The Path to BIM for Small Firms: February 20th Autodesk Webcast:

On Wednesday, February 20, 2008 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. PST, Autodesk is providing a webcast titled:

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Webcast: The Path to BIM for Small Firms

During the last 5-1/2 years, 85% of my Revit training and implementation projects; have been inside design firms with 5-10 design employees. Revit has afforded and empowered small design firms to do bigger, more specialized and profitable projects.

Here's an example (photo gallery) of a small East Coast design firm's residential project; that was designed in Revit and recognized by Architectural Digest.

Narofsky Architecture-Revit Project: Architectural Digest Recognition

Regardless of your business size, consider downloading this free, 62-page AIA Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Guide which provides insight on the integration of a BIM design process into the IPD process.

The Path to BIM for Small Firms Webcast Registration Site

Design Schools Embracing BIM-Based Design Practice

Today's design practice is a digital design practice.

Credible design schools and their educational staff are ensuring that when students graduate with their BS in Engineering or MS in Architecture, they are well prepared and employable for their immediate roles in the "real design practice world".

I compiled this list of references for an educator on Revitcity.com. He wanted to show his peers the tangible need to update their design school's classes. Thereby improving the professional credibility of their professors, underscore the university's competitive-educational image and the value of their students' degree and employability.

Questioning the Role of BIM in Architectural Education: A Counter-Viewpoint
by Paul Seletsky, Associate AIA, the Director of Digital Design for Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s New York office. It was published in the AECbytes.com newsletter.

BIM Goes to School (PDF) Download Global perspective: This white paper focuses on how BIM is being leveraged within several universities around the world and how students who have access to this way of working are accelerating their design thinking and their studio work...and laying the foundation for dramatically advancing their industry in the future.

Autodesk Launches Academic Certification Program to Help Prepare the Next Generation of Professionals is a press release by Daratech (statistics crunchers) 9/2007

Autodesk Helps Bridge Gap Between Education and Industry press release from ThomasNet-Industrial Newsroom on connecting Nebraska schools to current and local industry required software.

1-2-3 Revit: BIM Goes to School By Bill Rundell, AIA.
This is a 2005 article when more than 80 colleges and universities were using Revit for their architect-engineering programs.

From an Educational Perspective: BIM in the Architectural Curriculum (PDF)
David R. Scheer, AIA, Associate Professor and Director
Center for Integrated Design and Construction
University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning

Abstract: As Building Information Modeling becomes the new standard for the AEC industry, the training of young professionals to work in this environment becomes a critical issue. Certain tendencies in current architectural education are clearly unsuited to BIM, whose value lies in its capacity to facilitate collaboration and accumulate information throughout the entire building lifecycle. An entirely new approach to architectural education is needed. This process has begun at the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning.

Curriculum changes are being tried, ranging from rethinking the design studio to the addition of new courses specifically addressing BIM. Greater involvement by industry in architectural education is needed to bring the collaboration-building aspects of BIM into the classroom and studio. Read on...

AECCafe: Autodesk Presents Revit BIM Experience Award to New Jersey Institute of Technology for Creation of Fully Digital Approach to Architectural Education

For those that feel that architecture is art, the [bim]x blog provides a quote from Frank Gehry on the business case of using digital design tools.

The employability news underscores the growing demand for BIM literacy and compentency. Take a quick look at the AIA job banks and engineering placement agencies. We can't find enough architects and engineers that know Revit to fill the waiting jobs for this BIM design process.

Design students are choosing degrees from institutions that have credible programs; that are relative to the current design business. Employers are hiring more graduates from these schools. Eventually the post graduation learning and financial costs fall back on the student (now employee) and the respective design firm that has hired him or her.

The message to design schools: A prestigious sheepskin that delivers unemployable skills, student loan debt and soaring employer training costs; is meaningless for tomorrow's designers and their respective employers to grow a successful design business.

Congratulations to those design schools and their staff that understand and teach the "real design practice methodology".

Free Revit Structure Tutorials-Streaming Media Format

Free audio-video Revit Structure tutorials have been posted on this site. They are presented in a general overview format. Consider using them for your next company "lunch and learns" or to provide users/management with an idea of Revit functionality.

The site includes a Revit Structure Tutorials RSS/XML feed if you want to plug this link into your RSS reader. Your reader can monitor the site and alert you when new tutorials become available.

