CC1805

Construction 

Computing 

WWW.CONSTRUCTION-COMPUTING.COM 

MAY/JUNE 2018 

VOL 14 NO 03 

Rise of the robots 

Robotics and Construction Labs close 

the gap between designing and making 

Building control 

Previewing the Construction Computing 

Seminar on Construction Management 

Multiplex appeal 

IFS helps Multiplex meet the 

challenges of a global business 

OpenRail 

Bentley Systems launches its 

solution for the rail industry 

Not just a façade 

Graphisoft advances façade 

design with ARCHICAD 22 

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CONTENTS 

MAY/JUNE 2018 

CONTENTS 

OPENRAIL 14 

Bentley Systems' new Rail and Transit 

Infrastructure Lifecycle Solution provides a 

comprehensive, concept to completion and 

operation solution for the rail industry 

COMPLEMENTARY CONSTRUCTION 16 

Complementary construction through the use 

of BIM has played a key role in the Tripla 

construction project in Finland, which has been 

developed using software from Tekla 

GRAPHISOFT ARCHICAD 22 24 

Façade Design - the creation of repeatable 

patterns to add a distinctive style to large, 

anonymous structures - comes to the fore in the 

latest release of Graphisoft's ARCHICAD 

ROBOTS CLOSE THE GAP 30 

Andrew Watts, CEO Newtecnic, discusses the 

construction industry's move towards robotics 

and mass-customisation, with robots closing 

the gap between designing and making 

I NEWS................................................INDUSTRY NEWS....................................................................................................6 

• A NEW VIEW ON OASYS MASSMOTION • BSI ISSUES BIM STANDARDS UPDATE 

EVENT PREVIEW..............................BUILDING CONTROL...........................................................................................8 

• DAVID CHADWICK PREVIEWS THE CONSTRUCTION COMPUTING SEMINAR ON CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 

CASE STUDY...................................MEETING BIM MANDATES..................................................................................10 

• WORKING IN BIM ENABLES BPR ARCHITECTS TO CREATE WORLD CLASS BUILDINGS FOR MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY 

CASE STUDY...................................MULTIPLEX APPEAL.............................................................................................18 

• IFS APPLICATIONS HAS TRANSFORMED MULTIPLEX'S INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS INTO A TRUE GLOBAL BUSINESS 

SOFTWARE FOCUS.........................CAN CONSTRUCTION BENEFIT FROM BETTER PLANNING?..........................20 

• IVAR VEENPERE, CO-FOUNDER OF GANTTIC EXPLAINS WHY BETTER PLANNING BENEFITS CONSTRUCTION 

INDUSTRY FOCUS...........................REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED.................................................................26 

• SCIA ENGINEER 18 INTRODUCES STEEL FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE IN ITS LATEST RELEASE 

INDUSTRY COMMENT.....................THE KEY TO SURVIVAL......................................................................................28 

• WHY THE RIGHT PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IS KEY TO GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 

TRAINING MAP.................................AUTODESK TRAINING.......................................................................................32 

• YOUR GUIDE TO AUTODESK TRAINING 

CASE STUDY....................................GRAMPUS1........................................................................................................34 

• GRAPHISOFT IS SETTING UP A STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION FOR A POTENTIALLY UNIQUE NEW PROJECT 

May/June 2018 3

COMMENT 

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Comment 

"More trains, vicar?" 

by David Chadwick 

Ithink it would be interesting to conduct 

a study to find out why men of the cloth 

seem to have a such a fascination with 

trains - from the Rev Wilbert Awdry who 

wrote Thomas the Tank Engine, to a lead 

character in The Titfield Thunderbolt and 

even my local vicar. Perhaps it is the 

solidity, permanence and security that 

trains offer in a life devoted to the 

dispensation of a nebulous philosophy? 

I think they would be much agitated by 

the current ups and downs of the rail 

industry, however. Whilst we are engaged 

in developing high speed networks to 

points North, congestion alleviating routes 

across London and through routes to the 

continent, we are facing demands for the 

reopening of obscure routes summarily 

closed down by Dr Beeching, and the 

renationalisation of services on the East 

Coast deemed unworkable by the last 

owners - or of not providing the profits 

they need to keep running. 

Despite the onerous cost of buying 

tickets at the wrong time to get anywhere 

remotely feasible, the train, and anything 

else that comes on rails, is, and will 

remain, a significant means of getting 

from A to B. In fact, if it wasn't for the 

trains London would close down, as most 

of the people who work there travel in 

from the suburbs. 

The problem is, though, that the routes 

were defined during the heyday of the 

industry and all the gaps between the 

hundreds of obscure little branch lines 

have been filled in, leaving amusing 

stretches which have been taken over by 

steam train enthusiasts and manned by 

the aforementioned clergymen on holiday. 

This means that any attempt to upgrade 

the railway network, apart from the iconic 

and hugely expensive exemptions 

outlined above, lies in the regeneration 

and upgrading of existing routes - such as 

electrification, station improvements and 

the installation of modern technology. 

Which brings me to the main point. 

Bentley Systems has superceded the 

introduction of their OpenRoads 

application, which integrates many of the 

tools they have in their extensive arsenal 

of software to develop road systems from 

the initial surveys and concept layout all 

the way through to the production of 

detailed construction and delivery models. 

It incorporates tools like ContextCapture 

that create accurate visual 3D models of 

existing terrain and constructed features 

to provide visual reference points for 

laying out new routes, and provides 

access to tools for earth moving, bridge 

design, junction layout, drainage and 

other factors that govern the process. 

The Rail equivalent, OpenRail, has just 

been released. Whilst the basic premise 

remains the same, the focus and much of 

the content differs substantially. Instead of 

planning new routes, the emphasis is on 

providing accurate and detailed models of 

existing routes, and giving developers the 

means for upgrading tracks, and with 

them the massive amount of baggage 

that comes along for the ride, so to speak. 

These include power supply and 

transmission for electrification, signalling 

equipment, railway stations for future 

passenger loads, and so on. 

Bentley Systems' OpenRail goes even 

further. A key feature is the equivalent of 

Asset Maintenance - will it work, and how 

will it operate? You can't just run a 

diversion round a road block running 

through some back streets. A railway line 

is a serial and never a parallel asset, so 

everything must run like clockwork (now 

there's a solution they may not have tried 

yet). OpenRail is, therefore, geared more 

towards function than design - a very 

laudable aim. 

Of course, in the developing world, where 

you have much more empty space to play 

around with, you have considerably more 

scope to employ all of its tools. 

4 May/June 2018

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INDUSTRY news 

A NEW VIEW ON OASYS MASSMOTION 

The latest release of Oasys 

MassMotion, the advanced 

pedestrian simulation and 

analysis software, has introduced 

a powerful viewer application 

for sharing MassMotion 

results. Free to download in 

version v.9.5, the MassMotion 

Viewer can be installed on any 

computer running Windows 7 

or 10, and used with Oculus 

Rift. It will open any MassMotion 

or Flow results file and display 

a playback of a previously 

recorded simulation. 

Opening and running an animation 

is straightforward and 

requires no prior knowledge of 

pedestrian simulation software. 

For an immersive experience 

for the end user or client, an 

Oculus Rift can be used alongside 

your computer. 

The Viewer gives complete 

control of what the recipient 

sees, and users can control the 

viewer's experience further 

through the ability to export 

simulation 'slices' from Mass- 

Motion or Flow. Slices are a 

subset of a simulation database 

file and can drastically reduce 

file size by keeping only the 

segment of a result set that 

would be useful when communicating 

results with stakeholders 

and third-parties. 

Defining crowds, agent counts 

and agent journeys has been 

improved with new OD based 

options for specific journeys, 

normal circulation and evacuation. 

MassMotion 9.5 can also 

now export geometry suitable 

for use in other 3D packages. 

www.oasys-software.com 

VECTORWORKS SUMMIT SPEAKERS DETAILED 

Vectorworks has revealed its 

two can't-miss keynotes for 

the 2018 Vectorworks Design 

Summit: Antoine Predock, architect 

at Antoine Predock Architect, 

and Vectorworks CEO Dr. 

Biplab Sarkar. Vectorworks 

invites professionals, educators 

and students in the AEC, landscape 

and entertainment industries 

to attend the fourth annual 

event, which will take place 

November 4 to 6, 2018 at the 

Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse 

Pass in Phoenix, Ariz. 

Led by Sarkar, the "Vectorworks 

CEO keynote" will take 

place on Monday, November 5. 

Sarkar will focus on the company's 

strategic vision and direction 

regarding current trends 

and future technology. 

On Tuesday, November 6 Predock 

will deliver the second 

keynote, titled "Site Specificity 

and the Aura of Globalization." 

His speech will educate attendees 

on how they must tune 

into the context of the people 

and vibe of a place and how 

the connection to those conditions 

can lead to unbelievable 

things in design. 

www.vectorworks.net 

BSI ISSUES BIM STANDARDS UPDATE 

Later this year will see the 

first two international standards 

published for BIM BS EN 

ISO 19650–1 Organization of 

information about construction 

works – Information management 

using building information 

modelling – Part 1: Concepts 

and principles and BS EN ISO 

19650-2 Organization of information 

about construction 



modelling – Part 2: Delivery 

phase of assets. These two 

standards will supersede BS 

1192 (principles) and PAS 1192 

part 2 (capital/delivery phase) 

respectively. 

Then in early 2020 two further 

international BIM standards are 

scheduled to be published: BS 

EN ISO 19650-3 Organization of 

information about construction 



modelling – Part 3: Operational 

phase of assets and BS EN ISO 

19650-5 Organization of information 

about construction 



modelling – Part 5: Specification 

for security-minded building 

information modelling, digital 

built environments and smart 

VIEWPOINT TEAM RELEASED IN UK 

Viewpoint has announced 

the availability of Viewpoint 

Team in the UK. Viewpoint 

Team is a cloud-based platform 

enabling contractors to 

manage and collaborate on 

critical project processes with 

their extended teams of subcontractors, 

suppliers, architects 

and owners. 

Viewpoint Team delivers a simple 

yet powerful project control 

and collaboration solution which 

integrates the features and 

functionality currently offered by 

asset management, which will 

replace PAS 1192 part 3 (operational 

phase) and part 5 (security) 

correspondingly. 

Having consulted with stakeholders 

such as the UK BIM 

Alliance, the Home Nations 

Working Group, the Department 

for Business, Energy and 

Industrial Strategy, and the 

Centre for Digital Built Britain, 

BSI has agreed to stop the current 

revision activity on PAS 

1192 parts 2 and 3 to avoid 

market confusion and cost. The 

work completed so far will now 

feed into the UK adoption of 

the relevant ISO standards 

through the national annex and 

transition guidance. 

Ant Burd, Head of Built Environment 

at BSI said: "We would 

like to thank the exceptional 

work of our experts involved in 

the development of these BIM 

standards. Their calibre and 

knowledge has meant that the 

UK, through BSI, has led the 

way in creating standards that 

addressthe industry’s needs 

regarding building information 

modelling and I have no doubt 

that that this will continue in the 

years to come as the construction 

industry evolves." 

www.bsigroup.com 

Viewpoint's portfolio of products, 

which include Viewpoint 

for Projects and Viewpoint Field 

View. "By connecting our clients' 

office, team and field operations 

with software solutions that give 

real-time answers that enable 

real-time decisions and true 

project transparency, we're 

doing what no other construction 

management software 

company can do right now," 

said Viewpoint chief product 

officer Matt Harris. 

www.viewpoint.com 

6 

May/June 2018

BIM Product of the Year 

ARCHICAD 22 delivers design tool 

improvements and also introduces 

enhanced design workflow processes. 

These represent significant performance 

improvements as well as productivity 

enhancements to its core design processes 

as well as to multidisciplinary collaborative 

workflows. 

For further information on ARCHICAD 22 

contact GRAPHISOFT at graphisoft.com or call 

01895 527590. 

