emmerichchristiansen

Chris, do you expect to have sampling at 30m intervals for Europe in the future as well, and what is the constraint, why is the US at a higher precision level? For us it would be great to be as fine as possible. Regarding Google Earth, are there any restrictions regarding commercial use in the context of your plugin?

noise3D online has been developed with small companies in mind that had previously engaged consultants and were now looking for an easy to use tool, low cost and something they could use without contracting experts. Typically, architect staff with a degree of knowledge about noise matters will be able to use noise3D online and create robust results. This includes noise maps which many end customers or offices ask for or want to see. Also, with the tool in your hands you can repetitively calculate until such time that the results meet your expectations, rather than a single or two shots from consultants. This will allow the engineering of better noise mitigation solutions at lower cost, rather than staying on the safe side and incur higher expenditures and building cost. So, definitely a tool for architecture staff and certainly savings in consultant and building cost and expenditures.

A major enhancement release 2.0 of the 3D noise calculation software noise3D online has been released and is available at http://www.noise-calc.com. It is an innovative solution for noise experts, architects, engineers and noise control officers working on noise protection measures, especially when planning commercial or industrial projects. Architects will receive a low cost noise planning capability with a robust calculation engine, a cloud based solution that can be used by the architects independently from expensive experts or expensive software licenses. noise3D online is delivered as a SketchUp (registered by Trimble Navigation Ltd) plug-in. The recent upgrade delivers a much enhanced user interface, enhanced modeling capabilities and a streamlined calculation process. Based on a 3D acoustic model it provides predicted sound power levels and colored sound maps that can be used to simulate and predict cost effective noise protection measures during the planning process.

I would say that I agree with both views, i.e. cloud computing still being a challenge, so mission critical solutions may want to stay local. However, times will see things changing. Changing rapidly. In the business world you can see SAP and ORACLE moving business critical apps to the cloud, and I expect resilience to be much less an issue than still today. Critical success fators will be high availability, availability of information anywhere, information on new devices like iPAD etc, and not atleast lower investment and operating cost.

noise 3D online is now availabe! For early adopters the tool will be free for a six months period, contact information available at http://www.noise-calc.com We are currently developing a new tool called noise3D online which might become of interest to architects, noise experts, planners or engineers which calculates noise levels in industrial context, according to ISO 9613. http://www.noise-calc.com While current tools have to be purchased at quite high cost, have to be installed on PCs or workstation, the new tool will be available as a cloud service. Architect have to have the Sketchup tool (on any type of PC) for input of model data, however, the processing and creation of noise maps will happen server based. No hazzle with complex software support. Results can be loaded to tables or printers, or results can be embedded in presentation packages or spreadsheets. So, it will be very convenient to use, we expect a pretty compelling service fee, and the service to commence in early 2013. As noise experts (certified by German authorities) we are not in the business of maximizing profits, however, we want to offer a tool globally (in line with ISO standards) which works perfectly well in German architecture offices.