You have just won your next project and can't wait to create a model for your design. You have been in that position, right? Then, you know it: the whole process can be a cumbersome, time-consuming and prone to errors experience.
Back in 2009, Lambros Kaliakatsos, a CAD manager himself, got a bitter taste of the difficulties designing without having the complete real-world view of his sites, anytime he needed it.
The true cost of rework on civil engineering projects comes with excessive costs because of the redesign needed in most times, even close to the final construction stage, and with undesired delays in the completion of the project.
Numerous studies estimate the average cost of rework on civil engineering projects to be higher than 5%, occasionally exceeding 15% and some report about project reworking surpassing 30%.
Having experienced the high cost of rework himself, Lambros decided to do something about it. As he writes in his article published by the TwinGEO magazine:
“The problem was to help designers understand their project’s environment and ground conditions, taking the guesswork out of the design decision-making. Note the word “help” rather than “let” and the difference is substantial.
That’s when I started developing some “simple” tools to connect AutoCAD with Google Earth and in early 2009 published them under the name Plex.Earth.”
Ten years after its initial release, Plex.Earth is now on its 4th generation, continuing to help thousands of engineers worldwide to avoid rework by giving them the complete 3D geographical view of their projects within minutes, through Google Earth and other satellite data providers.
Plex.Earth already works with AutoCAD, any of the widely used verticals,
BricsCAD v.19 and with other tools you use, like AutoTURN Pro and Virtuosolar to improve your workflow efficiency. That’s the reason why we have already partnered with companies like Transoft Solutions and Virtuosolar and most recently with Bird.i to bring you the most up-to-date satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe and Airbus.
You can read more in Lambros article which is available both in English and Spanish.
Special thanks to Ms Laura Garcia who was responsible for the translation and the popular blog Geofumadas who included the article in the TwinGEO magazine.