SYDNEY – 28 June, 2001 – 4D Solutions’ locally developed civil and surveying software has gone stateside with the sale of its first licence to the US Army Corps of Civil Engineers.
4D Solutions Water Resources Engineer Rob Graham, who initiated 4D’s involvement, said the company’s 12d Model (previously known as 4d Model) is being used by the US Army Corps, in conjunction with the UNET unsteady flow model, for new flood studies in Sacramento, California.
“The Corps was impressed with 12d Model’s ability to work with large data sets (greater than one million points) and the ease with which water surfaces and flood extents could be determined,” said Mr Graham, who is based in 4D Solutions’ Sydney office, but previously worked in the US with a hydraulic engineering firm and is thus familiar with Corps operations there.
“The US Army project,” he said, “has proved a major and timeous win for 4D Solutions, which is currently appointing a distributor in the US in its drive to establish a stronger presence in that market.”
4D Solutions’ 12d Model enters the US market with excellent credentials from its recent groundbreaking win with the Australian Army’s Royal Australian Engineer Corps (RAE).
The RAE, which needed to implement a common software solution incorporating the full range of engineering applications for its survey-trained soldiers, opted for 4D’s software to provide the means by which all Australian Army horizontal construction tasks would be designed in the future.
Major Brian Sloan, Senior Instructor of Geomatics at the Combat Arms Training Centre – Moorebank, said 12d Model’s very capable and extensible set of applications made it very competitive, compared with other applications. In particular, the ease with which first-time users picked up the application was fundamental to the Army’s training system.
“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,” explained Major Sloan. “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.”
About 4D Solutions
12d Model (previously known as 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 12d Model direct and through distributors.
