Structural Engineering Firm Uses Autodesk BIM Solutions to Enable Interdisciplinary Design Collaboration and Digital Design-to-Fabrication Processes

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 6, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced that Rutherford & Chekene (R&C), a San Francisco-based structural and geotechnical engineering firm, has been awarded a Revit BIM Experience Award for its innovative use of building information modeling (BIM) to promote integration and collaboration across the extended building team. For more than two years, R&C has used Revit Structure software for design and collaborate on large technical institutional projects. Through its use of BIM, R&C is more efficiently and effectively coordinating designs and improving visualization, analysis and documentation. This close collaboration helps the team identify issues early in the design phase.

The Revit BIM Experience Award is presented to commercial firms, educational institutions or individuals to honor their use of the Revit platform to create complex designs, collaborate across multiple disciplines and drive increased productivity and sustainability in the building design process.

"The use of the Revit platform for BIM has become a strong differentiator for Rutherford & Chekene in the marketplace," said David Bleiman, S.E., principal at Rutherford & Chekene. "By using Revit Structure, we are now recognized as the 'go to' structural engineering firm for BIM in Northern California with current BIM projects totaling over $3 billion dollars."

While collaborating with EHDD Architects to design a new $65 million biomedical life sciences building for the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), R&C was able leverage interoperable Revit Structure and Revit Architecture models to coordinate all design elements early in the design process. Sharing their Revit-based models for design coordination and clash detection resulted in an optimized, efficient design process that worked to control building costs, schedules, and ultimately, outcomes. During the conceptual design of the project, R&C used Revit Structure to create four design options and used the link between Revit and ETABS, a structural analysis module, to analyze them. Once the analysis was completed, the Revit model was updated accordingly and allowed R&C and UCSC to make informed decisions at a very early stage in the project, reducing material waste and improving design quality and building performance.

R&C also utilized the Revit platform to work closely with architectural firm Sasaki Associates on the design of a student activity center for California State University, Chico. The ability to reference both the Revit Architecture and Revit Structure models allowed all project stakeholders to easily visualize the complicated building. During a review of the facility's gymnasium, R&C used the 3D visualization features within Revit and the dynamic walkthrough feature of Autodesk NavisWorks to easily communicate the particular design approach, saving weeks of review time. The design team was also able to provide the Revit and NavisWorks models to the University's construction management department to incorporate into their BIM curriculum for students.

"Rutherford & Chekene shares Autodesk's vision for BIM as the process to enable integrated project delivery," said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. "We look forward to further innovation from this industry-leading firm and their continued use of BIM to collaborate across their extended building team."

About the Revit BIM Experience Award

The Revit BIM Experience Award celebrates building industry professionals and educators around the world who are helping to drive transformation of the building industry through building information modeling. Autodesk honors firms with this award for innovation and excellence in implementing the Autodesk Revit platform for building information modeling including Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP on one or more projects.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, NavisWorks and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

(C) 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact: Noah Cole, 503-707-3872
Email: noah.cole@autodesk.com

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Email: elizabeth.bennett@edelman.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.

http://www.autodesk.com