Current Filter: CAD>>>>>Case Study>

   

Based in Sydney, Australia, Building Studio uses Bentley software to design and deliver complex buildings for corporate, institutional, and government clients. The company is well known for producing creative, rigorously tested solutions that meet each client's unique needs and aspirations. To date, the company's 20 employees have used AECOsim Building Designer - and, more recently, ProjectWise - to design, document, and build more than 90,000 square meters of buildings.

INVESTING IN PRODUCTIVITY AND INNOVATION
Outram knows the value of Bentley's platform having spent 12 years working with it alongside competitor products, which gave him a solid basis for comparison. "With Bentley's 3D software we could innovate faster and achieve a very high level of productivity. AECOsim Building Designer's BIM workflow also enabled us to creatively explore design opportunities knowing we would have seamless integration with the document production workflow. When I considered my personal productivity using different tools, I consistently got better results using AECOsim Building Designer. So, from that point of view, there was no question which design software I wanted to deploy."

But Outram considered other factors as well, such as how the product worked technically and the total cost of ownership. "I really liked the federated data model built into Bentley products," he explained. "Construction projects contain an enormous amount of data that places significant demands upon IT systems. I knew that when starting my business, I couldn't make the investments in heavy-duty servers needed to achieve the performance levels we'd need using software based ona single database. Bentley's federated model offered a great solution that could get us started and grow with the business."

He also knew that Bentley offered the most sophisticated 3D modeling capabilities and visualisation tools. "We could quite literally model anything - and not be limited in any way by the software," noted Outram. "At the same time, we could quickly reel off 10 or 20 different renderings of various views of a design - good quality images that really help clients understand the design and feel like they are a part of the design process."

Without AECOsim Building Designer, Building Studio would need to use separate teams to create 2D drawings, 3D models, and lastly the renderings, which would involve a much more labour-intensive process.

COLLABORATING ON BIGGER, MORE COMPLEX PROJECTS
With AECOsim Building Designer deployed across the business, Building Studio has been able to work faster and win far bigger, more challenging projects than would be expected from a young company. For example, one project Building Studio won was a research center for a university in Sydney.

"We were approached by one of Australia's biggest tier-one contractors to redesign a 45,000-square-meter biology research building," commented Outram. "We used Bentley software to model every space and feature of the building and create the plans and images that convinced the university our alternative proposal was the best way forward. We were able to solve the architectural and technical problems that were driving up the cost and complete the design within budget, and deliver 3D documents proving it. We ultimately won the contract as a result. Even though we are a small firm, Bentley's platform enables us to produce the number of documents of a larger firm - and compete against those firms successfully."

In many cases, Building Studio projects involve collaborating with large contractors and other third parties. Stated Outram: "With AECOsim Building Designer, collaboration is simplified in part because we can easily import third-party design files and translate them into a readable format. Exporting to other platforms is also easy via the IFC export interface."

BOOSTING QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
AECOsim Building Designer has also delivered expected benefits in terms of higher design quality and productivity. "In my previous experience, it would take two to three people to complete the design and documentation of a 7,500-square meter building using a 2D methodology," explained Outram. "But when we did our first project of this size using AECOsim Building Designer, it took just one person six weeks to complete the developed design. During construction documentation the productivity gains were also extraordinary - and they continue to be."

Page   1  2