## Optimal project planning

The Houzr application is going to change the project development sector in the housing market branch forever. “Within years, there will no longer be a project that will be developed without Houzr” Joost van der Zon, founder of Veneficus, claims. The Houzr application makes use of thousands of available datapoints in the housing market and uses them to create the optimal project planning with higher returns, less risk and a better market fit. This can be done by all their customers, even if they have no knowledge of data at all. The application does it all for them.

## How to get the optimal result

To get the optimal result from Houzr application, the following process should be followed:

### Initial information

First of all, some initial information must be set up to create an environment that best represents your reality for the project. These are things like cost profiles, the type of houses to be built, the height of the houses, etc. This is only happens once, and when this information is applied in the application, it will be used in all calculations. The project properties ultimately have an enormous influence on the eventual optimal result.

###  Location determination
Secondly, the location of the project must be set. The destination of the project somewhere in the Netherlands must be clear. For this location, the regulatory framework of, usually the municipality, can be entered, so that the application can make the project plan accordingly. In this regulatory framework, you can think of things such as maximum building height, certain number of houses, meeting parking standards, number of meters for green spaces / pieces of road / other facilities, etc.

### Algorithm instructions

When all of this set, instructions should be set about the units the algorithm can test. For example, only ground dwellings, only stacked dwellings or whether the user must adhere to certain numbers. Houzr will apply those settings in conjunction with the regulatory framework to run all possibilities for this location based on its internal database.

### Booting solutions

During this time you can make yourself a cup of coffee, the Houzr application will find many solutions, which are sorted to the goal you want to achieve. For example, if the return is most important to you, or is the goal rather to get a good market fit. You can then choose your optimal solution and get the perfect project plan from Houzr.

### Executing multiple scenarios

To anticipate possible changes in the environment, Houzr has the feature to execute multiple scenarios. Suppose that the municipality can be convinced that an elementary school can be built along with the project. This will increase the value of your homes. In that case you want it to be included in the calculations. Another example: if there are restaurants and bars nearby or if something is going to happen to the accessibility of the development. All of this has an impact on the value, and the optimal housing configuration can be different. Extending a metro line, for example, has an impact on a given part of the Netherlands, which makes it is better to build apartments rather than ground-level dwellings But how many and in what ratio; the Houzr application tells you.

## Quick integration with VIKTOR
Veneficus has worked for over a year on the algorithms, models and calculations for the Houzr application. With VIKTOR, they were able to incorporate all this into a web-based application within four weeks. They chose for this to be able to create their application in detail without a large knowledge base in the field of UI and platform design. Those gaps in knowledge are solved by the practical design of the VIKTOR platform. Now the Houzr application is available to all the customers of Veneficus in a web-based, user-friendly interface.

![Analysing scenarios with the Houzr application.jpg](/uploads/Analysing_scenarios_with_the_Houzr_application_a39d926e74.jpg)

*Analyzing scnarions with the Houzr application*

Buildings & Real Estate

The Houzr application in cooperation with VIKTOR

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The Houzr application creates the optimal project plan within minutes

## Get the white paper

**INDEX**

1. Construction companies and digital transformation
2. Technology trends for a different approach
3. Technology trends in the construction industry
4. A new technology trend for the construction industry
5. Low code for the construction industry
6. The VIKTOR platform
7. What does it cost?
8. How to start
9. What's next?

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What are the current trends in digital transformation and how do they affect the engineering and construction industry? 

This white paper is for every engineer, manager, director, or anyone else that wants to learn more about (new) technology trends that help boost digital transformation in engineering and construction, such as BIM, parametric or generative design, and low-code and no-code. 

Discover how web applications can help you find the best solution fast, get the best insights, capture knowledge into assets, and make work more joyful! 






Learn about trends in digital transformation and how they affect the engineering and construction industry.

