This year has truly been the year of tornadoes. As of May 24, there have been 1,208 tornadoes reported in the U.S. in 2011 (about 875 were confirmed). Perhaps the most devastating of theses tornados struck the people of Joplin on Sunday May 22, 2011. The tornado left an estimated 123 people dead, 750 injured, and about 1,500 people missing. According to NOAA “The Joplin tornado is the deadliest since modern recordkeeping began in 1950 and is ranked 8th among the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history.” Google has responded to the need to know more about this destructive tornado and visualize the before and after impact of this deadly and unprecedented event. Google Maps now includes a visualization (seen here) of the tornado’ path. The path of the storm can be followed by the fuchsia line. The starting point is marked with red, and the end point is marked with green. The light green area of the map represents the part of the city with scattered reports of damage. The damage is mostly from downbursts and falling debris. The dark green is the area that the tornado caused severe damage and the red area was totally destroyed.

Next Tuesday is a busy day for anyone in the AEC industry involved in sustainable design projects. Here are two upcoming webcasts that provide insight on how to accelerate sustainable design projects and comply with federal energy performance standards: BIM Webcast: Accelerating Sustainable Design with BIM Improving Federal Energy Performance, Part 2

By Lynn Allen, Autodesk Technical Evangelist Showing AutoCAD users the new features in AutoCAD 2012 has been an absolute dream for me. There’s something in it for everybody and it has been a real crowd pleaser! There are new 2D and 3D features – so regardless of how you use the software – you’re sure to find a new tool that will save you some valuable drawing time – let’s take a look! For those of you who key in commands (and you know who you are) you’ll find the new AutoComplete a welcome addition. You just start typing – and AutoCAD will present you with a myriad of commands and system variables that start with the same characters (a definite time saver). The in-canvas viewport controls allow you to quickly setup a viewport configuration, shift to a different viewing angle, or change your visual style.

The visual appeal of a well-designed map created in GIS can blind many to the treasure within. It can also lead people to believe all we are doing is making pretty maps. If you're working for an agency that still doesn't “get” GIS, how can you help open their eyes to the true value hidden within the map? Sometimes the best way is to determine a question your agency has always wondered about and use GIS to provide the answer. One question for our city was, does every building in the city have a water meter? To answer this, we simply plotted in GIS all the water meter accounts using addresses from a file given to us from water billing. Then we compared these account locations to the locations of existing buildings. We used the polygons from our building feature, but we could have also used an aerial. By doing this, we could tell right away where there was a building but no meter. And where we knew there was a building that had to be using water but was shown with no meter, we knew something was wrong. Because we also have water service lines and shut-off valves in GIS, we could also see if there was a service but no meter. But any utility could perform the same check even if they had no service or shut-off data.

The mobile market is expanding at the speed of light and Autodesk isn’t going to be left in the dark. They’ve recently expanded their mobile portfolio to include their software-as-a-service platform, Buzzsaw, making it available for your iPad or iPhone. By combining the power of AutoCAD WS (Autodesk’s mobile version of AutoCAD) with Buzzsaw mobile, AEC designers are now able to view their files from the field AND submit changes and alterations to the master file via a secure online collaborative website.

The fourth and final episode of Geospatial Revolution, a public service media initiative aimed at educating us about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think and use maps, premiered earlier this month. The episode, titled “Mapping Power to the People,” looks at the world around us and provides examples of how the global population and governments are use mapping and geospatial technology. Representatives from public sector organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are prominently featured and both offer testimonials to the necessity of mapping in global analysis of crop production, global disease prevention, etc.

For agencies seeking to comply with Executive Order 13514, recent budget cuts have slashed many opportunities to invest in newer, more efficient and sustainable facilities and buildings. So the issue shifts to one of energy management – and the question becomes - what is the best we can do with what’s already given, and reduce our usage to the most efficient level? One option comes in the form of Power Analytics (formerly EDSA), the San Diego-based power analytics company. Power Analytics has been in the business of energy management for over twenty years and counts a range of U.S. military branches and numerous civilian agencies such as NASA among their customer base.

Energy modeling is a hot topic in new construction projects as well as building retrofit, renovation and facility management. Federal, state and local governments are not only holding private firm construction to higher green standards, but the public sector overall is getting increased pressure to obtain higher LEED ratings and to produce high-rating energy proficiency analysis. (Read more in our earlier article: GSA Moves to LEED Gold for All New Federal Buildings and Major Renovations) If you’re a stranger to energy modeling, green building, or sustainable design, here are three resources that can help bring you quickly up to speed on mandates, implementation tips, and future of sustainable buildings.

Assembling, operating, and maintaining critical pieces of machinery are a daily responsibility of maintenance mechanics in the military. Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs), in particular, are a perfect example of military land/water machinery that must be constantly maintained in to avoid potentially serious or fatal incidents. The military technical documents, used for assembly, operations, and maintenance of these multi-ton beasts, are typically static paper drawings. Normally kept in a three-ring binder, the documents are prone to get crumpled, dirty or even lost making life difficult on the mechanics. Needless to say, navigating away from clumsy, static, paper documents towards an electronic system of managing and accessing their technical documents is a welcome change.

To many people, the phrase “Some assembly required” is the kiss of death when purchasing something. If you have bought anything from IKEA you understand how frustrating it can be to put together a dresser or a coffee table using little more than a wrench and a set of visual instructions. In most cases there is not a ton of pressure riding on the person who is assembling IKEA furniture, but what if you had to assemble, or operate, or maintain a critical piece of machinery that was responsible not only for the success of your job, but for the lives of your coworkers. This is the case for operations and maintenance mechanics in the military.