Currently the site has posted archived Revit Structure demonstration webcasts and these short overview tutorials:

Top Features

• Single Model for Both Structural Analysis and Documentation
• Bidirectional Associativity Between Model and Views
• Construction Documents Structural Details
• Import/Export in DWG/DXF/DGN/IFC and CIS/2 formats
• Bidirectional Links with Analysis Packages
• Multiple Materials
• Structural Parametric Components
• Multi-users Worksharing Interoperability with Revit Architecture

Revit Structure 2008: Analysis Partners Resource Websites

More than eleven hundred Application Specialists from North America finished their fourth and final day of Tech Camp on Thursday. My last day was spent training on the new features and process improvements of Revit Structure 2008.

Here are the company websites whose analysis programs link to Revit Structure.

ADAPT

http://www.adaptsoft.com/revitstructure/

RISA

http://www.risatech.com/partner/revit_structure.asp

ROBOBAT: Download and use these free extensions for Revit Structure

Robobat features a bonus site of free extensions for Revit Structure you can download and use immediately

http://www.revit.robobat.com/n/revit

http://www.extensions4revit.com/

MIDAS

http://eng.midasuser.com/revit/overview.htm

I'll continue to add other analysis suppliers as their products come online for Revit Structure 2008.

What's the Real Risk if We Don't Use BIM?

"Are we operating on the leading edge or the bleeding edge?” is a consistent risk question many firms ask as they evaluate the use of BIM within their organization. Justifiably, the firm's reputation and the branding of the firm's design talent may be at risk with any new process.

So when this article came in today, it seemed refreshing to have a legal view on the "perceived" and "real" issues regarding risk mitigation and liability issues for the use of BIM.

Mr. Lowe, attorney-at-law provides some insightful and positive counterpoints that asks; "what's the risk if BIM is not used?" He is a construction lawyer in the Philadelphia office of Duane Morris LLP, is also chair of AGC's PIAC BIM Forum Legal Subcommittee and an active member of AGC's Contract Documents Committee.

His opening comments (points) set the stage for an enlightening article which features work from Mortenson Construction and Turner Construction projects that utilized BIM.

A 3D model offers more specific design information than 2D drawings. Given that the world is 3D and not 2D, how can that additional specificity be a bad thing for project liability?

Most of those skeptics don't realize that the risks are no greater (and sometimes smaller) in the 3D world than in the traditional 2D world.

First, the 2D world is hardly free from risk. Decades worth of construction litigation has proven this point.

....as a practical matter, the use of 3D modeling fosters a broader collaborative effort, especially when the contractor is invited into the process early. Design reviews and clash-review meetings bring everyone into the same room, working to solve a problem. This significantly reduces everyone's risk.

Buckling Up Risks

The construction community and its insurers should embrace 3D modeling to further reduce risk on complex projects.

Web site: http://www.duanemorris.com/

A Contractor's BIM Blog

Check out a contractor's BIM blog that has some history. Authored by Laura Handler, her posts are written from a contractor's experience and perspective using BIM. I enjoyed her latest 2 posts that outline her experiences importing SketchUp files into Revit.

We continue to see the value of creating early communications with builders at the front of today's BIM project. Previously defined as a downstream user, the role of the contractor now moves upstream as a valuable stakeholder to the design teams. A role that helps define attainable schedules, budgets, and efficient construction methods.

We sponsored an October BIM/Revit AGC-Wisconsin learning event. I reported on my company blog the valuable BIM experiences from one of our guest speakers who works for one of Wisconsin's largest commercial contractors.

In July, I created a whitepaper for the AGC-Wisconsin's Constructor Magazine. It documents the tangible use of BIM in the Construction Process. It will provide you with insight to specific BIM features that contractors have used on my client projects. This "BIM in the Construction Process" whitepaper and a link to a free BIM whitepaper from AGC-National are posted at the end of my report.

Big Thanks to Our Contractor

We're making plans to move into the home I designed in Revit within the next week. As a note of thanks we took out a personal ad in our local newspaper to thank our general contractor, Jim Helms owner of Quality Built Homes, Inc. for his efforts. We punctuated that personal ad with a webpage that featured him and a few of the subcontractors that brought this project to life.

I've been photographing and creating video snippets of the project weekly since we started in August. I should have a rolling photo gallery posted soon using a product called FilmLoop.

Andersen Windows: Role Model for Combining BIM and Green?

Designing a building using a BIM process or designing a building using specific green-sustainable design features requires an answer to "What's in it for me?" This includes all stakeholders; the building owner, designers, engineers and contractors.

