You really don’t need to take my word for it, instead get in touch and start trying it today..
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Design not created in Sketchup? Not to worry we have it covered.. Your CAD design system of choice will likely support the opensource interoperability *.ifc format which not only stores the physical geometry of your design but also the “meta data” (the textual stuff that helps define what an object is).
The *.ifc format will become more and more widely used in the coming years especially in the construction industry; i mentioned that it also stores “meta data”, well that’s not even the half of it! IFC’s support a wide range of “construction” information such as: the project definition, the requirements of clients, the structure of a construction such as buildings, spaces, floors etc, the scheduling information, the estimation rates, the quantities and many many more (to find out more go to the buildingsmart website).What is not often discussed is the differing quality of the IFC outputs from many of the leading CAD systems (Autodesk, Bentley, Tekla, DDS, Graphisoft, Nemetschek). Take the ubiquitous Revit as an example; whilst the system requires users to create objects based on “families” (component types) the export to IFC does not take advantage of the available constructs
You may/may not have heard that the construction industry both here in UK but also in the US is being encouraged/required to adopt a new OPEN format recognised by the file extension *.ifc. This format is not just about CAD data it also allows for a far wider range of construction related information. The format is supported widely by the big CAD authoring system vendors and will gain even more traction in the coming years. Import *.ifc from leading CAD software such as and many more..
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Design without validation creates little value but huge uncertainty; the ability of design reviews to identify these failings is proven to be unreliable. SUperPlan validates the installation/removal prerequisites of objects and pushes the responsibility to get design right back upstream.
Every object (by class) is associated with rules that govern what is required and therefore checked for prior to being scheduled. An illustration of this is the case of a Steel beam; the beam is determined as a structural item and requires supports in two or more locations. The support locations must be within a specified distance of end of the beam, unless the beam is declared as being cantilevered.. SUperPlan checks for co-located objects, identifies whether these are “structural” in nature and if present requires these to be installed prior to installation. This “validation” function is atomic; it applies to every individual object and ensures that a calculated schedule reflects the real world (i.e application of gravity). It also provides a means of recognising design issues, objects that are identified as not having any pre-requisites are highlighted and reported as a function of simulation.This unique approach offers advantages over other systems in that the user is not left trying to identify problems with sequence by being required to step through time and simultaneously rotating the 3D model in the hope that an issue might be glimpsed.. In our opinion a real time waster where the product is merely a pretty picture.
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Quantities are calculated from the model and a costed BOM exported for use by Estimators. Additionally once scheduled the costs can also be exported as a week by week or month by month budget.
The first step towards simulation is the correct classification of objects in your model. The principal requirement for the definition of objects in Sketchup is the creation of components; from that point onwards SUperPlan uses a range of techniques to correctly classify objects against SMM, OmniClass and UniClass libraries.- Object recognition – For many objects their proportions (length / width / height) are tested and a classification assigned automatically.
- Description – The naming of an object often provides sufficient clues for classification to be successful
- Layer name – The layer on which objects are grouped may allow for class to be distinguished.
When objects are classified the relative success of the function puts objects into 3 groups, those that are fully classified, those that are partially classified and those that are unclassified i.e. they cannot be classified . In all cases the assigned classification can be overridden and the override applied to all objects that are similarly named, greatly reducing the classification overhead. As users become familiar with the system the ability for the process to become fully automatic/successful increases.
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Construction simulation (4D) at the click of a button! The only simulation tool to validate assembly prerequisites at the component level; choose from 16 different construction directionality options and get results in seconds.
The ability of the simulation function to produce results at the click of a button belies its power; it is built on the principle of maintaining granularity; we believe that aggregating objects for planning decisions necessarily obfuscates the results and reduces the potential for optimisation. Future developments will more clearly demonstrate the constraints created by aggregation.SUperPlan considers every object’s requirements for installation, temporary use or removal; it tests and validates the conditions necessary for an object to be acted upon and if these are found to be met then the object is added to the overall sequence of events.
