Geological modelling specialist, Seequent, has released Slope3D, a slope stability analysis tool for geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists.

According to Seequent, Slop3D offers a practical approach for capturing slope failure mechanisms for simple to complex geotechnical models.

Building on the capabilities of Seequent’s GeoStudio 2D Slope/W product, Slope3D is billed as an intuitive limit equilibrium solution for analysing rock and soil slopes in mining and civil projects – for example, hillslopes, open pit mines, and engineered structures such as dams and levees.

“Ensuring the safety and reliability of engineered projects is at the heart of geotechnical engineering,” said Chris Kelln, director, technical solutions for GeoStudio.

“We specifically designed Slope3D to empower geotechnical and geological engineers to make confident decisions, improve safety, reduce project risks and costs, and ultimately design better infrastructure.”

Slope3D is part of Seequent’s GeoStudio 2023 release. It connects directly with Seequent’s geological modelling software, Leapfrog, via Seequent Central, and integrates with GeoStudio’s Seep3D. According to Seequent, this creates a seamless workflow with smooth data exchange and simpler data management to improve project accuracy and outcomes.

Seequent was acquired by Bentley Systems in 2021 for $1.05 billion.

Seequent’s products include Geosoft for 3D earth modelling and geoscience data management, GeoStudio for geotechnical slope stability and de-formation modelling, and Leapfrog for 3D geological modelling and visualisation.

Leapfrog appears to have particular relevance to infrastructure projects. The software is designed to replace traditional 2D subsurface modelling and simulation processes. According to Bentley, the usage of the software, often in conjunction with Bentley’s software offerings, has been growing consistently in civil infrastructure sectors.

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US engineering design and consultancy firm WSB has launched a digital construction management solution and advisory service, based on Bentley Systems Synchro.

The aim of the service is to help civil infrastructure firms overcome the challenges of adopting model-based digital workflows and harnessing the power of ‘construction digital twins’.

WSB joined the Bentley Digital Integrator Program for construction to help develop the service.

“Owners and construction firms realise that new digital workflows are needed to meet infrastructure demands. Applying these digital workflows successfully requires a deep understanding of technology, processes, and data,” said Carsten Gerke, senior vice president of strategic partnerships with Bentley Systems.

“The Bentley Digital Integrator Program is built around combining technology with subject matter expertise for improved infrastructure. WSB joining the program provides a leapfrog opportunity for all our transportation users.”

Key services include enabling a single source of truth by connecting project, contract, and document management to the future of design—a 3D/4D/5D constructable model—as well as the ability to create constructable models from current 2D plan sets, which allows the transition to a single source of truth for all stakeholders.

Bentley Synchro is a construction management software that supports the entire civil construction lifecycle with ‘office-to-field’ workflows. It is designed to give firms insight into project performance, productivity, and financial health and forms the construction service of the Bentley Infrastructure Cloud.

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National Highways, the government-owned company that manages the motorways and major A roads of England, has extended its contract for Trimble’s AgileAssets cloud software.

The software includes a decision-support solution that helps infrastructure asset managers improve their understanding of future maintenance needs of bridges and other structures.

National Highways uses the software to forecast the condition of bridge assets on England’s strategic road network and deliver reliable bridge infrastructure. It also helps identify infrastructure renewal projects that bring the most significant benefits in multiple areas, including public safety, financial stewardship, economic development, and environmental responsibility.

National Highways manages more than 23,000 highway structures, including ten tunnels, on roadways that carry more than four million vehicle journeys per day.

Since 2015, the software has been used for roadway and structures management of the M25, the orbital motorway circling greater London. The 250-mile-long network carries 73 million journeys a year, and comprises four tunnels, 2,500 structures—including bridges, culverts and overhead gantries—and 140,000 other highway assets.

“Resilience, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of public infrastructure have long been a key focus at Trimble,” said Cyndee Hoagland, senior vice president of Trimble’s Owner and Public Sector.

