CC Sep-Oct 2020

Construction
Computing
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Real-time VR rendering
CAD School's Steve Brann looks at the
most popular 3D rendering applications
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
VOL 16 NO 05
Oculo AI
Immersive off-site construction
project viewing
Celebrating 15 years of
construction success
Voting for the 2020 Construction
Computing Awards is now open
LEGION Simulator
Planning a safe working
environment for the pandemic
@CCMagAndAwards

CONTENTS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
CONTENTS
MATERIAL BENEFITS 10
Adding Materials to the Vectorworks 2021
Resource Library provides Vectorworks users
with an unlimited range of possibilities, writes
David Chadwick
LEGION SIMULATOR 12
Bentley's LEGION simulation software for
predicting the movement of crowds and
pedestrian flows through stations and airports
is being used to plan socially distanced offices
REMOTE SITE VIEWING 14
High-tech is employed to assist a low-tech
function as Oculo provides immerseive off-site
construction project viewing
EPSON SURECOLOR SC-T2100 20
Epson's new wireless A1 printer provides a
perfect solution for architects and engineers
who work in a small office, from home, or onsite,
writes David Chadwick
NEWS................................................INDUSTRY NEWS....................................................................................................6
• GUIDANCE ON DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT • MICROSOFT POWER BI INTEGRATED WITH ASITE
SOFTWARE REVIEW.........................REAL-TIME VR RENDERING..............................................................................16
• STEVE BRANN AT CAD SCHOOL UK REVIEWS THE TOP THREE REAL-TIME 3D RENDERING APPLICATIONS
CASE STUDY....................................EXCITECH DOCS................................................................................................22
• EMBEDDING EFFICIENCIES AT BES LTD WITH EXCITECH DOCS
INDUSTRY COMMENT.....................COUNTY VIEWS..................................................................................................24
• CAROL MASSAY CONSIDERS THE VIEWS OF TWO LOCAL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY ORGANISATIONS
CASE STUDY....................................A TEAM EFFORT.................................................................................................26
• GFA IMPLEMENTS ATVERO'S INFORMATION AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
INDUSTRY COMMENT.....................PLANNING AHEAD.............................................................................................28
• WHY TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE AT THE HEART OF ENGLAND'S PLANNING REFORMS
AWARDS..........................................THE CONSTRUCTION COMPUTING AWARDS...................................................30
• ONLINE VOTING IS NOW OPEN FOR THE 15TH ANNUAL CONSTRUCTION COMPUTING AWARDS
TRAINING MAP..................................AUTODESK TRAINING.........................................................................................32
• YOUR GUIDE TO AUTODESK TRAINING
CASE STUDY....................................EARTHMOVING....................................................................................................34
• SITECH USES DRONES TO ENHANCE ITS ABILITY TO TRACK AND MANAGE EARTHMOVING OPERATIONS
July/August 2020 3

COMMENT
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David Chadwick
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Comment
Staying apart
by David Chadwick
It looks like relaxing the social distancing
rules in the UK is having the outcome
we all feared. We are now having to
impose local lockdowns in towns and
areas where partying youngsters have
shown little respect for their families and
older people and a surge in positive
testing throughout the country has forced
the Government to impose a six-person
limit indoors and outdoors to any
socialising – for an indefinite period.
We are now entering the second wave
but it does not appear to be causing a
second surge in the number of fatalities
from Covid-19, probably due to improved
methods of treating the virus and the fact
that most of those at greatest risk remain
ultra-cautious about their behaviour –
maintaining distances from others,
wearing face masks, refraining from
unnecessary travel on public transport
and their interaction with friends and
relatives. Hugs and kisses are consigned
to the past, and questions are being
asked on social media sites whether it is
permissible to hug grandchildren they
haven’t seen for months.
It is undeniable that lockdown, social
distancing and face masks have played a
large part in reducing the impact of the
first surge of the virus, and that the
relaxation of the rules have contributed to
its recent upward surge, so it
understandable that the continuation of
such measures is essential whilst we wait
for one of the promised vaccines – or we
return to normal and let it take its course.
allowing us to reach the tipping point of
herd immunity.
Hence the rules in place governing the
workplace that are mitigating against
wholesale surges back to the office,
frustrating the Government’s call for
workers to, in effect, get back to work.
We have already discussed the rise in
working from home, encouraged by the
increase in IT capabilities that have proved
that it works – but not for everyone or
every company. A survey conducted in
Brighton which looked at the number of
people who could WFH in different cities,
suggested that while 40% of people in
Brighton could do so, that number shrunk
to well below 20% in Midland and Northern
towns. The obvious cause is the ratio of
office and IT based jobs to manufacturing,
warehousing, retail and hospitality, where
the worker’s presence is still required.
The majority of people working from
home have enjoyed the experience and
would like to continue doing so, but
sooner or later they are going to have to
return to their offices, even if it is only for a
couple of days a week. Whatever
happens, though, their offices will need to
be reorganised to meet guidelines for safe
spacing of staff and public transport hubs
will have to cope with a greater flow of
passengers and pedestrians.
There are no guarantees either for the
length of time that such constraints will
need to stay in place. Attempting to stiffen
the public resolve, the UK Government is
suggesting that they will last until
Christmas at least, but notwithstanding
their advice, it could be that social
behaviour and working practices have
already been modified and we will never
return to the free and easy mass mingling
that we had previously.
Hence the focus, again, on planning for
social distancing, covered in this issue by
Bentley Systems with its LEGION
application, which is used to design safe
working environments for office employees
- which also include air flows within
confined spaces - and are a criticalpart in
the creation of safe pedestrian
thoroughfares in bus and railway stations
and other public concourses.
4 September/October 2020

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INDUSTRY news
GUIDANCE ON DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
Members of the National
Housing Federation and
UK BIM Alliance are collaborating
on a joint project to help
Housing Associations implement
digital asset management.
This week they launched
an introductory brochure,
called 'BIM 4 Housing Associations:
Asset Management in the
21st Century'.
The project team is led by
Jack Ostrofsky, Head of Quality
and Design at Southern Housing
Group, and funded by A2
Dominion, Notting Hill Genesis,
Peabody, Optivo and Southern
Housing Group - all members
of G15, the group of London's
largest housing associations
who own or manage more than
600,000 homes.
This project is developing a
set of exemplar documents,
compliant with the UK BIM
Framework which together
with a report will provide a
quick-start guide to implementing
digital processes.
They will cover:
Microsoft Power BI, the
cloud-based business
analytics service, has been
integrated with the Asite platform.
Power BI reports can
now be embedded into the
Asite platform dashboard,
enabling fast and easy access
to user's project data.
The new integration will allow
Asite users to aggregate,
analyse, visualise, and share
their data on Asite via Power BI
reports. The accessibility to this
data will enable users to make
more data-driven informed
decisions.
As part of the integration,
Asite users can customise
Power BI report dashboards
• The business case for BIM
for Housing Associations,
including examples of projects
in action
• The benefits of applying BIM
processes to existing buildings
• Exemplar Asset Information
Requirements for asset management
• Exemplar Exchange Information
Requirements for development
projects, and Advice on
the procurement process and
appointment of relevant professionals.
Sarah Davidson, Implementation
Co-Lead at the UK BIM
Alliance, added, "Client-led
requirements for digital information
management are an essential
part of the process for
implementing BIM across industry,
and not just in the housing
sector. The Alliance is pleased
to support this project. We hope
that its outcomes will support
and influence all those working
in digitising our industry."
www.ukbimalliance.org
MICROSOFT POWER BI INTEGRATED WITH ASITE
such as Common Data Environment,
Defects, Health &
Safety, and Project Financials
dashboards for example.
Power BI's cloud-based analytics
service provides a 360º
view of the business, enabling
fast and easy access to data,
data discovery and exploration,
and collaboration across organisations
by allowing anyone to
visualise and analyse data.
Asite has created data connectors
to extract and present Asite
data in PowerBI. These reports
can then be seamlessly
embedded on users' unique
Asite dashboard, providing
greater project visibility.
www.asite.com
GETTING MORE FROM GEOTECHNICAL DATA
OpenGround Cloud is a
new cloud service that
enables geotechnical professionals
to access reliable
geotechnical data for better
engineering decision support
and to improve collaboration
across the entire supply chain.
OpenGround Cloud offers a
complete solution for planning,
data entry, borehole log
production, lab data management,
reporting, visualisation,
and more. The cloud service
improves collaboration across
multidisciplinary project teams
and significantly increases the
value of geotechnical data by
making it easily accessible to
key project stakeholders.
Scott Devoe, senior director,
geotechnical information management,
Bentley Systems,
said, "OpenGround Cloud provides
a single enterprise
repository of multiple data
sources for all ground investigation
projects - a longsought
improvement for geotechnical
and geological professionals.
It eliminates the
need to retain copies or to
exchange data and ensures
that everyone in the supply
chain has the correct access
rights to the most current version.
As a result, OpenGround
Cloud helps minimise project
delays due to encountering
unforeseen ground risks during
construction."
www.bentley.com
MANAGING REVIT WARNINGS WITH IDEATE
Ideate Software has launched
Ideate Dashboard for
Autodesk BIM 360, a data
visualisation service that uses
proprietary technology to provide
information related to
Revit warnings within the
Autodesk BIM 360 environment.
Autodesk's BIM 360
software connects project
teams and data from design
through construction.
Ideate Dashboard pulls
design information from Revit
models stored within BIM 360
projects in order to identify and
flag design warnings, so teams
can immediately address the
issues, reducing mistakes and
rework and keeping projects on
time and within budget. The
Ideate Dashboard can benefit
project executives who need
instant access to the status of
all projects in their portfolio,
BIM and VDC managers who
need to understand and
address any potential design
issues in Revit models, and
Revit users who need to see
where their project stands at a
particular moment.
www.ideatesoftware.com
6
September/October 2020

