Construction Technology of the Week | Environment Sensors for HVAC Efficiency

Researchers studied the energy cost savings in a 500,000 square foot building by adjusting heating and cooling based on the number and location of human occupants and found that such monitoring could save buildings of similar size up to $40,000 per year in HVAC expenses.

Since just a small percentage of office buildings in any given year are newly built, Brambley and Liu say a prime target for these advanced controls is retrofitting existing buildings. Liu notes that technology has leaped forward since 1989 — the year the average large office building was built – offering huge energy gains even with the expense of retrofitting.

While such technology may require changes to building codes that require certain HVAC ranges at all times, the ability to adjust a building’s environment based on usage would significantly lower cost and energy use. The findings of this survey will no doubt inspire more technology providers and builders to invest in sensoring technology – yet another preview of the jobsite of the future.

Click here to learn more about HVAC efficiency using environmental sensors 

Posted in: Blog Posts, Tech of the Week

Leave a Comment (0) →

The Evolution of Software Interoperability in Construction

Publish June 18, 2013
Constructech Magazine

The talk of software interoperability continues to pick up in the construction industry. From agcXML to COSA (Construction Open Software Alliance), the industry continues to rally around the idea of sharing information between the various technology systems available for the construction market.

One standard in particular, agcXML, has been given a revival of sorts as of late, as Burger Consulting Group, www.burgerconsulting.com, Chicago, Ill., was recently brought on by the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America), www.agc.org, Arlington, Va., to help support the development and promotion of the standard. This was originally established in 2008 to enable the reliable exchange of transactional data involved in a typical construction project including submittals, RFIs (requests for information), payment data, and addenda, among others…

Click here to read the full article featuring COSA – an initiative cofounded by SmartBidNet

Posted in: COSA, In the News

Leave a Comment (0) →

Stop By Our Booth at the CFMA Annual Conference

Starting this Sunday, we’ll be exhibiting our online construction bidding software at the Construction Financial Management Association Annual Conference in San Diego, California. We’ll also be exhibiting, for the first time at CFMA, our certificate of insurance management software, SmartCompliance – showing general contractors how they can better manage subcontractor certificates and compliance. Not only will our staff be giving on site demos of both web-based software applications, we’ll also have a building contest for attendees to show off their creativity! We’ll give you five minutes to build anything you want with k’nex, the most creative/impressive structure will win an iPad mini complete with the latest and greatest construction industry apps.

Click Here for More Information on the Conference and Where to Find Our Booths

Posted in: Industry Events

Leave a Comment (0) →

Version 12.2 Released

Thanks to your steady flow of feedback, we’ve implemented the following updates to our software and they are now live for all users.

DASHBOARD: Users can now expand widgets to larger than just one column of their dashboard for more expansive viewing of key data.

DASHBOARD: Widgets with a search functionality are now fixed height, so that once adjusted, their size will not change based on search queries.

DASHBOARD: On the Database Quality Summary Graphs, numbers will now be displayed in addition to percentages.

DASHBOARD: A new report widget can be added to the dashboard that lists the main statistics in a Prequal’s status, including: Number Prequalified, Number in Review, Number of RFIs, Number of No Responses.

REPORTS: For Prequal and Bid Projects, the Activity Report will now track the details of who has chosen to “Opt Out”.

REPORTS: A new Plan Holders report compiles a list of all plan holders for a given project including: Company name, Contact Name, Email, Phone, Documents Downloaded and the date they were downloaded.

REPORTS: On the Companies Updated report under Data Management Reports, the fax number field as been added.

COMMUNICATIONS: The system’s multi-lingual capabilities  have been expanded to communication templates where users can now create full French or Spanish communications, including the template header.

COMMUNICATIONS: The default language on all invitation to bid templates has been changed to “Yes, I’ll Bid All Trades” and “No, I won’t bid this job.”

COMMUNICATIONS: A merge tag option for subcontractors’ contact email has been added to communication templates.

COMMUNICATIONS: Communication (fax and email) summaries will now include company name.

SEARCH: General Notes are now included in the main search query. The note will not be displayed in search results, but the Company Record it is attached to will.

BID PROJECTS: On the Qualified / Invited / Awarded tabs, if no communication is shown for a subcontractor, the Communication Detail  will indicate that the sub has been marked as invited.

BID PROJECTS: When copying a project template, the ability to change the confidentiality settings simultaneously has been added.

BID PROJECTS: We are now hiding project stats, such as Invited, Accepted, Proposed, etc, to users with a File Viewer or File Collaborator security profile.

BID PROJECTS: Managers/Shared Managers on Bid Projects will now receive notifications when subcontractors download plans. This function can be turned on/off on the Project Info tab.

