Imagine the following design team: A designer based in Mexico, a structural engineer based in Canada, a MEP consultant based in London, a contractor in Boston, and +20 specialty consultants dispersed in the United States. The challenges of such a team appear to defeat even the most diligent and organized project manager. The search for a silver bullet capable to overcome the ineficiencies of geographically dispersed teams remained, in my opinion, an idea still years ahead to come. Well, not anymore. I sat on a presentation of 'Horizontal Glue' yesterday and if I am asked to describe the tool in one word, i'd say: Amazing.
Horizontal Glue is new little known, powerful web-based technology that translate the traditional BIM workflow to the cloud. It merges up to 40 different types of model formats, including the well-known .rvt .dgn .dwg into a single composite model accessible to anybody around the planet via a browser. Users, including crew workers and subcontractors, can access the model and run multi-model interferences, exchange datasets, identify hard-clashes, associate the model to construction schedules & estimates, and build 4D animations. Project designers can mark-up coordination issues on the fly, using their browser and no more, and link them to a web based RFI form that is emailed as a hiperlink to consultants for resolution. Modifications to the composite model are allowed, both physical and parametrically, and changes can then be synchronized with your in-house model via a REVIT plug-in. The integrated model can be accessible in the construction site using an Ipad application, which in turn generate reports and action items distributed to the team thanks to the partnership with 'Prolog', the information management tool by Meridian Systems.
Check their website on http://www.horizontalsystems.com/index.php/products/glue-platform. We will be using the tool for a large project in our office and I can't wait to have a grip of the tool in my hands.
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