VECO, in a collaborative effort involving several other engineering firms, is working on the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, led by Shell Canada Limited. VECO is one of the growing numbers of large-scale engineering firms to reap the benefits of electronic engineering and design tools.

VECO cites the flexibility, ease of use and the universal acceptance of products such as PlantSpace as the reasons why it has embraced this leap into a new era of plant design technology. As a result of its forward-looking philosophy, it is producing three-dimensional models that can be used to detect and communicate details of highly complex project plans much quicker and more accurately than it ever could have before.

Models were shown to the client using Bentley Navigator. VECO conducted "walk-throughs" of the plant so the appropriate Shell operations and maintenance personnel could check for any construction and maintenance issues that might arise.