On This Page:
Getting Started with Projects and Plans
A. Login to ALICE
ALICE is a cloud-based application that requires an ALICE User account to enter the platform. ALICE account details should be provided in advance by the ALICE Customer Success team.
To enter the ALICE platform, use the following login credentials:
- Link to ALICE platform: https://app.a16s.com
- E-mail: Work email
- Password: Provided by the ALICE team
- Click “Forgot password?” to change the existing password
- Please change the password after successfully logging in the first time
B. Project List Module
B.1 Overview
In “Project List,” users can:
- Access to Existing Projects
- List of all projects that you created or have been invited to
- Can invite colleagues to a specific project(s)
- Copy and edit project-level data
- Access to “Trial Projects”: The main purpose of trial projects is for training purposes. After a project is set as a trial project, any changes made can be deleted once the project is reset
- “+ New Project”: Create a New Project
- Access to Product Updates
- Access to “Help”: Search functionality in the ALICE library/knowledge base, raise a feature request, and share your feedback with the ALICE team
B.2 Create New Project
You can deploy ALICE in your project with or without having a 3D model.
To create a new project:
- Click on “+ New project” in the “Project List”
- In the opened window, fill in the necessary information
- Project Name: Main title of the project
- Project Units:choose either Imperial or Metric units
- Currency: Currency ALICE uses for cost calculation
- Project Units, and Currency cannot be modified once the project is created. To edit, users have to re-upload model
- Default Supports: ALICE will automatically assign supports in the vertical direction
- Project Description: Brief description of the project
- Upload 3D Model: file formats include RVT, NWC, NWDs - optional
- The 3D model is optional. Users can create a project without a 3D model and start within the ALICE Non-3D (2D) environment. To start with ALICE Non-3D (2D), do not upload and skip the “3D Model” step
- Project Start Date: ALICE uses this date as the scheduled start date
- Invite Emails or Names: invite team members as Collaborators
- Access Level: choose either Read (view only) or Full (full editing rights) permission level
- Upload & Create Project
Note: ALICE uploads and creates projects within a few minutes, depending on the size of the 3D model.
Congratulations, you have successfully created your project in ALICE.
Within each project, the following information is available:
- The number of Plans
- The number of Solutions
- The number of Collaborators
- Project Start Date
- Latest Update Date
- Filter project list
- Send Invites: review or amend the list of collaborators
- Project Settings:
- Copy: make a copy of the entire project; please note that schedule solutions (represented as dots on the explore page) do not transfer to copies of projects
- Properties: can go back and edit project name, description, and project start date
- Set as training: can set any project as a training project that appears under the “Trial Projects” list
-
- Consult with the ALICE team before setting any project as training
-
- Delete: deletes project; this action cannot be undone
B.3 Transform the BIM model to CIM
To develop or prepare a model that best fits ALICE, we need to understand the difference between the BIM and the CIM model.
BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a digital representation of an element's physical and functional characteristics.
For instance, a good BIM will represent the envelope physical information by successfully designing the exterior walls spanning from bottom to top level, along with all desired design detailing (e.g. sweeps, cuts, etc.).
CIM (Construction Information Model) can be viewed as a “cleaner” version of the BIM, which usually encompasses only relevant information for any specific exercise.
However, for a good CIM, the envelope construction information will be successfully represented by simply designing a simple exterior wall that’s split by levels without necessarily including the design details of the BIM. The CIM can still maintain the metadata of the model, such as area, volume, perimeter, number of studs, and other data.
LOD 100 to 300 (Level of Development 100 to 300) models are ideal for integrated planning in ALICE.
B.4 BIM file formats and workflows
ALICE is based on the Autodesk Forge platform, hence it is compatible with most BIM software.
Currently, Autodesk Revit (RVT) and Autodesk Navisworks (NWC, NWD) are the recommended file formats.
Note: If you are using other BIM software for model development, it’s highly recommended first to federate all models in Navisworks and upload them to ALICE. For BIM software that cannot export directly to NWC, you can export these models to IFC format. Then the IFC files can be imported to Navisworks and uploaded to ALICE.
B.5 Project Plans
- Click on the Project name to open the “Plans” window
In ALICE, plans can be considered different versions of the project that allows for:
- Updating the BIM Non-3D (2D) / 3D model
- Creating alternative grouping and support strategies
- Capturing change management for project revisions
- See C. Project vs Plan Specific Data for more information on what information is kept consistent and what information can be unique between the different plans within the same project
- Open: Open the plan page
- Explore Solutions: Open the Explore page
- Plan Settings:
- Copy: Copy the plan
- Properties: Change the Plan Name and Description
- Delete: Delete the plan
- + New Plan: Create a new plan
B.6 Create New Plan - Update 3D Model
- Click on “+ New Plan” to create a new plan
- Plan Name
- Upload Model: (if no 3D model is available, can skip this section)
- Import from plan: This feature transfers the grouping and support strategies from the selected plan to the new one
- Project Units
- Currency
- Default Supports
- This feature allows ALICE to assign vertical supports automatically.
- Turn off this feature to upload the 3D model without any support assignment
- Upload & Create a Plan
C. Project vs Plan Specific Data
When browsing through the list of plans for a specific project, you may notice the message shown below: “Recipes and resources are shared across all plans for this project.”
This section will showcase additional details regarding what information is shared and what information is unique across the plans within a project.
C.1 Data Sharing Across Projects
As of now, different projects in ALICE are completely independent and there is no sharing of data that happens automatically between projects.
However, you can still use the recipe import / export feature to transfer resource and recipe information from one project to the other.
C.2 Data Sharing Across Plans from the same Project
The table below summarizes what is shared between plans of the same project and what is not.
Note: “No” means that while the data isn’t shared (i.e. changing values in one plan doesn’t automatically change the values in another), you may still use “copy plan” or “import from plan” to transfer data from one plan to another.
|
Category |
Data Type |
Shared between Plans of Same Project |
|---|---|---|
|
Resources |
Crew/Subcontractor Name |
Yes |
|
Default/Base Crew Availability |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Crew Cost |
Yes |
|
|
Equipment Name |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Equipment Availability |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Equipment Cost |
Yes |
|
|
Material Name |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Material Availability |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Material Cost |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Rate Name |
Yes |
|
|
Default/Base Rate Value |
Yes |
|
|
Movable Crane Types |
Yes |
|
|
Movable Crane Positions |
No |
|
|
Milestones |
No |
|
|
Calendars |
Yes |
|
|
Workweeks |
Yes |
|
|
Rest of Plan |
Recipes |
Yes |
|
Grouping |
No |
|
|
Supports |
No |
|
|
Assignment of Recipes to Elements |
No |
|
|
User Defined Fields (UDFs) |
No |
|
|
Removed Elements |
No |
|
|
Adjacency Paths |
No |
|
|
Explore page data |
Scenarios (parameter sets) |
No |
|
Parameter values |
No |
|
|
Solution sets |
No |
D. Help Desk, Knowledge Base, and Feature Requests
In the ALICE Knowledge Base, users can find articles and short tutorials about different functionalities and submit feature requests.
To access the ALICE knowledge base library:
- Click on the “Help” icon on the upper right corner of the platform
- Type the name of the feature or topic you want to find and click “Enter”
- The search engine will suggest the most relevant articles
- Click on the name of the article to open it
- Click on the button on the upper right corner to access the main ALICE support web-page
- On the main support page, you can review the entire article, search for other topics, and “Submit a request”
- Click on the “Submit a request” and fill out the simple form with:
- Your feature request and idea
- Your platform related issue
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