News bits

To more effectively use the construction project information regularly supplied by Atlanta-based CMD, A/E/C professionals as well as manufacturers can turn to the company's portable Web-based project data delivery option and management tool for help. CMD Connect is designed to enable A/E/C firms and manufacturers to track and analyze project data by location, size, value and a variety of other parameters for thousands of construction projects.

www.cmdg.com

Lighting expenses comprise up to 40 percent of total utility costs. And with energy management becoming more critical, the energy contribution from lighting systems should be evaluated. A new energy savings calculator introduced by Nashville, Tenn.-based Universal Lighting Technologies computes energy consumption and savings from fluorescent and high-intensity discharge lighting systems.

www.universalballast.com

The goal of the National CAD Standard (NCS) is to encourage voluntary adoption of a standard to streamline and simplify the exchange of information with computer-aided design (CAD) software. This consensus-developed standard incorporates CAD publications of multiple organizations. Adoption of the NCS is intended to save time and money on developing standards.

www.csinet.org

A software tool can help A/E/C professionals develop custom concrete and admixture specifications for projects. Master Builders Material Specification Developer poses a series of questions with respect to the concrete required for a particular project. Based on the responses, the software automatically generates a custom concrete and admixture specification, which can be printed, copied into another document and saved for future use.

www.masterbuilders.com