Download the White Paper and get INSPIRED

This white paper is for every engineer, manager, director, or anyone else that wants to learn more about (new) technology trends that help boost digital transformation in engineering and construction, such as BIM, parametric or generative design, and low-code and no-code. 

Digital Transformation: Engineering and Construction Industry

## What is workability?

In the maritime and offshore industry, workability refers to the actual working time of a vessel for a certain operation, taking into account weather conditions such as waves, wind, currents and ice. These are called metocean (Meteorology and Oceanography) conditions and can impact the vessel’s operational hours, thus time the vessel is capable of being put into effective operation.

## The perfect vessel for each tender

During a tender, the selection of vessels and equipment is often an iterative process. That is where the Workability Tool comes in, as it enables the user to repeatedly and quickly update the workability by combining the validated metocean data and the capabilities and limitations of the operational equipment. Differences in varying equipment can be visualized within the Tool and exported in order to select the optimal vessel configuration in terms of workability. Additionally, the Tool provides the user with insights into the raw metocean data. 

The picture below shows the average weather conditions for a specific location based on data from January 1990 to December 2018, calculated by the Workability Tool. It shows the direction and force of the wind per month. This information can be used to decide when is the best time to build a wind turbine at sea, since this depends on the weather conditions. During hard wind and/or high waves, dangerous situations can be encountered that make it difficult to place a heavy turbine, for example. The visualizations show that the weather conditions are the best from May to September. In January, the conditions are the worst.

![Workability of vessels.png](/uploads/Workability_of_vessels_bda64a48ba.png)]

The VIKTOR application is one of the innovative examples of digitization within Boskalis. The Workability Tool is operational now for mulitple divisions within the organization.

Copyright: Images courtesy of Boskalis


Maritime & Offshore

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Workability Tool enables quicker decision making

## Automation in the offshore sector

While a lot of automation is already taking place in the automotive and aviation sector, the offshore sector is still lagging behind. According to Maas Hoogeveen, Technology Director at Mocean Offshore and developer of Calypso, this is because the offshore industry is a highly conservative market. “Everybody works on their own projects and has their own reasons for sticking to the old principles. But we are working on applications with automated calculations that will reduce the time and money spent on a project.”

### No more manual tasks

In the jack-up industry, there are still many repetitive tasks performed by engineers. This is partially due to the complexity of the frameworks laid down in ISO 19905. However, it is not commercially viable for the experts to fully perform the extensive calculations manually; they have to use conservative shortcuts. Hoogeveen: “We use algorithms and parametric models, so that shortcuts no longer need to be used and calculations can be done faster and more specific.”

>“The best way to share knowledge is by making it available through a web application.” - Maas Hoogeveen

## Looking for the right digital tools

Maas has spoken with many market parties about making his application available online via a web interface. “It would be a costly enterprise to even create a Minimal Viable Product. Then I came into contact with VIKTOR, which was a great fit. The interface was exactly what I envisioned. It meets the wishes of various stakeholders. A sales manager, for instance, may want to use Calypso as a means of communication with which he or she can generate clear images, whereas an engineer may want to perform in-depth calculations and optimize the use of a platform. Calypso’s interface caters to many different users, which is made possible by the versatility of the powerful VIKTOR platform. Another big advantage is that the costs are much lower.”

> “The web application was developed within 40 hours. The iterations that have been done were also implemented quickly. This offers enormous opportunities because time and budget are the bottleneck.”

## What is Calypso?

### Site-specific assessment

Calypso is a tool for performing site-specific assessments on any jack-up platform. This determines whether you can install wind turbines with a light or a heavy platform. The tool can be used even before you start a tender. Maas Hoogeveen explains: “We specialize in analysis of jack-ups. The knowledge and calculation methods contained in Calypso are an implementation of the jack-up engineering standard ISO 19905-1:2016. With this application, every engineer can perform a site-specific assessment (SSA).”

