Kinestral’s Halio Smart-Tinting Glass Becomes the Only Next-Generation Electrochromic Technology to Pass Rigorous ASTM E2141 Durability Testing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Kinestral Technologies, Inc. recently announced that its Halio® smart-tinting glass product has passed the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) testing procedures according to the ASTM E2141-06 test methodology required to meet the ASTM E2953 standard for electrochromic product durability, becoming the only next-generation product to meet this recognized industry benchmark.

During the NREL testing, Halio windows were subjected to 50,000 switching cycles over a period of six months at temperatures averaging 185°F (85°C).  The extreme conditions had negligible impact on product quality and switching performance: Halio’s visible light transmission was virtually unchanged in the clear and tinted states, and Halio still looked like traditional glass in its clear state and still tinted to neutral gray in its darkest state. Further, switching speeds remained up to 10x faster than similar products on the market.

“To achieve Halio’s performance, our scientists and engineers invented new materials and device physics that didn’t exist when electrochromic products began to enter the market 20 years ago,” said Howard Turner, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kinestral. “Manufacturing was also a prime consideration as we developed Halio to make sure we avoided the production issues faced by first generation producers. Today, we not only have the most beautiful and durable smart tinting glass product on the market, but we also have the largest, most efficient, and most scalable manufacturing facility in the world.”

Halio smart-tinting glass is available exclusively through Halio North America and Halio International, joint venture companies formed by Kinestral and AGC, Inc. the world’s largest glass manufacturer.

“We partnered with Kinestral to bring to market a compelling occupant experience,” said Marc Van Den Neste, chief technology officer of AGC, Inc.’s Building & Industrial Glass Company. “This ASTM durability certification confirms Halio’s quality, and that it’s the right smart-tinting glass solution for our customers.”

Kinestral’s next-generation smart-tinting glass technologies and processes are protected by over 100 granted and pending patents worldwide. Production of Halio commenced in late 2018.

Surbana Jurong and Aerolion Technologies to Develop UAV Technology for the Built Environment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Surbana Jurong and AeroLion Technologies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in April 2019 to further develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies for the built and natural environment. The MOU was signed at Unmanned Systems Asia 2019.

Under the MOU, the partners will jointly develop UAV solutions for various project applications, including land reclamation, workplace safety, site progression and fault detection in enclosed areas such as buildings and tunnels. Surbana Jurong aims to integrate these UAV solutions into its current processes to further increase its productivity.

At the same time, combining real-world data from Surbana Jurong’s operations with the UAV’s artificial intelligence platforms will allow Surbana Jurong to offer advance data-driven UAV solutions to its global clients.

The partnership brings together Surbana Jurong’s expertise and experience in planning, design and engineering in the global urban and infrastructure sectors, with AeroLion Technologies’ expertise in UAV technologies that are focused on the building and construction sector.

UAVs are one of several technologies transforming the engineering and construction industry. Its use not only boosts productivity, reduces overall project time and costs, provide more accurate data readings in shorter time and improve worker safety.

Mr Wong Heang Fine, Group CEO of Surbana Jurong said, “Surbana Jurong already uses UAVs as part of our project processes, from conducting inspections and surveillance, high-precision data collection as well as security-led activities by our subsidiary AETOS. Our collaboration with AeroLion Technologies will further ensure our leadership in the area of UAV applications.”

AeroLion Technologies is a leader in the application of UAV in infrastructure inspection and warehouse management. The Company has strong foundations in Artificial Intelligence (AI), UAV automation and advanced flight operations, and is slated to launch novel solutions for the built environment, following the success of its recent autonomous tunnel inspection UAV platforms.

Cambridge Researchers Developing Self-Healing Concrete

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are using microencapsulation technologies developed by Dolomite Microfluidics to develop self-healing construction materials.

As highlighted in recent BBC News broadcasts, the Department of Engineering’s Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group is developing microcapsules containing ‘healing’ agents – such as minerals, epoxy or polyurethane – which can be added to building materials to allow self-repair of small cracks which develop over time.

Dr. Livia Ribeiro de Souza, a postdoctoral researcher in the group, explained: “Many composite building materials used in the construction industry – such as concrete – suffer fatigue over time, developing small cracks. We are hoping to overcome this problem by adding microcapsules filled with ‘healing’ agents to the concrete before it is used. The idea is that, as cracks begin to form, they rupture the microcapsules, releasing their payload and stabilising the material.”

