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4D Model Provides a Common Software Solution for Australian Army Surveyors

Quality Assurance for all Engineering Works

(Sydney, 16th August, 2000) Australian civil and surveying software 4D Model has joined the ranks of the Australian Army's Royal Australian Engineer Corps (RAE).

The RAE needed to implement a common software solution incorporating the full range of engineering applications for its survey-trained soldiers. RAE selected 4D Model from Sydney-based 4D Solutions, to provide the means by which all Australian Army horizontal construction tasks will be designed in the future.

The RAE has a number of units capable of horizontal construction tasks in which the specialist soldiers assist in the design and layout. RAE trains its soldiers to perform these tasks in a war-like environment but also undertakes peacetime construction jobs such as support to the Defence Co-operation Program (DCP) and ATSIC* Army Community Assistance Project (AACAP). RAE surveyors are therefore employed in many outback areas of Australia and throughout the Pacific.

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RAE units use both PC deskstations and notebooks to plan and execute construction tasks. The Army's need to deploy rapidly, and operate in remote areas, demands stable computer platforms that have the ruggedness to withstand harsh climates but incorporate the functionality of the latest engineering applications.

Management of engineering design with RAE had not previously included a common software solution and this resulted in the inconsistency of different units using a variety of applications.

According to Major Brian Sloan, Senior Instructor of Geomatics at the Combat Arms Training centre - Moorebank, this led to a high training bill and hindered the development and maintaining of procedures.

"The real risk," he said, " was degradation in the quality assurance the Army strives to provide for all engineering works. We needed a single common application."

Major Sloan explained that as well as the full range of engineering applications, the software solution also had to incorporate the following characteristics: the interface must be intuitive - this inferred a Windows environment; the data model must be responsive to the rapid growth in information technology; and the technical support had to be reliable, timely and affordable.

He commented that 4D Model has emerged from a high-end Unix environment to NT and has a very capable and extensible set of applications. "With a stable software package, the updates and maintenance should be easily achieved," he said and noted that "4D's speed, even on the most modest of processors, is remarkable. The triangulation algorithms are very efficient and the resulting minimal time complexity makes it very competitive compared with other applications."

Major Sloan said that the ease with which first-time users pick up the application is fundamental to the Army's training system. "Army surveyors must have an intimate knowledge of a number of GIS (geographic information systems), Remote Sensing and surveying applications. The easier the GUI (graphical user interface), the less the technician has to re-learn," he explained. Commenting on the support received from 4D Solutions since the software was installed, he explained that Australia's Army is challenged to maintain a number of highly technical capabilities with a small number of technicians, therefore a degree of co-operation must be achieved with civil industry. "I believe a good technical partnership between 4D Solutions and RAE is growing. Regular newsletters, the sharing of technical advice and a high level of contact between 4D programmers and Army surveyors has helped to build the feeling that the Army has made a good choice," he said.

"Being an Australian company, 4D Solutions is able to be very responsive to our soldiers' technical queries. The benefits of the easy-to-use interface will reduce training time and the ability to re-use previous tasks will shorten design times."

About 4D Solutions 

4D Model was developed by Australian specialist software house 4D Solutions Pty Ltd. It is currently in use at organisations in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the US.

4D Solutions Pty Ltd is a privately owned Australian company established in 1988. Based in Sydney, the company sells and supports 4D Model direct and through distributors.

www.4d.com.au.

 

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