Dive Brief:

• Don't look for it in the Google store quite yet, but Trimble is working on ways to use a Google project called Tango to let designers and contractors edit 3-D room or floor models on the spot and to show what infrastructure will be where on your phone in the space.
• Tango will use phones' inertial systems to rapidly gather three-dimensional data and build models of spaces in real time. Trimble is developing an app called Sketch-Up to let users put materials into rooms and share models from their phones or tablets.
• A second app called Through the Wall would take information from CAD or BIM systems and connect it with models of the room so that users can hold up their phones and see wires, pipes and other infrastructure superimposed on the view of the wall in front of them.

Dive Insight:

Google is still working on Tango, the model-building piece of this dream, and it's not a sure thing that the Trimble applications will prove out and hit the market. The concepts, however, open up big steps forward in using 3-D capabilities in construction planning and execution.