Sensat News

The Complete Guide to Visualisation Platforms

March 18, 2022

What is visualisation software?

visualisation software allows teams to layer and interact with infrastructure data in the context of the real world.

As the old saying goes ‘a picture paints a thousand words’— and that is what a visualisation platform is: a real-world digital visualisation of your site enriched with all project data, available in a collaborative platform.

Today access to multiple project data sets through a common data environment is standard, but bringing it into a single, visual and intuitive environment is emerging as a tool set to transform processes. This includes: access to up-to-date real-world site views, viewing design data layered onto site constraints and the capability to have meaningful conversations on specific site points.

Why do we need visualisation platforms?

“The challenge with multiple platforms is tying all this information together in one place”

Within civil infrastructure projects, information resides in multiple formats and software which is often forgotten about, inaccessible or not easily understandable for a majority of teams. For example, whilst large point cloud information might sit in an archive or slow software, other constraint data lives of another software, but bringing it all together is a challenge due to file formats and compatibility.

A visualisation software platform puts information access and understanding at the forefront. Using a single visualisation platform, teams can bring all of their information together into one view. layer options and plans over a backdrop of the real world. This gives teams the context of the real world to better understand plans, visualise project constraints and develop a better understanding of sites.

visualisation software can integrate 2D and 3D site scans in combination with design data, documents, and other information sources. Layering this data into the context of the wider environment enables the detection of potential practical design clashes, earthworks plans and much more. These new insights enhance the quality of both meetings and decision-making.

“Try turning an engineering problem into ecologist speak, and then in common language for Project Managers to understand—it’s time-consuming”

Explaining options and constraints during the planning phase of projects is not always easy. Drawings and documents are often technical and without guidance are not easily understood, can be misinterpreted, and cause costly issues further down the line.

Being able to centralise conversations around potential hazards and present plans to stakeholders is key to streamlining the back and forth between teams. Using a visualisation software teams are showing constraints and hazards in the context of the real world so everyone can understand & communicate project constraints. This allows more information to be self-serve and teams can explain ideas visually using a visual backdrop to work from so that everyone can more easily get onto the same page for decisions to be made.

“Current software is clunky and requires a lot of training”

In order for critical infrastructure projects to come together, several teams rely on multiple different technical software to plan tasks. Often this technical software requires specialist licensing and training with the information being inaccessible to a majority of teams, leaving insights easily hidden.

It is a platform designed to be easily accessible and understandable for everyone involved in a project. visualisation software is removes traditional hurdles of requiring technical skill to either access data sources or to put them into an understandable context. All that is needed is a computer with an internet connection.

Sensat’s visualisation software: Data sets including Real Estate design plans and underground utilities overlaid in situ of the real-world environment.

The evolution of data visualisation software

Over the last decade, several players have emerged in the CDE space. Its use case has been clear: teams and projects need a ‘Single source of Truth’ for all project data. While this brought tremendous opportunity for the construction industry new challenges emerged because of it. For example: how do data sets interact with the real-world environment and how do plans align with what’s happening on-site?

The need for a better relationship between site data, design plans and the real world has prompted the need for a platform to be able to view it all.

Data explosion: How to make sense of it all?

With the explosion of data (and the tools to manage it), gaining clarity to make decisions with confidence can be difficult. Data is worth nothing if it just sits there, and housing it in different places and systems can lead to largely disjointed processes and practices. What causes barriers to accessing data:

Ask yourself, “Have I experienced any of the following when trying to access data?”:

Requires licensing which is expensive
Not having the required technical software training
Needing specialist equipment or software
Can’t access proprietary file formats
Don’t have access to the data I need as not all team members use the software

If the answer is ‘yes’, there’s an opportunity to optimise your data usage and therefore your decision-making.

Today the infrastructure industry relies on several fundamental softwares to store and assess different data sets. Think site telemetry and surveys, engineering and design files, to programme controls data. As a result, the communication of information is reliant on those who can access, read and relay it.

Offline communication: slow decision making

Large project scales of today make manually digitising a site and extracting key information a time-consuming process. Still today, blueprints, documents, and updates are documented on paper, manually transferred around or conveyed via phone calls.

On top of that, the following picture might sound familiar: some data streams are only accessible by information gatekeepers. They need to retrieve information from several repositories in order to further pass it on before insights can be derived from it (if the data is still accurate).

It might not be obvious but a system like this is riddled with information silos. This leads to errors and rework later down the pipeline causing an increasingly smaller profit margin on a project. With high volumes of traditional form filling, paper worksheets and data stuck on hard drives, a more effective approach to updating and communicating site progress is needed

The solution: empowering teams & people

By now it’s clear that team and data silos cause barriers to identify project risk in time causing costly mistakes. Empowering teams, by implementing a healthy data culture is the solution. By that, we mean: encouraging teams to put data into the hands of those who need it and use it in all their decision-making. It starts by providing teams with a platform that is accessible to all, and puts data into an understandable context. With a visualisation platform, access is unlimited and for everyone. And by layering all (technical) data over a backdrop of the real-world, it enhances data context for everyone to understand.

Secondly, to break down team silos all members should be enabled to communicate effectively about their site and work streams. This is a second focus for visualisation platforms with tools such as dropping comments on specific site locations, tagging people and adding other files will help you do that. The best part: there are no extra technical skills required to make use the software, it is intuitive and people can just log on and get started.

Sensat’s platform can visualise over-head line models, visualised amongst the real-world environment for desktop assessment.

What’s next with visualisation software?

Having put all project information into the context of the site and having effective conversations in one platform, unlocks more benefits as well.

Get stakeholders on board with compelling visualisation

By navigating the digital representation of your project, you can surface the right information during stakeholder presentations. This makes it immediately understandable for the audience. How? Provide your audience with a 3D spatial sense by pivoting the screen every which way. You can visualise line-of-sight assessments or the interaction of tree heights with your design plans.

“Whereas before, minor changes to the design could mean several weeks or months of backward and forward communications between architects, engineers and owners across several platforms, tools and systems, insights into the effects of changes can now be visible to all the necessary stakeholders almost instantaneously.”

—James Dean, Sensat Founder and CEO.

Improving site visit frequency & safety

With tools for analysis like volumetric measurements, distance and height metrics, we allow project contributors to make quicker design, earthwork and site decisions without needing to travel to site constantly. Moreover, you can improve site inductions by providing new site visitors with access to a 3D digital replica of the site enabling the visitor to get a feel for the site, its constraints and points of interest enhancing the safety measures of site inductions.

Monitor project progress over time

Sensat’s visualisation software contains a timeline functionality. Imagine scrolling back in time and visualising site changes and project progression on a month-by-month basis. Whilst the use cases of such a timeline are various, one worth mentioning is that of assurance: how is the project and its individual components progressing over time?

Ultimately, visualisation software unlocks the true value of data by connecting individuals with the data needed to make informed decisions and spot risks early.

How others are using visualisation software

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