Posts Tagged BIM
Autodesk Posts 2009: Revit Continues to Outpace
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Revit on June 16, 2009
Autodesk released its fiscal 2009 annual report and I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the numbers. First, and most importantly to me is the growth within in their AEC segment. This segment in general posted a revenue gain of 9%, whereas the Revit family or products produced a revenue gain of 22% compared to itself in 2008. I could boldly state that this is proof positive of Revit’s market acceptance, however, this is also an easy to mask would could be lousy performance. For example, if I sold one box of cookies last year, and this y I sold two, voila 100% gain. By seeing the actual numbers you are more likely to come to the conclusion that I am lousy cookie salesman, and this does not necessarily reflect on the product at all.
When looking at revenue by Geography, Revit posted a 40% Revenue gain compared to 2007, and compared to the AEC segment of 26% as a whole. Again comparing it to itself does not shed a ton of light on the subject accept for the fact that Revit is accelerating.
If we look at this on a macro level, anyway you look at it, this is positive. Autodesk could be discounting products in order to maintain top line growth. Do I care? No, since I do not own Autodesk as a stock holder, but am very invested in it as a user/developer. So while a shareholder might be more interested in margins, I’m more about top line growth and adoption, so the fact that Revit is posting better revenue gains compared to the rest of the segment, I’m happy.
Strategically, I like the fact that Autodesk has almost $1 billion cash on hand in cash and cash equivalents, and that they have no problem making acquisitions of companies in their target zone. What’s their target zone? The way I look at it, imagine a building from conception to destruction and everything in between. If you carve out a space in there you are in their target zone. Interestingly they dropped FM Desktop which leaves a gap in their portfolio. The fact they picked up Navisworks, Constructware, Ecotect, etc. shows they are serious in owning this space and that they do not want you to have to leave their product of families to do your work. Hello Microsoft. How this plays with their commitment to IPD and cross platform compatibility will be interesting. IPD is too big a deal to pay lip service too so I imagine they play along, continuing to create value within the BIM and IPD space, and acquiring companies who provide value added tools.
And if you are a Revit user, or thinking about switching over, signs look good that Autodesk has your back. FYI Gartner Research reported in 2007 a 12% growth rate for BIM and Revit is beating those estimates. If I get a bit more motivated I will try and break out Revit revenue from the AEC segement, breakout the % revnue from subscription and divide by average single seat license or average seat license and see if we can get to an installed base #, last time I tried something, and this was very unsicentific I had it around 300,000+. I’ll follow this post up if I get some more cofee in me and can get excited to go through the annual report, 10K’s etc. in more detail.
GM Embraces BIM
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment, Point to Point Laser Technology on June 15, 2009
So I am reading this article on ‘GM Embraces BIM‘, and wondering if I should post it, becuase, well, GM has had better days, but the points they made such as “…GM estimates that they are able to construct a building 25% faster, saving 10-15% of construction cost. And they can do this much safer than in the past, setting industry records on safety.” Is worth mentioning.
I have been reading a variety of articles recently that mention laser scanning, including this one, matter of factly, on how to capture the built environment in BIM, when in fact it can be a time intensive and laborious practice. While we are looking forward to the day when anyone can walk into a room and wave a wand and have a BIM pop out you need to look at the technologies available today, they type of project and what your deliverable needs to be to make the most informed decisions. Many times using PPLT (Point to Point Laser Technology) can be the most cost effective option.
IT Spending down at Design Firms except for BIM
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Revit on June 12, 2009
Recently posted by Jeff Yoders and available at Zweigwhite form their 2009 Industry Survey it stated that while most design firms are cutting their budgest an IT investments, upto 65% will be increasing their use of BIM in 2009. Autodesk had the lion’sshare of CAD users with 81% penetration and Revit leads BIm with 61%.
Revit Rumble
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Revit on June 12, 2009
As a preface to this article, I wanted to say that the employees that came through my business and went to architecture firms to become designers are still gainfully employed despite the multiple haircuts sic. layoffs the industry has gone through. I can attribute that to my acute acumen and hiring skills, although I always believed these individulas were exceptional. Or we can look at the skills they needed in our environment which was always to build, draft and think in 3D, so they both came out of our shop with refined Revit skills which I think is becoming one of the most important skills on your resume, or at least a skill that anyone in the profession is developing.
The AIA in Portland, Ore has put together a Revit Rumble for both employed and unemployed designers to show their chops.
Labor Productivity Declines in the Construction Industry: Causes and Remedies
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on June 10, 2009
This is an article by Paul Teicholz from Stanford it’s older but still very relevant today. If you don’t intend to make the jump the nut of it is the lack of collaborative tools within the construction industry is inhibiting productivity gains. Even as better tools and methods appear their adoption is slow and buildings are becoming more complex.
Typically, as informally described by PMs in the field, after the steel goes up or there’s a major renovation HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc. want to be in first, why? Less problems and issues downstream, no worries if your stuff is colliding with anyone elses and minimum change orders. Compare that to the last one in, who’s chases are now filled with other equipment, who’s runs are compromised by a plumbing stack or HVAC trunk. I’d want to be first one in too.
One of my friends, and clients has a design/build firm. He was a trained architect but got more into the building side. He brought us into document the existing conditions of a residence. We brought it into Revit and he then he sat down with someone from my team to design the proposed. We phased it, rendered it, he used it for a variance hearing, etc.
