Posts Tagged BIM
Interioreview Surveys & Models 28 Story DuBois Library with PKNail Pro
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment, New Technologies on May 15, 2012
Interioreview, utilized PKNail Pro, an add in to Revit, combined with Leica Disto D8 laser range finders as the main surveying tool and software for capturing and modeling the 28 Story DuBois Library at UMass Amherst. The structure designed by Durell Stone in 1966 is tallest library in the United States. While intially considering combining LIDAR and creating a pointcloud for the exterior and utilizing PKNail Pro for the interior it turned out the exterior was the easiest part of the job and it was interior that was the most difficult. Every 3rd floor contained 90+ rooms with study carrels combined with classrooms where very few technologies would work well. Nico Martinez, a Project Manager with Interioreview, commented,”Without PKNail the survey work could have taken 5 times, 10 times what it was.”
The project was completed to support the design and retrofitting a fire protection system.
Interioreview, an architecural surveying firm founded in 2003 specialzies in documenting the built environment in both 2D CAD and 3D Revit formats.
PointKnown, a software firm, founded in 2008 develops productivity tools for the built environment / AEC (Architectural, Engineering, and Construction) Industry
PKNail Pro, allows a user to measure and model objects in real time directly in Revit.
Autodesk® Revit® software is specifically built for Building Information Modeling (BIM), helping building professionals design, build, and maintain higher-quality, more energy-efficient buildings.
BIM to Grow at 17%+ Per Year Through 2020
Posted by Jim Foster in Adoption, BIM on May 9, 2012
Recently released report from Pike Research suggests that the BIM market for software and services to grow from $1.8 Billion to $6.5 Billion, or a compounded annual growth rate of 17%+. 2D CAD Market as reported by TechNavio is to grow at 7% annually through 2015. So if I were racing… I’d chose the car that’s more than twice as fast.
Holy Frijoles: Trimble acquires SketchUp : Game on to own Digital Buildings
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment, New Technologies on May 2, 2012
As they say on Sport Center, Trimble is en fuego, they acquired Tekla earlier with a well documented, well established player, especially in the structural space who also released their own BIM product with BIMsight, and now they are acquiring Sketch Up. While all the SketchUp users are asking, ‘who the hell is Trimble?’ The Trimble folks, or AEC folks understand. Looks to me that Trimble is vertically integrating and surrounding the ‘digital’ building. Someone said to me somewhere along the line that “Leica is an engineering organization that has to sell stuff. Trimble is a sales organization that happens to sell surveying equipment” Anyway you get the gist. Makes one wonder what Autodesk will counter with now that Trimble has crashed the party. Seems like Google has decided to give up the building data market and concentrate in collecting every piece of information that exists about individuals instead. That’s too bad because it would have been interesting to see the Google Machine start to digest all that building data. However, the fact alone that they had 30 million activations in the past year has to give anyone in this space pause, then again it’s free, but free works for market penetration. And honestly isn’t the end game to get a project into your ecosphere and manage it from design to demolition, from cradle to grave and Trimble is starting to put together a pretty compelling environment. Let’s take a look shall we:
Accubid – Cost Estimating Project Management Software : CAD based or screen take offs (acquired by Trimble August 2010)
HHK – GIS and CAD Surveying Solutions For Germany and Europe. (acquired by Trimble January 2008)
Meridian – Capital Projects and Major Renovation Management Software (acquired by Trimble October 2006)
Plancal -HVAC , Building equipment and Appliance Software (acquired by Trimble January 2012)
QuickPen – Provides Pipe and HVAC Estimating Software Solutions, CAD Detailing Solutions for HVAC and Mechanical Systems (acquired by Trimble March 2009)
Tekla – Building Information Modeling (BIM) Solutions (acquired by Trimble
Trimble Business Center – Allows you to edit, process, and adjust data from all Trimble surveying instruments from your desktop
Trimble Connected Community– Web based project management, let’s just call it the “Cloud” based management, at least they should.
So what’s all this Vertical Integration mean? Well Rockefeller or Carnegie would argue it creates efficiencies in the market place, offering you a better product for less money. However, I am more curious to how Autodesk responds. They could argue that Trimble is not a threat because they “Autodesk” are a 3D company, not just focused on AEC. It reminds me of quote from Bob Rosenberg, former CEO of Dunkin Donuts when asked about Krispy Kreme’s rise. This was at a time when Krispy Kreme was hot and expanding everywhere. CEO Rosenberg responded, “we don’t see them as a competitor.” To which you might say, are you kidding me, “DONUTS”, but he followed with “we’re a coffee company they’re a bakery.” And you know what, he was right, but we’re talking about the ownership of buildings in the digital domain, that’s big.
So we see a hardware company, Trimble, acquiring a lot of software. Would Autodesk start to acquire hardware. Although back in the day one of their product managers told me, “we don’t do hardware.” I expect to see more acquistions down the road. FARO, a publicly traded company at about $1 billion could be interesting. Where are the gaps in the portfolio? What’s next?
