CAD & GIS News for Govies 9/18

CAD News for Govies is a weekly feature on Acronym that scans thousands of industry articles to present you with a regular source of CAD and GIS news, information and ideas that impact the public sector.

Here’s the latest round-up:

Calling All Architects and Engineers: 3 Steps to Tap into Visualization with 3ds Max

Government Officials Realize the Power of Rendered Animations and Time Lapse 3D Visualizations

Time lapse video has been used for decades to show the progress of some of the world’s most awe inspiring innovations – from Olympic stadiums to aircraft, ship building and more. Most recently the progress of New York City’s One World Trade Center has been captured via a construction site “job-cam”. The video spans the period from October, 2004 to September, 2013 and was hand-edited from hundreds of thousands of high-definition images captured of work at the site. Prominently featured is the rise of One World Trade Center.

Potential Syrian Missile Targets Pinpointed in Google Earth

As the U.S. government continues the debate about potential strikes against the Assad regime in Syria, GIS professionals are busy mapping out potential missile targets in Google Maps and Google Earth.

ForeignPolicy.com, for example, has mapped 36 locations in Syria that represent the most likely targets for U.S. missiles.

While the goal of the attacks is still unclear, it seems plausible that the strikes will target chemical plants, arms depots, airfields and other military assets.

Storing Big Data: New Technology Helps Organize and Protect Agencies’ Electronic Information

New standards and technologies in the Information Age have given architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms both new benefits and challenges. For instance, when the General Services Administration mandated that all government projects must be designed electronically using building information modeling (BIM), the industry began experiencing a number of benefits in building quality. However, the same standard means that significantly higher volumes of electronic data is now created and must be managed.