10 Fascinating Examples of Autodesk at Work in Government

It’s likely that your agency’s procurement office requires proof of performance before even considering the purchase of a new software solution.  But government case studies are often hard to come by, after all agencies have a habit of keeping their projects and innovations quiet.

In recent years this has changed as more and more agencies are stepping forward to showcase their achievements. And, what better way to demonstrate that tax payer dollars are being used wisely and efficiently than case studies.

Here at Acronym we’ve spoken to and highlighted numerous government digital design projects. But if you’re looking for quick access to the ones that have relevance to your agency, we’ve selected 10 of the best government-specific case studies featuring Autodesk software:

1. BIM Helps NYDDC Tackle the Big Apple’s Biggest Design and Construction Management Challenges

How does BIM help the City of New York champion design and construction excellence across its $6 billion portfolio? The success story explains how NY DDC has used Autodesk BIM software and design and construction best practices to address a number of challenges including:

  • Increase in its overall portfolio and complexity of projects, with tighter schedules and leaner budgets
  • A bidding process that failed to provide necessary expertise for specialized projects
  • Cumbersome project management processes
  • Quality control issues
  • Lack of uniform design standards for BIM projects

2. BIM for Highway Design – El Dorado County DOT

An early adopter of BIM for transportation design, El Dorado County, CA used Civil 3D to accelerate a road-widening project in challenging Sierra mountain terrain. Read more about how BIM processes cut costs and kept everything on schedule.

3. Moving from Autodesk Land Desktop to Civil 3D – Onondaga County DOT

Despite the learning curve, Onondoga County DOT was ready to make the move from Autodesk Land Desktop to AutoCAD® Civil 3D . Here’s how they did it (PDF). Case study courtesy of IMAGINiT Technologies.

4. Autodesk Vehicle Tracking Helps Design Safer Roadways – New York City DOT

As current roadways are improved and new ones are constructed, New York’s municipal engineers are using Autodesk Vehicle Tracking (AVT) to ensure those new designs lead to safer streets. Read more.

5. Why Did Another DOT Switch to Autodesk? – New Mexico DOT

Like many agencies, NMDOT is looking to save money. One big way to do this with to reduce the number of change orders on a project. Software like AutoCAD Civil 3D, Autodesk Navisworks, Navisworks 360 and InfraWorks can help with that. Read more.

6. Using BIM Tools for Virtual Road Design and Construction – San Francisco Transportation Authority

Funded by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the new $1.045-billion Presidio Parkway in San Francisco, California used multiple Autodesk BIM solutions to construct the project virtually, before it was built in the real world, to support public outreach, environmental impact considerations, and more. Read more.

7. Locking Down Infrastructure Costs - Iowa Department of Corrections

IDOC was the winner in the 2013 Acronym CAD Awards state and local government category. Read their story and you’ll understand why. IDOC’s many facilities were not up to code and previous attempts to address the problem had met with mixed results.

In an effort to correct past issues and with a goal to create a more sustainable and energy-efficient penitentiary, IDOC specified that all new projects be created using BIM. The impact of the implementation was broad and far-reaching – from design through construction and for the lifetime of prison facilities. Read more from IMAGINiT Technologies (PDF).

8. Adding Intelligence to Electrical Substation Design – Nashville Electric Service

Nashville Electric Service goes beyond 3D and accelerates its substation design process by as much as 50 percent with Autodesk Inventor. Read more.

9. Moving from 6 Million Square Feet of AutoCAD to BIM Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University

Winner of the first Acronym CAD Awards in 2011, the Wexner Medical Center is a stunning and practical example of how a large public facility converted 53 of its buildings from 2D AutoCAD® drawings to 3D Building Information Models using Autodesk Revit®. The project’s architects, Joe Porostosky and Brian Skripac, shared details about the evolution and challenges of the project as well as best practices for other such projects in a series of blogs for Acronym at the following links. Alternatively, download our eBook, “BIM for Govies™” and read about this and other government BIM projects.

10. Proof of Concept Project Lets FAA Share its Vision of a Lifecycle BIM Implementation – Design through Decommissioning

Interested in how BM could benefit the agency, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tasked the National Airspace System (NAS) Integration Support Contract (NISC) team led by Lockheed Martin to deliver a proof of concept to demonstrate the facility lifecycle benefits of BIM. The project was conducted using an existing facility including an Airport Traffic Control Tower, Radar and Transmitter sites in mid-2011.

Based on the metrics data gathered using this project, it is projected that FAA could achieve significant cost savings of over $10M in drafting services and $65M in facilities maintenance and management over the next 10 years using model driven workflows. The project was awarded first prize in the 2013 Acronym CAD Awards in the Federal/Contractor category. Read more (PDF).

photo credit: wbeem via photopin cc