Improving AEC Workflows – Making better planning decisions by leveraging Esri's ArcGIS with Autodesk's Civil 3D, InfraWorks, and Revit.

Planning can be viewed as a necessary evil that many with an action-oriented brain like to skip over (like Engineers). Or it can be seen as an opportunity. Today most people and organizations are beginning to realize that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. As such, we have a responsibility as citizens of this planet to do our part to make a better future. As Warren Buffett said, "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry plays a critical role in the lifecycle of many or most of the world's Built and Natural assets. Moving a project from concept to reality takes a significant number of critical phases, including Plan, Design, Build, and ultimately after project handover or, in some cases, as a continuation of the project itself Operate.

For the purposes of this blog, we are going to focus on the Plan phase of a typical AEC project. During the planning phase of any project, there is a need to move quickly, be flexible, present factual scenarios, support stakeholder alignment and ultimately gain approval to move on the next phase of the project (Engineering and Design) with as little disruption as possible. This may sound simple, but in many or most cases, it is not!

Complex local, regional, and national regulations dictate what can and cannot be done. Local interests by those who are impacted, or beneficiaries of the project are often conflicting at best. Add to that social and sustainability drivers, that are growing in importance every day as critical decision-making criteria for any community, and you can see why Planning is not easy and so very important.  

AEC firms are often called on to support the planning phase of projects that deliver new assets (e.g., a new building, an expanded highway, or a re-aligned power distribution network).  To accomplish this goal, AEC firms rely on Engineering and Design applications like GIS, CAD, and BIM to support the development of the plan. But many of the activities in this phase are or have been siloed for many years. Data is often locked away based on the software you use and the role you play in the project. In many cases, there is little connection between these activities and tasks, which causes duplicative, overlapping work. And for AEC firms, this means lower margins on projects, less room for innovation, and often drag on staff who know there must be a better way. Preferably one that does not have them working all night to meet deadlines and still deliver quality work they are proud to deliver.

Esri and Autodesk recognized this as a prevalent industry issue and, in the interest of our customers, formed an Alliance Partnership that focuses on bringing together GIS and BIM\CAD technologies. This partnership has evolved of the last two and a half years and has helped Esri renew its focus on the AEC industry as a whole. The partnership has also resulted in some exciting new ways to support the integrated workflows between Esri's ArcGIS and Autodesk’s InfraWorks, Civil3D, Revit, and BIM360 environments.  

From a planning perspective, this opens many opportunities to improve on existing workflows. For example, if we are planning and permitting a new power line, we might have several AEC disciplines involved.  We might need:

• Project Management to wrangle the project
• Health and Safety or Risk Management Consultants to plan and maintain a safe workplace environment
• Biologists to field inventory flora and fauna
• Geotechnical engineers to validate sub-surface conditions for the project are
• Archeologists to inventory
• Civil - Planning \ Electrical Engineers to provide preliminary design inputs related to asset placement
• Civil - Roadway \ Traffic Engineers to plan access roads

And in many cases, involve other disciplines to deliver a permit plan that will likely have more than one iteration. The key to executing a project like this is, having a tightly integrated team working together to accomplish a common goal. For many years GIS has supported small aspects of this type of work. The same can be said about CAD and BIM. But rarely do we see a cohesive working and delivery environment that genuinely supports all aspects of delivering something this complicated.

But imagine a world where you are leveraging the Esri and Autodesk partnership to its fullest extent. This same type of planning project might look more like this:

• ArcGIS (Enterprise or Online) is leveraged to support the upfront planning and proposal of an innovative approach to how this AEC firm will deliver the project in a way that very few others can match.
• This concept is presented and sold to the customer at the proposal phase using ArcGIS StoryMaps
• Once awarded the project, the AEC firm sets up a project plan, that is clearly communicated to all contractors, partners, and adjacent parties involved via ArcGIS Hub.
• A Connected Data Environment (CDE) is established using ArcGIS (Enterprise or Online) and BIM360 to ensure the single source of truth is established.
• Preliminary and conceptual plans are created using Revit and InfraWorks, leveraging the integrations established recently between these products to design with context.
• The preliminary plans are then communicated effectively to project stakeholders via an ArcGIS AEC Project Delivery site enabled with ArcGIS Hub Premium to get feedback early on in the project, which reduces rework down the road.
• RFIs are submitted to capture knowledge and data that will inform project decisions via BIM360-RFIs.
• Field crews are tasked through ArcGIS Field Maps to capture observations that will influence planning engineering decisions
• Field data in GIS is shared live to customers for feedback, project managers for tracking, and the preliminary planning and design team for planning level engineering using Revit and Civil3D  (e.g., based on field observation where towers are put based on local parameters and what kind should they be).
• As the project plan comes together, all disciplines share data visually in the form of maps and dashboards via the ArcGIS AEC Project Delivery site for continued feedback.
• Once the project is complete, a written permitting as well as a digital permitting report is submitted for agency review.

This is just one example of how the Esri and Autodesk Alliance Partnership is helping to integrate workflows, break down traditional \ repetitive silos, and deliver projects that bring value to customers while maintaining profitability for the AEC industry.

For more information on how you can leverage the integrations between ArcGIS and Civil3D register for our upcoming webinar at https://bit.ly/31rgJDk