“Now, with an even broader range of digital technologies to support our customers in managing the full lifecycle of their assets—from design and construction to operations and maintenance—we are helping organisations advance toward their long-term goals for delivering safer and longer-lasting infrastructure.”

Find this article plus many more in the March / April 2023 Edition of AEC Magazine

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Datumate, the developer of construction analytics platform DatuBIM, has partnered with Procore, the construction management software provider, to provide civil construction teams with enhanced infrastructure site analytics and progress monitoring.

The integrated solution is said to solve a key industry challenge by giving project stakeholders up-to-date data for better decision making, improved efficiency and accelerated project delivery.

“Our partnership with Procore is an important step in the digital transformation of infrastructure construction,” said Dror Friedman, CEO of Datumate. “DatuBIM complements the Procore portfolio – providing owners and contractors with a complete lifecycle management solution and the field data they need to better control budget planning and ensure project quality.”

Datumate’s DatuBIM construction analytics platform is designed and tailored for large-scale heavy civil and infrastructure projects. It is designed to help teams access a single source of truth for design, plans, and as-built data, run advanced analytics, and overlay design plans to check for deviations and potential quality issues.

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Perhaps the most significant update to the IFC standard is the inclusion of extensions for infrastructure entities in IFC 4.3, as Emma Hooper, associate director and head of R&D at Bond Bryan Digital, explains

IFC has received many updates over the years. This year sees the finalisation of the much-anticipated IFC version 4.3, a major update of the IFC4 schema.

It’s a significant milestone in the history of IFC and has been a huge team effort, involving many countries and organisations. Highlights of the updated standard include:

• A more agile process and, for the enduser, full transparency of the live schema through development;
• Updated IFC documentation (found online), with much clearer definitions and a new search function;
• The inclusion of extensions for infrastructure entities – the most significant update and the main focus of this article.

From an infrastructure perspective, IFC provides that standardised digital language to be used throughout the facility’s lifespan, as it already does for buildings. This will help to reduce the variation in conventions that currently exists across the globe (for example, in rail alignment).

Ultimately, it will mean wider collaboration and knowledge-sharing, particularly for cross-border projects. It gives a standardised method for information exchange and managing processes.

Despite the common perception that infrastructure is just ‘a building on its side’, it really isn’t. It’s so much more. Infrastructure, in fact, is what joins up the vertical world of buildings.

There is also a big focus in IFC 4.3 on the integration between IFC and open standards such as GIS (geographic information system).

Previous versions of the IFC schema could be used for infrastructure projects to a certain extent. IfcBuildingElementProxy could be used in lieu of any predefined entities, for example. However, fundamental updates to the schema were needed to make it more infrastructure-inclusive. These include alignment, entities with specific relationships, and a review of the overall hierarchy which was previously very building-focused.

Work to date

IFC Alignment was critical to establish early on in the journey, in order to extend IFC into the infrastructure sector, enabling linear definition of horizontal assets, such as the centreline of a road, the kerbline or rail track. This allows offsets for associated assets to be defined, as not all positioning in infrastructure is carried out using Cartesian (x, y, z) coordinates. For example, an engineer can place street furniture such as a road sign a set distance to the right of the centreline of the road rather than giving the coordinates. Should the road profile move, the sign (and other elements such as lighting and barriers) can subsequently be repositioned according to that offset, and not by calculation of new cartesian coordinates.

Similarly, the use of an alignment definition helps where linear and vertical constructions intersect; for example, a road/railway bridge. The bridge construction is analogous to a building, where there are retaining walls and beams to support the deck – but all of this has to follow the profile of the road/rail that it is supporting. If engineers decide to move the road/rail, then through use of a shared alignment, the bridge moves to meet the new position of the road/rail.

IfcAlignment has been substantially updated during the development of IFC 4.3 from its early 4.1 release to reflect new considerations such as cant, segment, horizontal and vertical alignment (see box, Further Information).

