Construction Tech of the Week | SmartBidNet | Skyscraper Greenhouses

While builders in the Middle East are redefining skyscrapers, builders in Sweden are working to set the standard for the vertical farms now being called 'plantscrapers.' Hoping to promote more urban farming in big cities, Plantagon has developed a series of plans for skyscraper greenhouses. What at first looked like wishful green thinking, has turned into the future of green architecture as Plantagon broke ground these week in Linkoping, Sweden. The glass-faced tower will showcase the entirety of the plants growing inside and will be called the "International Centre of Excellence for Urban Agriculture."

"Inside the massive glass walls, vegetables will be grown in pots and then transitioned to trays positioned around a giant central helix. The plants grow as the trays slowly migrate down the central core and are ready to be harvested once they reach the bottom. Plant residue and manure will be collected along the way and transformed into biogas to run the heating and cooling systems of the greenhouse."

Ladies and gentleman, 'green' has reached a whole new level. 

Read more about this skyscraper greenhouse technology

Version 11.3 | SmartBidNet | Construction Bid Software

PLANROOM: You can now navigate through plan files using the "Next" and "Previous" buttons in the file viewer. 

PREQUAL: The prequal manager can now change and designate which contact is "Responding to the prequal."

COMPANIES: A "Shared Offices" feature has been added to the Subcontractor Location Records - so that each subcontractor location can be individually set to allow for the addition of offices other than the subs' primary internal office. That way SmartBidNet users have access to national and regional sub users from the same company as necessary. 

SHOW/SEARCH/EXPORT: Several new filtering capabilities have been added. When searching, multi-select drop down options have been added to Internal Office, Qualification Status, State, and Country. When viewing results, you can now filter by "Show only companies without city" and "Show only companies without zip code." Users can also choose to "Show only companies without" under Groups, Trades, and Certifications. 

COMPANIES: When trying to move or delete a company contact, the system will now automatically check if that contact is currently involved in a bid project, if so the user trying to move or delete will be notified. If the user continues to move or delete the contact, the bid manager of the affected bid projects will be notified and emailed.

COMPANIES: The Financial tab on a subcontractor company record now allows you to export a printer friendly PDF version of the data displayed.

REPORTS: Deleted contacts will now be shown with a line through them on reports

BID PROJECTS:  Users can now create export templates for the Qualified, Invited, and Awarded tabs of bid projects. (The same way they can use this capability under Show/Search/Export Companies.)

BID PROJECTS: The Active Projects tab will now show as active when loading project lists. The amount of projects per each status will also now show on the project list tabs. And a "Select All" option has been added on the Show/Search screen.

COMMUNICATIONS: The Update Communications tab is now the first and default tab to show after selecting the Send Communication option. A warning message has been added when sending General Communications reminding that login information will not be automatically included in the message.

WEBSITE INTEGRATON: We've built a website integration iFrame for our clients' public sites that when placed in their site HTML will display public projects for the selected office, and can be adjusted for full or basic view of trades from the Internal Office Admin page. 

Construction Tech of the Week | SmartBidNet | Flying Jobsite Robots

They say "autonomous quadrotor helicopter technology" we say "flying robotos." In December, a six metre tower titled "Flight Assembled Architecture" was built out of styrofoam blocks by autonomous quadrotor helicopters. 

"Four robots worked on the project at any one time, relying on detailed blueprints and a motion capture system embedded in the roof to accurately construct the tower at a rate of 100 blocks per hour." 

This robot-executed "swarm technology" is far from consumer ready, but shows the type of technology we could see performing rescue missions and construction feats once down by humans at high risk. 

"Larger versions of the building robots, for example, could potentially be used in the construction industry to erect buildings faster and more efficiently, while significantly reducing the occupational health and safety risks for associated workers." 

Click here to read more about this technology 

Construction Tech of the Week | SmartBidNet | Smart Paint

Remember the carbon nanotubes we mentioned two weeks ago? Well, they're back. And they are finding their way into more structural elements. A research team from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland is experimenting with combining carbon nanotubes and a recycled by-product of coal combustion to produce a 'highly durable, cement-like paint.'

But wait, there's more. 

These nanotubes can carry electrical currents and when bent (i.e. the paint cracks) the electrical conductivity changes. Researchers have discovered how to track those changes via wireless communication nodes underneath the paint and can therefore transmit signals on the state of the paint, any defects, cracks, weathering, etc. Engineers can therefore repair areas before the deterioration moves past just paint and becomes a bigger threat.

Click here to learn more about smart paint

Construction Tech of the Week | SmartBidNet | EarthCam

This week at the World of Concrete conference in Las Vegas, EarthCam introduced their latest 700 MegaPixelCam Robotic. This camera can be set up on jobsites to capture panoramic, wide-angle, and tall-portrait imaging 24/7 and gives project managers the ability to view the live streaming images remotely online. Weather and project data can also be integrated into the image archives of the camera's software, and all data is viewable from any location to those with authorized access. Constant monitoring and analysis of jobsite activity could mean more efficient projects and records. 

