The CAD Insider

John Hayes Leaves Engineering.com

After leading engineering.com to its present position as the leading publication in the industry (okay, I admit bias), John Hayes, is leaving to join some financial company. Most readers of engineering.com will be surprised to learn that John—while looking, acting, writing and in general behaving like an engineer—studied finance. So, he may be going home to roost, as it were. But during his time here he led an online publication that served over 2 million engineers a month with up-to-date information on a variety of engineering disciplines… and he grew quite enamored with the profession.

On his way out, I asked him what he would miss the most.

John Hayes on his island, somewhere in northern Ontario.

"I'm going to miss having a front row seat on technology," he said, without hesitation. It was from that seat that John and engineering.com interviewed Elon Musk and Bill Nye, who famously taught our then tech editor Shawn Wasserman how to tie a bow tie—a skill he relayed to many a rapt audience.

We, the rest of us on the engineering.com team, wondered what it took for him to guide us, the captain of the ship, past the rocks we would have dashed on, the many attempts at profit, the very expensive videos, the collaborative engineering way ahead of its time, the dozen other uses of a million-dollar domain (yes, that is how much we paid for www.engineering.com).

“Also, I did put a fantastic team together,” he says. Adrian Nash is the ultimate in sales. Jim Anderton is second to none in his knowledge of Manufacturing. And for design, we brought in the biggest name in CAD: Roopinder (the author blushes). Dave Murphy and his Eng-Tips forums is stacked with the highest concentration of engineering expertise on the Internet.

We wish him well. For those who wish to keep up with the indefatigable John Hayes, you can do so on his LinkedIn page.

Microdesk Is in Your Future with AEC, Civil Engineering Services

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University 2014) — Microdesk has been busy exploring how it can be of help to architects and civil engineers now and in the future.

Traditionally an Autodesk reseller with roots in the Boston area, Microdesk has grown to offices nationwide and plans its own future as a supplier of services. It is positioning itself as an enabler of some of the most advanced technology available — from Autodesk and others.

Microdesk will flies a camera-equipped UAV to create a 3D model of a building complex

Part of it is survival. Microdesk sees the writing on the wall. Software is going to the cloud. It was a theme hammered home at Autodesk University, as Autodesk speaker after speaker spoke of online applications, such as Autodesk's 360 series. I am hard pressed to remember mention of the software suites, those with Revit for AEC and Inventor for product design, that have long been the revenue mainstay of Autodesk resellers. More and more, vendors are selling directly to end users. Resellers are getting cut out of the picture.

With licensing revenue diminishing, Microdesk is banking on the need for its services. Microdesk offers services for a firm's current needs. It recently helped staff up for a large project in New York, putting a dozen Revit-trained operators immediately at the service of a firm that had no time to recruit and train on its own. It is also investing in the technologies that may have the greatest payoffs — technologies such as virtual reality, 3D scanning, aerial photography and photogrammetry.

Microdesk is an established provider of cutting-edge, large-scale model creation. Able to fly UAVs (drones) with cameras, it can quickly and cheaply (compared to old-school LIDAR scans from piloted aircraft) create the contextual model for your next office building.

Microdesk showing Oculus Rift VR at Autodesk University. While TenLinks' Kristin Halligan may be batting balls in the air at the moment, she was looking at a building site a moment ago. Really.

At Autodesk University, Microdesk was showing the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Put it on and see yourself immersed in a Revit model. You thought it was just for gamers, but Microdesk has made it useful for professionals. You can see a design come to life, see what is overhead, see sight lines, see what a building might look like as you walk up to it, walk inside, look up to see the skylights . . . you won't want to take it off and face that you had been living a lie, fooling yourself into thinking you were working in 3D. What were you thinking . . . how can a 2D monitor even pretend to show 3D?

Laura Guzman, COO of Microdesk, admits virtual reality may be a bit ahead of the game for most architects, but she's smart enough to show it as proof that Microdesk is established in future technology and will be there for them when they are ready.

For more information

• See Microdesk website www.microdesk.com
• Microdesk Shows 3D AEC, BIM Scanning Service at New San Francisco Office - The CAD Insider, Oct 2, 2014

 

Eagle Point Online Training for Civil Engineers

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University 2014) – Eagle Point was on hand once again to demonstrate their Pinnacle software.

