Posts Tagged Navisworks

BIM….It’s like Legos

In an article in the Boston Herald Robert Murray, the President of Bond Construction stated that BIM sped up construction by 10%, or in the case of a current project at Boston University, 2.5 Months.  The new building 122,000 square feet in all will be mixed use with restaurants, offices, and classrooms and comes with a price tag of $48 million.   While the article mostly emphasizes the increased speed that buildings can go up, especially important in the academic community to get a building on-line for a new year, how about the cost savings?  You have a full crew off the building 2.5 months early?

“In the future, we’ll build the whole building in sections, not just the systems,” he said. “That’ll be the standard, almost like Legos.” – Robert Murray – President Bond Brothers

The project manager mentioned that they analyze every piece of equipment that comes into the building to make sure it has a clear path.  A giant room size air conditioning unit was checked digitally to see that it could fit.

“At the project office next door to the site on Commonwealth Avenue, Bond superintendent George Antonucci sat at a desk with five computer monitors running software such as Revit, NavisWorks and AutoCad that chelp model the building’s components. An iPad running an app called Vela Mobile lets workers take the 3D model onsite. All of that technology makes it possible for workers to map every duct, pipe and wire in detail beforehand, instead of fitting them as they build. “

“It’s a hell of a lot faster …..,” Antonucci said.

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BIM Gets Wet : MWH uses Autodesk Suite of Products for Third Set of Panama Locks

I can’t write it better than the PR folks at Autodesk so excerpts from the Autodesk Press Release copied below.

November 08, 2011 at 8:58 AM

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Nov. 8, 2011 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, announced that MWH Global, a leader in wet infrastructure projects and programs, including water, hydropower and civil infrastructure, has been selected to receive an Autodesk BIM Experience Award. The firm is being honored for using a Building Information Modeling (BIM) process, together with Autodesk BIM software, to help design the Third Set of Locks project for the Panama Canal, intended to double the canal’s shipping traffic capacity.

To help meet the challenges of the project, MWH Global used a BIM process and Autodesk BIM solutions to address the following tasks:

  • Autodesk 3ds Max Design software is being used for conceptual and detailed design and was used to produce design visualizations to help the client understand several design options.
  • Autodesk Revit ArchitectureAutodesk Revit Structure and Autodesk Revit MEPsoftware is being used for detailed design of the canal’s new lock structures, buildings, control towers and a multitude of supporting facilities
  • AutoCAD Civil 3D software is helping create more efficient and accurate site designs.
  • Autodesk Navisworks Manage software is being used for improved multidiscipline coordination and collaboration, helping resolve design conflicts prior to construction, increasing the quality of the project and helping to prevent costly field changes.
  • AutoCAD Electrical software is being used by the electrical subcontractor to MWH Global for the electrical schematics and panel layouts.
  • For project handover to the Panama Canal Authority, the team is capitalizing on its use of a BIM workflow to capture asset information such as equipment identification tags for inclusion in an operations manual incorporating project models and data.
“The use of intelligent 3D models on the Third Set of Locks project has brought significant benefit to the design-build delivery team,” said Nick Pansic, deputy design engineer for MWH Global. “These tools have enabled a diverse team of engineers — located in five widely dispersed design offices around the world — to collaborate efficiently, helping them to resolve design conflicts prior to construction and keeping project design and construction documentation better coordinated.”
*****end transmission****
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Free BIM : Tekla Announces BIM Sight : It’s all about the data

Tekla BIM Sight Interesting news that Tekla announces a new product for BIM communication, BIMsight, how this differs from Navisworks?  well it’s free, and if you’ve seen people line up for free stuff at conventions, carnivals, playgrounds, sporting events, etc. you have to understand that ‘free’ gets people excited, but free is not necessarily good.  I don’t doubt that Tekla put together an excellent product  but the true value of the product comes from the people using it, trained on it,  understanding and leveraging it, however, dropping the initial price hurdle to well, zero can’t hurt.  It seems that it works like Navisworks in that BIM information is brought in for clash detection and project communication, I also wonder how the data is dealt with and stored; since I believe who ever has the data wins.  That is, your in the Autodesk camp using their products, storing info in the cloud through them, barriers to exit start rising, you start using BIMsight to communicate with your clients/subs/etc. your then living in Tekla’s world.  None of this necessarily a bad thing as standardization brings a lot of good and a lot of productivity gains, ask anyone who develops products for Windows.

However, begs the question, what’s the business model?  As we used to see firms with their core product and developing/purchasing products to surround/extend their offering, and normally charge for it.  In this case, give it away for free.  Does this bring more people to Tekla Structure?  Is there something else at work?  Why do I ask these questions? Probably too much coffee or detective novels when I was kid.  Maltese Falcon by the way, great book and great movie.

You can download BIM Sight for free, here.

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Vela Systems Raises Series B Round : $6 Million from Autodesk and other investors : BIM

“We now have the time and opportunity do things differently” that quote keeps coming back to, uttered by a GC we did work for, and now we see it’s not just HP and Dell battling over cloud computing but corporations active in the BIM space as well.  Press Release Below.

Vela Systems Raises $6M Series B for Expansion, Strategic Partnerships

Autodesk Leads Round; Commonwealth Capital Ventures and GrandBanks Capital Provide Continued Support

Burlington, Mass. – September 2, 2010 – – Vela Systems, Inc., a provider of mobile field software for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, today announced it has closed a $6 million Series B round of equity financing led by new investor Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). Series A investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, GrandBanks Capital and individuals also participated in the round. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Coming off of a record-breaking first half of 2010, this latest round of funding positions Vela to expand and address rapidly-growing customer demand. Vela will use a portion of the investment to help support and expand the Autodesk partnership especially as it relates to bringing Building Information Models (BIM) to the point-of-construction.

“A year ago we announced our collaboration with Vela Systems to integrate Vela Systems’ construction field management software with Autodesk Navisworks Manage,” said Jim Lynch, vice president, BIM Product Group, Autodesk AEC Solutions. “Today’s investment announcement marks the next significant step in our growing relationship aimed at helping general contractors, construction managers and design-build firms streamline the BIM process from design through construction and into handover.”

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