The StreamBIM engine
Dear friends, partners, and customers.
We look forward to working together with you for a simpler, more open and more data-centric construction industry in these new years ahead of us. The year that we are now putting behind us has been one of the most contentious our young business has been through. Full of milestones, new customers and in every way rich in events. Not only did we turn ten years old! We established an office in Japan and our platform for collaboration received several major boosts. This year there will be even more victories!
Rendra was started in 2012 by a group of students at NTNU who bravely put their souls, youthful enthusiasm and newly acquired expertise into creating a unique BIM-centric, digital tool. Initially for use on construction sites with an interface adapted to handheld devices. A tool which, in the years since, has developed into a BIM and data-centric collaboration platform for the entire construction industry!
It no secret that the process to achieve our goals has at times been demanding and the road tortuous. However, one thing is one hundred percent certain: We would never have gotten to where we are today without all the good customers, demanding users and cooperative partners, who have each helped us up and forward with their expertise.
The core technology we have worked to develop over these years took a leap in user-friendly direction during '22. Not only is the response time constantly creeping closer to zero, but the precision is also increasing, and new features has been released like pearls on a string over the past year.
Among many innovations, long-awaited adjustments, and improvements, we want to especially highlight the following:
TAKT module (Planning and handover module)
StreamBIM can now be used for model-based production planning and progress monitoring with our Taktmodul. A module that not only allows you to plan a "work package" - or a production plan based on volumes in the model you are currently working in and with - the volumes can also be based and organized by location and order. So that handover of "Carriages/Volumes" can be accepted or not by the individual contractor. That way, you can track planned production based on the actual current progress in the project. In short, this means that you can:
- Use IFC- rooms or zones as "beat zones / work packages".
- Build "trains" and "wagons" with checklists.
- Visualize actual progress and give - or receive - warnings about possible delays.
- Follow up on deviations and delays through the built-in system for effective quality assurance.
Search
It has never been easier to find "my data set" adapted to- the job to be carried out at any given time. Through our powerful search tool, you can now group as you like and take full control over individual components or groupings of the building's small and large components.
Search for objects based on a given value or property. As an example, it’s easy to select all doors with fire class IE60. And then export the result to Excel, or directly to your "Power BI Dashboard", if desired. A process completed with four mouse clicks.
QR codes
As part of the search function, you can also create QR- codes for the objects you want, print these, and supply the "physical" door, the electrical distribution or other relevant objects, for useful, precise and fast localization. Something that, among other things, can prove extremely useful in connection with logistics to find the exact delivery point. You can also enter "own" information fields for relevant information.
2D tags
As part of the search function, you also have the option to "tag" the respective objects with the information that is already linked to the "object". You choose which information is important. Be it recipient or purpose. And save the view as a separate isolated "drawing". In other words, you can create an unlimited number of 2D drawings from the interdisciplinary model for very specific purposes and according to your needs
"On premise"
StreamBIM can now also be run locally "on premise" on all types of projects with special security requirements, where the model cannot or should not be connected to the internet. A solution that we have used on several projects, including “The new government quarter” in Norway, with great success.
"Object history and revision management in BIM"
As an early Christmas present from our developers, on the eve of last year, you received support for object history, which allows you to compare your revisions in your digital models. In addition to comparing different revisions of IFC files you can with this function:
- See all new and deleted objects.
- See how the geometry has changed.
- See which objects have been moved.
- See which properties have changed.
Point cloud improvements
StreamBIM has for a long been able to stream gigabytes of point clouds without problems, oth for PC and handheld devices. This has made it possible to compare the projected BIM with a scan of the physical building, measure geometry in the point clouds, or between point clouds and the BIM.
However, we have now also optimized the Point-cloud reader so that streaming in 3D is faster and handles different zoom levels much better. Something that gives you the opportunity to spin around several models at the same time and run in "load all" mode, without any problem. With this enhancement, you can:
- Compile design models and point cloud.
- Turn layers off and on.
- Apply color coding and thus highlight layers in different modes.
- Adding Topics/BCF with a mixture of IFC and the point cloud.
- Support file formats: e57 and las.
Better checklists
We have improved our checklist function. A function that makes it easy to create checklists adapted to the company's own quality system and added to rooms, systems, type objects, floors, or property values in your model with few clicks. You can use filters that give the objects with checklists a status color. Something that gives a full overview of which elements have completed the quality control. If an element has a discrepancy in the checklist, the checklist will not be given the status of approved until the discrepancy is closed.
Wrapup
That it for 2022, it's already old news... But stay tuned! Because we have a lot of exciting things going on. As a customer, partner, and friend, we can promise you that we will not slack off for a second. On the contrary, you will experience an even higher pace in the development of StreamBIM.
As a start, we will strengthen our focus and our functionality related to data-driven project development and construction. We will deliver better data to support your work processes. In StreamBIM and in other adjacent tools.
And we promise that it will be simpler, more open, and data-centric!
