numerous modeling tools, 

including Autodesk Revit, SketchUp, 

Rhinoceros, ArchiCAD, and Vectorworks, 

providing an integrated visualisation and 

design workflow. 

www.Enscape3D.com 


AWARDS 

Sponsored by: 

The Construction Computing Awards 2021 

The Construction Computing Awards 

are now in their sixteenth year and 

the online nominations to determine 

the finalists are already coming in thick 

and fast. You still have until September 

10th to make your nominations for this 

year's finalists or to submit a project for 

one of the judged awards, which laud 

project excellence and technological 

advances that will change the industry. 

The awards evening is scheduled for 

the 11th of November, which gives plenty 

of time for the judging panel to make 

their deliberations. We had to forgo an 

awards ceremony in 2020 for obvious 

reasons, but we are once again planning 

to hold our traditional awards ceremony 

at a London venue, The Leonardo Royal 

Hotel London City, this year. 

This 2021 awards evening will feel like a 

particularly special event after the many 

challenges of the pandemic, and besides 

providing an opportunity to celebrate the 

companies, suppliers and contractors 

who you think have provided an 

outstanding contribution to the industry in 

the past twelve months, it will also offer 

an opportunity to catch up with friends 

and colleagues in the industry who have 

also been working remotely since the 

start of the pandemic. We hope to see 

you there! 

AWARDS TIMELINE 

Nominations Close: 10th September 

Finalists announced/Voting Opens: 21st 

September 

Voting Closes: 1st November 

Winners Announced: 11th November 

www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk 

@CCMagAndAwards 

18 


AWARDS 

The Construction Computing Awards 2021 Categories 

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2021 

ONE TO WATCH COMPANY 2021 

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

BIM PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

COLLABORATION PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

CLOUD BASED TECHNOLOGY OF THE YEAR 2021 

AUGMENTED REALITY/VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2021 

TEAM OF THE YEAR 2021 

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

HEALTH AND SAFETY SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

BIM SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

ARCHITECTURAL CAD APPLICATION OF THE YEAR 2021 

COLLABORATION PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

DOCUMENT AND CONTENT PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

ERP SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

PROJECT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

ESTIMATION AND VALUATION PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

CONSTRUCTION FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2021 

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING APPLICATION OF THE YEAR 2021 

GIS/MAPPING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

MOBILE APPLICATION OF THE YEAR 2021 

CHANNEL PARTNER OF THE YEAR 2021 

CONSTRUCTION SOFTWARE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

EDITOR'S CHOICE OF 2021 

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2021 

COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2021 



Challenges for construction 

Should current global crises be considered as challenges or opportunities? Are construction 

companies merely holding their heads above water, or should they be seeking to regain control? 

The digital tsunami is a phrase that's 

increasingly being used to describe 

the torrent of data being generated 

by and thrown at companies, with the 

expectation that they will somehow make 

sense of it all. And the digital tsunami is 

just one of many challenges that the 

construction industry is currently faced 

with. Others include skill shortages and 

health and safety, evolving construction 

methods and the looming net-zero carbon 

debate, and critical issues rising from the 

current pandemic and Brexit such as 

material shortages and rising prices. 

Riding the digital tsunami is an apt 

metaphor for dealing with the wealth of 

information we have available, and which 

we should not be afraid of using. Properly 

managed, all of the issues we are coming 

across can be addressed and problems 

mitigated. That is the role of Access 

Construction, whose ERP and estimating 

software gives project managers the 

information they need to make those 

critical decisions, but more importantly, 

presents it in a meaningful way that shows 

the impact they will have on a project's 

profitable outcome. 

MATERIAL SHORTAGES 

Let's look at the shortage of building 

materials, which happens to be one of the 

most widely discussed issues at the 

moment. The COVID pandemic is being 

blamed for some of this, but there are 

developing problems with all different 

types of materials. There is an increased 

global demand for steel, for example, and 

British Steel for various reasons is not 

accepting new orders. Increased growth 

in infrastructure projects is hoovering up 

current supplies. 

Timber is increasingly being used for 

environmentally friendly construction 

projects, which is going to hamper the 

hoped-for increase in housing projects. 

The shortages in usable plastics, such as 

polyethylene and polypropylene, is 

suffering from an increased global 

demand incurring raw material shortages - 

resulting in price increases. 

To put it bluntly, construction companies 

can no longer rely on the goodwill of 

suppliers, fixed prices and scheduled 

delivery dates. Tenders should not ask for 

fixed price bids, but should be based on 

inevitable price fluctuations and the 

changing market circumstances that 

trigger them. Keep your head to the 

ground and you will know when or what 

shortages will occur or are occurring, and 

you can feed that into your project 

budget's 'what if' scenarios to gauge the 

impact on your cash flow or profitability. 

There's a more serious issue here though 

- force majeure. The contract you have 

with your supplier should be tagged as a 

contract relevant event, insulated against 

contractual penalties and insured against 

associated losses and expense. Speak to 

Access Construction before you send out 

your next round of tenders and ensure that 

bids accepted and contracts raised cover 

all legal and financial obligations. 

Remember also that your supplier is a 

partner, and is likely to be suffering the 

effects of adverse market conditions as 

much as you are. 

MODULAR CONSTRUCTION 

The demand for modular construction is 

an opportunity rather than a challenge. It 

has ramifications for the supply chain, 

project planning and scheduling, 

sustainability and skill shortages. The 

shortage in raw materials will probably be 

felt by building component manufacturers 

as hard as building contractors, but 

volume manufacturers will be able to 

stockpile materials in larger quantities and, 

consequently, pre-order materials which 

can be processed and delivered to 

contractors on a just-in-time basis. 

This means that builders can more or 

less guarantee pre-manufactured 

components when they are needed and 

20 



use fitters, rather than craftsmen, to erect 

them. Once again, Access Construction 

job costing utilities can be used to 

compare costs against traditional 

methods of construction, incorporating 

component delivery and resource costs to 

provide more accurate budgets and 

project costs. 