“This approach requires the formation and functionalisation of double emulsion microcapsules, which we have been producing with the help of microfluidics. We have been using a Dolomite Microfluidics system since 2014, and find that microfluidics offers much better control of particle size and composition than traditional emulsification polymerisation techniques, simplifying the investigation and optimisation of particle properties.”

The Dolomite system has enabled the researchers to create functionalised microcapsules that bind more strongly to the cement matrix, while also having thinner shell walls and higher core retention, improving their self-healing properties. Livia continued: “It is good to be able to discuss any issues we’re having with the experts at Dolomite Microfluidics, helping to accelerate our research and move us a step closer to real world applications.”

For more information, visit the Dolomite website.

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

Reading Time: 2 minutes

SensorFlow, a Singapore-based, smart energy management startup, announced recently that it has secured a further US$2.7 million of Series A funding to accelerate its regional growth and achieve its mission to make Asian hotels smart and energy efficient.

The company’s performance enhancing solutions deliver up to 30 percent in energy savings and up to 40 percent reduction in maintenance costs. The funds raised will boost SensorFlow’s rapidly expanding operations enabling the company to meet the needs of a growing customer base of major hotel chains in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It will also help drive the company’s entry into new markets including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines which will bring the company closer to its goal of 800,000 smart hotel rooms by 2022.

The new funding is led by private investor Pierre Lorinet followed by Playfair Capital, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, 2be.lu Investments, Aurum Land and Insitu Asia Holdings. This brings the total funds raised till date to US$3.5 million. Last year’s initial seed funding was led by Cocoon Capital and followed by SG Innovate and SparkLabs under the Entrepreneur First accelerator programme.

Co-founder and CEO of SensorFlow, Saikrishnan Ranganathan, said, “With this investment we are in an even stronger position for market expansion to help more hotels within the region reach their sustainability goals. We look forward to building partnerships, pursuing opportunities with synergistic companies and working with local sustainability schemes across the region to further champion energy efficiency and make smart green hotels a standard practice in the industry. We also have our eyes set on entering Sri Lanka, India, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia within the next two years.”

Over the past year, SensorFlow started deploying property-wide solutions for The Uncharted Co’s 5footway.inn in Singapore and completed trials in three Alila Hotels & Resorts properties in Bali, driving a 30 percent reduction in energy costs. The company also tripled its staff and made key executive appointments in operations, engineering and sales. The team is currently in the midst of securing contracts with hotels and property developers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

The SensorFlow solution solves three key challenges that earlier prevented hoteliers from implementing effective, integrated energy management solutions. The first is the large upfront costs for hardware followed by the inconvenience of a long installation period. The last key challenge has been the lack of integration options with existing systems.

“With energy consumption accounting for more than 60 percent of utility costs, hoteliers constantly seek to improve their energy efficiency. However, they often grapple with the challenge of incurring high costs and disruptions when implementing new energy solutions. This is why we created an innovative, retrofit solution that is easily installed in a matter of minutes and which seamlessly integrates into existing infrastructure. We use wireless sensors to collect real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate decision-making. This is offered in a zero-upfront cost subscription model – catering to hotels that are unable or unwilling to tap into larger capital expenditure budgets,” added Ranganathan.

According to the International Energy Agency, Southeast Asia’s energy demand is expected to grow by nearly 60 percent by 2040. With the building sector accounting for approximately 25 percent of Asia’s overall energy consumption, there is great potential for solutions that can create more sustainable energy consumption.

Funan Capitaland

Funan Set to Open Singapore’s First O&O Shopping Mall in mid-2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Funan is racing ahead to open Singapore’s first online-and- offline (O&O) shopping mall integrating online, offline, data and logistics aimed at empowering retailers’ omnichannel strategy and transforming the customer experience. The retail as well as its office components are now slated to open in 2Q 2019, instead of the earlier announced 3Q 2019. The opening of lyf Funan Singapore, a coliving serviced residence component within Funan, managed by The Ascott Limited, has also been brought forward from 2020 to 4Q 2019.

Owned by CapitaLand Mall Trust and managed by CapitaLand Retail, Funan recently celebrated its structural completion ahead of schedule. The topping out ceremony held at Funan Showsuite was officiated by Guest of Honour Mr Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Minister for Finance. From groundbreaking to structural completion, Funan took about 19 months. To date, 72 percent of the overall construction has already been completed.

