SketchUp 2013 is now Available

SketchUp 2013 is now available with many new features
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
About a year ago, Trimble acquired SketchUp. Yesterday, Trimble announced that the new version SketchUp 2013 is now available for download.

Many new features are available, you can read in more detail about them here, but this is the list:

  • Extension Warehouse: Find SketchUp Pluigns in a single location from SketchUp
  • Pattern Fills: Better documentation tools to fill section cuts with patterns
  • Copy Array in Layout: The same way you copy multiple times in Sketchup you can now do it in Layout.
  • Faster Screen Redraw when panning or zooming.
  • Speedier Vector Rendering.
  • Numbered Pages in the Pages panel: LayOut’s Pages panel now displays page numbers.
  • Curved Label Leader Lines
  • Dashes in Dimensions
  • Smarter Toolbars in Windows
  • Exporting a movie from your SketchUp model
  • Zoom In More in layout.

It seem like Trimble is switching the focus on the documentation part, with many new features for Layout. It seems that those saying you can do construction documents with SketchUp actually saw something the bunch of us missed, but Trimble didn't. This is great news, SketchUp is by far the easiest to learn, easiest to use 3D Modeling tool out there IMHO, awesome that it is getting more and more options. let's just hope that it doesn't get many more $ added to the license.


Show me more...

Revit 2014 Books

Revit 2014 Books are now available
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
If you already updated to Revit 2014 or if you are starting your BIM modelling path using 2014 Revit Software, you might want to consider some of these books that have been recently published. All of them focus on Revit 2014. Some are more intended for beginners, others for more advanced users. The focus of the books is also split by Specialty. If you know of some more good Revit 2014 books, please do share in the comments and I'l add them to the table.

COVER TITLE LEVEL SPECIALTY BUY FROM
Autodesk REVIT
Architecture 2014 Essentials
Begginer ARCH .
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
AMAZON DE
AMAZON ES
.
Mastering Autodesk
REVIT Architecture 2014
Advanced ARCH .
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
AMAZON DE
AMAZON ES
.
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2014:
No Experience Required
Beginner ARCH .
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
AMAZON DE
.
.
Mastering
Autodesk Revit MEP 2014
Advanced MEP .
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
AMAZON DE
.
.


Show me more...

Let's not overstate BIM benefits, let's not hide the difficulties

Is BIM paying off or are we exaggerating results?
Català - Castellano
Yesterday I read an article at BIMetica named BIM Rinde Beneficios, that was a re-post and translation of this one "BIM finally starting to pay off for AEC firms" by Building Design + Construction. My first reaction was to believe what the headline said, and I though, wow, let's see, will they have doen an exhaustive study and do they have good data about BIM ROI. Once I read it all, my thoughts were completely oposite, I think the article (let's ee if the study behind it shows more) says nothing to support its headline. If we forget the headline "BIM finally starting to pay off for AEC firms" the quotes from different executive memebers of the companies interviewed actually contradict in most of the cases the headline. What they actually say is that after several years of investment and effort implementing, training and learning, some of them are finding an improvement in drawing production time or taking the same time as before, and most of the benefits quoted, are non quatifiable ones. Here are some of the negative quotes:

“BIM implementation has been a long-term effort and a considerable one,” says Phil Harrison, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO of Perkins+Will.

According to Graef CEO John Kissinger, “We were early adopters. It was more difficult than we thought, but it is ingrained in all areas of our practice now.”

President Steven Straus says Glumac made “an enormous investment” in BIM training and software development. “BIM is a new technology that is improving coordination,” he says, “but the software is not ready for prime time.”

“Not all contractors we work with are leveraging BIM. This means we have to spend more time preparing drawings in BIM than we normally would,” says BRPH President/CEO Brad Harmsen, AIA.

Of course, some positive feedback is also quoted, although see they type:

“Allowing owners to better visualize the project has become an influencing factor during the presentation process,” says Doug Davidson, President, New South Construction

“There’s no question that BIM has paid off in our role as engineer of record producing construction drawings and as detailing engineer,” says Robert Otani, PE, LEED AP, Vice President of Thornton Tomasetti.

“Now we are completing projects in close to the same time frame as previously with 3D, and in some cases faster,” says KJWW Engineering President Paul VanDuyne, PE.

Finally at EYP Architecture & Engineering, they say that “BIM integration has created more opportunities for younger tech-savvy staff to collaborate with senior technical team members,”

I think this is all the positive feedback quoted on this article. As you can see, only at Thornton Tomasetti seem to be sure the numbers add up, although not much more is explained on how they do. The difficulties found equal at least the positive feedback, and the benefits in € or $ are not mentioned anywhere

Finally, the list of companies by there BIM Revenue seems to me close to a joke. Are this company making this amount of money for "doing BIM?" Not at all, if we check online, we can see that Turner's revenue for 2011 was around US$ 9 billion, the list from the article says they got aroun US$5 billion from BIM. Goodness, did they model the entire earth? It makes no sense. What I assume this list shows is the revenue of the projects in which in a way or another BIM was part of the workflow. That explains why "BIM revenue" for GCs is much bigger than for Architecture firms.

I thin to not mislead anyone, the headline of these rankings should be "Total revenue on projects that used BIM" But I can see how that doesn't bring visits to your website. Like the saying goes: "don't let reality ruin a headline". I am a strong believer in BIM, but I also think the ones encouraging others to used should be the ones who are more careful on overstating benefits and hading difficulties. Let's be careful retwitting and reposting just by headlines without checking what the article actually say and what they do not say. We are at risk of ridiculing ourselves and of misleading others into impossible goals they will not achieve. I was having a very interesting conversation yesterday on how some countries, as early adopters and frustrated by the difficulties found, actually sort of Stop the BIM wagon. Over optimistic promises can do that, let's not make the wagon crash.


Show me more...

Level of Development Specification (LOD) Released by BIMForum

BIMForum has published a LOD Specification Document that aims to clarify the level of Development of each model element according to the LOD 100-200-300-350-400 scale.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
A DRAFT of the Level of Development Specification has been published here at the BIMForum website. The Specification has been developed under supervision of people from the AIA and the AGC, and consultants from General Contractors, Architecture offices, Structural Engineering firms have been part of it too (see the aknowledgement on page 6). One of the main points that the document wants to clarify is that "there is no such a thing as a LOD XXX Model" but there are LOD for each element or assembly.

It will definitely be a good reference document to have in hand when modeling.


Show me more...

EGLC Meeting - Our Experience aplying the Last Planner System

The EGLC Meeting took place last Wednesday May 8th and I was there presenting. A great event, a pity not more people showed up.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The Universitat Politècnica de Valencia and the Spanish Group for Lean Construction, hosted last Wednesday, May 8th the Industry Day of the 16th Meeting of the European Group for Lean Construction in Valencia. Me and my colleague Xavier Pallàs were asked to come and talk about our experience applying the Last Planner System at two of the projects we've been managing. Xavi is the one who has led this process on the biggest of the two projects, a 9M€ renovation project in Tarragona. I am trying to share the Prezi presentation that Xavi prepared for our lecture, but I am having some problem uploading it to the cloud, so for now, I'll just share the brief intro I did to his presentation.

Xavier is the one that has done more on this Lean journey we started back in 2011. I have supported him on the initial stages of the implementation of the Last Planner System, and applied it myself in a smaller project in Vic. Nevertheless the true potential has been seen on this later stages of Fase II of the Tarragona project, with a reduction of the construction time and a construction site that has worked much smoother, more stable and with a much better relationship amongst the different trades on site.

Next week I'll share some more pictures and insight about the meeting.


Show me more...