Author: BIM Freak

Hello all and Happy Friday, time for a BIM thought….

I am on the mailing list for the LEAN Construction Project Delivery Methods – Job Order contracting, IPD, 5D BIM. This morning I received an email for a new post, I felt this post shows the issues we are all having with BIM in our industry… owner education!

Please take a look it’s very interesting to see how far we have yet to go in the client relationship and education of BIM. I think I just had an idea for my AU 2016 proposal.

Have a great weekend.

New BIM Execution Plan (BIMx) done, and hopefully this one will be a bit more useful on projects. When I started at the firm my boss at the time took the Penn State template and simply deleted pieces that he didn’t feel we needed for our project sizes. After 2 years of using that BIMx we developed another one eliminating more information and tried to streamline the documentation. Again after 2 years I felt it was time to work on the BIMx again. The thought came to me after attending the BIM Workshop in Anaheim 2015.

I basically started with the standard Penn State template and reworked it using all the information I have accumulated through lessons learned on previous projects and BIMx documentation. One of the main issues we kept having with our BIMx was instruction on how to fill it out correctly. Therefore I added a page at the beginning of the document that is to be deleted after completion. I also used the table tool in Word, giving ease in deleting sections and adding pages as needed.

In my opinion the one of the biggest failures in a successful BIM project is the start-up. Starting a project, which means prior to starting a model, with the BIM Execution Plan can prevent possible work arounds to accommodate requirements. The BIM Execution plan is meant to be used for setting the tone of the project. I require all my projects that have consultants working with our model, either now or in the future to have a BIMx worked up and sent out. This leads to a BIM Kick-off meeting, these meetings are opportunities to discuss the needs of consultants.

For example: I had a project starting with Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, and Electrical all working in Revit. (this is our 4^th project together) We have a campus project with several buildings, so each building has its own model linking into the site model. The Mechanical and Electrical consultants came to the table with their issue of equipment linking to each building and the issues they have had in the past. This conversation is exactly why a BIM Kick off meeting is so vital.  Due to the early discussion and willingness of collaboration with the parties we have a successful project running in our office.

Thanks to these early conversations and projects that have been successful and failed I was able to write a BIM Execution plan that I feel works, at least for the time being. At the end of the year we will sit down and go over the lessons learned again, and edit as needed.

Autodesk launches BIM 360 Docs to help the construction project team collaborate together more effectively. I’ve always liked the idea of everyone having the ability to access all the documents in project. Seems Autodesk has come up with an answer for lost documentation, and which version is the final version. I’ve played a little with this type of service from Autodesk when we tested the C4R and have found it useful, even just with the internal team. I like the fact the contract can check the objects in the Revit model for information rather than hunting down the document. I think this is a step closer to paperless construction, and complete collaboration between all parties on a project.

It also seems that cloud storage is getting closer and close to free, since this service offers unlimited space for the projects in the cloud.

Being able to check, process, and mark-up documents using your tablet on site, sounds like a huge time saver to me. You can play with the Free version on one project, check it out could be pretty cool.

The next step is to get the pricing of these new tools put into the contract. I believe with education and showing the owner a little ROI success for full team collaboration is right around the corner

In April of this year I was promoted to BIM Manger, and put in charge of the BIM movement in all 4 of our offices here in Canada.  It is pretty exciting and terrifying at the same time, not going to lie.  After I got my head around the new position I sat down and took some steps to help lead the company to the BIM future!!!

The first step is to setup some goals, do a 3 month plan and a 12 month plan.  These goals will help you focus on what needs to be done, and gives you a time line.  For myself it helps me keep going, when I finish one project I know I have a list so I keep the positive energy flowing.

Goal 1:  to develop a BIM Curriculum, I read in a blog about the importance of creating training program for your office in order to develop consistence in education. (I’m sorry I don’t remember the author of the blog, if it’s you thanks, and let me know so I can give you credit).I think this is a big piece of helping your office move forward and making your self visible to all staff, which is a big feat with 4 offices across Canada.

Goal 2:  of course the biggest headache, is content.  Who hasn’t fought with content and making it consistent thru all your offices.  Hopefully after much pain and suffering I will have a post dedicated to how I wrangled this issue.

Goal 3:Start a BIM Hour, this came from an Idea I someone at my presentation in Sacramento said.  He said his office is across America and they started an IT hour so people could join a conversation and get their IT questions answered.  I thought I would take it to BIM, my first BIM Hour saw over 50 people participate.  We discussed Formit and it’s Analysis tools, we took the hour and did a short demo, watched a video and answered peoples questions about using Formit and what our offices plan was.  I received a lot of great feedback and people looking forward to the next BIM Hour in August.

Goal 4: Startup my BIM User Groups, and BIM education series in all offices.  This is something I have been doing in Vancouver for the last 5 years, it has created some knowledgeable users about Revit and how we use BIM in our projects.  Now it’s time to get it across the country.  The BIM User Group is an office specific training during lunch that staff can join and see some cool uses of Revit.  The BIM education series is what my BIM Curriculum is set for.

Goal 5: Keep that office wide training going.  We have several advanced modules in Revit to help users get better at the tool.  It’s a 4 hour training series that runs thru the quarter.

I will go more indepth in my book “How to be a BIM advocate” coming out in July, until then Keep up the passion.

Now that my class is done at AU I can begin to focus on my blog, thank you for all those patiently waiting for my next post.

Another great year at Autodesk University is complete and I rate at as a great time. Of course this was my first ever class I presented at AU:  AS10473 Design Workflow from Concept to Construction Documents.

I had 279 people attend, and most of them liked it – you can’t win them all.

I focused my classes this year on the Owner and BIM track. I heard a couple of really good presentations on what the owner expects from BIM, the misrepresentation that has plagued the industry for years. I will be starting a new series to focus on selling BIM and correcting all those wrong ideas that owners have. It will be a bit of a battle but one worth the fight.

I will be going to some of the clients at my company and teaching them about BIM, and why we offer it. These trips will help form my opinions and ideas on how to walk the walk.

My experience at AU this year was different then the last 3, but was still amazing and very informative.