University Library Freiburg, Germany, DEGELO ARCHITEKTEN, www.degelo.net, Photo © Barbara Bühler

EVENTpreview 

Building control 

David Chadwick previews the Construction Computing Seminar on Construction Management, which 

takes place on 28th June 2018 at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London in association with IFS 

The introduction of BIM has had a 

profound effect on the construction 

industry. It is now over ten years 

since the Government launched its BIM 

Mandate, requiring companies working on 

public contracts to adhere to collaborative 

and information sharing processes aimed 

at improving efficiency, eliminating errors 

and waste, and ultimately saving money. 

I can remember the early days, and the 

concerns about responsibilities and 

liabilities and the effort it would take a 

notoriously conservative industry to haul 

itself into the 21st century. All water under 

the bridge now, and BIM and the 

collaborative working processes we have 

adopted are second nature to most of us. 

As for the savings achieved, well that is a 

more nebulous figure, lost in the general 

melee of evolving financial realities, 

improved construction processes, 

resource and material cost ups and 

downs, and much besides. 

There is no denying, though, that it has 

become so much easier to share 

information and building models across 

technologies and disciplines, to integrate 

building processes and to leverage the 

vast amount of information we are 

generating. We now start a project with a 

view to not just how it looks like when it is 

completed, but how it will be maintained, 

how much it will cost to run it, and what 

the environmental costs are throughout its 

intended life cycle. 

The usage and management of the 

information we acquire about each 

construction project is now of prime 

concern, equal to the choice of building 

materials, design and construction 

technologies. So much so that we ran a 

successful seminar at the end of last year 

looking specifically at Information 

Management, the way it is handled and 

the tools available for extracting the 

maximum benefit from the information we 

have collected. 

We are following this up in June with a 

further seminar about the specific use of 

BIM and the sharing and management of 

information during the construction 

phases of a project. This will look beyond 

the design process and focus on the 

practical issues that affect the smooth 

running of a building project - the handling 

of resources, the responses to design and 

engineering changes - and the elimination 

of risk and liabilities that threaten its 

profitability and successful completion. 

Information, again, is the key. BIM has 

proved itself in its role as a facilitator of 

that information with the development of 

common data standards that enable every 

member of a project, from the manager on 

the building site to the clerk in the back 

office, to work on the same, up to date, 

validity checked and quality assured 

information. 

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 

The Building Control seminar, which will be 

held in association with IFS, will cover all 

aspects of the management of a building 

project: the roles, responsibilities and 

information requirements of different 

teams and the development of strategies 

to accomplish their aims. It will also look at 

how this enables project managers to 

respond when things don't go according 

to plan and unforeseen engineering and 

design changes occur, and the role of 

construction and progress monitoring. 

Who should attend? All those involved in 

developing and utilising a building project 

management strategy, project and site 

managers, chief engineers, resource 

managers and anybody else involved in a 

management capacity on the building site. 

The programme of events includes lunch 

at the Institute and afternoon 

presentations on the latest industry tools, 

including the role of robots and drones in 

the building process, followed by a Q and 

A session where you will get the chance to 

query the experts. 

ALL CHANGE 

A 'Stop Press' announcement. The BSI has 

just announced dramatic changes to the 

rules that underpin BIM, abandoning 

further development of PAS1192 Parts 2 

and 3 after the release of the latest 

updates (to avoid confusion and cost), in 

favour of traditional ISO certification. Will 

this affect the way we have learned to do 

things so far - and if so, how? More 

specifically, will we still have to conform to 

BIM Level 2 when we submit our projects? 

It’s an announcement that's sure to make 

waves at the seminar. 

For more information on the seminar and 

to reserve your place visit the official 

website, below. 

www.constructioncomputing.co.uk/seminars 

8 

May/June 2018

Construction Management Seminar 

BUILDING CONTROL I 28th JUNE 2018 

Venue: Institution of Civil Engineers, London 

The Seminar will take the form of a series of presentations, to be held at the Institute of 

Civil Engineers on the 28th June at the ICE Building, given by experts within different 

fields in the construction industry, followed by a lunch, giving delegates the opportunity 

to talk to colleagues and industry peers on one of the industry’s hottest and most 

relevant subjects. The afternoon session will cover technical advances in the 

presentation of information, looking at the latest 3D modelling and virtual reality tools, 

site monitoring and other technical wizardry used to assist construction management. 

The final session is a Q and A session, which, at our last seminar last November, which 

proved so popular with questions from the audience, we overran by over half an hour! 

This final session is really what the seminars are about, the chance to question experts 

on topics that matter to you, make industry contacts and learn about the latest 

developments in the sector. After the Q&A session there will be networking drinks, and a 

chance to talk to the panelists and other delegates in more detail, and of course make 

ever useful industry contacts. 

We hope you can join us on the 28th June! 

In Association with: 

For more information, visit: 

www.constructioncomputing.co.uk/seminars 

Follow us: @CCMagAndAwards 

Tickets only cost £25 excl. VAT and include access to 

all 5 speakers, lunch, and the live Q&A panel debate. 

For more information and to book your place please 

visit: www.constructioncomputing.co.uk/seminars 

call 01689 616000 or email 

seminars@btc.co.uk

CASEstudy 

Meeting BIM mandates 

Working in BIM enables bpr architects to create world class buildings for Middlesex University 

For bpr architects, BIM Level 2 is 

becoming business as usual. This 

medium-sized, employee-owned firm 

based in the UK focuses on how good 

design can add value to a client's vision. 

Led by Directors Paul Beaty-Pownall and 

Steve Cowell, the firm specialises in three 

core sectors: higher education, rail 

stations, and regeneration. In response to 

the UK government mandate for the use of 

3D BIM on all public projects by 2016, bpr 

moved quickly to keep pace with the 

requirements. As part of its compliance 

strategy, bpr began using Vectorworks 

software almost exclusively to maintain 

consistency across projects. 

"We took advantage of the UK's regulatory 

regimes to move to BIM," said Beaty- 

Pownall. "In 2013 we changed our working 

practices and workflow so projects are 

drawn in 3D from conception. I decided 

that all future work will be in 3D, and we will 

make better use of models that can 

produce information more efficiently." 

With this framework in place, bpr 

implemented BIM Level 2 standards into its 

workflow with teams combining design 

information with their models to create a 

federated BIM model. The team selected a 

pilot project for this task: the Ritterman 

Building, a five-storey teaching space for 

long-standing client, Middlesex University. 

"As a designer you are always looking for 

opportunities where you can add value 

through good design, not just for the 

betterment of the project, but for the 

betterment of the environment around that 

project - strategic solutions that benefit the 

wider estate." said Beaty-Pownall. 

Such was the case when working with 

Middlesex University. A client for more than 

12 years, the university trusted that bpr had 

a solid understanding of its needs and how 

to accomplish them through good design. 

HOW TO MAKE BREAKTHROUGHS 

WITH BUILDINGS 

Several challenges arose when bpr started 

working on the Ritterman Building design. 

First, the building would be constructed on 

a vacant part of campus composed of a 

steep, grassy bank. The building also 

needed to be adaptable to meet continually 

changing teaching, accessibility, and 

sustainability requirements, both immediate 

and for the future. 

"We worked closely with the structural 

engineer to consider how that might be 

done, such as how to refurbish the building 

later on down the line," said Lizzie Dodwell, 

an architect at bpr. "It made more sense to 

design within that problem to give us that 

flexibility in the future." 

For the Ritterman Building, bpr designed 

flexibility into the structure, such as opening 

up double-height space that could be 

modified at a later time by adding floors to 

create modular teaching spaces. 

Throughout the decision-making process, 

the firm also took the university's long-term 

goals into account. 

"The pedagogic needs of the university's 

vision and operational requirements for 

the future is something we don't know at 

this stage," said Dodwell. "By being more 

flexible in our approach, we allow 

adjustments to be made later on down 

the line." 

The completed building is comprised of 

both functional and innovative teaching 

spaces for the faculties of Science and 

Technology and The Arts & Creative 

Industries. In addition to these spaces, the 

Ritterman Building also includes a café, 

technology suites, a dance studio, and 

offices for academic staff. The building may 

take two to three years from initial idea to 

completion, whilst the educational 

curriculum can change every year," said 

Beaty-Pownall. "So being prepared to 

adapt and change the building over time is 

really important." 

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH BIM 

LEVEL 2 

The timing of the Ritterman Building 

provided the perfect opportunity for bpr to 

transition to a BIM practice. Middlesex 

University already had a framework in 

place that required bpr to work with the 

same teams, including structural, 

mechanical, and electrical engineers, 

across all projects. "It's been very effective 

to work over a long period of time with the 

same design team across a number of 

different buildings with the same clients," 

said Beaty-Pownall. 

The ability to import different types of files 

into Vectorworks helped the bpr team 

progress through their design plans at a 

faster pace. "The structural engineer had 

Revit and was very keen to collaborate," 

said Dodwell. "In the early stages he would 

send us his models in IFC and we would 

import them into our Vectorworks model to 

keep things simpler. The others all use 3D 

software in different packages, that were 

10 

May/June 2018

TRANSFORM THE WORLD. 

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The Vectorworks ® line of design software and BIM solutions 

delivers a robust suite of capabilities that will enhance your 

modelling process and simplify your workflows. 

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EMAIL US AT UKSALES@VECTORWORKS.NET 

IMAGE COURTESY OF CAIQUE NIEMEYER.

CASEstudy 

then exported into IFC and coordinated in a 

federated model, in Tekla." 

To produce detailed drawings and 

construction documents, bpr took the 

Vectorworks model and created separate 

files for three distinct "zones" in the 3D 

modeling environment - the envelope, core, 

and internal zones. This enabled three 

teams to work on separate files. The teams 

then referenced each work area to a single 

sheet file, which they could work on in 2D 

to export detailed drawings and schedules. 

In this way, the entire team could extract 

consistent information from a single source. 

Beaty-Pownall believes that embracing 

BIM workflows across the practice has 

been worth the effort. This collaborative 

way of completing projects has 

enhanced bpr's workflow in ways that, 

without Vectorworks software, may not 

have been possible. "One of the core 

benefits to the practice of using a 3D 

workflow is how it enables us to focus on 

design with the confidence that the 

delivery of information to support exciting 

ideas is robust," he said "We could push 

the boundaries and explore opportunities 

as the project develops." 

Although bpr did not serve as the BIM 

manager for the second half of the project, 

obtaining and maintaining Industry 

Foundation Classes (IFC) information 

allowed the firm to ensure that the 

coordination of the different disciplines 

would come together at every stage of the 

design process. 

INCREASING ACCURACY AND 

SAVING TIME 

The benefits of Vectorworks extend beyond 

collaboration, increasing accuracy and 

saving time by using integrated 

Vectorworks worksheets instead of 

spreadsheets to keep track of project 

details. "When we used Excel spreadsheets 

for our scheduling, we were literally taking 

up time counting door by door and door 

handle and hinge," said Beaty-Pownall. "We 

now have a lot more confidence that the 

data provided is accurate." 

Finally, Vectorworks software has been 

helpful for bpr to see buildings in context, 

as the team can situate designs within trueto-life 

surroundings to offer a large amount 

of detail to clients. "We tested the potential 

for a new performing arts building to 

understand the capacity of the proposed 

site," said Beaty-Pownall. "Placing it in a 

wider context - how high the buildings are, 

the character of the area, as this would be 

a landmark building. The Massing Model 

and Space tools were used to determine 

whether it would have a really significant 

impact on the neighbourhood." 

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES TO LAST A 

LIFETIME 

Middlesex's vice chancellor, Professor Tim 

Blackman, hailed the building as helping 

the university to "provide students with a 

world-class learning environment equipped 

with the latest facilities and technology," 

cementing its reputation among employers 

"for graduates taught in industry-standard 

settings with the skills they need." 

"I think it's really important to work with a 

client, like Middlesex University, to ensure 

that this whole process is going to be of 

benefit to them," said Beaty-Pownall. "They 

need to be able to know that the 

information we are able to provide upon 

completion is supported by their facilities 

systems." 

Working in the public sector, especially for 

a client in the higher education industry, 

has made Beaty-Pownall recognise the 

importance and legacy of their work. What 

started as a creative brief can become a 

reality within the software. 

