When computer-aided design (CAD) software seriously began infiltrating the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in the 1980s, there was a hope and a promise that it would revolutionize the industry. And to an extent, it certainly has.

However, instead of bringing the AEC market together, it actually split the industry into parochial discipline-specific segments. Architectural software developers went primarily in one direction; engineering software went into many directions. Engineering software fractured into mechanical and civil components – with even more specialization for surveying, transportation, and water/sewer technicians.

During the past 20 years, software companies carved out their own niches and developed highly specialized task oriented tools. Not only did these companies design and develop separate modules for each engineering task, they also only worked on specific platform drafting products like AutoCAD® or MicroStation®, or entirely stand-alone tools.

This meant that most site engineers worked and still work with a heterogeneous bundle of design tools. This is especially the case, and it is especially a problem in the site design and land development industry where so many different disciplines and tasks come together in each project.

At first, this lack of a comprehensive design tool wasn’t a big problem. Engineers were saving time and improving their design quality with the disparate assortment of design and calculation tools available. Today however, with total acceptance of computer aided design tools and far better technology for data exchange, design and workflow efficiencies are the next great time and money savers for engineering professionals in the land development industry.

Today calculating or drafting designs in disparate components to develop a site design is no longer good enough. Repetitive redrafting, recalculation, and redesign gulp time and money from tight project budgets. Also, the multitude of stakeholders in site projects from engineers, landscape architects and owners to planners and town councils expect vivid visualization of project work and quick turnaround on design changes. The ability to share design data across platforms and the need to adapt flexibly to design adjustments from multiple stakeholders require a comprehensive design solution.

Labor of Necessity
Bentley Systems, Incorporated has seen the “writing on the wall” for years. In fact, their newest civil software product, PowerCivil, has been under steady development for almost seven years.

PowerCivil is exactly what the land development industry needs. An easy-to-use all-encompassing CAD software package that not only can import files from all of the other major software vendors, but also provides the most accessible and understood deliverable through its use of portable document format (PDF).

CAD drawings can be produced in PDF with specific layers available for viewing and/or editing. The work can also be secured so that changes cannot be made. In fact, every change can be documented and reported on so that everyone involved in the project can see who, when, and why changes were made.

But all of this does not even reveal the best part of PowerCivil.

For those in the design world who are used to working in various modules (e.g., road, water, sewer, site, drafting), life has just become easier.

PowerCivil has eliminated the compatibility problems that have plagued the CAD industry when certain modules just would not match up with others – even from the same vendor. How? The folks at Bentley have spent the past few years merging all of the components of each module into one common interface.

Getting a quick start on project design is made easy by the simple import of survey points.

Even more intriguing is that PowerCivil is a low-cost software solution for land development and site modeling. Bentley PowerCivil provides complete design capabilities and offers civil engineers a flexible 2D/3D tool without requiring a CAD software platform.

In fact, PowerCivil is an integrated, multidiscipline product for survey, graphical coordinate geometry (COGO), digital terrain modeling, site grading, water and sewer, storm drainage and street design.

PowerCivil is further unique in that it offers a comprehensive civil engineering workflow solution that includes relationship modeling (so when one piece of your site changes, other parts are updated automatically). The modeling capabilities enable rapid, dynamic exploration of site development scenarios, so design modifications can be readily explored with coworkers, contractors, and clients.

“It was our fundamental premise,” reveals Richard Sappe, Program Manager for Bentley Civil. “Everything had to go into one place. It took seven years, but all modeling elements are in one place.”

Did I mention that not only does PowerCivil provide a convenient 2D CAD deliverable, it also incorporates and provides dynamic 3D views of the site model? In fact, designers can work only in 2D, and PowerCivil projects the data automatically in 3D.

“The fact that we do not have to work in 3D to obtain 3D is a very big advantage,” explains Troy Norviel, a Senior Roadway Designer with HDR in the firm’s corporate Omaha, Nebraska office. “Instead of working in a 3D mode, which sometimes makes it hard to discover design errors, working in traditional 2D is often more efficient, especially when you can reap the benefits of 3D deliverables as well.”

Norviel has become HDR’s internal PowerCivil disciple. Currently, he says, the firm is using PowerCivil on 10-15 projects. In fact, he says the learning curve is so easy that he has taught colleagues in other offices how to make the transition to PowerCivil over the phone by spending just a few hours a day with them for less than a week.

One of the projects is a conceptual design for a complicated section of interstate around Council Bluffs, Iowa that has three system-to-system interchanges and five additional intersections that in design application follow site design criteria closely.

“Typically,” says Norviel, “we would have penciled out a number of potential designs, selected which one we thought was the best, then proceeded to do an extensive design.”

“With PowerCivil,” he explains, “we sat down and did each one within the software. Since the topo was already there, we simply added the vertical data. It was extremely efficient because when we put the data in, it provided the heights and the quantity of earthwork that needed to be done. In one instance, we found that one intersection was in the wrong place and were able to simply put it where it belonged. Even after making this change, we immediately had our site estimates for our earthwork, footprint, and structure height. We were able to take our lines straight out of PowerCivil and put them into the next phase of the design.”

One of the factors that Norviel stressed is that in an area of complicated intersections, designers have a multitude of drainage issues. During their conceptual design, since it was in the same software package, they could monitor the grading and drainage impact of every alteration they made to the design.

Again, since all of the data is dynamic and associated, changes are immediately rendered in 2D and 3D.

“The 3D model is simply a byproduct of the work we would be doing anyway,” states Norviel. “Putting this material into a presentation format would have taken us an additional two to three weeks in traditional design methods. We had it virtually immediately.”

Design-Build
HDR, which is utilizing PowerCivil on some dam design projects, is also utilizing it in a couple of design-build projects.

“The speed realized from utilizing this technology on design-build projects is phenomenal,” claims Norviel.

Turnaround time is cut down dramatically due to the fact that the project is being handled within one software product.

“We were working on a city entrance park/monument in Omaha called Kenefick Park,” explains Norviel. “As the construction went on we had to constantly change our base surface to reflect the current grading conditions but also maintain control back to the previous changes and the original surface. Then keep all the disciplines up to date to those changes including architects, structure, and drainage people.

HDR designed the initial site, layout, excavation, grading, and stormwater plan in PowerCivil and sent the design to the contractors. While the contractors started work, HDR was able to utilize the exact file drawings from the preliminary design to continue the detail design, and make the appropriate changes directly as construction and new site requirements necessitated design changes.

Into the Future
Not only is PowerCivil setting a new standard for the future of AEC design software, Bentley is also educating the next generation on its Power product line.

So far in 2005, more than 30,000 students representing the future of engineering have become empowered by MicroStation PowerDraft CAD software. The software is being offered through the BE Careers Network to all students and instructors through a free download.

MicroStation PowerDraft, which has a list price of $1,295, is a professional-level application used for production 2D/3D drafting and detailing in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC). It features an easy-to-use graphical user interface, intuitive viewing techniques, and an innovative set of industry-recognized tools for production work.

The downloads, which are part of the Network’s new program, include the MicroStation PowerDraft application, an 18-week curriculum for teachers, and a student guide that can be reproduced at no cost to the school.

The program helps students understand and become familiar with computer-aided design and architectural design software, and enables colleges and universities to cost-effectively incorporate AEC technology into their curriculums. It does this by providing the academic community with three levels of licensing/subscription options.

Combining its aggressive marketing campaign to promote the new features and benefits associated with PowerCivil, Bentley appears to be willing to take a leadership role in assisting the land development industry unite in the area of AEC technology.  SLDT