Modular construction is also at the 

forefront of the drive towards the country's 

net-zero carbon targets. They have the 

facilities and the need to research 

alternative materials, technologies and 

building methods. Building contractors on 

tight margins focus on the projects in 

hand. It is essential that architects and 

engineers, faced with governmental 

pressures to reduce carbon emissions, 

speak frequently to off-site fabricators to 

keep abreast of developments, and the 

driving force for this must be the 

opportunity to reduce a project's 

construction costs, 

SKILLED LABOUR SHORTAGES 

Skilled labour shortages result in poor 

productivity, rising costs and dwindling 

profitability. Although Brexit has been cited 

as a contributing factor, it is a global 

problem, with an ageing workforce, poor 

training programs and the nature of the 

job, which is felt to be poorly paid and 

dangerous (numerous surveys point out 

the construction industry's poor safety 

record). Skills don't necessarily just refer to 

the ability to lay bricks professionally, but 

also to the processes and workflows on a 

building site. Incompetence in this area 

leads to work not being carried out 

properly and procedures missed. 

The obvious outcome is that the quality 

of construction on the project is lower than 

it should be, and the tagging of defects 

and the remedies required to clear them 

becomes an expensive and unforeseen 

addition to the project's costs. 

Communication between the team onsite 

and in the office is critical, therefore, to 

both direct and monitor the daily activities 

of the construction site: the comings and 

goings of employees, the recording of 

material deliveries and the ordering of 

equipment, and the commencement and 

completion of tasks. 

Besides recording costs on a real-time 

basis, updating employees timesheets, 

even checking whether a particular 

employee has the skills to do a particular 

job, the information can be used by 

Access Construction to compile reports 

that can be analysed to discern trends 

and unearth reasons why particular 

aspects of projects tend to go astray. 

Should tagging reveal that, for example, 

light fittings have been installed incorrectly 

on a number of occasions on a building 

site, checking the appropriate report will 

reveal which contractor and employee 

was directly responsible, and to allow 

them to remedy the situation. 

Access Construction's mobile application 

is used to maintain direct control over the 

activities on a construction site, but it also 

helps empower the local foreman using it, 

making them a more important and 

valuable member of the team. 

DEALING WITH THE UNEXPECTED 

There is nothing so certain as death and 

taxes. The world is in flux, and many 

things will change over the next couple of 

decades: high tariffs on imported raw 

materials (Chinese steel), evolving 

transport and electricity supply 

technologies, migrating populations, 

changing work patterns and more. 

Governments will have to define the rules 

that govern our responses. 

The signs are there already, and the 

information is flowing. Access Construction 

has the responsibility of keeping track of 

such changes and keeping clients in touch 

with how it affects them and their business. 

It's your responsibility to take advantage of 

their expertise. 

www.theaccessgroup.com 


SOFTWARE review 

Silver service 

Graphisoft introduces the 25th version of Archicad, setting new levels of growth despite the 

ravages of the pandemic 

We are so used to seeing the 

pace of technology 

accelerating every year that it's 

a shock to realise that one of the front 

runners in architectural 3D design 

software and a proponent of BIM for 

many years, Graphisoft, is now 39 years 

old! The company has also just released 

the 25th version of its well-known 

application Archicad. 

But more of that later. The pandemic 

may have caused many construction 

companies to temporarily halt their 

projects but the design, construction 

documentation and collaboration 

amongst project teams has gone on 

unabated. Despite many people having 

to work from home, the ability to share 

models and data with partners and other 

team members has proceeded 

seamlessly, so much so that Graphisoft 

has met the challenges that the 

pandemic has wrought and recorded 

increased growth by empowering 

dispersed teams. 

The introduction of free emergency 

licenses enabled users who had difficulty 

working at home to access their 

company's office based licenses, and 

free access to BIMcloud as a service 

gave remote architects and designers 

the ability to work together as a team. 

This was sufficient to persuade non- 

Archicad users to come on board, and it 

appears that many who made the switch 

are still happily using Archicad. 

ARCHICAD 25 PRODUCTIVITY 

Those who made the switch during the 

pandemic will be delighted to see the 

latest version of Archicad tweaking 

productivity and adding more 

functionality and enhanced collaboration 

tools to the software, and it is interesting 

to see faster modelling workflows feature 

as the headline announcement of 

Archicad 25's new capabilities. This is 

attributed to the ability to unify navigation 

commands between 2D and 3D views. 

As a design progresses, an architect 

switches repeatedly between 2D plan 

views and associated 3D models, 

homing in on individual elements in very 

large models. Now, an item can be 

selected on a floorplan, sections or 

elevation, and by right-clicking on it the 

user can bring up the context menu, 

where they can click on the new Switch to 

3D command. Switching to the 3D model 

view locates the architect at the desired 

element. In reverse, the same action is 

enabled with a new Switch to Floorplan 

command in the Context Menu. 

A further refinement allows you to 

select, say, an MEP component, which 

you would like to see in situ. Selecting 

Switch to 3D View might show you where 

it may be, but it may be hidden by a wall 

panel. Graphisoft has a highly proactive 

user base (hence its popular support in 

our annual Hammers awards), and the 

inclusion of quantity estimation in the 

new release underlines its increased 

relevance to Archicad users. Quantifying 

materials in a structure, however, whilst 

encouraging them to adopt more freeform 

methods of design, puts architects 

in a bit of a quandary. This has largely 

been resolved by allowing architects to 

create custom shaped openings using 

plain polygons in either 2D or 3D 

environments, allowing them to define 

more precisely its volume and material 

components and to produce more 

accurate components schedules. 

I am also quite intrigued to find the 

familiar stair design tools being updated. 

It's a regular feature to each and every 

software developer's arsenal of upgrades. 

I don't think local design standards have 

changed much over the years, and there 

are only so many ways you can create a 

flight of stairs. Graphisoft appears to 

have honed in asymmetric stair alignment 

for this release. 

3D PARAMETRIC AND FREEFORM 

DESIGN 

Many design projects incorporate 

increasing levels of interior design, 

particularly now that a greater emphasis 

on space allocation is more critical in 

22 


SOFTWAREreview 

Two examples of poly openings in Archicad 25 

design - the inclusion of a home office, 

for example - encouraging modular 

furniture to be incorporated in a design. 

Consequently, Graphisoft has greatly 

expanded its library of 3D parametric 

objects facilitating the creation of 

customisable interior designs. 

Similarly, MEP is now an integral part 

of many current designs, and 

Graphisoft has provided Archicad 25 

with the ability to automatically display 

MEP related information, providing a 

smoother MEP documentation workflow. 

At the other extreme, Graphisoft has 

had a long association with Rhino and 

its algorithmic design capabilities. 

