“Now it’s time to start moving the industry forward.” —IEEE
SBS is thrilled to participate in the upcoming IEEE PES T&D Conference & Exposition from May 6-9, 2024, in Anaheim, CA. This event is a cornerstone for professionals in the AEC and utilities sectors, focusing on the latest innovations to make tomorrow’s grid a reality.
Visit booth 5032 and preview our Intelligent Design Solutions for Distribution, Substation, and Telecommunication Design. SBS experts will be ready to discuss how our intelligent platforms can transform your design workflows with end-to-end automation, high configurability, and seamless integration.
Modernizing aging infrastructure starts with design:
Our Intelligent Design Platforms allow engineering and design teams to create and collaborate efficiently while maintaining a digital twin in the backend. These models contain critical physical details and topology information, enabling auto-validation of standards and automating many essential functions within the design workflow.
When: Monday, May 6 – Thursday, May 9, 2024.
Where: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California.
This May, the Esri Italia Conference returns to Rome, bringing together the brightest minds in geospatial technology.
Our own Leo Benitez, Vice President – International Business Development at SBS will be in attendance to share how our Intelligent Design Solutions can help you transform your design workflows with geo-enabled CAD platforms.
Automated Utility Design™(AUD) and Physical for AutoCAD® (P4A) 8.5 are officially out! This latest round of updates delivers new and improved features to boost your design team’s productivity.
Here are the top features we’re excited about:
New: Design Extraction and Updating
Extract and synchronize design data between files, enabling smoother updates and collaboration across design stages and between different users. This feature supports smaller, more efficient 2D sheet drawing files, brownfield designs, and staged workflows and enhances collaboration with multiple designers or external contractors.
Enhanced: Design Assembly Updating
Changes to assembly design files can be dynamically applied across multiple project files, enabling continuous development and integration even after initial placement. Enable one or more designers to work on assemblies within larger designs before the assembly itself is finalized or needs to be updated.
New: Better Detailed Cable Modeling
Model physical cable connections separately from their logical, electrical connectivity for greater control over cable endpoints and nested fittings, enhancing the precision of cable layouts.
Enhanced: Easier Structural Attachment Editing
New tools simplify the process of changing equipment attachments, supporting immediate attachment with enhanced preview graphics and tooltips during copy-paste operations. Copy and paste previews now have automatic limits to avoid performance degradation.
New: Conduit Bank Modeling Tools
New capabilities simplify conduit bank layout, including automatic assignment of conduits to entry points and adapter fittings, as well as cable and conduit creation functions for automatic routing. A simplified rerouting tool also makes it easier to reassign conduits and conductors along a different route.
New: 3D Visual Fidelity Framework
Generate 3D models at different levels of geometric detail or “visual fidelity” to suit project needs, improving performance and reducing file size for complex assemblies. Pair with the Assembly and Extract functions for additional performance benefits, allowing larger designs to use the lower fidelity versions while smaller assemblies and extracted subsets can be displayed in full detail.
New: Bulk File Processing
Scripts and certain automated cleanup and conversion operations can now be performed on files or entire directories of files in bulk. AutoCAD scripts can now be run on larger file sets, and specialized operations can be performed, such as purging blocks, clearing out layers, and converting matching blocks to AUD/P4A ports.
Enhanced: Schematic Enhancements
The AUDSCHEMATICTOSEGMENT and AUDSCHEMATICTODUCT commands have been enhanced with the option to draw a single line for an entire Set or prompt for multiple lines. AUDEXPAND has also been enhanced with the option to expand ducts and lines together at the same offset or to offset each line.
We’re excited to announce the release of SDS-P&C 8.6, packed with practical enhancements tailored for better workflow and efficiency. Here are our top 5:
New: SDS Subproject Tool
Launch brownfield projects faster by selecting and compiling necessary drawings directly from existing substation SDS-P&C projects. The tool enables manual drawing additions and customized filtering, including by Job/Work Order status, to help you create specific projects from a main Substation project.