Eagle Point had its beginnings in civil engineering. Its first product was RoadCalc for surveyors and engineers. Led by President and CEO John Biver, a degreed civil engineer, Eagle Point now concentrates on educating users on Autodesk products. It still holds live classes, but usually promotes its Pinnacle series, which for $750* gives a user access to all of their training material for their industry (civil, architecture structural and MEP). Eagle Point is eager to be viewed as process-oriented as it expands beyond mere CAD and into the business of the enterprise. This echoes similar intentions heard from a few CAD companies, from big ones like Dassault and those as small as IronCAD.

Eagle Point’s tutorials appear extensive on the software it covers. The Pinnacle Series Personal Edition lists over 150 tutorials, live online instructor-led classes and “cheat sheets” with shortcuts. You also get unlimited access to live support with phone, chat and email — which may be unique among training vendors.

Eagle Point tutorials run on iOS and Android devices. Eagle Point counts Jacobs, Siemens and HOK as customers.

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*Personal edition, according to website: 

More information

http://www.eaglepoint.com/

Review of Eagle Point’s Pinnacle Training and Support System, John Evans, CADdigest.com, February 28, 2014

NearMAP Tracks Changes to a Construction Site

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University 2014 - Civil engineers and architects often require quick access to site images to track changes on a site or to see how a site has changed over time. A service called NearMap is coming to the United States from Australia to provide such a service.

NearMAP collects aerial and digital elevation models (DEM) of the United States. It does this by periodically flying planes that capture data. This data is then processed and made available either through a browser or through a GIS connection utilizing WMS (Web Map Service) to its subscribers. The browser access provides tools to measure, profile, and explore your site. The service even allows you to compare two different dates. The terrain is also shown in the view. The imagery may be downloaded from the site either by selecting the entire screen or a portion of it. In addition, basic site tools may be utilized to help plan a site and convey the preliminary design intent. DEM data is also purported to be available, but I couldn’t find a way to download the information. The site utilizes the Google Maps technology so most of the user interface to find your location is logical to use and shows the roads in and around the area of your project.

More Information

• http://us.nearmap.com
• TenLinks Best of Show - criteria, nominate your product, apply to be judge

Christopher Fugitt is a civil engineer who has worked in both design and construction. He is the owner and blogger at Civil 3D Reminders and currently provides civil engineering related services through his company, Civil Reminders. More…

Autodesk BIM 360 Layout App Coordinates Laying Out and Staking Points

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University 2014) - Autodesk's BIM 360 Layout app for the iPad with connection to the BIM 360 Glue web service challenges modern layout practices being utilized by contractors today. As most layout processes have connections to 3D models on larger construction projects, rigor can now be placed on managing and leveraging the up-to-date, coordinated information by the entire project team for construction layout. BIM 360 Layout removes common data exchange barriers and provides a seamless connection between the real-time coordinated model and the process of laying out and staking points in the field.

 

Here’s how the process works. First, the design model (AutoCAD, Revit, or Navisworks), with field points created in the Autodesk Point Layout plug-in, are imported into the BIM 360 Glue web service. Then, point sets can be shared to project field crew(s) via an email link. When the link is opened on an iPad, the BIM 360 Layout app is launched with the assigned point sets ready to be laid out. Once the field points have been staked and verified, or new points are collected (all of which can be done while working offline), the field crew can sync the information back to the BIM 360 Glue web service once connected to the internet. The collected points can then be imported from BIM 360 Glue to Autodesk Revit via the Autodesk Point Layout plug-in. Within Revit, a deviation analysis can be performed to assess if completed work by an MEP contractor is within the appropriate tolerance and not in conflict with components in the building model.

Nominated for TenLinks Autodesk 2014 Best of Show by:

John Foster has over 20 years experience in CAD and data management ranging from software development through consulting to business development and sales. He currently develops strategy at Topcon BIM for Europe. More…

More Information

• BIM360 Glue - product information about Glue, including BIM 360 Layout app
• TenLinks Best of Show - criteria, nominate your product, apply to be  judge

Keynetix HoleBASE SI Manages Geotechnical Data

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University 2014 - The collection and reporting of geotechnical data in the United States is sometimes an archaic process utilizing old technology and the recreation of data. Keynetix HoleBASE SI helps drag the process into the modern age. With the utilization of a database system the program helps collect historical data from past projects and utilize current field data. The program allows for the import and export of information from a variety of sources. The data is presented into borehole logs, quick sections, charts, and graphics to convey the geotechnical information.