Freeform organic 3D Models created in 

Rhino 6 and 7 can be used directly with 

Archicad 25, either by importing them 

into Archicad to continue design 

development and create 

documentation, or to develop them as 

BIM components. You can also export 

them back out to Rhino for further 

creative development. 

VISUALISATION 

Enhancing design presentations 

increases customer engagement with 

designs, and it's always a challenge to 

improve on what often appears to be 

the ultimate in rendering. Archicad 25's 

latest innovations in this area include 

the ability to display surface textures in 

section and elevation views, which can 

be overlain with pattern fills, and to add 

more subtlety to an artistic render using 

soft shadows. Mac users will find their 

3D rendering is significantly sped up as 

Apple's new graphics API, Metal, has 

superceded OpenGL 

THE NATIVE SURVEY POINT 

Graphisoft is renowned for the ease with 

which it handles the import and export 

of over 40 different file formats, from 

DWG and PDF to OpenBIM formats IFC 

and BCF. Support for Revit file formats 

up to 2021 is also built into the software, 

principally for the use of engineers using 

REVIT MEP software, and Revit to 

Archicad migration is now easy using 

RFA and RVT geometry exchange. 

Streamlining data exchange and 

collaboration still further, Graphisoft has 

introduced the Native Survey Point, 

which establishes a common design 

location that can be set in the Location 

Settings dialog, instead of having to rely 

on a GDL object, and integrated into 

Archicad's coordination workflows 

including IFC, BCF, DXF and DWG. It's 

an easy to edit onscreen point, with 

displayable coordinates, that can be 

scheduled and published. It can also be 

placed out of the way and far from 

origin but zoomed to when you need to 

locate it quickly. 

GRAPHISOFT FORWARD 

Forward is a new Software Services 

Agreement for Archicad users. It 

provides an enhanced customer 

support programme which, besides 

providing online technical support, 

professional training and access to the 

latest software releases, eradicates all 

of the support problems normally 

encountered when running a software 

dependent organisation. 

Forward includes emergency licenses, 

license pooling, license key insurance 

for replacing stolen or malfunctioning 

licenses, access to Graphisoft's full 

knowledgebase and up to 10Gb of 

storage space for BIMx Model Private 

Hosting and Sharing. You don't have to 

worry about keeping your software up 

to date as Forward will cover that for 

you, and you will also get access to 

Epic Games' Twinmotion and the Library 

Part Maker add-on, enabling you to 

virtually create any custom object. 

Emergency licensing was prompted by 

the pandemic again, as Huw Roberts. 

CEO of Graphisoft said: "During the 

early days of the pandemic, firm 

principals saw first-hand how crucial an 

emergency license of Archicad could be 

for their businesses. Providing a 

continuity of service, as we did, helped 

us decide to make it a permanent 

feature. Graphisoft Forward further 

proves why so many successful firms 

work with us." 

There have also been some 

enhancements to Graphisoft's BIMx and 

BIMcloud applications, which we have 

explored in a separate article in this 

issue. Archicad 25 also includes new 

functionality in some other areas, as 

well, such as the ability to do quick, 

graphical quality checks, leveraging its 

long association with Solibri, MEP 

labelling and structural analysis model 

improvements. 

www.graphisoft.com 


CASEstudy 

The small print 

Keeping track of construction documents is easier when you look at the details that simplify the 

workflow. Viewpoint asked one of its customers to expand on how they managed documents on 

their projects 

Multiple teams are involved 

during the lifecycle of a 

construction project. What one 

may consider an essential functionality 

for a software platform, another team 

may never use. That's why it is 

important to know what "good" 

construction software looks like from the 

perspective of different job titles. This 

way, you can make an informed 

decision in choosing a platform that 

ticks the right boxes for employees 

across multiple teams. 

Document controllers - who must keep 

track of project plans, blueprints, vendor 

contracts, drawings, and data backup 

and security - need software specific to 

the construction industry to enforce 

consistency and make documents easy 

to share between project members. 

To see what construction software 

features are most important to 

document controllers, we talked to 

Charlotte Thorburn, document controller 

at Sons & Co. Thorburn coordinated her 

company's move towards a Common 

Data Environment (CDE) to standardise, 

simplify and scale up how her company 

managed projects. She outlined for us 

the six key features that proved most 

significant as she helped roll out the 

new system at Sons & Co. 

Thorburn explained that document 

controllers should look for all of these 

features: a BIM framework, an 

integrated drawing viewer which allowed 

markup and revisions and a repeatable, 

collaborative workflow. It goes without 

saying that it also needs quick search 

functionality, and unlimited document 

storage - current major projects include 

100s of thousands of items. She 

explained further: 

1. A BIM FRAMEWORK 

A good CDE should be BIM-ready to 

ensure consistency, quality and 

compliance. In order to achieve building 

information modeling (BIM) Level 2, a 

document controller requires a few 

critical features: a consistent approach 

across drawings, and consistent naming 

conventions, giving users the ability to 

ensure that all stakeholders can 

collaborate, and to export the 

Construction Operations Building 

Information Exchange (COBie) data from 

these documents. 

It may seem simple, but a consistent, 

logical naming convention saves time 

and increases overall project 

organisation. It also allows the team to 

combine relevant documents to 

construct a federated model. 

2. INTEGRATED DRAWINGS 

VIEWER 

Being able to have linked drawings and 

documents at your fingertips can save 

significant time and hassle in the field. 

Being able to see documents in one 

place, rather than having to leave the 

system just to see a document in full, 

was an essential functionality for 

Thorburn and her team. 

Navigating in and out of the 

system slowed down all users 

because it required them to 

download documents and take 

up space on their computer. 

This caused another problem, 

because team members would 

then rely on their saved 

documents, instead of the 

updated source material, 

which may have added edits 

or comments. "When the 

drawings were taken offline," 

Thorburn says, "we forfeited 

live visibility of a project and 

created a break in the project 

timeline." 

Site drawings (DWGs) often 

go on-site earlier than their 

corresponding PDFs, so it 

was vital that these 

documents could be linked 

at all times. Document 

controllers 

need a system 

that avoids the 

24 


CASEstudy 

need to store DWGs and PDFs in 

different locations. 

3. SIMPLE MARK-UP AND 

REVISIONS 

When document changes and updates 

are needed, it should be a simple 

process, with automatic versioning to 

keep entire teams informed. 

