Photos from Vietnam

http://picasaweb.google.com/sjkachmar/Vietnam?feat=directlink

Great Article by Winter St. Architects

http://winterstreetarchitects.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/biting-the-bim-bullet/

great article on Shifting to BIM, I highly reccommend reading it

Transitioning from CAD to BIM......a Guide

Currently many offices throughout the US and the world are caught between making the shift to BIM, and the giant economic Recession that has stalled many firms forays into shifting to BIM.
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm (indifferent, uninterested) defenders in those who may do well under the new." Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince



Many CAD/BIM manager have seen how some of the old guard are almost recalcitrant to the idea of changing from CAD to anything else. Many Mid Level Managers have spent years honing their CAD skills and dont want to learn new software or think about "throwing away" the skills that they have aquired over the years.


Architects in the 40 years and under category are almost unanimous in seeing how our industry is in the middle of a large shift from Electronic 2-d line documentation, to a fully interactive, Smart, 3-d Model Documentation. the Rules are changning and one of the issues that has been brought up to me is that many firms are trying to create Documentation that completely mimics CAD Documentation of the past.

Should we try to create BIM files and Documents that walk talk and look like CAD files?
my gut reaction is no, I think that we should Create BIM files that walk talk and look like BIM files, and what exactly is that? I think that is an evolving definition.

Revit and Cocktails

Last Night at the Legal Seafoods outdoor bar a Few Architects from Different Firms around the City met up to Discuss Revit (BIM) and how this Shifts in Deliverable Technology is affecting our industry. It was a insightful discussion that looked at how BIM is used on both Large Scale and small scale projects.

http://cad.amsystems.com/products/docs/autodesk-revit-building-9-whitepaper-Worksharing_Jun05.pdf

Larger Projects being Broken down into Multiple models due to the scope being so big, and Smaller scale residential projects and how the Architecture, Strucutral, and MEP models all get linked together to Coordinate and do clash detection. It was discussed how Contractors can use of Navisworks Freedom to Review Architectural Revit Models, and coordinate them with Structural, and MEP models to avoid these same revisions down the road in the field where they are much more expensive to all parties to accomplish.

Everyone had questions about what is the motivation of the Architect to provide some of the takeoff information for Contractors, and why would we as architects spend more time building these models if a good portion of the benefit goes to the contractor?

http://www.constructionsoftwarereview.com/learning_center/buyers_guides/introduction-bim-building-information-modeling/how-does-3d-virtual-mod

that is where we started looking into IPD and how some of the contractual relationships in the profession may be changing as we move forward into this different technology in the upcoming years.

We will be meetin again September 2nd 630pm at Legal Seafoods in Harvard Square again (John Harvards if the weather is bad) all interested parties are welcome to join.

Use of Sketchbook Pro with Revit

I recently Found Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro and have been trying to find ways to use it with Revit in Terms of Early Sketching. It seems like a Good Tool to do some Really Early Sketching on a Project, then save it as a Jpeg. Import into Revit, Trace out some Lines and away you go building your model.

They call the User Interface in the Lower Left hand Corner the Lagoon. this is Similar to the Ribbon interface that autodesk is pushing on all of their Other Products.

I reccomend downloading the Free trial on this Product and making your own evaluation of its usefulness. I can see where someone would use this after a meeting on the plane ride/ train ride etc. back to the office to do some sketching on their laptop and then save a jpeg and email it to the rest of the office, But I am not sure I see to much use for it beyond very early Schematic design. you can download the trial at this link.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=6848332&siteID=123112

Wish List (underlay in Drafting views)

Okay , I'm ranting a little bit here, and maybe somebody knows a neat trick that could resolve this problem. I go to create Drafting views for my project, so that I can use the view again on future Projects. However, I have always wondered why cant i have a detail view as an underlay for my Drafting view, then turn it off once i am done drafting? this would make the process of the Creating a Drafting view more Exact, and more efficient. This Detail View above could be used an underlay to Draft over and get cleaned up in a Drafting View.

I am finding sometimes people are bringing me Hybrid versions of Detail Views that have some Detail Components Drafted on to them, other people Try to Build absolutely everything in 3-d, and avoid Drafting Views with the same disdain they now have for autocad after learning Revit, and Some people use drafting Views like its going out of Style, building super rough Model Geometries and using Drafting views for Every possible Detail.

thoughts, comments?

" Behind every great fortune is a great crime"-Balzac

Selection Filter Tool

Ok, this a great tool that can help you select tricky little objects hiding in your model from time to time. I find alot that when I go to select a Building Pad, Finish Floor, or some other Object in Plan, that will tend to overlap with many other objects, sometimes hitting the Tab key just gets really old, and once in a while, you still cant get the object you want selected.

Once you select multiple Objects in your Model, the Filter tool Icon will pop up on the upper left hand corner of the Screen. Click on the Filter Button, then turn on and off the categories that you want to work with. Tadaa!

Revit City has a really good Forum Regarding this tool as well

http://revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=17209



" With every problem comes the opportunity to learn"