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INDUSTRY news
CAROL MASSAY LEADS WICE AWARDS PANEL
The European Women In
Construction & Engineering
Awards has been designed to
find the most exemplary
women within construction
and engineering across
Europe. To encourage companies
to employ and train more
women in these sectors, entry
for the awards is by nomination
only.
Carol Massay, CEO of Easy-
Build, was delighted when she
was asked to take part in the
WICE awards being head
judge on the consultant category.
The opportunity for Carol
to become a judge at the
WICE awards came off the
back of her participation last
year. At the 2019 awards Carol
Massay was a panel speaker
and then was given the opportunity
to present the winners
award for the Best Consultant
of the Year at the prestigious
event held in London.
Last year's winner Roni Savage
has gone on to great
things since winning, doing
interviews for the BBC Business
News, Parliamentary discussions
for small businesses
and now the Policy Chair Construction
for the FSB (Federation
of Small Businesses) as
well as running her own business,
JOMAS Associates.
www.wiceawards.com
MODEL COORDINATION FOR THE FULL TEAM
Autodesk has launched a
new model coordination
workflow between two of its
flagship products, Navisworks
and BIM 360 Model
Coordination. The new integration
enables construction
teams to manage the entire
model coordination workflow
including clash detection and
issues management in a
common data environment
from within a single solution.
Before a construction project
breaks ground, Navisworks
empowers general
contractors to identify and
resolve clash and constructability
issues, and BIM
360 Model Coordination
enables design and trade
partners to create, track and
self-check issues that arise
during the model coordination
process. Now, users can
automate clash detection in
BIM 360 Model Coordination,
as well as create and assign
issues from either Navisworks
or BIM 360.
This new workflow enhances
existing coordination workflows
for Navisworks users
and empowers BIM 360 Model
Coordination users to do more
specific clash detection and
analysis in Navisworks.
www.autodesk.com
3D MODELS GIVE A SENSE OF PLACE TO DCSK
London agency DCSK is
using 3D building models
from Bluesky to inform the
design of high profile urban residential
developments. Derived
from the most up to date and
accurate aerial photography the
Bluesky 3D models allow DCSK
to place a design within its real
world context, consider sensitive
view and vantage points
and communicate ideas to
clients, planning authorities and
the public. DCSK has used a
number of models from
Bluesky including a detailed
representation of central Birmingham
fo the design of a 24
storey student accommodation
on Lancaster Street.
DCSK uses 3D models from
Bluesky to provide context to
and inform the design of projects
such as Curzon Circle
Student Accommodation and a
number of current projects in
London. Photogrammetrically
derived from stereoscopic aerial
photography, the Bluesky
models are fully rendered and
are provided as either wireframe
or block models in a format
suitable for use in both
CAD and GIS software.
All Bluesky 3D models are
supplied complete with a Digital
Terrain Model depicting
the topography of the underlying
surface.
www.bluesky-world.com
CREATING 'NET ZERO HOMES' IN DERBY
The University of Derby is
joining local partners from
across Derbyshire to spearhead
the 'green recovery' by
making homes in the county
more energy efficient. Methods
and approaches to 'retrofit'
energy efficiency features in
houses across Derbyshire will
be the focus of an online Low
Carbon Homes conference
running over three mornings
from 6-8 October, supported
by the University alongside
Derbyshire County Council,
Chesterfield Borough Council
and South Derbyshire District
Council. The free conference is
aimed at local housing associations,
developers, suppliers,
installers, house builders and
community organisations in the
D2N2 region.
The event follows the government's
recent pledge of £50
million for local councils to
carry out retrofitting work, as
well as a list of recommendations
made by the UK Citizen's
Assembly for Climate Change
for finding local solutions to the
challenge. The goal is to make
Derbyshire a 'net zero' area in
terms of its carbon emissions
ahead of the government's
2050 target. To book a place at
the online conference, visit:
www.lowcarbonhomes.uk/events
8
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TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

SOFTWAREreview
Material benefits
Adding Materials to the Vectorworks 2021 Resource Library provides Vectorworks users with an
unlimited range of possibilities, writes David Chadwick
Iam going to start this review by
breaking the rules. I will refer to another
application in favourable terms before I
discuss the latest features in Vectorworks
2021. Discussing the new release with
Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar, I
mentioned the introduction of some tools
that immediately brought to mind one of
the best features of SketchUp - the
Push/Pull tool - and I asked him how
much the revolutionary design software
influences the development of
applications like Vectorworks.
Dr. Sarkar was quite open about it.
Although there are constraints in the
basic design engine that prevent
SketchUp from developing a full-bodied
BIM tool, otherwise catered for by various
third party BIM add-ons, some of its
intuitive and direct design tools are very
popular and where feasible could be
taken onboard in future versions of
Vectorworks.
Accordingly, Vectorworks has enhanced
its Push/Pull tool in Vectorworks 2021 as
part of its enhanced 3D modelling
capabilities, like the Line tool, which
creates a streamlined method of splitting
the face of a solid, allowing users to
manipulate the geometry. Other modelling
enhancements include the simplification
of editing solids that had been created
with fillet, chamfer, shell solid and more.
Rather than navigating through layers of
history, you can simply highlight a face or
edge for direct editing and speed through
the 3D modelling process.
SMART OPTIONS
Vectorworks is well known for its wide
scope of features covering all elements of
architectural and landscape design,
enabling users to take a project through
every stage of its development within the
same application. The quid pro quo of
that is the sheer volume of tools that are
available for the user. To reduce the effort
needed to dig out a specific tool from the
appropriate palette, Vectorworks places
the tools you need to use at the tip of the
mouse arrow.
At any point in the design workflow,
users can tap the space bar on the
keyboard or click on the middle key on
the mouse and activate a tool palette
comprising tools related to the functions
you are working on, or recently used
tools. Fully customisable for most tool
sets, the floating tool set at your fingertips
can show icons only, text, or a description
of the tool you might wish to use.
The range of tool sets available with this
option include: drawing views; snapping
parameters; navigation; 3D modelling;
space planning; GIS; MEP and others
that you might like to keep fully available
and very handy.
The Smart Options Display tool is
complemented by the Quick Search tool,
which you can find and activate any tool
or menu suggested by typing in your
request. Activated by clicking on the 'F'
key on the keyboard, rather like Google,
the tool displays suggestions based on
the first letters keyed in until it hits the
function you want. Once selected, the tool
or menu associated with it is
automatically activated. The next time you
want to use that tool, it is automatically
presented as the first search result.
The Quick Search feature can also be
used to set 3D views and to align layer
views. Both functions are designed to
speed up and simplify the user interface.
There is another tool that takes the
software's performance levels up to
another level, and that is the Vectorworks
Graphics Module Cache. Used on multiprocessor
machines, this optimised VGM
speeds up file loading, providing faster
transitions when changing 3D views and
layer visibilities and eliminating delays in
3D navigation and flyovers.
10
September/October 2020

SOFTWAREreview
Vectorworks 2021 - Smart Options Display
Vectorworks 2021 - Enhanced 3D Modelling
SMART MARKERS
Documentation workflow management is a
big feature of Vectorworks 2021, and Smart
Markers are a major part of that, allowing
customisable section, interior elevation,
reference, detail callout and other types of
markers to be created from scratch with
unique graphics representations and autocreation
of hyperlinks. This streamlines
navigation through multi-page production
plans and construction documentation.
As the styles are saved in the Resource
Manager, users can create graphic libraries
for any type of design project, or object
styles can be updated throughout a
complete set of drawings, or back
references made to associated drawings -
making it much easier to find files,
references, plans, elevations and so on.
MATERIALS
Placing Materials in the Resource Manager
is probably the most important change in
the new release. Besides providing an
object's graphical attributes and building
materials in one location, and its 2D and
3D representation in plan and section view,
Materials can now be provided with a wide
range of construction properties, product
data and physical characteristics, such as
its classification, texture, rendered
appearance, etc. This is the sort of data
you would expect to find with any material,
but it also includes its field strength,
thermal coefficients, embodied carbon,
density per cubic foot, acoustic impedance
and other attributes.
As physical attributes, this information can
be used for many different types of analysis,
and exported for use with structural analysis
software, environmental studies, acoustic
analysis, CFD calculations and much more.
Taking that one step further, materials can
be applied to multi-component features
such as walls and floors, and a final value
calculated from a compound analysis of all
materials in use. The amount and type of
data that can be applied to any material is
entirely customisable, and therefore offers a
great deal of scope for future applications.
Materials can be applied to any object
selected from the Object Info Palette,
including hardscapes, landscape areas,
walls, slabs, roofs, stairs and structural
members. Since it uses the software's
2D/3D data visualisation tools, Materials can
be used as a quick check of early designs
to see if all material data is correctly
assigned to a BIM model.
LANDMARK SITE ENHANCEMENTS
Site modeling is one of the main features of
Vectorwork's Landmark product, which
comes under the same Vectorworks 2021
release. Contour shaping has been
enhanced in it, making it easy to create and
remodel the site with grade networks. These
networks automatically upgrade contours
associated with grading requirements when
the enclosed shape and the project plot
boundaries are changed, according to the
underlying GIS site information.
One of the features I particularly liked, and
which I am sure landscape designers will
appreciate as well, is the ability to assign
Materials to different layers of subsoil on a
building plot. As a Material resource it
provides yet another example of its
potential usage. On one of Vectorwork's
own YouTube videos you will find a defined
plot which has an exploded view of the
different qualities and types of soil that it
contains, perhaps from a clay heavy loam
at the base, to an enriched loom above it
and on top a compost rich layer, all of
which have different growing
characteristics for particular plants. This
provides an opportunity for a planting
scheme to be created which is beneficial to
each plant type.
STRUCTURAL GRIDS
The customisable Grid Line tool rounds off
a substantial software upgrade for
Vectorworks 2021, streamlining the creation
of structural grids, viewable in all drawing
views and in multiple configurations,
condition or building orientation. The grids
are also IFC compatible and accompany
model exports to aid collaboration. Grid
Lines can be created in a plan view and
appear in elevations, sections and detail
drawings and can be customised for unique
presentations. They also come with
automatic grid numbering and
resequencing for faster documentation.
CONCLUSION
I enjoyed discovering the interesting
developments and potential benefits that
Vectorworks have provided their users in
this new release. And I can’t help but
wonder if the developers of other rival
applications will be casting envious glances
at the software’s fluency in handling data
exchanges too...
www.vectorworks.net
September/October 2020 11

SOFTWAREfocus
Standing out from the crowd
Bentley's LEGION simulation software for predicting the movement of crowds and pedestrian
flows through stations and airports is being used to plan socially distanced offices for the great,
but limited, return to work
Energy analysis for social distancing (above) and office occupancy check (below)
in LEGION
all other Olympic events, including the
London Olympics, where besides
calculating the capacity of each of the
stadia and the rate at which people
could occupy them, it combined the
analysis with schedules that were used
to ensure that spectators leaving one
arena at the close of a session weren't
faced with the exodus of an adjacent
stadium.
As a result of the global pandemic,
LEGION is now being used to design
office floor spaces by positioning desks
and other features to accommodate the
UK government's 2-meter guidelines.
This includes creating pedestrian
circulation guidelines and schedules so
that the bulk of the staff won't rush off to
the coffee room for the mid-morning
break at the same time, and that the lifts
are operated in a socially safe manner
by limiting usage or creating a single
directional flow system.
Managing large groups of people
in all types of circumstances
has not suddenly occurred
overnight. For some years now
organisations have used software
solutions to plan station pedestrian
movements, calculate the speed at
which a football stadium can be filled or
evacuated in an emergency, and to plot
emergency exit routes from busy office
complexes. One of the companies
involved in providing the data and
analytical models to cope with mass
people movement is LEGION, which
software provider Bentley Systems
acquired roughly two years ago. Bentley
acquired the company to supplement its
infrastructure planning applications and
renamed the software LEGION
Simulator CONNECT Edition as part of
their OpenBuildings brand.
LEGION has been around for some
time. It was first used for the Sydney
Olympic Games, and subsequently at
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Creating a safe working environment also
relies on balancing ventilation and
installed air conditioning systems within a
building. OpenBuildings can be used to
model air flows throughout an office,
providing the information required to
effectively position and optimise the
number of personal working spaces an
office can accommodate. Office rents
haven't been reduced, and a balance has
to be drawn between the number of
people able to come to work and be safe.
CROWD CONTROL
There are two methods of modelling
pedestrian movement. As we saw in our
last issue, Oasys' MassMotion endows a
multitude of 'agents' with attributes and
tasks and charges them with individually
navigating a route through a 3D model
of any area under analysis. Bentley's
12
September/October 2020

