At its heart, the ethos of our annual Geo Week conference – and by extension, Geo Week News – is the growing connection between the geospatial and AEC industries. There has always been some relationship between spatial data and the needs of engineering and construction firms, but it hasn’t always been so overtly present. The last half-decade or so has seen a larger embrace of the symbiotic nature of the two spaces than ever before, a trend that is seemingly accelerating this year. Below, you can find five recent stories from Geo Week News that highlights this ever-growing relationship.
Find links to the full articles below.
New Autodesk and ArcGIS Integration Aims to Add Geospatial Context to AEC Projects
It’s hard to think of a better place to start this discussion than looking at two of the biggest names in their respective industries coming together to deepen their collaboration with Esri and Autodesk. The former is the leader of GIS technology, and the latter is among the leaders in software for the AEC industry. This article highlights a new enhancement of their strategic alliance, which was announced at Autodesk University last week, that will add a new integration to allow data from ArcGIS to flow into Autodesk Forma.
The Value of Capturing and Analyzing Reality Modeling Data Utilizing Drones
One of the companies who brings together geospatial data – and particularly data from laser scanning and other data collectors – and the AEC industry is Bentley, particularly with their reality modeling, or digital twin, software. This article highlights a recent webinar Bentley hosted on Geo Week News that featured discussions on how AEC companies can utilize UAVs to capture this crucial data that can form the basis of their reality models.
Patrick Cozzi Introduces Cesium to Bentley Audience at Year in Infrastructure
Speaking of Bentley, the company recently made big waves through both the AEC and geospatial industries with their acquisition of 3D geospatial leader, Cesium. While Bentley users certainly understand geospatial, as we learned at Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure event earlier this month they were not all super familiar with Cesium and their offerings. The event offered a chance for Cesium, as well as their founder and now Bentley’s Chief Platform Officer, Patrick Cozzi, to introduce themselves.
Pokémon Go’s Unlikely Impact on AEC Technology
It’s not an immediate association to put geospatial technology and knowledge together with video games, but that’s exactly what happened when Pokémon Go was released in 2016, causing a sensation for an entire generation around the world. As it turns out, this idea of overlaying digital data on top of the physical world – with impressive spatial accuracy – had a big effect on the AEC industry. This article looks at a variety of augmented reality solutions tailored for the sector and how Pokémon Go had an outsized impact on the space.
Geographic Context is Key to Unlocking Full Potential of Digital Twins
Digital twins have gone from an interesting buzzword to a clearly valuable tool for many AEC projects, with this sector and others utilizing the tools for their workflows. This article looks at taking that usage to the next level, particularly for the larger-scale digital twins, by embracing the geographic context of these digital twins.
