CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
30 January 2007
Implementation Investments
Carollo Engineers Wins 2006 BE Award
Carollo Engineers, P.C., an Engineering News-Record Top 100 Design Firm specializing in the planning, design, and construction of water and wastewater facilities, has won a 2006 BE Award in the Plant category. The award recognizes the first-time user of Bentley software that most effectively adapts to the new, more efficient workflows enabled by the technology.
In 2005, after four years of product testing and evaluation, Carollo Engineers converted its 2D Autodesk-based production systems to Bentley's 3D DigitalPlant solutions. With its users fully experienced in Bentley's 2D design tools based on MicroStation, Carollo Engineers expects a significant reduction in hours required to produce drawings, as compared to producing the same drawings using AutoCAD.
Using Bentley's 3D design tools, the savings in engineering hours to produce drawings from the models will be even greater, helping Carollo Engineers offset rising labor costs. In addition, the use of 3D models enables Carollo Engineers to better communicate designs to its clients using Bentley's visualization tools.
To make the transition to its new technology as easy as possible and realize maximum gains from its use, Carollo Engineers developed a comprehensive training strategy. To keep costs down and facilitate training across the firm's technical staff, Carollo Engineers joined the Bentley Enterprise Training Subscription (ETS) program. Bentley's ETS provides organizations with unlimited access to professional training on Bentley software for a fixed annual fee.
Once Carollo Engineers' phased staff training was underway, the benefits of the 3D software were quickly attained. Said Shaun Severin, CAD manager for Carollo Engineers, "Since moving projects to 3D MicroStation-based products, we have realized increased productivity and overall higher quality of our construction documents."
The use of 3D models allows the firm to visualize its projects as it completes its design work. Because conflicts can be seen immediately, they can be resolved before construction, saving time and money. At the same time, the conversion to 3D models is helping the firm streamline all of its drawing production processes.
Said Severin, "We made the decision to go with Bentley software based on the critical need for our plant design products to work together in unison. Because we are a multidisciplined firm, it is vital that all elements of any given structure communicate with all of the other elements. Bentley's DigitalPlant products have delivered this for us, providing the ability to share information among disciplines, but still allowing the disciplines to operate independently of each other."
Because of the firm's workflow, many of its projects are shared across the enterprise. In some cases, this means a project may be worked on in as many as five or six offices. To streamline this workflow, Carollo Engineers selected ProjectWise as its enterprise document management system. ProjectWise makes it easier and faster for the firm's engineers to find, manage, and share information.
Because Carollo Engineers uses a shared database with PlantSpace Piping and PlantSpace P&ID, project elements can be managed more effectively. For example, equipment numbers can be shared, as can pipe specifications. This allows the firm to better manage changes as they occur.
For more information about Carollo Engineers' winning project and all of the other 2006 BE Award projects, visit http://www.be.org/awards . For more information on the Bentley products used in this project, visit http://www.bentley.com/plant .
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