When we used to use SketchUp, we'd be 

working in two entirely distinct workflows," 

said Beaty-Pownall. "Now, designing and 

drawing all occur in the same breath, 

which is hugely beneficial. There's a 

natural feel to drawing a 3D model of a 

building with Vectorworks. Thinking 

through how it is actually built as you 

draw, helps to structure the model, 

provide efficient packages of information, 

and design great buildings." 

Now that the Ritterman Building is 

complete, bpr is committed to working 

completely in BIM with 3D models for 

future projects. "Working in 3D enables 

you to visualise what you're designing," 

said Beaty-Pownall. "With every line you 

draw, you can see the impact on the 

wider vision." 

www.vectorworks.net/uk 

12 

May/June 2018

SOFTWARE focus 

OpenRail 

Bentley's Rail and Transit 

Infrastructure Lifecycle 

Solution provides a 

comprehensive, concept to 

completion and operation 

solution for the rail industry 

I'm sitting here writing about Bentley's 

OpenRail on a warm summer 

afternoon and I can hear a steam 

engine whistling and chugging as it 

winds through the valley. Absolute bliss, 

but also ample evidence that rail 

systems have a life that extends beyond 

that of their planners, builders and 

operators, and that we finally have the 

means to manage and maintain its 

efficiency throughout its entire lifecycle - 

however long that may be. 

When you think about it that's pretty 

amazing, as rail and transit infrastructure 

comprises a wide range of technologies, 

from the design of the track, tunnels, 

bridges, cuttings and associated assets, 

such as stations, signalling, power 

(electrification) through to its operation 

and maintenance. It combines many 

different digital components, contexts 

and workflows that require enhanced 

collaboration and coordination, whilst 

adhering to exacting standards and 

regulations that govern the many 

disciplines involved. 

We have a steam engine workshop in 

the next village which has enthusiasts 

poring over 100 year-old drawings, or 

knocking up replacement parts from 

worn out components - a whole world 

away from the demands placed on 

today's designers and operators, who 

need to share information between 

different technologies and evolving 

computer hardware and software 

solutions, and to ensure that asset 

maintenance information is available far 

into the future. 

The most effective emerging solutions 

are those that are capable of 

encompassing all aspects of rail and 

transit infrastructure within a single 

platform, and with a connected data 

environment like the one that Bentley 

currently uses - Microsoft's Azure Cloud. 

BIM AND THE CDE 

Like the OpenRoads solution released in 

2016, Bentley Systems' OpenRail 

provides a concept to completion 

solution for road systems. The backbone 

to Bentley's OpenRail solution is BIM, 

with its CDE (Connected Data 

Environment) that facilitates the sharing 

of information that allows teams to 

organise and manage projects and 

asset workflows, and to adhere to 

industry standards such as PAS 1192. 

OpenRail provides information mobility 

throughout organisations using data 

from multiple sources and in different 

formats, and even from third-party 

software. Information is available to be 

shared between multi-discipline design 

teams, during construction phases, and 

up to and after project delivery. 

Information collated throughout all 

cycles is available to owner-operators to 

facilitate maintenance decisions through 

14 

May/June 2018

SOFTWAREfocus 

its operational phase and to improve 

asset performance. 

OpenRail's comprehensive modelling 

environment utilises all of the latest 

modelling tools to design and construct 

rail networks from concept and 

commissioning to completion, 

incorporating immersive modelling using 

ConceptStation software to create 3D 

modelling environments and to populate 

them with interactive parametric 

modelling of rail corridors. The whole 

process is streamlined and automated 

using established workflows right 

through from conception and detailed 

design to construction. 

Supporting the workflows is OpenRail's 

Components Center, which provides the 

catalogues and structured asset and 

engineering information used throughout 

the process for design, analytical, 

construction and asset performance 

modelling, for the asset's entire lifecycle. 

Digital components used within 

designs can be tagged with attributes 

before being uploaded, and all of their 

associated intelligence can be shared 

and associated within designs and 

retained within the CDE to be used and 

enriched throughout the project's 

lifecycle. And unlike the experiences 

undertaken by our steam train 

enthusiasts, they are also automatically 

upgraded to new storage, formats and 

operating systems as they evolve. 

OPEN FRAMEWORK 

The OpenRail CDE is the common 

source of information used for the 

collection, sharing and management of 

information about digital railway assets. 

It ensures that information is available 

and accurate throughout the life of the 

project, reducing risk and allowing 

managers to make informed decisions 

leading to increased asset performance. 

It uses BIM to its fullest extent, utilising 

digital engineering models to ensure a 

full infrastructure project delivery. 

OPENRAIL ASSURANCE 

ENVIRONMENT 

With all design elements in place, it is 

essential that they are supported by 

quality assurance processes, so that 

project teams can work in a controllable, 

predictable and repeatable fashion. This 

is provided by OpenRail's Assurance 

Environment, which includes OpenRail 

Progressive Assurance. It deciphers the 

governance of assurance processes to 

optimise the design and delivery 

process. It also includes OpenRail 

Operational Assurance, which provides 

operational and maintenance teams with 

a unified approach to compliance and 

assurance. The result is a working 

environment that helps to eliminate 

costly delays and overruns during the 

entire project lifecycle. 

Unlike OpenRoads, the operation of the 

asset is an important element in 

maintaining its performance. In plain 

words, in such a closed environment, the 

ability to deploy and control the rolling 

stock in the most efficient manner is of 

utmost importance. Hence the use of 

asset performance modelling and Asset 

Lifecycle Information Management 

(ALIM) to handle change management in 

the infrastructure and enable positive 

train control (PTC) deployment in an 

environment undergoing constant 

change and revision. Asset performance 

modelling bridges the gap between the 

CAPEX phase of a project through 

handover into the OPEX phase. 

Further analytic and modelling tools 

include OpenRail Asset Reliability and 

OpenRail Operational Analytics, which 

ensures assets are safe, reliable and 

efficient throughout their working life. 

The latter brings together the data you 

need to develop proactive strategies 

for decision support, and to help 

reduce costs, improve safety 

performance and reliability. 

BENTLEY OPENRAIL 

OpenRail, released this spring, is 

comprised of OpenRail ConceptStation, 

OpenRail Designer and AECOsim 

Station Designer. These three built-in 

apps can handle conceptual railway 

planning and design, the 3D design of 

track, overhead lines, tunnels and 

bridges, and rail and transit station 

modelling. They bring together digital 

components and digital context through 

digital workflows, using OpenRail's 

connected data environment (CDE) 

that is shared by the company's other 

programmes, ProjectWise 

collaboration services and AssetWise 

operations services. 

In OpenRail, Bentley Systems has 

helped streamline multi-discipline 

design, construction and project 

handover, providing users of the 

programme with access to the 

information needed to boost project 

and organisational performance. 

Enabling more informed decisions to be 

made during operations, OpenRail 

ensures information created during 

project delivery can be made available 

to owner-operators, thus optimising 

asset performance. 

Chief executive officer of Bentley 

Systems, Greg Bentley, said the 

company has advanced its BIM 

technology, allowing the company to 

improve project delivery and asset 

performance for "the most challenging 

rail and transit projects". 

"Most of our portfolio applications are 

used on rail projects, and we've 

advanced BIM for rail, in particular, with 

our Rail Track offering, rail corridor 

maintenance optimisation through 

Optram, and via ComplyPro railway 

requirements compliance progressive 

assurance," said Bentley. 

The development of Bentley Systems' 

latest software release has been helped 

in large part by input from the railway 

engineers that use the products, Bentley 

added. "Users have been persuasive in 

making the case that a railway - more so 

than any other infrastructure asset - is a 

system of connected components, 

meriting a systems engineering 

approach from the outset." 

As a result of the feedback from rail 

engineers, Bentley Systems now makes 

rail a company priority, industrialising 

BIM for project delivery and leveraging 

digital DNA for asset performance. "At 

this point, while there are still scheduled 

stops ahead on our OpenRail 

application journey, every rail project 

and asset can benefit now from 

OpenRail's CDE and digital workflow 

service," Bentley concluded. 

www.bentley.com 

May/June 2018 15

CASEstudy 

Complementary construction 

Complementary construction is rather a nice way to describe how all of the technologies and 

processes involved in a major project can be integrated to work together - thanks to the 

introduction of BIM 

Complementary construction was 

used to describe the development 

of the Tripla construction project in 

Finland, which features a busy railway 

station with 50K+ passengers a day as 

well as continuous railroad traffic. This 

presented the developers of the project 

with many challenges, which are being 

overcome with software from Tekla that 

leverages collaborative and open BIM 

workflows, reducing the costs and 

visualisation of the project while making it 

easier to understand the end results. 

Tripla in Central Pasila is one of Finland's 

largest construction sites - actually five 

construction sites put together. The gross 

area of the site totals 350,000 m2, equaling 

50 soccer fields, and more than 1,000 

people are working on the site during the 

most intensive construction phase. "In a 

way, we have many separate construction 

sites here: the parking, shopping centre, 

station, apartments, office blocks, and 

hotel. Although they are separate, all 

Building Information Models use the same 

coordinate system and are compatible," 

says Janne Salin, BIM Specialist at YIT 

Construction Ltd. YIT is the general 

contractor for Tripla. 

Tripla is built in the middle of the city in a 

challenging environment. The project is 

carried out in and above a busy railroad 

traffic area, which makes construction work 

more challenging. A busy station area 

demands high levels of safety: A worstcase 

scenario would be a train accident 

damaging the various structures. Building 

on a working station also means that all 

passengers need to be guided to a 

temporary steel-structured station and 

overpasses, and because of the train 

traffic, some work has to be done at night. 

The new railway station building is not 

only a complementary construction, but 

incorporates elements of the old Pasila 

station building, which was not completely 

demolished. YIT uses some of the old 

frame in the construction and modification 

work of the new station: the station 

building was demolished to the level of the 

existing station hall, and the structures of 

the lower part were retained, reinforced 

and repaired. The upper part of the station 

hall is built entirely as a new building. 

UTILISING BIM THROUGHOUT THE 

PROJECT 

For Tripla, all design work is done with 

modeling tools. In the beginning of the 

project, the base of the old station and the 

excavated rock surface were laser 

scanned. An inventory model was then 

created based on these scans, providing 

project members with comprehensive and 

accurate initial information for design. The 

initial building information model was also 

used to check how the new structures 

relate to the structures of the old station, 

whilst the Tekla model enabled engineers 

to check for things like additional 

excavation or extra support structures. 

The entire construction site has been 

modeled, enabling the logistics 

subcontractor to develop better plans for 

their own work. The architect's IFC model 

was utilised as the basis for the information 

model - BIM data and the IFC file format 

are used extensively on the Tripla 

construction site, from initial design to the 

virtual presentation of the end product. 

As information flows smoothly from one 

software application to another, models 

can be combined and used to verify things 

such as how various pipes, columns, and 

beams fit together in the combined model. 

In weekly meetings, the various project 

parties use the combined model to check 

how building technology and pipes crisscross 

inside the building and where they 

can find good paths for openings in the 

frame. If they detect issues or structural or 

technical clashes in the design, 

modifications to the designs can be 

agreed upon in the meeting. 

The use of Tekla Model Sharing has 

enhanced information transfer, as the 

construction site can check the situation 

in other Tekla Structures models, such as 

in the shopping centre and parking 

structural models. IFC models and 

drawings always lag a little behind, but 

Tekla Model Sharing enables checking the 

real-time design situation. 

The procurement organisation of Tripla 

utilises BIM to easily calculate things like 

the amount of building materials. BIM also 

helps the allocation of requests for 

quotations (RFQs) for different jobs. 

16 

May/June 2018

CASEstudy 

Models can be used for showing, for 

example, how walls to be brick laid are 

distributed and how complex is the 

brickwork. As work phases and material 

quantities are easy to calculate and 

visualise, this information can be used in 

procurement negotiations to get better and 

more accurate quotes. The numerical 

information can also be utilised in cost 

accounting to estimate how much a 

building element or entity will cost. 