At the topping out event in September 2018, Minister Heng Swee Keat was given a preview of a range of digital innovations coming up at Funan. These include a smart interactive directory that uses facial recognition to provide shoppers with customised recommendations, video analytics that studies shopper traffic and crowd density and an all-in-one app for Ascott’s lyf coliving serviced residence – the first app by a serviced residence company that will allow social networking and room booking; and will also serve as a mobile key.

CapitaLand also showcased its groupwide innovations as part of its digitalisation strategy, including a merchant dashboard that enables retailers to tap consumer insights generated by CapitaLand’s CapitaStar loyalty programme and eCapitaVoucher, the digital version of CapitaVoucher – Singapore’s most popular shopping mall voucher – launching this November.

Funan’s innovation journey has scored several “firsts” in Singapore. These include the first to deploy automated guided vehicles to provide shoppers with a hands-free shopping experience and the first to utilise a robotic arm for its twenty-four-hour drive-through click-and-collect service. As part of Funan’s tech-enabled user experience, building users can also expect conveniences such as app-based booking of facilities within the development, video-based smart carparking facilities and facial recognition turnstiles at its office towers.

Visit the Capitaland website to read more

Crestron Wins 2018 Microsoft Global IoT Partner of the Year Award

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Crestron has accepted the prestigious 2018 Microsoft Global Partner of the Year Award for Internet of Things (IoT) in a ceremony at the Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas.

Microsoft® recognised Crestron for providing outstanding solutions in IoT in the form of Crestron XiO Cloud, a revolutionary IoT-based provisioning and management solution built on the Microsoft Azure® platform.

Crestron XiO Cloud is revolutionising provisioning and management of Crestron’s popular open UC, room scheduling, AV, and content sharing solutions at the world’s leading companies, resulting in up to 90 percent reductions in installation time, improvements in device uptime, and optimisation of people, space, and technology. 

Powering the digital transformation
As businesses across every industry continue along their digital transformation journey, Crestron IoT enabled automation and control solutions enable facility management and IT staff to control entire environments with a push of a button or click of a mouse, integrating audio, video, digital signage, scheduling, lighting, building management systems (BMS), HVAC and security systems.

The strength of Crestron IoT-enabled devices and systems is their integration in the Crestron XiO Cloud, providing all-in-one monitoring, management and control from a single platform.

“Intelligent workplace solutions are the springboard for digital transformation- but managing the devices that enable it can be costly and complicated. Crestron XiO Cloud reduces the complexities associated with deploying, tracking, managing and evolving the ecosystem of IoT enabled devices that make communication and collaboration seamless.

Crestron is honored to be recognised by Microsoft for developing game-changing connected technologies that help propel digital transformation at Fortune 500® companies worldwide,” said Ted Colton, Vice President of Unified Communication Strategies at Crestron.

Celebrating partner achievement
The annual Microsoft Partner of the Year awards celebrate top Microsoft partners who demonstrate excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Microsoft received more than 2,600 nominations from 115 countries for the 2018 program.

The IoT category was judged by a number of IoT stakeholders and leaders from Microsoft Common Data Service, One Commercial Partner, Windows and Azure. The judges selected the winners based on their commitment to customers, the solution’s impact on the market, and exemplary use of Microsoft technologies.

“Our ecosystem of partners is crucial to delivering transformative solutions, and this year’s winners have proven to be some of the finest among their peers,” said Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased to recognise Crestron for being selected as winner of the 2018 Microsoft IoT Partner of the Year award.”

2018 McKinsey Global Report Shows Smart Solutions Can Help Boost Quality Of Life In SEA Cities

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Southeast Asia’s future is tied to the fate of its cities. Today the region’s urban areas are home to one-third of its total population but generate more than two-thirds of the region’s GDP. Urbanisation is fueling economic growth, but the breakneck pace has left many cities struggling to provide adequate housing, infrastructure, and services to meet the needs of a surging population.

While the urban challenges across Southeast Asia have been growing in scope, new technologies that could tackle some of these issues have reached maturity. Smart cities in Southeast Asia, a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), in collaboration with the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore, finds that cities across the region can incorporate data and digital technologies into infrastructure and services—all with an eye to solving specific public problems and making the urban environment more livable, sustainable, and productive.

The research, which studies dozens of current applications, finds that cities in the region could use digital solutions to improve some quality- of-life indicators by 10-30 percent. It expands on global research released last month by MGI on how the current generation of smart city technologies can perform in a variety of urban settings worldwide.

