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The people, process and tech of design and construction. 

StrXur by Bluebeam tells the stories of the remarkable people, relevant processes and evolving technologies driving innovation in the design and construction industry.  Writers and industry thought leaders including Sasha Reed, Mike Landers, and Ross Ufberg will share stories about the forces and people driving change in our industry. Strxur is the editorial arm of Bluebeam.com, the company that develops innovative technology solutions that set the standard for collaboration and workflow efficiency for AEC professionals worldwide.

Sasha Reed | Nov 25, 2013

Electronic plan review: Coming soon to a city near you?

With all the effort AEC professionals put into leveraging technology to communicate digitally on projects, it is a shame that there is often one major road block that becomes the paper in their otherwise “paperless” project: the local city planning and permitting department. 

Sasha Reed | Oct 18, 2013

A picture’s worth a thousand words… if you can find it

Photographs are becoming more essential to project communication and documentation. Recently, I sat in a local airport integration project meeting in which the owner outlined their expectation for construction documentation. One of the first requirements was to provide photographs throughout the building process.

Sasha Reed | Oct 7, 2013

Bridging the digital divide between the BIM haves and have nots

There's no doubt that BIM is the future of design. But for many firms, finding a bridge to access rich model data and share it with those typically left on the sidelines can be the difference between winning a bid or not. 

Sasha Reed | Sep 26, 2013

Mobilizing your job site to achieve a paperless project: fact or fiction?

True mobility in the field has rapidly evolved from lock-box kiosks on each floor to laptops on rolling carts to tablets and iPads loaded with drawings sets stored in the cloud. And WiFi-ready job sites have gone from “nice to have” to “must have” status in just a little over a year.

Sasha Reed | Sep 19, 2013

BIM 2.0 and Google Glass: Science fiction or coming attractions for a job site near you?

Todd Wynne of Rogers-O’Brien Construction is one of only 8,000 people around the globe granted a pair of Google Glass for testing. Here's what he's been up to with the technology. 

Sasha Reed | Aug 28, 2013

Standards for BIM improve reliability of data downstream, but what does this mean for us today?

I’m encouraged to see progress being made to make BIM more useable and reliable downstream. These are all good steps in the right direction, but how can we leverage this additional clarity today? Does it require us to have all stakeholders and team members in the model to collaborate and share information? It appears as if this is the ultimate goal.

Sasha Reed | Aug 15, 2013

What do LEED and black magic have in common? A project principal leverages PDFs to demystify it for us.

LEED has become a labyrinth of standards which requires a full-time translator and tour guide to navigate. Now with LEED v4 on the horizon, I’m curious to see if any progress has been made to make these standards more consumable and applicable to true innovations within the six areas of sustainability.

Sasha Reed | Aug 1, 2013

BIM and O+M: Are facility managers ready for the 3D world?

Although I am encouraged to see BIM for O+M mandates coming from building owners, I can’t help but feel we’re overlooking a very important part of the handover process: making O+M information easily accessible.

Sasha Reed | Jul 23, 2013

It may not involve duct tape and a stick of gum, but this story would make MacGyver proud

Do you remember the days when running into an issue out at the job site meant embarking on the long RFI process? Somehow we made it work, but the time wasted waiting for information always frustrated me.

Sasha Reed | Jul 15, 2013

Sole proprietor’s success attributed to good ole referrals and some new technology

I recently attended a technology expo focused on software solutions for design firms. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with an architect who, two years prior, had made the move from a big firm to a sole proprietor. 

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