UK Putting Wrapper around 5D BIM : RICS Publishes Little Black Book and NRM
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on April 30, 2012
The RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) took a step forward in putting a wrapper around the 5th D of BIM (Cost) with the publication of the New Rules of Measurement (NRM) included with the Black Book, the QS and Construction Standards.
the NRM suite provides a common measurement standard for cost comparison through the life cycle of cost management. The suite has been developed as a result of industry collaboration to ensure that at any point in a building’s life there will be a set of consistent rules for measuring and capturing cost data, thereby completing the cost management life cycle and supporting the procurement of construction projects from cradle to grave. A better understanding of costs during the construction process will increase certainty for business planning and support a reduction in spending on public and private sector construction projects in the long run.
You can read more on the Property Wire
Open Source IFC Authoring Tool
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, IFC on March 30, 2012
Can this really happen? The Intellicad Consortium did it with Autocad and .dwg, so much so that Autodesk countered with RealDWG. How about a generic IFC model that can be digested by all BIM packages, or imported directly for Energy Analysis. And before anyone states that all BIM packages can import IFC, you ever try to round trip an IFC model, that is export it to IFC, from say Revit, and then import that same IFC model, does it look the same, behave the same?
How about a system evaluated solely on its feature set, in fact, what it can do to the model becomes more important than the modeling itself. Now that would be a nice arms race, who could offer better compatibility between programs, offer programs and add-ons, come up with a real server centric model that wraps in all the subs in a coherent and logical way. No more design model, model for constructability, model for FM. One where any updates are integrated to the model and available.
Where is the Linux of the AEC world?
Open BIM? Who really has a vested interest in the care and feeding of an open platform?
Posted by Jim Foster in Autodesk, BIM on March 14, 2012
So straight out of Budapest….and Boston comes the PR Release of Open BIM. I am for Open BIM, I love the idea of working in a platform agnostic environment and make the building all about the data not the platform, however, when Open BIM is made up of a consortium of companies that have a vested interest in the process, such as Nemetshek, Tekla and Trimble at least the antennae are going to go up.
“Open BIM Programme is a marketing campaign initiated by GRAPHISOFT®, Tekla® and other members of buildingSMART® to urge and facilitate globally coordinated promotion of the Open BIM concept throughout the AEC industry, with aligned communication and common branding available to programme participants.” This is taken right from the buildingSMART website. Now buidlingSMART appears to be the outgrowth of the IFC initiative which was started by Autodesk in 1994, however, Autodesk now does not appear to be a part of this? Why not?
I think fighting against the hegemony of the Autodesk dreadnaught is okay but one has to a question an open standard in this space. As far as I know there is no open source BIM authoring tool, which would be super cool; so then who has a vested interest in the ‘open’ standard and supporting it? I know if I have an ancient CAD file I can still open it in AutoCAD because you have a for profit company investing in itself and it’s long tail, open standard? Not sure if it works. Would I be able to open a file that was saved in an IFC format twenty years from now? I can still open a Revit file that is 7 years old. Is this a capitalism vs. socialism equation? I would not go that far but there is a whole lot invested in software to design/manage buildings digitally so what does Open really mean in this case besides just a ‘marketing campaign initiated from Graphisoft…” As my dad always says, usually when you want to know the motivation for something, “follow the money.”
I’ve written about this before and I think in the ideal world the building, the BIM, is open and people just write apps for the model, as current apps put a nice wrapper around open data so can BIM apps. Need energy analysis, buy the app, space management, buy the app but the initial creation and file formatting lies in the BIM authoring tool, Revit, Archicad, etc. How does the centralized BIM server model work when changes are made, etc. and what file format is it kept in that will have the legacy to support it? Perhaps after the building is designed or existing building is captured in a BIM platform it can be translated into the IFC, whathave you, open platform and then becomes the defacto standard for existing buildings (EB), but during the design process? There are a lot of people with a vested interest to keep it in their ecosystem. Who will invest, support and nurture an Open BIM standard and to what end?
Residential BIM……..there you are
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, New Technologies on February 15, 2012
So a recent article at Constructech, A Platform for Residential BIM, got me to digging. Mostly, it outlines how Instinct Residential Design System is gluing together a variety of systems to create and integrated model and delivery system. Yeah I said glue. We saw Autodesk’s recent acquisition of Horizontal Glue and from their site, Glue…
- One central repository that manages models across all trades
- No interoperability and file format exchange issues
- Exchanges between BIM and Project Management Systems
- Integrated building model version control
And while the Instinct web site serves up the more generic reasons for why to use BIM, they could probably take Glue’s bullet points above and paste them in because of they have bolted together a variety of products including VisonRez, which is from AmeriCAD and runs on an Autodesk backbone, which was ADT (Architectural Desktop) now Autodesk Architecture and has the benefit of of Autocad familiarity. It also includes VIEW, hsbCAD and Intellibuild compatibility into the bundle. Changes in the model can be driven through to all stakeholders. Changing components allows wall systems to be verified, HVAC and plumbers to reroute and get the right stuff on the truck. Sounds just what you want out of a centralized model and one of the pillars of BIM.
