Each year when I look back on what was accomplished during the technology year, I’m amazed at how many of the same topics come up. The reason for this is most likely because none of the challenges put before the AEC industry are going to be solved that easily. The technology used to solve real-world problems keeps evolving and the problems themselves become morphed or more urgent.
For example, climate change has been on our agenda for several years now. It’s not going to go away.
Keith Clarke, CBE, FREng, FICE, RIBA, Chairman, speaking on the topic, “Forum for the Future,” at the Bentley Year In Infrastructure 2019 thought leadership conference in Singapore in October, pointed out that recycling bins throughout the convention center have a sign above them stating, “the greatest threat to the planet is that we think somebody else will save it.”
The annual Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure Awards was held in Singapore this year at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Finalists and attendees gather to learn about the projects and ultimately to see who is awarded the winning distinction in each category. Categories include Buildings and Campuses, Road and Rail Asset Performance, Digital Cities, Bridges, Power Generation, Utilities and Industrial Asset Performance, 4D Construction Modeling, Reality Modeling, Mining and Offshore Engineering, Rail and Transit, Roads and Highways, Manufacturing, Water and Wastewater, and Communications and Utilities.
2019 was a banner year for Bentley’s Year In Infrastructure thought leadership conference, in its focused attention to what organizations need to manage increasing quantities and densities of data. Digital Twins were definitely the order of the day this year, with other technologies taking front and center stage in the form of acquisitions.
This Tuesday, Vectorworks, Inc. announced the 2020 release of Vectorworks Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Designer and Fundamentals, as well as 2020 versions of Vision and Braceworks. This newest release brings improved software performance, quality enhancements and new data-driven workflows.
In an interview with Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar, he spoke of the areas that Vectorworks addresses in the 2020 release. “Data and usability are the cornerstones of this year’s product line enhancements,” said Dr. Sarkar.
GeoCue President and CTO, Lewis Graham, answered some questions for GISCafe Voice about GeoCue products and their new TrueView platform. TrueView is UAV/LiDAR fusion by design, according to company materials, an integrated LIDAR/camera fusion platform designed from the ground up to generate high accuracy 3D colorized point clouds.
Simeon Balabanov, Chaos Group V-Ray for Unreal's Product Manager, spoke about the product’s newly released capabilities to what is said to be the only production rendering workflow designed for real-time.
Bentley Systems hosted its Spring Update Conference Call this week about the progress of the company, with a focus on Digital Twin technology. In addition were two product announcements and the acquisition of Keynetix, a UK-headquartered provider of cloud-based software for capturing, visualizing, modeling, and sharing of geotechnical data.
With OpenSite Designer, users can create intelligent 3D models for civil site projects complete with site information, terrain data, parking lots, building pads, driveways, sidewalk, parcel layout and related site features.
Unfortunately, climate change is occurring at such a rapid rate that technology is racing to keep up with it. The built environment currently accounts for 40% of the world’s energy use, meaning buildings and cities have the potential to make the biggest impact in reducing carbon emissions globally.