SOFTWAREfocus
Placing social distancing stickers in LEGION
LEGION, on the other hand, has
compiled a large library of different
types of crowd and their behaviour
patterns since its initial outing at the
Sydney Olympics. It populates a
scenario with one or a combination of
such crowds in different numbers to
simulate a range of activities.
Crowds come in all shapes and sizes.
On a station concourse many of them
would be pulling along cases or waiting
for train information to be displayed
before rushing to get a seat when the
gate opens. Spectators leaving a sports
stadium would emerge in condensed
numbers at a fair pace, whilst shoppers
in a mall would wander at leisure. one
of the issues faced by the London
Olympics was the large shopping mall
located close to the main Olympic
Stadium. In fact, LEGION has sufficient
numbers and types of crowds to suit
any location or event, and to simulate
the behaviour of different crowds
coming together.
The composition of groups can also
be quite dissimilar and could depend
on the characteristics of different
nationalities. Southern Europeans, for
instance, would probably feel
comfortable with closer crowd densities
than Northern Europeans. Males and
females in large groups would react
differently to certain events and people
with reduced mobility would require
special consideration - all of which can
be built into any simulation.
Besides using LEGION Simulator to
view predictive behaviour and to
explore how pedestrians and crowds
interact with infrastructure and within
buildings, the software is a substantial
contributor to Bentley's OpenBuildings
solution stack, used to design, analyse,
visualise and simulate stations and
other infrastructure projects of any size
and complexity. Pedestrian simulation
scenarios are used to improve the
quality of their design and the use of
their facilities.
PLANNING LONDON 2012
The UK's Olympics Delivery Authority
(ODA) licensed LEGION to
accommodate the requirements of
some of the principal architects and
consultancy firms involved in planning
the event - the principal instigator being
Atkins. Besides controlling the timing of
events and the flow of huge volumes of
spectators over the two weeks of the
Olympics and the subsequent
Paralympics games, it was useful in
siting food carts, security checkpoints
and associated venues. Following its
acquisition by Bentley it has been used
in planning pedestrian flows in major
civil infrastructure projects. Bentley is
also customising the software to
accommodate the government's
COVID-19 requirements with regard to
the optimal usage of office space,
which is proving to be well within the
capabilities of the software.
Recognising that the ongoing social
distancing requirements are presenting
challenges for planning, design, and
operations teams, Bentley is waiving
subscription fees for OpenBuildings
Station Designer and LEGION Simulator
through November 30. The no-fee
policy will support infrastructure,
architecture, and engineering firms who
are adapting existing projects or
planning new safety and security
strategies for public spaces such as
shopping malls, schools and
campuses, hospitals, train and metro
stations, airports, and stadiums.
www.bentley.com
September/October 2020 13

SOFTWAREreview
Remote site viewing
High-tech is employed to assist a low-tech function as Oculo provides immersive off-site
construction project viewing
There are numerous devices on the
market that allow project
managers, contractors, architects
and engineers to keep abreast of work
being carried out on a building site.
None of them, though, replicate the
benefits of a simple visual inspection
where project teams can jointly tour a
project and point out issues that need
addressing. Recent restrictions on
movement may have cut down the
frequency of site visits, but even without
the pandemic the need to get the
relevant stakeholders to visit a project
on a regular basis unnecessarily
disrupts the working practices of the
people involved and it takes time and
effort to visit multiple dispersed projects.
The problem is now very much
resolved with a new application
developed by Oculo AI, which applies
the latest technology to replicate a very
simple and familiar process, replacing
on-site visits with virtual site walks. It's
simple and feels familiar because offsite
viewers can take a tour through a
building site, stop and look at a section
that is causing concern, and make
notes that can be shared with
contractors, clients or anybody else
charged with dealing with a problem.
Oculo AI creates a 3D site view from
images taken by a 360-degree camera
mounted on a hard hat and worn by an
employee when carrying out their usual
site walk. No great expertise is required
except to tour the site regularly so that
successive views are available and
progress made between them can be
assessed. Site managers, working
remotely, can then select and view
specific scenes within the historical
footage by clicking on the plan location,
which allows them to assess whether
the issues raised during earlier 'visits'
have been resolved. Such issues can, of
course, include lapses in Health and
Safety, equipment left lying around and
other common site problems as well as
the more obvious progress assessment.
The company, which was founded by
Tom Kotecki and Wojtek Szymczak, has
only been operating for twelve months,
but it is already being used by several
contractors and asset owners. These
include Ringway Jacobs on a Transport
for London project where there was a
need to monitor work remotely as a
result of COVID-19 and by Mastercraft
at their Claridges Hotel project in
Mayfair, London.
Oculo is way more than just a video
camera however, as it uses artificial
intelligence to stitch together thousands
of photos taken by the 360 degree
camera and create its own 3D map of
the environment, which can then be
plotted onto the customer's original 2D
or 3D model in order to aid navigation.
Crucially, the software doesn't require
GPS as it builds its own 3D model from
the camera's trajectory through the
building, and neither does it require BIM
or any other 3D model to work - a PDF
of a simple 2D site plan is all that's
needed to get started. The output
produced is similar to that of Google
Street View and as such, the site can be
viewed by anyone using a standard
browser. Oculo is typically adopted by
new users as a project management
tool as it enables this visual
assessment of construction work, as
well as ongoing task management
thanks to its collaboration functionality.
TAGGING AND NOTES
The collaboration functionality couldn't
be simpler to use, either. If the Site
Manager, or any other user sees
something that needs attention, they
can add a note on screen to draw
attention to it. That annotation is then
locked to those specific photo frames
and will be visible to anyone else
viewing the site, who can also add in
their own comments or response.
The key points are that Oculo users no
longer need to visit a site in person,
instead conducting a high proportion of
site inspections remotely, which
includes triaging issues, assigning
tasks and following progress.
Observations, notes and actions
identified can then be compiled into
reports far more easily than they
currently are, thus saving project
managers huge amounts of time on
report creation and documentation.
The ability to walk through a virtual
environment, to look around oneself
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SOFTWARE review
wherever you are in the 3D scene and
to zoom in on what you want to see, is
much simpler than searching through a
selection of photographs which have
had to be linked to specific locations or
carefully filed for subsequent retrieval.
This really underlines the earlier point
that high-tech tools are now being used
to achieve far more effective low-tech
outcomes.
OCULO BENEFITS
Oculo cites how the software has been
used to solve a range of frequently
encountered project management
problems on construction sites. Aside
from the progress monitoring aspect,
another important element is the
historical record that is naturally
captured when using Oculo regularly, as
this can play a crucial role in helping
management settle claims and disputes
that hinge on what work was done,
when. Whilst many other digital systems
can already be used to do this, none is
as simple as reviewing visual site
footage from an earlier point in time.
Another benefit is the way Oculo
facilitates more collaborative ways of
working. Everybody with access to the
system can see the same updates and
same level of detail via the Oculo
platform - even including the client, as
we have seen when Ringway Jacobs
opened this up to their client TfL.
This level of transparency makes it
possible for whole teams to triage and
resolve issues collectively via a
conference call, safe in the knowledge
that everyone is seeing the same thing.
As a result, unnecessary travel and its
costs are eliminated, along with
additional delays that might be caused
by key personnel having limited
opportunity to travel to site. This is
especially important during the current
COVID-19 crisis, where social
distancing rules limit the numbers of
people on-site.
WHERE IS IT USED?
The most obvious use cases are for
Project Management and digital
documentation as already described,
but Oculo sees its site view functionality
being gainfully employed in many other
areas as well. For example in
Valuations, where contractors need
visible evidence of completed work to
facilitate faster payments, and in Health
& Safety where the ability to identify
issues that might put a worker at risk is
crucial for making building sites safer
places to work.
Pre-condition surveys is another area
where documenting building condition
prior to restoration work is necessary
but often tricky - or, more critically, for
evidence of malpractice or unsafe
working practices in the event of a
catastrophic fire in buildings
undergoing restoration, such as Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris and Glasgow's
Mackintosh School of Art.
Oculo, as Tom Kotecki freely admits, is
still in development, despite already
being used on a daily basis by a variety
of clients. There are many features on
the roadmap for the next few months
that will extend its capabilities and its
application even further - months, I am
sure, in which the need for remote
working will hardly diminish, as COVID-
19 endures.
If you want to see Oculo in action the
company is holding a webinar on 15th
October. You can sign up for it here:
https://oculo.ai/webinar_signup_oct20.
www.oculo.ai
September/October 2020 15