Check out how you can analyze offshore wind turbine installation platforms without being expert with Calypso and VIKTOR:

<div style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/584895866?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Calypso-Tutorial-Jack-up-SSA"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>

### Automated calculations

In addition, the calculations are automated, but an engineer can still look deep inside the system to check all steps and calculations. “This is what we call the glass box paradigm, as opposed to the black box”, Hoogeveen explains.

### Capitalizing knowledge and skill

The main objective of Calypso is to capitalize upon knowledge and skills regarding jack-up engineering by making these available to the offshore industry. Running it as a VIKTOR application is a great way to achieve this: “VIKTOR matched perfectly with our vision of what the interface should be. The way parameters are set and how the model is directly visualised is how we imagined it,” Hoogeveen explains. The web-based application can be used independently by clients, so they can make calculations on their own data and problems.

![Web-based VIKTOR Calypso application.png](/uploads/Web_based_VIKTOR_Calypso_application_3bdaa727dc.png)

## Fast development is not impossible!

The development of a web interface to an application doesn’t have to take months, it can be realized in just a week. Maas Hoogeveen: “We developed a headless application, containing the algorithms and parametric models. With this basis and the assistance of VIKTOR developers we build the Calypso application in only 40 hours. The extensive possibilities of the VIKTOR platform are inspiring. With their help, Calypso is as accessible and user-friendly as we imagined.”

![Calyps and VIKTOR platform.png](/uploads/Calyps_and_VIKTOR_platform_302aedac81.png)

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Everyone can analyse offshore wind turbine installation platforms

1. What is parametric design, and how is it evolving
2. Collaborative parametric design: working together for better results
3. How to make tools available to others
4. Active collaboration on parametric design tools
5. Parametric design in a billion-euro project
6. What collaborative parametric design means for you



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Parametric design is a design approach that uses flexible models that can be adjusted and solved quickly. The goal is to see the effect of specific choices on your design by just changing the input variables. 

The benefits are:

- **Flexibility:** Parametric design allows you to react quickly to changes at a low cost. Always generate the best solution for your project no matter the time pressure.

- **Better decisions:** Automatically calculate thousands of different solutions, get deep insight, and mitigate risks. Make better decisions and provide more added value to clients.

- **Digital Assets:** Create models and data that are reusable in new projects. Improve them over time, building up digital capital

This white paper is for engineers, architects, project leaders, and innovation and business managers. You will learn how collaborative parametric design in the cloud helps organizations get better results with real study cases such as a billion-euro infrastructure project.
 
Additionally, we talk about how you can transform Python, Dynamo and Grasshopper scripts into user-friendly web apps and significantly impact your organization performance. 

Learn how collaborative parametric design models allow you to work together for better solutions.

Download the white paper and get INSPIRED

This white paper is for engineers, project leaders, and innovation and business managers that want to learn more about what collaborative parametric design can mean for them. Discover more about this new way of working in which stakeholders collaborate to find the best solution for a project.

The Future of Parametric Design is COLLABORATION

## Why Dynamo?

People from different disciplines use all kinds of different software programs. Where structural designers make extensive use of BIM and CAD software, such as Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD, road designers use Autodesk Civil3D and Bentley MX Road. The skilled designers amongst us automate their workflows in these packages using Dynamo: By creating Dynamo scripts, manual actions can be automated in structural design software, which saves designers lots of time.

Dura Vermeer’s engineers and technical modellers are amongst these skilled engineers that are highly acquainted with those software packages and use Dynamo intensively in their design process. Their experience, expertise, and the concept of visual programming enable them to quickly develop models with Dynamo. However, some needs are yet to be covered: The exchange of data and versioning of that data remains challenging.

## Why VIKTOR?

Also, although Dynamo is a very handy tool, it has a learning curve: Often only a specialist knows how it works, making other disciplines dependent on the time and resources of these specialized individuals. That’s where VIKTOR comes into play. VIKTOR is a web application development platform for engineers and has a large variety of digital building blocks (like digital LEGO), such as integrations with structural design software. VIKTOR’s web applications provide a central database with version control on the data and offers an intuitive user interface where other disciplines can easily use encapsulated expert knowledge. This is also known as: Democratization of Knowledge.

