Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008 - 4

NEWS & NotES I Bentley and Autodesk to Make BIM Systems Compatible n response to concerns from ACEC and client users about compatibility between Building Information Modeling (BIM) software platforms, Bentley and Autodesk have agreed to exchange software libraries and support each competitor’s application programming interface tools. The agreement between the two rival industry leaders marks a major step toward eliminating the compatibility challenges faced by engineering firms using BIM. The software currently does not support multiple BIM platforms. For firms doing business with multiple government agencies—or a single agency that requires more than one BIM application—the cost of additional software and training can result in a firm being unfairly excluded from competing, especially small firms. “I think we are making progress here,” said Robert Bank of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For more than a year, ACEC and client users have championed the use of Industry Foundation Call (National BIM Standards) compliant software to provide BIM benefits and enhance interoperability. Bentley and Autodesk pledged to share the necessary information to allow each platform to read, write and submit in the competitor’s file format. Both firms cautioned that many technical details and questions remain to be resolved. Industry consensus views BIM as the wave of the future in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of facilities and infrastructure. The incompatible formats in the marketplace, however, have limited implementation of the technology. Digital renderings such as this one from Autodesk soon will be accessible on multiple software platforms. T NIST Program Seeks to Improve Detection of Infrastructure Failure and ears to detect problems. “There is some technology using sonar and fiber optics that allows you to look in places where you can’t get your head,” although it’s expensive and labor-intensive, said NIST’s Marc Stanley. “Most of what they have at their disposal are these crude tools—rakes and chains and hammers—and they tap on things and listen,” Stanley said. “These guys are trying to do a good job, and they really don’t have the tools to make it easy for them.” Even before the collapse of the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis last year, which killed 13 people, NIST had been studying the issue. The agency’s aim is to advance industrial innovation. More than one-quarter of this country’s bridges are rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Nearly a quarter-million water main breaks happen each year. he National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking proposals to develop innovative technologies for inspecting, monitoring and evaluating critical components of the nation’s roadways, bridges, and drinking and wastewater systems. As part of its new Technology Innovation Program, NIST expects to award up to $3 million across three years for a single company, and as much as $9 million over five years for a collaborative R&D project. The research must target new, efficient, accurate, low-cost and reliable sensors and related technologies that provide quantitative assessments of the structural integrity or degree of deterioration of bridges, roads, water mains and wastewater collection systems. The new program aims to create advanced monitoring gear for inspectors who currently rely heavily on their eyes 4 ENGINEERING INC. SEptEmbER / oCtobER 2008 LauRa CIa pp oN I/GEtty I maGES

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008

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