SOFTWAREreview
Real-time VR rendering
Steve Brann, MD of CAD School UK looks at the capabilities of the top three real-time 3D
rendering applications: Twinmotion, Enscape and Lumion
Once upon a time a rendering of a
3D model of a house with real 3D
trees, grass, people and cars
could take several hours - and that was just
for a still image. Add a walkthrough
animation and we are talking days of
rendering, and adding more than a few
trees with thousands of polygons would
send most machines into a flat spin!
That is now a thing of the past. Now, we
have real-time rendering apps that use
powerful graphics cards and gaming
engines to render scenes. Scores of trees,
people and moving cars can be added
without bringing the system to a crawl, and
direct links to the CAD system of our choice
mean that the workflow is fast and efficient.
On top of this most of them are as quick
and easy to learn as they are to render. At
CAD School we have been teaching
people to use render programs for over 20
years, and most classes for render engines
such as V-Ray and the Cinema 4D render
engine utilised by Vectorworks used to take
well over a day to teach fully. Not so with
these new programs, as a couple of them
can be mastered in well under a day!
Output from these apps not only covers
the main bases of stills and walkthrough
animations, but two of them allow you to
put on VR headsets and walk through them
in real-time, or create 360 degree
movies, providing another form of VR using
Google cardboard devices. The third app
only provides static panoramas. Before you
invest in VR, I thought it would be helpful to
provide an outline of which app does what.
HARDWARE
The three apps which we come across
most frequently in our industry are
Twinmotion, Lumion and Enscape. To use
any of them successfully you will need to
have a high end graphics card in your PC.
If you intend to use a VR headset then you
are venturing into gaming territory.
Large models will also require large video
memory which usually goes hand in hand
with the better cards. If you want to find out
if you have a good enough graphics card
head to:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high
_end_gpus.html. A score of 10,000 plus is
what you'’re after! All three apps will work
with lower spec settings, but investing in a
new PC or graphics card will pay immense
dividends in terms of design performance.
Twinmotion is the only one of the three to
also run on Macs as well as PC's quite
adequately with discrete graphics cards.
However, to use VR headsets you will need
to be running Windows. Lumion and
Enscape are only Windows based.
IMPORTING YOUR MODEL
A key area for all three apps is their ability
to import and synchronise models with the
rendering engine. Lumion has two ways of
achieving this - LiveSync, as the name
suggests, ports the model directly from the
modelling software into Lumion and
automatically updates the rendered view as
the model develops.
All of the major AEC applications -
Vectorworks, Archicad, Revit, Bentley -
have LiveSync plugins, as do SketchUp,
Rhino, 3ds Max and AutoCAD, and models
are imported in a number of formats - Obj,
Collada, Dwg, Maxfile and SketchUp.
The import function not only allows import
of the main model but additional
components and features, such as
furniture, trees and people or secondary
buildings. Rendered scenes are updated
from the latest version of the building
model with a single click. I have seen on
some forums and blogs that there are
many seasoned users who prefer the
import function for their main model as it
gives them more flexible control over the
model density.
Enscape
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SOFTWAREreview
Lumion
Twinmotion from Unreal Engine
Enscape only uses plugins to the modelling
software and most of the control of the
software, such as materials and additional
entourage, must therefore be done in the
host modelling program.
Like Lumion the view can also be
synchronised or disabled. All imports are
therefore handled by the host program and
the use of Enscape is limited to programs
with a plugin, with the Enscape window
becoming merely a render window. Plugins
are however available for the four main
modelling programmes and Rhino.
Like Lumion, Twinmotion has both
Dynamic Link plugins and imports that can
be updated, but unlike the other two
applications Twinmotion neither maintains
the model nor the view in real-time. If the
model needs updating then you must click
on the Dynamic Link plugin or else export
using a supported format and update the
imported file. Dynamic Links are available
with Revit, Archicad, SketchUp, Rhino and
RIKCAD, with a version for Vectorworks
probably becoming available in their next
software release (until then you can use
Cinema 4D export).
Twinmotion can import all types of
components - models, landscape, people
and furniture features - in a very wide range
of formats.
TEXTURES
All three programs have a good array of
textures that support the usual colour
maps, reflection, alpha and bump maps.
Lumion now additionally supports relief
maps, but only for its own materials.
Although reflection is supported by all
programmes, refraction is only supported
by Enscape. Lumion's texture library is
stacked, with over 1200 different materials,
and its extensive material libraries probably
account for its higher cost.
EXTERIORS
In terms of render quality all three do a
great job of producing realistic exteriors,
which, interestingly, are less demanding
than interior renders, which have to cope
with soft shadows and textures. Outdoors,
the ability to accurately simulate the sun's
position and build realistic skies all help to
give great renders for all three apps, but
here again there are differences.
All three applications offer accurate
lighting that respond to the sun's position to
give appropriately hued skies, as well as
sunrises and sunsets. Enscape has some
detailed sliders for the type and quantity of
cloud cover you want, whereas Twinmotion
can set a wide variety of weather patterns
including rain and snow, if set in winter,
which appropriately covers the entire scene
in snow. Lumion has an alternative sky
option called Real Skies which utilises HDR
skies. They do not directly respond to the
sun but instead provide 41 alternatives for
different times of the day and different
weather conditions. Their realism is striking
but they do not have moving clouds and
won't allow for animating the time of day.
PLANTING AND GRASS
This is the heart of all exterior scenes and is
something that would normally bring a
render program to its knees. With a decent
graphics card and plenty of memory all
three programs can handle copious
amounts of trees which really need to react
to the wind for convincing animations.
This is arguably Enscape's weakest area.
Its trees wave in the breeze with the rest of
them but the placement of trees is done
one at a time whereas both Twinmotion and
Lumion have tools to paint forests in
seconds. Enscape's tree library is
somewhat limited, but growing…
Twinmotion has some lovely plant tools
that effectively paint plants and trees in
layers that can be added to and erased in
bulk. The trees also have a unique trick up
their sleeves in that they all have different
growth stages and respond to the seasons
with varying amounts and colour of leaves
and even turn white in the snow.
Lumion makes up for these features
by simply having a huge library of trees
- about 700 varieties just in the
broadleaf section alone - but they don't
respond to the seasons, which puts it in
the shade compared to Twinmotion.
There is a filter called Autumn colours
but it is far from ideal.
Each app handles grass differently too.
Lumion has some fantastic ready made
lawns with all sorts of stripe patterns.
Enscape has the simplest grass of all
which just shows variations in height, but
Twinmotion has the ability to paint with
layers of grass in a number of varieties,
some of which include wildflowers.
ADDING PEOPLE AND CARS
A critical part of each scene, addressed by
all three apps, is the range of objects they
are able to place - which can, of course, be
supplemented by importing models from
external databases. Lumion excels in the
size of its library department but size is not
September/October 2020 17

SOFTWAREreview
the only factor here to consider here.
Twinmotion has some real aces up its
sleeve here. Cars and people can easily be
made to travel along roads and not just
singly either, as they can use multiple lanes
or paths and go in both directions with
varying densities and speed. Building a
public scene to include animated cars and
people really sets Twinmotion apart from its
rivals! You can use Lumion to animate a
car, boat or plane along a path but only
individually, and the models of people also
have some animation capabilities.
Enscape, however, cannot animate moving
objects at all.
INTERIORS
At this point I originally thought that Lumion
would have to be excluded, because of its
shortcomings in the Global illumination (GI)
department, but by digging around I
discovered their GI effect, and with a lot of
effort eventually managed to turn it on and
get it to recognise the two spotlights I had
placed in the scene.
In Twinmotion and Enscape GI works out
of the box in real-time. Twinmotion,
however, uses what it calls Screen Space
GI, which only shows the bounce of a light
if the light is visible in the camera. This
means that in animations lighting effects
can change significantly as viewpoints shift,
but otherwse the function is simple and
effective. Reflections in
Twinmotion are handled
in the same way, and you can only see the
reflection of objects visible to the camera.
To finesse or improve these effects, you
can add reflection cubes or domes.
OUTPUT AND VR
All three solutions can easily output stills,
animations and panoramas. Lumion has
online cloud storage called MyLumion
which can be used to share rendering
tasks with colleagues, mainly used for
panoramas. Walkthrough animations are
very easily made in all three programs with
keyframe based animation. Twinmotion can
also render 360-degree videos in which the
viewer can decide where to look. You can
view these using Google Cardboard
devices - a very cheap way of doing VR
using your own phones (the Cardboard
glasses typically only cost about £20 - £30).
The real deal here however is when you
plug a dedicated VR headset such as an
Oculus Rift or HTC Vive Pro into your
system. Now we're talking! When I was
able to show Paul Bulkeley of Snug
Architects his amazing design for the
Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer on the
HTC headset his gob was well and truly
smacked. "The client has got to see this" he
said, "Wow, this is awesome!" The video of
him walking around the design and his
reactions are the only demo video you
need to see. it is certainly another
dimension and not one that is
easy to illustrate in a
review or on a website.
Lumion is not really a contender in this
area. Both Enscape and Twinmotion can
switch to viewing through VR headsets in
seconds. Using the two HTC Vibe
controllers you can instantly transport
yourself to anywhere in the model and from
there walk around within the limits of your
VR room, or 'teleport' instantly to anywhere
else in the building.
SO, HOW MUCH?
You might be surprised. Twinmotion, the
solution that promises the most, is the
cheapest of the bunch and is available on
a perpetual license per user and, surprise,
surprise, we are offering a special deal
through CAD School until the end of the
year for £263.00 plus VAT. Enscape is
available for £351 plus VAT for an annual
license, but Lumion comes in two versions,
the Standard one with limited libraries, for
£1345.00 Plus VAT, and a Pro version for
£2690.00 plus VAT. As I said earlier, its
higher cost reflects the amount of material
libraries that come with it. Don’t forget to
add in the cost of acquiring libraries of
materials and components from elsewhere
if you need them.
It all boils down to what you want to achieve
and which app is available to provide it. I am
happy to provide further advice, or enrol you
in one of our courses to help you get the
most out of your chosen solution.
www.cadschool.co.uk
Enscape
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HARDWAREreview
Epson SureColor SC-T2100
Epson's new wireless A1 printer provides a perfect solution for architects and engineers who
work in a small office, from home, or on-site, writes David Chadwick
It is alarming how many different
types of cable we acquire over the
years - and how reluctant we are to
dispose of them when the equipment
they power up becomes obsolete or
gives up the ghost. I was delighted,
therefore, to remember that the new
Epson printer, the SureColor SC-
T2100, is billed as a wireless printer,
supplementing the usual USB and
Ethernet connections.
I was doubly delighted, as I didn't
have to move out my trusty Stylus
Photo 2880 printer which I have used
successfully for the last 4 or 5 years,
and I could place the A1 printer on a
convenient table in the next room
without having to worry about finding a
cable long enough to reach it.
Setting up the Epson SureColor SC-
T2100 couldn’t be simpler. Once
unpacked I uploaded the latest drivers
from the CD provided and set its
installation routing in motion. The online
blurb mentions how easy and intuitive it
is to install and I can only second that.
The printer comes with a small LCD
screen on the top panel which mirrors
or reiterates the onscreen instructions,
explaining how to load inks and insert
the A1 roll of paper by manually
feeding the leading edge of the paper
into the rollers under the platen until
they engage, leaving the printer to take
over and correctly line up and tension
the paper prior to printing, as well as
how to set the unit up for WiFi
operation. This only requires the
network name and password, an
onscreen keyboard providing you with
the means. Alternatively, you can use
the WSP (WiFi Protected Setup) button
on your router if you have one.
SURECOLOR SC-T2100
The Epson SureColor SC-T2100 is the
latest in a long line of SureColor
printers aimed at technical users in the
CAD/AEC market. Using just 4
pigment-based inks rather than the
umpteen they need for their graphics
printers, it can print up to 24 inches
wide and is aimed at those who need
an easy to use, professional level
printer with a low cost of ownership.
The SC-T2100 is aimed at freelance
architects or engineers, students and
for use in on-site offices where
reliability, simplicity and a small
footprint are of benefit.
It's also low cost, with a VAT inclusive
price around the £650.00 mark, and
although Epson describe it as the
smallest footprint printer in its
technical printer range, it is a lot of
printer for the money, even when you
factor in the fact that it doesn't come
with a stand - a simple addition which,
however, is sold separately. Its roll of
paper is fed in through the top and is
automatically loaded into the printer,
and it sits behind a sheet feeder which
can take up to A3 sheets, both of
which can be accessed from the
printer menu.
Having both types of paper - roll and
single sheet fed - in such a
configuration means the printer can be
shunted up against a wall to save
space, and you don't need to find
space for a second printer to print out
documents. Drawings produced from
the paper roll are automatically
guillotined after printing.
There's just a small caveat regarding
the paper feeds. Saving space is
admirable, but you will have to add the
single sheet stacker tray to your
purchase to catch the A4 sheets as
they emerge from the front of the
printer. However, a tray for collecting
A1 drawings comes with the optional
printer stand.
LCD TOUCH PANEL
The 4.3 inch touch panel with its LCD
display enabled me to set the printer
up quickly and configure its WiFi
connection to enable it to be run
directly from a PC or workstation, or
from a smartphone or laptop - just one
of the suite of apps and features that
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HARDWAREreview
makes the printer so easy to configure
and run. I was initially taken aback by
the Epson Printer Preview which loads
after you have confirmed the SC T2100
as your output printer, as it depicts the
page to be printed upside down - but
that's another feature that seems quite
natural when you think about it, as
that's the way you will see it appear
after printing, and you can flip the
page if you want to. The rest of the
preview allows you to check whether
all printer attributes are set correctly
before you print.
Epson supply quite a few different
types of paper for the SC T2100, from
photo quality single sheets up to A2 in
size and archival matte paper up to A3
format to rolls of different thicknesses,
including enhanced adhesive synthetic
rolls 24 inches in width by 30.5 metres
in length.
Although it is technically not a
graphics printer, photo quality images
produced by its 4 colour pigmented
inks together with Epson’s archival
quality papers can produce artistic
prints and graphics with exceptional
colour quality that will last for many
years to come.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
The SC-T2100 has been designed to
work at an optimum rate of 100 pages
per month, an average rate for a busy
architect working on a couple of
projects, and prints at a resolution of
2,400 x 1,200dpi with its 800 nozzles
for each print cartridge.
It uses a unique method of nozzle
verification called NVT - Nozzle
Verification Technology - to prevent
misprints and reduce downtime. After
switching the printer on it can produce
its first page, either in monochrome or
colour, in 43 seconds.
The SureColor SC-T2100 doesn't
quite do edge-to-edge printing but can
print within a margin of 3mm all round.
It also has 1Gb of memory and can
handle the usual CAD emulations
(ESC/P-R, HPGL-2 and RTL). It will run
on the latest Windows platforms from
Windows 7-10 and Mac devices using
a range of interfaces: USB 3.0, Gigabit
ethernet interface, Ethernet Interface
(1000 Base-T/ 100-Base TX/ 10-Base-
T), Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n
and, of course, WiFi Direct.
Epson's SureColor SC-T2100 is
available through ArtSystems dealer
printer channels, who can provide a
complete service supplying
consumables and advice through their
online help service.
www.artsystems.co.uk
September/October 2020 21