"We have a good Tekla model and a lot of 

useful information in it. It provides us with 

the quantities, kilograms, concrete cubic 

meters, and square meters needed in cost 

calculations. The model provides 

quantities for the schedule, and the 

schedule and model can be linked to each 

other. This makes it easier to plan the work 

and communicate with subcontractors," 

Janne Salin explains. Janne continues: 

"Without the model, we would have to 

spread out a large pile of drawings and 

use a ruler to measure the height and 

thickness of a column, and a calculator to 

determine the required concrete volume. 

Using the model saves time." 

TRIPLA IN FIGURES 

3D models have also been used to verify 

the feasibility of solutions, for example by 

examining the possible hauling routes of 

escalators into a building. 

The 3D models have also been imported 

to a virtual environment, which brings new 

ways of using designers' models. The 

office space under construction, for 

instance, uses virtual glasses. Based on 

the architect's IFC model, a virtual 

environment has been created for 

presenting the premises to customers, and 

offices can be seen both empty and 

furnished with objects from a 3D content 

library. With the virtual environment and 

wearing the virtual glasses on the site, you 

can visualise what the finished space will 

look like. At the other end of the scale, 

wearing virtual glasses, you can virtually 

climb into one of the site's eight cranes 

and see what the site below looks like. 

These are major benefits for building 

contractors, or for possible tenants making 

a leasing decision, and for also for YIT. 

Using their own models means that they 

don't need to order numerous 

visualisations from visualisation agencies. 

SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY IS 

ESSENTIAL 

In a major project such as Tripla, it is 

crucial that software packages are 

compatible. The project is a good example 

of what a large site means for 

collaboration and the open BIM approach. 

There are several design and architectural 

offices working on Tripla, and the project is 

divided into four main sections, each of 

which has its own 3D models, such as the 

architect's model, the structural designer's 

models, and the HVAC and MEP models. 

There are almost 100 information models 

in total. The compatibility of such a great 

number of models is crucial for the project. 

The aim is to ensure all parties involved 

in the project can use all the information 

the project's designers and contractors 

have produced. Collaboration enables 

users to take advantage of crucial 

opportunities, which would otherwise be 

unavailable with just one software solution. 

Tripla confirms that The Open BIM 

approach really is the key to a successful 

building project. 

www.trimble.com 

The construction phase of the project started in summer 2016 

A railroad station, a shopping centre, two 12-storey office wings and one 14-storey office wing with office space totaling 

50,000 m2, a hotel, and an event area 

Two 12-storey residential buildings with more than 400 new homes 

One new railroad track and a reservation for a subway line 

Total commercial space 115,000 m2, of which 85,000 m2 for lease to approximately 250 companies 

The shopping centre and the station will be completed in 2019, the office and residential buildings and the hotel in 2020 

In 2020, about 7,000 people work and 1,000 people live in Tripla 

May/June 2018 17

CASE study 

Multiplex appeal 

IFS Applications has transformed Multiplex's international operations into a true Global business, 

integrating it's management solutions within a consistent and coherent whole 

Multiplex is one of the world's 

leading construction 

companies. With over 5,000 

employees and US $4 billion in 

revenue, it has completed over 1,000 

large-scale projects since 1962 - 

including commercial, sports and 

healthcare - in Europe, Canada, 

Australia, the Middle East and India. 

After a review of its information 

technology systems, the company 

realised it needed stronger support for 

its core business processes. Multiple 

systems with limited functionality had 

been implemented separately in different 

regions. Processes were inconsistent, 

and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets were 

often used to fill functional gaps. It was 

time-consuming to pull information 

together to produce reports, even when 

analysing a single project. With some 

systems nearing 20 years of age, staff 

had to navigate outdated user interfaces 

and switch between applications to do 

their work. Support for mobile devices 

was also lacking. 

Multiplex's senior management could 

see that many benefits would flow from 

a single instance software solution that 

allowed them to drive global 

consistency in contract and project 

management processes, coupled with 

increased visibility and control over 

project costs and revenue. In a search 

for a new technology partner to replace 

its legacy systems, the company found 

a good fit with IFS Applications. 

"One of our decisions in selecting IFS 

Applications for our preferred ERP 

software was that we believe it is agile 

and has the flexibility to cope with our 

growing needs," said Charlie Bolt, Chief 

Risk Officer at Multiplex. "We're not using 

all of the components yet but there is a 

level of confidence that if we can define 

what we want, IFS will work with us to 

deliver it in the most efficient way". 

"We use IFS Applications to manage 

the end-to end process of multimillion 

dollar projects," said Lidia Ribarovska, 

Global Business Systems Manager at 

Multiplex. That includes managing 

customer orders and contracts, 

subcontractor management, purchase 

orders, project planning, time and 

expenses, procurement, materials 

handling, progress tracking, and 

project accounting, with full electronic 

document management and approvals. 

Additionally, IFS Applications can 

handle Multiplex's other requirements 

such as providing a platform for 

integrating new technologies like BIM 

and virtual reality. 

With Multiplex's global project 

portfolio, of particular importance is a 

focus on project accounting with multicountry, 

multi-currency capabilities. 

Since the implementation of IFS 

Applications, Multiplex has 

successfully integrated the 

management and cost control of its 

projects with other accounting 

functions, including the finance and 

general ledger requirements for 

international reporting. 

Multiplex needed, therefore, more 

than a strong project solution - IFS's 

contract management solution, for 

instance, to manage its many types of 

complex contracts and subcontracting 

activity. "Our construction is complex, 

using a subcontracting model with lots 

of interaction and claims both 

upstream to clients and downstream to 

subcontractors," said Bolt. "We can 

now manage the variation orders as 

one row or a hundred - and IFS 

Applications allows us to go into as 

much detail as we want." 

18 

May/June 2018

CASE study 

ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH 

IFS Applications has become a 

valuable business asset. "IFS 

Applications has created an 

unprecedented global repository for 

us," said Ribarovska. "We've got our 

data in one system and it is one source 

of truth." This has streamlined the 

management of Multiplex's projects. 

Brent Peterson, Quantity Surveyor for 

Multiplex in London, added "Whether 

you work as a quantity surveyor, site 

manager, or as a commercial director in 

head office, all users see the exact 

same information. We've got a huge 

amount of transparency in the system 

which we never had before and you can 

see all the reports from one platform - 

where your subcontracts are at, how 

many purchase orders have gone out. 

It's a very clear-cut process and simple 

to use." 

Since implementing IFS Applications, 

Multiplex has reaped the benefits with 

more accurate and up-to-date cost 

reporting. It has increased efficiencies 

in managing contracts, subcontractors, 

purchasing and materials, and can 

deliver better services to its customers. 

Because the cost control component of 

IFS's project solution supports both a 

work and cost breakdown structure 

model, it allows project cost reviews to 

be managed in an integrated way 

without resorting to Excel 

spreadsheets. 

IFS Applications has also been 

designed to manage project change - a 

perennial challenge in the construction 

industry. It offers a range of integrated 

features, including change requests, 

document management, project 

baselining, project budgeting and 

forecast revisions, contract change 

management and audit trails, and 

approval workflow. Being able to clearly 

identify scope changes and manage 

them with a proper integrated workflow 

can significantly improve a project's 

profitability. 

"IFS Applications gives you instant, 

up-to-date information on exactly what 

costs have hit and what our users are 

doing on a project," said Peterson. 

"With subcontractors, it's very clear 

whether things have been done 

correctly and whether any amendments 

need to be made." 

"One of the biggest benefits I've seen 

on site has been in purchasing," he 

added. "Because it's not on paper, 

nothing gets lost, and the new 

receipting process makes it completely 

transparent what goods have and 

haven't arrived." 

MOBILITY BENEFITS 

Multiplex has also benefited from IFS 

Applications' mobility support and is 

looking to expand the use of mobile 

devices for real-time data collection onsite. 

"An example of how mobility has 

already helped Multiplex is the 

document management system. The 

IFS mobile app allows board members 

and others to click on and approve 

documents no matter where they are in 

the world," said Bolt. "IFS Applications 

manages the approval process very 

well - better than our previous system - 

enhanced by the fact that there is 

mobile access. People may not want to 

approve things while on holidays, but if 

it's necessary they do, enabling 

approvals to be made as if you were at 

your desk". 

Since selecting IFS, Multiplex has 

expanded from 35 active projects to 

over 100 across its four major regions. 

"An advantage of IFS is its global 

footprint," said Bolt. "Wherever in the 

world we choose to go, I have 

confidence I'm going to have IFS 

support." The relationship between IFS 

and Multiplex is open-ended, with a 

view to future developments. "What 

makes the future exciting is that we now 

have a software supplier that partners 

with us to help us grow," said Erin 

Pidcock, Operations Manager for 

Multiplex in Australia. "We can grow by 

integrating cost planning, document 

management and mobility, for 

example." Avenues for growth now arise 

organically from staff. 

"There are now people at different 

levels within Multiplex suggesting, 'What 

if we partner with this?' or 'What if we 

build a link to that?'" said Pidcock. "It's 

really exciting for the company to be 

able to work that way rather than just 

concentrating on things that we've 

always done." 

GLOBAL CONSISTENCY 

Key to Multiplex's transformation has 

been a change in culture to make 

software integral to the business. The 

company's processes are now defined 

by a common project administration 

manual with some regional differences. 

Previously, enforced by people, it was 

open to interpretation. "We thought we 

were all doing the same thing before, 

but we all had our own tweaks and 

were going in different directions," said 

Pidcock. "IFS Applications has brought 

us all back to a central core. The way 

that you're looking at a project in 

Australia is the same way you're looking 

at a project in the Middle East or in the 

UK, and some of the biggest rewards 

were from bringing regional differences 

into the core system to enhance 

everyone's understanding of how every 

region worked." 

IMPROVED TEAM DYNAMICS 

The enforcement of consistent business 

processes in IFS Applications has 

improved the quality of information 

delivered to Multiplex's management, 

speeding up decision making and 

producing better business outcomes. It 

has also benefited team dynamics and 

staff morale said Peterson. "Since 

implementing IFS Applications I've got 

more confidence in the IT systems, and 

expanded my ability to develop skills that 

are applicable anywhere in the world," 

Having completed the first stage of its 

transformation in partnership with IFS 

and seen the benefits, Multiplex is now 

looking to the future benefits that 

technology can bring. "Future 

developments enabled by IFS will make 

the working lives of quantity surveyors 

and others on construction projects 

very exciting," said Lane. "As more 

functions are available via mobile 

phones, for example, our efficiency will 

vastly improve. I think there are no 

limits to the technological advances 

that IFS can provide." 

www.ifsworld.com 

May/June 2018 19

SOFTWAREfocus 

Can construction benefit from better planning? 

Ivar Veenpere, co-founder of Ganttic explains why better planning benefits construction 

Planning is key to the successful 

outcome of any project. 

However, directing and 

coordinating human and material 

resources within the construction 

industry brings with it a number of 

challenges. At the heart of all projects 

within the industry are the complicated 

planning of finances, time 

management, materials and supplies. 

Add in the huge array of staff involved 

across any number of the different 

stages of construction, and you have 

the potential to lose sight and track of 

the project in hand. Project 

management teams can struggle to 

keep on top of tasks as they attempt to 

smoothly run a construction project 

from beginning to end. 

Using resource planning software can 

help with a number of problems faced 

by those working within the 

construction industry. Ganttic is an 

online resource planning tool, that you 

can use for managing a project 

portfolio while utilising resources with 

maximum efficiency. You can create 

clear and comprehensive visual plans 

that give you an instant overview of all 

your resources and projects. 

Ganttic is designed to be used in 

whichever way best fits the 

organisation's needs. For example, a 

simple resource scheduling system, a 

complex resource management 

system, or something in between, it 

can help to get things done efficiently 

and on time. It has a number of key 

benefits for businesses including: 

Unlimited users 

Up to 10 resources free 

Click-drag-release to start planning 

The ability to assign a task to 

multiple resources 

Assigning custom data fields 

Implementing colour schemes 

Managing resource grouping 

Staffing is one of the key areas in 

which construction needs a clear and 

consistent eye on who's doing what 

and where they're doing it. Ganttic is 

best used within the sector to coordinate 

specific teams within any one 

project. As companies grow they often 

find that the concurrent increase in 

staffing levels can lead to logistical 

nightmares. 

