

 

 

It's hard to shock engineers, but that was the impact when Samuel Cech told the 12d Model International User Conference of life during and after the massive Christchurch earthquakes. The days of fatal destruction — and the strength of a community when necessities like shelter, fresh water and sanitation can no longer be taken for granted.

 

The audience was stunned as his presentation, including audio of the first big quake, gave a moving insight into the experience and damage, the recovery effort and the daunting challenges in trying to rebuild the devastated city.

 

However nobody was surprised when — after hearing how he and the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Recovery Team had used 12d Model to solve some of the rebuild's knotty problems — Mr Cech and the SCIRT Project Team of Adam Churchill, Charlie Dickson, Nigel Weston and Rosman Abdullah were announced as joint Gold Winners of the 12d International Innovation Awards.

 

Mr Cech (on secondment from Eliot Sinclair and Partners) and the SCIRT project team developed clever strategies to overcome the hurdles of redesigning an entire infrastructure in crisis conditions.

 

Their outstanding innovations ranged from streamlining the creation of parabolic camber on roads, to macros for design and longsection plotting of sewer submains.

 

The Silver Award was won by Paul Mashford of Sinclair Knight Merz for a suite of tools the judges agreed "streamline workflow, and allow designers to do what they do best: design."

 

Mr Mashford's Project Explorer macro builds on 12d's model and tin sharing capability, allowing designers to quickly find and share information into their project.

 

It also provides a convenient tool for swiftly finding and copying data such as ppf files, chains and mtf files from previous projects into your current project.

 

LiMO macro provides a bridge for designers with skills in MX to easily bring techniques from MX into 12d Model.

 

The high standard of the more than 80 entries for the 12d International Innovation Awards resulted in a tie for Bronze Winner between Dwayne Honor (Bundaberg RegionalCouncil) and Brent Gordon (Dalton Consulting Engineers).

 

Mr Honor's entry was a groundbreaking streamline of workflow with integration of 12D, 12D Field and GIS, boosting productivity and reforming historical practice.

 

"After Council amalgamation, the challenge to deliver infrastructure in a timely and cost effective manner required a rethink on traditional methods," the judges noted.

 

"While funds were limited, geographic area and community expectations had increased"

 

"Mr Honor implemented systems that use 12d Field, robotic total stations, and FDOs to access the GIS data and photo stores via NextG broadband. With 12d Field running on a tablet computer 'on-the-pole', the entire GIS database at the fingertips of the surveyor, and as-built or asset pickup is updated 'live' to the GIS."

 

Mr Gordon's entry was a result of DCE's principal consultancy for the design of Pakenham Racecourse, with civil works comprised over 700,000 cubic meters of bulk earthworks, over 4,000m of race and training track, 36 megalitres of dam storage, over 14km of stormwater drainage, and access roads and parking for over 2,500 cars.

 

Time constraints meant that up to five designers were working on the project at any one time, with 12 separate 12d Model projects used for different parts of the design.

 

"Mr Gordon's entry included intelligent use of tools for seamless cross-project collaboration across projects," the judges noted.

 

12d Model's model-sharing capabilities allowed designers to collaborate on different parts of the project in real time. Stormwater drainage for the entire site was modelled using 12d Model's 'Dynamic Drainage' module, with HEC RAS and Tuflow used for overland flow and flood modelling.

 

The 12d International Innovation Awards were launched to recognise inspired thinking and innovative solutions in civil engineering and surveying.

 

The Gold Award included $5,000 and a $3,000 training package for their employers, the Silver Award was $2,000 and a $2,000 training package for their employer, with the Bronze Award $1,000 and a $1,000 training package.