Mark-ups are a common feature of 

construction projects. When consultants 

are not able to view, mark-up, or 

comment on documents online, they 

have to spend their time downloading, 

manually adding comments and markups, 

and then reuploading the amended 

documents. This causes delays in 

response - and therefore action - every 

time a mark-up or comment is added. 

Good construction software for 

document controllers enables 

consultants to annotate, stamp and sign 

off drawings digitally without leaving the 

system. This keeps project momentum 

high and avoids unnecessary delays. 

4. A REPEATABLE, 

COLLABORATIVE WORKFLOW 

Document workflows should be easy to 

understand and intuitive for the user and 

project. "As a document controller," 

Thorburn says, "I'm more than aware of 

the importance of the integration 

between project drawings and drawings 

for comment. Lacking a standardised, 

automated workflow with updates and 

sign-offs leads to delays as well as 

confusion over which drawings to work 

from. It also increases the risk of 

beginning a build with incorrect 

drawings - which we definitely do not 

want to happen! 

Sons & Co wanted a standardised 

workflow in place to prevent items from 

getting lost in the review section, and to 

this end they created customisable 

workflows that connect the review 

process to the main document repository. 

This means that all versions of a 

document are in the same place and all 

teams are collaborating on the latest 

version of the drawing or document. 

5. QUICK SEARCH 

FUNCTIONALITY 

Everyone on the extended project team 

should be able to find and access the 

documents they have permissions to 

within seconds. Project lists can be 200 

items long. Not having an efficient 

search functionality can make tracking 

down the relevant design review or RFI 

difficult, to say the least. Even with 

manual tracking, it was arduous to 

update the project list, and required a 

lengthy involvement of the project 

manager and administrative support. 

As document controllers must split 

their time between these extra admin 

tasks, this adds up to hours and money 

over a project. "Construction software 

with comprehensive search functionality 

helps our team search and sort RFIs. 

Each user has a dashboard linking them 

directly to items assigned to them, 

doing away with the need for a manual 

tracker, and the hours spent updating it," 

Thorburn says. 

6. UNLIMITED DOCUMENT 

STORAGE 

Running out of document storage space 

is something a contractor should never 

have to worry about. Unfortunately, 

however, there are still too many 

companies who rely on limited local 

storage (or even physical storage) and 

who have yet to fully digitise and move 

to the cloud. 

Document storage has always been a 

cost burden that document controllers 

are reluctant to spend money on. 

Thorburn knew the price of document 

storage was rising, with larger files for 

photos and CGIs being stored elsewhere 

to save money. "To prevent data storage 

costs from eating into our project profit 

margins, we resorted to storing things in 

multiple locations, which made it difficult 

to find items quickly." 

By choosing construction software 

where the storage cost was allocated 

per project and stored on the Cloud, she 

knew the team gained access to 

unlimited data storage, that everything 

could be stored in the same place, and 

that it was secure from both company 

hardware and software upgrades, 

computer malfunctions or third-party 

malfeasance. 

As a document controller, Viewpoint for 

Projects has certainly made life easier 

for Thorburn. 

www.viewpoint.com 


CASE study 

Light metal framing 

Tekla Structures is the key to successful off-site manufacturing and erection of light metal 

framework 

Off-site is a popular topic within 

construction right now, frequently 

heralded as being the future of 

the industry and the key to building 

better, greener and faster. Light metal 

framing is one such example of off-site 

construction, favoured for its durability, 

versatility, speed and cost-effectiveness, 

with BIM at the core of helping to bring it 

to life. Two companies operating within 

the light metal framing (LMF) sector are 

Design & Consultancy Ltd and 

Frameclad, who together have been 

benefitting from the added value that a 

model-based workflow brings. 

Design & Consultancy specialise in 

steel framing systems, particularly load 

bearing structures, and wors closely with 

Frameclad, a light-gauge steel 

manufacturer. Despite both companies 

being relatively new, with Design & 

Consultancy operating since 2016 and 

Frameclad manufacturing since 2014, 

the two have grown substantially in that 

time, with Modern Methods of 

Construction (MMC) and off-site key to 

this growth. 

Paul Winwood, Managing Director at 

Frameclad said: "The off-site and LMF 

sector have both been growing 

significantly recently, thanks in part to the 

significant push made by the UK 

government on MMC - now it's all about 

keeping that momentum going. Even 

recently, while other industries have been 

affected by the coronavirus restrictions, 

we were able to keep on working. In fact, 

it's one of the many benefits of off-site 

construction, being well-suited to this 

new way of working. 

"Quality is key within MMC; it's all about 

bringing factory quality products and 

components into the construction site 

setting. And modelling tools and modelbased 

software are a key part of 

achieving this." 

A user of Tekla Structures since the 

company's outset, Design & Consultancy 

is well-accustomed to the benefits of a 

model-based workflow, taking the 

information and drawings supplied by 

Frameclad, the end client and architect 

to first create a base building model in 

Tekla Structures, before then detailing 

the individual steel framing profiles. 

Nik Teagle, Director at Design & 

Consultancy, explained further: "For us, 

it's all about designing with manufacture 

and assembly in mind. Through Tekla, 

we're able to constantly develop the way 

we detail frames and the fixings and 

connections we use, all based off 

feedback received from Frameclad. 

"However, perhaps one of the main 

benefits of the software for us is the 

library of LMF components - both 

standard and bespoke. As well as 

utilising the library of standard frames 

and profiles offered by Tekla, we also 

have the ability to create our own 

catalogue, containing frames, 

connections and components unique to 

Frameclad. In addition to custom macros 

and ribbons, with Tekla Structures you 

really have the flexibility to make the 

software your own. 

"In turn, this of course helps to save 

time and provide a more efficient 

process. Within the LMF sector, 

repetition, both within and between 

projects, is a common occurrence. Here, 

with a library of parts readily available, it 

mitigates the need to remodel all frames 

and systems on every new project." 

Once the Tekla model is completed and 

approved, this is then used by Design & 

Consultancy to generate the detailed 

fabrication drawings (including frame 

weights and dimensions), panel 

references and part marks and project 

reports, before being shared with 

Frameclad. 

Paul said: "While we don't use Tekla 

26 


CASEstudy 

Structures directly ourselves, we do rely 

heavily on the extracted information and 

outputs from the software, supplied to us 

via Design & Consultancy. This 

information is used by us right from the 

initial procurement and bidding stages 

through to fabrication and manufacturing. 

Therefore, it is essential that it's correct. 