Read more about this new construction tech here 

Beyond Estimation - Q3 Construction Market Update from Vermeulens Cost Consultants

Since 2006, Vermeulens has been reporting on the state and direction of the construction market. Here is their latest market update, a good read for any and all in the AEC industry. 

Vermeulens Construction Market Update PDF

Construction Tech of the Week | SmartBidNet | Green Concrete

Researchers at Auburn University and the University of Alabama are working on a new recipe for concrete. The recipe calls for coal ash - a power plant by-product - instead of cement and a futuristic ingredient called carbon nanotubes. "The nanotubes, which add strength, durability and conducting properties to the concrete, are produced by cooking an iron compound for 10 seconds in a microwave." 

"It is very much like you cook popcorn," a researcher said.

The electricity conducting nanotubes could mean speeding up the melting of ice on bridges or runways and reusing coal ash could mean less being dumped in bodies of water and landfills.

The new concrete recipe is still in the research and development phase. If proven that the use of ash and nanotubes won't be harmful to the environment in other ways, the 70% of concrete construction materials used globally might be in for a big change...

Read more about this new technology here 

The Jobsite of the Future by James Benham, President of SmartBidNet | Construction Executive

Construction Executive Magazine | January 17, 2012 

The Jobsite of the Future  
By James M. Benham  

Thirty years ago, construction projects involved a great deal of snail mail, phone calls to landlines, stacks of blueprints and a few Rolodexes. Today, microwave-sized desktop computers are a fading memory, and customized project management software comes to the rescue at least once a day. There’s also a 40 percent chance readers will view this article on their smartphones.  

The construction industry wasn’t always so progressive. During the last 10 years, industry professionals started to see the benefit of paperless plan rooms and automated systems. Now imagine what technology will be used in the next 50 years. From holograms to self-sufficient robots, developing technology suggests what a construction site of the future might look like...

Click here to read the full article 

Version 11.2 | SmartBidNet

BID PROJECTS: A new viewing option called "Extended by Alpha" has been added to Tabs 6, 6b, 7, and 8 under Bid Projects.

BID PROJECTS: Released new quick viewer for plan files.

MINORITY REPORTS: Address, City, State, and Zip fields have been added to the Minorities by Category and Minorities by Alpha Report export. 

MINORITY REPORTS: A new report has been added that combines the Activity report with the subs' minority certifications.

REPORTS: When viewing All Communications under Reports, there are now check boxes next to 'Failures' in order to select and resend all failed communications at once.

NOTIFICATIONS: The Notification tab will now appear automatically for logged in users until it has been read. 

NOTIFICATIONS: Every time a sub submits a proposal, a project note, RFI response, or a prequal, a notification will appear for managers (bid project and prequal) in the notification right panel.

COMMUNICATIONS: The communications widget, displayed on the right side of the dashboard, now includes information on update requests, general, and prequal communications.

UPDATING COMPANIES: A column titled "SBN Update Key" has been added to the Show/Search/Export excel export option and Bad Emails Reports, Bad Faxes Reports, Companies with Incomplete Profiles Reports and Companies with Address Problems Reports and when filled in, or edited, and imported back into the system, the corresponding company contact record will be updated with the information from these columns. This feature is also available for exports and editing Companies via the Show/Search/Export screen. 

COMPANIES: A "Select All" option has been added on the State screen selection under Areas Of Work for national companies.

COMPANIES: When searching company profiles, users can now filter by Rating criteria.

COMPANIES: An option for 'Show Only Deleted Companies' has been added to the Show/Search/Export functionality.

SUBS: When subs are filling out the Zip Code field under Areas of Work, the default text now reads 'Enter Zip Code' instead of a default number.

SUB ACCESS: SmartBidNet will now transmit an access key with each communication for sub contractors to use to login if they don't know their username and password. Starting in Mid February, SBN will no longer transmit a sub contractors username and password - just the access key. This will allow subs to assign a username and password that nobody ever sees. 

PREQUAL: The request for information (RFI) functionality is now available in a single review step, within the Initial Review, to allow for a quicker review process.

PREQUAL: A Contact Fax field has been added for subcontractors submitting contact information.

PREQUAL: On all pages of the Initial Review screen, the name of the company being reviewed is now visible in the header for easy identification.

Version 1.5 of the SmartBidNet iOS App Released

What's New in Version 1.5

A new preference feature allows you to indicate how many records to download at a time. Larger values will reduce time needed to update or create database.

Progress meter to indicate progress as we build a new database or update an existing database.

iOS 5 compatibility.

Click here for more details and to download the free SmartBidNet app!