Laptop Solution To Engineer's Dilemma

The Age

Tuesday November 25, 1997

GARRY BARKER

PUBLIC protest is one of the biggest problems faced by civil engineers assigned to build dams and highways, the infrastructure that our society needs but seldom wants in its own backyard. Now technology is coming to the rescue. Today the canny highway or dam builder takes his notebook computer out into the field and, using civil and surveying software developed by 4D Solutions of Sydney, shows any potential "victim" how much, or little, a project is going to hurt.

The package, called 4D Model, was developed in Australia, where it is used extensively by engineering companies and roads and water authorities in most states, and is now being marketed internationally.

"An engineer can take the package out into the field on his laptop and show everyone what the effect of the work is going to be," said Dr Lee Gregory, managing director of 4D Solutions. "The RTA in NSW use it to show residents what effect a new road development will have. It shortcuts any public problems. Public outrage is a big problem for engineers, these days."

Gregory said the program showed accurately dimensions and volumes of any civil construction project; the volume of water likely to be backed up by a dam, the amount of fill in a cutting, the shape of a highway.

It ran on any modern PC using Windows 95 or NT.

4D Model is extensively used by the leading Melbourne civil engineering and surveying firm, Fisher Stewart. Len Bettess, a senior design engineer, says the application has allowed the firm to expand their already large business.

"We wanted to be able to tender more competitively for projects ranging from complex major highways to municipal roads, sewers and subdivision," Bettess said. "Our aim was to get a state-of-the-art system that would handle highway design, but also have the flexibility for land development such as subdivision design and planning.

"We also needed to exchange data with a wide range of other systems. For example, the road work involved us exchanging data with VicRoads, which uses an Intergraph system, and with the main road authorities of other states, which run a variety of packages," he said.

Beyond that Fisher Stewart wanted a system that could exchange data with the likes of AutoCAD and Microstation, as well as design packages such as Geocomp, CivilCAD and Moss. "It had to be used for water industry work, including storage facilities and sewers, so it had to satisfy the requirements of Melbourne Water. In short, we wanted the lot," Bettess said.

4D Model, the Australian product, was chosen by Fisher Stewart, a company that operates all over the country and internationally, because it was flexible and could be tailored to individual requirements.