CASEstudy
Excitech DOCS
Embedding efficiencies at BES Ltd with Excitech DOCS
Working with world-leading
organisations in the
pharmaceutical, life science and
healthcare sectors, BES creates cuttingedge
cleanrooms, laboratories and other
sophisticated environments. The company
is committed to innovation across its range
of specialist services; including
consultancy, design, construction,
commissioning and validation.
The success of BES lies in combining
both design and construction capabilities
to provide a complete multidisciplinary
offering, ensuring every project is
expertly designed and executed with
industry-leading innovation and
construction excellence.
The advantage of having a completely inhouse
Design Team working closely with
their construction team ensures a fully
coordinated solution, which in turn,
reduces risk of rework during construction.
Based on their extensive experience of
delivering fully integrated projects, the
interdisciplinary Design Team at BES
brings a detailed knowledge of the
complex interfaces required throughout a
project life-cycle.
A collaborative approach sits at the heart
of how BES works. Clients are advised and
consulted at every project stage, from
initial feasibility and concept, through
detailed design to construction and
handover. Building Information Modelling
(BIM) plays a central role in this approach;
forging the connections between all project
stages, and making information sharing
and broad participant involvement run
smoothly and effectively.
THE SIMPLE POWER OF
COLLABORATION
BES employs digital technologies and
BIM practices to deliver coordinated,
data-rich projects sustainable
throughout the life of the building,
structure, or installation. The exacting
specifications that the BES teams
create cover all aspects of the works -
from installation through to operation
and performance - reducing the risk of
errors on site.
The focus on working closely together
with clients is a driving spirit in BES's
ongoing determination to drive constant
evolution of its working practices;
ensuring that its digital technologies are
always the best, most practical, and
most relevant in the industry.
THE CHALLENGE: STREAMLINING
WORKFLOWS
Mike Robinson is the BIM manager at
BES. He keeps the adherence to
standards and protocols associated
with BIM constantly at the top of his
agenda. As part of his role, Mike
regularly evaluates potential
improvements to the working methods,
bringing new digital technologies into
BES practices. The selected technology
solutions provide an integrated working
environment for the design process,
supporting true collaboration and
interoperability. They aim to help the
Design Team get things done more
efficiently; laying the ground for
smoother project progress and everhigher
levels of client satisfaction.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS
A vital connection in getting things done
efficiently, is in the progress and exchange
of drawings and documents between BES's
multidisciplinary teams. Mike explains that
he was looking for a solution which could
potentially improve the existing document
management system and its efficiency
whilst aligning to the current BIM & ISO
19650 processes. Following a number of
internal workshops, the consensus among
all those involved was that the Design team
would benefit from having a platform which
would help speed up the documents
handling process, allowing for a smooth
continuity and progress. The improvements
to workflows could help save time and
reduce errors, bringing better outcomes to
the clients.
As the choice for BES was to adopt a new
software, Mike researched the market to
find a solution which fitted the company's
requirements.
THE SOLUTION: DESIGNED FOR THE
WAY THE INDUSTRY WORKS
"Excitech DOCS ticked most of the boxes,"
says Mike. "We saw the potential for
Excitech DOCS to streamline our
processes and allow our staff freedom to
do their particular job, without having to
worry too much about the alignment to the
current BIM & ISO 19650 processes.
Excitech DOCS seemed like the only
software solution on the market that catered
for the AEC industry and BIM requirements".
With the introduction of any new software
solution, in any company, it is more than
just the end result that is important. How
22
September/October 2020

CASE study
quickly and how easily users will adopt it is
equally critical and can create a road bump
in a company's journey towards new
efficiencies.
INSTANT RECOGNITION, INSTANT
ADOPTION
"If users don't feel comfortable with new
software, you can find that you introduce
new problems into the mix even though you
might solve old ones," says Mike. "Excitech
DOCS allows customisation and, for BES,
that has allowed us to provide a convenient
bridge between the past and the future. So,
everyone comes along on the journey
without feeling there's a whole new software
culture to become familiar with. We've been
able to assure they are familiar with it from
the outset."
BES asked Excitech to adapt Excitech
DOCS to the existing processes at BES.
This involved configuring the system within
the software to mirror the existing Windows
Folders structures and use the same
terminology that the Design Team was
already accustomed to.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Mike explains further this focus on ensuring
a smooth transition from old practices, over
to Excitech DOCS: "I didn't want there to be
too much of a change otherwise people
would reject the new solution. I asked myself
"How do we recreate this system for users
so they can migrate easily and understand
where the documents are actually located in
the system?" As a result, we've now got an
enhanced system that not only utilises our
existing systems, but also helps us align
with ISO 19650 standards and workflows.
We're getting the best of both worlds."
THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH
"Rather than doing everything manually and
worrying about whether you have the right
document, every document is the single
source of truth. You can't not have the right
document. It eradicates confusion. Work is
done on one document and not a copy of a
copy etc. It's streamlined our methods and
brought standardisation into play".
THE RESULT: STRUCTURE AND
TRANSPARENCY
Excitech DOCS features toolbars built into
the ribbons of AutoCAD, Revit & some MS
Office programs. Generating PDFs and
DWG's from Revit is done in one click from
within Excitech DOCS.
Mike's summary of the practices that
Excitech DOCS has helped to improve will
strike a high note of recognition with any
design, engineering, BIM, or construction
sector professional:
"Take approvals, for example. Gone are the
days where documents have to be printed
out, maybe ink stamped with a rubber
stamp, in readiness for a senior member of
staff to add a signature for an approval. This
could take hours, if not days, if someone
was not in the office. With Excitech DOCS,
the process can be handled by the approver
wherever they are, via the mobile app and
mark-ups can be done digitally.
"It also provides an audit trail which is a
real benefit because it is easy for paper to
get lost in this process, but it can't get lost
with Excitech DOCS. Even if it somehow
does get deleted, the information is still
retrievable."
"Excitech DOCS easily fulfils the objectives
we had set out to achieve by being able to
fill the role of the document manager for our
current Design projects, thus eliminating the
need to employ someone dedicated to the
role", says Mike. The overall goal is to
minimise errors, streamline and structure
processes, and allow full transparency of a
document's journey for audit purposes.
Migration and alignment to ISO 19650 and
to develop the knowledge of our staff to
such standards, have also been driving
forces. It is now all in place."
PICKING UP THE PACE: THE
JOURNEY CONTINUES
Integral to Mike's adoption strategy has
been the 'ambassador' approach, whereby
as each group of users is trained in Excitech
DOCS, it is able to guide the next group,
spreading hands-on experience through the
design department.
For BES overall, one of the main driving
forces behind the adoption of Excitech
DOCS was its compliance with BIM and
industry standards file naming conventions,
automatically taken care of by the software.
"Having to manually process documents
according to the ISO standard is very
challenging. The ISO actually advocates
you use software to process documents
and is part of gaining the BIM ISO 19650
accreditation. We're well on our way to this
and Excitech DOCS has enabled us to
make some impressive leaps forward,"
says Mike.
www.excitech.co.uk
September/October 2020 23

INDUSTRYcomment
County views
Carol Massay, CEO of EasyBuild, considers the views of two local construction industry
organisations in Hertfordshire on the impact of Covid-19, planning processes and other issues
In my capacity as CEO of EasyBuild, I
have recently had the opportunity to
attend the roundtable of the FSB, the
Federation for Small Business, and
attended the recent Property Summit and
Construction with Hertfordshire Chambers
of Commerce. Because of the length of
time I have spent within the construction
industry I am able to contribute
professionally to many of the issues that
are raised in the meetings. The meetings
also provide me with the opportunity to
listen to the concerns of smaller
businesses within the construction industry
who constitute a substantial number of our
customers and to members of the planning
committee at the local Chamber of
Commerce, who are having to cope with
new Planning Regulations.
In fact, the imposition of the lockdown
over the summer has greatly impacted
companies within the construction industry,
and although designed to assist the
industry the changes that the UK
Government is imposing on planning
approvals are probably going to create
more problems than they can solve.
I thought it would be useful, therefore, to
look more closely at how small businesses
will cope with the return to work following
the closure of the furlough scheme, what
needs to be done to enable them to
benefit from the relaxation of planning
approvals, and for the Chamber of
Commerce, how they should react to the
government's proposals.
ACCESS TO FINANCE
Money, as ever, is one of the principal
issues with FSB members. Despite the
undoubted job-saving success of the
Furlough scheme, the strain that the
pandemic has put on the country's revenue
sources has exacerbated an already
endemic problem - access to finance to
pay for projects. The reluctance of banks to
24
September/October 2020