In addition, the software provides what appears to be an easy-to-use extension to AutoCAD Civil 3D. This extension allows the user to create surfaces based on borehole data. The extension then creates Civil 3D surfaces to assist in the analysis of data to determine where geotechnical issues, such as the location of peat, soft areas, or other concerns, may occur. The Civil 3D surfaces then may be used to determine an estimated quantity of soil remediation required. The Civil 3D link to the data is integrated dynamically. Changes to the information in HoleBASE are reflected in Civil 3D after a refresh.

One big selling point for geotechnical engineers participating in the design-build process with contractors is the ability to data mine existing data in the system. The product does this by storing the data in a Microsoft SQL database. This data may be utilized to estimate existing soil conditions at or near a proposed site to provide the contractor with a better guess at what soil conditions are present when a preliminary geotechnical report has not been done. The data may also be used to determine the cost-effective location to place a building to avoid adverse soil conditions that may require expensive soil remediation or foundation systems.

More Information

• HoleBASE SI Overview - product information, by Keynetix
• TenLinks Best of Show - criteria, nominate your product, apply to be judge

Nominated for TenLinks Autodesk 2014 Best of Show by:

Christopher Fugitt is a civil engineer who has worked in both design and construction. He is the owner and blogger at Civil 3D Reminders and currently provides civil engineering related services through his company, Civil Reminders. More…

 

SITEOPS for Civil Engineering Will Beat the Best Site Planners

LONDON, UK (Bentley Year in Infrastructure 2014) - So magical did SITEOPS appear on the main stage in London that I had to ask for a closer look. Greg Bentley, CEO, was moving a building footprint around a parking lot. Parking spaces were fluidly disappearing and reappearing, as if by magic. Entire rows would be redrawn. Automatically, and in real time -- or so it seemed --with the parking lot virtually healing and rebuilding. Then there was the claim that SITEOPS could best human beings at design. Let your best civil engineer lay out a building site and then let SITEOPS have a shot. No matter how good your engineer is, SITEOPS would still save an additional $15,000 per acre.

 

Mike Detwiler, cofounder of SITEOPS, which is now part of Bentley, was kind enough to provide some insight and explanation. Not only did he show me the $15,000 saved per acre (it was a Lowes site) but said in some cases, the savings were even greater. But could SITEOPS lose to a human? Like IBM was beat by Kasparov? Mike had never seen it. It always saved money. It ran multiple, sometimes a thousand cases, varying grades, cut and fills, trading off one parameter for another. Humans can't do that. The best site planner will run a few and quit. What are the chances he will find the optimized solution?

SITEOPS runs on something like a thin-client on the desktop, doing its calculations on SITEOPSservers in the cloud. Amazon provides the cloud service at the moment, but SITEOPS will probably move to Microsoft Azure servers, in line with Bentley's other operations.

Where had SITEOPS been that I could have missed it? In the past few years, the company had been branding itself after its product name. The company name, BLUERIDGE Analytics was too often confused the CFD company, Blue Ridge Numerics that Autodesk bought. I had not seen anything like SITEOPS and wondered out loud if I had missed a whole class of AEC optimizing products. Nope, says Mike. We have nine patents. SITEOPS has PhDs who have developed cutting edge optimization routines and put them to work. "You'll not see anything like SITEOPS anywhere," he seemed to be saying. "We own the technology."

Napkin to Dozer

Maybe I am too easily impressed, but SITEOPS works like software at its best: smartly taking the drudgery out of a job, replacing repetitive tasks. Now witht the addition of Bentley's portfolio of products, SITEOPS has the possibility of shortcutting processes, ideally going from a concept to breaking ground, which Mike refers to as "napkin to dozer."

So what price all this magic? SITEOPS is reluctant to give prices, as pricing is being overhauled with the acquisition. SITEOPS technology will be used in Bentley products and will also be sold as a standalone.

What of the Partners?

SITEOPS users export designs to a variety of 3rd-party CAD software for detailed documentation. In fact, there is still more mention of DWG (AutoCAD drawing format) support in some of the old company marketing literature than there is DGN (MicroStation format). Mike promises that SITEOPS will stay "CAD-agnostic" even as it is now housed in Bentley, and that current and future customers -- even those outside Bentley's world -- will not be stranded.

For more information

SITEOPS website

Trimble Highlights Architecture, Civil, Construction Applications, More at Dimensions 2014

Guest post by Bill Debevc, TenLinks author
Become a TenLinks author. Get coverage for your product, service, technology or event. 