Enhanced: Symbol Marking
When marking panel layouts and wiring diagrams, related symbols are automatically updated with the Job/WO and Status. Users can also invoke specific markings in associated symbols. Those doing brownfield work can now start their status-marking work from panel-style drawings.
New: SDS Audit Subfunction
Check a project for child symbols without associated parent symbols. Ensure data integrity and enhance quality assurance and control efforts.
Enhanced: Insert Revision Line Tool
The Insert Rev Line tool now allows users to “wrap around” and replace the oldest revision line when the maximum number of revision lines is reached for the last column.
Fixed: Filter Out Items Marked as Ref-Only
Filter out reference-only items in Panel Bill of Material and Panel Component reports to avoid overcounting errors and simplify inventory management.
Imagine a future where high-speed internet is within everyone’s reach.
By 2026, the Fiber-to-the-Home/Building (FTTH/B) market is expected to hit $29.7 billion 1, marking an unprecedented milestone in the telecom industry. With over 100 million homes in the U.S. alone still in need of fiber connections, the next decade promises rapid deployments aimed at connecting an ambitious 10 million premises per year 2. However, this monumental task is not without its challenges, particularly in detailed design, engineering, and permitting, which significantly impact project costs and schedules.
The hurdles faced by Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and telecom design and engineering firms during the Low-Level Design (LLD) and Engineering phases are multifaceted:
Scarcity of skilled labor.
Reliance on manual processes.
Non-standardized design rules.
Complex permit requirements.
These lead to inefficiencies, missed deadlines, cost overruns, and project delays in construction and asset management, underscoring the need for streamlined processes and standardized engineering specifications in the design process in order to meet time-to-market and budget goals.
Traditional network design and engineering for FTTx networks require a level of precision, granularity, and expertise that has become increasingly difficult to sustain. The impending retirement of employees in essential infrastructure services exacerbates this skilled labor shortage, while demand for civil engineering and computer-aided design (CAD) positions is expected to rise. This scenario creates a bottleneck that CSPs and Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms must navigate strategically, especially those with smaller teams.
Key requirements for FTTx Network LLD, Engineering, Construction and Permitting:
1. Complex workflows
2. Network engineering specifications
3. Presentation formatting for permitting
4. Precision and granularity
GIS and CAD: Using the Best Tools for the Job
Historically, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been sufficient to identify optimal fiber optic installation sites and plan expansions efficiently. With the increasing demand for detailed design, engineering, and construction packages, the industry now requires CAD-based solutions that a novice workforce can easily adopt. Moreover, integrating GIS and CAD through the network deployment life cycle not only increases productivity but also facilitates sharing overhead and underground infrastructure data with key stakeholders like utilities and local government, leading to streamlined make-ready and joint-use processes and helping conserve project resources.
The industry’s drive towards faster, quality-assured deployments calls for an integrated solution that leverages both GIS’s spatial intelligence and CAD’s engineering accuracy.
CSPs and engineering firms use GIS tools for strategic planning, analyzing installation sites, data compilation for expansion, and demand visualization for resource allocation. However, for detailed design and construction, requiring precise cable routing, space allocation, and regulatory compliance, CAD is indispensable, providing a 3D workspace, real-world models, and automation, areas where GIS traditionally lacks.
SBS’s Intelligent Design Platform
As the telecom industry grapples with the challenges of detailed design and deployment, innovative solutions are paving the way for a more efficient future. Scott Casey, Vice President, Telecom at SBS, is positioning its Intelligent Design Platform to overcome these challenges.
SBS’s Automated Design (AUD) is a geo-enabled Intelligent Design Platform that leverages industry-standard AutoCAD software and standardizes the design process for telecom network models from the start with configurable, no-code templates and a rules engine. The platform addresses the need for streamlined workflows and promises to transform how CSPs and engineering firms approach network design and deployment.
