Revit Architecture: 3D’s answer to floor plans

Over the past few years Andy Jackson has been developing his skills with Revit. In order for clients to carry out their 3D design work on existing buildings they need our surveys in 3D. We firmly believe that the future of measured building surveys is not just 3D, it is "intelligent 3D".

Using Revit we are now producing 3D surveys that utilise a parametric design engine, enabling any element on our surveys to be altered once it has been created. The Revit model is produced with the involvement of the surveyors that measured the building, ensuring the quality of the finished model.

For Revit users the benefits of this service means that you do not have to create your models from 2d plans (although we can do 2d conversion as well), meaning that the architects time is now freed up to do what they do best – designing.

More on Revit 

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3d Model of Salford Museum 

View 3D Model

Visuals using Mental Rays render engine.

Monu-mental Visuals with Revit’s new render engine: Mental Ray

Autodesk has now replaced Accurender with Mental Ray meaning we can now produce photo-realistic images for your visualisation needs.

View More Renderings

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Going Underground

Bury Associates now offer Underground Utility Service Tracing. We are able to provide an accurate and detailed plan of all detectable underground services within a specific site using techniques such as Radio Detection Scanners and Ground Penetrating Radar. We recently produced a Topographic & Underground survey of the extensive headquarters of West Mercia Constabulary, near Worcester.

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Surveying your site from outer space

We continue to invest in the latest survey technology, A typical example of the cutting edge equipment we use is our Trimble VRS (Virtual Reference Station) GPS. VRS gives us centimetre accurate Ordnance Survey grid and datum co-ordinates instantly. The Trig Pillars we all know and love, situated on hilltops around the country have been replaced by a network of OS GPS base stations. Our surveyors are equipped with a receiver that collects data from the GPS satellites and, via an internet link over the mobile phone network, corrections are received using data from the OS’s base stations. And that’s just one of the clever bits of technology we use in carrying out surveys for our clients!

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Trimble VRS GPS system

A railway survey with a difference!

As well as the services outlined in this newsletter, we can always come up with a solution for any measuring problem. One of our more unusual enquires last year was from a long established client who is also a model railway enthusiast. In his back yard he has an HO scale train set winding its way through a model of the Canadian Rockies! He needed a plan of the layout showing the route and the track gradients for an article in a model railway magazine. We came up with the idea of mounting a small target on the back of a railway truck and surveying its position with one of our £20000 instruments as it moved around the track. Not hugely dissimilar to techniques we have used previously on real, full size railway tracks – but this was a rather safer environment to work in! 

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Good Lord’s – I’ve seen the light !

Following the comprehensive topographical and measured building survey we carried out at Lord’s Cricket Ground we were asked to carry out a further survey for new floodlights at the ground.

In order to allow evening matches to be played Lord’s is adding 6 retractable floodlights that can be quickly erected when required. We carried out detailed surveys of each base position and surveyed the extent any potential obstacles, such as tree canopies, that could effect the deployment of the lights. Sections through the stands were surveyed and all the information was related back to the pitch position. So next time you are watching a floodlit match at Lord’s, don’t forget that you can only see what’s going on thanks to Bury Associates!

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Lord's Cricket Ground

What a Corker

Earlier this summer (you know…summer – that time of year when the rain is slightly warmer!) we received an email from a small wine producer near Bordeaux asking if we could survey his hillside vineyard so they could design a new drainage system, and produce a survey of his neighbour’s extensive riverside property for landscaping. Purely due to the complexity of the task, Steve Bury decided he had best do this job himself, so off he flew to France with a large collection of survey kit entrusted to the infamous French baggage handlers. After suffering lunches of Pate Fois Gras, some of the finest wines known to man and being driven around all week in a Bentley, he returned tanned and slightly more portly to process the survey and catch up with the week’s paperwork.

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Bury Associates gets arty

Bury Associates have surveyed buildings as diverse as museums, small houses, care homes, shops and offices over the last few months.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery is due for a major refurbishment and Bury Associates were commissioned to carry out a complicated Measured Building Survey of the site. As well as providing highly detailed floor plans, internal elevations and sections, a 3D CAD model of the whole building was generated from the survey.

To assist another client in their design process, we were commissioned to carry out a comprehensive survey of Cheltenham Museum & Art Gallery, which is also lined up for a major improvement program over the next few years.

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Pole Position for Bury Associates Surveyors

After completing a survey around the Jaguar Plant in Coventry, Phil Tapp &Paul Levett had an exclusive tour of recent Formula 1 cars and the powerful XJ220 road car.

It had to be pointed out to them that these vehicles did not have sufficient boot space for surveying kit, so they were not suitable for company use!

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Formula 1 cars at Coventry's Jaguar plant.

Licensing Act Plans

We are producing Licensing 2003 Act plans for Wyevale Garden Centre’s across the country, as well as for the expansion at Daylesford Organics across London.

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Express delivery of site plans for major distribution company

Our surveyors have been travelling the length & breadth of the UK to produce site plans showing adjacent water courses for hundreds of depots of one of the world’s leading courier & distribution company. Sites as far north as Inverness and down to the tip of Cornwall have been completed so far, with many more currently underway.

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Surfs Up

The weekend of the 20^th September, saw Bury Associates take its annual trip to Rhossili on the Gower peninsula where activities included surfing, canoeing, kite buggies and boarding, and the finest steaks Wales has to offer.

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