Gratitude: Our Gift to You December 29 '09
As a New Year approaches the horizon, we look forward to new endeavors, new challenges, and new successes.
We are deeply grateful to each of our clients, our fellow BIM evangelists, our readers, and yes, even our competition.
The gift of gratitude and thanks is a wonderful thing; it can be given so freely, yet, when it is received from an honest source, holds great value.
With that in mind, we give a gift to each of you this season: our heartfelt thanks.
Continue to spread the benefits of BIM, keeping open minds and open hearts, in the creation of great buildings. And let us toast together to a future of true collaboration.
We appreciate the opportunity to be of service this past year and we are looking forward to Digital Vision’s twenty-second year of service to the Design and Construction community in southern California.
Expect great things!
The Digital Vision Team
All Together Now December 4 '09
I have noticed in recent weeks that many of the forum discussions about Building Information Modeling contain the word ‘versus’. This accomplishes only one thing: it pits people against one another. In the age of information, we have such a vast amount of knowledge and connections available to us, yet we still resort to limiting tendencies.
In the building industry, collaboration between all disciplines is the healthiest practice and the best hope for the future.
Rather than bickering about which tool is superior, or waging software feature wars, we need to open our minds and change our habits. Many people and talents are needed to build a building, so why not use many tools to design and document that building?
Collaboration and Integrated Project Delivery are the hot-button topics in the emerging world of BIM; and in order for projects to be truly collaborative, we must set aside our penchants for favoritism, and our egos, and make ‘open’ the new standard.
Be open to change, be open to learning and using...
Reactive vs Proactive Approach for 5D Models October 19 '09
While the use of Building Information Models is getting more and more popular, it seems that the full advantage of using the model-based approach for informed decision making when it comes to cost planning and scheduling has yet to be experienced. In my opinion, the reason for this is that many building models are created with a “hit-and-run” approach: Building Information Models are created for projects without considering what the desired output should be.
The models that are created this way can be great for visualization and maybe even for coordination. But, because there is no defined set of requirements before the modeling work takes off, may be useless for estimating and scheduling…
Why is that?
It all comes down to quantities. It’s the construction-caliber quantities that drive the estimate and the (integrated) estimate and schedule and when some of the quantities that are needed are not available, the “5D Mission” fails: only some of the quantities extracted from the model are useful. ...
Attitude and Perception: Key Factors in Successful BIM Transitioning September 29 '09
As Director of Technology at an Architecture and Planning firm, I was responsible for developing and maintaining office processes. Initially I was hired as a contractor to help complete one specific project in ArchiCAD. The firm deserves recognition for jumping in feet first! They did what most firms do… buy and go through the 3-day basic training package. They then considered themselves ready to tackle a billable project on their own; quite impressive.
I have seen several firms take the transition as far as training and then ultimately decide that they are not ready to do a project in BIM and so it collects dust in their programs folder. The purpose of this post is to call attention to the response that I noticed from the employees and how their attitudes affected the transition. As a result of walking into a transition mid-way through, losing the majority of the staff associated with the initial transition and then having to start all over with new staff, I have noticed a couple things that might ...
BIM is a Process September 22 '09
In the last couple years of the BIM transition, I have come across several interesting misconceptions among the general AEC population about the abilities and potential of the BIM process. One misconception in particular is that a software, one tool, is a full BIM solution. It is as though the AEC industry wants to ‘get rich quick’ and avoid the effort and thought behind developing their own process. In the last year several platforms have noticed a weak point in regards to the BIM process and have tried to prove that they have the solution. This one weak point is that of Lifecycle Management. Software vendors have begun to tout that their platform can manage the lifecycle of the building effectively, simplistically, and of course better than any other platform. Asset management and other aspects of facility management is easy! They call attention to their IFC and XML format capabilities and claim that therein lies the secret and that is all you need. What has been even more interesting is...
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