"With procurement especially, given the 

fact that we are still a relatively small and 

new business, having accurate 

calculations, quantities and lengths is 

perhaps even more critical, helping us to 

better allocate resources. Here, with a 

model-based workflow, where all data is 

automatically generated from the central 

model, we are provided with an 

assurance of precision. 

"In fact, it is this very accuracy and 

reliability of data that is perhaps the 

biggest benefit of Tekla for us as a 

company. Within the LMF sector, we rely 

heavily on the manufacturing information 

being correct. Tolerances are tight and 

with numerous trades and disciplines 

involved on any one project, all elements 

are often interconnected. What's more, 

with the main structural frame being 

made from metal, it's extremely difficult 

to rework once on site - it's not as if you 

can just slightly change the alignment or 

positioning of one section. Everything 

has to be perfect. It's for this reason that 

the quality and depth of information 

available, the automatic clash detection 

and interoperability within Tekla 

Structures is all so valuable." 

In addition to accuracy, the visibility 

enabled by BIM is another benefit of the 

model-based workflow for Frameclad, 

helping them to win new work and create 

client confidence. 

Paul explained: "Ultimately, construction 

is a very conservative sector with a 

traditional marketplace. People can be 

reluctant to change or adopt new ways 

of working. If we are to succeed in 

encouraging the adoption of these new 

methods of construction, including 

offsite and light metal framing, we need 

to be able to show off and highlight the 

benefits of doing so in a very visual way. 

With the 3D models created in Tekla 

Structures, we can walk our clients 

through the structure and show them the 

end product before it's even reached our 

fabrication shop, giving them added 

confidence and assurance." 

One example of LMF and BIM in action 

was the Concord Street development in 

central Leeds, an exciting new ninestorey 

building offering 35 one and twobed 

apartments. Given the city centre 

location, the site was very restricted, 

bordered on all four sides by roads, 

pedestrian walkways and other buildings. 

As a result, MMC was the ideal 

solution. Demonstrating the versatility 

and adaptability of light metal framing, 

everything on the project was delivered 

using Frameclad's light-gauge steel, 

from the structural frame to the lift shaft 

and door frames, with a crane able to 

be installed within the building to erect 

the structure. 

Nik concluded: "It's clear that MMC is 

going to be a big part of the construction 

industry's future, with BIM tools there to 

help deliver it and make it a reality. For 

me, it's the level of detail and data-rich 

visibility enabled by 3D modelling that 

stands to be one of the biggest benefits 

for light metal framing and offsite 

construction. Ultimately, the more you 

put in and the more work you do at the 

detailing stage, the more you stand to 

get out of the software - this is where the 

real value is." 

www.tekla.com/uk 


CASE study 

Can CAD help construction build, build, build? 

Chris Powell, Sales Director at Pasquill, considers how design technologies and off-site modular 

construction go hand in hand to improve the quality and quantity of homes built in the UK 

For decades, we've struggled to 

build enough new housing to keep 

pace with demand. Many experts 

feel that off-site construction is the best 

way forward, especially in light of the 

Government's commitment to build 

300,000 new homes a year. 

This forms part of the Conservatives' 

New Deal, a £420 million injection in the 

construction sector which aims to reduce 

the time to build new houses by 50%, with 

a focus on accelerating the adoption of 

modular construction. 

Off-site and prefabricated 

manufacturing techniques are gaining 

momentum as a means to reduce 

wastage, inefficiencies and delays on 

site. But off-site manufacturing (OSM) is 

not a new concept. We can trace the 

practice of assembling buildings away 

from the construction site as far as the 

Romans. In the 1900s, we saw the 

development of kit homes in the US and, 

here in the UK, the post-war period took 

advantage of prefabrication to help 

address housing shortages. 

In fact, when many people hear the word 

prefabrication, they think of these 

(somewhat poorly constructed) temporary 

homes from the 60s. But off-site 

manufacturing has come an incredibly 

long way since then, not least because 

every element of the process has been 

refined and enhanced by technology. 

From design software that can map out 

an interactive 3D model to manufactured 

products accurate to within fractions of a 

millimetre, these modern methods of 

construction (MMC) improve cost 

predictability, the quality of the final build 

and allow us to put up homes at speed 

without impacting on the finished product. 

DIGITAL INSIGHTS 

Combining CAD technology with the 

manufacturing benefits and speeds up 

every step of the build, from end to end. 

This is demonstrated by the fact that we 

are finding clients requesting their 

drawings earlier in the build timeline, long 

before work begins on site. The use of 2D 

and 3D designs naturally help them to 

see the visual realities of their concept 

and it's spatial planning before further 

financial resources are committed. From 

the earliest stage, these drawings can 

also generate accurate costs for the build, 

which are generally much more stable 

when OSM is used. 

CAD is generally much quicker than 

traditional freehand drawing, particularly 

when you factor in the time saved in the 

amends process or the ability to create 

different scale models at the click of a 

button. Software can also help to 

coordinate the different disciplines 

involved in the design and eliminate any 

possible clashes, resulting in a reduction 

in remedial work on-site. Furthermore, 

designers can conduct structural analysis 

and energy calculations through 

simulation within the 3D model 

environment. 

We use the MiTek suite of software 

including Pamir, a fully integrated CAD 

layout and engineering software allowing 

us to design our products to the very 

latest design codes, and WoodEngine, 

the industry leading timber frame detailing 

software. Both offer powerful links to 

numerous other packages to allow for 

complete BIM integration. 

CAD designs can be incredibly useful in 

speeding up planning applications too, 

providing planners with visual context in a 

more intuitive way. For example, 'a right to 

light' concern can be quickly answered 

using 3D visualisations, GIS mapping and 

daylight simulation. 

At Pasquill, we specialise in OSM timber 

frame elements, such as roof trusses and 

floor cassettes. As each product we 

design and manufacture is bespoke, we 

28 


CASEstudy 

don't offer standardised BIM catalogue 

objects. However, finished designs can 

be packaged in file formats that integrate 

them with our client's central model, 

allowing us to work in partnership with 

other suppliers. This also allows the client 

complete control and overview of the 

build, with the ability to cut down walls, 

make easy alterations, import elements 

such as electrics or heat recovery and 

highlight potential clashes in the building. 