Consider the alternate approach as enacted by other systems where objects of like classes are grouped together by user defined spatial boundaries. The aggregated quantities of those objects are then used in combination with rates to calculate durations and these are then sequenced in an order set by the user. The result of this approach is that scheduling tools restrict the availability of space until all works are completed on a preceding class of object irrespective of the non-consequential ability for partial access by a succeeding work team.
What we agree is that the granularity does ultimately need to be “rolled up” for presentation and interaction by planners and it is with this in mind that SUperPlan does provide a summary level output to planning systems.
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Your 4D schedule can be exported to and imported from scheduling systems using the Microsoft Project *.xml standard. Make final adjustments and see changes updated to 4D/5D. Work at summary or detail levels.
Simulation results may require fine tuning beyond the tweaking of resource availability or the rates per unit and for this and other reasons (such as project reporting) SUperPlan provides the ability to export the calculated sequence (simulation) to the MS Project *.xml format which can be read by leading planning systems such as the excellent Asta Powerproject planning system.The export is not limited, the grouping structure of the design information can be used as the WBS (work breakdown structure) for the export, the resource, unit quantities and unit rates are also exported so that the planning system user is able to rationalise the metrics used in the calculation of duration.
In addition the export also carries the logical relationships (task links) between schedule events; the nature of the logical relationship (for instance that the relationship between a beam and supporting columns is gravitational) will in the future be distinguished (planning system functionality dependent).
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Quickly rationalise the cost and time to build. There really is nothing like it.. The ONLY object level construction simulation engine to give you meaningful results in UNDER 5 minutes.
Imagine that as design is created you have the ability to understand the implications of design decisions in terms of cost and time virtually instantaneously; might it perhaps lead to better design decisions in line with the specifications of a client (max cost, project turnaround)? we think the answer is yes.The effect of designing anything without correlating it back to cost and time can only result in the possibility of divergence away from key performance requirements of any project. It is SUperPlan’s goal to in the future provide that feedback real-time, not to say that seconds or minutes isn’t bad to get started!!
As SUperPlan is used more and more widely and we build up more and more rules for objects ranging from foundation piles to slabs to curtain walling to M&E through fit out and finally demolition these rules will cater for a wider and wider range of projects out of the box.. Meanwhile we work tirelessly with our users to quickly absorb and realise new rules so that as quickly as the following day their logic is baked into SUperPlan and delivering greater and greater accuracy of calculated construction simulation outcomes.
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Create Movies of your construction sequence. Use Sketchup “scenes” to control the position of the camera and never miss showing the detail of your plan.
Construction simulation is about communication, primarily to yourself but secondly and inevitably more importantly to your customers. When you are happy with the simulation results, be it “au naturel” or perhaps after an edit in your scheduling system; SUperPlan then provides you with a means of generating movie outputs.It dos this in combination with the Sketchup “Scenes” capability.. You play through your sequence using SUperPlan review and as and when you deem it necessary you can hit our scene capture function which generates a new scene; the camera if moved from scene to scene “tweens” (moves) from one position to another giving you not only the construction simulation but also the ability to focus on and filter items depending on preferences for each scene.
Watch our Movie case study to see the huge range of stylised outputs you can achieve. Of course you can also post process movies using great freely available software such as Microsoft’s Movie Maker
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Facets of construction data are all interdependent. Change one aspect and see effect cascade.
The real key to construction simulation is the ability to play around with one information facet and see the consequences reflected in another (or should i say the law of unintended consequences)..SUperPlan construction simulation uses the design, the co-location of design, gravity, directionality, rates, resources and user overrides as the ingredients to its recipe, only when these are combined will you successfully get the cake to rise. There are still ingredients to add and these will remain secret until fully baked in but those missing ingredients are more about the spicing of the cake rather than the cake itself!
We really do think it tastes great and invite you to come and try a slice!