CAD Tech News (#62)

▶ Humanitarian Outreach + Design Technology = Saved Lives

In Nepal and around the globe, Build Change is teaching locals how to recover from natural disaster — and how to survive the next one.

By Nancy Spurling Johnson

Design technologies inarguably make lives better by powering development of life-changing products, efficient transportation, and comfortable spaces to live and work. Those same software and hardware tools help to save lives as well.

A program sponsored by workstation developer Lenovo, dubbed ThinkRevolution, is shining a spotlight on innovative organizations that are tapping technology to make the world a better place, from mapping the world's coral reefs to help combat climate change, to designing medical devices that are saving underprivileged newborns, to helping communities recover from ravaging natural disasters.

In the latter case, the organization is Build Change. Founded in 2004, the nonprofit social enterprise works "to greatly reduce deaths, injuries, and economic losses caused by housing and school collapses due to earthquakes and typhoons in emerging nations" and to change how the world approaches the post-disaster rebuilding process. The group reports that it has touched more than 250,000 lives by working with locals to rebuild damaged structures — and, importantly, how to save time and money and avoid injury by retrofitting them — to better withstand future disasters.

Build Change works with local agencies in a top-down approach, such as rewriting building codes, as well as through a bottom-up approach to educate homeowners and create demand for safely rebuilt homes. Kyla Gallagher, a marketing and development associate at Build Change, told Cadalyst, "The homeowners we work with often do not have access to professional designers and engineers, and many times build their homes themselves without training on how to build safely."

This stock image shows one example of the widespread damage suffered by Nepalese villagers in the 2015 earthquake. (Source: iStock/weaver1234)

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Nancy Spurling Johnson is the content director for Longitude Media, publisher of Cadalyst.

▶ Autodesk Advances BIM Agenda with AEC Software Updates

Revit 2018 stresses multidiscipline building information modeling (BIM), sees more frequent releases under subscription licensing model.

By Cadalyst Staff

This was a notable week for users of Autodesk AEC software products, as the company announced Revit 2018, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018, and AutoCAD Plant 3D 2018, plus enhancements for InfraWorks.

Autodesk hails Revit 2018 as "the latest step in the continual evolution and development of Autodesk's software for multidiscipline connected BIM [building information modeling]." Multidiscipline means that the software comprises tools for professionals as diverse as architects, MEP and structural engineers and detailers, and construction contractors. Connected refers to collaborative workflows that help project stakeholders share information with each other — between engineers and steel detailers, for example — and minimize rework, according to the Revit "roadmap." (Autodesk released a public Revit development plan for the first time last year.)

As part of Autodesk's move to a subscription-only model of software licensing, the company is transitioning to issuing multiple software releases per year, rather than a single annual (or less-frequent) release for most titles. Revit 2018, for example, includes features that were launched in the 2017.1 and 2017.2 releases. (Autodesk describes this as delivering "more frequent value"; some CAD managers may see the increased frequency in a less positive light, if their training and management burden grows as a result.) Read more »

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