Category Archives: Construction/BIM
What is xyHt?
Stand in the place where you live Now face North Think about direction Wonder why you haven’t before “Stand” – R.E.M. Why an obscure geodetic expression? It’s not all that obscure—it represents a foundational element requisite to nearly all human endeavor. It touches your life explicitly and in the abstract. All of the ways that...
Setting a Standard in Railway Renewal
A highly traveled section of the UK’s West Coast Mainline rail corridor (between Warrington and Preston) required the renewal of three miles (five km) of track among four major junctions. In an intensive, nine-day continuous spell, the innovation team at Network Rail completed the work almost 16 months earlier than proposed—and avoided disrupting rail travel....
Q&A with 3D Guru TJ McCue
Autodesk is sponsoring an eight-month 3D RV (recreational vehicle) 100 stop tour of the U.S. that celebrates the future of how things are designed and made. Led by TJ McCue, host, writer, and 3D enthusiast, the 3D RV tour is visiting America’s cities, towns and off-the-beaten path byways to explore a powerful and fundamental change...
Heads-up Hard Hats
A new smart helmet brings VR to the workplace. Virtual Reality (VR) and “wearables” are all the rage now, but we expect the hype to subside at some point, and then we’ll start seeing products suitable for real-world applications. Sure, there is Glass and Oculus, but how can such devices move beyond gaming, marketing, (and...
Autodesk and Measurement
“After all of these years, I’m really happy to be able to say that Autodesk is now truly in the measurement business,” says Pete Kelsey, Autodesk’s strategic projects executive. Though he was quick to add qualifiers to that statement: “We are not in the measurement hardware business, but we are now more closely aligned with...
Can You Hear the Shape of a Room?
There is a sort of scientific “sweet spot,” a window of discovery. It occurs when science turns a question into a potential solution to practical problems, even to problems that had been long dismissed as a “bridge too far.” If you can identify this sweet spot, you can trace the scientific roots of an emerging...