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Issue #596 : : March 17, 2009 |
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In this issue: Precognition of Project Costs with D:Profiler
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Precognition of Project Costs with D:Profiler Beck Technologies resulted when construction firm Beck Group of Dallas purchased an architectural firm to give it design-build capabilities. At first, the firm licensed technology from PTC to create Destini (short for Design ESTimating INtegration Initiative). The software worked well for large projects, and is still used by AT&T for its facilities. But it otherwise proved to be too much of a niche product. In-house programmers then began anew. Writing from scratch, they decided to leave out the design portion and in Nov 2006 launched D:Profiler for profiling building types, optimizing them for frames, skins, and sites. The primary feature is the real-time link between the built-in modeler and cost estimator. As you change objects, the costs update instantly. Given that there is a SketchUp-like modeler built-in with the cost estimator, this package is meant for pre-design work, doing the big picture right at the very first stages of planning projects. Andy O’Nan is in charge of business development for Beck Technologies, and calls his software "macro BIM," and considers others as doing "micro BIM" work, like Revit (which his office uses). To use D:Profiler, you begin by reading in site plan drawings, upon which the building model is extruded, from 2D to 3D. Mr O'Nan says a typical medical center or office park takes 40 hours to create and estimate. To help you get started, D:Profiler includes 70 preset building types and their default costs. As he demo’ed the software, I was impressed with its intuitiveness. For instance, to split a building into two floors, you change the z dimension to "/2" (divide by two), and D:Profile adds the second floor. There is no need to draw columns, beams, or slabs: just indicate where they are, and they are drawn in automatically. You can apply detailed cladding, such as each window and panel. But a much faster approach is to use “blended materials,” where you define percentages of materials, such as 42% windows and 58% precast panels. The blended surface is sufficiently accurate for preliminary cost estimating. D:Profiler generates the total development cost, including lease and cashflow. It uses the RS Means database, but can use custom databases and can link with Excel or Timberline. It has an optional energy analysis module determine the operating cost. Based on the location (which can be determined from Google Earth), the building’s orientation, and the model knows U (heat loss) and R (insulation) values, D:Profiler generates the monthly electrical and natural gas cost. The end product is a scope document output in PDF. Site plans are currently 2D only, so Beck Technologies is adding terrain modeling to the next release of D:Profiler. Mr O'Nan figures that this will be of great interest to roadway and railway designers. Contours can be imported from Google Earth, and then you specify the soil type. You extrude cut and fill areas, and then place the buildings and roadways. Competitors? None, because all other estimating software operates downstream, or is complimentary to D:Profiler. Drawings can be output in IFC or DWG formats. D:Profiler starts at $3,400/seat for an annual license; training, network, site, and perpetual licenses are also available. Modules for energy studies, Timberline, and site design are extra. A typical training and software license is $15-$20 thousand. End of the Tax Deferral Mitchell Y. McDeere, the main character in "The Firm," tells the client that deferring taxes is the next best thing to not paying them. American CAD companies have been deferring payment on millions of dollars of profits by leaving the them in bank accounts held by the non-US subsidiaries that earned the profits. The reason: when US companies import cash earned abroad, they pay 30% in tax to the US government. The exception: companies can loan themselves their foreign money for a maximum of six months. Some ceos, like Carl Bass of Autodesk, have been petitioning the US government to eliminate the tax, saying they would prefer to pay only the tax rate of other countries. With the US having the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world, this would save US companies a bundle -- perhaps as much as $80 million, in the case of Autodesk. But it appears that the opposite may happen. Bloomberg is reporting that the proposed US budget for 2010 appears to contain an item that ends deferral: you pay your US taxes in the same year you earn the income at the foreign office. If nothing else, the end of the deferral may encourage US businesses to bring back profits from overseas subsidiaries to their home country now, which can then can be put to use stimulating the US economy.
