The solution integrates Vela's mobile field software installed on tablet PCs with Tekla's BIM solution, Tekla Structures for Construction Management. When combined with field software and radio frequency identification (RFID), stakeholders in a construction project can manage building components and visualize the supply chain through a 4D simulation in which the fourth dimension is time. The joint Field BIM solution allows AEC users to feed the ever-changing status of the field-based supply chain into the actual building information model.

Skanska Building USA recently integrated the new solution using RFID technology as it oversaw the $998-million design-build project to construct the open-air Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. Skanska used the joint Field BIM solution to capture information about building materials from vendors and merge it in the building information model. The company states that it expects to expedite the Meadowlands building schedule by 10 days and produce $1 million in cost savings.

"Integrating BIM and RFID shows a genuine advancement of project-management technologies," said Stacy Scopano, business development manager of the Contractor Segment at Tekla. "Making critical aspects of supply chain management and field coordination centralized -- and now even visual -- represents a very significant step forward for technology-enhanced project control."

The Tekla/Vela solution is available immediately and is being jointly marketed by both companies.