MAKING THE CONSTRUCTION 

PROCESS SMOOTHER 

Further efficiencies can be found with a 

design for manufacture ethos, which we 

implement across all our sites. A lot of 

machinery accepts instructions from CAD 

drawings, resulting in computer aided 

manufacturing (CAM). For example, we 

generate files from the design models that 

dictate how we set up equipment, such as 

timber CNC saws, presses or the laser on 

the manufacturing benches. Using these 

methods we maximise the use of material, 

minimise waste, speed up the 

manufacturing and improve accuracy with 

products designed to closer tolerances 

than their traditional counterparts. 

This process also enables much better 

oversight of quality control. The dry, welllit 

surroundings of a factory and checks 

throughout the entire manufacturing 

process ensure any issues with quality 

are detected and rectified. 

Finally, when it comes to delivery, our 

CAD technology tells us the overall bulk 

that needs to be delivered and how it can 

most efficiently fit into our lorries. The 

plans are also provided to builders so it 

can be installed with ease. Lovell Homes 

has previously described our products as 

like building with Lego! 

Manufacturing houses in a factory is a 

safer environment than building on site, 

less exposure to sun, rain and wind. 

Minimal site traffic and working from 

heights is minimised (the main cause of 

fatal accidents and injury on site). OSM, 

facilitated by CAD, makes construction 

safer through the mitigation of many sitebased 

risks. 

Building this way also means that fewer 

personnel are needed on site, 

addressing the ever-growing construction 

skills gap. Tradespeople will always be 

important, and they can also be 

accommodated in a factory setting, but 

as a sector we must also turn our 

attention to training the next generation of 

designers. Through better design using 

CAD and the manufacturing of houses in 

a purpose-built factory, costs can be 

reduced through efficient use of materials 

and sustainability targets can be met all 

while promoting a safer way of working. 

A CATALYST FOR BESPOKE BUILDS 

In addition to speeding up the large-scale 

building of much-needed homes, OSM is 

also a valuable tool for bespoke self-build 

projects or to help ramp-up production of 

smaller builds which are rising in 

popularity, such as garden rooms. Use of 

CAD and OSM provides the same 

benefits: standardising costs, quality and 

predictable timelines. 

For self-builders in particular, it can 

provide confidence and allow them to 

drive forward with new and exciting 

designs that would have been 

unaffordable or unachievable before 

OSM. For example, Pasquill used MiTek to 

design and manufacture an intricate 16- 

sided roof with a central skylight for a 

completely circular holiday home in 

Scotland. This took numerous revisions 

and several senior designers working 

together to build a model that would 

support a sedum grass roof three times 

the weight of a standard tiled roof. When 

the time came for installation, the roof 

was assembled without issue by a few 

builders in rural Scotland. 

UNTAPPED POTENTIAL 

There is unlimited potential in the 

construction industries that will be 

untapped as these manufacturing and 

CAD design technologies grow together. 

The near future promises widespread use 

of 4D and augmented reality design 

models, while one of our Saint-Gobain 

sister companies, Weber Beamix, created 

Europe's first 3D printed house. But for 

now, in my opinion, OSM is the very best 

way of helping the sector meet its 

housing targets. 

Pasquill is part of the Saint-Gobain Off- 

Site Solutions Division, which includes 

brands Scotframe, International Timber 

and Roofspace Solutions. Visit: 

www.pasquill.co.uk to find out more 

about how our design technology and 

OSM capabilities can help deliver quality 

build projects on time and on cost. 


SOFTWAREfocus 

Autodesk Docs for viewing and sharing documents 

Review request and reviewer dialogue 

Autodesk Docs 

The handling of all documented information about a project is finally coming of age, as 

Autodesk incorporates Autodesk Docs into its Construction Cloud applications 

It's quite difficult to comprehend that the 

construction industry is still largely 

fragmented, with an estimated 25% of 

companies within the industry working on 

half a dozen different applications and, 

globally, as much as 70% still heavily reliant 

on paper-based systems. According to 

Autodesk, who quoted the figures, this 

makes integration on a typical project 

where team members are trying to 

collaborate and share data on different 

systems and platforms extremely difficult. 

In such a situation, applications don't 'talk' 

to each other, team members publish 

documents in different formats, and office 

and field managers need to be trained on 

several different applications to correlate 

the information and set up reviews and 

approval processes to handle site issues 

with disjointed team members - manually, 

haphazardly, or using an uncontrollable 

email system. It's no wonder that errors 

creep in, time schedules lengthen and 

issues remain unresolved. 

This, then, is the background to Autodesk 

Docs, the CDE-based document 

management platform that brings together 

documents, drawings and models into a 

single, cloud-based environment to 

standardise document control and create 

effective, secure and auditable approval 

workflows. With Autodesk Docs, team 

members have access to a central 

repository which connects documents and 

data across platforms, creating a single 

source of truth that allows reviews, 

markups and annotations to be conducted 

centrally, and ensures that documents are 

made available to team members with the 

right permissions, in the right versions and 

just when they need them. 

FULLY DOCUMENTED 

Until recently, Autodesk Docs was a 

standalone CDE or Common Data 

Environment, but it is now included within 

the three principal Autodesk Construction 

Cloud solutions for the construction 

industry. These are BIM Collaborate with its 

Design collaboration, clash detection and 

model coordination tools; Autodesk Takeoff 

for 2D and 3D takeoffs and Scope 

Analysis; and Autodesk Build with its range 

of construction-based tools. It is also 

available with Autodesk's AEC Collection. 

As a cloud-based application it acts as 

the central document storage facility for all 

construction documents and data, and is 

available through an MS Explorer-style 

browser. It also includes complete access 

and permissions control using folder-based 

assignments of permissions based on 

individuals, roles or companies. 

Documents and models are 

automatically assigned versions when they 

are uploaded to the CDE and are available 

for visual comparisons with earlier versions 

of the same document, allowing project 

team members to easily keep track of 

design changes. Documents also include 

full MS Office 365 integration, which allows 

MS Office documents to be checked in and 

out within the browser - similar to the way 

SharePoint works. 

A comprehensive set of customisable 

review and approval workflows enables 

Autodesk Docs users to initiate, audit or 

review documents, locate issues in both 

2D documents and associated 3D models, 

and assign review processes to team 

members. They can also submit 

transmittals and produce reports that 

provide complete audit trails and 

communications history on their 

subsequent completion and/or closure. 

The review process provides additional 

tools for locating issues within a floorplan 

or 3D model. You can effortlessly switch 

views between either or share them on a 

split screen. 

