BIM in Program Management and Integrated Design

SPEAKER: Shawn Foster, Jacobs Global Buildings

This session shares information on how Jacobs Engineering uses Building Information Modeling (BIM) to fulfill design requirements on a USACE design program, specifically the Battle Command Training Center (BCTC) program. The presentation showcases how a standard collaborative design approach used across multiple building types of BCTCs enabled previous design successes and ideas to be more readily applied to the next project.

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Good recap of the History of Computer Design Tools from hand to CAD to BIM…

Will this be the major change that everyone is thinking it will be?

Give it a quick read.

BIM 101 Overview – From Hand Drawings, CAD and now BIM from Reed Construction Data

An Introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM) – From ASHRAE

An Introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM) provides information on how to adopt BIM tools and applications for use in business practices. This Guide identifies state-of-the-art in software applications and related protocols, along with additional resources for making a transition to BIM.

You have to provide contact info and then download the doc after they send you a link.

It is a good basic intro that might cover a lot of topics that you have heard before, but it is a good resource.  The list of software at the end is nice.

Link to the ASHRAE site

This is an old news item but I never posted on it. It discusses the number of BIM licenses each firm has. My firm (HMC Architects) is number 161. But since the survey we actually have 40 seats now, which would move us up to 135 or so. This appears to be the first time a survey like this was done by Building Design and Construction. There is no survey in the archives for last year.

Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in the survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and nearly a quarter (23%) have 100-plus seats. In total, the Giants (their term for large firms) hold 28,174 BIM seats, with the average firm having 106 seats.

Take a look.

I attended an AIA sponsored local chapter event where Autodesk NavisWorks was presented by USCAD (who happens to be my reseller).  Ray Dube (sales) and Joel Beckham (technical) presented the topic.

Navisworks has four products that make up the family.

• Navisworks Manage provides the main product to coordinate multiple models to keep all stakeholders on the same page and provide for clash detection.
• Navisworks Simulate may be used by those that do not need clash detection, but adds 4D schedule simulation.
• Navisworks Review is for visualization and exploration of the model.
• Navisworks Freedom is the free viewer product.

NWD is the file format that Navisworks saves in.  Some of the tools also read 3D DWF files.  It also opens DWG, DGN, 3DS files, SketchUp, point cloud files, IFC, IGES (remember that?) STL files and more.  There are also opens Navisworks NDF ( files sets) and NWC (cache file)

Navisworks is not an authoring tool.  You do not create geometry in NW.   Opening the first file sets the scale that others will be referenced to.  It handles a large amount of data. Interestingly enough, it does  not open native Revit files.  You have to save it out as DWG or use tools that export directly from Revit to Navis native formats.

Embedded in NW are workspaces that give you additional tools. These are similar to workspaces in other products. It just shows or hides tools.

There is a walk tool that allows you to move about your model.  Gravity tools are there that mimic the dynamics of what would happen in the real world.  If you walk off a ledge, you will fall.  There is also a collision tool that limits your ability to walk through walls.  The familiar “steering wheel” is in there also.

The Presenter module allows you to include materials, lighting, “real people” and more.  Animations are also possible with enhanced features with the Animator module.

As far as clash detection, NW does an area or clearance check around an object.  Revit does hard clashes, when two objects actually touch.  NW goes beyond that and allows for clearances.  By setting selection sets based on object names, the demo quickly showed the number of clashes and let you quickly zoom to the objects.  You can even output a report showing information and images of the clashes.

To enhance the ability to uncover clashes, they appear in red.  There is also a sectioning tool that allows you to slice up the model for easy viewing.

Timeliner allows you to connect time to the display af your model to simulate that projects construction timeline.  As the items are scheduled for construction,they will appear on screen.  This can be combined with an Animation path and saved as an animation.

The demo was fairly good in presenting the Navisworks functions.  Glad I attended.

I invite you to participate in a quick 10 question survey that I have put together that covers the position, title, duties and salary scale of those involved in BIM oversight. I will be using this survey to prepare for my AU 2009 class on BIM Managers.

I need your input.

Please take the survey HERE