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AEC Tech News #165

19 Apr, 2006 By: Michael Dakan


All Abuzz About Green Technology

Sustainable architecture attracting venture capital as well as a PBS television series;
plus, a look at AccuRender 4.0

If you subscribe to the old adage, “follow the money,” and if you’ve been heartened by the increasing interest in energy conservation and sustainability in architectural design, you’ll be especially pleased to learn about an initiative that is getting behind the "green" idea to the tune of at least $100 million.
 
According to a recent Associated Press news report, John Doerr -- the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who made his name and a considerable fortune through early investments in technology companies such as Amazon.com and Google -- has turned his attention to green technology. Doerr says he believes green technology in the 21st century will be as big as biotechnology was in the past. Doerr’s company, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers (Menlo Park, California), has earmarked $100 million of its latest $600 million technology fund for technologies that will enable cleaner energy, transportation and the environment. This is on top of more than $50 million the firm has already invested in green technology ventures.

“This field of greentech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century,” Doerr said. “There’s never been a better time than now to start or accelerate a greentech venture.” Read more>>

AEC From the Ground Up: New Tools for Civil Engineering

By H. Edward Goldberg, AIA

Land development and transportation design are the bread-and-butter of the civil engineering segment of the AEC industry, especially with the current hot housing market and new federal road construction initiatives. Land development deals with projects as simple as a house lot to more-complex planned unit developments, shopping centers, industrial and commercial buildings. Transportation design covers roads and highways as well as the specialized field of rail and light rail. Several companies create products for this segment, but the main players are Autodesk, Bentley and Eagle Point. This article covers some of the civil engineering software options available. Read more >>

Mark Your Calendar: AEC Events

Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Web Presentations
Various dates, April-June 2006
Webcasts (12 p.m. ET) include New Production Drafting Capabilities, Site Grading, Project and Data Management, Tips & Tricks, Corridor Modeling, Increasing Productivity and others. The presentations are recorded and available for viewing online any time.

Design-Build Strategies
Various dates, April-June 2006
Various locations
Course is one in a series of open-enrollment courses sponsored by the Center for Advanced Construction Education.

For Cadalyst's full calendar of events, click here>>

what's new at cadalyst.com

April Tutorials Now Live Online: The latest editions of all your favorite Cadalyst tutorials for AutoCAD as well as ArchiCAD, MicroStation, Revit and more are now live on Cadalyst.com.

Get the Code for April!Cadalyst’s April code from Hot Tip Harry is now available for download. This month's $100 winner is AutoCAD Excel Interface from Q.J. Chen, a routine that transfers text information stored in a grid layout (table) into an Excel worksheet by just locating the corners of the table.

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