Technology Aiding A/E/C Firms

Innovative Products Designed to Provide Greater Productivity

Companies depend on technological advances for greater accuracy, more precision, and to increase the amount of work employees can do in a given day.

by Brad Fullmer

Technology continues to drive changes within the A/E/C industry, and some of the latest and greatest products in today’s hectic construction climate are making life a little easier for firms who utilize them to maximum efficiency.

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From robotic total stations, to electronic notebooks, to state-of-the-art scanning machines, there seems to be no limit to how technology is aiding the design and construction of buildings and highways.

Intermountain Contractor recently looked at five revolutionary products and how they’re being utilized by end users.

Trimble SPS700

Surveyors and construction workers staking out a project site can effectively work as a one-man gang with the Trimble SPS700 Site Positioning System – also referred to as a robotic total station – which is designed to provide contractors with a state-of-the-art construction positioning solution.

This new total station incorporates advanced hardware features that are designed to make it the most up-to-date, fastest, integrated cable-free instrument on the market, with features that provide quicker locks to targets, increased security, reduced errors, and long-range reflector-less measurement of stockpiles, rock faces, cuttings, embankments, hard-to-reach and/or dangerous locations.

“This technology allows companies to send one man to the job-site, rather than crews of two or even three guys,” says Richard Monsen of Salt Lake City-headquartered Monsen Engineering, distributor of the SPS700. “It makes their jobs a lot easier and they save a lot of money long-term in terms of man-hours. It’s also accurate to within a gnat’s eyelash.”

“The thing I like the most about it is its accuracy, and it’s real user-friendly,” says Brigg Rasmussen, an assistant project superintendent for Okland Construction of Salt Lake City. “The prism-less target shooting is essential – it has a scan with a prism-less target that is very beneficial. From layout to staking, it’ll do whatever you want it to.”

Rasmussen says the machine is much faster than any other robotic total station he’s ever seen and has been effective in helping with the demolition of the old Crossroads Mall in downtown Salt Lake as part of the City Creek Center project.

“I’ve had really good results with it,” adds John Bain, a project manager for Spindler Construction of Logan, Utah. “It allows one person to do the job of two or three people – that’s the big selling point. It’s been a huge benefit to our company.”

Bain says his company did a cost analysis before spending the approximately $36,000 and figured it would pay for itself quickly with reduced labor costs per project.
“I don’t have it worked into man hours, but it pays for itself in 700 stakes,” says Bain.

“We realize what we spend now for site layout and staking and compared those costs with labor. There is a steep learning curve, but it’s all basic.”

The SPS700 system includes a new total station, two new GPS receivers, and construction-centric software for heavy and highway construction applications.

The SPS700 is designed to provide the contractor with the tools for tracking, reporting, validating and controlling workflows from the receipt of initial designs to the completion of as-built measurements on a jobsite. Specifically, the system is engineered to deliver day-to-day functionality such as on-site surface modeling, volume computations, rapid site measurement from vehicles and trucks, real time stakeout with cut and fill checks anywhere on the jobsite, and the ability to validate, check and distribute data to machines on the jobsite.
For more information, visit www.trimble.com.

Field2Base

Field2Base provides software products designed specifically for use on Tablet PCs, which is intended to save field workers time reviewing projects and making notes on work happening on the job site.

Field2Base leverages wireless communications, digital photography, and the Tablet PC to provide an overall mobile workforce solution for field professionals. As such, the software is designed as a field communications tool, not a specific application designed to meet a specific need. The product’s software focuses on ease of use and managed communications that shield the user from wireless data interruptions.

“It allows our guys to go out into the field and take pictures on site, draw on it, make notes, and email it back to the engineer or client,” says Fred Moss, manager for Dominion Engineers of Salt Lake City. “It allows you to document problems.”

Moss says being able to document precise information on a job site and put it right into electronic form saves the end user from having to type in field notes from a piece of paper.

“People are always forgetting what they agreed to, so the documentation part is nice,” adds Moss. “All you have to do is prevent one error, and you’ve paid for it.”

Field2Base offers two software packages for owners of Tablet PC’s, a basic version that starts at $499, and full-blown packages that are priced accordingly, according to Matt Dalton of Certified Reprographics of Salt Lake City.

“It can either benefit as a communication device or it can benefit them as a documentation device,” says Dalton. “Where a firm benefits is if they use it as documentation, they can document everything in the field with photos, write ups, sketches, notes and not have to come back to the office and download a camera and put in notes. When they do it in the field, they’re done. They don’t have to come back to the office and re-do what they’ve already done.”