The Infrastructure Room led a series of further collaborative projects involving industry specialists, owner representatives, software providers and buildingSMART experts. During the early definition of requirements for infrastructure extensions IFC rail was identified as a substantial domain and due to large engagement from the owners was spun off into a separate Railway room. Significant work also took place between the Infrastructure and Railway rooms, focused on defining common schema elements such as embankments or drainage.

A final necessity was to also modify the vertical extensions. One such update is that IfcBuilding has been moved down the hierarchy and replaced by the new entity IfcFacility, as seen in figure 1.

Only the start

This is only the start, and the work will keep developing. Further work on the IFC Tunnel project is underway, as well as work to improve the interoperability between IFC and geotechnics to make use of the XML data from geotechnic models, in particular OGC Geoscience Markup Language (GeoSciML). There is also work underway on aligning properties and feeding into data dictionaries and developing more extensions.

In order for IFC 4.3 to be finalised as a builidngSMART standard (hopefully by Autumn 2022), a final project is underway for the development of the base MVDs (model view definitions) which enable the IFC schema to fulfil defined exchanges, to enable consistent implementation within software and subsequently for software to be certified against the schema.

Software vendors have been part of the IFC 4.3 process throughout; for example, Autodesk Civil 3D has beta support for IFC4.3 import and export available, which can be updated to meet agreed exchanges once the MVD project is finalised and certified accordingly.

A further dependency necessary before clients can confidently specify IFC 4.3 for project information exchanges is for it to complete its ISO 16739 approval. This process is currently underway and is expected to be completed in 2023.

The IFC 4.3 series of extensions has been a huge collaborative effort that has led to some owners in Europe and China preparing to adopt it.

For example, in the European rail sector, the likes of ÖBB of Austria and SBB of Switzerland have been very active, as has the China Rail BIM Institute, where there is a plan to complete 30,000km of high-speed rail investment in a timescale an order of magnitude faster than has been achieved before. By adopting standardisation of rail element definitions, which IFC 4.3 provides, these owners and their projects can reduce risk through greater consistency and reliable exchange of information.

There is a huge opportunity in the UK to utilise IFC4.3 for infrastructure. To date, IFC 2×3 has been successfully trialled on larger infrastructure projects, such as Hinckley Point C and HS2. With the introduction of infrastructure-specific definitions, these pilot benefits can increase substantially. In fact, due to how infrastructure projects are procured using alliances and frameworks, there is the opportunity for the infrastructure community to really embrace IFC and take it to new levels.

Over the next 18 months, the official release of IFC 4.3 and its ISO certification will be the catalyst the industry needs to move from trials with the IFC 2×3 schema to infrastructure helping to lead the way. BuildingSMART UK&I sees itself as fundamental to helping the UK and Ireland in this transition.

Acknowledgement: Author Emma Hooper would like to thank Marek Suchocki, global business development executive at Autodesk and Lawrence Chapman, lead information manager on HS2, for their input on this article.

Watch Emma Hooper’s NXT BLD 2022 talk on Information Models and the future of IFC. Register here

The IFC timeline

The following dates indicate roughly when work was finished, but it’s worth remembering that each task took many years of hard work to complete.

2011 – IFC for infrastructure project is conceived

2013 – BuildingSMART InfraRoom is established

2015 – IFC Alignment is developed and published as IFC 4.1

2016 – Collaboration with Open Geospatial Consortium (OCG) brings alignment between the IFC and GIS schemas (in particular OGC LandInfra / InfraGML)

2017 – IFC Alignment is updated as IFC 4.1 v1.1 2017 – Work is undertaken to update parts of the existing IFC schema that share common definitions with infrastructure

2017 – BuildingSMART Railway Room is established

2018 – A common schema is established to harmonise IFC 4.3 infrastructure extensions

2022 – IFC extensions are developed for IFC 4.3, including IFC Rail, IFC Road, IFC Bridge and IFC Ports & Waterways (IFC Tunnel IFC 4.4 extension is currently in progress)

2022 – BuilidngSMART International final IFC 4.3 standard is established

2023 – ISO 16739 release 3 status expected for IFC 4.3

Further information

IFC Alignment

IfcBridge

IfcRailway

IfcRoad

buildingSMART InfraRoom

buildingSMART Railway Room

If you would like to understand more about the technical aspects of IFC for infrastructure, this whitepaper is also useful.