But the question remains: How do you leverage Dura Vermeer’s existing expertise in Dynamo and VIKTOR’s distribution and data control? The answer: By building an integration between the two! VIKTOR and Dura Vermeer collaborated and developed a Dynamo-VIKTOR node package: Nodes where data can be fetched and pushed from Dynamo to VIKTOR.

## Single Source of Truth

In Dura Vermeer's current design process, the exchange of parameters between the different disciplines often takes place via mail or quick hand-drawn sketches. However, this is not foolproof and can become increasingly risky when many versions and alterations are made. By developing a VIKTOR web application that automatically integrates with different design software, Dura Vermeer no longer requires manual output exchanges. Of course, active communication between the different professionals is still needed, but less normative.

### Creating Dynamo scripts

The Dynamo-VIKTOR node package consists of several nodes (in Dynamo terms, a node is a visual representation of methods/functions with only input and output). When properly placed, the nodes can perform a task such as establishing a connection between Dynamo and VIKTOR. The following figure shows a representation that makes it possible to acquire the input parameters of an entity from VIKTOR to Dynamo. Other configurations of these nodes can create alternative tasks, such as getting results, getting files and even pushing data to VIKTOR.

![The Dynamo-VIKTOR node package](/uploads/Dynamo_VIKTOR_node_package_3359b129c6.png)

By connecting these strings of nodes to other Dynamo nodes, actions and even designs can be automated using the design software. These series of nodes is called a Dynamo script. Once the script is executed, multiple tasks that can be used in Revit will be performed. Since Dynamo is not only supported in Revit, scripts can also be developed for AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Inventor, etc.

### Using the Dynamo-VIKTOR node package

The video shows the same Dynamo-VIKTOR node package used in both Revit and Civil 3D. The video shows how the cross-section is manipulated using the parameters given in VIKTOR. No external exchange file is necessary, resulting in a live connection between all disciplines (in this case the structural engineer, road designer and structural modeller) which is basically practicing the single source of truth principle.

<div style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/584816499?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="DV_Dynamo-VIKTOR_nodes_ViktorUBak_v3(1)"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>

## Connecting software and knowledge

The collaboration between VIKTOR and Dura Vermeer has made a huge difference regarding the way software is deployed. Not only are software packages connected, but also the knowledge of the professionals. Both parties ended up speaking the same digital language, even though their knowledge backgrounds are so different.

In only one sprint (a two-week development period) the live connection between VIKTOR and the structural design software was explored and finally established. Further development will most likely yield many more functionalities and applications, as all kind of design software can tap into this single source of truth.

## A reusable package for future automation efforts

The Dynamo-VIKTOR node package is a very general utility to exchange data between VIKTOR and Dynamo. It can be linked to any VIKTOR app for which credentials are available and any Dynamo script. That is why this is a digital building block that Dura Vermeer can reuse in their future automation efforts as well. In the long term, VIKTOR can continue to provide digital building blocks that Dura Vermeer can use to realize their vision of becoming the best digital contractor in the Netherlands.

If you are interested or have are any questions or remarks about this development, do not hesitate to contact us at: pmadlener@viktor.ai.


Engineering & Design

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A single source of truth for Dynamo and Civil 3D

## Custom truss constructions

The truss constructions at large music stages become bigger and more complex. Festivals want to have their own unique stage, with a custom truss construction. These constructions are very expensive if they have to be custom made, or you have to deal with a limited set of standard shapes with existing products. 

