(Editor’s note: Over the next couple weeks we will be posting a few blog entries discussing why it is important for contractors to embrace construction software and other technological advancements. This post is the first in our impromptu series.)

In today’s construction industry, budgeting, estimating and accounting is, for the most part, done with construction software. Moreover, contractors can pull up lists of sales leads within seconds. Even something as simple as driving a nail is done using technology.

Now, flash back 10 years ago. Very few people owned GPS systems, email wasn’t as commonly used, and contractors were calculating construction estimates with a pen and paper.

Clearly, much has changed. In a recent article, Avoiding Technology is Un-American. Know What’s Coming, and Profit From It, Erik Cofield of BuildTopia discusses the changes in technology over the past 10 years and how embracing these change will benefit those in the residential construction industry.

Although some residential contractors may have been reluctant, most have accepted technological changes in one way or another, whether by creating a company email account or by installing a GPS system in the company trucks.

However, according to Cofield, only those who fully embrace these changes will largely profit from them. For example, contractors who have integrated construction software into their daily routines save time and money on everyday tasks such as bidding and contracting, gain better insight into their company’s cash flow and, in general, stay ahead of their competition.

What, then, does technology hold for the future? According to Cofield, the construction industry, like so many others, will soon be dominated by wireless networks, allowing contractors to work from multiple locations. The wants of the consumer will change and ultimately shape the market for new products, such as the current high demand for “green” products. Lastly, residential construction superintendents will be able to manage data quicker and easier, allowing them to take on more lots and units than ever before.

Cofield predicts that, despite the clear advantages that come from embracing technology, many builders will not make the changes necessary to profit from it. But what about you? Has your company gone through a lot of changes in the last 10 years to accommodate technology? What advantages have these changes brought you? Finally, do you see yourself continuing to adopt new technology?

Score one for consumers — Bentley and Autodesk have struck a cross-licensing agreement that will allow interoperability between the two company’s software products.

The agreement, details of which are in this press release from Autodesk, calls for the two software giants to exchange their software libraries that write the file formats, as well as share their publicly available APIs.

Bentley is Autodesk’s largest development partner and has built numerous products over the years that work on or with AutoCAD and support its DWG file format.

However, the interoperability agreement “will ensure a higher fidelity and trust in the file formats,” Chris Barren, vice president of marketing for Bentley, said in an interview with ConstructionSoftwareReview.com “The alternative was getting the applications to translate the files from one format to another. Even when they’re really good translations, if the text is a couple pixels off, you can spend a lot of time fixing that.”

On the surface, it may seem odd that two competing firms like Autodesk and Bentley would team up on a venture like this. However, both companies recognize that, as projects become more advanced from an integrated project delivery standpoint, different contracting teams will be using a variety of software offerings. Now, because of this pact, consumers will not have to worry if an Autodesk DWG or Bentley DGN file will export precisely — it just will.

Lack of construction software interoperability has been an obstacle for the industry for years and, according to a recent McGraw-Hill report, it is costing the industry some $36 billion a year.

According to Noah Cole, from Autodesk’s Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) marketing department, this agreement with Bentley is a chance to help the industry down the road. “Looking at construction, most buildings are still being built with blueprints. But, as the industry moves to digital models and BIM, they’re going to have to rely on modeling,” he said. “If they can’t read the file, they have to remodel or redraft it, which is time-consuming and expensive — plus it lends itself to errors.”

While both companies announced the interpretability agreement, they are still in the midst of implementing it. They acknowledge that it may take some time, but, Barren stated that Bentley is looking to finalize it “not too far in the next year.”

We know Microsoft Excel is a popular construction cost estimating tool. Thus we thought we would pass along an item from sister site the ITKnowledge Exchange that offers some help with Excel 2003 worksheets.

In Can data in Excel 2003 be set up to automatically move from one sheet to another in a workbook?, a user named Kaylee asked the following:

Is it possible to create a macro, or multiple macros to…move data from one sheet to another in the same workbook in Excel 2003? [I]nstead of having to manually copy and paste information…from sheet one to the others, we would like to create a drop-down menu or button that would automatically move the data to another sheet in the workbook.