CDE ISO 19650 

To facilitate the sharing of documents and 

models between applications used on a 

typical project, Autodesk Docs supports 

ISO-19650 for construction project 

workflows as the default standard, with its 

naming conventions assigned to individual 

folders within the CDE. 

Additional and customisable attributes can 

be assigned to documents within ISO- 

19650 to define status, revision levels and 

classifications. New files uploaded to the 

CDE are auto-checked against the file 

naming convention, and those that don't 

30 


CASEstudy 

Viewing and measuring an element in a Revit file 

Autodesk Docs approval workflow 

conform are parked in a separate holding 

folder for renaming and assigning manually. 

VIEW FORMATS 

As you would expect from a company that 

has been involved in the CAD industry for 

some time, the list of viewable formats is 

comprehensive and ranges from JPEGs, 

TIFFs, PNGs and DWGs and IFCs. Any 

information in any of these files can be 

viewed in both 2D or 3D formats. RVT files, 

for example, can be viewed in 2D plan 

format or as a 3D model. IFCs and one or 

two other files are only viewable in a single 

native format. The CDE also includes 

common video formats including MP4, and 

standard Office 365 documents: Docs, XLS 

and PDFs. 

PROCESSES AND WORKFLOWS 

Autodesk Docs gives all users the ability to 

navigate and share all pages and views of 

documents, markups and comparison 

tools - providing they have been invited 

onto the team as an individual, company or 

role-based member via Folder Permissions. 

It's a straightforward process which allows 

architects and engineers, as Initiators, to 

define who will have access to the various 

documents they are about to upload so 

that they can be reviewed and approved. 

Reviews are conducted by Auditors who 

check the documents and add comments 

and markups. Annotated documents used 

to be sent by email to team members who 

needed to respond and take action on the 

markups, but this is a disruptive process 

that wastes time and is open to 

misinterpretation. The first reviewer is 

invited on board by email, but the review 

process itself is contained with the 

document, as Autodesk Docs displays a 

list of team members alongside the 

document and allows tasks to be 

assigned to them, invites them to 

comment, and directly associates them 

with the document. 

This provides a complete audit of all 

actions and responses for each review, and 

which is available to the Approver, who 

checks everything and selects the 

appropriate approval status. Approval 

processes can be configured to suit the 

complexity of a document, allowing reviews 

to be conducted in just one step, or 

ensuring that numerous reviewers have to 

check a document before it is approved. 

Once a review is completed it is attached to 

the CDE as a PDF. 

REVIEWING REVIT FILES 

You can open Office 365 files directly within 

Autodesk Docs, but you can also open up 

Revit models including element properties. 

Once opened you can inspect a Revit 

model in detail, either by slicing it in any 

direction, or by using the visibility settings to 

hide elements such as ceilings to see 

what's underneath. You can also apply 

measurement tools to define the height or 

width of an object. 

You also have access to the 2D version of 

the Revit model, and can switch between 

the element you have isolated within the 

model directly to the same point in the 

floorplan, and vice versa. The process uses 

a handy icon that allows you to navigate 

around the floorplan, but also indicates 

which direction you would like to be looking 

in when you switch back to the 3D model. 

Displaying both views side-by-side and 

opening up a dialogue with review 

members allows detailed examinations of 

each issue to be made. For greater 

elucidation other evidence, such as photos 

and associated documents, can be added 

to the review. 

Updated and approved documents are 

stored with the latest revision numbers. 

Both the 3D Revit model and 2D floorplans 

can be used to display what has been 

changed between one revision level and 

the next. This is accomplished quickly and 

easily by Version Compare. After indicating 

which file versions need to be checked, the 

results are displayed and colour-coded in 

the model itself or in the floorplans. Green, 

for instance, indicates the changes to the 

red original. Yellow coding in the model 

shows which elements have been affected 

by the changes, and each of these can be 

clicked on to provide further information on 

associated activity. 

A SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH 

Autodesk Docs eliminates duplication, 

misinterpretation, errors, time-wasting and 

breakdowns in communication. It allows 

regulated workflows and processes to be 

defined and ensures that project members 

are provided with the documents and 

information only they need, and only when 

they need it. 

It is also the single source of truth on a 

project - the Common Data Environment 

that keeps a complete record of 

documents and information about the 

project and a record of the activity of 

project members with regard to that 

information - available for inspection for any 

subsequent purpose, from asset 

management to litigation. 

www.autodesk.com 


YOUR GUIDE TO 

5 

7 

2 

4 1 3 

21 

22 

23 

24 20 25 26 

27 

29 

SCOTLAND 

FIFE 1 

GlenCo Development 

Solutions 

Contact: Jack Meldrum 

Tel: 01592 223330 

Fax: 01592 223301 

jackm@glenco.org 

www.glenco.org 

ACMK 

ABERDEENSHIRE 2 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 

info@symetri.co.uk 

www.symetri.co.uk 

ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX 

ABERDEEN 3 

LARBERT 4 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01324-550760 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

ACELHO 

30 28 

19 

10/18 

15 11/16 

6 

13 

17 

8 

12/14 

*Location guide 

not 100% accurate 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01224 223321 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

ACELHO 

IRELAND 

DUBLIN 5 

Paradigm Technology Ltd 

Contact: Des McGrane 

Tel: +353-1-2960155 

Fax: +353-1-2960080 

dmcgrane@paradigm.ie 

www.paradign.it 

ACMGKL 

SOUTHWEST 

NEWBURY 6 

RWTC Ltd 

Contact: Richard Willis 

Tel: 01488 689005 

Fax: 01635 32718 

richard@rwtc.co.uk 

www.rwtc.co.uk 

A M 

N.I 

BELFAST 7 

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 

ACDEGKL 

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: 

AUTIDESK 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 8 

Blue Graphics Ltd 

Contact: Matt Allen 

Tel: 01483 467 200 

Fax: 01483 467 201 

matta@bluegfx.com 

www.bluegfx.com 

ADRK 

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 10 

Causeway 

Technologies Ltd 

Contact: Sue Farnfield 

Tel: +44 (0)1628 552134 

Sue.Farnfield@causeway.com 

www.causeway.com 

A C D E K 

BERKSHIRE 11 

Cadpoint 

Contact: Clare Keston 

Tel: 01344 751300 

Fax: 01344 779700 

sales@cadpoint.co.uk 

www.cadpoint.co.uk 

A C D E K 

ENFIELD 12 

TRAINING 

BERKSHIRE 16 

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 17 

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 18 

Graitec - Milton Keynes 

Contact: David Huke 

Tel: 01908 410026 

david.huke@graitec.co.uk 

www.graitec.co.uk 


CAMBRIDGE 19 

THE NORTH 

MANCHESTER 20 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




NEWCASTLE 21 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




YORKSHIRE 22 

Graitec Bradford 

Contact: Isobel Gillon 

Tel: 01274 532919 

training@graitec.co.uk 



NORTH EAST 23 

Graitec - Durham 


Tel: 0191 374 2020 




LANCASHIRE 24 

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 25 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




SOUTH YORKSHIRE 26 

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 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




SOUTHHAMPTON 13 

Riverside House, Brunel Road 

Southampton, Hants. SO40 3WX 


Tel: 02380 868 947 




CENTRAL LONDON 14 

Symetri Ltd. 