“Service providers and engineering firms have long struggled to extend GIS into the CAD world and make working in GIS and CAD a seamless process. We’ve solved both problems with our Intelligent Design Platform. Integrating GIS and CAD data and workflows streamlines design, engineering, permitting, and the creation of construction-ready packages. Our solution offers task automation capabilities that cut detailed design time in half or better while increasing quality. This translates to faster time-to-market, less rework, and fewer surprises that throw budgets and schedules off track,” states Casey.
Model-Based Design
In AUD, designers draw a 2D object using a typical CAD workflow. As features are modified in the 2D environment, AUD maintains a 3D model (or “digital twin”) in the backend. The model contains critical physical details and topology information, auto-validates standards, and automates many essential functions within the design workflow.
Structural and topology information automates essential functions.
Users can benefit from time-saving automations and consistency throughout the design process, reducing design cycles by as much as 50% and cutting training time by 70%.
A (3D) Vision for the Future
Looking ahead, the future of telecom design is unequivocally tied to the adoption of CAD-based, automated, and geo-enabled platforms like AUD. This synergy enables the creation of digital twins using augmented reality (AR) to visualize, evaluate, and validate network designs efficiently.
Digital Twins enable CSPs and AEC firms to use real-world virtual models of networks and infrastructure to visualize, evaluate, and validate designs and changes before implementing them.
Augmented Reality (AR) is about more than gaming and consumer applications. It can reduce maintenance costs for organizations by enabling onsite staff to perform guided repairs using realistic 3D models and information overlays, reducing mistakes and rework.
Summary
The telecom industry is at a pivotal moment, with the opportunity to redefine its approach to broadband network design and deployment. SBS’s Intelligent Design Platform offers a leap into the future where efficiency, precision, and innovation lead the way. To explore this transformative solution and its potential to streamline your operations, we invite you to get in touch and experience our Intelligent Design Platform first-hand.
Additional Resources
Additional insights into intelligent design for telecommunications:
Don’t miss the chance to connect with SBS at the upcoming live event in Kansas City.
The Substation Design Solution Industry Consortium (SDSIC) is expecting another huge turnout at their 2024 spring live event! SBS will be there to discuss innovative solutions and strategies tailored for our industry’s unique challenges. Visit with our team members to get insights and explore potential collaborations with SBS and Substation Design Suite™ (SDS).
Avoid costly construction errors with configurable standards-based design!
SDS simplifies content creation, automates physical and wiring design tasks, and reduces costly mistakes, allowing you to focus on what you do best – substation design. Transform your Autodesk investment with our Intelligent Design Solutions.
Mark your calendars and stop by our booth for a straightforward conversation about how we can work together towards success. See you there!
When: April 22-25, 2024.
Where: Kansas City Convention Center, Kansas City, MO.
Ready to transform your team into a substation design powerhouse?
A top-10 US gas and electric utility found that implementing AUD slashed its design time by a whopping 70%.
SBS recently collaborated with a top-10 US gas and electric utility, serving over 5 million meters. Their initiative to bury overhead distribution lines in high-risk areas is critical to improving system-wide safety. It’s a massive undertaking, but it’s crucial to making utility services more reliable and efficient for their customers.
Age-Old Problems
Historically, the design-to-construction process had been notoriously slow and prone to errors, bogged down by manul data entries and validations. Imagine having to enter the same data into multiple applications, create separate drawings for different aspects of a project, and then double-check everything to make sure it all adds up. The utility estimated that it took its designers around 3 weeks (or about 500 hours) to complete all these steps.
Enter Automated Utility Design™ (AUD), SBS’s Intelligent Design Platform developed to simplify complex design tasks with remarkable efficiency and accuracy. AUD offers a streamlined workflow within a familiar CAD environment, integrating model-based design tools to automate the tedious parts of the design process, reducing errors, and making everything run much smoother.
What’s Changed?
