New Cloud Collaboration Tools Unveiled at Autodesk University
Last week, Autodesk chose Autodesk University 2014 to showcase new services for the building and infrastructure industries that will expand the benefits of BIM-based collaboration for Revit and InfraWorks 360 through the entire project lifecycle – from planning and design to construction and management.
“Our aim is to equip project teams with highly connected, powerful services for every phase of a building or infrastructure project lifecycle. The expanded services we are announcing today are key pieces in achieving this larger goal,” said Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, information Modeling & Platform Group, Autodesk.
So, without further ado, here’s what’s new:
Autodesk A360 Collaboration for Revit
Just as it sounds, Autodesk A360 Collaboration for Revit (available now) connects building teams with centralized access to BIM project data in the cloud. “360” in the Autodesk world refers to any cloud-based technology.
The new service makes it easier for Revit users to collaborate by centralizing all data and collaboration services in Autodesk’s secure cloud environment. The service eliminates the need for (and limitations of) Revit-server technology and third-party add-ons to aid in collaboration as well as the issues that occur as a result of email sharing of PDF and other project documents. Instead, users can access Revit documents and data hosted in the cloud, from any device, even those stakeholders who don’t use Revit software can easily interact with project design data.
With both the web and mobile A360 experiences, all members of extended project team can work together more efficiently on projects, make more effective decisions and deliver superior results. An in-context chat tool also makes it easy for teams to communicate in real-time while working on other project models in Revit. It also takes the cost and complexity out of Revit collaboration set-up.
Describing his firm’s use of the beta version of A360 Collaboration for Revit on a major renovation project for the Oregon State Capitol building, Bjorn Clouten, project manager and senior associate architect at SRG Partnership said: “We’re sharing linked BIM project models with the entire project team in the cloud. Everyone has instant access to the latest information. It’s terrific. We’re enjoying the kind of smooth BIM collaboration that we’ve sought for more than 10 years.”
Watch this video to see how it works.
Field Assets for InfraWorks 360
The second launch (available in January 2015) compliments Autodesk’s hugely popular InfraWorks 360 portfolio of applications for civil infrastructure, supporting engineering workflows that let civil infrastructure teams design and create in the context of the real world.
This location-based, easy-to-deploy web application gives field teams’ access to the data they need on almost any device. Traditionally, crews are sent out to inspect infrastructure assets without knowing exactly where assets are or past maintenance history.
Reporting has typically been on paper-based forms which increase the risk of data entry errors when the information made it back to the office. With Field Assets for InfraWorks 360, owners and operators will be able to collect, mark-up and share data on these assets in real-time so teams can make better-informed decisions on how to deploy their field workforce for asset inspection and maintenance for optimal productivity and financial performance.
With the tool, users can:
- View and navigate your model in the field.
- Select assets and view properties.
- Search for particular assets.
- Add images and notes to individual assets or to the model in general.
- View basemap data in vector form (roads and buildings).
- View extended asset and event information (trees, crime incidents, accidents, gas stations).
“As infrastructure around the world ages and new infrastructure projects are built, assessing the condition of thousands of roads, bridges, pipelines and other assets that are vital to the economy is incredibly important – but has unfortunately been disconnected from the overall project development process,” said Paul McRoberts, Vice President, Infrastructure Modeling Group, Autodesk. “In the world of ubiquitous mobile devices and internet access, there is a far more efficient and accurate way to track infrastructure assets. Autodesk is taking big steps towards solving this problem with the release of Field Assets for InfraWorks 360.”
Images courtesy of Autodesk.
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