If I google the internet for "window manufacturers"; I get dozens of pages of window manufacturers and resources. I chose to highlight Andersen Corporation (Windows-Doors) for a couple reasons.

• When I first started designing projects with Revit, Andersen was the only window manufacturer that provided predefined Revit families of their window products.
• I've used Andersen window Revit families on my design projects; including the design work I've done for our house in Revit.
• I'm also highlighting Andersen's Energy Star tax credit resources that we're submitting for tax credits for the Low-E glass Andersen windows designed in our new home.

More than five years ago my first impression of Revit was greatly elevated when I saw a Revit Andersen Window library (Series 400) that was accessed directly from the Revit software on an Autodesk Revit server.

The Revit Andersen Window Door Libraries get updated with each new version of Revit. They are located in the Web Libary under Revit Manufacturer 9.0 Library > Andersen Corporation Library > 400 Series (includes casement & tiltwash double-hung)

WOW was my first reaction! I had used Andersen 2D software to create AutoCAD elevation blocks of their windows; but nothing like this. Finding a manufacturer that invested time (AND money) to create Revit families was really encouraging. Over the years; working with Softdesk (AutoArchitect) and ADT we had almost given up on finding manufacturers' product content that was designed specifically for our software.

Several years ago Reviteers visited the zoogdesign website and an upstart website called Revitcity looking for free family downloads. Today we can find additional Andersen and Pella Windows families on Revitcity created by users. If a window manufacturer offers elevations of their products in DWG format; consider using the technique I highlighted in my blog titled "Revit Tips to Tracing DWG Floor Plans".

Visit the EnergyStar website to search and find door-window manufacturers that provide EnergyStar Windows & Doors. Search their sites for energy tax credit information regarding their products. With a little digging on their websites; I found EnergyStar information on both the Pella and Kolbe & Kolbe window websites. Visit your favorite window manufacturer website for EnergyStar certifications and rebates.

Use the The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) database to search individual states for tax credits and rebates that are currently offered by other product manufacturers; windows, furnaces, lighting, solar etc.

A Design Firm's Revit Blog

Here's a head's up to a blog titled; Don't think: Do Revit "My journal of work in Revit as part of a 600+ member architecture firm."

He provides interesting insight on how their design firm has approached their implementation of Revit, their review of connecting specifications to Revit using e-specs, family creation and customization, and project development.

I'm always interested in the business side of using Revit on projects; saving money, reducing labor and making money. Make sure to check out his archives.

In all fairness, I read quite a few blogs and participate in a few technical forums. So for those of you that have been asking; here's one I visit from time to time.

Green Homes Put Green in Everyone's Pocket

Designing homes? Building homes? Have you been competing on price or on the value of your home designs? Has it become a buyer's market in your locale? Has the cost of construction materials delayed or cancelled any projects.

Here's a great article that provides you and your client with the opportunity to put some green into the home design; but also put green into both of your pockets. For those builders that are interested in earning several thousand dollars of tax credits, check out item #2 on Jerry's list.

Ten Reasons Why the Green Home Market is Ready to Surge
By: Jerry Yudelson, Senior Editor - Monday, July 17, 2006 Source: iGreenBuild.com

Green or Sustainable Design usually means longterm payback as you invest money upfront. The website described below (DSIRE) is updated weekly and monthly. It provides upfront rebates and cash-back incentives for buying products that match the specifications database; furnaces, air conditioning, lighting, appliances, insulation and more. Financing for these rebates is provided through local, state & federal government agencies, utilities and/or product manufacturers.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE). It's a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy. DSIRE now includes incentives for energy efficiency. Choose one or both databases for searching.

As part of the learning process, visit the U.S. Greenbuilding Council (USGBC) site for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H). You can download a checklist sustainable features that will determine the LEED rating of your designs. It features contact information for more than 40 state agencies. The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has reprinted a four-page article title "Green Building for Homes" from Home Energy magazine.

We are in the beginning stages of LEED-H. You have time to begin incorporating the easiest sustainability features into your designs. Automating the LEED material and performance documentation for your home designs is important to qualify for funding. Next time, we'll look at a couple Autodesk Revit features to assist with automating the documentation and performance simulation of your home designs for LEED-H.

