Autodesk Acquires Micro Application Packages Limited

Last week, 3D design software company, Autodesk acquired the company Micro Application Packages Limited, developer of a technology to assist in the transferring of building informational modelling (BIM) to for fabrication drawings. Micro Application Packages focus on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing industries the most prolific industries within construction as components of these systems essential have to service every square foot of a building. A large head ache when modelling these systems before their built is tracking “collisions” -when one system’s pipes run into another’s or a building structure. Collisions occur due to a chicken and egg situation where the layout is dependant on the final loads, and the final loading can affect the layout, modifications to the original layout typically occur without any lateral communication, allowing for the possibility of a collision to occur with a structure or separate system.

By incorporating Micro Application Packages with Autodesk’s BIM technology, accurate 3D modelling of these systems can be created, reducing the amount of on-site collisions, and subsequent change orders, resulting from the installation of these systems over one another.

Micro Application Packages allows for a dynamic tracking of the design, as well as offering fabrication and estimation optimization processes such as calculating take-off’s directing from inputted drawings, and being able to cross reference the required specifications to suppliers in a customer’s database for determining pricing on required stock materials and consumable materials, as determined by inputted production rates.

Fabrication optimization processes include the ability to predict wastage by nesting required design lengths into stock sized lengths of material, generating the optimized order for production and reducing the amount of throw away material at the end of a project. By incorporating the estimation process, fabrication drawings can accurately reflect the production methods used in setting a price, reducing production and reducing on-site unknowns.  Detailed pre-fabrication information can also be obtained as it relates to the whole project, allowing for improved workflow by capturing a higher degree of project wide data which can be used in forecasting and predicting requirements and schedules.