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Model in your hands
One of the projects being delivered by Arup has made use of QR codes on their design drawings to bring them to life.
You can scan the code on the drawing set with your phone camera and get automatically re-directed to a snapshot of the BIM 3D model. You can then ‘look around’ using the motion sensors in the smartphone. An example is here.
Anyone with the design drawing and a smart phone has access. Great for coordinating with a sub-contractor on site without having to be in an office with access to the software and model files.
Has anyone else spotted any novel uses of BIM/3D models?
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That sounds like a good way to bring drawings to life that should be useful on site. At SRM we were rolling out a piece of tablet software that was predominantly for reporting snagging, faults, H&S notices and so on but had a really helpful drawing interface. By dropping a pin on a GA drawing of the site you could sort of ‘street view’ yourself into the 3D model and link into the more detailed steel and concrete drawings for the area you were in. That worked well for a number of things.
Another interesting development I overheard at the old water cooler is a Keltbray site trial for Microsoft’s Hololens. These are marketed as the next generation of ‘mixed-reality’ headsets that I imagine most people have seen/played with now. The part that piqued my interest however is that the US Army has apparently ordered $500M worth of a slightly modified HoloLens 2 (about 140,000 units), to the extent that they have cornered Microsoft’s production line for years. MS have had to open a second factory to build HoloLens for civilian use. Have any of the US guys seen this in action yet? Are they applying it to construction or first person shooter training serials?
Dave,
We had the same QR codes on the Batemans Bay bridge drawings. The designer had produced 3D models of the reinforcement drawings so when you scanned the code with your phone or tablet or copied the url into your computer browser you could open the latest model. In the model you could navigate around, change the view to different cuts as required and show/hide detail at will. This would have been an amazing aid to the site team had the designer not totally messed up their model – we had instances of the reinforcement bars sitting outside the bridge segments. I think this technology will quickly become the norm once BIM issues and model QA processes are resolved.
Tom,
SMEC are conducting a number of trials with technology companies and are seeking to exploit immersive technology to give them a cutting edge over their competitors. Day to day this means about 10% of the floor space is dedicated to computer programmers. Current innovations include an arcade-style car video game set up so Clients can drive around new road alignments and VR goggles so designs can be demonstrated visually in 3D to the clients although my understanding is that the technology is a step beyond VR and includes augmented reality so the VR model includes additional information.
Nice blog……you probably know that the course is moving fairly rapidly in the area of modelling and associated information management
So much so that we’re going to put an opening salvo into the Engineering Design (Intro) module.
So I’m on the hunt for a number of you to give the next course some of your experience in relation to modelling and the information management that goes with it in practice…….expect an e-mail form myself or Richard Mr Snook!
There is no doubt that the future in leading in construction belongs to the master of the model, be that engineer or handed over to construction mangers or technicians. Models can be created directly from REVIT which we are introducing early on the next PET course although apparently only the PET(C) side require any real ability so it will remain at awareness for E&M – discuss!
There is an area on the ELE dedicated to models called Visualisations, which would benefit from a few more sophisticated examples if you get a chance. Take a look and you’ll see what I mean.
I would also note that I reviewed a candidate for professional membership two years ago who was using VR on site to train TWC in the office directly prior to their daily checks.
BP is making a lot of use of models. Through the original 3D models of the platforms, they then have a plan to deliver a more regular campaign of taking point cloud data. The two can then be overlaid to make comparisons. Also, with the tight constraints in accommodation offshore there is a move to minimise the requirement for physical surveys thereby reducing costs and space needed in the offshore schedule.
The key issue for them is maintaining the currency of the data due to the number of minor and major changes which occur on a regular basis through maintenance and upgrading. So there continues to be a need for confirming any assumptions or designs offshore. It does, however, enable projects to order materials in rough quantities (lengths of pipes) whilst the surveys are ongoing and reduces the length of survey required. This can increase float in a schedule and, so often is the needed, allow the pace of projects to be increased.