Cadalyst - July 2008 - (Page 28)

cadalystlabsreview Figure 3. Vico Control is based on a detailed work-breakdown structure for both cost and schedule (upper image) combined with a location-based flowline view of project sequencing and scheduling (lower image). The result is unprecedented visibility into and management of schedule risk. is built into Vico Estimator. Especially valuable are the abilities of Vico to analyze target costs and identify areas of greatest cost risk and biggest cost impact. In other words, Vico makes it easy to prioritize estimating and budget attention for an item that is 10% over budget and 10% of project cost, versus an item that may be 50% over budget but only 1% of project cost; the first item represents twice the cost risk to the overall project compared with the second item, and that relationship is immediately obvious in Vico yet often obscure or undefined in some competing products. Vico Cost Manager carries these up-front analytic capabilities throughout the entire life of the project with the opportunity to compare bids with each other (projectwide or trade-by-trade) and to compare bid prices with various versions of budget. All these comparisons are accompanied by unique visual feedback on the progress of cost changes (for example, is Alternative B getting us closer to the latest revised budget than did Alternative A?). Vico Change Manager ensures that project changes are reflected wherever they need to be for construction, schedule, and cost-estimating purposes. Here, too, Vico’s VC Suite focuses on the change-management needs of general contractors, construction managers, and design builders. In its construction-focused specificity, Vico’s Change Manager actually is more sophisticated than the simple, automatic drawing updating that in some proprietary architecture/ engineering model-authoring tools serves the design and documentation management needs of architects and engineers before a job gets into the field. Space–Time Continuum Vico Control (figure 3) is, as the name implies, the operational core and project control center of Vico’s VC Suite. The premises underlying Vico Control go radically beyond the simple notions of 4D CAD and schedule simulation offered by competing products, as well as various scheduling add-ons to or plug-ins for proprietary architecture/engineering model-authoring tools. The critical breakthrough in Vico Control is a common work-breakdown structure (WBS) view for both cost and schedule. This view is Vico’s justification for the label 5D (a term I find otherwise objectionable, but in Vico’s implementation it has legitimacy). By itself, a single WBS for both cost and schedule is a significant transformation in the way most builders conceptualize and view their work. However, Vico Control goes much further, with a location-based flowline view of project sequencing and scheduling. By combining tasks and locations in a single view, Vico Control can provide — among its many unique capabilities — easy visibility into otherwise costly starts and stops in the workflow of any crew or trade as the job progresses. As well, the slope of the flowlines intuitively shows the speed of the work by trade and location. A project manager or superintendent using Vico Control is never more than a few clicks away from easily understood graphic comparisons of plan to actual to adjusted, with look-aheads organized by zones or locations within the overall project and by elements, tasks, or methods within each zone. www.cadalyst.com cadalyst July 2008 Figure 4. Vico 5D Presenter combines model (3D), schedule (4D), and cost (5D) information in an information-rich, integrated display that is well suited to presentations for — and decision-making by — building clients or general contractors’, construction managers’, and design builders’ senior management. chical decomposition of the model into assemblies and subassemblies, each of which has an associated cost/ composition recipe. Recipes are further divided into methods and resources. By these means, it’s possible to swiftly and accurately estimate precise quantities of materials and labor for any and all building components. This fine level of detail can be reaggregated into a total estimate for the building. Of course, other products on the market can generate QTO and cost from one or another proprietary architecture/ engineering model-authoring tool, but none offers the same degree of constructor-focused analytic capability that 28 http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - July 2008

Cadalyst - July 2008 Editor’s Window CAD Central FIRST Robotic Beasts Draw Students to Engineering Power! Speed! Action! — Mighty Mobile Workstations are Packed and Ready for Adventure! Vico Virtual Construction Suite 2008 AMD ATI FireGL V8600 and FireGL V8650 — 1-GB and 2-GB Graphics Cards Gaining Independence and Influence The Current State of MCAD Rewriting the Rules of PDM BIM Goes Residential CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Pleasures of Customization

Cadalyst - July 2008

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