Side Bar
When people think of BIM, they don’t necessarily think of ADT (Architectural Desktop) / AutoCAD Architecture but no one should be surpised that ADT has such a long tail. I know and liked the package and it is easy to draft in, and uses the same commands as Autocad. Also I’ve been in meetings and conferences where the BIM sales team throws the same companies CAD and/or “older” offerings under the bus. I don’t think denigrating anything is the way to sell and if this solves a problem, gets people working on the same page, reduces errors and changes, centralizes the model, well all right. BIM is a big tent and it’s a way of thinking and integrating, it is not any one software platform. Why use a crow bar to open a door when you have the key. What’s the key people? That’s key.
It’s Alive : Buildings, Biology and Biomimicry
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM, Built Environment, New Technologies on January 26, 2012
So there is an excellent article recently posted on the Smart Planet titled The buildings are alive: in biology, designers and architects seek answers , well worth the jump and the read. Essentially it focuses on how the built environment is incorporating designs from nature for better efficiency. From cooling techniques of termite mounds used in the Eastgate Center in Harare, Zimbabwe to bioluminscent paint that could provide free lighting.
Eastgate Centre uses fans to move cool night air through chambers under office floors, which can be sent through the building during daytime heat. The building is cooled at one-tenth the cost of structures with old fashioned, energy-sucking air conditioning.
Lighting giant Phillips released details of their new bio light. Essentially “a wall of glass cells containing a live bacterial culture that emits soft green light by bioluminescence.”
“Professor Neil Spiller, an architect and the new head of the University of Greenwich’s School of Architecture & Construction, said the research team was looking at methods of using responsive protocells to clad cities in an ethical, green and sustainable way.” ‘We want to use ethical synthetic biology to create large-scale, real world applications for buildings,” he says. Such cells could be affixed to buildings to capture carbon and they envision creating buildings that are carbon negative.
This notion of how to do things has spawned a whole new field of architecture” Biomimetic Architecture. Also how do we create building built of more recycled material and material that is recyclable. Why not take our cue from things that have evolved over millennia to adapt to their environment or been designed through divinity. Either way you look at it: good choice.
BIM “Unstoppable” says UK’s Chief Construction Advisor
Posted by Jim Foster in Adoption, BIM on January 23, 2012
As reported on the CIMCIG (Certified Institute of Marketing – Construction Industry Group) blog, yes I’ve been to the site. The Government Chief Construction Advisor Paul Morrell described BIM adoption as “unstoppable” . This took place at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Construction Industry Group Chairman’s debate. No one at the meeting disagreed with him but rather focused on the practicalities of its implementation.
The choice of software system is one risk. Mike Sheehan of WSP pointed out that there is still much work to be done developing BIM compliant software that is genuinely fit for purpose and no-one wants to be the organisation supporting the Betamax of the BIM world.
Interesting point there when couched in that language, which technologies will be the VCR and which ones will be the Betamax? Remember the old saying “you never get fired for choosing IBM” This is part of the FUD (Fear Uncertainity and Doubt) Marketing principle which might prevent the buyer from considering anything else than the market leader. So makes it very important to be the market leader, but I’m getting off point. Point being that the BIM tide is rolling.
Ultimately, the decision to embrace BIM will be leap of faith for each organisation. In answer to a question about proving the business case for implementation, Paul Morrell reflected: “Can I be bothered to do the business case? I remember when we voted on whether we wanted to move to email. The investment required to so at the time was about £4m and the immediate cost saving was to our post bill – about £100k. But we knew it was the future: unstoppable.”
I think most people understand that we have just scratched the surface with BIM but it is becoming to compelling to ignore or to argue for doing things the same way anymore.
With BIM…It’s done instantly : IMC Construction using BIM on Endo’s new HQ
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on January 13, 2012
Main Line news reports that the IMC Construction is using BIM on Endo Pharmaceutical’s new Headquarters.
The modeling has allowed site and foundation construction to begin while the building is still being designed. To expedite the preconstruction process, IMC is using Building Information Modeling, which aids with estimates and budgeting. The software gives measurements for “square yards of carpet, cubic yards of concrete and tonnage for steel,” Cottone said, adding that if the design changes, the program immediately recalculates the measurement needed for materials. In the past, it would have taken weeks or months to estimate materials. With BIM, it is done “instantly,” Cottone said. In addition, blueprints are sent digitally to the computers on site; no more unwinding rolls of papers and weighing down the corners, Cottone said. The investment in the technology is necessary to compete, Cottone said, but an even bigger investment is in training and that takes commitment by the firm.