Click here for more information about buildingSmart UK & Ireland.

This article is part of AEC Magazine’s

IFC Special Report – Enabling interoperability in the AEC industry.

To read the other articles in this report click on the links below.

Industry convergence
From sustainability to new business models, and from wellness to emerging technologies, IFC can be a force for good, driving the AEC industry to new levels of achievement

Inside buildingSMART
What is buildingSMART and what can it offer industry practitioners?

IFC: what is it and why is it needed
Emma Hooper, Associate Director and Head of R&D at Bond Bryan Digital, provides a useful overview of the IFC data model specification

Native OpenBIM, and the rise of open source in AEC
OpenBIM can deliver on the promise of a digital world for the built environment where information and data are truly valued

IFC at Hinkley Point C
By Tim Davies, digital engineering manager, BYLOR JV – Hinkley Point C

Tackling the Gen Zero Project
The UK Department for Education’s Gen Zero project showcases how IFC can be used as the underlying data standard for a large, complex project, from start to finish

buildingSMART certification
By Phil Read, program lead at bSUKI and managing director, Man and Machine

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Precast concrete bridges offer a range of benefits, so it is easy to see why, since the late 50s, they are so common, especially for highway bridges. Precasting eliminates many onsite in-situ work processes and with this reduces construction time, costs and improves the quality of the products.

It also enables construction companies to work on more projects simultaneously and there are minimal dependencies on weather conditions. In addition, the use of precast components enables transport authorities to capitalize on the economy and high quality of prefabricated girders while minimizing the environmental impact and disruption to the local area during construction.

While there are different types of precast girder bridges, they all have one thing in common – their component geometry. Girders are straight, which is why their geometry is not directly impacted by the road or bridge axis. This is also the case with respect to their final position on the bridge, which is dictated by the geometry of the supporting substructure. For these reasons, a different approach is required when modelling precast girder bridges.

Allplan Bridge – a complete, integrated BIM solution for bridges – has been recently updated to address this need. The latest version includes new features that provide an updated modelling workflow so precast girder bridges can be created with ease. With just one bridge model, an entire BIM-supported bridge design process can be carried out from within this parametric design solution.

New Modelling Approach

For precast girder bridges, a similar modelling approach to the conventional process is used at first. A bridge axes needs to be created or imported, and the cross-sectional geometry either designed or taken from a template. Then, the substructure – with or without foundations – can be generated, and the precast girders positioned on top.

For easy yet precise modelling of precast girders, a new element called Link Girder has been introduced into Allplan Bridge. This is a parametric, linear, 3D element between two 3D points. These two reference points define the virtual and local axis which is used for the calculation of geometry. Once this is set, it can be used for modelling tendons, defining the construction sequence, and even detailing, rebar modelling, and drawing production. Because it is parametric, it can be adjusted quickly and easily if there are any changes.

Precast girder bridges often reuse girder shapes and lengths. To address this efficiently, Allplan Bridge includes a new feature called modular modelling. With this tool, as many templates as necessary can be generated, either for link girder elements or pier elements. Once a template is generated, it can be used in the 3D model as many times as necessary simply by dragging and dropping it in. This way, all the girders can be generated rapidly, saving considerable time.

Of course, the girder length can be another hurdle. Either the girder section can vary along the length, the exact length of the girder may vary, or the substructure may be skewed, making it difficult to model the geometry precisely. Here, Allplan Bridge makes this easy to overcome by allowing the template length to be specified as the girder length or by using a virtual length until the girder is positioned on the substructure. Which solution to use depends on the bridge geometry and which is more convenient.