LAS VEGAS, NV - I had the privilege to attending Trimble Dimensions 2014 in Las Vegas this year, this was my first year attending the conference and I was amazed at the size and scope of the conference. I was even more amazed of the number of products Trimble has in its portfolio. I knew Trimble as GPS and surveying equipment company, but they are much more than that. They have products for civil engineering and survey, construction, transportation, agriculture, as well as architecture and building.

CEO Steve Berglund Kicks Off

The Keynote started with Steve Berglund, CEO and President welcoming over 4,000 Trimbleites to the conference and giving a brief state of the union address. He talked about the growth of the company and where the company is headed. It seems that Trimble as been doing great things for quite some time in fact he stated that “The Internet of things and big data, both of which they invented but forgot to name.” He also talked about how Trimble is concentrating on three core technologies: measurement, connectivity and information. Together these three technologies makeup the “Connected Site.” “Connecting” seemed to be the theme of the conference. I learned in a later session that connecting and collaboration was a topic brought up by several clients at the last conference, that just goes to show that Trimble pays attention.

Down on the Farm

Trimble's Connected Farm (from video on Trimble site)

Next up was Joe Denniston, Vice President Agriculture. He talked about how Trimble was helping farmers maximize their production by utilizing land, water, seed, fertilizers, equipment and labor to their full potential. Using Trimble’s “Connected Farm” a farmer can manage their farm from office to field, they can keep track of water usage and with targeted water and put this precious resource where it’s needed. Using all these tools Trimble helps today’s farmers deliver the food supply the world depends on.

Trimble in Transportation

Trimble Connected Fleet devices in truck cab (from video on Trimble site)

Transportation was next and Vice President, Ron Konezny took the stage to talk about how Trimble technology is used in transportation to help trucks not only get to their destinations on time, but keep track of their maintenance costs. Trimble “Connected Fleet” technologies are used by the largest trucking companies to not only keep track of their trucks but also monitor the engine and driver performance, using these tools they were able to not only save fuel but save lives in the process.

Geospatial

Erik Arvesen, VP of Geospatial followed up talking about all the advancements that Trimble has made in the Geospatial realm. With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created everyday, Trimble’s technology is helping businesses and governments make the best use of that data. He talked about how one engineering firm in Europe stated that a single job that they recently completed created more data than the previous 20 jobs combined. He stated that the three biggest questions are:

1. Is it accurate?
2. How are we going to use it?
3. Where is it going?

Trimble is helping you answer these questions. For example the new V10 rover allows you to capture images and geo locations data. Those photos and data can then be delivered directly in to Business Center, and more impressively in to SketchUp Pro 2015 to merge photos from the site with the 3D model.

Civil Engineering and Construction

Roz Ruick, VP Heavy Civil Construction then talked about how “construction is chaos.” 80% of projects are late or over budget. She also talked about how existing technologies are disconnected and that Trimble is concentrating on the "Constructible Model.” Its not enough to have a model, you need to have a model you take to the field, but more importantly take the data from the field back to the model. With “Connected Site” Trimble hopes to transform how the world constructs by bringing order to the chaos.

Buildings Late and Over Budget

Rob Painter General Manager of Building, finished by stating that the building is a 3.5 trillion dollar business. Most projects are over budget and late, there are too many problems that are discovered too late, and with Trimble technology you can discover these issues earlier when something can be done to fix it. He talked about Trimble Connect and Field Link and how these two products can help. Trimble Connect is a online collaboration and sharing service that is product agnostic. Using technology acquired by Gehry Technologies, Trimble Connect allows the project stakeholders view, share and collaborate with data from different sources from different vendors. Field Link is a suite of hardware and software that allows the contractor to accurately layout critical points in the construction project. Then after the parts are in place you can easily recapture those critical points and bring them back in to the model for verification.

Blue Angels Inspire

The keynote finished up with a inspirational talk by the Blue Angel's Greg Wooldridge. Greg talked about what it took to be the best of the best and the kind of talent it takes to fly and lead the Blue Angels. It takes an incredible amount of focus and precision to lead and they risk their lives every time they execute a maneuver. Greg did a great job bridging the concepts he has learned leading the Blue Angles to what we all do every day, and that we need to strive to the be in the top .01% in everything we do.

Conclusion

Overall, I was impressed and glad I attended the conference. The take always I learned were: • Trimble is more than just a GPS company, they create a suite of hardware and software products, combined to create a total solution.

