Document Management Meets Geo-Location, Real-Time MarkUp and Online Calculators

Searching, finding, collaboration and versioning of documents is a constant challenge for AEC organizations. How to organize and visualize documents and data has resulted in the development of some interesting engineering document management solutions. The following three document management solutions take a different approach to managing, visualizing and collaborating with AEC documents and data that further users’ ability to organize projects digitally.

Bluebeam, Inc., of Pasadena, California, part of the Nemetschek Group, announced recently that it has substantially acquired all of the assets of privately held Project Atlas, LLC.

Construction industry veterans Todd Wynne and Joe Williams founded Project Atlas in 2017. They created a digital mapping engine that uses geo-location instead of traditional folder structures to organize and visualize 2D plans and construction data. According to company materials, this location-based orientation allows design and construction professionals to create and search a seamless digital map of their project that contains plans, people, material, site photos and drone imagery, all within highly detailed, zoomable layers.

“Bluebeam was founded on the idea that powerful AEC solutions should also be easy to use, capable of delivering the right information at the right time while improving the ability of all project partners to collaborate throughout the lifecycle of an entire project,” says Bluebeam CEO Jon Elliott. “We are incredibly excited to add Project Atlas to our portfolio of solutions to continue delivering on this promise. Project Atlas provides users an entirely new way to visually organize and unify location-based documents and data. This location-based methodology dramatically reduces the time it takes to find critical plans and information, empowering owners, architects, engineers, contractors and specialty contractors to access data in an immediately understandable way that will be especially beneficial in the field.”

Bluebeam looks forward to demonstrating workflows incorporating Project Atlas at the Bluebeam Extreme Conference, taking place 17–19 September in Austin, Texas (USA).

Bluebeam’s markup and collaboration solutions are intuitive to those in the AEC industry who manage and collaborate on projects digitally.

eQuorum’s ImageSite Engineering CAD Drawing Markup Software is a product that provides markup capabilities in real time, so that multiple users can collaborate on drawing files and documents at the same time along with workflows. Videos and photos can be included. Drawings can be redlined and used in the office, field or production site.

The current version of ImageSite has a redone workflow functionality. Document-centric processes now have full privileges of delegation for approvers and supervisors. All workflows, event monitors, lifecycles and other processes with notifications now report into Our Notifications panel on the Dashboard. This way all notices can be seen in one place with their current status.

Each version of a drawing or document can possess its own markup layers that can be carried forward to each new version, so that all previous additions and comments can be assembled in one version.  Some of the workflows that benefit from the markups might be invoice approvals, design releases and Engineering Change Orders.

Change management is another area that requires a rigorous process in engineering just to keep projects on track and manage project costs and schedules. ImageSite’s document lifecycle and workflows can be configured as Engineering Change Requests solutions.

ImageSite Construction Document Management delivers a secure repository and integrates the leading AEC CAD formats (AutoCAD, MicroStation and Revit) with title block integration, automatic reference file detection, integrated viewing and markups. Features include:

• Access to local files with an enterprise view of all files stored across multiple repositories
• Flexible folder storage structures
• Metadata search criteria
• Flexible lifecycle and workflow processes
• Document and folder level security models
• Advanced transmittal creation and tracking
• Real-time collaboration and markup capabilities
• Fully automatic version control capabilities

eQuorum has a cloud document management software called Engine-Box that doesn’t require software and resides outside corporate networks. The site is useful for file distribution and collaboration with vendors, contractors and customers. It is valuable to keep on hand in case of in-house system disasters.

ARC Document Solutions has launched an interactive, online value calculator that enables facilities, engineering and maintenance management teams look at usage to date and annual cost savings while assessing the impact of incorporating mobile facilities dashboards into their operations.

Tags: AEC, architects, architecture, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, BIM, building design, building information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, construction, engineering

Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AEC training, AECCafe, apps, architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, BIM, Bluebeam, Cloud, construction, construction project management, engineering, field, field solutions, file sharing, geospatial, GIS, infrastructure, mobile, Nemetschek, project management, site planning

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