PRODUCT BLOG

Digital Construction Week (DCW) 2023, hosted at London's ExCel Centre, once again served as a key meeting point for construction professionals and technology enthusiasts.

Founded in 1991, ANDRES Construction Services is a 100% employee-owned Texas-based company specializing in constructing multifamily, retirement centers, hospitality, and student living spaces. The company operates in major Texas markets including Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston.

From its roots in 1884 as a standalone nationwide UK dredging company, Tilbury Douglas has grown into a major player in the construction sector, with a vast footprint in projects involving health, education, highways, justice, defense, water, government, manufacturing, and industrial builds.

The advent of modern technology has revolutionized the construction industry, notably in the areas of as-built reality capture and construction site logistics.

Naylor Love is a leading commercial construction company in New Zealand, serving a broad clientele of property developers, multinational corporations, and the New Zealand government.

Verdex Construction is a full-service, general contractor and construction manager specializing in preconstruction and construction in Florida.

Established in 1980, Chandos Construction is one of North America’s most collaborative and innovative technical builders.

Urban One Builders is a full-service construction company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and has built a reputation for its large-scale, mixed use and institutional projects.

Industry experts from across the cmBuilder ecosystem recently gathered to discuss the current and future role of drones in construction in a roundtable panel discussion hosted by cmBuilder’s co-founder, Javier Glatt.

Innovative construction management firm, Arc Building Partners, is focused on fast-tracking even the most complex projects, and they’re doing it with platforms like cmBuilder.io.

GenCap Construction Corp is a general contractor and management firm, based in the greater Seattle area and specializing in the construction of large-scale multi-family residential developments, mixed-use retail developments, and tenant improvements.

Within a challenging global economic landscape, 2022 was a landmark year for technological advancements across all industries, and the construction technology sector was no exception.

Skender is a full-service contractor based out of Chicago, Illinois.

Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, Arc Building Partners is an innovator in the construction industry.

Forty4 Projects is a Brisbane-based company that specializes in construction project management within Australia.

A recent research study shared that over three quarters of owners, architects, and contractors agree that more integration between the design and build parties during the design phase significantly reduces the level of uncertainty in projects.

As we all know, preconstruction meetings are one of the most critical parts of a construction project’s life cycle. While you may have established a strong working relationship with a long-term client after collaborating across many projects, in today’s eminently competitive construction market, competing firms are constantly presenting their services to your client.

SiteHub, a Denmark-based company that delivers sustainable construction site logistics solutions to their clients, firmly believes that “data is the foundation for better processes.”

cmBuilder releases a game-changing feature, Multiplayer Mode, bringing unparalleled real-time collaboration to your construction site logistics planning and simulation workflow.

On September 15th, 2022, over some coffee, tea and pancakes the entire CadMakers team celebrated the 2-year anniversary of the cmBuilder.io public launch! The focus of the event was around the engaging roundtable discussion on all things construction technology from a panel of industry trailblazers from all over the world.

At cmBuilder we are always looking for new ways of empowering our users to convey meaningful storytelling to their clients and continuing that tradition we are excited to introduce our visual programming initiative.

Saunders Construction Inc. is a Colorado-based construction industry innovator focused on general contracting, construction management and real estate development services. Key to their growth over the past 50 years has been their ability to adapt and integrate with evolving technology.

Urban One Builders, based in Vancouver, Canada, have put an emphasis on adopting digital technologies and smart ways of planning projects since their conception in 2011.

Spanning over 40 years in the construction business, CJ Duncan is an Australian based, specialist building contractor experienced in remedial & insurance, façade solutions, fit outs and refurbishments. With a diverse client base ranging from Australia's largest property owners, managers and insurers, to commercial and residential strata, CJ Duncan has built a long-lasting reputation based on quality of work and trust.

This complex mixed-use project contains a 38-story residential tower and a low-rise office building that is being redeveloped from an existing heritage building on the site. Hovercraft used this 4D simulation with cmBuilder to validate all site logistics decisions with regards to temporary resources, excavation sequencing, concrete pours, all the way through to visualizing the interior finishes against the schedule.