Before AUD, designers had to manage several tasks manually: importing data, transferring attributes, creating multiple drawings, and entering information into various systems to ensure everything met engineering and business standards. If a designer made a mistake or needed to make updates, they would often have to start over from scratch. It was as frustrating as it sounds.
With AUD, designers can now import data once, and it takes care of merging GIS data with field data, accommodating both civil and electric specs in one drawing, and even generating a Bill of Materials automatically. This not only saves a ton of time but also significantly cuts down on errors. If things need to change down the line, AUD adjusts everything automatically. No more starting over, no more needless delays.
The Evidence of Efficiency
The utility shared some eye-opening stats by using AUD on a benchmark design project:
Drafting and validation is now 50% faster, saving over 100 hours on a single project.
Time spent on Enterprise Asset Management tasks is down by 99%, saving another 80 hours.
Other design-related tasks saw a 95% reduction in time spent, which means over 100 hours saved on each project.
In other words, AUD significantly cuts design time. It’s a game-changer, transforming a cumbersome manual process into an automated, intelligent workflow. This efficiency is critical in an industry where time equates directly to service reliability and cost-effectiveness.
The Next Decade
As we consider this and future collaborations, it becomes clear that this isn’t just an isolated case study in innovation. It can serve as a blueprint for other municipal utilities, large Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs), and AEC and EPC firms engaged in utility projects to explore the benefits of Intelligent Design Solutions.
Transform your business with an Intelligent Design Platform.
Are you considering transitioning to ArcGIS Utility Network from a legacy GIS system?
Join SBS founders Andy Street and Dennis Beck at the upcoming Esri IMGIS International Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, as they share cutting-edge insights on how their clients and partners are synchronizing ArcGIS Utility Network and legacy GIS systems.
Learn how synchronization allows legacy systems to coexist with Utility Network, reducing migration risks and ensuring successful user adoption. Gain valuable insights into advanced change detection, data transformation, cross-system validation, transactional tolerance, and SBS’s FME-based plug-ins for smoother and more efficient transitions.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn from the best in the business and manage a successful Utility Network migration.
Leading utility anticipates doubling its distribution design project capacity using Spatial Business Systems’ Automated Utility Design™ (AUD).
Around 2019, a large electricity provider in Canada started to realize that their workflow and output in designing and implementing over 20,000 new distribution projects each year should have been proceeding more smoothly and efficiently. The perceived culprit— the utility’s third-party design software.
Challenges with previous software: inflexibility and manual operations
The utility’s distribution engineering technicians, designers, and estimators faced challenges due to the existing graphic design tool that had been in place for over 16 years. The current tool was entirely manual, with no automated validation or standard checks, leaving too many details to be added by the project’s designer. Manual intervention was also necessary to rectify product discrepancies or mismatches; variations in the color or type of symbols on the plans posed difficulties for the field teams; the cost of setting up two comparable buildings could vary significantly, based solely on the discretionary decisions of the assigned designer.
The complex system made it difficult for designers to become proficient, taking up to 18 months to complete an apprenticeship and up to 4 years to master. With employee turnover and promotions, the cost of training was becoming exorbitant, leading to an increased backlog of their design workflows.
The need for more flexibility in updating the system to new engineering standards was another significant hurdle, requiring the manufacturer to alter the base code. Making a simple change with subsequent testing could take a year or more.
The utility needed to catch up in its ability to perform required network analyses. While the deployed geometric GIS had been adequate, an upgrade to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Utility Network was necessary to achieve advanced network analysis and improved security.
New AUD Intelligent Design Solution: like “night and day”
An RFP (Request for Proposal) for a new solution led to the selection of Automated Utility Design™ (AUD) by Spatial Business Systems (SBS). Presented as an Intelligent Design Solution, AUD pointed to a dramatic improvement in configurability and ease of use. Changes could be implemented in-house quickly, with added rules and validations. The familiar AutoCAD platform facilitated a smoother transition for designers. The support from SBS during the process was notably impressive, accommodating late-breaking changes and unique requests.