PREQUAL: Users can now integrate as many prequal forms with their corporate website as necessary, instead of being restricted to one. The integrated code will be displayed under the Prequal Info tab.

IMPORTS: Users can now assign more than one group to companies while running imports.

EXPORTS: Users can now turn off the location field in an export.

RECYCLE BIN: Items in the Recycle Bin will now have two more columns, one for “Deleted By” and one for “Deleted on [DATE]“

Posted in: Software Updates

Leave a Comment (0) →

Construction Technology of the Week | Jobsite Noise Monitoring Software

Brüel & Kjær, an information technology company based in Denmark, has developed an “environmental noise calculation software” that monitors, analyzes, and maps noise “in colored contours that can be overlaid on 3D models, photographic images, or online maps to show noise levels.” The system allows users to set limits on noise/vibration levels, receive automatic notifications when those limits are exceeded, and even records all sound for later investigation.

These tools for the construction industry use technology to ensure compliance while making monitoring easier for site managers.

 Click here to learn more about this noise monitoring software for construction on Constructech.com

Posted in: Blog Posts, Tech of the Week

Leave a Comment (0) →

Upcoming Webinar – Online Construction Bidding Software

On June 17 & 18, we will be hosting webinars to show off Version 12 of our online construction bid management software. Commercial construction professionals interested in learning more about integrating and streamlining the bid process and subcontractor management with a web-based solution can register for one of four webinar time slots at smartbidnet.com/webinar .

Join us for a free 30 minute walk through of our software to learn how managing your projects, subcontractors, documents, and bidding process online with SmartBidNet Version 12 cuts costs, improves efficiency, and allows you to integrate your bid project data with the other technology you depend on. Our live business development team, presenting the webinars, will even open up the floor after their presentation for any questions.

Click here to register today

 

Posted in: Industry Events

Leave a Comment (0) →

Construction Technology of the Week – Disruptive Technologies Report

Instead of highlighting a specific technology this week we wanted to share a recent report from McKinsey about the disruptive technologies that will have the largest impact on business in the coming year. There’s an Executive Summary and Full Report available for download here and it is essential reading for anyone in business, and anyone using technology.  While 3D printing or advanced robotics may be more applicable to your profession in construction than next-generation genomics, all the technologies discussed will impact the way you do business, whether through the technology they create or the data they make available. They truly are technologies that will “transform life, business and the global economy,” so read up!

Click here to read this report on disruptive technologies in our future

Posted in: Blog Posts, Tech of the Week

Leave a Comment (0) →

Construction Technology of the Week | Glow in the Dark Concrete

NightTec, a pioneer in “light cycling” recently announced that their latest development could save up to 212 million megawatt-hours of energy in Germany annually. By embedding phosphorescent crystals in the surface of concrete, the company has created glow in the dark concrete that charges during the day and emits a glow at light at night. The glow can be utilized in residential and commercial interiors and exteriors for everything from leading the way to emergency exits to helicopter landing pads. We love seeing technology and sustainability come together to improve construction.

Click here to learn more about this glow in the dark concrete technology

Posted in: Blog Posts, Tech of the Week

Leave a Comment (0) →

Collaboration and Support Surround agcXML

Published May 17, 2013
AGC TechBrief

The Construction Open Software Alliance (COSA) is collaborating on the promotion of standards data exchange within the construction industry. COSA (constructionosa.org)supports the agcXML initiative and will submit schemas that it develops for review and ratification by AGC. In addition it will provide a platform among its members for testing and promoting the use of agcXML schemas in real-life production environments.

AGC appreciates the vision of COSA and its members and expresses…

Click here to continue reading

Posted in: COSA, In the News

Leave a Comment (0) →

Construction Technology of the Week | Laybots

At 75 pounds and 1.5 feet tall, DPR and Trimble’s latest innovation, Project Lion, is doing big things with small technology. The two firms have been working on what they call a “laybot,” an autonomous layout robot that marks lines on slabs for interior construction. The robot can already mark slabs at twice the rate of experienced drywallers but project managers are aiming for a rate of over 6X as fast as human workers. The robot is driven by signals from a nearby robotic-total-station (RTS) loaded with the appropriate BIM files.

Casale says the pilot grew out of DPR’s work on the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay medical center, a one-million-sq-ft hospital with 180 beds. “We were self-performing the drywall on the project, so we had a great opportunity to see how we could leverage BIM to make ourselves more efficient,” Casale notes.

Click here to learn more about this robotic technology being used in construction

Posted in: Blog Posts, Tech of the Week

Leave a Comment (0) →
Page 1 of 28 12345...»