By Beck Technology DESTINI Estimator • Software Release 0 Comments

DESTINI Estimator is Newest Estimating Software in 12 Years

Beck Technology, Ltd. announces the release of DESTINI Estimator, the first software product created separately from its flagship Macro level Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, DESTINI Profiler. DESTINI Estimator is considered to be the next generation in estimating software and can be used in conjunction with DESTINI Profiler or as a standalone project tool.

DESTINI Estimator stems from ideas generated by Sundt Construction in collaboration with Beck Technology’s Research & Development department.  “Because of the familiarity we had with our previous applications we were able to pick and choose what we wanted,” said Donald Goodrich, Vice President and Director of Preconstruction of Sundt Construction.  “We wanted the ease of use of Excel as well as the same reports that we generate from DESTINI Profiler.  From a management perspective, I am looking for the database application.  DESTINI Estimator reduces inadvertent mistakes.”

A high level list of features of DESTINI Estimator 2015 1.0 are:

  • Innovative custom reporting with no limits that can be created by an estimator
  • Ability to compare an unlimited number of estimates
  • Able to merge multiple estimates into one
  • Intuitive, flexible, and interactive custom reports
  • Innovative customizable estimate comparison
  • Live interactive dashboards
  • Simple and easy to use
  • Seamless transition from DESTINI Profiler that includes model intelligence
  • Unlimited number of classifications can be assigned to cost items
  • Unlimited amount of data such as planning, location, and images can be associated with cost items
  • Unlimited WBS, sorting, filtering
  • Customizable fees and indirects
  • Quick and flexible cost escalation & de-escalation
  • Fast import of cost data
  • Innovative estimate specific assemblies

“This is the first estimating platform of this magnitude the A/E/C industry has seen in 12 years,” said Michael Boren, Director of Research & Development at Beck Technology.  “Many of the estimating softwares on the market are burdensome and weighted down with functionality that the industry either does not use or does not need.  DESTINI Estimator was created to be agile for our evolving industry.”

Beck Technology is offering DESTINI Estimator on a monthly subscription basis that includes maintenance and support.

By Beck Technology Case Study • DESTINI Profiler 0 Comments

Quick Building Enclosures

Founded in 1897, the James McHugh Construction Company is proud of its core values to steadfast commitment, honesty, and integrity in the way they conduct business. McHugh Construction aligns with partners whose ethical practices, conduct, and compliance with the law are of the highest level. With McHugh Construction, positive experience, innovation, and dedication to client success is of the greatest value.

McHugh Construction wanted to test out DESTINI Profiler before overhauling their preconstruction process. One of the firm’s Estimators, Patrick Brown, put the software to the test with an aggressive tower project. Using several floor plans imported into DESTINI Profiler, the building was traced-out. It was then raised up on a floor by floor basis that required a large amount of importing. Features were added to create balconies which were copied and pasted. The exterior of the building was then clad to get an overall square footage of quantities and assemblies. Rooms were also created for the interior breakdown.

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By Beck Technology Published Articles 0 Comments

Three Pillars of Conceptual BIM

This post was published in the January edition of DCD Magazine.

“Before we show the owner a rendering we want to make sure the ownercan afford that rendering,” said Jeff Ratcliff, Senior Project Manager at BeckGroup, said of their Methodist Mansfield Medical Center project.  Being able to show a client a rendering oftheir building with the knowledge that the image portrayed fits within theirbudget is powerful.  It opens up re-work discussions during conceptual and schematic phases so the client stays educated as to what their final project will entail with less likelihood of incurring change orders or value engineering discussions later.  The Beck Group healthcare department utilizes conceptual modeling and estimating during project planning.

This type of project planning allows a project team to share data on all decisions as they relate to budget, schedule, and design intent.  John Reich, Preconstruction Manager in healthcare at Beck Group, says, “All the designers see the estimate and question line items.  Preconstruction will also question why things are drawn a certain way, too.  It is a free exchange of information.”  Having this open dialogue also insures that all the decisions are made for the good of the overall project.  It also blurs the harsh lines of job roles and creates a unique, solidified project team. “The entire team is extremely solid,” said Denton Wilson, Vice President of Design and Construction for Methodist Hospitals. “It’s the culture and environment that allows them to grow, serve the team, and raise the bar.” Read more

By Beck Technology Company Culture 0 Comments

Do You Want a Bear Claw with That?

