Year End BIM Evaluation

It is now the end of another year, with all the experiences of life that comes with that year.  As such, we tend to evaluate the past year and look forward to the challenges and experiences of the new year.  That includes all different aspects of our lives, including the personal and professional sides.  However, in additional to individuals doing this, organizations need to do the same thing.

Since this is an building industry oriented blog, I am going to touch on what I believe to be an important component of AEC firms in the technological age in which we now live.  That is the evaluation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) within your firm.  While there are still many AEC firms that have not moved into the world of BIM, it is becoming more common and more important in the industry.

It is extremely important to evaluate BIM within a firm.  There are costs associated with moving toward BIM integration and it is important to understand whether your firm is getting a return on that investment and how it can be improved.

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Revit Family Creation Expertise Needed

As a company moves into using Autodesk Revit for the design of buildings, they quickly learn that families are an important part of the process.  Families represent entities within a project, such as walls, doors, windows, furniture, water heaters, drains, sinks, condensers, air terminals, receptacles, electrical panels, light fixtures, etc.  Revit provides many families with the software installation, but there are never enough or they never look or function the way that the Revit user’s organization desires.  As a result, custom Revit families are created for use within their organization.

Unfortunately, many organizations utilize inappropriate people to create these custom families.

Revit is for Residential Architecture Too

Not very long ago, I was talking with some Architects about Revit and they made the comment that Revit doesn’t work for residential design.  I was surprised at their comments, especially with Revit’s roots being in residential design.  After talking with them, I learned that they use AutoCAD now and they were just interested in producing 2D construction documents and didn’t care about any 3D features or any intelligence that might be inside Revit.  They all had used AutoCAD for many years and had their AutoCAD blocks created and systems in place to produce 2D documentation quickly.  They were very efficient at their system, didn’t see any reason to change, and only looked for excuses to not make any change.

I will state that Revit works fantastic for residential design and can produce construction documentation quickly.

Autodesk University 2014 Tips

It is almost time for the annual Autodesk University, which is AU 2014 this year.  Since I attended Autodesk University for 17 consecutive years, I thought that I would give some advice to first time attendees.  It seems that there is a large percentage of 1st time attendees each year, so maybe some of them will read this blog and get some tips.

Architectural Design Software Conferences

Regardless of which design software you decide to use for your architectural design, the software continues to change.  It is not only important for users to stay on top of those changes, but to also network with other knowledgable users about usage of the software.  Conferences dedicated to this training and networking are an important aspect for many users and managers.  I have tried to gather information about major design software conferences such as this and list them in the article.

AU2011 in Review

Autodesk University 2011 is now in the history books and I thought that I would summarize my thoughts on this year’s conference.  Held last week in Las Vegas, NV at the Venetian resort, it was attended by over 8000 people from around the world.  This was my 16th consecutive year to attend AU and I found this year’s AU to be one of the good ones.

Autodesk University 2009 In Review

There are likely several different people blogging about their experiences at Autodesk University 2009, but I decided to go ahead and throw my thoughts into the mix.  However, since I am an Architect and part of the Architecture and Building Design track, I admit that my comments will be a bit skewed toward that aspect.