From the Ground Up: Case Studies

Case Studies

September 10, 2015

UK Civil Engineering firms are already succeeding with BIM

UK Civil Engineering firms are
already succeeding with BIM.
Find out how.

The most progressive designers and civil engineers across the country and beyond are already using BIM to win and collaborate on a wide range of projects, big and small. They are improving quality and productivity, making better-informed decisions, reducing risk, and maximising profit and growth opportunities all thanks to this transformative way of working.

To find out how civil engineering firms are applying BIM for Infrastructure to real life projects and learn how Autodesk tools can help you take advantage of this powerful platform, download these three free videos today:

1.	Customer Story: Galliford Try, Costain and Atkins – Collaborating with BIM for Infrastructure on a major UK Civil Engineering project
2.	Customer Story: DL Engineering – Successfully differentiating your small business with BIM for Infrastructure
3.	BIM Software Demo: Winning work with Autodesk tools and support

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November 04, 2014

Using InfraWorks for Public Consultation - Network Rail

Nice video on Youtube from Network Rail and Mott MacDonald showing a project using InfraWorks for public consultation of a road crossing and footbridge

Posted at 06:53 PM in Case Studies | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 04, 2014

Capturing reality for charity - Part 2

Following the scan of the site from the previous blog post, it was decided to work on a more detailed topographical survey of the site.

So getting my hands dirty again with some survey equipment I took a loan from Topcon again and this time I used a IS-3 total station

Back on site I was able to pick up from the GPS points I captured on my last trip as I was using the same logger.

I could then resection these points to position the equipment survey station and set myself on UK survey ordnance survey coordinates.

So running around the site with the robotic total station following me around was really easy and use of the video camera on board was handy when finding myself through the deep tree coverage.

There are many outputs when it comes to survey, but if you have worked in this method a simple csv file is perfect and simple to understand.

(FBK format is only required if analysis and error reductions are needed.)

Back in AutoCAD Civil 3D, I refined the figure prefix library that I have in the UK and Ireland country kit with some names like ‘BOB’ :) (bottom of bank)

When you bring data through survey in AutoCAD Civil 3D, if you have named your codes in the library, linework automatically draws. You can easily control the linework by adding additional linework coding on the instrument on site, or like me lazy or simply forget, adding these codes back in Civil 3D is easy enough and update the linework.

Hard to see here, but double coding this line from a fence line to a wall on the same point, rather than multiple points can be used.

Here now I can carry out a surface from the data, create contours …

Also I combined in the mapping of the area for a little context and used the map tools to boundary trim out the extents of the survey.

If you are using 2014, set your coordinate system and type ‘Geomap’ and bing mapping will stream down into your session.

Handy to check that you at least setup the equipment correctly.

Finishing off and creating a traditional 2D drawing output from the data with a grid, north point and drawing border, well that is automatic in most AutoCAD’s knowledge :)

Been great to pickup survey equipment again and to get out the wellies and trudge around a site and produce something to be used to get funds in place to give the kids somewhere to have fun again to camp out when it eventually dries out.

Many thanks to Topcon and Faro for the loan of the kit.

(other survey and scanning equipment are available and work well with Autodesk technologies, these are just what were made available to me for this exercise)

Jack Strongitharm

Posted at 07:00 AM in Case Studies, General, Survey | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 03, 2014

Capturing reality for charity - Part 1

Occasionally I like to get involved in a little charity hobby project so I can use our software in the real world, rather than just against standard datasets that we use for presentations.

Also I like to use the latest survey and scanning equipment out there.

This year it is the turn of the Polish Scouts here in the UK.

They have a site they use for camping which needs some improvements and TLC to make it easier to access and a venue for other schools to use.

So I started first with a scanning exercise of the site and a level of survey control.

So I borrowed a Faro Focus from the UK team (Neil Barnett and David Southam).

It was nice and easy to use with little setup, (even controlling it from my phone).

Also for some survey GPS points, Topcon (Andrew Evans) gave me access to a GNSS HiPer II and Tesla logger. Again, minutes to get myself up and running.

I collected the scans on site (17 in this case)

Registered them together in Recap Pro, yes you can do external registrations also not just buildings.

You just need some hard edges and corners for the software to recognise. Also here you can combine the survey points, so that the results are located correctly against your coordinate system.

Index the scans

Not bad results for the five minute scan setting that I used on the Faro Focus

With Realview on ReCap 360 service I can now share these scans with anyone with a web browser

I also then combined the scan data in AutoCAD Civil 3D by bringing in the collected GPS points for key areas

As the site is in a planning stage, using this data as context for the layouts that they are exploring is simple using InfraWorks against the mapping, aerial photography etc.

Not too bad for three hours on site and about 30 minutes back in the office.

A big thanks to the vendors here for loan of the equipment.

In part 2 of this blog I get into more detail with a topographical survey.

(other survey and scanning equipment are available and work well with Autodesk technologies, these are just what were made available to me for this exercise)

Posted at 09:03 PM in Case Studies, General | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 09, 2014

Man of Steel

No not the latest Superman movie.

This is an excellent case study of using Autodesk InfraWorks for public consultation work where a new sculpture is being proposed in Sheffield UK close to a major motorway.

The area is famous in history for its production of steel.

Using InfraWorks, very quickly the model was pulled together of the area from mapping data, aerial imagery and the sculpture positioned in context.

So time to model is minimal and time to create a video is very little as there is no heavy rendering just to produce a video for the press.

This has been featured on local BBC News on TV this week.