Smart Cities are Poised to Have Significant and Broad-based Impact in Southeast Asia
Cities across Southeast Asia are primed to take advantage on smart solutions. Dozens of smart solutions are available today focusing on every domain of city life: mobility, social infrastructure, the built environment, utilities, security, community, and the economy.

As they begin their smart transformation, each city is setting its own priorities regarding which ones to deploy. MGI finds that smart cities could have a substantial impact across Southeast Asia to deliver a better quality-of-life. Among its findings:

  • Smart solutions could remove up to some 270,000 kilotons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
  • Some 5,000 lives lost each year to traffic accidents, fires, and homicides could be saved through mobility solutions, crime prevention, and better emergency response.
  • Intelligent traffic and transit solutions could save up to 8 million man-years in annual commuting time.
  • Deploying smart healthcare solutions for the urban population could reduce the region’s disease burden by 12 million disability-adjusted life years—in other words, not only extending overall life expectancy but adding years of good health.

By creating more efficient and productive environments for business and hiring, Southeast Asia could add almost 1.5 million jobs. Residents could also save as much as $16 billion annually as smart solutions contribute to better housing options and lowering energy bills.

The current generation of smart applications can help cities make significant or moderate progress toward meeting 70 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Urbanisation can propel Southeast Asia to the level of economic and human development, but only if growth is managed well,” said Jonathan Woetzel, Senior Partner and Leader of McKinsey’s Special Cities Initiative. “Cities need to act now to address growing environmental stresses and particularly to combat climate change and improve their resilience.”

Rooting Digital Solutions in Southeast Asian Realities
There is already a wave of innovation across the region. It includes digital citizen apps, homegrown ride-hailing apps, data-driven transit planning, intelligent traffic systems, data-driven disaster risk assessment, advanced construction techniques, smart energy meters, and much more.

Low-income cities may be able to jumpstart progress by creating open data portals, which make raw information available for private-sector innovation that does not require any public investment.

The report notes that private-sector companies that find ways to contribute to the public good and expand choices for urban residents can find substantial market opportunities across Southeast Asia. MGI estimates that smart mobility applications could create up to $70 billion in value, while opportunities to make the built environment smarter could be worth more than $25 billion.

But the report cautions that companies with aspirations to become urban solution providers need to navigate a dynamic and complex ecosystem. Companies need an intimate understanding of a city’s context so they can anchor their offerings and value proposition to the real needs of residents, and they may need to add new government relations capabilities.

Bold Action Required by Public and Private Sectors
A smart city starts with a smart strategic vision and goals. While it is important for city governments to outline a vision for the future, the rapid pace of technological change means that they have to retain some flexibility to experiment and recalibrate.

Taking a data-driven approach that continually measures progress against clear quality-of-life goals can guide that process. Cities also need to consider how to pair smart technologies with complementary policies and investment in hard infrastructure.

“Cities facing tough budgetary choices will have to prioritise the practical over the flashiest new technologies,” said Mukund Sridhar, Partner and Leader of McKinsey’s Infrastructure Practice in Southeast Asia. “Installing digital systems behind the scenes to manage traffic, coordinate networks of hospitals, or cut down on bureaucratic paperwork may yield more impact than highly visible touchscreens on the street.”

Neither the public nor the private sector can build smart cities alone. City governments will have to continue providing many critical services, but they do not have to fund and operate every type of service and infrastructure system. Smart cities will change the parameters of how cities across Southeast Asia approach public-private partnerships.

Despite their varied starting points, priorities, and capabilities, cities across Southeast Asia can cooperate to deploy smart solutions on a much bigger scale. The most advanced cities may be able to assist others in developing technological capabilities and specific apps, but it will also be valuable for the region’s lower-income cities to share with each other what they are learning about where digital innovation can yield the greatest impact. Green shoots are already visible, and the recently launched ASEAN Smart Cities Network can provide a vehicle for accelerating progress.

McKinsey Global Institute Media release | Page 3 The report will be available for download at www.mckinsey.com/mgi

Singaporean Students Lauded At National Engineers Day 2018 For Creating Life-Transforming, Smart Solutions

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(images courtesy of the The Institution of Engineers, Singapore – IES)

The National Engineers Day (NED) 2018 event in July 2018 celebrated the best of youthful creativity and passion in making a difference to the society through engineering. Mr. Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance presented the Energy Innovation Challenge (EIC) 2018 and the IES Innovation Challenge for the Community 2018 awards to winning students at the NED 2018 Prize Presentation Ceremony as the event guest-of-honour. He also witnessed the launched of the “I am a Young Engineer” Badge.

