Archive for category 3D
BIM : Explode Value Engineering : #BIM #AIA #Revit
Posted by Jim Foster in 3D, BIM, Revit, ROI, Uncategorized, Virtual Construction on January 11, 2010
I am not an architect, nor do I play one on tv I simply have a small company that surveys buildings. While that may not qualify me to design one I have had the benefit of being in hundreds of buildings, surveyed them, see how they were put together, and they functioned with people in them, so with this little bit of information I feel qualified on commenting on architecture in general. And before I start I want to say that I believe architecture has the ability to transform and inspire like few other arts or disciplines because I can walk by a statue without noticing it (which I hope I don’t but were all in a hurry sometimes) but tougher still to ignore the building you are entering, or working in or even passing by, however, with that said I am unfortunately underwhelmed by most buildings I’ve been in or pass by, or have worked in. Too often we exist in a world that is value engineered, that is something has been designed to be produced as inexpensively as possible. I understand that, less expensively built; more people can afford to purchase; we all win, fine. Good in cars and televisions, unfortunate in buildings. We live in a center core, curtain wall efficiency that drains most of the fun, awe and art straight out of a building. And if you are trying to do something inexpensive, yet impressive this too can be a daunting task. But there are examples, artchitect turning shipping containers into homes comes to mind, like Adam Kalkin, Another is a home we surveyed designed by Carl Koch as part of community on Snake Hill. Now personally I thought it was fantastically ugly from the outside, looked like a box, seemed kind of cheap but as I entered the house, which still had all its original materials and finishes I was amazed how everything made sense, nothing wasted, coherent, took advantage of passive solar while providing lots of light and a great view, lines were simple, I was impressed but again this happens so seldom.
However, I have hope more and more architects are designing in 3D, even Architects who never once fired up CAD are embracing SketchUp as way to think and communicate in 3D. BIM allows design to happen digitally and with true BIM packages allows analysis and fabrication to build a building more cost effectively and real ROI metrics for making choices. Now this could be used for good rather than evil by providing hard bids on designs that were thought to cost prohibitive before, or proving new designs digitally and communicating them to developers and owners in 3D convinces them of their merit. What I hope is that ‘value engineering’ ceases to be a proxy for taking all the fun out out of a building but instead becomes part of the process that brings 3D digital design and BIM into reality and physical structures that continue to awe and inspire.
CAD Marketshare : BIM Marketshare : Installed Seats : Installed Base : #BIM #CAD
Posted by Jim Foster in 3D, BIM, CAD, economic trends, Installed Base, Installed Seats, Revit on October 22, 2009
I thought I’d share some numbers here since I find it difficult to find them openly out there on the interweb. I included a Market Share Pie Chart which appears to be from Gartner Research circa 2007. Using the 55% AutoCAD figure for the total market share and using the AutoCAD installed base via 2008 of 4,162,000, which is right from an Autodesk Press release, we then can approximate the total installed seats for CAD (2D, 3D, BIM) to be around 7,567,273. However, this figure could be derived by revenue which will distort the total installed seats figure.
If we assume that 7,567,723 figure is correct, as well as the 7% figure for Revit provided by Gartner we get installed seats of Revit to be 530,000, give or take. That seems kind of close to the back of the envelope estimates I was coming up with by getting published accounts of installed Revit seats to be around 400,000 end of 2008, and they were selling new seats of Revit at around 20,000 per quarter, would have them around 480,000+ by the end of this year 2009. If installed seats of Revit have not surpassed the installed seats of AutoCAD Architecture, previously Architectural Desktop, it has to be getting close, as of 2008 there was an installed base of ADT/ACA of 503,000.
Using the report as a guideline they had BIM growth at approximately 12%, if Revit is adding seats at approximately 20,000 per quarter that is a 15% gain from FY 2009. In 2008 they had an increase in revenue from Revit from the previous year of 23%, which could be attributed to sales of subscriptions and on going maintenance contracts above and beyond the 15% I came up with here.
Another interesting fact is that as a percentage of revenue 3D Products and AutoCAD itself were getting very close to parity, with AutoCAD and AutoCADLT at 32% and 3D Products at 30%. I am not privy to how they break out all the figures but Civil 3D, Navisworks and Revit are all thrown into that bucket. So 3D solutions has gone from 23% of FY 2008 revenue to 27% of FY 2009 revenue to 30% at the Q2 FY 2010 watermark.
Some other information I found in an article at Architosh, and I have posted some of it here.