INDUSTRY comment
support projects appears more heavily
focused on certain types of project and the
geographical location, the most difficult
areas being Wales and the North of
England. This is mirrored, however, by the
withdrawal of mortgage offers to a large
percentage of house buyers in all areas,
leaving our clients in the housebuilding
industry being 'squeezed at both ends'.
Compounding the lack of funding is the
continuing 'poor payment practice'. The
industry is already notorious for this and
ways to improve and communicate
amongst the contractors is something
which we will see over the coming
months, with everyone trying hard to
support the sector during these financially
challenging times.
PLANNING POLICIES
The two big issues facing planning are
local politics and NIMBYism, which in effect
are making planning permissions difficult to
obtain. The FSB has been trying to
'depoliticise' the planning process, and may
have contributed towards the Government's
plans to relax planning permissions and
encourage a surge in housebuilding, along
with a decoupling of the larger developer's
propensity to sit on land whilst it remains
unused, but increases in value.
More concern, however, was raised
about the abilities of FSB members to
meet contractual requirements - in
particular insurance, ITT (Invitations to
tender) and PQQs (Pre-Qualification
Questionnaires), which are so demanding
that many small business just don't bother
with them, and end up working on the
project as subcontractors to larger
contractors who are able to satisfy the
contractual requirements and act in a
'middle-man' role - thus relinquishing the
bulk of the profits to themselves.
FSB have been working on this over the
last five years and although it has focused
on public procurement portfolios, it has
also been concerned to increase the
number of SMEs working directly with
central government and local authorities,
and part of this is seeking to reduce
instances where prohibitive terms prevent
SMEs from bidding for contracts.
Another bone of contention has been the
scale and transparency of S106
contributions, which are being requested
by local authorities to facilitate the granting
of planning permissions - a sum of money
that could cover remedial work being
required to clear a site or, in extreme cases,
to remove materials left by previous
contractors. This is a grey area, where
costs may appear arbitrary, or where
bidders compete against other companies
and commit to a larger S106 contribution
than they would otherwise have done. An
area that demands fuller investigation and
fresh air accounting.
HERTFORDSHIRE CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
In a refreshing change of focus I attended a
Property Summit and Construction meeting
at Hertfordshire Chambers of Commerce in
my local area, who are looking at the
ramifications of planned growth in the
Hertfordshire area. To keep it short, they are
looking at major developments at J8 on the
M1, a 10 year plan to create 800 new
construction jobs, 2 new garden towns and
11,000 new homes. These will add to a
previous 1.5Bn investment plan for NHS
buildings and a 450M home building
project which are still in progress.
In comparison with a shortfall in personal
mortgages, the Chambers, who represent
local companies in all sectors, stated that
mortgage approvals are up with banks
willing to provide money on investments.
The main issues addressed, though, were
managing smarter growth from a
challenging four years which have included
Grenfell in 2017, Brexit, growing climate
awareness and, of course, Covid-19.
Grenfell was discussed at length,
examining the contributing factors to the
devastating fire and outlining improved
building controls that need to be put in
place to prevent a recurrence. These
include fire service evacuation processes,
the replacement of flammable cladding, the
installation of fire stopping features and
solving problems caused by fire doors
failing, and landscaping features
preventing access for emergency vehicles.
We are all well aware of the devasting
effect of Grenfell, and it is clear that there is
great focus within the County and UK-wide
to review existing buildings and materials
used. This will require experienced teams
engaging with new projects, ensuring
regulations and drawing specifications are
available and understood, and insisting that
Fire Engineers be assigned to projects to
ensure compliance throughout. The LABC -
Local Authority Building Control - will also
need to improve their processes and
implement any key changes.
With 'Build Safely' addressed, the Summit
turned its attention to Innovation and Net
Zero Carbon construction, both aimed at
meeting stricter environmental standards
through smarter construction and new and
innovative building technologies. Lessons
were learned and suggestions made to
improve designs and their approval
processes, and to include materials and
structural requirements and safety issues,
focusing on the sharing of responsibilities
and collaborations between professionals
and consultants, rather than on profitability.
A focus on control and understanding
should underpin the process, with testing
of materials and the use of impartial and
independent advice, culminating in a new
form of contract which is aimed at the best
that can be achieved when meeting safety
targets, rather than cost-cutting and
opting for the cheapest prices, labour,
plant and materials.
Underpinning this, it is heartening to see,
is a commitment to using BIM, with
housing authorities creating full
'Construction Digital Footprints' of each
property so that, post construction,
everything is known about the design and
build of each property, while ensuring that
all materials purchased have appropriate
safety certificates assigned, and that
relevant standards have been addressed.
A LOCAL SNAPSHOT
Local authorities around the country are
under immense pressure to build more
houses and encourage local enterprises,
and take a lot of flak from the communities
they serve. This is besides having to cope
with a degree of NIMBYism from some
entrenched communities which won't be
satisfied and which will always exist, so it is
encouraging to be involved with two
organisations who appear to be taking in
the right advice and making positive
contributions to the way we live and work.
www.easybuilduk.com
September/October 2020 25

CASEstudy
A team effort
''I was actually looking for a contact database,'' said Toby Adam of Gaunt Francis Architects
(GFA). Instead GFA ended up implementing Atvero's information and document management
solution, which fulfilled Toby's requirements - and then provided substantially more
GFA are a large, Cardiff and London
based architectural practice of over
40 people. The company's projects
cover the whole of the country as GFA
specialises in designing Retirement Living
villages. GFA have completed schemes in
Yorkshire, Derbyshire and the Home
Counties and, more recently, have finished
projects for Audley Retirement Living in
Bristol & Malvern.
With projects widely dispersed
throughout the country, GFA architects
spend a lot of time visiting each of their
sites, and to maintain contact with all of
the people involved in each of their
projects, a dedicated contact database
appeared to suit the bill.
GFA was already using several different
packages to handle email filing,
drawings and documents, but
they were all housed
in bulky
files with separate retrieval systems, some
of which needed translating before they
could be used. What was critically
important to the practice, though, was that
with information in separate silos there was
no way of easily recovering all of the
documents associated with a particular
project. You could only go looking for a
document if you knew it was there!
Toby said that GFA had already spent a
couple of years doing due diligence in their
search for a simple document
management system, but without success.
It was while looking for a contact database
at a trade show in London that they came
across Atvero, a Project Information
Management tool which focuses on
Microsoft 365 workflow integration based
on SharePoint online, providing a simple
but efficient way of retrieving any form of
digitally held information. The software is
used to manage the full lifecycle of
documents and drawings from creation to
issue and transmittal, bringing project
workflows and software together.
This was a bonus for GFA, as each staff
member already has a subscription for
Microsoft 365, but they were not using it to
its full extent until they implemented Atvero,
which then enabled them to maximise the
benefits of the service.
ARCHITECTS LIKE TO BE
ORGANISED
Atvero appeals to the basic instincts of
architects who, according to Toby, like
to be organised. Information retrieval
systems are an important office
function, and as GFA works totally within
a digital environment, it was easy for
them to integrate Atvero within their
working practices.
In doing so it also forced greater control
over the documents by enforcing naming
standards - becoming ISO-19650-2
compliant in the process - and building up
a detailed history of document versions, as
well as access and transmittal information:
who did what to which document, and
when! Instead of trying to remember if
certain documents still existed,
Atvero's filter and search
capabilities
26
September/October 2020

CASE study
locates all instances of documents and, if
requested, the associated information.
The time spent in administration and
document retrieval is significantly reduced.
As a cloud based SaaS, Atvero is
available for GFAs staff on any device,
anywhere, providing them with full, mobile
access to information using powerful
search and filtering. It uses AEC metadata
for emails, documents, drawings and any
other information - which, incidentally,
includes all of the contact information that
Toby says they were looking for - but this
time it is capable of being linked to any
project, any drawing or document and any
communication they have had with GFA.
There is also an intelligent project email
filing and management tool within Atvero
supported by an Outlook add-In.
Besides its use of Microsoft 365
workflows and integration with SharePoint,
Atvero is primarily aimed at Revit and
Autodesk AEC application users. Most of
the features that enable its powerful
Amazon style filtering and the SharePoint
search engine are geared towards
Autodesk applications because of their
greater ubiquity within the industry. Hence
the inclusion of a Revit publishing add-In
which allows GFA to publish drawing
sheets directly from Revit into Atvero, set
status, revision, and classification data,
and keep model data consistent with
issued information.
ATVERO IMPLEMENTATION
In common with many companies across
the country, the implementation of Atvero
within GFA was impacted by Covid-19.
Toby had already introduced the
software in some detail to his fellow
directors and the rest of the staff before
lockdown, as it was important for them
to understand the technical attributes of
the software and how it would relate to
the working practices they had become
accustomed to within their office. The
launch of the software within the office
was to be combined with an upgrading
of their compliance systems, using
Atvero as the catalyst because it
automatically forces a level of
compliance into a company's workflow.
During the lockdown, a couple of staff
members were tasked with the job of
becoming mentors, as they had been
using Atvero regularly and were familiar
with all aspects of the software. Now, with
the possibility of normal working
conditions returning for many people, GFA
has weekly meetings on Microsoft Teams
to iron out any issues that arise from using
the software. Currently GFA is in its
second phase of launching the software
for more of the company's projects.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
Although the pandemic has impacted the
working practices of many companies, one
area has seen unprecedented gains from
the pandemic, namely video conferencing.
With both Zoom and Microsoft Teams
becoming de facto methods of
communication for meetings, press
launches and conferences, Microsoft
Teams has proved particularly beneficial for
GFA. They have used it for office meetings,
training sessions, and discussions with
Atvero, and have taken part in project
specific chats with their clients as well as
themed group discussions.
As much of the industry will now be
totally familiar with Teams, they will know
that Atvero's Microsoft based information
can be included within any of these chats,
and specific project information in its
entirety with customers, contractors and
any other project member in all-inclusive
online project meetings. This is way
beyond GFA's previous communication
with clients which was limited to emails,
with little access to project data, no
whiteboarding, or the opportunity to bring
all people together on a regular basis.
ATVERO
Paul Daynes, MD of Atvero explained that
GFA is one of the company's earlier
clients, and as such they had been able to
engage with each other in developing the
project, providing valuable user feedback
and establishing how it works in practice.
This enabled Atvero to fine-tune the
software and turn it into the
comprehensive and highly iterative
process it is today.
Both companies met on a weekly basis,
and because the software is cloud based
Atvero were able to make changes and
deploy them rapidly, with all issues and
suggestions raised being quickly fixed,
evaluated, executed and implemented.
Now the software is available as an 'out
the box' application, making its use as
universal as possible for any type of
architectural practice, with only small
amounts of configuration required to cater
for individual and specific customer
requirements.
www.atvero.com
September/October 2020 27

INDUSTRYcomment
Planning ahead
Matt Keen, Senior Industrial Strategist, Autodesk Construction Solutions, explains why
technology should be at the heart of England's planning reforms
construction methods. But technology
could help to revolutionise both the
planning process and how we approach
housebuilding in the UK as a whole.
With the Construction Industry Council
calling for the reinvention of construction
over the next one to two years in its
Roadmap to Recovery, it's time to shape a
planning process that reflects the latest
technology. This will ingrain best practice
throughout the industry - and shape the
next generation of housebuilding.
In July, the UK government outlined
changes to England's planning laws that
were billed as the most significant since
the second world war. All land in England
will be designated for growth, renewal or
protection, with planning applications
based on pre-approved design codes
automatically approved in growth zones.
Meanwhile, the changes mean it will be
easier to demolish and reconstruct unused
buildings and add extensions to homes.
The focus of the changes is clear:
addressing England's housing shortage,
which some estimates put at 1.2 million
homes. However, it's critical that the
emphasis on building housing quickly
doesn't lead to compromises over quality
and environmental sustainability. Simply
put, if we're building more houses, with
fewer resources, we need to do it better.
For true reform, we cannot continue on
the same path of the last century. Right
now, the planning rules don't adequately
incentivise comprehensive information
sharing or using the latest design and
REINVENTING THE PLANNING
PROCESS
As a critical early stage in any housing
development, the planning process sets
the tone for the wider building lifecycle. But
compared to many other processes in the
construction industry, the adoption of
digital technology for planning
applications is still in its infancy.
The current approach to planning
reinforces the mindset of providing
minimal information about the building,
which is often poorly created and poorly
handed over. While data-rich tools like
Building Information Modelling have
been embraced elsewhere, the planning
submission process still depends on
basic 2D drawings - limiting the amount
of information that can be included by
applicants.
As a result, planners often lack the
information they need to make the best
decisions. It can be equally difficult for
local stakeholders to understand, let alone
approve, planned developments. Using
new technologies could not only improve
the planning application process, but also
benefit the construction industry,
homeowners and local communities by
underpinning better quality housebuilding.
A GOLDEN THREAD FOR
EVERY HOME
A key concern with the current proposals
is that accelerating housebuilding will
28
September/October 2020