Tel: 0345 370 1500 




OXFORDSHIRE 15 

MIDLANDS 

NOTTINGHAM 27 

MicroCAD - Nottingham 


Tel: 0115 969 1114 




NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 28 

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 

CHESHIRE 30 

Excelat CAD Ltd 

Contact: Vaughn Markey 

Tel: 0161 926 3609 

Fax: 0870 051 1537 

Vaughn.markey@ExcelatCAD.com 

www.ExcelatCAD.com 

B N 

BIRMINGHAM 29 

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 

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

SOFTWARE focus 

A boost for BIM 

Graphisoft's BIMx and BIMcloud, enhanced alongside Archicad 25, provide 

the ultimate in 3D model presentation and architectural collaboration tools 

Graphisoft has been a leading light 

in 3D design and BIM software 

since the early years of 3D 

architectural design, and is the developer 

of two very useful applications, BIMx and 

BIMcloud, which provide architects, clients 

and construction sites with advanced tools 

for creating lifelike visualisations and 

walkthroughs, and a collaboration tool for 

sharing building model information on 

projects irrespective of size. 

During the release of Archicad 25, 

Graphisoft released enhancements to 

both BIMx and BIMcloud. BIMcloud now 

offers a 100K file capacity per instance, 

which allows users to host all project files 

in one convenient location, and the BIMx 

viewer is now able to open all 2D and 3D 

files available on BIMcloud. 

BIMX HYPER-MODELS 

BIMx allows users to explore building 

models and gain visual impressions of 

how a building works. It enables architects 

and designers to create BIMx Hypermodels 

(format .bimx) which contain the 

full documentation of an ARCHICAD 

project: the 3D model plus views, layouts 

and camera paths. Users can therefore 

navigate through a BIMx model using 

game-like navigation tools, create cutthroughs 

in real-time, or use features like 

Smart Measure, a context measuring tool 

for taking precise measurements from 

both 2D plans and 3D models, or add 

comments and markups. 

To get the best performance out of a 

BIMx Hyper-model, you can optimise it 

using the Publisher Set in Archicad, 

defining the group of sheets or views you 

want to publish and the configuration for 

exporting them. You can also manually 

optimise the model to limit its size 

(important depending on the capacity of 

the mobile device to be used for viewing 

the BIMx Hyper-model), and use the 

Publisher's Organiser mode to choose 

specific items from the Publisher Set to be 

published with the Hyper-model. 

If you are not familiar with Publisher, 

however, you can create a more standard 

Hyper-model using the BIMx Hyper-model 

Wizard. The BIMx Hyper-Model Wizard is 

launched using the Publish BIMx Hyper- 

Model command which configures a 

Hyper-model Publisher Set in a few easy 

steps. This also includes a built-in option 

for optimising the model size for better 

viewing performance on mobile devices. 

When you use the Hyper-model with the 

wizard, you can't customise individual 

layouts - commands only include All 

Layouts, No Layouts, or a single Layout 

Subset. When you become more confident 

using the software however you can edit 

the Publisher Set content using the 

Publisher's Organiser mode, or you can 

use the wizard to republish an existing 

Hyper-model Publisher Set. 

BIMx was already available for iOS 

mobile devices but is now also available 

on Android, along with a new 3D engine. 

This enables Android users to access 

BIMx Hyper-model elements, and to play 

animated client presentations in BIMx 

Presenter mode - providing a useful 

method of showing models to clients on 

the fly without having to set up dedicated 

workstations. The quality of the 

presentations have also been improved 

with the use of real-time global illumination 

calculations for photorealistic views. 

BIMCLOUD 

BIMcloud provides project teams with 

collaboration tools that enables them to 

share information on projects of any size 

and complexity, in any location, regardless 

of the speed of Internet connections. It can 

be made available on private or public 

cloud configurations enabling even small 

teams to share project information on a 

secure platform in real-time. 

When implementing BIM on a large 

scale, architects can run into bottlenecks 

in model accessibility and workflow 

management. Graphisoft's BIMcloud is a 

pioneering solution for model-based team 

collaboration using Delta Server 

technology, which reduces network traffic 

to a minimum, enabling instant and 

reliable data-exchange both within the 

office and over the Internet. With 

Graphisoft's Teamwork, team members 

can collaborate in real-time on BIM models 

through standard Internet connections 

from virtually anywhere in the world. 

The recent memory size announcements 

enable BIMcloud backups to be sped up, 

storage space requirements to be reduced 

and daily project management tasks to be 

generally improved. For user accessibility, 

BIMcloud has a BIMx web viewer built in, 

enabling users to visualise BIMx Hypermodels 

on the fly using a simple web 

browser, and without having to install apps 

on mobile devices. 

In effect, users can host private BIMx 

Hyper-models on their own BIMclouds 

retaining the same sharing benefits that 

the Graphisoft hosted BIMx Transfer site 

would provide, giving them the means to 

control their own secure storage space. 

Subscription-based BIMx Pro adds a few 

more features to the application, such as 

the ability to open 3D models of any size 

and complexity and save both 2D and 3D 

project views for opening in client 

demonstrations, and to create BIMx 

presentations using a combination of 

animated sequences and still views, or to 

print copies of any 2D and 3D project view. 

BIMcloud can disperse projects along 

multiple BIMcloud servers while using a 

single-entry point for the whole system. 

BIMcloud also serves as a totally open 

BIM-based platform, supporting formats 

like IFC, BCF, PDF and others, and acts as 

a common ground for various 

collaboration tools. 

www.graphisoft.com/uk 

34 


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