Next Evolution of BIM: Open Collaborative Design Across the Board

§ July 1st, 2010 § Filed under Viewpoints § 5 Comments

In this Viewpoint article, Viktor Várkonyi, CEO of Graphisoft, discusses the implementation of “open” design collaboration workflows, which are in the best interest of all parties involved in an AEC project, given the plurality of their design tools and processes. He explores how BIM can bring the benefits that have been achieved by the individual design disciplines to interdisciplinary design collaboration as well, by providing a new level of transparency and integration of design processes for building projects of any type or size.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2010/issue_53.html

AIA 2010 Virtual Convention and Expo

§ June 24th, 2010 § Filed under Newsletters and Features § No Comments

This article captures the highlights of the wide range of technology solutions exhibited at the recently held AIA National Convention and Expo from vendors such as Autodesk, Bentley, Graphisoft, Nemetschek North America, IES, Trelligence, AutoDesSys, and Z Corporation, as well as some new technology initiatives from the AIA. It also describes my experience as a virtual attendee at the event, as I was not able to attend in person this year. 

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2010/issue_45.html

Cadac Organice Explorer 2010

§ June 10th, 2010 § Filed under Product Reviews § No Comments

This review explores the capabilities of Cadac Organice Explorer, the central application of the Cadac Organice suite of solutions for engineering document management, document control, and project collaboration that is entirely based on Microsoft SharePoint. In addition to providing a much better user interface and experience than SharePoint itself, Organice Explorer integrates with key applications used in everyday AEC practice including Microsoft Office, Outlook, AutoCAD, MicroStation, BricsCad, and Revit.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/CadacOrganiceExplorer2010.html

Newforma Project Center Seventh Edition

§ June 3rd, 2010 § Filed under Product Reviews § No Comments

This review looks at the new release of Newforma Project Center, a rapidly growing project information management (PIM) and collaboration application targeted towards AEC firms. The Seventh Edition uses a MySQL database for storing Newforma Project Center data, resulting in faster performance, five-fold increase in server capacity, and the ability to access data via standard SQL reporting tools.  Other key improvements include the expansion of email client support beyond Microsoft Outlook, enhanced collaboration through improvements in Info Exchange, and enhancement of contract administration and project administration capabilities.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/NewformaProjectCenter7.html

IDEA (IntelliCAD-Based Architectural BIM)

§ May 20th, 2010 § Filed under Product Reviews § 3 Comments

This review explores the range and capabilities of 4M’s IntelliCAD-based IDEA application for architectural design and looks at how it differs from industry-leading BIM applications. Developed by 4M Solutions, one of the leading members of the ITC (IntelliCAD Technology Consortium), IDEA is part of 4M’s multi-disciplinary suite of BIM applications.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/IDEA.html

Tekla Structures 16

§ May 17th, 2010 § Filed under Product Reviews § 5 Comments

This review looks at enhancements in the new release of Tekla’s BIM application for structural engineering, including new role-based task interfaces for different types of users, a new Mini-toolbar that allows quick editing of element properties and position, easy access to a large amount of learning resources, a new tool to convert IFC objects imported in reference models to native Tekla objects, a  new free Model Reviewer tool for collaborative design review of Tekla models, and many additional improvements in modeling, analysis, drawing, collaboration, and interoperability.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2010/TeklaStructures16.html

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