The solution Ganttic offers is the 

ability to give each manager within a 

team the tools to see where their 

employees are, when they are busy 

and when they have available time. 

Clear delineation of activity leads to 

greater efficiency across the whole 

business. One particular Ganttic client, 

that works alongside the construction 

industry, found that when the team 

grew from 15 employees to 400 over a 

period of five years they needed a new 

way for their project managers to 

understand exactly what their 

consultants were doing. With 95% of 

their consultants on the road they 

needed to find a software package that 

gave them clear visibility on staffing 

levels and potential pinch points. 

Having found that Microsoft Outlook 

was now obsolete for their needs, the 

resource planning options offered by 

Ganttic gave them a clear insight into 

the months ahead. What would their 

consultants be doing? Were they 

understaffed, overstaffed or likely to 

face any issues? All could be seen 

across the Ganttic interface, giving 

them a clear and detailed idea of where 

to add resources as well as issues that 

could arise from any miscalculation. 

20 

May/June 2018

Tekla Structural Designer does it all – advanced analysis, automated 

steel, concrete, composite, Westok, wall, slab and foundation design, 

drawings, calcs and BIM integration that actually works. Everything 

you need, available in one product. 

Tekla Structural Designer – Software created by Engineers, for Engineers 

www.tekla.com/uk/products/tekla-structural-designer 

TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

SOFTWARE focus 

There's no point expecting a member of 

staff to be in one location, if the 

resource tool suggests that their work 

is at the opposite end of the country. 

Being able to have a number of 

people working on any one document 

at the same time allows project 

managers within different teams to see 

what is going on across the company. 

Another Ganttic client had eight project 

managers who used the resource 

planner to schedule work for 100 

employees. Tracking changes and 

adapting them to the planner keeps 

everyone engaged, avoids staffing 

issues and reduces potential blips 

within the system. Total transparency of 

workload is key to successful use of 

the software. The customised colour 

schemes within the resource planner 

also give clients clear visibility on the 

whereabouts of staff across a project 

or scheme before issues arise. 

It goes without saying that ironing out 

these problems can help construction 

companies with tight budgets and 

falling profits. Unfortunately, the 

economic downturn continues to 

plague the industry. With construction 

output down 0.8% in February 2018, 

due predominantly to a continued 

decline in repair and maintenance 

work. Therefore, investment in a system 

that can help avoid expensive mistakes 

can only be of benefit. 

Moving on from staffing but not 

necessarily finance, a resource planner 

can also give the construction industry 

a helping hand in the area of machinery 

management. Essential equipmentbased 

resources must be managed 

closely to understand where and how it 

is being used, while making sure it is 

available when needed. 

By managing the resource accurately, 

the construction company can also 

make sure the machinery is fully 

utilised, maximising the potential return 

on what may have been a sizeable 

investment. 

Ganttic's package offers a solution to 

this, especially through the ability to 

use the drop-and-drag method for 

planning. This allows managers to 

move resources around, simply and 

efficiently. If a key piece of equipment 

is suddenly delayed it is easy for the 

planner to move the resource to a new 

delivery date, as well as establish the 

implications for the rest of the project. 

Moving around the rest of the 

resources, whether they are people or 

vehicles, is then easy to facilitate 

using the same drop-and-drag option. 

This means managers can update 

their co-workers to the new schedule 

in real-time, without having to contact 

them directly. 

Avoiding miscommunication is 

something the UK construction industry 

is keen to do as it's costing millions of 

pounds. A report published in March 

noted that up to £13 billion pounds is 

being lost in construction projects in 

the UK due to poor communication 

between parties. 

Conducted amongst 344 respondents 

working within the UK construction 

industry (including project managers) it 

found that in a worst-case scenario, an 

average of nearly 1500 man-hours had 

been lost per project. In addition, 

respondents believed that an average 

of 15% of the overall cost of the project 

was also lost thanks to poor 

communication. Other issues included 

costs, timings, progress updates, 

project management and the lack of a 

clear understanding of the impact of 

decisions on other parties involved in 

the project. 

All of these issues can be resolved 

with the correct use of a planning 

resource. This means managers do 

not need to second-guess the 

movement of resources, and the 

impact these may have on the bigger 

picture of a project. 

Ganttic allows staff to understand the 

entire process of a project and keep on 

top of changes as they go along. With 

a number of different users allowed, 

key staff can truly manage their 

workloads efficiently and coherently. 

Whichever country they are in, Ganttic 

keeps the team informed and 

resources efficiently planned. 

www.ganttic.com 

22 

May/June 2018

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Organised by

SOFTWARE review 

Not just a façade 

Graphisoft's newly released ARCHICAD 22 focuses on Façade Design as its lead feature 

Graphisoft used its UK ARCHICAD 

User Conference, held in London 

in May, to launch ARCHICAD 22, 

the latest version of its architectural design 

software. The new release focuses on 

several of its design features, along with 

improvements in construction modelling 

performance, information management 

and 2D performance. 

FAÇADE DESIGN 

One of the most interesting features of 

ARCHICAD over the years has been 

Façade Design - the creation of repeatable 

patterns to add a distinctive style to large, 

anonymous structures. With ARCHICAD 

22 Graphisoft has taken the feature and 

remastered the workflow to provide more 

flexibility in providing hierarchical curtain 

wall systems using modular patterns. 

The new façades are created using 

standard graphic software output, or 

freestyle sketching, and applied to either 2D 

and 3D elevations in a natural design 

environment. One of the examples shown at 

the UK User Conference used sketches of a 

leaf which were scaled up to create striking 

façade designs on the side of a building. 

Developing repetitive patterns within 

ARCHICAD 22 is simple. All you need to do 

is to outline the bit of the sketch you want to 

use, then copy and paste to create the 

pattern. When applied, ARCHICAD ensures 

that the curtain wall system being 

created is both structurally correct 

and adheres to local 

requirements for 

documenting and listing. 

Complex curtain wall systems can be 

created within Graphisoft's native BIM 

environment using the modular patterns, 

which are automatically positioned to 

provide precise vertical and horizontal 

junctions, for finishing off with a selection of 

louvres and other accessories. The façades 

are created as BIM components within 

ARCHICAD, which allows document 

standards to be maintained, and for 

customisable, scale-sensitive 

representations of the components to be 

produced fully detailed. It also allows 

schedules to be created with very accurate 

lists of details of frames, mullions and other 

accessories. 

Designs can be enhanced further by 

utilising the recently released 

ARCHICAD/Rhino/Grasshopper Live 

Connection tool. This allows users to draw a 

couple of 2D lines and then develop them 

further to assemble complex patterns using 

Grasshopper's algorithmic workflow, 

working on the Grasshopper canvas to 

create any pattern of façade that can be 

described using the software. Using the 

tools you are, in effect, deconstructing the 

design and placing them in a 

Rhino/Grasshopper workflow with its 

numerous extensions, which enables 

you to perform total 

design optimisation and validation. If you 

can think it, you can do it! 

PARAMETRIC CUSTOM PROFILES 

Whilst Rhino and Grasshopper enable you 

to think outside the box, you mustn't forget 

ARCHICAD's parametric capabilities, which 

can be used to create intelligent profiles for 

walls, beams and columns - or you can use 

those available from a comprehensive 

library of profiles. This allows you to define 

parametric edges to profiles using the 

Profile Editor and to play around with offsets 

or cutouts within walls, etc. You can do this 

on the fly, or save the profiles attributes with 

the profile you have created or downloaded. 

Here, again, an example was provided at 

the User Conference which showed a 

curved profile being inserted in a wall, and 

subsequently partitioned to add window 

frames, one of which had a top hinged 

opening. A refinement to this tool enables 

"Custom Geometry Modifiers," which uses 

one Profile to describe several different 

custom wall, column and beam geometries. 

By adjusting the dimensions of the 

Parametric Custom Profile's skins, the same 

Profile can be fitted into several different 

details in the project. The height of different 

layers in composite structures, for example, 

can then be adjusted individually. 

24 

May/June 2018

SOFTWARE review 

An element's parameters can also be 

used in connection with logical 

expressions to derive new properties and 

property values. This enriches the 

information that can be stored - the 'I' 

component in BIM - allowing users to 

define a calculation rule for each element. 

This would typically be used for tagging 

or filtering elements, presenting them in 

graphical, tabular or model formats - or 

standard Excel formats. Any property value 

containing a valid URL would automatically 

become a live URL link on an interactive 

schedule, connecting to a website or 

online data source of different sized 

components for incorporation in variable 

parametric designs. 

The logical expressions, or property value 

definitions, are based on user-defined 

expressions, and are composed using 

simple data fields. Users can create 

Element Properties using numeric, text or 

even Boolean data, and then use these 

properties to tag or filter elements and 

present them in any graphical, tabular or 

model output. 

STAIR AND RAILING 

ENHANCEMENTS 

Like Façade Design, Stair and Railing 

enhancements have figured large in 

ARCHICAD's new feature lists, and this year 

is no different. I presume that with all other 

design elements producing predictable 

shapes and volumes, both of these provide 

a platform for an architect's creativity to 

shine through. Hence, following requests 

from numerous ARCHICAD users, 

ARCHICAD 21's flagship feature has been 

further improved in the new version of the 

software. The new Stair and Rail 

enhancements allow you to visualise and 

use Stair Headroom for collision detection (I 

am not entirely sure if that means within the 

design of the model itself, or heads and 

beams in close conjunction). Stair 2D 

documentation also boasts improvements 

that help maintain country-specific 

representation standards, and there are 

new developments for sloped Railings and 

Railing Panels which allow for more 

accurate modeling. 

FASTER & SMOOTHER 

Adding advanced modelling features is 

rather pointless if they come at the expense 

of slowing the computer down. Graphisoft 

has kept pace on the hardware front 

though, utilising GPU accelerated computer 

graphics processing units to handle 

compute intensive element fills and cut and 

cover surfaces. The capabilities of multicore 

CPUs are further optimised by using 

patent pending algorithms, speeding up 

and smoothing the operation of continuous 

panning and zooming in background 

images. This is on top of ARCHICAD's 64- 

bit architecture which facilitates the display 

of large models, whilst optimising the 

performance of multi-core CPUs when 

working on large models. 

A significant performance booster, though 

(and mentioned in our review last year) is 

Graphisoft's Predictive Background 

Processing, which takes advantage of 

unused computer capacity to anticipate 

potential future actions and prepare for 

them in the background - making them 

immediately available for use, if required, in 

the largest of projects. 

DOCUMENTATION AND FILE EXPORT 

A number of other user interface features 

have been enhanced to extend the 

labelling, IFC export and screen resolution 

capabilities of the software, and there has 

been a small tweak to the collaborative 

Teamwork tool. 

Users can make documents more 

readable or informative by selecting 

combinations of drawing primitives (lines, 

arcs, polylines), plus Text Blocks 

(including Element-related Autotexts) and 

then saving and using them as a Label. 

That gives scope for some imaginative 

uses of labelling. 

ARCHICAD 22 has also improved the 

quality and precision of exported 

Component and Material information to 

IFC2x3 and IFC4. This is important to 

create schedules, calculations and cost 

estimates based on data related to 

Building Materials, individual Composite 

Skins, and Complex Profile parts. 

The representation of the fine details of 

the ARCHICAD icons, lines, texts and 

other graphic user interface elements now 

boast a much sharper look, with ultra-high 

(4K and 5K) resolution monitor screens 

offering much sharper display of details. 

ARCHICAD 22 also includes an 

Automatic Element Reservation facility in 

Teamwork, enabling elements to be 

reserved in a fraction of a second, even in 

the case of large element selection sets. 

Please note, though, that this new feature 

is available only with a GRAPHISOFT 

BIMcloud User License. 

