The Denver area Metro Wastewater Reclamation District recently embarked on a program to transition their standard 2D CAD method of design and paper document archives to the use of 3D modeling and future Virtual Design and Construction techniques. However, faced with the option of numerous software solutions, Metro chose Aspenhills Consulting to assist them in identifying and implementing the most appropriate configuration for their specific situation.

Metro Wastewater serves the treatment requirements of 59 local governments including all of Denver, and parts of Adams, Arapahoe, Jefferson and Douglas counties. They operate the largest wastewater treatment facility in the Rocky Mountain West which serves 1.7 million people.

Aspenhills Consulting conducted meetings with District team members to establish the goals for the future software solution. Through the discussions that prioritized options into a "must, want and wish" list, an evaluation checklist that all of the various software systems would be graded on was designed. This was followed by presentations by "best in class" software providers who were rated by the entire team on each item in the form. After the software review and completion of the custom checklist the District chose to move forward with two solutions to meet both their model authoring needs and future model data management solution.

The second deliverable that ACI is working with the District on is helping them to put the new BIM solution to use both internally as well as creating standards for future project expectations. This includes working to create a unique internal guideline to help the District staff in the 2D to 3D conversion of their existing facilities, plus outlining a program for the possible future integration of the Facilities Management operations with the model. This guideline will be used by numerous District departments to direct current and future goals that can be accomplished through the adoption of the emerging BIM solutions. The second guideline that ACI is creating with the District will be used to direct external teams on all future projects in the creation of building information models, and to outline the District's goals for the data. The purpose of this document will be to clearly establish, for external teams, procedures that use emerging technologies during the design and construction process. This will lead to an integrated operating platform that allows the District to manage their facilities much more efficiently by facilitating information flow across all departments.

Aspenhills Consulting helps clients to select and implement project and process solutions that meet their current and future goals. Rather than representing a specific software product, our unique business model is to act as the knowledge experts who stay current on all leading software and process solutions for the design and construction industry. By doing so, we can suggest the right combination of best in class solutions that are tailored to the unique needs of each client. We also provide hands-on mentoring of client personnel to follow up on the initial training so that teams don't have to experience the temporary productivity drop due to learning new systems.