The Associated Builders and Contractors is working with software company Autodesk to give members  additional knowledge and training.

The strategic partnership is designed to help ABC’s 21,000 members work smarter by using Autodesk’s construction products and digital expertise to help increase productivity, reduce redundancy and eliminate waste throughout the construction industry.

“The Autodesk partnership is designed to help all ABC members prepare for the future by improving access to resources that will help achieve their goals of increasing performance, efficiency and profitability,” said Michael Bellaman, ABC’s president and CEO. “In this era of connection, Autodesk is the right partner to help construction contractors explore these new opportunities through building information modeling, 3-D design and visualization, fabrication, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile and cloud collaboration, and other technologies now available and those not yet on the market.”

For Autodesk, the agreement means the California-based software giant will gain insights into the challenges the construction industry is facing, officials said.

"The construction industry is undergoing a true technology evolution which Autodesk believes, if fully embraced, will reduce risk and strengthen the economic future of the industry,” said Nicolas Mangon, Autodesk's vice president, industry strategy and marketing. “This partnership will benefit ABC and Autodesk by enabling the people and the products they use to more efficiently construct the world around us from concept through operations, and the office to the field.”