Where the girder section varies, there are now new station types – fixed stations – which enable the position where the girder section changes to be fixed. However, the final girder length can still be adjusted, and the fixed stations will remain in their specified positions. This significantly shortens the time required for modelling these types of girders.

Closing the Gap

The next step in the modelling process is to create a bridge deck by extruding a cross-section along the bridge axis. At this point, two bridge elements will have been generated – leaving a gap between the girders and plate. Filling this requires a haunch, but the 3D geometry for this is influenced by many constraints. The geometry of the deck slab and girder arrangement affect the haunch geometry, and the thickness may vary along the bridge axis. The construction process and vertical deflections of the girders also influence the haunch shape.

Allplan Bridge solves this problem by using 3D Boolean operations to create the haunch quickly and easily. All the parameters which govern the geometry are already defined. Therefore, the haunch just needs to be pre-defined in such a way that it intersects the deck plate and can be merged with it. To do this, a cross-section of the haunch is created, and then Allplan Bridge automatically calculates and generates the 3D form based on the other bridge parameters.

With the main bridge elements modelled, other details – such as diaphragms, bearings, pavements, barriers, and others – can be easily created. They can be either modelled from scratch, inserted from a library, or created using customized intelligent objects.

Rebar Modelling

If a template can be created for a girder, it would also make sense to prepare a template for the girder reinforcement. Naturally, this option is available in Allplan.

A reinforcement template for a girder – or other bridge element – can be easily created using a PythonPart. It can then be used multiple times in the same project or across projects, saving the engineers time. The template is parametric – just like the girder model – making the placement of reinforcement easier. Additionally, the reinforcement’s parameters can be linked with the girder model’s parameters. Therefore, adjusting the girder model will also change the reinforcement, creating an efficient and automated process.

Defining rebar shapes, placing the bars, and introducing changes after placement has traditionally made working with reinforcement challenging. However, the use of parametric reinforcement objects overcomes this issue. As a result, changing the rebar model is as easy as modifying a few parameters and watching the model update automatically.

Accelerating Design Processes

These new features result in an improved modelling approach specifically tailored for prefabricated girder bridges. The straightforward procedure accelerates the design process while enabling a precise model to be generated with ease. As prefabricated girder bridges are one of the most common bridge types used globally, the time – and therefore cost – savings can be significant.

Additionally, with the integration and synchronization offered by Allplan’s cloud-based BIM platform, Bimplus, the BIM process can be completely supported, from initial import of data for axis definition. With this new modelling approach for precast girder bridges together with enhanced tools for optimized BIM workflows, Allplan Bridge lets engineers focus on what they do best: designing and building safe and attractive bridges.

Finally, with Allplan’s competence in precast fabrication, through Allplan Precast solutions, including detailing and manufacturing work preparation, a complete design to build approach, including manufacture, can be supported.

To learn more about modelling precast girder bridges, watch here: Precast Girder Bridge Workflow (allplan.com)

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Causeway Live Design is a new digital platform designed to bring together all site infrastructure disciplines in a single design environment to help consulting engineers and developers to optimise site designs

The software is said to provide ‘seamless integration’ across all aspects of site infrastructure design, including graphical ground modelling, roads and drainage design including hydraulic analysis and 2D overland flow, vehicle swept path analysis, road marking and traffic sign design.

According to the developer, Causeway Technologies, any design modifications in one part of the process are automatically cascaded through all the other disciplines within the platform. The platform is also said to make it much easier to produce feasibility designs and progress these to more detailed stages.

Causeway’s established customers include major housebuilders and consultants, including Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon Homes, Seddon Construction, Springfield Properties and Harron Homes. The new platform has also been tested by Brookbanks and Stirling Maynard.

Causeway Live Design has been piloted by engineering consultancy Thomas Consulting, which planned all the road and drainage designs for a residential development at The Castle Lane, Garstang using the Causeway Live Design platform, as Julian Pearson, Principal Infrastructure Engineer at Thomas Consulting, explains.

