VirtualSTEP Is Real World 4D Solution

construction.com July 10, 2001

By Harry Goldstein

VirtualSTEP lets you query specific conflicts by work area to get a close-up view of, and more detailed information about, what's not working.

Yee Sue Chiou, CEO of VirtualSTEP, Hayward, Calif., co-founded VirtualSTEP based on his patent pending technology. For Chiou, as for other start-ups in the 4D arena, the falling price of computer technology created a prime business opportunity. When he was working at Shimizu Corp., Tokyo, he decided "that Jacobus [now Bentley's Schedule Simulator] was running only on Silicon Graphics machines [that were] too expensive to maintain," and started to develop an open, middleware-type solution.

Like WDI/Stanford's tool, VirtualSTEP is "agnostic," meaning it can work with data in virtually any file format (.dwg, .dxf., .dgn, etc.) from virtually any program. It runs on a Windows-based PC loaded with at least 64 MB of RAM and 50 MB of hard disk space.

VirtualSTEP offers a user-friendly control panel and ASP-type functionality.

While VirtualSTEP isn't looking to go toe-to-toe with the surviving AEC ASPs on the Web, it does provide much of the same functionality, allowing users to not only simulate changes in 4D, but to evaluate cost and schedule impacts, mark up documents, send RFIs and otherwise manage the construction process. The company's flagship product, Project Studio, is modular, allowing users to mix and match several components, including a conflict detection and resolution workflow tool, a project management module, and a project analyzer that lets users in the design phase compare what-if scenarios side-by-side.

Project Navigator is VirtualSTEP's browser-based tool for project end-users such as construction managers, contractors, owners and architects. Its interface will be familiar to anyone who has worked with project management ASPs such as Constructware, e-Builder and Buzzsaw.

Tony Miley, senior marketing director, says that the company is currently in negotiation with a dozen potential customers. Intel is beta-testing Project Studio for project management control in conjunction with its $2-billion, 300 mm wafer fab in Chandler, Ariz. Another beta customer, San Francisco-based developer SKS, is using VirtualSTEP to do 4D visualization on a one-square block office building project. VirtualSTEP's paying customers include Shimizu, Taiwan developer Century Development, which is using VirtualSTEP Project Studio in conjunction with construction of Phase II of the Nankang Software Park in Taipei, and T.B. Penick & Sons Inc., San Diego, Calif.

VirtualSTEP lets you manipulate the camera's point of view to see a project from almost any angle or perspective

Ken Marsh, information technology manager at Penick, has used VirtualSTEP in conjunction with the company's structural division to visualize Penick's first high-rise construction job, a Marriott hotel in La Jolla, Calif. Penick e-mailed VirtualSTEP the drawing plans of the structural portion of the project, along with a Primavera SureTrak schedule. VirtualSTEP converted the 2D drawings into a 3D model, then linked the building element objects to their places in the schedule.

While the model was limited to the basic structure, Marsh is enthusiastic about the results. "Just talking about it gives me a chill," he says. "Just to see it develop in front of your eyes and to know you're doing that, it's kind of cool." Marsh says that screen captures of the 4D model will probably go up on Penick's Web site, where they will be used as marketing material. "It's another tool we can use to sell us to the world in the future," he says. Marsh is also optimistic that Penick will use VirtualSTEP again, "The general contractors are from the old school: 'Let's build it and let's move.' They don't want a lot of fluff." But, he claims, Penick's structural engineers are much more open to using 4D.

Images courtesy of VirtualSTEP Inc.

© 2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies - All Rights Reserved