The short answer: Yes, ’tis possible. In fact, there are two ways to make it work — either create a formula to perform this task or use an add-in called a dataloader. If you want to find out more, click on the link above to visit the original post.

If information like this is helpful to you, please let us know and we’ll keep looking for more hints on making Excel a better construction cost estimating tool.

In a recent article called The Benefits of Estimating Software, George Hague, president and CEO of ConEst Software Systems, wrote about the reluctance of electrical contractors to adopt estimating software.

Just as quickly, Hague then provided six ways in which computerized estimating outperforms the old-fashioned manual way.

1. Speed - A microprocessor will beat someone doing long division with a solar-powered calculator any day of the week.
2. Accuracy - With all the variables that need to be accounted for in creating an estimate, allowing a computer to do the legwork removes a lot of the chance for human error.
3. Consistency - Estimating software lets a contractor use the exact same values and procedures for every calculation.
4. Procurement - This makes job tracking and scheduling easier.
5. Project Management - All workers, from the foreman to the accountant, will benefit from a digital estimate.
6. Professionalism - According to Hague, “[T]here is nothing that builds confidence in your sales presentation more than an estimate that has been professionally prepared and printed using an estimating software system.”

In addition to the rationale above, Hague provided statistical as well as anecdotal evidence to support his claim that estimating software has already transformed the electrical contracting industry. He concluded that those who have adopted estimating software are enjoying a sizable advantage over contractors who still prefer to use a traditional method.

Hague’s claim is not unique. In fact, it’s one shared by those contractors who have completed end user reviews of estimating software applications. Even those who use Microsoft Excel report that software saves them time and money. Isn’t it time you start doing the same?

Users of Autodesk’s AutoCAD 2009 have plenty with which to keep themselves busy these days. Within the last week the company has put out a new features release and a service update (previously service pack) release for AutoCAD 2009.

Both releases were announced in Between the Lines, a blog written by Shaan Hurley, who is a technical marketing manager for Autodesk’s Platform Technologies Division.

AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009 Update 1 (Service Pack) links directly to the service update release and lists the various and sundry fixes that have been made. Notes Healey:

Updates have been made in the following feature areas: 3D Visual Styles, Annotation Scaling, External References (xref) palette, Raster Images, Partial Open, Plot, Properties Palette, Hatch [and] Remote text (rtext).

Various other fixes were made as well. These range, alphabetically, from .NET functions throwing exceptions to zoom in certain cases causing AutoCAD 2009 to crash.

Meanwhile, New Feature Releases Now Available for Autodesk Subscription Customers indicates that a variety of tutorials, webcasts and training DVDs are now available for AutoCAD as well as Revit, 3ds Max, Impression, Inventor and Maya, among others. As the blog post title indicates, these resources are available only to subscription customers.

Enjoy.

After a year of minor updates and tweaks, Bid4Build Enterprises has released a major update to its Enterprise and Lite construction estimating software packages. The latest installment, version 3.5, boasts more than a dozen new features - many of which fall outside the realm of estimating.

For starters, Bid4Build Version 3.5 is now compatible with Microsoft Vista and Access 2007, as well as VirtualBoss Construction Scheduling and Project Management software.

But that’s not all. “This [update] is a combination of some specific features that customers were looking for, as well as things that we developed on our own,” Charles Molloy of Bid4Build said in a recent chat with ConstructionSoftwareReview.com. “We realized that customers want functionality while not spending a lot of money.”

Some of the new functionality that Malloy alluded to is listed below. (Click on the links to see a screenshot.)

• Quick Start Advanced Menu Navigation System –The new UI provides users a step-by-step outline on how to create and manage an estimate from start to finish. To go along with the walkthrough, video tutorials explain how to perform each function. “We found that people don’t want to read documentation,” Molloy said. “This way, every operation is broken down by a single video stream.”
• Expression Calculator – In addition to numerous preloaded calculators, this tool allows contractors to “build” their own calculators depending on the specifications of the job. A wizard is available within the application to help users define and calculate various dimensions. According to Molloy, this feature first appeared in HomeTech software; Bid4Build added it at the request of several customers.
• Advanced To-Do List — This is a task management tool that allows a contractor to track multiple estimates. It will also prompt a user when an action is required on a project.