“We used the platform to do all the planning work. Essentially, we reduced five days’ work into about a day, it was that effective. But the real cost saving is where everything is integrated, making it so quick to design. Now, it’s all in one place. We can now do adaptive design in an interactive environment to seamlessly move, tweak and experiment.

“Causeway Live Design doesn’t just increase productivity and save fees, it also creates the perfect visual effect. It helps graduates all the way up to senior engineers because you can visualise and understand things much better, and it speeds up the approvals process too.”

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Mail Manager the email management software developed by Arup, has released a new mobile application, offering users the ability to intelligently file and search for business-critical emails via a mobile device. The Mail Manager 365 Mobile App allows users to file to locations hosted in Microsoft 365, supporting SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams and OneDrive.

The Mail Manager 365 Mobile App enables on-the-go email filing, filing reminders, and file-upon-send capabilities, the Mail Manager 365 Mobile App is designed to complement the Mail Manager Desktop solution and connects office-based and field-based teams, without replacing Outlook.

Jacob Wardrop, Commercial Director at Mail Manager says: “Email isn’t going anywhere but the way we manage it is. Working on mobile devices is an accepted part of day-to-day life and our customers need solutions to support that. For us, the launch of our new mobile app is a must-have for employees who are constantly on the move and connected to their phones.”

“The mobile app will complete the email management circle, helping businesses transform emails into documents of records, regardless of if staff are in the office or not. Additionally, the mobile app will help our customers get the most out of their Microsoft 365 investment.”

The Mail Manager 365 Mobile App connects to a Microsoft 365 mailbox allowing users to compose new emails, add attachments, read, reply, set reminders, file single or multiple emails and search through emails. The system also prompts the user to file an email once sent.

Jacob adds: “The ability to file and find information at pace, on the move, massively improves business productivity and solves one of the biggest pain points we hear from our customers – either not being able to, or taking significant time to find information.”

“Our vision is to provide the best of Mail Manager’s features on any device, anywhere. We want to facilitate the finding of important correspondence easily, quickly, and effectively.”

Mail Manager has become a high popular email management solution for Outlook users in Construction, Architecture and Engineering, with clients including Gensler, Ramboll, WSP, Arup and Sweco.

The application can be seen in action here.

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Boston-based document management specialist, Kenesto, has announced the beta release of Kenesto PDF, its second-generation tool for fully automated splitting, linking, sharing, and markup of PDF documents used for construction.

The beta PDF capability is delivered through a cloud-based application, which splits and links multi-sheet pdf documents, including callouts, in minutes with no human intervention or instruction required.  The company claims a 50-sheet document can be automatically processed in less than 10 minutes; a 500-sheet document takes approximately 30 minutes to split and link.  Kenesto PDF includes View, Share, and Markup tools to allow stakeholders to review, annotate and automatically version pdf documents in a web environment. Beta licenses for Kenesto PDF are available now.

Kenesto is headed up by industry veteran Mike Payne, on the release he commented, “We’re delivering a fully-automated PDF splitting and linking solution to streamline owner, architect, general contractor, and subcontractor communication on the jobsite and in the office. Kenesto’s unique single source of truth architecture allows all stakeholders access to the most up-to-date information, unlike consumer storage cloud products.  Each week, our tools get smarter and we seek difficult cases to approach 100% automation”

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Cupix has announced the integration of its CupixWorks 2.0 3D ‘digital twin’ platform with Autodesk’s BIM360 and PlanGrid, part of Autodesk’s Construction Cloud

The new integration between the two industry leaders will allow users to import 3D models and plans from Autodesk BIM 360 into CupixWorks, empowering building teams to visualise and compare design intent versus as-built conditions.

Cupix’s offers a 3D, 360-degree, site-view mode to “walk through” job sites remotely, creating RFIs, issues and tasks immediately and assigning them to project stakeholders on the BIM 360 and PlanGrid platforms. This helps streamline workflows involving requests for information (RFIs), issues and tasks in BIM 360 and PlanGrid.

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