brown-and-caldwell

Brown & Caldwell Uses Consulting Tools to Maximize Productivity in DWG File Usage

Model Performance Analytics (MPA) and DWG Cleaner tools lead to 15% opening time reduction and 90% file corruption reduction.

AEC Water Utilities Rendering

About Brown and Caldwell

Founded with the purpose of being 100 percent environmental, Brown and Caldwell is a leading engineering, science, consulting, and construction firm. With approximately 2,100 dedicated employees, the company is committed to making a positive impact on the environment and the world. Specializing in safeguarding water, maintaining vital infrastructure, and restoring habitats, Brown and Caldwell works tirelessly to keep communities thriving.

The Challenge

Brown and Caldwell faced significant challenges with their DWG files, which are the native file format for AutoCAD. These files were taking an excessive amount of time to open and save, often causing users' machines to crash. This not only wasted valuable time but also posed a risk of losing all project information due to file corruption.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Brown and Caldwell partnered with Autodesk Consulting, which implemented two custom-developed tools to enhance the performance and reliability of their DWG files:

Model Performance Analytics (MPA) - This tool was designed to assess the root causes of poor DWG file performance.

DWG Cleaner - This tool was developed to repair the files and restore team productivity.

These tools were set up in a remote/virtual machine environment, allowing users to continue their day-to-day work without interruption. During the implementation, a total of five projects were scanned using the MPA tool.

The MPA tool revealed that the poor performance of the DWG files was primarily due to Registered Applications and Circular References. With these root causes identified, the DWG Cleaner tool was then used to repair the files.

The MPA was an eye-opener with regard to all the data inside a file. It really brought it down to the granular level.

Brown & Caldwell

Value Unlocked for Brown & Caldwell

The impact of these solutions was significant:

Improved Efficiency - The time required to open DWG files was reduced by up to 15%.

Enhanced Reliability - The likelihood of file corruption and machine crashes was reduced by up to 90%.

Additionally, Brown and Caldwell created a nationwide DWG performance assessment program to understand different trends across regions and offices in the USA. This program has enabled them to identify and address performance issues proactively.