Conceptual Design: Bumwad and Bubble Diagrams

Here's a concept that I've used to bring the "willing" conceptual designer and/or principal into the project team that's using Revit. Typically they've used pencils and markers to draw on bumwad, flimsy, onion paper or sketchpads. I'm not discounting hand sketches. However; our studies clearly show there is a time in the latter half of the coneptual phase where this technique is more productive than using paper. The project team can access the designer's work digitally for presentations, analysis, and printing. Thereby retaining the designer's decisions-design intent as the project flows into schematic stage.

This concept uses Revit's Room Separation tool. It creates spaces using linework and not walls. It's a simple, intuitive yet intelligent 2D sketching tool. The Room Separation toolset includes lines, circles, elipses, rectangles, splines, arcs and more; all from one small menu. Grip editing provides the designer with simple pick'n pull moving, copying and resizing of linework.

The enclosed areas can be tagged to display "total area" of the space both on the tag and in the space schedules. The designer gets immediate feedback from editing spaces in the design process. As the project progresses, the production team can trace over the linework with walls. Revit linework file can also be linked into another Revit project.

Here's a DWF project file that features the bubble diagram, concept and analysis drawings. I also incorporated a space planning schedule and KEY SPACE schedule on the conceptual page.

Our Home in Revit

My wife, Georgene and I are "patiently" waiting for our county to provide us with our building permit for our new house. Since Revit Version 4.5, I've designed 3 variations of homes before we received bank loan approval a couple weeks ago.

This was last year's home design model. It's a tri-level home plan that we ran through the estimating and preliminary construction review process. However, it didn't make it to final production so its not complete. However, using copy and paste I created a ranch version of this design in only a few hours which will be built this summer-fall.

We're experiencing the benefits of design-build and working with a contractor that has embraced 3D modeling (BIM) throughout the design and production process. (BTW, our builder has been building homes for 30 years) The BIM process with our builder has incorporated cost effective construction processes into the final design. When he arrives at our home I usually connected my laptop to the TV and conducted the meeting using Revit. Here's a 3D DWF file of the tri-level home

As I look back over the last few years of design, the following items stood out as the main Revit features to help me design a house that could be constructed cost effectively, provide a level of sustainability and incorporate a little universal design. Yea...we're getting old and I'm sounding like a commercial. So here they are...

Visualization and Analysis

1. 3D people figures to assist with scale of space in 3D views and sections.
2. 3D isometric and perspective views for the builder, bank, bank appraiser, Georgene and anyone else that wanted to see it.
3. Design options for the porch, kitchen cabinet layout and master bath & closets
4. The sun shadows feature to design the soffits and landscape to the final project
5. We used the gross area analysis tools to define and manage gross square footage and thereby manage budget.
6. 3D Revit floor plan furniture, equipment and casework libraries helped verify space and traffic patterns.
7. I created animated walk-throughs and sometimes exported them to video playback files (AVI)
8. 3D DWF files for communications with builder, kitchen designer and Georgene.

Production & Design

1. Whole house modeling that immediately updated my plans, elevations, sections, and schedules.
2. Live building and wall sections to design the stairs, roofs, cathedral ceilings and structure.
3. Creating data (take-off) schedules for doors, windows, sheet index and space efficiency analysis.
4. Locking dimension values on our design decisions.
5. Auto tagging the doors and windows types in plans and elevations.
6. Sloped slabs, cathedral ceilings and roofs.
7. Sweep profiles for footings, railings, soffits, fascia boards and gutters.
8. Using the pre-built Anderson window and Kohler plumbing libraries.
9. Revit sheet set (page) management for documentation and printing.
10. Export 2D DWF files for printing bid sets. My reprographics vendor just loved getting one file with all of the pages inside it....BTW, they used a KIP 6000 to print the DWF files.
11. Designed in-place families to create custom countertops footprints complete with backsplashes and bullnoses.
12. Revit callouts (enlarged plans) of the kitchen and building sections.
13. The split face tools for adding corner boards and porch fascia to the building elevations.
14. The underlay feature to coordinate floor plans features between each floor.
15. Reference planes to coordinate interior and exterior alignments.
16. Auto-create interior & exterior elevations that auto-update as changes are made.
    
    Revit's 3D site topology around this home design actually became the brake that "shelved" this design for our building site.

I'm sure there's more you'll find as you look through the construction document set and 3D DWF file posted above. Remember, in the 2D set created by Revit 9 you have two options in the DWF viewer.

First, if you use the "arrow" (select) tool in the viewer, you can now pick a window, door, or any object and it will tell what it is and the parameter information assigned to it. I find it fascinating that if you select an object it will highlight in all of the views on the sheet. Make sure you set this feature in the EXPORT to 2D DWF dialogue box under OPTIONS.