Old CAD companies never die; they just reinvent themselves. Al Hart of Render Plus Systems writes upFront.eZine: "We (you probably remember us as ARITEK, which was purchased by SoftDesk about 12 years ago) write add-on applications for SketchUp." See the complete list at www.renderplus.com/wk/Products_w.htm Last week's press release from VX begins: "Traditionally, it has been difficult for engineers to experiment and implement new software because of time pressure and an aversion to heavy-handed sales tactics. Seriously, who enjoys sales people pushing products and who has the time to attend expensive training?" You can download VX Evolution anonymously and run it for 30 days. www.vx.com/vx_evolution.cfm COADE plans in April to release their new PV Fabricator software for designing pressure vessels and heat exchangers. It has bi-di links with PV Elite (pressure vessel and heat exchanger design and analysis) and CADWorx Equipment (parametric equipment modeling). http://www.coade.com CEA Systems introduces Plant 4D Athena v3 software for designing PFD, P&ID, E&I, piping, equipment, isometrics, HVAC, and cable raceways. Works with AutoCAD 2005/6/7/8/9 and Microstation J/SE/V8/XM. [It's good to see a developer supporting customers who don't see the need to upgrade.] www.cea-int.com Boothroyd Dewhurst add design-for-environment tools to DFMA 2009 design for manufacture and assembly software. [The name reminds me of ads that Consolidated-Bathust ran in the 1960s: "The longest name in packaging."] www.dfma.com MAXON Computer updates its plug-in for Vectorworks 2009 and CINEMA 4D R11. No-charge download from www.maxon.net/pages/download/plugins_e.html INUS Technology releases Rapidform XOV/Verifier 2: open a 3D CAD file, and then lay out the inspection plan, step by step. www.rapidform.com The Open Design Alliance announces a beta release of DWGdirect.NET for accessing DWG read/write through the .NET framework in C#, VB.NET, or J#. Rendering support to be added later. Available to members only. www.opendesign.com PTC's new digital human modeling software is Pro|ENGINEER Manikin Extension and it lets you simulate and analyze human interactions with CAD designs. [Has PTC now changed the slash to a vertical bar in the Pro/E name?] www.ptc.com/products/proengineer/manikin-extension And Terry Dotson updates PdfImport for AutoCAD with 64-bit compatibility, better support for embedded images, fills, lineweights, and text. The Pro version lets you assemble drawing books from multiple PDF and image files. www.dotsoft.com/pdfimport.htm - - - These were some of the news items that were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com >:
Hardware News Colortrac's next generation extra-wide-format scanners are named Gx+ 56 and Gx+ T56 with world's widest 56" image-width scanning, instant-on LED illumination, and gigabit ethernet. www.colortrac.com nVidia last year spent $43.6 million on fixing faulty graphics chips it shipped with weak packaging material. idea.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581009000013/fy2009form10k.htm
Seminars & Conferences Regional ZWCAD 2009 User Conference is Mar 19-21 in Belgrade Serbia. [No contact info, amazingly enough.] SmartGeometry 2009 is Mar 25-Apr 1 in San Francisco CA USA. www.SmartGeometryConference.com First ODA World Conference by The Open Design Alliance is Apr 27–29 in Leiden, The Netherlands. www.opendwg.org/conference (I'll be at this conference.)
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates IMSI/Design's Bob Mayer tells me his company's got a forum up and running for its new DoubleCAD software at forums.doublecad.com/index.php
People/Companies on the Move Eagle Point Software partners with Carlson Desktop Solutions to provide Eagle Point's Pinnacle Series software. www.eaglepoint.com/about/news.asp?id=398 BlueCielo ECM Solutions ups its ownership of BlueCielo do Brasil Solues de Gerenciamento from 49% to 51%.
WorthWhile Web http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/better-search-doesnt-mean-beating-google/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/13/metcalfe_remembers/ http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/operating_systems_dont_matter.html
Letters to the Editor Re: nVidia Graphics Boards "Thanks for the clarification. And then you confused me again. I understand the 1st [GeForce = consumer and entertainment] and 2nd [Quadro = professional applications, like CAD] type of applications but what are '...high performance computing...', and how are these different from the 2nd type of application? I've never heard of Tesla before."
The editor replies: "Tesla is like a super computer but with a high-end PC price. It contains many nVidia GPU chips, which can be programmed to solve tough problems. Some hackers used a Tesla to crack wireless encryption."
Mr Weiner responds: 'Oh, I see. Well it's not that I do _that_ kind of stuff, but I guess it would be overkill for Photoshop and Lightroom (as well as 3D CAD, ie. SW or Inventor). D**n market is oriented towards gamers. What about the rest of us doing _actual_ work?"
Re: Money safer under mattresses not such a crazy idea anymore "I take it that Jon has never head of the FDIC [federal deposit insurance corporation]. Unless his mattress has more than $250K in it, he should be fine." The editor replies: "Here in British Columbia the government is providing 100% insurance on deposits with credit unions. (The federal limit for Canadian banks used to be a mere $60,000.) Jon's mattress probably has more than $250,000 worth of lumpiness under it."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "While netbooks have always been cheap, they're getting larger and more powerful, too. For as little as $360, a nine-inch Asus Eee PC 901 comes with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, a camera, and easy uploads to photo-sharing site Flickr."
Notable Quotable "About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they'd produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers."
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