VISUALISATION 

And, finally, ARCHICAD 22 comes with 

Maxon's latest CineRender engine, 

providing professional visualisation 

processes within ARCHICAD, including 

new stereoscopic and spherical 

renderings created by combining multiple 

cameras. That allows 360 degree or dome 

renderings to be created. 

www.graphisoft.co.uk 

May/June 2018 25

SOFTWAREreview 

Reinforcements have arrived 

SCIA Engineer 18 introduces Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete in 

its latest release, providing increased strength with thinner slabs 

We are all familiar with the way 

that steel reinforcement rods 

strengthen concrete slabs - in 

fact it is now inconceivable that any 

sizeable concrete poured building 

could be erected without them. But now 

there is a new product available that 

enhances the process further, providing 

additional flexibility and strength, and 

which is already taking a sizeable share 

of the market on the Continent. 

Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete 

(SFRC) developed by Bekaert, the 

leading wire producer, has had its 

design principles and rules included by 

SCIA in a 3D structural analysis & 

design software for the first time. It's an 

exciting new breakthrough in reinforced 

concrete design, hence its prominent 

position in the newly released SCIA 

Engineer 18. It also extends the range 

of possibilities that can be achieved 

when designing concrete floors. 

SCIA Engineer 18 is the latest version 

of the company's extensive structural 

analysis and design software which 

incorporates other significant 

enhancements besides SFRC, and new 

functionalities that enable structural 

engineers to streamline workflows and 

design with advanced materials - and 

to take advantage of new BIM working 

processes. These include the 

advanced optimisation of composite 

floors, including studs layout, profile 

size and support for web openings, as 

well as extended capabilities of 

punching shear design, and support of 

add-ons for structural glass and 

foundation design. 

SCIA Engineer 18 has also extended 

its links to other engineering 

applications, in particular Revit and 

Tekla Structures with extended 

information support for concrete and 

steel detailing. 

STEEL FIBER REINFORCED 

CONCRETE 

But first the Steel Fiber Reinforced 

Concrete. SFRC is an excellent 

alternative to traditional reinforcement 

for specific applications, such as civil 

engineering structures (including 

bridges), structural rafts, concrete 

roads, underwater concrete structures 

and similar projects. The Steel fibers 

are discontinuous, three-dimensionally 

orientated, isotropic reinforcements 

mixed into the concrete, and are 

capable of bridging cracks at very 

small crack openings, transferring 

stresses and strengthening any postcracks 

in the concrete. 

There are a number of benefits to 

using SFRC, but prime amongst them 

is the ability to strengthen the loadbearing 

capacity of concrete whilst 

reducing concrete slab thickness (or 

you can get the same load-bearing 

26 

May/June 2018

SOFTWAREreview 

capacity with less concrete). SFRC also 

has better flexural properties, and load 

capacity is not diminished by concrete 

cracks. It also has reduced absorption 

of water and chemicals and reduces the 

site labour traditionally employed to 

handle conventional reinforcement. That 

all adds up to reduced project costs. 

There are three types of Bekaert's 

Dramix steel fibers supported by SCIA 

Engineer 18. These are already added 

to the material library, with editable 

values, which provide engineers with 

greater flexibility in the way that they 

can work with SFRC material. Importing 

each of the different types allows 

engineers to calculate the amount of 

fibers needed to be used for different 

capacity fills, and to perform standard 

ULS and SLS checks. These satisfy two 

principal design criteria: the ultimate 

limit state (ULS) and the serviceability 

limit state (SLS), which set performance 

criteria (e.g. vibration levels, deflection, 

strength, stability, buckling, twisting, 

collapse) all of which must be met when 

the structure is subject to loads. 

Any design process involves a number 

of assumptions. The loads to which a 

structure will be subjected to must be 

estimated, and the sizes of members 

checked together with other design 

criteria to ensure that you are designing 

a safe structure whilst attaining its 

appropriate functionality. As part of this, 

SCIA Engineer 18 allows linear and 

nonlinear calculations to be performed 

with real material behaviour simulation 

with SFRC to predict cracking stages. 

Graphical output for SFRC analysis can 

be illustrated by different stress-strain 

diagrams that clearly show the behavior 

of the material. 

SFRC is more common in Europe, and 

is currently being used for a third of all 

industrial floors (that's 5 million cubic 

metres with each cubic metre 

containing an average of 5km of wire), 

and will soon be included in Eurocode 

2020. SCIA say that demand for the 

material will continue to rise, but with 

the release of SCIA Engineer 18 you 

can start using it here and now. 

Cyril Heck, chief product and 

marketing officer, SCIA, commenting on 

SFRC said: "I am proud of the cocreation 

project with Bekaert. It has 

enabled us to deliver an innovative 

solution for steel fiber reinforced 

concrete, allowing users to realise the 

benefit of using this material in their 

designs. We are truly taking the 

software to the next level, not only in 

terms of additional functionality, but 

also enhanced usability - underscored, 

of course, by a refreshed SCIA brand 

image." 

ENHANCED USABILITY 

A lot of the other enhancements in this 

release involve improved functionality. 

Of significance are the new 3D 

navigational control capabilities, 

improved default settings for new 

projects, speeding up their launch, and 

the automatic generation of code-based 

combinations. 

The latter automatically applies the 

coefficients for combinations of loads - 

for instance climatic and wind load 

generators using built-in, or userdefined, 

parametric templates for 

different geometries using powerful 

load generation tools, besides 

providing the most comprehensive 

implementation of Eurocodes, including 

National Annexes, US codes and other 

international standards. 

SCIA Engineer 18 can also create nonlinear 

combinations of loads directly 

from linear combinations, a feature 

frequently requested by users. The 

design of composite beams and floors 

gives engineers access to a new 

Autodesign function that automatically 

proposes more economic design while 

still complying with the code and with a 

transparent calculation report so that 

users can control what is happening at 

all times. 

The punching shear check, initially 

featured in SCVIA Engineer 17, has also 

been improved. This is a one-click 

punching shear design check based on 

automatic recognition of the location 

and shape of the columns, and their 

eccentricity and rotatio, but also the 

content around the columns such as 

existing beams, and openings nearby. 

The simplification of buckling settings 

was one of the most frequently required 

improvements requested by SCIA 

users. The automatic determination of 

buckling length (and for LTB, for 

torsional buckling, etc.) has always 

been a powerful feature of SCIA 

Engineer. However, it could also be 

intimidating due to the numerous 

dialogues and settings that users had 

to plough through. This is now 

dramatically simplified, presenting all 

options to the user in a unique, 

redesigned dialogue. 

One new user of the feature, Jeroen 

ter Steege of Aveco de Bondt, 

Netherlands, and a member of the SCIA 

Insider program, has already endorsed 

the improved features. "The new 

solution is useful and much easier to 

use. In my experience it's more userfriendly 

that results are immediately 

available in the dialog box itself (factors, 

lengths) and there is only one place to 

define settings," he said. 

Also of interest is the support for 

structural glass and foundation design. 

The former involves the design of 

frameless structural glass assemblies in 

armour plate or toughened glass with 

unique analytical requirements. 

EXTENDED INFORMATION FLOW 

IN BIM 

SCIA Engineer 18 is also taking 

advantage of new Revit and Tekla 

Structures links which now boast 

extended information support for 

concrete and steel detailing. 

Specifically, the link between Tekla 

Structures and SCIA Engineer supports 

the bidirectional roundtrip exchange of 

data and transfer of end reactions to 

facilitate the design and detailing of 

connections in Tekla Structures, and the 

Revit link now supports the export of 

reinforcement for beams and slabs. 

If you are just getting to grips with 

SCIA Engineer, you can visit the 

corporate SCIA website, below which 

now features a dedicated learning area, 

with improved materials to help new 

users familiarise themselves with the 

software faster and to enable existing 

users to deepen their knowledge. 

www.scia.net 

May/June 2018 27

INDUSTRY comment 

The key to survival 

Jonathan Hunter from Elecosoft explains why making the right strategic choice of project 

management software is fundamental to good corporate governance in construction businesses 

After the collapse of a household 

name in any sector it would be 

unusual for there to be no concern 

about either its causes or implications for 

the industry and the economy. For 

construction, it became clear early on 

that 2018 would be a year of stress and 

scrutiny. Thankfully, the dust is starting to 

settle, with 9000 Carillion jobs now 

secured and work in progress to save 

more, infrastructure investment trusts 

starting to recover, and government 

monies helping to back up some subcontractor 

liabilities. 

Pain is still being felt by suppliers and 

contractors countrywide. Yet, with the 

receding of initial concerns the 

mainstream debate has turned to reflect 

on causal factors and consider how 

similar situations can be avoided. 

It is becoming evident that corporate 

governance failings may have been a 

major factor in this case, and as no 

business wants to be under the spotlight 

in this way, it's essential that all 

construction businesses learn from this 

situation, and act to protect themselves 

for the future. 

What does this mean in practice? Good 

overall governance in construction 

businesses depends significantly on the 

systems and procedures that are used to 

oversee and control projects themselves, 

just as critically as those that enable 

leaders to oversee and control 

traditional elements of business 

management. 

Building the foundations of good 

construction governance must start with 

making a smart, enterprise-wide choice 

of project and programme management 

platform, embracing the opportunities for 

better visibility and transparency that 

come with digital data and technology. 

GOVERNANCE FUNDAMENTALS 

Governance is recognised by most 

businesses, leaders, markets and 

governments as an essential control 

process. It spans all the mechanisms 

through which leaders manage and 

control the operation, and forms a 

foundation of trust for shareholders, for 

employees and for customers. There is 

no single model for good corporate 

governance, but the principles are well 

understood, and protect the interest of 

everyone involved. 

When success rests on the delivery of 

projects, it is essential that good 

governance extends down to, and 

between, every project. The strong 

control and clear visibility that Boards are 

expected to have over operations and 

finance must be true for all the projects 

that go to make up those operations and 

channel that finance. The constant and 

careful mitigation of risks that is expected 

at a corporate level is just as critical at 

project level. Yet the 

importance and role of project 

governance is much less commonly 

recognised or discussed. 

UNSHAKEABLE FOUNDATIONS 

How can construction businesses ensure 

that their governance is unshakeable? 

Builders know that true stability must be 

built from the ground up. When your 

revenue foundations, resource 

requirements, supply chain 

dependencies and customer 

relationships are all centered around 

project delivery, that must mean 

excellence in project governance. 

So, what is good project governance? 

Here's one definition: "The governance of 

portfolios, programmes and projects is a 

necessary part of organisational 

governance. It gives an organisation the 

required internal controls, while 

externally, it reassures stakeholders that 

the money being spent is justified." 

The Association for Project 

Management believes the benefits of 

good governance include the 

minimisation of investment, avoidance of 

common reasons for failure, and 

motivation of staff through better 

communication. The application of good 

governance minimises risks arising from 

change and maximises the benefits. 

Those familiar with project management 

software will notice that this list correlates 

perfectly with the benefits of good Project 

28 

May/June 2018

INDUSTRYcomment 

Portfolio Management (PPM) software. 

Project governance must be addressed 

on every level, not only for individual 

projects, but also how all projects are 

managed, coordinated and controlled, 

and how this links back up to the 

organisation. "Project governance 

extends the premise of governance into 

both the management of individual 

projects via governance structures and 

the management of projects at the 

business level through coordination, 

planning, and control," according to the 

Project Management Institute 

PROJECT CONTROL 

Any project manager will agree that 

keeping control, maintaining visibility, 

tracking project progress, and being able 

to communicate with stakeholders, 

cannot be done without professional 

software. But it also delivers clear 

governance benefits: 

Visibility of project progress, resource 

usage, and the critical path. It's 

effective on one project, but when 

you can see all projects it transforms 

a business's understanding of things 

such as risks to a stage completion 

on major projects, which can impact 

cashflow. 

Smart decision-making. Making the 

best decisions is impossible without 

full information. It is central to good 

governance, which the United 

Nations defines as "the process of 

decision-making and the process by 

which decisions are implemented (or 

not implemented)." 

Better communication and increased 

transparency. Good software enables 

easy, fast reporting and information 

exchange. Communicating better with 

both shareholders and stakeholders 

is vital to reverse the current erosion 

of trust. 