• Networking with your peers is invaluable as you can get information that isn’t shared in the sessions, like it blows up if you do this or if you do this its really cool.
• Trimble is becoming a real player in the industry, with over 20 products in the building segment alone.
• Trimble Connect is going to change the way we all communicate on the project. Even as a version 1 for Trimble, it has a set of powerful features but has a simple to use interface. 

See Also

• Trimble Dimensions 2014, Day 1 - video by Trimble

About the Author

Bill Debevc is an expert in Autodesk software and IT, currently specializing in private BIM cloud technologies. He has over 24 years of experience using, supporting, and customizing Autodesk AutoCAD and Revit software. As a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), he uses his extensive IT experience to implement industry leading IT solutions for the AEC industry. Recently, as the Technical Manager for USCAD, Bill now shares his knowledge about private BIM Clouds to help the AEC industry reduce costs, increase productivity, and allow production teams work productively from anywhere on any device. You can find Bill at Bim9.com.

Bentley Does Point Clouds

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - and Bentley was on hand at SPAR, the annual gathering for the 3D scanning industry, to remind attendees that its applications that have been helping with 3D scanning and point clouds for years. 

It as at SPAR Europe late in 2011 that Bentley announced it had bought PointTools for its Vortex point cloud engine. The idea was to make point clouds more usable -- which was not the case previously given the massive amount of data and file sizes of infrastructure scans.

"A point cloud file can be 50 to 60 billion points," says Ron Gant, head of marketing for Bentley's civil engineering line. "We've integrated PointTools into all Bentley applications now and can handle very large datasets."

Kurt Rasmussen, AE for Bentley, shows customer point cloud processing with Descartes.

Still, what good is a point cloud if you can't make any sense out of it? 3D laser scans produce x, y, z data that used to be displayed as white points on the screen. Get into the middle of that and it can look like outer space amidst the stars. And you are lost. It has been helpful that most scans nowadays use a camera in conjunction with the laser to capture a color value for each point. With the addition of color, the scan starts approaching what the eye would see and the universe starts looking a lot more orderly. 

But you still have points.

What CAD users need are objects. The pipe that was scanned with a laser is represented as a million points. You can't move the pipe by picking it and dragging it. You can't use it for interference checking. Enter Bentley's Descartes, which can use the points to make CAD geometry.

It's not magic. Don't expect Descartes to sort out the point cloud on its own. A skilled human operator still needs to be in the process.

Kurt Rasmussen, application engineer for Bentley, who shows me Descartes, prefers a step by step approach. He guides Descartes through a colorized point cloud model of the inside of a process plant, letting the software create a pipe here, a column there. A useful CAD model emerges piece by piece. Descartes appears quite adept at interpreting close-together points and determining them to be standard structural shapes. Its efficiency is obvious. But Daniel is there to when the points don't tell the real story. For example, when the laser doesn't record a surface from which it is reflected, or where fireproofing material throws off the shape of an I-beam. A chain link fence might confuse the software -- but not Kurt.

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For more information, see Bentley Descartes product page: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/Bentley+Descartes/

ProjectExplorer for Autodesk Civl3D by 3AM

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University) - Bruce Harfield wanted to show me his Project Explorer for Civil 3D, but as luck would have it, his laptop was on the fritz. So I promised to take a look at ProjectExplore on my own after the show. At least it was a chance to meet Bruce, who attained some measure of fame in the Autodesk 3rd party sphere for selling his previous company (Dyanmite VSP) to Autodesk*. And who doesn't like to listen to a British accent?

Bruce, a registered civil engineer in the UK, is back on his own with 3AM but seems to never have strayed from Civil3D and his civil engineering brethren. 3AM, a authorized Autodesk developer, has built what he refers to as the "ultimate Civil 3D companion.

ProjectExplorer may be the best Autodesk plug-in not seen at AU 2013

Built to work alongside an open Civil3D window, ProjectExplore works lik a ttour guide as you drive through your model. It seems to be peeking over your shoulder and offering you details and insight, which may not be apparent to the newcomer. It's as if ProjectExplorer has lived in your model since it was made, but really it establishes a live link with the model and is able to generate reports and views in real time. Views include alignment profiles, sample lines, assemblies and pipe networks.

Or so it would seem from the literature on the website. I will await a closer look as soon as Mr Harfield gets his computer straightened out. And as soon as it becomes available. PE says it will be "available soon" and you must contact 3AM to get the price. Don't you wish companies didn't do that?

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* Autodesk Acquires Dynamite VSP and Dynamite SIM Visualization, Jan 2010.  Autodesk renamed the product Autodesk Civil View.