INDUSTRYcomment
compromise quality, at a time when 97%
of newbuild homeowners already report a
snag to their builder. A focus on accurate,
comprehensive information sharing during
the planning process can help to underpin
the quality of new homes.
If housebuilders are required to submit
information-rich planning applications, for
example using BIM data, this will not only
enable planners to make more informed
decisions, but mean that firms are
preparing good asset data, right from
planning and design through to
construction and eventually the handover
to the homeowners.
Information-sharing is already a part of
the Building a Safer Future legislation;
from next year, all multiple occupancy
housing projects will require a golden
thread of information from design through
to handover to guarantee safety and
quality. By incorporating this measure
throughout the housing market, we can
give homeowners greater control over
their data and confidence in the quality of
their houses.
Creating a comprehensive digital record
will also improve the sustainability of
housing in the long term. Currently,
construction accounts for 39% of carbon
emissions worldwide - and very few
building materials are reused. The
proposed planning reforms will also make
it even easier to demolish buildings in
England. But with a record of which
materials were used and where, it will be
easier to reclaim building materials down
the line, reducing the environmental
impact of demolition.
IMPROVING STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT
Another criticism raised against the
proposed planning changes is the lack
of public oversight of developments. But
incorporating digital technology like 3D
models into the planning process could
actually support better stakeholder
engagement.
For example, a challenge with the current
reliance on drawings is that it's difficult for
members of the local community to
understand what's being proposed - and
respond either positively or negatively. If
developers put a new housing estate in
the context of the local urban or rural area,
with multiple views - even allowing people
to navigate it in a virtual environment - they
would be able to understand it more
easily. With greater understanding, there
would be a better chance of positive
responses to submissions and better buyin
for changes to the local area.
GENERATING THE OPTIMAL
DESIGN
The changes to the planning process are
also an opportunity to revolutionise how
we approach house design. Generative
design is a technology that enables a
user to take a plot of land and run
multiple scenarios to find the best option
against set factors: essentially, optimising
the design. Algorithms don't determine
the final decision, but instead provide
several options that are the best fit
against the criteria.
Importantly, using generative design can
increase the sustainability of homes even
before they are built. The position of
houses can be optimised to minimise
heating requirements and facilitate solar
energy, for example. Designs can also
mitigate against environmental
considerations, with water run-off checks
to reduce the risk of flooding.
Generative design is already available
within widely used tools today and is
being used by housebuilders worldwide.
For example, Daiwa House Industry in
Japan is using generative design to
optimise building on small housing
developments.
Planning applications that incorporate
generative design could help to
demonstrate why the submission is the
best option for the area. Spider diagrams
clearly display how well each design
measures against each factor - to help to
illustrate why the selected design has
been chosen. Generative design could
arm planners with better insight to make
better decisions for the local area -
delivering housing suited to the local
market and residents.
OFF-SITE MANUFACTURING
It's not only the design, but the
construction process that can be
improved, by incentivising options like offsite
manufacturing (OSM) through
planning reforms. Manufacturing homes
off-site significantly increases the speed
and quality of construction, because
homes are produced in a purpose-built,
controlled environment. There are fewer
errors and less waste, and the process is
more energy efficient. With buildings only
assembled on-site, construction has less
of an impact on the local area. And with a
higher quality end product, there is less
need for rework and renovations later on -
again improving sustainability.
Off-site manufacturing offers benefits for
the industry as a whole, including
attracting new talent to address worker
shortage in the sector. The factory
environment could offer an appeal to both
young people and employees less able to
work on a site, such as people with caring
responsibilities or disabilities.
Many major housebuilders are already
considering disrupting their operating
models by adopting OSM. By incentivising
the use of OSM in its planning reforms, the
government could support the adoption of
this transformation method and deliver
benefits for houses - and the construction
industry - as a whole.
PLANNING AHEAD
Addressing the housing shortage is vital
for the future. But in turn, that means we
need planning reforms that will actually
address the shortfall, rather than simply
reducing housing's quality. As the most
significant reforms to planning rules in
nearly a century, this is an opportunity to
do things better. We have to reinvent our
approach and set a new baseline for
housebuilding.
Technology can support better planning
decisions, whether it's richer information
sharing or optimising designs. It can
improve stakeholder engagement, to
improve relationships with local
communities. And critically, along with
new construction methods, technology
can protect the quality and sustainability
of homes, to ensure the next wave of
housebuilding delivers for the country.
This could be a transformative moment
for construction - and it's important not to
miss it.
www.autodesk.com
September/October 2020 29

AWARDS
Sponsored by:
We are pleased to announce that
voting for the 2020 Construction
Computing Awards is now open.
You now have a month to submit your votes
for the finalists listed below, with voting
closing on November the 2nd. The winners
will be announced online on November 12th.
It was always going to be debatable
whether we would be back to normal by this
point in the year, or if we would still be
BIM PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
3D Repo
3D Repo
Allplan
Allplan Engineering
Asite
The Asite Platform
Autodesk
BIM 360 Design
Bentley Systems
OpenBuildings Designer
Elecosoft
IconSystem
Elecosoft
Powerproject BIM
Excitech
Excitech DOCS
Glider Technology
gliderbim
Graphisoft Archicad 24
Solibri UK
Solibri Office
Trimble
Tekla Structures
Vectorworks
Vectorworks Architect
ARCHITECTURAL CAD APPLICATION OF 2020
Autodesk
AEC Collection
Elecosoft
Framing
Graphisoft Archicad 24
Trimble
SketchUp
Vectorworks
Vectorworks Architect
COLLABORATION PRODUCT OF 2020
3D Repo
3D Repo
Asite
The Asite Platform
Autodesk BIM 360 Design
Bentley Systems ProjectWise 365
Elecosoft
IconSystem
Glider Technology
gliderbim
Graphisoft
BIMcloud as a service
LetsBuild
LetsBuild GenieBelt
Trimble
Trimble Connect
Viewpoint
Viewpoint for Projects
Newforma
Newforma Project Center
Solibri UK
Solibri Anywhere
DOCUMENT AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT PRODUCT OF 2020
Atvero
Atvero
Elecosoft
IconSystem
Excitech
Excitech DOCS
Glider Technology
gliderbim
Newforma
Newforma Project Center
RedSky
Summit Document Management
weathering the second phase of the
pandemic, and with the percentage of
positive diagnoses rising once more The
Hammers, like so many other events, will not
have an awards ceremony this year.
The construction industry hasn't closed
down though, and we are stirred by the
activities of software and hardware
developers releasing new products,
contractors working on major projects,
The Hammers 2020 - The finalists
alliances and working practices being set up
to deliver new standards and solutions and
a general feeling of confidence in our
abilities to cope with the current crisis, and
also to plan for the future. Taking stock of the
work of those around you and recognising
the contribution they make to the industry by
voting makes you an important part of that
process as well.
www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk
ERP SOFTWARE OF 2020
EasyBuild (Construction Software) Ltd EasyBuild
EleVia Software
EleVia
Eque2 Ltd
EVision
IFS
IFS Applications
RedSky
Summit
Trimble
Tekla PowerFab
Xpedeon
Xpedeon
PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF 2020
Bentley Systems ProjectWise 365
Deltek
Project Information Management
Elecosoft
Powerproject
LetsBuild
LetsBuild GenieBelt
Newforma
Newforma Project Center
RIB Software
iTWO cx
Topcon Positioning GB Ltd
MAGNET Software
PROJECT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE OF 2020
EasyBuild (Construction Software) Ltd EasyBuild
EleVia
EleVia Field Services Suite
CLiP IT Solutions
Construction Industry Accounts
Cubic Interactive
Rapport3
Pegasus Software
Pagasus CIS
RedSky
Summit
ESTIMATION & VALUATION PRODUCT OF 2020
Access
ConQuest Estimating
Causeway Technologies
Causeway Estimating
Elecosoft
Bidcon
Eque2 Ltd
EValuate
Integrity Software
esti-mate
RIB Software
iTWO costX (Formerly CostX)
CONSTRUCTION FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF 2020
Causeway Technologies
Causeway CPA
EleVia
Elevia Electronic Invoicing
EasyBuild (Construction Sodtware) Ltd EasyBuild
Integrity Software
EvolutionMx
RedSky
Summit
30
September/October 2020

AWARDS
ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF 2020
Bentley Systems
AssetWise
Elecosoft
ShireSystem
Glider Technology
gliderbim
IFS
IFS Applications
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING APPLICATION OF 2020
Autodesk Revit Structures
Bentley Systems
ProStructures
Scia
Scia Engineer
Strusoft
FEM Design
Trimble
Tekla Structural Designer
GIS/MAPPING PRODUCT OF 2020
Bentley Systems
Blue Sky
Esri ArcGIS
MGISS and vGIS partnership
Vectorworks
MOBILE APPLICATION OF 2020
Elecosoft
Graphisoft
Msite
Rendra
Topcon Positioning GB Ltd
Vectorworks
Viewpoint
CHANNEL PARTNER OF 2020
Applecore Designs Ltd
Cadventure
Excitech
Jonathan Reeves CAD
Graitec
OpenMap Series
aerial photography and topographic
mapping including the creation of
3D building models
Mapping and Analysis platform
within Esri Geospatial Cloud
underground asset visualisation and
management
Vectorworks Landmark & Architect
Site Progress Mobile
BIMx
MSite Workforce App
StreamBIM
Haul Truck App
Vectorworks Nomad
Field View
CONSTRUCTION SOFTWARE PRODUCT OF 2020
3D Repo3D Repo
Autodesk BIM 360
EasyBuild (Construction Software) Ltd EasyBuild
Elecosoft
Powerproject
Newforma
Newforma Project Center
Msite
MSite Workforce App
Solibri UK
Solibri Office
Trimble
Tekla Structures
RedSky
Summit
Topcon Positioning GB Ltd
MAGNET Software
Viewpoint
Viewpoint Field View
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2020
Autodesk
BIM360
Bentley Systems
LEGION
Elecosoft
Powerproject
Excitech
Excitech DOCS
Glider Technology
gliderbim
Graphisoft Archicad 24
Newforma
Newforma Project Center
RedSky
Summit
Solibri UK
Solibri Office
Trimble
Tekla Structural Designer
Vectorworks
Vectorworks Architect
Viewpoint
Viewpoint Field View
COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2020
3D Repo
Bentley Systems
Causeway Technologies
Elecosoft
Excitech
Glider Technology
Graphisoft
MSite
Newforma
RedSky
Solibri UK
Topcon Positioning GB Ltd
Trimble
Vectorworks
Viewpoint
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
Atvero for Atvero Project Information Mangagement
Buildots: The Innovation of the Year
EleVia Software for The £1 Million Question: How Does EleVia Software
Dramatically Improve Workflow?
Excitech with BES Ltd for Working From Home with Excitech DOCS & BES Ltd
MSite for MSite Workforce App: The Gateway to Productivity in Construction
National Green Specification with The Green Building Calculator V1 of 16
planned
Oculo Technologies for Oculo: No More Blind Spots
RIB Software for iTWO safe
Trimble with Trimble Connect
Vectorworks for Vectorworks Architect 2021
Viewpoint with Viewpoint Field View for Red Systems
ONE TO WATCH COMPANY 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
Buildots
EleVia Software: The One to Watch
LetsBuild (GenieBelt & Aproplan): The Big Idea
National Green Specification: Green Building Calculator V1.0.0.
Oculo Technologies: The Easiest Way To Digitise Your Jobsite
Vectorworks:Architect and Landmark
BIM PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
Jonathan Reeves Architects with Vectorworks for Earth Sheltered Eco Home
3D Repo - Smart Mobility Living Lab Project funded by Innovate
Weatherproof Infrastructure: reinforcing the largest dike in the Netherlands with
BIM - LEVVEL Consortium with Autodesk BIM 360
WSP - Using Tridify to publish BIM files to the Web
COLLABORATION PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
Asite with the Asite Platform for North London Heat and Power Project- North
London Waste Authority
Elecosoft with ASDA for Asset Data Link
Elecosoft with Prosper, CA Design, Primark for Primark Guru
Ringway Jacobs & TFL with Oculo for Victoria Coach Station Fire Safety Works
Topcon Positioning with SKANSKA for Norway's Most Spectacular
Construction Project - Connecting 5 Islands
Barton Willmore with Excitech & Panzura for Consolidating Data Whilst
Boosting Productivity
Glancy Nicholls with Excitech & BIM 360 for Secure Collboration with BIM 360
CLOUD BASED TECHNOLOGY OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
4PS UK with 4PS Construct - integrated end-to-end solution in the cloud
Asite with the Asite Platform for Asite's CDE
Atvero for Atvero Project Information Management
Glider Technology with gliderbim for MOD
LetsBuild GenieBelt for How COVID-19 is accelerating the adoption of
ConTech in 2020
Nutanix and VU.CITY for VU.CITY with Nutanix Xi Frame
RedSky with Summit for Walls Construction
Trimble for Trimble Connect
AUGMENTED REALITY/VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECT OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
MGISS uses Topografi for sub-surface asset visualisation
Bentley ContexCapture
3D Repo - PlanBase for City of London
Jonathan Reeves Architects with Vectorworks for Urban Masterplan
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
4PS UK for 4PS Construct - end-to-end solution for real-time project visibility
and control
EasyBuild (Construction Software) Ltd for EasyBuild
Autodesk BIM 360 Construction Management
Topcon Positioning GB Ltd for Topcon Haul Truck Mobile App - Sitelink3D v2
HEALTH AND SAFETY SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR 2020
- JUDGED BY PANEL
3D Repo for SafetiBase
Jonathan Reeves CAD With Vectorworks and Twinmotion for Youtube Training
- Realise your Potential
MSite for MSite Workforce App: Making sites safer in the wake of COVID19
RIB Software for iTWO safe
EDITORS CHOICE
- THIS CATEGORY IS DECIDED BY THE EDITOR OF CONSTRUCTION
COMPUTING
Atvero - Information and Document Management
3D Repo - SafetiBase, PlanBase, Smart Groups etc
Bentley Systems - OPEN Series of applications
LetsBuild - Mobile Project Management
MGISS vGIS - subsurface utility asset Visualisation
Trimble Powerfab
Vectorworks - Vectorworks Architect 2021
September/October 2020 31

