Let's face it, the Wii generation is upon us.  Our preoccupation with board games in the 80's has been replaced by paying homage to the little white box that allows us to move ourselves---or an object in real-time--spatial reality.  We have grown accustomed to the notion of using physical gestures to control our interaction with machines.

While the Trimble Field Link construction layout solution will never enter the living room in place of the infamous Wii, it does aid contractors and sub-contractors in their ability to more precisely layout duct and cable tray hangers as well as pipe and electrical conduit sleeves.  And now, Trimble Field Link for MEP includes our very own fluid, real-time control over a Trimble total station.  We call it "Dynamic Joystick". 

Announced today as part of  the Trimble Field Link for MEP 1.1 update, Dynamic Joystick enables contractors to more finitely control their Trimble total station—easily stopping the laser pointer on a desired point location.  Combined with the laser pointer, the feature allows the user to step away from behind the total station scope and control the instrument.

While it's not quite like using your Wii puck to play Madden NFL, it is a major leap forward in being able to more easily control your Trimble total station.

Check out the video below, or see the press release

Announced earlier this week, the popular field point creation tool for CAD users, Trimble Point Creator, will receive a significant update--incorporating a plugin for Autodesk Revit.

The update, due out later this year, will allow existing users of Autodesk Revit 2012 (Architecture, MEP, and Structures versions) and popular CAD platforms such as AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® MEP®, Bricscad, and ZWcad can operate natively within the Trimble Point Creator application to create 2D and 3D points.

The point creation workflow for the Revit user today is fairly time consuming and requires an export of the Revit design file to AutoCAD--which can then be referenced in the current version of Trimble Point Creator.  Unfortunately, the Revit to AutoCAD export can exhibit scaling issues, requiring re-work on the design file in AutoCAD.

With the new version of Trimble Point Creator for CAD and Revit, all point creation can now be initiated from within Revit itself---eliminating the export to AutoCAD step entirely.

We are pretty excited about this release and expect that contractors using both Revit and Trimble construction layout solutions to rejoice as the transfer of points from the office to the field just became a whole lot easier.

To be notified when the new release of Trimble Point Creator for CAD and Revit is available, click here and complete the form.

We have just added greater flexibility to some of the most used fittings our Vulcan fabrication solution. When looking at the rectangular elbows, a new input field has been enabled permitting the exiting ends to be mitered. This functionality allows more flexibility with fittings that are used on a daily basis.

 

Additionally, we have added a second "length field" to the mitered duct fitting. This feature permits the miter to be calculated by entering values in either the two length fields or one length and angle field.

Last month we announced the availability of the latest detailing solution for sheet metal contractors called Trimble Design Link.

At the heart of TDL is an AutoCAD MEP based detailing solution that links directly to Vulcan ductwork cutting software, allowing contractors to easily apply shop specifications to AutoCAD® MEP Duct. Not stopping at just fabrication, Trimble also built links to the popular QuickPen AutoBid SheetMetal estimating solution, Trimble MEP Layout solution, and an easy IFC export option for 3D visualization in clash detection solutions like Navisworks, Tekla Structures, and Solibri.

With so much packed into this unique solution, we have been asked to put together a series of one-hour webinars that help to tell the story.

So, please feel free to join us during one of the following upcoming sessions featuring Trimble Product Manager, Brett Stacks:

REGISTER BELOW:

April 26th, 8:00am (MST)	April 26th, 1:30pm (MST)
Register Now! Add To Outlook	Register Now! Add To Outlook

Congratulations to the New York Yankees on their World Series Championship. But did you know that the hot-hitting team’s new $1.5 billion home was a BIM project? The Constructonomics blog is out with an interesting article that goes into more detail about how Building Information Modeling was used to cut costs and increase project coordination. A key takeaway? During the economic downturn is a great time for contractors to adopt BIM:

"Subcontractors should take this downturn that we have right now and invest. If money is available for anything, they should invest in [BIM] technology to be ready for the explosion that’s going to happen in 2013 or 2014 when we finally wake up and realize that it’s time to go back to work."

Read the whole story on the Constructonomics blog: http://constructonomics.blogspot.com/2009/11/yankee-stadium-product-of-bim.html .