Grupo Macro is a Guatemalan construction company, that specializes in the construction of high-rise buildings and horizontal housing, building complexes, infrastructures and industrial constructions that operates mainly in Guatemala and Panama. About 6 years ago they started their digital transformation by simply diving deep into BIM, the collaborative work methodology for the creation and management of construction projects; which would give a 180° turn to the workflow of the organization. When looking for software to model pre-construction stages that was easier to adopt than what they had, they found cmBuilder.io.

Grupo Macro es una constructora guatemalteca, especializada en la construcción de vivienda vertical y horizontal, urbanizaciones, infraestructuras y construcciones industriales que opera principalmente en Guatemala y Panamá. Hace unos 6 años comenzaron su transformación digital simplemente sumergiéndose profundamente en BIM, la metodología de trabajo colaborativa para la creación y gestión de proyectos de construcción; lo que daría un giro de 180° al flujo de trabajo de la organización. Al momento de buscar un software para modelar etapas de pre-construcción que fuera más fácil de adoptar que lo que tenían a su disposición, encontraron cmBuilder.io

Let’s talk site logistics! From the initial site setup to bulk and detailed excavation sequencing, to the positioning of temporary resources and workers on the construction site, accurate logistics planning is critical in ensuring the an efficient and productive project. Without proper planning in preconstruction, the cost of manpower, materials and equipment delays affect overall project timelines. As Brent Olund, Vice-President of Sustainable Construction says, “for every extra hour spent in pre-planning it saves more than 4 hours on site during construction.” In this blog, we will discuss site logistics and the keys to effectively planning this process.

Let’s talk about tower cranes! These tall and slender figures are a staple of construction sites and take on the bulk of the heavy lifting on site. Tower cranes are among the largest pieces of equipment used in construction projects. Construction crews use tower cranes to lift heavy materials such as concrete and steel. In this blog, we will discuss all things tower cranes and some basic considerations when working with this equipment.

General contractors and project stakeholders strive to leverage digital technologies to accelerate project timelines, identify construction phase risks and make better decisions that save costs downstream. The site logistics component to the project planning phase is a critical component to all this and is why companies are turning to 3D/4D site simulation platforms like cmBuilder to plan and simulate site logistics, run multiple “scenarios” and generate project timeline simulations, allowing them to make better, data-driven decisions that account for project risks, cost constraints and overall site-specific logistics planning.

Delivering a well thought out, detailed construction plan is crucial to a successful pursuit phase. cmBuilder enables you to deliver this plan in a highly differentiated and easy to understand 4D simulation format. This detailed plan includes a flipbook presentation made up of milestones and markups that capture every stage of the pre-construction plan.

Over the past year, cmBuilder has been used in a variety of projects that span several countries, time zones and continents. This year saw steady improvements to the platform with a special focus on site plan ease-of-use, site logistics accessibility, improved simulation presentations, and enhanced graphics.

As cmBuilder strives to get better every day, our betterment has taken on a visual approach with our latest feature update seeing a sublime improvement to Site Plan graphics and its tools. With cleaner edges come cleaner finishes, our rendering improvements see the addition of more definitions to contour rendering with an added focus to elements of environmental lighting and reflections that truly bring the Site Plan to life.

Users of cmBuilder can now leverage the full offerings of the interface's seamless 3D modeling and 4D sequencing on the Procore App Marketplace. The scope of this integration is simple; a web-based platform that allows General Contractors and Construction Managers to view 4D simulations of their construction site logistics without leaving the Procore interface.

Speaking on this evolution and the elimination of previous preconstruction woes, Jim Pritchett, Sr. Superintendent, JTM Construction, touched on the need for efficiency in data processing whilst navigating through these preconstruction plans electronically. The attention to detail on the Site Plan turns a basic napkin sketch into a 3D/4D model simulation that can be presented to clients and general stakeholders within framed milestones and multiple scenarios. The cmBuilder interface encompasses markups that detail phases of site logistics during the pursuit phase and proposals, hence, truly bringing preconstruction plans to life.

The latest cmBuilder.io panel event takes on a “Super” approach by welcoming the vast industry knowledge of three superintendents with experience levels that spans over 80 years combined. The “Super” Hour as it was fittingly dubbed, saw the virtual presence of Jim Pritchett: Sr. Superintendent, JTM Construction; Walter Payne: Sr. Superintendent, Syncra Construction; and Tyler Brown: General Superintendent, Smith Bros. and Wilson (BC) Ltd with the panel moderated by our Co-Founder & CEO Javier Glatt.