![Truss construction design in the analyze one](/uploads/Truss_constructions_in_the_analyze_one_3bfe986172.jpg)


### Software and building blocks

FrameFlux is offering an affordable option for creating your custom construction. Yufe Wong, cofounder of Frameflux: “We invented an adjustable, reusable building block, with which you can create any shape structure you want, with the same level of form-freedom as a snake!” Besides the physical product they also developed in-house [parametric design](https://www.viktor.ai/blog/46/parametric-design-cloud-engineering-construction) and analysis software tools to rapidly design these custom shapes and analyse them. “You can perform a structural feasibility check in seconds on an unlimited set of forms, including the conventional shapes.” This removes a barrier to the use of the truss, since it would be difficult to engineer and design some of the complex structural shapes that become feasible.

![Truss construction design](/uploads/Truss_construction_design_56c25ff136.jpg)


## Hitting the market

After demonstrating the software tools to customers and receiving a lot of enthusiasm, FrameFlux wanted to take the next step. After an elaborate vendor selection, FrameFlux partnered with VIKTOR for their experience and integration with Grasshopper and Python, along with a user-friendly interface to suit the needs. Since March 2020, the two companies have been collaborating to deliver this software product, named Antalyze One. This application allows integration with SCAD Re-Event, a popular 3D CAD program for the Dutch event industry. Now a super-fast workflow for design of standard truss beams is realized: users can create a design in SCAD Re-Event, export the data to the web-based VIKTOR platform, and then instantly run a Grasshopper-powered structural feasibility check. It is also possible to make changes in VIKTOR and re-import these back into SCAD Re-Event. VIKTOR’s fine grain data management systems, for user information and technical data, allow for such automation when coupled with Grasshopper. In future, integrations with other CAD programs will be possible.

![Data mangement systems for truss constructions](/uploads/Data_management_system_8043c8a027.png)


## A user-friendly interface

“With VIKTOR we’ve got a friendly user interface and a good integration with our existing Grasshopper model, instead of starting over again.” In the web-application an event designer can also upload their design and other relevant inputs whenever and wherever they want. As before, this information is sent to the Grasshopper model in which the analysis is done. The results of this analyses are sent back to the web-application and visualized for the event designer.

![Visualizations of truss construction designs](/uploads/Truss_construction_visualizations_deb241cb3c.jpg)


## The 'Antalyze Two'?
The decision to automate this process is an easy one according to Yufe “A designer can now create, develop and get a structural feasibility check on their preliminary designs of loaded straight beams without hours of spreadsheet work or consultation.” There are already plans for a potential ‘Antalyze Two’, which will be able to process a much greater variety of structural shapes. “Especially for custom-made constructions it could take weeks before a design was analysed by a consultant. With our software and the web-application made on the VIKTOR platform, a check could be run on squares, circles and snake-like structures… in only a matter of seconds!”

Interested in developing web-applications as well? Check out our [parametric design solutions](https://www.viktor.ai/parametric-design-software)!

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Analyse any truss construction design within seconds

[Source:](https://fd.nl/weekend/1358248/nieuwe-rekenwijze-voor-sterkere-dijken-levert-honderden-miljoenen-op)

## Strenthening the pumping stations

The HWBP is a joint investment program of Rijkswaterstaat and the water boards. Since the start of the program in 2014, € 100m has been invested in innovations, which has already yielded at least € 180m in savings. “We expect that the new knowledge will yield a multiple of that in savings in the coming years.” Are the savings heading towards € 1 billion? “I would not dare to take on a saving of 1 billion, but it would be inspiring for society if that succeeds.” Because the risk of a dike breach according to safety standards must not be greater than once every five to ten thousand years, until 2050, at least 1,300 kilometers of sea and river dikes and 500 locks, weirs and pumping stations must be strengthened. To this end, a budget of € 7.4 billion has been agreed up to 2028, which must be jointly raised by the central government and the water boards.

