The new Akershus University Hospital just outside Oslo, Norway, is being designed entirely in 3D. The consulting company Sweco Grøner has 40 engineers working full-time to design all the HVAC systems, while the construction work is in full swing.
Faster design with MagiCAD
MagiCAD is the preferred design tool, ensuring pipes, ducts and components are placed correctly and don’t collide during installation. The use of ‘concurrent engineering’ – designing while building – has proved necessary in order to keep deadlines.
Trine Lise Folvik, CAD manager for HVAC installations at SWECO Grøner:
”We were awarded the contract back in 2000 and began designing in the summer of 2001. A project of this size must be future-proof. 3D modelling was a natural choice, as was the choice of MagiCAD for the HVAC design. With MagiCAD, which runs on AutoCAD, we can design all the HVAC installations faster and with a higher degree of quality.
We are very pleased with MagiCAD – there is no better program on the market today. It has high functionality and is very user-friendly. We can work faster, smarter and with less errors. Much of the tedious routine work is eliminated, leaving more time for the actual design work.
This Akershus project is a great learning experience, and we appreciate working with MagiCAD on a project of this magnitude. It will definitely also improve our performance for upcoming projects.”
The benefits of collision control
To simplify the HVAC design process, SWECO Grøner has divided the building model into 75 DWG files, with 9 sections on each floor.
Runar Strømsvåg, HVAC project manager at SWECO Grøner:
”Of course it is easy to get conflicting installations with so many pipes and ducts in the same area. MagiCAD’s collision detection function is extremely useful. We easily find any collisions between pipes, walls, ceilings, etc. Every HVAC installation is checked against the building model. Even pipe insulation is included in the calculations. Discovering possible collisions and other design errors is a great time and money saver for us as well as for the contractor.”
