Baku Images

I got these images from the HOK project manager today; these are the latest images from Baku Flame Towers!

TEDxBerkeley - Carl Bass - The New Rules of Innovation

Be sure to checkout Carl Bass’ TEDx talk.

Are architects doing enough to be bim leaders?

I few weeks back I was asked to write a comment piece on whether I thought architects in general were stepping up to the plate and making themselves BIM leaders. It maybe a UK centric issued, but I am dismayed by the fact the architectural industry doesn’t recognise BIM as a potential opportunity. The extract from this article is below. I hope I can revisit this in years to come & me be proven wrong!

“Are architects doing enough to be bim leaders?”

It would love to say yes, but it pains me to say that I don’t think that is the case. I am privileged that I am employed by a forward thinking firm who recognises the business benefit for using BIM. Within HOK, BIM leadership is driven right from the top by our CEO Patrick McCleamy & the rest of the HOK board. BIM & buildingSMART is one of HOK’s five main business drivers.

There are certainly other architectural firms who also driving the BIM leadership message. However, on the whole, architects are just thinking that BIM is 3d, a quicker way to do a coordinated set of drawings or high quality visualisations. There are others who are sceptical, thinking that BIM is just a fad, it stifles creativity and is doomed failure. But then I remember, people said the same about CAD & before that the fax machine.

Sure enough 3d modelling is one component, but the possibilities extend far beyond that. It has been said many times before; it is the “I” in the BIM that is one of the most important components of this new collaborative process. Information & knowledge, empowers you. Being able to manage & take a lead in the BIM collaboration process potentially allows the architect to once again become the master builder, the integrator.

I understand the challenges with investing in the BIM processes & the necessary supporting technology in these turbulent times. Nether the less, BIM is an opportunity & that opportunity will not last for ever. If architects don’t embrace it & take a lead, there will be plenty in the wings who will certainly step up & grab the BIM leadership crown.

Rooms to 3D Mass – case-inc apps

A few weeks back, case-inc released their monthly app. The February 2012 instalment was a tool which allows you to convert a Room to a 3D Mass.

More details can be found on the case-inc website ….http://apps.case-inc.com/ The tool is really valuable, however, the initial release had some limitations. When you converted the Room, it was actually converting it to a Generic model. Not a big deal, but you needed to be aware of this. So after some positive critical feedback, our friends at case-inc made some tweaks! So now when you choose Rooms to 3D Mass, the output is indeed a 3D mass family! Now all they need to do is find a smart way for us to automatically name the generated families rather than a have a long winded database name; did I say I was demanding? ;-)

Well done guys & a big thanks you from the Revit community. :-)

boonedam – bim objects

 

Steve Stafford wrote a great article a few months back about quality of content & the fact its like the wild west out there! So this was pinged to me by one of our BIM coordinators this week. boonedam have started to produce Revit content.

These are actually very cool families; they are fully parametric & are of a quality is high, but here are my concerns……

• Theses families are huge!

• Level of detail is LOD 400, which is manufacturing detail, I suspect you would need a workset for these alone!
• There is no control for level of detail, so no difference between course, medium or fine.
• These are doors, so they schedule as doors, in many cases revolving doors live in curtain walls, so you will have a headache getting these into a cw system.
• They looked liked hacked families; they may have started as generic models & then been converted to doors, as they is no host wall, so when you place them they are stand alone.

• Maybe I’m being daft, but do I need all this detail? The label on the glass? Really?

• You don’t need all the profile information!

• On a positive note, they render beautifully & contain plenty of data as well as including multiply types.

Hopefully, I haven’t put you off, because as long as you are aware of these limitation, then you will be fine.If you want to try it yourself, make a request on the website. http://www.boonedam.co.uk/bim/

Design Review Mobile for Android

Autodesk have released Design Review for Android. Features include:-

Expedite the design review process by viewing and redlining design files while in the field or out of the office. Autodesk® Design Review mobile app enables you to review Autodesk 2D and 3D design files directly on your Android Phone or Tablet. View and mark up drawings on the spot, reduce the need to carry around over-sized paper drawings, and enjoy an all-digital design review workflow on your mobile device.

View

• Open and view 2D and 3D DWF files from your Autodesk Cloud  documents account
• Use multi-touch gestures to zoom, pan, and rotate drawings
• View meta data and other details about elements within your technical drawings

Markup

• Use simple redlining and intuitive mark up tools to communicate changes
• Add text or comments using familiar callouts

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.autodesk.ADRViewer