## Custom work for dike improvement

One of the promising innovations is custom work for dike improvement. In other words: not starting from a high water scenario with one water level with different conservative assumptions and factors, as before, but calculating many thousands of scenarios based on an extensive database and the specific characteristics of a dike section. In order to arrive at the most likely scenario of strength and failure for each individual stretch of dike. This customization can mean that in 80% of the cases the dike improvement job in the Netherlands can be reduced and in 20% of the cases must be enlarged, says Willems. “A considerable part of the dikes can be built slimmer and less high. Which means that the balance tends to make the total program cheaper. “That does not mean that the budgeted amount of € 7.4 billion can be reduced. “Even when the agreements for the HWBP were made in 2013-2014, it was clear that the financial agreements were not sufficient,” says Willems. “That was a conscious choice to ensure efficiency in the HWBP by means of innovation and knowledge development at the front. “Extra jobs are also coming up. “Rijkswaterstaat and the water boards are assessing all dikes. They do this once every twelve years, a kind of periodic MOT. They will be working on that until 2023, when dikes will emerge that need to be strengthened. 

## Parametric design and digital transformation
[Read here](https://www.viktor.ai/blog/26/parametric-design-python-dike-improvement) how our clients innovate with [parametric design](https://www.viktor.ai/blog/46/parametric-design-cloud-engineering-construction) and accelerate their digital transformation on dike projects.

![calculating dike.png](/uploads/calculating_dike_0580c2c558.png)

See how you can [implement parametric design solutions](https://www.viktor.ai/parametric-design-software) to your projects as well. 


Infrastructure & Construction

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Parametric design for stronger dikes yields “hundreds of millions”

It all began with a pilot for a possible first application, on the VIKTOR platform, back in 2021 for underwater concrete floors. This application turned out to be the first of many more to come. Soon, other tools for designing submersible tunnels, noise barriers, underpasses, and more followed. Without comprehensive programming experience, people at Arcadis started developing tools for themselves and their colleagues. Because Arcadis is an international company that works in many countries the aim is to use tooling on platforms all over the world. The VIKTOR platform is one way to realize this.

In this article, we will discuss the first developed tool which by now has been used on several projects. One of those cases is a large underpass and aqueduct in the N247 highway in Broek en Waterland, commissioned by Province of North-Holland. 


![Blog_Arcadis_Rotonde](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/Blog_Arcadis_Rotonde_3d11885327.png)

*© Arcadis Architecten (Tom Kramer) commissioned by Province of North-Holland.*

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## Semi to total automation

Why realizing this tool on the VIKTOR platform? For the design of underwater concrete floors, Arcadis always used to work with validated Excel sheets and off-shelf programs to perform calculations. To gather all necessary data to fill such a sheet, a lot of coordination between different divisions is required. This takes up quite a lot of time and is ultimately only good for the calculation of a specific design in one specific situation. That's why Arcadis started looking for a better way to automate this, by adding an extra dimension to the calculations that allowed them to quickly play around with parameters in search for the (cost) optimal   design which fulfills the requirements and is cost effective. 

## From under water concrete to construction pit

So, that's what they did by building a VIKTOR application around the validated Excel sheet. Now they were able to try different input parameters and swiftly asses how these parameters affect their design. To take it a step further, they also decided to link other processes into the application. Through an integration with Deltares’ D-Sheetpiling and D-Foundations, it became possible to automatically calculate tensile piles and sheet piles as part of the design. Additionally, a module was built to upload CPTs, enabling automated analysis of soil layers. Gradually, their tool for under water concrete floors got transformed into an application to calculate the entire construction pit. The application was finalized by adding a cost estimate based upon the generated design.

> “The tool was first created for under water concrete calculations but in the end, it became a total construction pit design-tool. We can now fully calculate the underwater concrete, the pile foundations, and the sheet piles of the construction pit itself.” – Mark van Esseveld, Project Manager at Arcadis

By extracting information from D-Sheetpiling to an Excel file, the tool can read all interaction forces that are transferred from one object to another. The pile reactions are extracted from Excel and sent to D-Foundations, where they're processed and returned as graphical visualizations in the tool's results section. Following the brute force tactic, this process is repeated numerous of times to generate many different design options. 