Revenue and Growth
According to JPR’s research, CAD software vendors saw combined revenues of $5.2 billion (USD) in 2007 globally. The CAD software market grew by an astounding 20% in 2007 compared to 2006. Despite a very poor US economy and the threat of US recession, the CAD industry will continue its positive economic trend and will grow to over $6 billion (USD) in 2008. Looking out five years the global CAD software market will reach and exceed $8.2 billion (USD).
2D and 3D
In 2007 the worldwide installed base of CAD users reached 5.31 million. In 2007 the majority of CAD users (63%) are still working in 2D, while 37% work in 3D. However, revenues for 3D CAD surpassed 2D CAD taking 53% of the market. This trend will continue but JPR makes note that not all 2D CAD users will make a transition to 3D CAD.
The article was based on the research from Jon Peddie Research.
To look at the 2007 figure of installed seats as reported by Jon Peddie, of 5.3 Million and a 15% Growth Rate we would get approximately 6.09 Million Users in 2008 and 7.00 Million in 2009.
Hope this was helpful for those of you at their searching for this stuff, and if you weren’t I don’t know how you got here and why you’re still reading.
Summer Thaw, Projects on the Rise: #BIM
Posted by Jim Foster in 3D, architects, As Builts, BIM, Built Environment, Laser BIM, New Technologies, Revit on August 19, 2009
I have always thought companies like mine are like the canaries in the coal mine for part of the industry, like box companies as an indicator for the overall economy. When companies start ordering more boxes they are expecting to ship more product. Our company surveys buildings and provides as builts in both 3D BIM and 2D CAD formats. When times are flush we operate much like others enjoying the benefit, but as projects start to dry up, firms will immediately pull back outsourcing to keep employees busy rather than laying them off. This impacts us greatly. When the economy turns the inverse is true, and firm wary of hiring yet or not having enough stuff turn to us to augment their services without increasing head count. While I might argue that might be a prudent way to do business generally we ride the tide like everyone else. Having said that there has been a very perceptible uptick in business and companies asking us for proposals. More germane to the BIM world is people asking about Revit and asking for more Revit deliverables. A University even asked us after our presentations to deliver their dorms in Revit even though they did not even have an installed seat of Revit but wanted to plan for the future. Yesterday an architect I spoke to said they are now doing 70% of their work in Revit and that clients love seeing their projects in 3D, so even with the economic benefits of working in BIM are real no one should discount the importance of visual communication. This has been a rough ride but I believe more strongly than ever that a fundamental shift has taken place in the building and design community and investing now in training in BIM will pay dividends well into the future.
ASHRAE Issues Grant for Interoperability: #BIM
Posted by Jim Foster in 3D, BIM, Energy Analysis, Green, New Technologies on August 17, 2009
ASHRAE, the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers just issued a grant to Texas A&M for “ensuring that a common language of ‘energy efficiency’ is spoken by the both building information modeling software used by architects and energy analysis and simulation software”. I have not played around with Ecotect or IES enough, but I know it had required separate 3D modeling outside of standard BIM authoring software, getting to a point of seamless data exchange you would think would be a starting point not the end point, but glad we are moving that way.
AEC Edge Premiers: Industry Mag from AUGI – Focus on Revit
AEC Edge just premiered from AUGI. (Autodesk Users Group Intl.) It’s inital focus is to provideAutodesk users crucial information to “be more productive and on top of their game.” First issue seems to deal with all things Revit. 3D and IPD, and Revit in High School, which seems interesting that these deign/collobration tools are starting to far down the education pipeline. The format is of electronic magazine, where you flip pages which seems fine from a user consumption model, but web share model, and maybe it’s me, but does not seem as user friendly as it could be. For example, if I wanted to post a link to the article I just read, it is not readily apparent on how to do so, which seems counter intuitive in web dissmenation of content. Either way worth the read for those in the INdustry. And for AUGI, this is a crucial site and source for anyone, anybeing in the Autodesk Universe. They have provided, at least to me, more answers and information than any other site out there.
OGC 3D Fusion Summit @ MIT
Posted by Jim Foster in 3D, Built Environment, New Technologies, Point to Point Laser Technology on June 22, 2009
This event is being put on by the Open Geospatial Consortium, tough to type, tougher to say but it is one of many pushing for open standards and interoperability. They will be speaking about these issues and new tchnologies. I hope to stop by for some afternoon sessions and our lead technologist will be going so I hope to post on the presentations and findings.
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