“Our field guys use it and it frees them up quite a bit to spend more time in the field and less time in the office,” adds Greg Scothern, project manager for Bowman and Kemp of Ogden, a light-to-medium structural steel fabrication firm. “It saves time. Guys are out on the road all day and they can communicate immediately with people in the office. They take a photo, put a few notes on it, and send it to one of our detailers. It’s a great way to document things.”

“The biggest area where you deliver on the ROI (return on investment) is automation of field paper,” adds Moss. “Any piece of paper you fill out in hard copy – change orders, field purchase order, daily log, etc. – if you can fill those out electronically with digital pen and can wirelessly send it from job site and integrate it into your office systems, you can generate a large ROI.”

Core Features of the Field2Base application include:

• Document annotation – for markup of any number of documents of various file types including drawings, CAD documents, MS Word & Excel files and image files.
  
  
• Sketch functionality – unique sketching tools are available to create hand drawn sketches used to document a variety of issues from the field.
  
• Photo annotation – users can easily take and annotate photos all from within the Field2Base software without any complicated file manipulation or complicated editing software.
  
  
• File Management – field personnel have a digital archive of all communications to or from their Field2Base application.

For more information, visit www.field2base.com.

iBEAM Systems

Imagine a Boise State University student showing students attending schools in different towns, states, or even from other countries live, close-up views of Boise State’s on-campus construction activity.

This marriage of technology and construction is now available for Boise State’s Construction Management program, as part of a joint donation by iBEAM Systems of Boise and Layton Construction of Sandy, Utah of an iBEAM Handheld camera system, one of the newest iBEAM products on the market.

iBEAM cameras give a live, interactive walk-through of a job site to classmates,
instructors and anyone involved in the construction industry.

“We recognize that today’s students entering construction management must be aware and have working knowledge of construction’s ever-changing face of technology,” says Tom Allen president of iBEAM Systems, a commercial architect by trade who founded iBEAM in 2001 to enable construction firms to communicate more efficiently and provide greater service to their clients.

“By donating our technology, we strive to provide the students’ education and application of real job sites while still receiving instruction and feedback in the class room,” says Allen.

The iBEAM Handheld is a portable wireless camera that transmits a live image through the Internet. With the iBEAM Handheld you can have a live interactive walk through of the entire job site without leaving your office. Unlike an ordinary web cam, iBEAM’s Handheld allows an individual on the job site to walk through a project to point out specific items or zero in on areas of concern. Meanwhile, the contractor, architect, subcontractor, supplier or client can watch the live images on a computer screen.

“The future of our industry relies on ensuring today's students are receiving the best education available,” says Jeff Miller of Layton. “We are excited to be involved with Boise State and iBEAM in this venture.”

“We understand construction’s need to quickly obtain quality information,” adds Allen. “With our iBEAM Handheld camera, no longer is it necessary to drive across town or jump in a plane in order to resolve a problem. By providing the Handheld camera, we want to show students how they can get the most efficient use of this technology, not just for school, but for their future in construction.”

Boise State’s Construction Management program plans to use this technology not just once in a while, but perhaps up to 10 classes offered by Boise State.

"Up to now, Construction Management instructors have relied on field trips to provide a visual experience of the materials and methods that we teach in the classroom,” says Rebecca Mirsky, Boise State’s CM Department chair. “iBEAM's Handheld camera technology provides an exciting new way to make the field trip experience more accessible to more students without worrying about the logistics of transportation and timing.”

For more information, visit www.ibeamsystems.com.

InteliSum

InteliSum, Inc. vice president of sales Frank Algarin knows that new technology is not always quickly grasped and accepted by people within the A/E/C industry, particularly by those who are set in their ways and skeptical about how a new piece of equipment or software can help the bottom line of their business.

As a salesman who has peddled everything in the past in the industry from CAD software to plotter equipment, Algarin says potential clients of InteliSum’s (formerly RappidMapper) unique 3-D scanning technology are often hesitant to make a commitment to the product because of the learning curve involved with new items.

“When we demonstrate this product to principals of a company, we’re moving forward,” says Algarin. “When you show it to middle management and below, they become very afraid, if you will. They look at this technology and say it’s either the best thing they’ve ever seen, or that it’s a bunch of bologna. They’re afraid to move forward. It’s similar to when CAD came out in ’84 – that’s what I talk to people about. When CAD first came out I’d visit clients and they thought we were nuts.”

