Amana Contracting & Steel Buildings Increases Speed to Market

Amana Contracting & Steel Buildings Increases Speed to Market with Autodesk BIM Software

Design-Build Contractor Adopts BIM to Enhance Competitive Edge by Producing High-Quality Documentation and Improving Customer Service

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 12, 2013 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced that Amana Contracting & Steel Buildings (Amana) has fully implemented building information modeling (BIM) into its engineering practice. Amana is a leader in designing, constructing and commissioning commercial and industrial buildings in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. By adopting Autodesk BIM technology, Amana has accelerated its drawing production time by over a month.

Autodesk Building Design Suite 2013 (Photo: Business Wire)

The company had been using AutoCAD software successfully for many years, but needed to speed up design while maintaining the accuracy, productivity and quality of final documentation. Working closely with Autodesk partner Omnix International, Amana has adopted Autodesk BIM software products, including Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP and Autodesk Revit Structure. This BIM technology helps create essential project information, accurate floor plans, elevations, sections, quantity takeoffs, area calculations and schedules – and much of the work is automated. The software allows architects, structural engineers and builders to work from a single integrated digital model that contains all information essential to the project.

“Amana's decision to shift from AutoCAD to Autodesk BIM has already produced positive results for us,” said William Bsaibes, Green Initiative Manager - LEED AP BD+C, Amana Contracting & Steel Buildings. “To date, we have seen an improvement in our productivity as we have saved four to six weeks from our drawing production. The new solution has also allowed our Quantity Surveying department to finalize quantities faster and with more accuracy. The use of BIM technology gives us a competitive edge by producing high-quality documentation, shorter production cycles and an improved approach to servicing our clients.”

Autodesk BIM software has allowed Amana’s architects to link a project's structural model into the architectural model, thus directly seeing the structural components on the drawings - resulting in a tighter integration between structure and architecture departments. The use of BIM technology has allowed Amana to make better-informed decisions and also create stronger ties with its clients.

“We are pleased with the successful results of our BIM software implementation for Amana. We are also confident that its stakeholders, partners and customers will benefit from the Autodesk BIM platform advantages of efficiency, accuracy and quick results delivery,” said Dr. Jayant Deshpande, Director - CAE, Omnix International.

Amana expects that its operations and development for projects in the United Arab Emirates will be strengthened by BIM, given the demands for sustainable construction and Estidama (Pearl Rating) guidelines. Amana is currently training and involving more of its staff in the use of Autodesk BIM technology, as well as planning to rollout the solutions across its Gulf Cooperation Council branch offices.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries -- including the last 17 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects -- use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130212005082/en/