Engineering contractors look set to benefit from UK plans to “build, build, build” its way to economic recovery from COVID-19, as announced by PM Boris Johnson 30 June. With that in mind, engineers will likely want to ramp up the speed and precision of project estimations, as well as collaboration within and across projects.
When Dublin-based ClearTech Engineered Solutions, a specialist in designing and installing post-tensioning for bridges, buildings, roads and other civil engineering projects, wanted to do just that, the company turned to Bluebeam’s flagship software offering Bluebeam Revu.
It has won 50% more projects since, according to the ClearTech case study.
“We used to print the two drawings — the newest one and the previous version — and look at them,” said Thiago Tamm, ClearTech structural engineer.
“It would take well over half a day to go through these drawings to compare changes. But, with the overlay tool, you can just do it now in fewer than 25 minutes and you’re done with comparing.”
Post-tensioned structures require less concrete and reinforcement, which has a smaller environmental impact than traditional or pre-tensioned concrete. And as demand for these services rose, ClearTech had more requests for quotes than it could answer.
ClearTech started using Bluebeam Revu to increase the speed and precision of its project estimations, with Revu becoming the digital “centre” for ClearTech’s practices, from estimations, design and revisions to QA/QC and document management. This also slashed thousands of euros off printing costs, as less paper was required for design comparisons and revisions.
“Additionally, use of the overlay tools in Revu resulted in faster annotation methods and reduced work hours per project,” according to the report.
The company has since expanded its client portfolio, which includes Salesforce, Facebook and Amazon, as well as taking on projects in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
“Other companies we work with use Bluebeam as well. And we communicate using the same software so we have more concise and accurate comments and reviews on the drawings,” confirms ClearTech‘s Tamm.