Based in Salt Lake City, InteliSum has developed innovative and patented 3-D InteliCamera technology that fuses LIDAR XYZ coordinates, digital image (RGB) data, and geophysical position (GPS) information to create Life Dimensional image (LD3) files. InteliSum’s intelligent pixel (InteliPixel) technology allows easy capture of three-dimensional (3-D) objects and environments, plus fast, seamless transition (transfer) into computer aided design (CAD) software.

While the technology is currently being implemented in the A/E/C market, it is positioned to become the new 3-D communication media for multiple markets. The ISI technology is built upon the concept of ‘Intelligent Pictures’, where the digital pixels contain much more than just RGB color information. ISI's InteliPixel Technology fuses XYZ positional information obtained from 3-D laser scanner devices and GPS information to each RGB pixel in the picture.

The result is that users can click on any point in the picture to know the exact position, location, size and orientation of that particular point of interest.

“What our technology allows us to do is get to a point to create 3-D models faster and more accurately than anything known until this time,” says Algarin. “It’s a bit of an adjustment in the paradigm of how people do business.”

InteliSum was used recently on a pilot project for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) – an innovative bridge replacement on 45th South and I-215 East that is garnering national attention.

According to Rukhsana Lindsey, director of Research and Bridge Operations for UDOT, the bridge replacement is unique in that the new structure will be constructed entirely off site, and then lifted into place once the old bridge is demolished. The process will occur in only two days on Oct. 27-28, causing minimal impact to traffic compared to traditional bridge replacement methods.

By utilizing InteliSum’s technology, it allows for the design and construction team to see a true 3-D model of the project to ensure it will fit right when it’s lifted into place.
“I think it’s a great tool,” says Lindsey of InteliSum. “InteliSum is scanning the entire site and visualizing how that bridge will be connected via a 3-D model. It’s accurate and survey grade. If the bridge doesn’t fit, we know about it before we move it into place.”

She continues, “With InteliSum, every pixel is a data point. I like that it’s a survey tool that provides more data than we need. We can pick and choose what (information) we need and if we need more data, it’s already there. With traditional (survey methods), we’d need to go out and resurvey the project. With this, we never have to close down a road to resurvey so it  doesn’t impact traffic.”

Lindsey says the technology is still relatively new, but once people within UDOT become more familiar with InteliSum, she believes it will be utilized on future transportation projects.

“I think we’re going to use InteliSum’s technology on future projects – it’s a matter of time getting people within UDOT more comfortable,” says Lindsey.

Phoenix Project Manager

Project management software is supposed to save you time and money, while keeping your project on schedule. But according to Poulsen Construction Management (PCM), a scheduling firm based out of Bountiful, Utah, finding software that makes that task possible is harder today than it has ever been. When searching for software that made creating, tracking, and updating schedules easy, they found that everything they looked at came up short.

"We kept asking ourselves, Why is this so difficult? Where is the logic? What happened to the Critical Path?" says Jerald D. (Jerry) Poulsen, head of PCM. "We wanted the software we'd been using to get better, but it wasn't, it was headed in the wrong direction, so finally we decided to do something about it."

In 2004, PCM began creating scheduling software that was powerful, easy to use, and put the focus back on logic-based schedules and the Critical Path Method. Three years later the development was complete, and the firm released ‘Phoenix Project Manager’ at the 2007 World of Concrete expo in Las Vegas.

"The response has been great." says Jay Poulsen, the principal designer of the software. "The software has been used on projects like the Arizona Cardinals Stadium, a variety of University of Southern California projects, and the City Creek Center in Salt Lake City. It's being used on major projects and we're hearing fantastic feedback."

“I have tried some other (scheduling programs) and really struggled, always defaulting to the old-fashioned pencil techniques I could control,” said Roger Jackson, a principal with FFKR Architects of Salt Lake City. “I was pleasantly surprised at the results and what I could get done – since I don’t know a thing about all the technical parts of scheduling.”

Poulsen Construction Management has drawn on its 35 years-plus of scheduling experience in order to create software with the tools that project managers really need.  Phoenix Project Manager gives a person the ability to create concise, time-scaled network diagrams of projects, to use snapshots of past project status to create unlimited comparisons, and to arrange simple, per-activity costs into multi-level cost accounts.

"We're excited about what the future holds," says Jerry Poulson. "We have people using this on everything from homes to high rises, and they're getting the work done in record time. Fewer man-hours spent wrestling with other software translates into the ability to handle more work – and that means more revenue."

Poulsen Construction Management will be presenting a ‘Lunch and Learn’ seminar at the AGC of Utah in Salt Lake City on August 9.  The topic of presentation will be ‘Construction Scheduling and Scheduling Software.’ 

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