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Information Technology: ProjectDox With NavisWorks
Virtual project spaces enhance teamwork and collaboration
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ProjectDox provides a variety of 2D/3D visualization and communication tools. This is a 3D view and mock-up via the integrated NavisWorks Freedom viewer for BIM collaboration, as well as the topics dialog and work-flow creation tool. |
Builders, SUBS, Architects, and engineers have to cooperate in order to complete a project. More and more, team efforts are being formalized by new delivery contracts and technologies that make cooperation more efficient.
Avolve Software, the developers of ProjectDox, a communication and collaboration software package, now supports the 3D file format of NavisWorks NWD file format and its JetStream Freedom viewer.
“ProjectDox software facilitates construction community workspace,” says Duane Green, director of sales at Avolve, a subsidiary of Informative Graphics.
“ProjectDox is not hosted, and users do not have to pay for disk space. This is a solution that they can own and use for unlimited projects and unlimited users. We train them to be in control of the product,” he says.
The software allows the user to create a virtual space for a project and then invite team members to share it. Different folders organize each aspect of the project, and videotape and voice recordings can be included in the folders. Architects can upload drawings, and others can collaborate on the evolution of those drawings.
The software has a version control so that as soon as a new version of a document is uploaded, e-mails will be sent to those who need to see the new information. A security system automatically takes the original file and moves it to a secure database on a server so that the original version of the document is not lost.
“With the NavisWorks collaboration, we have the next generation of construction technology,” Green says. “Much of the collaboration is going to take place in the 3D model. Having ProjectDox and NavisWorks means that everyone, even if they do not have a $100,000 piece of software to run 3D files, can still be part of the project.”
It also makes viewing the 3D files easy to do. The many-gigabyte-sized files can take minutes to load under normal conditions. Users can now upload 3D NWD files to ProjectDox for viewing by a project team. The file is then available on demand, and ProjectDox treats it as any other document, loading in seconds.
Sherri Santellan, civil engineering coordinator for Commerce Construction Co. LLP, Los Angeles, started using ProjectDox in fall 2006. “We are using it for one of our jobs in Las Vegas, primarily for bidding from our subcontractors,” she says. “We see using ProjectDox as a way of becoming more paperless.”
Santellan says her company is not yet using 3D technology. “We are using it to share our 2D drawings with our subs,” she adds. “3D is not important to us right now, but I know it will be.”
Green says that his company has designed ProjectDox for people who are not technologically savvy. “As long as the sub has an Internet connection, he can see a 3D drawing,” he says.
Avolve Software
4835 E. Cactus Road, Suite 445
Scottsdale, Ariz. 85254
602-482-8334
www.projectdox.com
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