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360-degree nuts!

360-degree banking, 360-degree customer relations, 360-degree sales and now 360-degree BIM! Am I losing the plot or has the world gone mad with being 360?

Let’s go back to basics

In engineering, 360 degrees is 2π or 400 gradians. For mere mortals, it is 1 turn of a wheel. When speaking about the physical world, it is the ability to see everything i.e. without blind spots. In the technological world, it symbolises giving the end user a comprehensive understanding of a subject which incorporates all points of view.

Applying this logic to BIM, it is a complete view of a project including the operations, the design and the construction all in one framework or ecosystem. It is any BIM manager’s dream to have everything in one central place. A place from where all the stakeholders of a project can access everything simultaneously with access from any device.

Cooking BIM Waffles

Many say that they offer 360-degree BIM by centralising the project files for anyone with the necessary access. However, their solution does not solve the issue of remote access. Stakeholders need access to project files on the BIM Train, to work, at the airport, at a conference or just in the office.

If projects require remote access, stakeholders are sometimes third-party architects, civil engineers or managers from other companies. 360-degree BIM solutions on the market state that they can manage capacity needs but how can you as a BIM manager facilitate this when the civil engineers use Windows, the architects use MacBook while the parametric designers use Linux?

When you find a solution which may work with macOS emulators, it is fragmented.  There are different modules to visualise the project, run workflows, to access documentation, to give correct access rights. It is not suited to remote access either requiring a powerful desktop. While, with no European-based servers, latency is bad.

Is 360-degree BIM just an engineering dream?

It isn’t with Cloudalize! Our solution enables BIM-to-Field from the Cloud. Cloudalize is an end-to-end BIM-orientated cloud platform which enables a BIM Level 3 solution.

With Cloudalize powering your BIM project, you can unify all project stakeholders, workflows and software on safely and securely on the Cloud. Promote Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) amongst the BIM project stakeholders. The benefits are for your team are:

1. Remote Access

Cloudalize removes the need for a heavy-duty laptop or workstation with the necessary processing power thanks to its GPU power in the Cloud . This gives project stakeholders the ability to have remote access in the office, at home or on site.

2. Capacity Management

Cloudalize’s solution is scalable to meet changing capacity needs throughout the project. From the beginning to the end, a BIM manager or coordinator can assign personalised virtual desktops to each stakeholder directly from the Cloudalize admin portal. These desktops can be assigned access rights to the correct files on which the end-user can work securely and safely on the Cloud.

3. Cost Management

Using Cloudalize helps to reduce the costs of the BIM project over time. It removes the need for a new laptop or workstation which is capable of running the latest software. What’s more is that the Cloudalize platform is a pay-per-use solution. Your business only pays for what it uses. If a stakeholder only requires 6 hours per week, this is the amount that you will pay for.

4. Any Operating System

Cloudalize is device agnostic. It is a Windows-based virtual desktop which can run just as easily on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Windows, Linux or Android. No emulators are required and this functionality enables all the stakeholders of your BIM project to work from one centralised source in real time.

Cloudalize: Your BIM Enabler

According to the Boston Consulting Group, going to the Cloud with your BIM project will help you to save 15 % in project lifecycle cost (BCG 2016) and increase efficiency by 25 % (BCG 2017). Using Cloudalize as your BIM enabler will further reduce cost and increase efficiency of your project.

Cloudalize’s GPU-powered virtual desktops enable you to work from one centralised ecosystem to which you have remote access to all your BIM projects, designs and elements. Our platform manages capacity requirements and is OS agnostic so you can run your CAD/BIM software on macOS, WindowsOS or Linux. What’s more is that you pay for what you use or need.

With Cloudalize, you too will be going 360 degrees! Not head spinning from frustration but cart wheels from a successful BIM project.

References

Boston Consulting Group. 2016. The Transformative Power of Building Information Modeling. [Online]. [16 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.bcg.com/en-be/publications/2016/engineered-products-infrastructure-digital-transformative-power-building-information-modeling.aspx
Boston consulting group. 2017. BIM Revolution Comes to Building Materials. [Online]. [16 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.bcg.com/en-be/publications/2017/process-industries-engineered-products-bim-revolution-comes-building-materials.aspx

Editor’s Note: Updated on 30 July 2020
Author: Koenraad Willems