Our Work
Engineering & Technology: Welcome to the Future
February 21, 2024
It’s Engineer’s Week this week, and the theme is Welcome to the Future. We celebrate Engineer’s Week every year because it’s a chance to reflect on our team’s work to address global challenges, drive technological advancements, and make a positive impact. This week, and in this post, we’re specifically reflecting on how we’ve used and will use technology to improve the way things are done.
REALITY CAPTURE
One of the ways we’ve integrated technology on our projects is through our reality capture service. Reality capture technology scans existing spaces at any point during a project to provide an as-built record of existing conditions in a building. It can save our clients thousands of dollars on a project and the headaches and stress that come with mistakes.
Here’s how it works: a reality capture scan creates a walk-through that allows us to create a point cloud (to verify existing conditions) that can be attached to models. This allows us to see the locations of beams, conduits, diffusers, elevations, etc. With this point cloud, we can visualize and align the model efficiently and accurately. A more accurate model means less rework. And less rework means less money and less stress. In fact, $250,000 of every $5 million spent on a construction project goes into rework costs.
OUR WBNAVIGATOR
Inspired by the walk-throughs created from these scans, we created our WBNavigator; another way that we’ve used technology to help our clients transform their infrastructure and business. Like a scan, this resource provides an interactive image, to scale, of equipment in a space. However, unlike a scan, these images are rendered and have pop-up icons with definitions of different types of equipment. Our goal for the WBNavigator was to give our clients the information they needed to have meaningful conversations during projects so that they could make smart business decisions that impact their buildings today and in the future. Navigate it now, here!
It’s a great time to be an engineering firm, and as we celebrate Engineer’s Week and its theme of Welcome to the Future, we’re excited to think about what’s next and how we’ll use technology to streamline project processes, drive innovation, and create a more sustainable future.