EIC 2018 Winners
EIC 2018 challenges students to design smart engineering solutions for health, living, mobility and services. This year’s EIC saw 120 teams participating across four categories, compared to only 73 teams in its inaugural year in 2015. This includes 18 overseas teams from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines for Category 4 (Local and Overseas Universities).

After a networking party in March 2018, participating students from Category 1 to 3 went through a series of workshops and camps that equipped them with design, finance, marketing, logistics management and technical skills to build their solutions. They also had the unique opportunity to be personally guided by professional engineers as mentors over a four-month learning journey.

The judges had shortlisted 80 teams of more than 252 students for the final rounds of judging, whereby participants had to display their projects at NED 2018 from 26 to 28 July, 2018. The four champion teams who eventually emerged are:

  • Category 1 (Secondary Schools): Team (S-24) – River Valley High School – An Eco- Friendly Barbecue Pit System
  • Category 2 (Junior Colleges): Team (J-10) – Dunman High School – Micro Energy Harvesting (μ-EH) and Its Application in Water Desalination under Emergency and Stressed Situation
  • Category 3 (Polytechnics and Institution of Technical Education): Team (I-06) – ITE College West – Robotic Helper FETCH
  • Category 4 (Local and Overseas Universities): Team (U-01) – Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology – Cheap Braille Interface for Ebook Reading

In recognition of their outstanding performance, the top prize winning teams from Categories 1 to 3 will earn an overseas educational trip to be hosted by BMW Group in Germany, while the second, third and merit prize winners will be awarded with $1,000, $700 and $300 respectively. The champions of Category 4 will walk away with an $8,000 cash prize while the second, third and merit prize winners will be awarded $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000 respectively. This year’s popularity prize for all four categories constitutes $300 each.

Jointly organised by IES and Science Centre Singapore, EIC is a nation-wide competition that gives students the opportunity to create solutions that address global energy issues. It is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore.

IES Innovation Challenge for the Community 2018
Tertiary students also received awards for applying their engineering knowledge and creativity to design practical, user-friendly solutions to enhance the quality of life of the elderly, the handicapped, the injured and the community-at-large. Participating teams from Category A have to cap their expenditure at $2,000 and demonstrate competence in the optimal use of materials and equipment.

This year’s challenge received a total of 35 project submissions across two categories. After a rigorous round of judging by a panel of academia and industry experts, 14 projects where shortlisted for presentations.

The 2018 Gold Award for polytechnics goes to Chua Chryston and Neo Yizhe from Singapore Polytechnic for building a “dementia patient tracking” using Sigfox, a LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology. The tracker periodically transmits its GPS location to a Cloud database and enables the patient’s care-taker to view the location on a Google map via a mobile app. The students hope that the invention can help dementia patients to move about without the fear of getting lost.

In the university category, the Gold Award winner is Subramanian Gowtham from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) for designing a portable image- based cytometer for rapid malaria detection and quantification. His invention detects and numerically counts Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells (iRBCs) from Giemsa- stained smears derived from infected blood. Subramanian’s aim is to provide a cost- effective, rapid and accurate alternative for antimalarial testing without compromising on efficiency.

Launch of “I am a Young Engineer” Badge
IES also launched the “I am a Young Engineer” Badge for primary three to six students at the event, with Minister Heng as witness. This new initiative is a collaborative effort by IES and Science Centre Singapore to encourage students to discover the fun of engineering and instill interest in engineering from a young age.

The badge will provide students with introductory engineering skills and knowledge through self-directed engineering-related tasks listed on the activity card. Students can submit their completed works to their teachers or parents for verification to earn stars that will qualify them for the badge.

The badge is one of the outcomes from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that IES signed with Science Centre Singapore in 2016 to stimulate interest amongst students in engineering and is sponsored by HDB, PUB, Micron and ST Engineering.

NED 2018
The Prize Presentation Ceremony also marked the conclusion of the ninth annual NED, the largest engineering youth carnival in Singapore, organised by IES to celebrate the achievements of engineers, inspire young engineers and intrigue the young generation in engineering.

Besides EIC 2018, the three-day NED 2018 presented a concentration of talks and workshops to help students discover the wonders of engineering and rapidly growing career opportunities for those with an engineering education and an aptitude to discover, imagine and create.