A critical aspect of AUD’s success is its seamless integration with advanced mapping, analysis, and mobile tools like those found on Esri’s ArcGIS and Field Maps. This integration allows designers to create comprehensive design packages, merging Work Order and GIS data for field validation and field notes. Introducing field conditions into the design process drastically decreased change orders during construction, inhibiting cost overruns. By utilizing Esri mobile solutions, known for its advanced spatial analysis, real-time data integration, and comprehensive asset visualization, the utility now has timely as-built information, essential in today’s utility management for optimizing network performance, enhancing decision-making accuracy, and improving service reliability.
“AUD is definitely exceeding expectations,” remarked one of the executive leads assigned to the project. In the past, updating the software was a challenging task, only feasible on occasion; now, enhancements are straightforward and frequent, often incorporating ideas from the design team, leading to enthusiasm about these developments. The rapid adoption of AUD is partly due to its foundation on the well-known AutoCAD platform, contrasting with the proprietary nature of the previous software. This familiarity with AutoCAD’s interface allows even new designers, including recent graduates, to adapt and become proficient quickly, a significant improvement over the older software.
“AUD is definitely exceeding expectations”
Of course, the objective measure of the success of any project lies in its operating metrics. For this utility, the key metric was the number of designs entered and approved for installation, proceeding through the workflow. After implementation, the client reported that the number of designs produced exceeded their most optimistic projections.
User adaptation was swift despite initial hesitation, and productivity levels matched and exceeded previous benchmarks. The team is optimistic about doubling their output for routine, less complex tasks, viewing this goal as a conservative estimate.
Successful implementation, and looking forward
Despite the challenges of integrating half a dozen software systems, the transition to AUD was smoother than expected.
The critical transition for all software systems occurred over a long holiday weekend in May 2023. This period was tense for the team as they meticulously monitored the sequence of software activations. The transition went well despite initial concerns due to careful planning and testing conducted beforehand.
With AUD now fully operational, the team sees tangible benefits for their organization and its customers. They are well positioned to leverage robust network management and data modeling tools through modern GIS systems like ArcGIS Utility Network for even more efficient and improved design workflows. The deployment of Esri’s Field Maps—integrated with AUD—has enabled seamless data sharing and asset correction during field operations.
Moreover, AUD’s intuitive CAD-based interface has significantly reduced the apprenticeship period for designers from 18 months to just 3 months, saving 2,400 hours per designer and enabling them to realize their potential and become productive in record time.
For utilities, operational efficiency isn’t just a goal; it’s a necessity. By embracing SBS’s Intelligent Design Solution, this utility far exceeded their expectations. Their experience with various software tools over the years underscores the exceptional quality and value of AUD, making their decision to switch a logical step forward. They advise peers and other utilities to be open to changing old methodologies, as it can lead to positive changes they may have been seeking but didn’t know how to implement.
Experience how intelligent solutions for infrastructure asset management integrate with Utility Network.
Stop by booth 133 and learn about SBS’s Utility Network FME plug-in and our geo-enabled Intelligent Design Solutions. In addition, don’t miss Andrew Street, Vice President of Technology at SBS, as he discusses how FME can help synchronize legacy GIS data with ArcGIS Utility Network and facilitate the deployment of system of record and system of engagement environments.
Transitioning to ArcGIS Utility Network? SBS’s ArcGIS Pro FME plugin offers seamless data migration and bi-directional system synchronization. Implement incremental updates for a smooth, manageable shift to the future of utility management with SBS.
Blend CAD and GIS with our Intelligent Design Solutions and Utility Network. Explore how the ArcGIS Pro FME plug-in makes Utility Network features like domain and subtype mapping, association and terminal definition, connectivity, and diagramming easily accessible.
When: Monday, April. 8 – Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
Where: Frankfurt, Germany.
Can’t make it to Frankfurt? Contact us today to learn how our solutions can transform your infrastructure design workflow.
