Monthly Archives: March 2010

Curiouser and curiouser?

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Because I can… links for your devourment on the release of Revit Architecture 2011. I simply haven’t the time. These guys have collected some great information for you, and there’s much more as you wind down the rabbit hole.

Alan James Wooldridge

Greg Arkin

Jay Zallan

More details, and a review to come in a later post.  Perhaps I’ll get some good CadLearning.com video script writing for Revit 2011 done at some point during my 14 hour flight to Shanghai next week. As Alice said, “What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?”

Workflow of Revit Architecture & 3ds Max Design 2011

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Oh, yeah. I love interoperability! After all, technology and process integration is one of my primary job responsibilities at NBBJ. Can’t wait for the shipping version of these new 2011 updated tools and getting the designers more new cool tools.

We’re getting so close to concurrent design and visualization. I wonder what the current state is of Project Newport anyway?

Source: Revit3D.com – BIMBoom Revitlution: FBX File Link with Revit Architecture & 3ds Max Design – Have to see this video.

The BIM Deployment Plan, FTW

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You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.
 - Zig Zigler

Every once in a while we need some inspiration to take action. Plan, Prepare, Expect. A simple formula. Unfortunately, most people who begin using Revit expect success, while simultaneously skipping those first two steps. The outcome is invariably failure. Persistence sometimes prevails, but you end up with a headache when it’s all said and done. Planning costs time and preparation costs money. Since most architects have an inversely proportional abundance of the former, rather than the later these days, it seems appropriate to plan for your future success.

I’m a big advocate of planning. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a complex process, consisting of many things. The right tools can help you adopt this process, and Revit at its soul has the ability to be a transformative technology in the architectural and engineering communities. Ultimately, when used to it’s potential Revit can affect the way buildings are designed and built. That scares non-technical architects, because “tried and true” methods have always worked for them. Have they really though?

The landscape out there is shifting. the design, technology and communication paradigms are shifting. So, if you haven’t bought a ticket on the BIM train yet, or you there, but feel you are simply along for the ride, you need a plan to upgrade to business class. Incorporating BIM into your firm, or from an owner’s perspective mandating BIM on projects is not simply a technology solution. More importantly, it is a cultural, and management issue. Players at all levels of your organization need to be involved in the decision-making process. Additionally, when starting a new project, you need to understand the potential of a BIM workflow by creating an execution plan. The Penn State BIM Project Execution Planning Guide version 1.05 was released last month, and there are some excellent organizational documents there to help you capture critical path information about the project. But this isn’t your only source for this type of information to allow you to develop organizational and project strategies for using BIM.

Autodesk has just this week publicly released a plan to aid in the successful delivery of BIM projects. Titled the BIM Deployment Plan, it is a great framework for starting to have the conversation with your firm project delivery and technical staff. The process is well documented, and incorporates many best practices and experience from my former colleagues in Autodesk Consulting. Read more, and download your copy here. Give it a try and maybe, just maybe, everybody wins.

The official press release can be found here, for those who are interested in the marketing spin.