U.S. Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer awarded $26 million blanket purchase agreement for Autodesk

e-Mail

Print

SAN RAFAEL, CALIF. — The U.S. Air Force (USAF), Office of the Civil Engineer, signed a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with DLT Solutions for access to the Autodesk complete portfolio of software products and Autodesk-related services and training. DLT Solutions is Autodesk’s master U.S. government reseller. The contract value under the BPA against which future task orders are expected to be issued is $26 million over a five-year period and includes access to the following Autodesk products: AutoCAD Map 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Navisworks, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, and AutoCAD LT, among others.

One of the feature products in the BPA is AutoCAD Map 3D software, which contains the complete AutoCAD toolset and provides direct access to data needed for design drafting, construction surveying, and installation mapping activities. AutoCAD Map 3D is a standard software tool for creating and maintaining CAD and geospatial data in the 3E5X1, Engineering, career field and in the Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (Prime BEEF) units. USAF engineers are able to aggregate cadastral, utility, topographic, environmental, image, LIDAR, and asset data; visualize and evaluate existing conditions; perform corridor, network, and site analysis; and exchange information in both CAD and GIS data formats.

Another feature product in the BPA is AutoCAD Civil 3D which provides a surveying, design, analysis, and documentation solution for civil engineering, including land development, transportation, and environmental projects. It contains the complete AutoCAD and AutoCAD Map 3D toolsets. Using a model-centric approach that automatically updates documentation as design changes are made, AutoCAD Civil 3D enables Air Force civil engineers, designers, drafters, and surveyors to boost productivity and deliver higher-quality designs and construction documentation faster.

Today, nearly every civil engineering squadron in the USAF, including the Prime BEEF and the Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer (RED HORSE) units, is using some combination of Autodesk products, including AutoCAD Map 3D and AutoCAD Civil 3D, to accomplish their missions. The products are also a standard for engineering design across the Architectural and Engineering contractor community that supports Air Force Civil Engineering worldwide.

As BIM-based designs are required by the General Services Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the USAF is now requiring a BIM-based design approach for all vertical military construction (MILCON) projects in fiscal year 2011 and beyond. Using the 3D BIM models, the Air Force will be able to leverage design and engineering data more easily as approximately 100-150 unique MILCON projects are undertaken annually across a physical plant valued at more than $250 billion.