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P-1101-04-S |
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By Mandy Frazure- Jan 04 - Present
Committee: Dr. Tulio Sulbaran (Chair), Prof. Doris Kemp, Dr.
Shelton Houston
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| Project Objective |
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It is the researcher’s intention to research existing software
on the market and to develop/alter a three dimensional software
program aiding in the estimating and visualization processes of
the construction industry in real-time. The software
capabilities proposed here will create three-dimensional
information that aids in the estimating of a building project
and allows the user to visualize data more efficiently, thus
saving time and money on an anticipated construction project. In
doing so, it would present a more systematic advance in
estimating conceptual options and a way of focusing the client’s
awareness on the project scope in its entirety. The capability
to calculate costs while envisioning details in three dimensions
will make construction more resourceful, reduce costs, and
improve quality.
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| Abstract |
| In the
construction industry, cost estimating is a time-consuming,
costly and essential phase of any building project. Cost
estimates rely on the decisions made throughout the project by
clients, designers and constructors. Decisions made by the
clients, designers and constructors early in the project have
the greatest impact on the final construction cost. However, a
major problem during the cost decision-making process is that
clients lack technical expertise to fully understand/visualize
the construction documents. Furthermore, clients lack the
technical knowledge to assess the cost impact of their
decisions. The objective of this research project is to modify
an existing virtual reality development tool to address this
problem by allowing a user to navigate/visualize the project,
make materials changes to the project and calculate cost-impact
of these changes in real time. In order to achieve this, the
researcher will implement existing methods of cost-estimating
into the virtual development tool by adding a cost database, and
a set of calculations to determine the cost impact of the
changes to be made by the clients. It is anticipated that the
real-time cost update and the visual component of the modified
virtual reality development tool will allow the clients to
better understand the impact of the changes and therefore save
money by making decisions early in the project.
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| Project Results |
| It is anticipated
at the end of this project that by implementing virtual reality
into construction cost estimating, this will provide an easier
way for clients, designers, and constructors to be able to work
together to make decisions addressing cost issues earlier in the
project. This method will save the construction industry money
by aiding the clients in visualization processes and reveal
potential cost problems of the project. This method will save
time by supplying the users with estimating costs and updates in
a real time virtual environment instead of examining,
collecting, and verifying data from a set of 2-D working
drawings, which have been the most commonly used methods of
construction estimating in the past. This tool would provide the
clients, designers, and constructors a way to visualize the
final product in construction processes and in doing so, combine
tasks, save time, and save money.
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Last Modification:
Tuesday August 02, 2005 03:48 PM
Originally Developed by: Dr. Tulio Sulbaran - Email:
Tulio.Sulbaran@usm.edu
- Nov 2004
The University of Southern Mississippi. AA/EOE/ADAI
http://www.icee.usm.edu