Enabling collaboration. This is not 

only a fundamental of BIM, but also of 

effective teamwork. Enabling multiple 

project planners to access and input 

into programmes ensures a single 

version of major project progress. 

Enterprise software eliminates 

laborious updates and integrates 

progress updates direct from site. 

Efficient and on-time delivery, every 

time. That is essential for reputation, 

customer relationships and a full 

order book. The time certainty gained 

with PM software also enables 

accurate projections to help you 

assure delivery, minimise delay, 

reduce retentions. 

Data gathering. PM software enables 

constant, timely, complete gathering 

of as built data and responses to 

change, forming a critical evidence 

base for any future delay and 

disruption claims, which can carry 

reputational as well as financial risk. 

Risk reduction. Analysing impacts 

and implications of every decision, 

change or issue minimises project 

risk. The ability to see this on 

aggregate across the business 

delivers an early warning system of 

corporate level risk, opening a vital 

window of opportunity to act. 

BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC 

SOFTWARE SELECTION 

Releasing these myriad business and 

governance benefits cannot happen 

without smart, strategic software 

selection. Yet many businesses continue 

to select their software at a project level, 

not enterprise-wide. 

Our customers are often best practice 

leaders. Willmott Dixon has been 

promoting excellence through its FIIT 

Time project. It switched from MS Project 

to Powerproject for all construction 

planning, enabling consistent 

programme management and best 

practices. The company now empowers 

every level, engaging site managers 

directly into the progress tracking 

process via our Site Progress Mobile 

app. The progress, resource, and 

impending timeline risks on its live 

projects are now more visible to 

management as well as to project 

leaders. They benefit from more current 

and accurate information, which delivers 

more control overall. 

The benefits of a single strategic choice 

of platform become even clearer as 

businesses scale. Southern Peru Copper 

Corporation manages more than 300 

simultaneous mining, construction, 

planning and other projects using 

Powerproject Enterprise. Carlos Noriega, 

Plant Engineering manager, says: "For 

the first time, we can see and review all 

our projects, and monitor the progress of 

them all. We now have better 

communications between our 

departments, our coordinators, and with 

our contractors." 

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND 

GOVERNANCE 

Making strategic choices on software 

may seem worlds away from maintaining 

reputation on the financial markets, or 

from ensuring actual business survival - 

but it is anything but. 

Construction firms are working hard to 

embrace the opportunities that digital 

technology presents, for good reason. 

Their business sustainability will be 

measured increasingly on their adoption 

of digital and other modern methods of 

construction. Creating confidence about 

the ability to manage BIM projects, 

leverage digital data, integrate offsite, 

and utilise modern materials, will be 

essential. The piecemeal adoption of 

point solutions for project fundamentals 

cannot support such confidence or 

endorse the existence of a modern digital 

business model. 

The OECD's Corporate governance 

principles recommend that companies 

disclose their frameworks to build trust 

and transparency. We suggest that the 

same holds true for project governance. 

Disclosing that you have made a 

proactive, reasoned choice of software to 

sustain project control, assure delivery, 

support transparency and deliver 

powerful visualisations on every project, 

cannot do anything but enhance 

customer confidence. Plus, relationships 

and reputation are now formally 

considered as intangible financial assets 

by markets and investors. 

We urge construction players not to 

forget the fundamentals supported by 

what is often considered a routine piece of 

software. Make smart, reasoned and 

strategic software choices, think across the 

entirety of your organisation, and it really 

can be a tool for survival and success. 

www.elecosoft.com 

May/June 2018 29

CASE study 

Robots close the gap 

Andrew Watts, CEO Newtecnic, discusses the construction industry's move towards robotics and 

mass-customisation, with robots closing the gap between designing and making 

Digitalisation, robotics and 

automation, have produced 

significant quality and productivity 

benefits in manufacturing over several 

decades. In construction however, while 

digitalisation has very successfully 

automated design, the disconnect between 

designing and making is ripe for an 

industrial revolution. And while innovative 

product manufacturers use technology to 

move from mass-production to masscustomisation, 

the construction industry is 

only just picking up on DfMA (Design for 

Manufacture and Assembly) for repetitive 

mass production of standardised 

components. This use of what can be 

considered an outmoded idea seems to be 

a retrograde step because the opportunity 

now exists for construction to deploy the 

very latest technology and thereby take the 

lead in manufacturing. 

LOCAL SKILLS AND MATERIALS 

Rather than design components and have 

them made in remote factories to be 

delivered, and then assembled on-site, 

Newtecnic facilitates the use of 

Construction Labs where local skilled 

craftspeople using locally sourced 

materials, deploy very advanced production 

machinery in temporary factories. These 

small but efficient manufacturing cells are 

dedicated to producing mass-customised 

components. And as robots become more 

advanced they will interact with 

Construction Labs generating, moving and 

installing both new and replacement 

building parts. 

Large-scale projects that Newtecnic is 

currently partnering on have been 

specifically developed to facilitate the use of 

robots and automation. For example, the 

King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) 

Metro Hub in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was 

engineered by Newtecnic for maintenance 

by robots and future on-site component 

production very much in mind. We are 

currently overseeing construction of the 

building envelope, and in this role, we 

examine and approve the work of several 

contractors, ensuring the project is 

completed efficiently and accurately. Our 

remit also ensures that all building 

components and fabrications are quality 

assured before they are brought to site. 

This detailed and long-term overview 

allows us to future-proof the building by 

design engineering for different types of 

current and envisaged developments of 

robots, drones, 3D printing and additive 

manufacturing, for decades of 

maintenance to come. 

WORK STATION 

KAFD Metro Hub's 200-meter footprint is 

located in an increasingly busy, densely 

occupied and prestige urban area. 

Because it is at the heart of a citywide 

transport system comprising 6 new metro 

lines, 85 stations and more than 100 miles 

of track, future maintenance of and 

changes to the structure that necessitate 

interruption to rail services, are very 

undesirable. Since the building's envelope 

is wide and low, crane access after 

completion will prove inconvenient, 

disruptive and expensive. Also, because 

the building is a centrepiece of the city and 

has been designed for a life of at least 60 

years, the issues of automated cleaning, 

maintaining and updating the building over 

this period have been a central 

consideration since the project's outset. 

The Metro Hub's envelope comprises a 

modular cassette system that uses 

adjustable steel 'spider' fixings to support 

high performance concrete panels over a 

waterproof membrane. The system has 

been engineered to make it suitable for 

future robot access, movement and 

operation. This means that robots 

referencing the building's 3D cloud hosted 

digital-twin, in conjunction with GPS, can 

calculate routes and locations on the 

building façade. While robots will literally do 

the heavy lifting, replacing and carrying 

away damaged components, airborne 

drones can be used for inspection and 

cleaning. This provides significantly better 

and safer close up access - with high 

resolution images - than is available using 

cradles, as it allows rapid and detailed 

inspection from the comfort of an office 

rather than an exposed, frightening and 

potentially hazardous top-slung cradle. 

The KAFD Metro Hub has been designed 

so that inspection, monitoring and precise 

measurement of normally concealed areas 

30 

May/June 2018

CASEstudy 

Newtecnic facilitates Construction Labs where local craftspeople deploy very advanced production machinery in temporary factories. 

behind panels and within the completed 

building's fabric are executed by small flying 

Lidar and camera equipped drones and 

robots. High resolution building and system 

performance data collected this way can be 

shared with, and coupled to, on-site 

Construction Labs equipped with 3D 

printers that fabricate components that 

perfectly fit the structure. Other projects 

around the world that the company is 

engineering are planned to deploy 

Construction Labs from the earliest stages 

of construction. In this way, mid 20th 

century methods and devices of massproduction 

are being replaced by new 

automated, very flexible, highly controllable 

and adaptable sets of tools efficiently 

operated at a local level. 

ECONOMIC BOOST 

This way of working is a boost to the 

economy of the country or region where the 

building stands. It reduces imports, 

generates local employment and upskilling, 

and cuts the environmental and financial 

costs of transportation. Also, rather than 

building a single purpose Design for 

Manufacture and Assembly factory, which 

requires years of operation to turn a profit, 

small flexible manufacturing assets are 

easy to scale through the building lifecycle. 

This means that the right equipment is 

always available to match current needs. 

The environmental implications of this 

change in construction methodology are 

significant to both the industry and society, 

as waste from constructing and maintaining 

buildings starts to become a thing of the 

past. It is estimated by the European 

Commission that 25-30% of all waste in 

Europe is generated from construction. 

Similar figures are echoed around the 

world. The waste is heavy, dirty, expensive 

to remove, and often is not recycled. The 

introduction of digital technology makes 

construction as efficient as any advanced 

manufacturing process where precise 

component quantities are made to order. 

As these have assured quality and exacting 

specifications, based on the as-built 

construction, they are guaranteed to match 

the structure and have predictable 

performance over a predetermined 

lifecycle. Additional value is produced 

because, as in a modern masscustomisation 

car factory, every part is 

accounted for and there is no waste. 

Deploying modular and cassette façade 

design methodology means buildings can 

easily be modified to take advantage of 

new technologies as they arise. In coming 

years high performance concrete and steel 

components will have evolved to become 

stronger, lighter and more durable. New 

building materials will also be developed 

and faster 3D printers working on- or offsite 

will make optimised components to be 

fitted by new types of robots. Many 

building owners and operators will, by 

these means, simply adapt, refresh and 

renew buildings throughout their lives to 

suit contemporary needs. 

LIGHTWEIGHTS RULE 

When promoting the lightweight Dymaxion 

house in the 1920's, Buckminster Fuller 

used to ask prospective buyers, "How 

much does your house weigh?" The same 

question should now be asked about every 

building, because each extra kilo requires 

more energy and resources to 

manufacture, transport and assemble, as 

well as to heat, cool, clean and maintain 

after construction. Immediate and 

substantial long-term saving can be made 

when weight is reduced. Therefore, precise 

weight calculations are made for all 

Newtecnic projects so that true and 

consequential extended costs can be 

accurately calculated. It is important to 

calculate weight when components are 

being repurposed or recycled, so that 

machines with the capability to handle 

components can be more precisely 

optimised when their designers know 

exactly how much they will have to lift. 

Like a constantly updated digital usermanual, 

all the information required to 

construct and operate buildings and their 

interconnected machines and systems can 

exist within the building's 3D digital-twin 

simulation model. This is available on the 

cloud for investigation, examination and 

testing at any time, from the earliest design 

stage. Concepts for robots and drones are 

included together with manufacturing, 

construction and disassembly instructions 

and methods. 

The merging and blending of these 

advances indicates that construction is on 

the cusp of a revolution, and I am proud 

that Newtecnic is in the vanguard of a 

technological movement that solves many 

of the cost, environmental, energy, logistics 

and waste problems that the industry faces. 