While the Lite edition offers a scaled-down version of the Enterprise software, it, too, received a comprehensive update. Both versions can be downloaded from the Bid4Build Web site, with the Enterprise edition going for $395 and the Lite fetching $199. Existing customers who subscribe to Bid4Build’s yearly customer service and support package should note that version 3.5 can be updated for free, Molloy said.

The Bid4Build site also offers more information about the new features of Bid4Build 3.5 and a side-by-side comparison of the Enterprise and Lite Bid4Build offerings.

(Editor’s note: This is the first blog post by Keith Kessinger, who will be helping us out on ConstructionSoftwareReview.com throughout the summer and fall. Welcome aboard, Keith!)

As the economy continues to put the squeeze on budgets, the role of the construction estimator is only increasing in importance. The pressure is on those men and women to generate estimates quickly and accurately, for even one lost job can make all the difference.

It is with that in mind that the AACE International’s recent annual meeting in Toronto offered a session entitled “The Role of the Estimator in Today’s Construction Industry.” (The session abstract is the 12^th entry in the Technical Abstracts: Professional Development category.)

Steve J. Rajpatty, chairman and CEO of Associated Services Limited in Trinidad and Tobago, surveyed construction firms in that country to learn more about the challenges faced by today’s construction estimator.

Among Rajpatty’s findings and conclusions:

• Construction estimators increasingly need to be “team players,” working with architects, subcontractors, project managers, suppliers, engineers and others to ensure that their figures are as accurate as can be. Being able to craft a strategy and communicate that strategy to others is therefore important, Rajpatty found.
• Keeping key decision makers informed on the progress of a construction project increasingly involves making site visits, taking lots of notes and then presenting those findings to colleagues and managers. Put another way, public speaking skills are a plus.
• Support and training for construction estimators — on using software, on industry trends and on professional development in general — is in short supply.
• Finally, there’s a heck of a difference between a winning estimate and what can be described as a placeholder estimate — you know, the type of estimate that, for a variety of reasons, is completed hastily but can end up being incomplete, if not downright inaccurate.

Honestly, none of what Rajpatty presented was all that surprising — but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable information, though. Rather, it reaffirms, with statistical and anecdotal evidence, the notion that the job of the construction estimator is a complex and crucial one — and one that can be helped by a good construction estimating software package.

Are Rajpatty’s findings consistent with your experiences as a construction estimator? Have you found yourself devoting more time and attention to being the consummate “team player”? Have you ever filed a placeholder estimate — and were you proud of it? Finally, has construction software made your job less stressful? We’d appreciate it if you added your thoughts to the discussion.

Roland Piquepaille, author of ZDNET’s Emerging Tech blog, recently wrote an interesting post on laser-aided software for tunnel construction. To take action against the potential danger of landslides along California’s beautiful oceanside Highway 1, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is assisting the state’s Department of Transportation, a.k.a. Caltrans, in building a kilometer-long tunnel under the infamous Devil’s Slide landslide.

Working under dangerous, life-threatening landslides may not sound appealing to you — or anyone for that matter — which is why Caltrans is being aided by an “ultra precise” laser scan software tool, referred to as a gVT (geotechnical Visualization Tool), to improve the safety of those working and push along the overall construction progress.

Piquepaille details how the gVT that was originally created for a National Science Foundation Information Technology Research Initiative project. He quotes the NSF:

[T]he gVT “converts imagery of millions of rock-surface points-collected at a safe distance by a laser scanner-into easily manipulation web of information.”

The data collected by the laser scanner then becomes a permanent digital record of the exposed material they uncovered.

NSF goes on to say this:

The scan data, at a resolution of 5 millimeters, provides information that the software program packages into enormous visualizations incorporating up to 10 meters of excavated tunnel.

