ing to be running directly through the angled supports. Upon early discovery of the issue, Bowen Engineering was able to work with the HVAC subcontractor and eliminate the clash in the design before any ductwork had even been fabricated. “It really blows them away when they can view a model of the finished project within the actual environment they will be working in,” said Redelman of the Trimble XR10, which is the only HoloLens 2 solution compatible with an industry standard hardhat and certified for use in safety-controlled environments. Although it provides extreme value in the field, the mixed reality solu - tion also eases the process of sharing project information with those in the office. It comes integrated with Trimble Connect for HoloLens software, which is part of the collaborative Trimble Connect cloud platform enabling stakeholders across a project to coordinate all of their different types of design files together in a common location. Game-Changing Technology In the past, Bowen Engineering typically used model information for reference only. Now, they can bring the access and value of the model to an entirely new level, enabling the contractor to realize the true value of their investment in BIM. Within just the first few weeks, the company’s project teams were able to see firsthand the value of the technology and recognize its ROI. For customers in the construction industry, where schedule delays and inflated costs due to rework are all too common, the price point of mixed reality technology is low enough that it doesn’t take long before the cost is recovered. Bowen Engineering estimates that the piping issue discovered in the Missouri power plant would have impacted the project with an ad - ditional 16 - 24 hours of crew time between delays and rework. This would have translated to over $4,000 in labor costs alone. On the project in Indiana, the HVAC crew would have encountered over 20 hours of impact between delays and rework of the ductwork, issues that would have translated to over $4,500 in additional labor and mate- rial costs. It probably goes without saying that, according to Redelman, the mixed reality tools have received an enthusiastic buy-in across Bowen Engineering.
What does the future hold for Bowen Engineering and mixed reality? As to next steps, Redelman plans to expand their use of it for pre- fabrication over the coming months. The company already does a lot of prefabrication work, and he has seen demonstrations of how field workers can leverage the mixed reality overlay to instruct them on how to perform efficient, quality, and safe fabrication tasks on and off the jobsite. Using 3D technology eliminates the flaws in fabrication de - rived from misinterpreting design intent through examining 2D blue- prints, and by providing precisely overlaid and sequenced instructions, any room for interpretation is removed from the process. He envisions using the technology to prefabricate several different components, like pipe racks and rebar cages, using the mixed reality to build full scale assemblies from a model loaded into the XR10. In addition, Bowen Engineering plans to get more field staff involved in using the mixed reality technology during the pre-planning process and for hosting constructability review meetings with others offsite. For design/build scenarios, they plan to give clients the ability to “walk through” the plant for design review meetings. “It has always been difficult to truly visualize construction work until it’s actually complete,” said Redelman. “Now that there is technol - ogy available to view construction concepts in 3D, the use cases seem limitless.”
JORDAN LAWVER is Business Area Director, AR/MR/VR at Trimble Inc.
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csengineermag.com
october 2021
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