Applying first principles, appropriate 

technology, and thinking of buildings not 

just as a kit of parts but as systems that can 

change, develop and adapt over time, 

extends their useful life while staying 

relevant for future generations. This can 

happen when good ideas and engaged, 

upskilled people combine with exciting 

technologies to make the construction 

industry more agile, environmentally 

positive and economically sustainable - 

while producing aptly impressive buildings 

that enhance our cities and society. 

www.newtecnic.com 

May/June 2018 31

YOUR GUIDE TO 

4 

5 

6/10 

9 

7 

8 

1 

2 

12 

14 

15 

17 11/13 

35 

41 

40 

16 

18 

20 

33 

32 

29 

23/42 

21 

25 26 

24/27 

19/30 

22 28 

3 

31 

42 

*location guide 

not 100% accurate 

SCOTLAND 

GLASGOW 6 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 

Gordon McGlathery 

Tel: 0141 354 8993 

Fax: 0141 353 9315 

training@cadassist.co.uk 

www.cadassist.co.uk 

ACDEGHIJKLMNOPQTX 

FIFE 7 

GlenCo Development 

Solutions 

Contact: Jack Meldrum 

Tel: 01592 223300 

Fax: 01592 223301 

jackm@glenco.org 

www.glenco.org 

A C M K 

ABERDEENSHIRE 8 

Symetri 

Contact: Craig Snell 

Tel: 01467 629900 

training@symetri.co.uk 

www.symetri.co.uk 

A B D H I J K M N O P S X 

ABERDEEN 1 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01224 224421 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

A C E L H O 

LARBERT 9 

TMS CADcentre 

Contact: Craig Hamilton 

Tel: 01324-550760 

info@thom-micro.com 

www.tmscadcentre.com 

A C E L H O 

GLASGOW 10 

Excitech Ltd 

Contact: Alan Skipp 

Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 

info@excitech.co.uk 

www.excitech.co.uk/cut2015 

A B C D E H K L M N Q S X 

IRELAND 

DUBLIN 4 

Paradigm Technology Ltd 

Contact: Des McGrane 

Tel: +353-1-2960155 

Fax: +353-1-2960080 

dmcgrane@paradigm.ie 

www.paradigm.ie 

A C M G K L 

SOUTHWEST 

BRISTOL 2 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




NEWBURY 3 

RWTC Ltd 

Contact: Richard Willis 

Tel: 01488 689005 

Fax: 01635 32718 

richard@rwtc.co.uk 

www.rwtc.co.uk 

A M 

Bristol 12 

Micro Concepts Ltd 

Contact: Peter Hurst 

Tel: +44 (0) 8432 898162 

training@microconcepts.co.uk 

www.microconcepts.co.uk 

A B D I J K M N O P S T X 

N.I 

BELFAST 5 

Pentagon Solutions Ltd 

Contact: Tony Dalton – Training 

Services Manager 

Tel: +44 (0) 2890 455 355 

Fax: +44 (0) 2890 456 355 

tony@pentagonsolutions.com 

www.pentagonsolutions.com 

A C D E G K L 

TRAINING COURSES OFFERED KEY: 

AUTOCAD AND LT : 

AUTOCAD P&ID TRAINING: 

AEC/BUILDING SOLUTIONS : 

3D MODELLING & ANIMATION: 

AUTOCAD ARCHITECTURE: 

FM DESKTOP: 

GIS/MAPPING : 

REVIT: 

VAULT FUNDAMENTALS 

AUTODESK VAULT FOR INVENTOR USERS 

A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

J 

VISUALISATION : 

AUTODESK CIVIL : 

INVENTOR SERIES/MECHANICAL : 

NAVISWORKS TRAINING : 

PRODUCT UPDATE COURSES 

INVENTOR PUBLISHER : 

GOOGLE SKETCHUP 

CHARACTER ANIMATION : 

AUTODESK SIMULATION : 

FACTORY DESIGN SUITE : 

AUTOCAD ELECTRICAL : 

K 

L 

M 

N 

O 

P 

Q 

R 

S 

T 

X 

For further information about authorised CAD training or to advertise on these pages please contact: 

Josh Boulton on 01689 616 000 or email: josh.boulton@btc.co.uk

SOUTH/EAST 

GUILDFORD 22 

Blue Graphics Ltd 

Contact: Matt Allen 

Tel: 01483 467 200 

Fax: 01483 467 201 

matta@bluegfx.com 

www.bluegfx.com 

A D R K 

HERTFORDSHIRE 23 

Computer Aided 

Business Systems Ltd 

Contact: Gillian Haynes 

Tel: 01707 258 338 

Fax: 01707 258 339 

training@cabs-cad.com 

A C D E K H 

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 42 

Causeway 

Technologies Ltd 

Contact: Sue Farnfield 

Tel: +44 (0)1628 552134 

Sue.Farnfield 

@causeway.com 

www.causeway.com 

A C D E K 

LONDON 24 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 


Tel: +44 (0)208 622 3027 

Fax: +44 (0)208 622 3200 




BERKSHIRE 26 

Cadpoint 

Contact: Clare Keston 

Tel: 01344 751300 

Fax: 01344 779700 

sales@cadpoint.co.uk 

www.cadpoint.co.uk 

A C D E K 

CENTRAL LONDON 27 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




SOUTHHAMPTON 42 

TRAINING 

NORTH LONDON 28 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




OXFORDSHIRE 25 

Man and Machine 

Contact: Robert Kenny 

Tel: 01844 263700 

Fax: 01844 216761 

training@manandmachine.co.uk 

www.manandmachine.co.uk 

A D I J M N O P Q X 

BERKSHIRE 30 

Mass Systems Ltd 

Contact: Luke Bolt 

Tel: 01344 304 000 

Fax: 01344 304 010 

info@mass-plc.com 

www.mass-plc.com 

A E F 

HAMPSHIRE 31 

Universal CAD Ltd 

Contact: Nick Lambden 

Tel: [44] 01256 352700 

Fax: [44] 01256 352927 

sales@universalcad.co.uk 

www.universalcad.co.uk 

A C M E K H 

MILTON KEYNES 21 

Graitec - Milton Keynes 

Contact: David Huke 

Tel: 01908 410026 

david.huke@graitec.co.uk 

www.graitec.co.uk 

A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P Q S T X 

High Wycombe 19 


Contact: Kerrie Braybrook 

Tel: +44 (0) 8432 898162 




Cambridge 29 

THE NORTH 

MIDLANDS 

MANCHESTER 11 

CADASSIST 

Contact: 


Tel: 0161 440 8122 

Fax: 0161 439 9635 




MANCHESTER 13 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




NORTH EAST 14 

Symetri 


Tel: 0191 213 5555 




YORKSHIRE 15 

Graitec - Bradford 

Contact: Isobel Gillon 

Tel: 01274 532919 

training@graitec.co.uk 



NOTTINGHAM 33 

MicroCAD - Nottingham 


Tel: 0115 969 1114 




NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 32 

AIT Spatial Ltd 

Contact: Philip Madeley 

Tel: 01933 303034 

Fax: 01933 303001 

training@aitspatial.co.uk 

www.aitspatial.co.uk 

A C D E F G K L 

BIRMINGHAM 35 

NORTH EAST 16 

Graitec - Durham 


Tel: 0191 374 2020 




LANCASHIRE 17 

QUADRA SOLUTIONS 

Contact: Simon Dobson 

Tel: 01254 301 888 

Fax: 01254 301 323 

training@quadrasol.co.uk 

www.quadrasol.co.uk 

A C M K 

YORKSHIRE 18 

Symetri 


Tel: 01924 266262 




SOUTH YORKSHIRE 20 

THE JUICE GROUP LTD 

Contact: Sarah Thorpe 

Tel: 0800 018 1501 

Fax: 0114 275 5888 

training@thejuice.co.uk 

www.thejuicetraining.com 

A C D E K R 

CHESHIRE 41 

Excelat CAD Ltd 

Contact: Vaughn Markey 

Tel: 0161 926 3609 

Fax: 0870 051 1537 

Vaughn.markey@ExcelatCAD.com 

www.ExcelatCAD.com 

B N 

Excitech Ltd 


Tel: 01992 807500 

Fax: 01992 807574 




Riverside House, Brunel Road 

Southampton, Hants. SO40 3WX 


Tel: 02380 868 947 





Contact: Emily Howe 

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 716200 




Armada Autodesk 

Training Centre 

Contact: Steven Smith 

Tel: 01527 834783 

Fax: 01527 834785 

training@armadaonline.co.uk 

www.armadaonline.co.uk 

A D E M K H

CASEstudy 

Grampus1 

Graphisoft is setting up a student design competition for a project 

with a difference - a scheme to break the logjam of elderly people in 

expensive care homes, developed by our own David Chadwick 

Ihave sat in as a judge on a number of 

architectural student design competitions 

over the years, and one thing stands out. 

The entries that show the most attention to 

detail and demonstrate that the student has 

undertaken a considerable amount of 

research feel as if they were originally 

intended as a final dissertation for their 

degree courses. 

There is nothing wrong with that, of course, 

apart from the fact that it disadvantages 

those students who have fully entered into 

the spirit of the competition, taking extra 

time to explore the realms of architecture 

and their imagination. The problem is that 

you can't nail down which is which. Better to 

provide a brief which all entrants have to 

follow - more akin, you might say, to the 

realities of life, with complete licence for 

each student to interpret as they wish. 

This is the approach that Graphisoft are 

taking by setting up just such a competition 

for any student in full or part time study on 

an architectural course, in further education 

or any other training establishment. It will be 

based around ARCHICAD, Graphisoft's 

widely-used architectural software. 

The brief is to design a campus, or science 

park on a disused industrial site, set in a 

pleasant valley on the edge of a small town 

in the West Country. The campus is part of a 

proposed project to convert a disused 

paper mill with the detritus of years of 

recycling waste paper, sitting on a vast 

apron of concrete doused in who knows 

what chemicals, into a small piazza and 

tree-lined campus, complete with pleasant 

walkways, public areas and restaurants. 

The site is within a short walk of the town 

centre. There's a bonus to it, as well. A river 

runs alongside it, and the West Somerset 

steam railway crosses the Northern end as 

it wends its way to Minehead. 

The project has been set up by me to 

address two major areas of concern in the 

region, namely the highest proportion of 

elderly people in the country, and secondly, 

few jobs for the young, except in 

supermarkets and as care assistants. To 

find decent work young people have to 

leave the area, which only exacerbates the 

first problem. The Grampus1 Project is 

designed to alleviate the problem by 

utilising the latest technology to facilitate 

care in the home, and in doing so enabling 

them to delay or completely eliminate their 

eventual incarceration in a care home, with 

the exorbitant expense for families and local 

councils that this inevitably entails. 

The project is also designed to provide 

employment in hi-tech industries for local 

people, as the campus would include a 

range of integrated units to support people 

in their own homes - a communication 

centre to maintain 24-hour support for 

patients, design and development of care 

equipment, implementation teams, and 

standards and care practice teams, staffed 

by NHS and CQC personnel, as well as 

providing an auditorium and meeting rooms 

to host conferences and other sessions. 

The Project also suggests that a number of 

apartments can be configured within the 

campus to house genuine patients who 

would act as guinea pigs for the research 

teams, and a residential unit for carers who 

would be more highly trained, acting as 

partners with the technology and the 

interface between the passive care unit in 

each home - utilising, of course, the latest 

voice assistants linked into a secure cloud 

server, independent of Amazon or Google 

variants. 

There are secondary considerations, as 

well. The town in question, Watchet, is 

subject to the Government’s housing policy, 

namely 'build more houses', and has 

responded in probably the same way as 

everywhere else. The bits you can count, 

the number of houses to be erected in each 

conurbation, is agreed and put in motion, 

but the bits you can’t count - the 

infrastructure, the schools and shops to 

support the incoming population and the 

local job situation - are ignored. 

Consequently, West Somerset Council 

has agreed to build hundreds of houses on 

the edge of the town, which will mainly 

house more old people - with the burden 

yet again falling on local ratepayers. If the 

project goes ahead, it will draw in people 

with higher skills - software and design 

engineers - bringing money into the 

community and much needed competition 

for local youngsters. With an increased 

level of income for the area, the 

infrastructure that is currently lacking will 

then become a possibility. 

There are lessons to be learned here, and 

the project is already gathering pace after 

being recently highlighted in the local press. 

I am also grateful for Graphisoft’s support, 

as the company is currently planning to use 

it as the brief for their Student Design 

Competition, which is currently being set up 

for a full launch in the very near future. 

This is an indication that when needs 

become most pressing, local action can 

come up with the solutions that politically 

stretched bodies cannot contemplate. To 

put it all in a construction perspective, the 

structure needed to support such a project 

requires true integration and collaboration 

between all partners, and owes much of its 

genesis and implementation to the 

Government's BIM Mandate which I have 

been following for the past twelve years. 

34 

May/June 2018

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY 

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NOMINATIONS OPEN 4TH JULY 2018 

This year’s awards ceremony will be held at the 

Radisson Blu Portman Hotel London 

For sponsorship enquiries or more information on this leading industry event please visit 

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Contact josh.boulton@btc.co.uk 

or call 01689 616000 

Sponsored by: 

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To learn more and try it out yourself visit www.bentley.com/tideway 

© 2018 Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Bentley, the Bentley logo, Navigator, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its 

direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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