> “As an engineer, you use a lot of programs; for concrete constructions, sheet pile constructions, and geotechnical constructions. These often need to interact with each other. It’s great if you are somehow able to automate this. VIKTOR is a great way to enable these programs to communicate with each other and take out a lot of error-prone parts.” – Peter Konijnenbelt, Senior Designer at Arcadis

![App1.jpg](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/App1_7180d95812.jpg)

*Excavation results from D-Sheetpiling*

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![App2.jpg](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/App2_94ab4f1d34.jpg)

*Optimal pile tip levels from D-Foundations*

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## Optimal design based on costs

Usually, costs are determined based on the calculated construction. For this tool, however, a cost component was added; the construction is automatically calculated but at the same time also optimized based on cost parameters, like the amount of steel and installation costs. In the end, each design gets matched with a price tag based on the input parameters. Then, either Arcadis or a client can choose a design based on price per square meter construction pit, as can be seen in the image below.


![App4.jpg](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/App4_61703132b4.jpg)

*Presentation of the optimization results via a parallel coordinates plot*

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![App5.jpg](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/App5_b83d2e2694.jpg)

*Alternative representation of the optimization results via a contour plot*

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> “We can basically say: “We can provide the client a full and transparent insight in a valid design spectrum given a preset range for several parameters”. Based upon this insight, a preferred design (e.g. cost/preferred dimensions) can be selected. Thus, the basis for the design of a construction pit can be determined for any given № of cross sections” – Mark van Esseveld, Project Manager at Arcadis   

## The most significant benefit

Regarding the question about the most significant benefit of their tool, Arcadis agrees on the improved work-efficiency. Mark: “… and with that we can offer good work for a good price, which is a big advantage for our client. We can consider the design spectrum in higher detail in less time, which means we can do more at the same cost whilst the design is being optimized simultaneously”.

Where Arcadis first needed two colleagues – a designer and geotechnical engineer – to work on a project, it's now possible for one colleague to calculate the entire construction pit in much less time. Only some basic Geotechnical and structural knowledge is required here. Of course, specialists are involved to check the calculated results, but less time is needed because steps are automated. All steps of the process are integrated in one system with multiple colleagues, meaning all in- and output is programmed and runs smoothly. Intermediate steps are taken out of the equation (i.e. transfer of data), saving time and reducing chance of errors.

> “The user-friendliness in the design process through which the designer or geotechnical engineer is guided makes it a lot easier for them to do their job.” – Mark van Esseveld, Project Manager at Arcadis

## Tools for non-experts

With a broad range of features, the construction pit tool is widely used within Arcadis. For example, by both the Construction and Geotechnics divisions, who use the tool to specify project details. And when it comes to pricing, the Costs division gets involved too. Thanks to the user-friendly and intuitive interface, using the tool is no problem for non-experts.

> “The VIKTOR platform is very user-friendly for colleagues who are less committed to programming, scripting, coding, all that stuff. They simply use the tools and are assisted in an intuitive manner. This characterizes itself through a good process flow that guides users through the design steps. Another big benefit is the calculation output being depicted and visualized very clear and efficiently. The calculations speed also rises significantly, the quality increases, and generation of calculation reports becomes easier.” – Mark van Esseveld, Project Manager at Arcadis

## Organization-wide development

Besides the divisions that already worked with the tool, other parts of the organization are affected by it as well. For example, a lot of code is currently available from all the projects colleagues at Arcadis have been working on, which can be reutilized to build new applications in the future. 

> “We are composing a beautiful code library that makes it more profitable to create apps for specific projects later on.” – Peter Konijnenbelt, Senior Designer at Arcadis

An example of such a spin-off application is the construction pit tool used in the Buildings   and Water division, inspired by the construction pit tool from this article. Where the original tool was created for tunnels and underpasses, this one is used for buildings. All by simply altering some parts of the code!



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Arcadis builds user-friendly web apps with VIKTOR to automate and optimize engineering processes.

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