New Features Announcement, June 2020

Introducing New DatuBIM Features Increasing Efficiency and Impact of As-built Digital Twins in Construction

Datumate strives for excellence in serving the infrastructure construction industry, and we are pleased to introduce several new features of DatuBIM, including:

1. Account, Site and User Management
   
2. Auto-identification of Coordinate System
   
3. Automatic Generation of Digital Surface Models (DSM)
   
4. Contour Editor and Downloads
   
5. Model Accuracy Report

As a cloud-based platform, these new features are immediately available to our customers without the need for updates.

Account, Site & User Management

With DatuBIM, an enterprise-ready, collaborative platform, you can manage all your companies’ construction projects in one account and give access to the many projects’ stakeholders. Collaboration, transparency, and knowledge sharing help you to manage your projects better and deliver them faster.

With our improved user roles and permission management, you can easily define the access privileges of your account users. Users granted with Account Admin privileges have access to all construction sites in your company account, can create new construction sites, and modify users. Other users can be granted access limited to the specific sites they are involved in.

This account management feature gives you the flexibility needed while protecting your data and enforcing your company’s information security policies.  

Auto-identification of Coordinate System

With various coordinate systems in use by different countries, regions, or organizations, confusion can be high, and mistakes can occur. Picking the right system is crucial, especially when a model is generated from drone images, as it is done with DatuBIM, and the model needs to be geo-referenced. Choosing the wrong coordinate system or map projection can “move” your construction site to a wrong physical location. 

To help you choose the most suitable coordinate system, we introduced auto-identification. DatuBIM automatically calculates the geo-location of the images based on X, Y, and Z data, and recommends you the most relevant coordinate system in this region. You can accept this recommendation or select a different coordinate system you are sure to use for your job.

Automatic Generation for Digital Surface Models (DSM)

So far, you were used to leveraging three models  generated automatically by DatuBIM – Digital Terrain Model (DTM), 3D Texture, and 3D Point Cloud. The generated DTM automatically filters out vegetation, constructed objects, and machines so that you can run calculations and analytics, such as volume calculations or cross-section reports, with the highest accuracy. The elimination of such objects is also needed for earthwork calculations.

Now DatuBIM also generates a Digital Surface Model (DSM, 2.5D), which shows your construction site together with subtle elements such as vegetation, constructed objects, and machinery. DSM allows for another set of essential calculations: Conveniently perform measurements and analytics on objects, such as pipes placed in trenches, surfaces of roofs, concrete bases and walls, and many more.

Correspondingly, DatuBIM now allows direct measurements on 3D Point Cloud and 3D Texture models where the Digital Surface Model is the base terrain for these measurements and calculations.

Calculation on a Digital Terrain Model

Calculation on a Digital Surface Model

Contour Editor and Downloads

Contour lines are a crucial tool to understand the terrain of your construction site better. In manual surveying, creating this view of the land’s shape was not only time-consuming but also prone to mistakes. Advanced photogrammetry, as used by DatuBIM, allows for instant and accurate generation of contour lines.

We improved the Contour Editor in DatuBIM so that you can set the intervals of both major and minor contour lines according to your professional needs. You may overlay contour on the Digital Terrain Model and the Digital Surface Model.

Also, you can now export and download the contours for each of the models on your timeline. Download the contours in DXF or SHP formats for further use in other construction software.

Model Accuracy Reports

Accurate measurements and analytics are crucial to the construction industry, to advanced project management, and to ensuring our DatuBIM users reach their business goals. In the case of as-built digital twins, data accuracy starts with geo-referencing the model with the help of ground control points (GCPs) provided by land surveyors. With DatuBIM’s unique auto-georeferencing technology, you only have to geo-reference the first model, saving time and money.

But did you get it right the first time? So you can make your business and engineering decision with confidence, DatuBIM makes the model accuracy entirely transparent for you in the newly added Accuracy Report.
This report gives you a comprehensive and professional overview of the quality of the generated model.
The report lists the measured values of the GCPs, and is followed by a detailed table, with:

1. Name/No. of the GCP
   
2. Estimated values for the coordinates of the GCP as calculated by DatuBIM
   
3. The differences between measured and estimated GCPs
   
4. 1-sigma (68.2%) confidence interval, expressing the statistical accuracy of the model
   

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