After this data is collected, the engineers working on the tunnel can use the gVT to spot weaknesses in the rock that could create a potential collapse, the NSF said.

The precision offered by the gVT construction software has taken everyone by surprise — even the engineers who developed it. Piquepaille points out that Joseph Dove, the lead developer of the gVT at Virginia Tech, stated that “the information is so detailed that researchers can observe where rock layers are separating and how fractures are oriented. In addition, the software allows researchers to recreate sections of rock that have fallen.

Another plus for this software is its portability. The data can be used from an engineer’s home base, far away from the tunnel — and harm’s way.

Above all, what’s most unique about this construction project is the way the gVT is being used. On-site construction estimating software is generally used for measuring large things, such as a hill that is being leveled to make a road. Additionally, software like the gVT is generally used above ground, not under tons of landslide-prone rock.

Using the gVT to create these tunnels under Devil’s Slide was a brand-new idea. Ultimately it will save time for future underground construction projects and enhance the safety of those working on them.

(Editor’s note: This is the first blog post by Kara Brosnan, who will be helping us out on ConstructionSoftwareReview.com throughout the summer. Welcome aboard, Kara!)

One of the biggest obstacles that contractors face when using construction software is interoperability. According to a recent McGraw-Hill report, Interoperability in the Construction Industry, roughly 3.1% of the cost of a construction project can be attributed to the lack of software interoperability. That amounts to $36 billion for the US construction industry.

Sister site SearchSOA.com defines interoperability as “the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the customer.” If you have ever manually re-entered data into two or more applications or had several applications open to create a report or fulfill an RFI, then you have exerted “special effort.”

At the most basic level of interoperability, an application will let you import a data file from a format defined by another application, most notably Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, QuickBooks or Crystal Reports. Other examples, which were presented during the Software Showcase sessions at last week’s AACE International Annual Meeting in Toronto, include project management software tools that let users import data from scheduling software such as Primavera P6, Primavera SureTrak or Microsoft Project.

File importation is a key consideration for contractors who intend to migrate to construction-specific software and want to make sure that decades of key data will not be lost in translation. It is also worth asking if those files are imported as Read-Only files or can be edited once they have been imported.

Many vendors take interoperability one step further and indicate that their product will integrate with another product. To build on the previous example, integration can be seen as the ability to use one application to view data being stored in another.

For example, many construction software applications, including those from Primavera, ARES and CMiC, will integrate with back-end systems, such as Oracle, SAP and JD Edwards, to give users access to financial information. (I am sure that many other vendors link to back-end accounting systems. If you know of any that I missed, please leave a comment below.)

One interesting example from the AACEI software showcase was Hard Dollar. In addition to letting users import cost data from Excel, Hard Dollar integrates with Primavera software, to the point that changes made in one application are automatically reflected in the other. With the most recent version of Hard Dollar, users can also map Hard Dollar tags to Primavera fields and transfer Hard Dollar account codes to Primavera. (Our Hard Dollar vendor overview provides some additional information about integration with Primavera.)

I decided to bring up interoperability and integration after hearing a few tales of interop nightmares from AACEI attendees. One project manager said he had to ask the finance department, in person, to pull cost data from the SAP accounting system — he knew the data was there, but he couldn’t get it himself. Another project manager learned the hard way that Primavera software would only import Microsoft Project documents if they were from the 1998 version. A third attendee noted that a number of large construction firms overcame interoperability problems by simply building their own software systems. (Our own reviews of Faithful+Gould’s EPOCH and Bantrel’s EPCWorks provide a couple examples of this.)

Multibillion-dollar construction companies can afford to build software. You can’t. That’s why it’s especially important for you to ask about interoperability and integration when you are considering construction software. The last thing you want to do is settle for a solution that does not work with the software that you already have and thus further disrupts the business processes you have worked to develop.

If nothing else, you can boil interoperability down to a number — 3.1%. You can either spend that much of a project’s total cost on tedious office tasks, or you can aim to reduce costs and win more bids. In a market as volatile as today’s, 3.1% can make all the difference.