Posts Tagged UK

BIM “Unstoppable” says UK’s Chief Construction Advisor

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.

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UK National BIM Survey : Go ahead take it.

In the 2011 report (NBS) discovered that almost half of the UK construction industry was not aware of BIM. This was at a time when the government was finalising its new construction strategy that will mandate the use of BIM for government projects of £5million and above. In addition, only 13% of the UK had adopted BIM, showing that it was far from being a world leader in this field.

This is their second survey and the survey will run from Friday 23 September to Friday 28 October.

Complete the NBS National BIM Survey now.

The future of BIM

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UK Hits Pause Button on BIM Roll Out

As reported by Barry Sullivan on building.co.uk

Efforts to roll out Building Information Modelling across all public projects have hit an obstacle after a key government report on the effectiveness of the software has been met with a three-month delay. An independent report into the effectiveness of BIM on a number of pilot projects was submitted to the Construction Clients’ Group in March and the government was expected to produce its response that same month. However, sources close to the government said that it was put on hold because of local government elections in May. Paul Morrell, the chief construction advisor, subsequently confirmed to Building that the government response would be released in June.

In other BIM news Trimble joined the BuildingSmart alliance in a push to set standards so developers, manufacturers, etc. can leverage a common BIM thread.

 

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UK Survey Projects 50% Increase in BIM usage in 2011 : + BIM UK Marketshare

“The majority of the market is far from ready, but accepts the inevitability of a BIM future.”  This on the “Conclusions” slide of Dr. Stephen Hamil, Head of BIM for NBS (National Building Standards), presentation.  While the study as pointed out by Anna Winston on BD Online

(The) survey launched by standards and specifications expert NBS has revealed an ‘alarming lack of awareness’ of BIM across the construction industry.

The survey of 386 construction professionals, including 155 architects,showed that 43% were either unaware of or hadn’t used Building Information Modeling (BIM)

So mostly we are dealing with 57% of the total, however, more importantly from those respondents, 31% of those used BIM to a degree, but within the next year that figure doubled to 62% and within 3 years a whopping 82% expected to be working with BIM.  And don’t tell me that 43% that did not know about BIM stays static. Especially, not when Paul Morell  Chief Government Construction Advisor has already stated that he plans to bring BIM into the public procurement process.

Looks like a big BIM BOOM, and if so, let’s look at who is using which BIM authoring package which was also broken down by the NBS Survey.

You’ll see that Vectorworks at 13% and Archicad at 10% take up almost 1/4 of the market.  Revit is at 8% and its second cousin ADT is at 3% (did they not get the memo its now ACA or Autocad Architecture.)  However, more telling is SketchUP at 6% and AutoCAD at 42%.  This is all for producing 3D drawings.  I would think that Autodesk will  push the bundling of AutoCAD and Revit hard in order to further their penetration.  However, look at the chart below and you see that as a secondary package 57% are using SketchUp.  Yoinks.  Maybe just because its free, or its excelling at visual communication but it would seem to me that Google can leverage that position to get users on the Professional Version, or perhaps something else?  But understand that it was included in the BIM conversation.

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On the heels of BIM lag in Europe Report : UK Construction Chief calls for BIM

As reported by Stephen Kennett in this  article at Building.Co. UK,  “Paul Morrell, the government’s chief construction adviser, has indicated that publically procured building projects will be required to adopt building information modelling.” I have included the majority of the article as it is quick read.

The concept behind building information modelling or BIM is that everyone on the project shares the same 3D CAD model to design, build and, ultimately, run the building.

Speaking at the Autodesk BIM conference, Morrell said the move follows government research that concludes that BIM offers tangible benefits to the construction industry supply chain, and value for money to the taxpayer.

He said: “We have commissioned a team drawn from BIM users across the industry, both clients and suppliers, and software developers, to prepare a route map that shows how we can make a progressive move to the routine use of BIM. I am convinced that this is the way to unlock new ways of working that will reduce cost and add long-term value to the development and management of built assets in the public sector”.

He added that the move needs to be made on a basis that is secure, that works for government clients and those who deliver services to them, and which draws on proven means of integrating the supply chain.

The report will be released in March next year. Morrell says he “hopes and believes” it will mark the beginning of a commitment to a timed programme of transformation”.

Phil Bernstein, vice-president of Autodesk who produce a range of BIM based design tools, said the announcement was a positive step and could mark a game changer in the uptake of the technology in the UK.

“We believe that yesterday’s recommendation to UK government construction procurers will drive industry change, just as similar decisions by the government have in the US”.

However, he added that he doesn’t think the UK market is prepared for the wholesale uptake of BIM. “If this was to be adopted in the next six months then there wouldn’t be enough BIM capable practitioners to do what is being talked about however, by creating a set of requirements that will allow the UK market to adjust itself accordingly, will help greatly. A lot of practitioners can spend the next year getting ready for the change”.

Bernstein predicts that the uptake of BIM on public projects will be mirrored in the private sector.

The US through the GSA requires BIM, so that’s US Federal,  states have started requiring BIM for public projects, Universities, and now the UK is on board.  How BIM will be defined will be up to the lobbyists and mind share and quick search using Google Trends between Revit, Archicad, Microstation, Vectorworks, has Revit outpacing.  However, add SketchUp to the mix and it dwarfs all the others.  So A)  The BIM train is coming and B) BIM enthusiasts mock SketchUp at your peril.

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