Our latest user webinar focuses on the practicality of the preconstruction burden on general contractors and construction managers. In this scope, contractors are left to navigate outdated and inefficient technology for site logistics whilst managing the risk associated with site logistics planning costs. Tools available to contractors in the market are often too complex and expensive to adequately fit the scale of the preconstruction phase.

We sat down with Helio Monteiro, Director of VDC at Venture General Contracting and spoke to him about digital construction strategies at Venture, testing and adopting new software for site utilization planning. While discussing cmBuilder, he explained how the platform brings about a different approach to their workflow and can also help tackle site logistics, safety and traffic control in the various phases of planning, with increased collaboration with the project teams.

With the entire web engine and layout of cmBuilder’s Site Plan designed and constantly developed in-house, the push for innovation is met with a resounding web-based software package that resolves previous preconstruction woes. This in-house research and development keep operational and running costs low, translating into low-cost packages for general contractors and project stakeholders. The absence of any third-party licensing also speaks to the timely development cycles that users can expect whilst navigating the interface.

As construction teams have evolved with the advancement in technology, so has the way in which they communicate their process and plans, while sharing them with project stakeholders. Markups have evolved from being handmade markings on physical drawings to 2D digital paper to now web-based 2D/3D/4D interactive views. Here's what the future of markups looks like.

ETRO Construction uses cmBuilder in proposals to easily show the challenges or issues via a 4D site logistics simulation. What would otherwise have taken them 3 or more days to create on other BIM/simulation software now takes them 3 hours to create on cmBuilder and also shows their prospective client the level of detail and thought they’ve given to the specific project.

Here is a glimpse of what Nikan Samimi, Director, Business Development and Strategy, CadMakers, will be speaking about at the 6th annual Advancing Preconstruction 2021 conference! Also, drop by at our booth to chat with Bradley Swartz, and learn more about accessible 4D site simulations on cmBuilder.io, from August 30 to September 1 in Dallas, TX!

CadMakers today announced that cmBuilder.io, the digital site planning and simulation platform built by CadMakers, has now been used to simulate over 700 projects from across the globe since being launched on September 15th, 2020. Preconstruction teams are increasingly transforming their processes in the pursuit phase or early project planning to reduce risk, optimize temporary resources and provide enhanced visualization in a short time period using the core simulation engine of cmBuilder. The ability to rapidly run various scenarios (1 crane vs 2 crane, different site access points, etc.) and share live links with project stakeholders via the cloud database, makes cmBuilder easy to implement, use and collaborate.

Catch Nikan Samimi, Director, Business Development and Strategy, CadMakers, speaking at the 6th annual Advancing Preconstruction 2021 conference later this month! Also, drop by at our booth to chat with Bradley Swartz, and learn more about accessible 4D site simulations on cmBuilder.io, from August 30 to September 1 in Dallas, TX!

Our CEO, Javier Glatt's thoughts on why we are building cmBuilder.io and looking into the future of the construction industry.

Before cmBuilder, it had been quite the challenge for construction planners to perform quick, real-time scenario analyses for the excavation phase, as much of the information provided by the design team pertaining to geotechnical was done in 2D only, which caused a mix of 2D and 3D design information to draw from. With this first release of the excavation feature set, cmBuilder makes it easy to rapidly model, simulate and quantify the bulk and detailed excavation phase with the ability to perform "cut" operations and link excavation phases to milestone dates.

Haycon Inc uses cmBuilder.io to reduce site logistics planning cycles to less than half a day and finds a scalable, low-effort, and high-value web-based solution to get a more accurate overall view of their construction planning with regards to moving around the site, placing large equipment, getting things delivered up into the building efficiently and safely.

Smith Bros. & Wilson (BC) Ltd. (SBW) uses the Digital Construction Twin solution offered by CadMakers as a proactive tool to help identify and mitigate project risks while allowing for effective project team communication. CadMakers’ tools allowed the proposal of solutions to complex geometries and construction sequencing, prior and even during construction. To date, the Digital Construction Twin solution has allowed SBW to perform a virtual construction study and get ahead of coordination complexities that would be found later on-site. The Digital Construction Twin solution also helped SBW run 4D sequencing simulations to optimize the scheduling on-site, integrate trade coordination and shop drawing reviews, and layout various building elements on-site directly from the model.