Preamble #
As professional engineers, we all want our civil works design to be professional– safe and developed within a reasonable budget. We also want to produce our design fast so that we can make a good impression with our ever demanding clients.
And on top of it, we want to ensure that our team– regardless of how junior they are– can be as productive and as diligent as the most senior person.
Therefore, investing in a good design tool is of paramount importance. In this case study we see how Prestasi Perintis utilizes MiTS 2, the flagship program for MES Innovation Sdn Bhd and the most used civil works software in Malaysia, to help them in completing their design works with faster turnaround time, lesser errors and better work life quality for the engineers. We would like to thank Farhan and Nordiana for sharing the stories with us!
How MiTS helps #
Out of many features, MiTS 2 stands out in the following area:
Integrated design with comprehensive reports #
Engineers deal with design changes all the time; it’s not uncommon that the design goes through a few dozen rounds of iteration before the actual construction begins. All the changes will cascade down the line. Just to take an example, when one changes the platform levels, one has to also change the drains and other pipe utility levels to suit the new platform levels.
So what are you going to do if you are stuck with only drafting tools and spreadsheets ( or even worse, a pen and paper)? You have no choice but to go through the key plan and redraw the entities, and rekeying the spreadsheets with updated values, and you have to make sure that you stay vigilant during the whole mind numbing process lest you make careless mistakes that render the design wrong and unsafe. Doing this kind of design by hand is tolerable on the first try, and a good way to train the new engineers, but after a while it becomes a chore to be dreaded.
(Just wonder, is this a contributing factor to the high turnover rate in local consulting engineering firms?)
We understand the pain points of engineers, that’s why MiTS software is fully integrated; you just have to change the entities at the source and the rest will be updated automatically. It saves your sanity, and gives you the time to play with your kids after work.
We also understand engineers’ tendency to “trust, but verify” the software output. Therefore we have comprehensive reports that help you to reproduce the results of the software output via manual calculation.
Real time error detection with Real time verification #
MiTS implements real time verification to detect modeling issues and to inform users of the limitation of the software instead of just crashing silently and causing a panic attack ( No, it’s not always the user’s fault if the software crashes, it’s always the fault of the software itself). It’s a feature that Prestasi Perintis is particularly cherished,as it saves them many hours in total.
No real time verification means that the software can crash due to bad inputs, which is still manageable though a bit annoying. The worst case scenario is that the software will still merrily proceed to the end and generate bad, underdesigned results. Engineers, due to time constraints or maybe even lack of experience, may not always be there to catch the bad results. Imagine what if– heaven forbid– you submit those under designed drawings and they are accepted for construction? I shudder to even think about that possibility.
Intuitive modeling with Clash Checking #
The benefits of having all modules inside a single application is the clash checking feature. The 3D view in MiTS lets you see everything in one screen– the original level, the designed platform level, the roads and the drains, and also the pipe utilities. It makes the detection of clashes so much easier, and so much more intuitive.
Changing the clashing entities are also easy; with the clashing reports as your aid, you can zoom to the 3D view to see the clashing information, and you can easily change the levels at the spread input and consult the updated 3D view on the adequacy of the change.
“MiTS is AMAZING” #
We were truly flattered when the engineers we interviewed, Mr Farhan and Nordiana exclaimed that “MiTS is AMAZING”. Having seen so much software that was bought but ultimately sat on the shelf and rotted as vaporware, we were truly glad that our users love our software. We do think that they were being overly generous to us, but still, it’s good to be flattered.
What about Civil 3D? #
Prestasi Perintis did try to use Civil 3D; after all, it’s quite a famous software on its own, and it’s coming from Autodesk. But then they uninstalled it eventually due to two factors.
One is that Civil 3D is exceedingly resource hungry; even a simple drawing requires 16GB of RAM, 3GHz processor and 64 bit Windows 10. MiTS, by contrast, still can run on a 32 bit machine, Windows 7 and less than 4GB of RAM.
Another, more important reason is that MiTS is designed for civil and infrastructure works, but Civil 3D is not. A lot of users complain that Civil 3D is running them around in circles because there are a lot of things to set up, and the whole user interface isn’t intuitive at all. We have blog posts exploring why this is so, and it’s not something Autodesk can address easily in the foreseeable future.
With MCIntegrator, one can seamlessly synchronize the MiTS file design to Civil 3D and other Autodesk products. So even for those users who prefer Civil 3D files for final output, you can still use MiTS to speedup your work, and export to Civil 3D at the final stage.
What we are cooking: MiTS 3 #
Stormwater design concern #
One issue that MiTS has is the stormwater design because MiTS 2 assumes free boundary conditions for all drainage and storage facilities. Thus MiTS 2 can’t yet adequately handle flatlands where backwater, tidal effects are significant.
But this is about to change with MiTS 3.
In MiTS 3, we revamp our stormwater engines so that the conveyance (eg: drains) and storage facilities ( eg: OSD, Pond) are handled as one single piece of unit, with the end condition of the discharge modeled properly. Users can set the discharge unit as Freefall ( the default case in MiTS 2) condition, or with a fix water level ( as in the case where your drains are located at flatlands and the river they connect to have sufficiently high water level), or even a time varying water level ( tidal effect).
The new engine will also benefit from an integrated approach to waterstorm analysis. In MiTS 2 software the drain has to function as conveyance and is assumed to have no storage capacity, the storage facility is analyzed as an isolated unit and the software can’t quite cater for the case whereby the ponds are connected in a series. But these limitations shall all come to pass with the launching of MiTS 3 ( Please contact us if you would like to try it out! Free trial is available for serious users who can promise to give us feedback).
Automagical fix #
MiTS 2 brings us real time autoverification. MiTS 3 we shall have Autofix– Automagically fixing the modeling error by just one click.
Auto level adjustment in Clash Analysis #
Users can see all the utility elements– all in one– against the background of You can change the levels at the 3D view itself.
Not only that, you can also adjust all the downstream utilities invert levels in an automagical way instead of doing it one by one. Usually the adjustment of Invert Level is up to the engineer’s discretion as it’s subjective, but we can pull this off and suggest a sensible design automatically because we have enough years of industrial experience.
Conclusion #
Unfortunately, due to the license restriction, the engineers find that they have to wait in queue to use the MiTS dongle, which constitutes lost time for them. Actually this is not a unique complaint; quite a number of users also came to us and asked us what we could do for them.
We do sympathize with their plights, but we also hope that the company can make necessary investments in tools and software. Software licenses, compared to engineer’s labor costs, are way cheaper comparatively, and yet they yield tremendous benefits in terms of the time saved (cost saving), reducing mistakes, design standardization and increase in professionalism for presentation.
About Prestasi Perintis #
Prestasi Perintis main strength is in stormwater design. Their projects spread over all Malaysia, including Johor, Kedah and also Sabah Labuan. They have handled a lot of “tricky” areas that are prone to flooding such as flatlands in Palit Bundar that are connected to rivers with high water level, of which the consideration of backwater effects are of paramount importance.
We are glad that our software is an indispensable tool for them.