YOUR GUIDE TO
4
5
8
6/10 9 7 1
14
15
16
17 11/13 18 20
33
2/12
35/41
40 32
23/42
21
25 26/19
30
3
42
31
22
29
24/27
28
*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 223330
Fax: 01592 223301
jackm@glenco.org
www.glenco.org
ACMK
ABERDEENSHIRE 8
symetri
Contact: Craig Snell
Tel: 01467 629900
training@symetri.co.uk
www.symetri.co.uk
ABDHIJKMNOPSX
ABERDEEN 1
TMS CADcentre
Contact: Craig Hamilton
Tel: 01224 223321
info@thom-micro.com
www.tmscadcentre.com
ACELHO
LARBERT 9
TMS CADcentre
Contact: Craig Hamilton
Tel: 01324-550760
info@thom-micro.com
www.tmscadcentre.com
ACELHO
GLASGOW 10
Excitech Ltd
Contact: Alan Skipp
Tel: 01992 807500
Fax: 01922 807574
info@excitech.co.uk
www.excitech.co.uk/cut2015
ABCDEHKLMNQSX
IRELAND
DUBLIN 4
Paradigm Technology Ltd
Contact: Des McGrane
Tel: +353-1-2960155
Fax: +353-1-2960080
dmcgrane@paradigm.ie
www.paradign.it
ACMGKL
SOUTHWEST
BRISTOL 2
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
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
ACDEGKL
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:
AUTIDESK 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
ADRK
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: Gordon McGlathery
Tel: +44 (0)208 622 3027
Fax: +44 (0)208 622 3200
training@cadassist.co.uk
www.cadassist.co.uk
ACDEGHIJKLMNOPQTX
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
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
TRAINING
NORTH LONDON 28
Excitech Ltd
Contact: Alan Skipp
Tel: 01992 807500
Fax: 01922 807574
info@excitech.co.uk
www.excitech.co.uk/cut2015
ABCDEHKLMNQSX
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
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX
HIGH WYCOMBE 19
Micro Concepts Ltd
Contact: Kerrie Braybrook
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
THE NORTH
MIDLANDS
MANCHESTER 11
CADASSIST
Contact:
Gordon McGlathery
Tel: 0161 440 8122
Fax: 0161 439 9635
training@cadassist.co.uk
www.cadassist.co.uk
ACDEGHIJKLMNOPQTX
MANCHESTER 13
Excitech Ltd
Contact: Alan Skipp
Tel: 01992 807500
Fax: 01922 807574
info@excitech.co.uk
www.excitech.co.uk/cut2015
ABCDEHKLMNQSX
NORTH EAST 14
symetri
Contact: Craig Snell
Tel: 0191 213 5555
training@symetri.co.uk
www.symetri.co.uk
ABDHIJKMNOPSX
YORKSHIRE 15
Graitec Bradford
Contact: Isobel Gillon
Tel: 01274 532919
training@graitec.co.uk
www.graitec.co.uk
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX
NOTTINGHAM 33
MicroCAD - Nottingham
Contact: Isobel Gillon
Tel: 0115 969 1114
training@graitec.co.uk
www.graitec.co.uk
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX
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
Contact: Isobel Gillon
Tel: 0191 374 2020
training@graitec.co.uk
www.graitec.co.uk
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX
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
Contact: Craig Snell
Tel: 01924 266 262
training@symetri.co.uk
www.symetri.co.uk
ABDHIJKMNOPSX
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
CHESHIRE 41
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
SOUTHHAMPTON 42
CAMBRIDGE 29
Riverside House, Brunel Road
Southampton, Hants. SO40 3WX
Contact: Isobel Gillon
Tel: 02380 868 947
training@graitec.co.uk
www.graitec.co.uk
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX
Micro Concepts Ltd
Contact: Emily Howe
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 716200
training@microconcepts.co.uk
www.microconcepts.co.uk
A B D I J K M N O P S T X
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
EARTHMOVING
SITECH uses drones to enhance its ability to track and manage
the progress of earthmoving operations on construction sites
SITECH UK & Ireland, the leading
distributor of Trimble technology, now
offers an innovative progress
tracking software solution that uses drones
to help site managers map, measure and
manage their sites more effectively. Trimble
Stratus, powered by Propeller, is a data
analytics and visualisation platform that is
designed specifically for earthmoving
applications to help contractors track
progress and productivity. Harnessing the
power of highly accurate surveying and
mapping capabilities, contractors are able
to avoid costly delays and minimise rework.
Unlike other industries that are embracing
digitalisation, earthworks and construction
have traditionally lagged behind and have
been slow to innovate. For example, many
construction companies still rely on
traditional methods of surveying, such as
pegs, to map a project. This often requires
skilled surveyors that can make the
necessary calculations and interpret the
data. However, their time on site is limited,
and it isn't always easy to access this
expertise when you need it.
Now, the industry is beginning to see the
benefits of how advanced technology can
be used to improve productivity and
accuracy on site. In the last few years,
improvements in drone and unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) technology have
changed how we use them in the
construction industry - they are no longer
viewed as just high-tech toys. As purchase
and setup costs of drones gradually
decrease and the technology becomes
more affordable, more construction and civil
engineering businesses can benefit from it.
There are several benefits of using drones
on site, such as improving survey accuracy
of large areas without difficulty, collecting
and sharing data, and improving health
and safety. Improving these areas can help
companies keep their infrastructure
projects on track and avoid costly delays.
To allow more construction companies to
benefit from drone technology and digitise
and overcome common surveying issues,
SITECH now supplies Trimble Stratus. The
new package uses Trimble's Connected
Site solutions and delivers a new end-toend
solution for contractors. This means
that contractors can place and activate their
ground control points and then fly their
drone to collect site data.
As well as surveying, innovations in drone
software now allow contractors to produce
detailed 3D maps and models using the
data and site footage that they gather from
flights. This highly accurate site data can
cut costs because the detailed
visualisations help teams align on their
activities and reduce the risk of design
errors that require rework later down the
line. For example, Trimble Stratus, uses a
data analytics and visualisation platform to
capture georeferenced high-resolution
aerial images, allowing contractors to
access highly accurate topographic
surveys without creating the bottlenecks
caused by traditional surveying methods.
As with progress tracking, when 3D
mapping is combined with a suitable
analytics platform, you can communicate
this data across your team and with third
parties. Contractors can use Trimble Stratus
to then upload and view this data and
share it between the site, office and across
the team. This can help prevent
miscommunication as companies can
store and share a single source of truth
across the cloud instead of running around
with a pencil and a piece of paper.
Improved digital mapping also means that
every member of the team is aware of the
site's landscape, is working from the same
information and immediately receives any
updates. Instead of taking hours, or even
days to cover the site on foot, all you need
to do is fly the drone - providing a real fieldto-finish
solution for mapping sites.
"If manual surveys are inaccurate,
construction companies can see a decline
in performance and see delays that mean
they fall behind schedule and go over
budget," explained Ian Barnes, Head of
Business at SITECH UK & Ireland. "By
using drone technology, surveyors can
access highly accurate data to ensure
operations remain on schedule.
Companies can also remove employees
from difficult to access and dangerous
areas, like quarries, improving safety as
well as accuracy."
"While other software tries to
accommodate a broad category of users,
Trimble Stratus is 100 percent focused on
earthmoving and construction
environments," explained Jan Wouter Kruyt,
Director of European Operations at
Propeller. "The cloud-based platform is also
really intuitive and can be used without
surveying expertise. The drone images are
processed in Trimble Stratus and then
visualised as interactive, measurable 3D
terrain models. It's easy to create and share
measurements on these 3D maps”.
"The new package delivers several
benefits for construction companies,
including capabilities to compare designs
and minimise rework by generating highly
accurate survey data," continued Kruyt.
"Most importantly, having frequent up-todate
survey data on hand means that
companies can complete projects ahead of
schedule and under budget, something
that'’s becoming more important as
companies try to get back on track
following lockdown."
"Trimble Stratus is ground-breaking for
construction companies that want to
enhance their surveying," continued
Barnes. "By harnessing the power of drone
technology and combining this with a
Trimble platform, contractors now have
access to highly accurate progress tracking
with a solution designed specifically for
earthworks projects like theirs."
www.sitechukandireland.com/sitech-droneservices
34
September/October 2020

VOTING
NOW OPEN!
www.constructioncomputingawards.co.uk
@CCMagAndAwards
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