At Beck Technology, we are pretty open about our development process in R&D.  If our clients are interested in how we do things, we’ll walk them through our process.  Our R&D team even speaks with R&D teams at other companies to determine the best way of handling situation “Foo” or accounting for scenario “Bar”.

One of the lesser known process points outside of R&D is how we code name our releases.  We started code naming our versions of DProfiler in 2009.  Our first code name was more of a joke and called Frito.  All joking aside, what comes after Frito?  My favorite dish: Beef Stroganoff.  Now how do you follow a code name as great as Beef Stroganoff? Luckily someone at Beck Technology told a story about a tomato stand he had as a child but had misspelled tomatoes on his sign.  Thus, the next code name was born: Tomtoes.  What comes after Tomtoes?  Mac-N-Cheese, of course.

After Mac-N-Cheese, we realized we needed to start taking this code name business seriously because picking random food names was not making any sense.  So now we have a formal process.  We started our naming over at the letter A, and each version moves on to the next letter in the alphabet; this finally gave order to the random chaos we had before.  Next we had to fix the issue of people just picking food names.  You can’t just go around picking random food names.  We settled on pastries.  Our 2014 DProfiler version came from Apple Fritter and the versions in development now all fall under Bear Claw.

What will come next?  We should probably start thinking about that one.

By Beck Technology Events 0 Comments

Linetek Systems Celebrates 25 Years

Beck Technology has been partnered with Linetek Systems since 2011.  Linetek Systems is a Korean software and services company servicing the AEC industry for the past 25 years. Members of Linetek have been trained on DESTINI Profiler and have been conducting DESTINI Profiler-related services to a number of large Korean construction companies over the last year. In January 2014, five employees from Linetek traveled to Dallas and spent a month observing the use of DESTINI Profiler and other BIM technologies on both traditional and integrated Beck projects.  Additionally, members of the Linetek team worked with Beck Technology to refine the Korean language (Hangul) version of DESTINI Profiler and the Korean cost database developed by Linetek.

The week of May 11, Peter Beck, Kelly Cone, and Stewart Carroll traveled to South Korea to attend the 25th anniversary of Linetek Systems.  The 25th anniversary was celebrated by the first of its kind industry day in Seoul where 250 of the leading public and private construction-related companies attended presentations by Beck and Linetek introducing BIM-related technologies and workflows to the audience.

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By Beck Technology Events 0 Comments

BIM Forum 2014 Boston Recap

This year’s BIM Forum shifted the focus from facility management back to design by showcasing examples of collaboration, optimization, and sustainability within the industry.  Patrick MacLeamy, CEO of HOK, opened as the keynote speaker.  He challenged attendees to consider if we are fully using BIM to get the most optimized design and what metrics are being used for that optimization.  In presentations throughout the day, macro and micro optimization approaches were utilized, with examples of optimized cities, MEP analysis for building performance, and digital fabrication from models.

Frank Fralick, Procurement Manager at the Beck Group, presented design to fabrication workflows and visual programming.  He remarked on lessons learned from moving design data from a BIM environment to a digital prototyping environment.  Specifically, he shared project experience from First Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas. Read more

By Beck Technology Events 0 Comments

2014 Beck Technology Roundtable Recap

The 2014 Beck Technology Roundtable was March 26th in The Beck Group’s Imaginarium in Dallas.  The event included a project tour of First Baptist Church that was led by Beck Group Architecture, a think tank discussion on construction technology and an array of presentations from Beck Technology partners.

Beck Technology has held this annual event six times but this is the first time it was hosted in Dallas.  Having it in our backyard allowed attendees to do a project tour of a Beck Group project.  John Paul DeFrank (Principal of The Beck Group) and the First Baptist Church team of Jon Mindrup, Louis Sierra, and Jayson Kabala led attendees through the process of how technology was utilized on the landmark project. Read more

By Beck Technology Events 0 Comments

2014 P3 Conference Recap

The 2014 Public Private Partnership (P3) Conference was February 24-25 in downtown Dallas.  Attendees included decision-makers and project leaders from government offices, architectural firms, construction companies, and specialized P3 consultants.  Sessions covered topics on market specific projects (i.e. hospitality and transit), financing P3 projects, the framework of P3 projects, and real projects that are on the horizon.

“Collaboration” is the best way to describe the environment of the P3 Conference.  P3 project teams were on panels, municipalities looking for P3 partners were in networking sessions and everyone was sharing ideas as well as lessons learned.  With the demand for public space increasing but the financial options decreasing the P3 cooperative is a good option for long term project relationships. Read more