Espai Barça - FC Barcelona

Bentley Systems Presents Synchro Software At Microsoft Inspire Conference

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Espai Barça - FC Barcelona

Image courtesy of www.fcbarcelona.com

Bentley Systems, Incorporated presented Synchro, a 4D construction modeling solution at the Microsoft Inspire conference in Las Vegas in July 2018. The use of Synchro as part of a mixed reality construction management solution for FC Barcelona’s Espai Barça sports stadium project was featured during the Mixed Reality (MR) and the Cloud session at the conference.

The Microsoft Inspire session, led by Microsoft’s Nancy Li, detailed how Bentley’s Synchro, a cloud-based 4D construction modeling solution, will be used for FC Barcelona’s major renovation to the Espai Barça sports arena in Barcelona, Spain, which when completed will accommodate more than 100,000 fans. In conjunction with time-lapse monitoring footage of the construction site provided by EarthCam, Bentley’s Synchro will help the stadium project team to visualise and compare construction progress with the 4D construction model.

Greg Demchak, technical architect for Bentley, said, “The scope of this project demands that we look for new solutions, and for this, we turned to Microsoft. Using Azure infrastructure, HoloLens technology, and Cognitive Services, multiple users can interact with a holographic representation of the stadium data at any moment in the construction process. We are also leveraging machine learning and on-site images to digitally track actual progress with Synchro.”

Bentley Systems is a Mixed Reality and CityNext partner with Microsoft, and will receive the 2018 Microsoft CityNext Partner of the Year Award during this year’s Microsoft Inspire Conference for its Azure-enabled software solution for Mass Rapid Transit Corporation’s world-class, Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya high-speed railway project in Malaysia.

FARO® Introduces As-Built Software Platform For 3D Digital Modeling

Reading Time: 2 minutes

FARO, a trusted source for 3D measurement and imaging solutions for factory metrology and construction BIM, announces the availability of the FARO® As-Built software platform that enables efficient and cost-effective transfer of 3D reality capture into Autodesk® design tools to create ready to use CAD and Building Information Modeling (BIM) deliverables.

As-Built is specifically designed to minimise the effort and time required to create as-built documentation, which is the main task across AEC professionals in the building, facility and infrastructure design phases.

This comprehensive and innovative platform seamlessly integrates processed 3D data coming from the FARO SCENE software platform and can then support point cloud modelling (i.e. the set of data points acquired by a 3D laserscanner that are then displayed as a visual representation of an object or area) for the latest 2019 Autodesk® design tools. The FARO As-Built platform offers three powerful options:

  • As-Built for AutoCAD® Software
  • As-Built for Autodesk® Revit®
  • As-Built Suite – includes both As-Built for AutoCAD® Software and As-Built for Autodesk® Revit®

The full functionality of PointSense for AutoCAD® solutions, all previous standalone AutoCAD® plug-ins and PointSense for Revit®, respectively are now migrated into the As-Built platform. Additionally, As-Built is available across a broadseries of languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, English and German.

As-Built for AutoCAD® Software

  • Best in Class Usability: Users now have access to a common graphical user interface that provides a single entry point for all FARO features and functionality across the entire AutoCAD® platform. This enables new users to get upto speed quickly and immediately begin to leverage the power of As-Built.
  • Unique Performance and Value: AEC professionals benefit from a single point cloud-modelling platform that not only offers versatile tools that span different industries such as Architecture, Civil/Survey, Oil & Gas, and FacilityManagement but also total stations and UAV sensors. There is no longer a need to purchase or support separate total station software. Additionally, it is now easy to combine a terrestrial view with an aerial view that provides an evenbetter digital representation of the real world.

As-Built for Autodesk® Revit®

  • Confidence in Accuracy: As-Built for Autodesk® Revit®, like its predecessor PointSense for Revit®, accelerates Scan-To-BIM workflows and includes powerful features such as surface analysis by Levels of Accuracy standards asdefined by the U.S. Institute of Building Documentation, which enables users to more confidently validate the accuracy of the as-built model compared to the relevant point cloud.

“We have been uniquely focused on delivering 3D digital modeling solutions that address the key pain points of AEC professionals; specifically waste and project delays that lower productivity and increase operational costs,” statedAndreas Gerster, Vice President Global Construction BIM. “As-Built is both a powerful tool for Autodesk® users who use FARO Focus and Freestyle solutions and also for other 3rd party 3D imaging hardware products.”