Synchro Now Supports P6 Release 7

Coventry, England October 20, 2009 – Synchro Ltd, a global leader in 4D construction project delivery simulation, announced today that it has released the latest version of Synchro 3.14.3.

Synchro now provides new support for Oracle's Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Management Release 7.0 in scheduling and project management in 4D BIM for Delivery. The new version of Synchro provides "3D resource to task auto-matching" to enhance the ease of synchronizing 3D construction project plans to project scheduling.

"It is important to remember that our journey to Synchro started with an unwavering commitment to enable key business principles and management techniques," said Synchro CEO, Tom Dengenis.

In the late 1990's Sir John Egan in his work, entitled Rethinking Construction, argued that these principles and management techniques could successfully cross-over from other industries to serve the project delivery demands of the Construction Industry. Sir John's vision became more of a reality when Synchro shipped its first global release at the 24th Annual Primavera User Conference in Orlando, Florida on October 2007, where we attended as Primavera's newest Technology Partner Member.

"Since our initial release we have steadily increased capabilities to define BIM for Delivery leaving the dream works of moviemakers and 3D viewers behind. There is no doubt that our next stage of product development will continue to set our users apart from the chimera moviemaker specialists so often found in the market all over the world," said Tom Dengenis.

"Today, moviemaker specialists peddle mirages as project management over the substantive value of project management software that enhances your ability to explore options and manage solutions in the project delivery process," he added.

"Among many new improvements, which include support of Oracle Primavera's P6 Release 7, Synchro's new release improves every user's ability to apply Synchro in construction operations and far beyond the marketing movies of so many other systems," said Dengenis.

The new Synchro release enhances systems integration, increased 3D CAD imports, 4D critical path analysis and scheduling, 4D space and time coordination, automatic linking for 3D model to task facilities and many more improvements to its users worldwide in the project delivery team.

"The Synchro User Group headed by Jim Schrader of Power Construction in Chicago has been invaluable in steering us toward the enhancements that users most value," said Dengenis.

New features in the release of Synchro 3.14.3 include:

1. 3D resource to task auto-matching
2. HOOPS has been upgraded to v17.12 to improve stability on laptops with integrated Intel 3D graphics hardware.
3. The GUI library has been upgraded to include Windows 7-like look and feel.
4. Sanity checks under Windows 7 RC have been performed for both Synchro Client and Synchro Server.

Many other improvements have been made to:

Filters:
- 3D Objects are included automatically in the active Filter on import and synchronisation
- New 3D Filter option: "Show Selected"
- New default 3D Filters: "Same as Task Filter" and "3D by Selection"
- Task filter by activity code
- Task filter by activity ID
- Resource and 3D filter enhancement (to show assigned/unassigned)
- Improved 3D Filter behaviour for subdivided parts

Gantt:
- Gantt auto-scroll on selection 3D
- "Planned Finish" column
- New option to select behaviour on editing Start/Finish times (move task or change duration)
- New option "Create task below selected task" (create siblings in logic order)
- "Create task under selected task" improvements
- New option to bind "Start ASAP" constraint to arbitrary date
- Ability to assign resources to started and finished tasks
- Task ID generator
- Search tasks by task ID
- Option "Unassign All Resources" in Gantt/Task View
- New option to disable "blue" line (today's date) on Gantt

Use Profiles:
- New use profile "Maintain"
- Use profile colour and transparency enhancement
- New toolbar to display and change the active Use profile

3D:
- Create resources on 3D synchronisation
- "Create resources" wizard improvements
- Remove resource on removing 3D
- Duplicate settings from 3D View to 3D View
- Accurate camera settings
- Corrected 3D Object movement by tasks
- 3D export enhancement: export by Focus Time and Filter for IFC and DWF 3D CAD exports
- 3D exact reposition
- Advanced 3D import options: enable/disable 3D annotations, enable/disable empty objects (without geometric representation), limit 3D object tree levels (focused on the rogue "sub-part" level of the 3D data set found in some DWF Models)

AVI:
- AVI dialog enhancement
- New option to show Focus time in weeks only
- New option to generate AVI with high quality texture images
- Quality of generated AVI has been improved

Costs:
- New cost type: "Cost by Unit"
- "Cost Total" column has been included to "Task Usage" report view
- "Project Costs" dialog improvements

Navigator:
- Search by name and copy/paste in navigator tabs

Browser:
- Browser view improvements
- A separate menu item has been added to show/hide browser window like other views in Synchro.

Graphic User Interface:
- New option to show dates in national format
- URLs for companies and resources
- Company types and Unit types are shown in sorted order
- Mouse wheel works in date/time controls

Primavera Import:
- New option to merge activity codes/code values on import from different Primavera projects

Installer:
- Initial check of administrator authority before starting installation
- Synchro Server installer improvement: Possibility to input license information from installer

Note that the license policy for 3D import formats has been changed since Synchro 3.14.3.0: now CAD formats (DGN, Catia 4/5, Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks, Parasolid, IGES, STEP) require a separate license.

The build has been published as a general release to the following locations:

ftp://download:synchro@ftp.synchroltd.com/setupSynchroClient.exe
ftp://download:synchro@ftp.synchroltd.com/setupSynchroServer.exe

To download Synchro, simply click here.

About Synchro
Synchro Ltd., headquartered in Coventry, England, began software product development in 2001 on its construction simulation and task management solution, and has been recognized for its achievements in producing award-winning innovation technology.

Synchro's mission is to deliver software that serves the construction delivery team and that survives the dynamics of everyday life in the construction industry.

Synchro currently offers construction simulation modeling at colleges and universities, 4D BIM and LEED consultancies, architects and more than 100 major construction companies among six continents.