Solutions in the field

12d Model is a dedicated data management software designed to help construction projects in development and in production.

The Northern Beaches Hospital Road Connectivity and Network Enhancement Project, a road upgrade in the northern suburbs of Sydney, involved the upgrade of 3.2 kilometres of road, pedestrian bridges, new footpaths, drainage and three new road bridges.

To undertake the large task of surveying this project, ESO Surveyors chose the 12d Model software package to keep track of its work from start to finish.

12d Model is powerful civil engineering, surveying and terrain modelling software. It allows fast production in a variety of projects, including mapping; site layouts; road, rail and highway design; residential and land developments; drainage and sewer design; and environmental impact studies.

After working closely with clients for over 25 years, 12d Solutions realised that the industry had a problem with keeping track of vast types of data and specific workflows for projects. As such, it created software for projects that would take care of those issues for the client.

12d Model software enables difficult surveying and civil design tasks to be easily visualised and completed. Users can build their own options from the 12d Model programming library.

Greg Cech, Senior Surveyor at ESO Surveyors, says the software is invaluable to projects.

“You can use it in the field, which allows you to collaborate with people on the run because you have the whole project in 3D on your tablet right with you in the field. You can do calculations and set out on the run,” he says.

12d Model software is installed onto a server or in the cloud, and all users can access company data through the 12d Model application.

“This enables multiple people to use the projects, so the team shares the information. You can have three to four engineers using it. We’ve synchronised all the tablets in the field so everyone has the latest information. It’s a very good, easy way to ensure everyone is working on the latest design,” Mr. Cech says.

The surveyors can bring work up in the field and also work on their own projects.

All data on 12d Model that is transferred is encrypted to ensure data security. Clients can grant access to users outside of the office – this way they can connect with 12d Model anywhere at any time.

12d Model has more than 4,000 designers, drafters, surveyors, project managers and office managers using the software. It is flexible, callable and well-suited to multi-national enterprises and SMEs.

The software also is well suited to design work. ESO Surveyors were able to make 3D models of elements in a project, such as bridges. The team were able to model all parts of the bridge, the top deck, all of the barriers, the bottom deck and more. Then, when an surveyor was in the field, they are able to be aware of any changes as they occur.

“In the software, you can do the rendering, do the normal rotation and you can have a look at it and see if the design visually looks correct. It is a good, easy way to spot any design errors because they always stick out when you visually look at things,” Mr. Cech says.

Once changes have been made to the software the user has the ability to create pins or digital trains, so colleagues know exactly what they are working towards.

“It’s easier in the field, as surveyor can instantly check the thickness of concrete and asphalt out while they are out working and they can implement changes if need be,” Mr. Cech says.

When installing the bridges for the Northern Beaches Hospital Road Project with 12d Model software, Mr. Cech’s team were able to do a conformance on the concrete prior to it being stressed.

“This allowed us to note how far off each design point was for height prior to stressing the cables and then afterwards we were able to go back to the same point right there in the field and see the difference,” Mr. Cech says.

Using the reports of the 12d software, Mr. Cech’s team were able to do a comparison with the original design. They could see how far the bridge had moved from when it was laid to after it had been stretched. Mr. Cech says in some spots it might have only moved 20 millimetres, but these measurements were crucial.

He says the ability to see the designs in 3D allows users to look at how things are forming. They can instantly see any areas that need to be checked over. They can also show the 3D designs to everyone working on the project, not just surveyors.

The 3D element of 12d software was helpful for ESO surveyors. “Seeing the project in 3D is immensely helpful. When you are looking down on a CAD drawing you have got multiple lines, more or less on top of each other. Being able to rotate that in 3D really brings the structure to life,” Mr. Cech says.

“It just helps projects because there are very few isometric drawings on the plans – it is all just 2D line work and sometimes that is difficult to visualise in the field. The 12d Model makes people work to a higher accuracy,” Mr. Cech says.

Mr. Cech admits there is an element of education involved with learning the software, though once learnt, it is simple to use.

“Once you have the basics, I don’t think anyone would voluntarily go back to the older methods. Everyone likes the program and it significantly reduces the chance of setting out old data or old information,” he says.

“It is the sort of package where if you only need to use a certain percentage of it then that is all you will learn and you can become proficient in it really quickly,” Mr. Cech says.

ESO Surveyors will continue to use 12d Model software for future projects due to its success.