Now the plans needs a stamp. The architect does not work in 3D so need to export everything into 2D, not a problem since the architect does not work within the Autodesk family of products, I am not trying to be a shill for Autodesk I am just showing the problems going cross platform, so he is going to use our stuff to trace over. We export the floorplans, sections and elevations. He goes to work. Now the landscape architect still works with pencil and paper. Even though we had a plot plan and brought it into Revit so all the grades and current information is in the model, the landscape architect went back out with a transit and paper and created his own plan on paper.
What is the number one cause of inefficiency due to interoperability. “The manual re-entering of data.” This was reported in the 2007 Smart Market Report from McGraw Hill. They also cite :
• Time using duplicate software
• Document version checking
• RFI processing
• Cost of data translations
and it is not difficult to see the time sink this becomes.
Now take the other end of the spectrum. We sat in an IFMA round table at MGH (Mass General Hospital) where they told us they used BIM and IPD (Integrated Proejct Delivery) and they did everything digitally. Scheduled it, collision detection, etc. and they found tens of thousands of collisions on the computer before anyone went into the field. I have seen estimates, and I will try and dig up the source for you, that each collision was valued between $3,000 to $5,000. That should provide enough of an answer as why anyone should switch to BIM. And I keep coming back to what one of the construction mangers said to me, “we now have the time and inclination to things right.”
Wetting your whistle
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on June 1, 2009
Construction Week Online, had this little article about BIM, which mostly just pushes you to read the BIM Journal, which is a great idea all around.
Huge BIM Solicitation by the GSA
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on May 31, 2009
The GSA (Government Services Association) perhaps the biggest landlord in the world recently released 2 solicitations for BIM creation of existing properties and Laser Scanning. 5 years, $10 million per year.
So while there may be a lack of tools in capturing the built environment there is a building demand for these types of services. And with GSA on board this is akin to McDonald’s asking that all their chicken be fed corn and named ‘Albert’, which is to say a lot of companies will be getting on board to offer these types of services, which will help differentiate them, which will force everyone to catch up, which will shift the target of services to BIM.
Heading towards BIM
Posted by coleparker in Uncategorized on May 30, 2009
Here’s a guy heading toward BIM. Clean install of Revit MEP, that’s a good start.
FMJ Article: BIM How It Has Changed FM
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment on May 28, 2009
Methods to Capture the Built Environment
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment, Laser BIM, Point to Point Laser Technology on May 28, 2009
It is estimated that the world wide construction industry is $4.6 trillion dollars, over $1 trillion in the US alone. However, upto 80% of that construction is performed in the built environment. Adaptive reuse, tenant improvements, renovations and the like dominate especially in older cities and especially in Europe. The big question is how to take advantage of all the benefits of BIM in the built environment. There are different technologies at use that I believe are more complimentary than competitive.
Graph Paper and Pencil
Graph paper and pencil is still the most used technology today. Why? There is little or no technology to learn much like going out for a run where all you have to do is put on your sneakers and head out the door. The problem is it is time intensive. The process involves drawing the building and then placing measurements on each architectural feature. When thatis completed you have to translate all of that onto a CAD workstation. Inevitably there are missed measurements and the surveyor/drafter will need to revisit the site, or make an educated guess at what is happening inside the building making it time intensive or error prone. More often than not these as-builts get a VIF (Verify In Field) stamp which then puts the onus on the construction manager to get it right in the field causing work delays as they repeat work that has already been done.
Point to Point Laser Technology (PPLT)
This technology translates laser range finder data directly into a CAD or BIM enabled work stations. This allows the user to build models or capture a building geometry in real time while in the field. By building in real time the user knows if the building is being captured correctly. With real time feedback they know if a room is dimensioned correctly simply by looking at the model, and an incorrectly drawn room will not close. The relationships between rooms are captured and the envelope of the building is determined and drawing on site. Additionally, the user walks out of a building with a model that is close to complete needing much less post processing than other methods.
Laser Scanning
Equipment exists today that will scan buildings creating a dimensionally correct point cloud of a building. Users can query the model to develop features and their relationships. While we dream of the day when these scans can be converted instantaneously into a BIM model the reality today is that intensive post processing is needed to turn them into a model than can be used inside a BIM package. After collecting the data the operator needs to take cross sections of the building in multiple views to bring into a BIM program. They use these sections as backgrounds to build a model so a lot fo tracing needs to be done, inserting another user intensive process into BIM creation. Uses for this technology can be excellent where data collection is difficult or MEP intensive projects. There is excellent case studies (I will find them later and post them) where when using this technology to capture an MEP intensive project like an oil rig retrofit minimized or even eliminated reworking on the site. That all the piping and equipment was designed and engineered off site and fit perfectly. The ROI can be immense when you imagine a full construction crew on site, and the as-builts pay for themselves, many times over.
The Right Tool for the Job
When starting a job a surveyor, architect, engineer, etc. must decide what technology to use based on the job. Many times what is needed is the correct geometry of the building is needed, in this case, PPLT might be best employed other cases laser scanning is needed and in smaller jobs even graph paper and pencil might be best employed. Most importantly is to create dimensionally correct data so everyone working downstream can work more effectively and problems or any other issues are solved digitally rather than on site.