Second, if you use the "hand" (pan) tool in the viewer, you can pick on section, elevation or level tag to navigate the sheet set. Usually these links are blue. Make sure you set this feature in the EXPORT to 2D DWF dialogue box under PRINT SETUP button.

Get the Free DWF Viewer to view these DWF files.

Related blog posts I've written:

Residential Design: Revit 2D Sketch Tools Define 3D Curb Appeal for Homeowners

Residential Designers-Builders Sell Their Projects Using Revit Design Options and Whole House Modeling

Free DWF Movie Download

Revit JobCaptain Lens

In February, I created my Revit JobCaptain Lens on the Squidoo website. Since then, I've compiled a list of Revit resources I've found; download libraries, other bloggers, tools and utilities on this page. I've created almost a dozen lenses that store ideas and links I may use in the future on my Revit JobCaptain blog or my Autodesk Architectural Solutions blog. I've placed a Squidoo icon on the right side of this blog where you can access my lens.

Take a chance...create your own Lens!

Family Editor - Free Web Training

This is a free online audio-video webcast training session from the Autodesk Archives. While this session uses Revit 7, "The Family Editor" is still valid to the current version of Revit.

Become a power-user! This webcast is for customers who want to create or modify components using the Autodesk Revit Family Editor. When working with a building model, your design intent often requires a specific component that may not be readily available. Using the powerful and versatile Family Editor feature, you can modify existing components or create new components to meet your precise needs. In this web session, learn how to work with the Family Editor to create new geometry, add instance and type parameters, use formulas such as conditional statements, and use visibility parameters to control the visibility of specific elements in a project.

Rotating Images Just Got Better

Revit 9 now allows rotation of imported raster images using the ROTATE command. Just pick the image and use the ROTATE command options. You can simply type in a precise angle in the options bar. You can also pick a base point and pick another point that rotates the image.

Remember, Revit's ROTATE command displays a rotation icon that represents the default base point. This icon can be dragged to a new location on or near the object being rotated. I found I could also "snap" reference planes to the endpoints of a raster image frame to help rotate images to match the angle of the reference plane..

Prior to Revit 9, the ROTATE command could only rotate raster images in 90 degree increments inside Revit. The ROTATE command could also be used to flip images horizontally or vertically.

If an image needed to be rotated other than 90 degrees, it had to be done in an imaging software prior to importing the image into Revit. I usually used the Microsoft Office Picture Manager which came with my Microsoft Office. The Picture Manager has a PICTURE pulldown menu that allows you to rotate and resize a raster image. This software is located in the START button > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Revit's Publish to Web Feature

Here's how to share project images with your clients in a HTML format. Using the Export > Image command, you can publish multiple views and/or sheets to a HTML web page. I found it while searching the Autodesk support site. A link to a publish to web example is at the bottom of this post.

To create (publish) an HTML web page of your views and/or sheets follow these steps.

1. Open a project.
2. On the File menu, click Export > Image.
3. In the Export Image dialog box, under Export Range, select the Selected views/sheets option.
4. Click Select.
5. Select views and sheets from the list. Click OK.
6. In the Export Image dialog box, under Output, select the Create browsable web site with a linked HTML page for each view option.
7. Select a name and path for the files.
8. Click OK.
9. Open the web site or webpage file.
10. Click on section hyperlinks to navigate views.

I posted a quick sample of the output from this feature. Design-Build Presentation

New Autodesk Green Projects Feature Revit BIM

Autodesk is sponsoring two new green sites. In June 2006, they are sponsoring a six-part PBS television series narrated by Brad Pitt titled "e2, the Economics of Being Environmentally Conscious". They're building a site Design e2 that has streaming video, downloadable audio & video podcasts, with other content that focuses on the themes of "reduce, reuse and recycle".

The Autodesk Sustainable Design Center
The Sustainable Center will be an online meeting place to share ideas, stories and resources around sustainable design. The site will feature environmentally progressive projects, thought leader profiles, case studies and stories that demonstrate what is imaginable in the future and what is achievable today. Additionally, the Sustainability Center will provide a resource section that will be a living library of articles to read, groups to join, places to meet and forums for discussion. The site is scheduled to be available May 31, 2006. You can pre-register using the link above to obtain email notices from the site when it goes live.

Both sites are in development and available in a limited fashion. As Autodesk sponsors the PBS series, we'll have an opportunity to see Revit purple in the green public spotlight.