MT - Using BIM as a PM Tool: 1.2- Problem Definition

BIM is argued to be “a catalyst for change, poised to reduce industry's fragmentation, improve its efficiency/effectiveness and lower the high costs of inadequate interoperability” (Succar, 2009: p. 357). Studies show that there has been an important growth on the use of BIM software in the recent years (AIA, 2009; McGraw-Hill, 2008 and McGraw-Hill, 2010).

In the USA, as of 2008 and according to AIA (2009), 34% of registered AIA members have purchased a BIM software package, percentage that doubles the numbers of 3 years before (Ibid). It is important to remember the definition of BIM used on the previous section comprises not only tools but also the adoption of new processes, so the data expressing “use of BIM” has to be analyzed with caution for it is not clear if it refers only to the use of BIM software or to the holistic approach to BIM that this dissertation is interested in.

Regardless of this difficulty analysing the data, the penetration rates (McGraw-Hill, 2010a) show the relevance that the technology is gaining in some countries. But not all countries embrace it at the same pace. As it can be seen on Figure 1.2, North America is ahead of Europe on BIM adoption rates.

Figure 1.2 BIM Adoption Rates in North America and Europe
After McGraw-Hill, 2010a)

On the other hand, and despite the great increase in Journal Articles about BIM in recent years (Figure 1.3), Project Management Literature has tended to ignore the topic of BIM. Only Bansal (2011) and Benjoaran (2009) mention this concept in the International Journal of Project Management. The only mention found on the Project Management Institute literature –the Project Management Journal and PMI organised Conferences- is a conference paper by Lee (2008) that briefly mentions the possible beneficial outcomes of using BIM from the Project Manager point of view.
BIM is becoming a relevant topic of research in recent years (Figure 1.3) but none of this increase in interest on the topic has arrived to PM specialised literature (Table 1.2). Research is thus needed on the role of BIM as a Project Management [PM] tool. Most of the potential benefits of BIM mentioned on the previous section of this chapter are key aspects of the role of a Project Manager (PMI, 2004), for this reason PM literature should no longer ignore this topic and join other scholars on analyzing the potential benefits of implementing BIM in construction projects.

Figure 1.3 Evolution of the Number of Journal Articles Mentioning BIM

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Revit: Don't Use Parts if You Want to Use Groups. Don't Use Groups if You Want to Use Parts

Exactly what the post title says. Tried it in many projects, always with problems.
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I've been trying once again to use parts and groups together and I have been having problems as usual, not much improvement from previous releases (I am using Revit 2014). As stupid as it might seem, Revit really struggles if you break walls into parts and then group the walls in a Group that you need to repeat / rotate / mirror. The resulting parts on the copied groups behave independently from one instance of the group to the other, making it really not efficient to work with them because a lot of rework in each instance might be needed (I am working on a 30 story building, with 25 equal floors, so imagine how nice it would be if Revit could handle this properly).

I tried many different options, parts constrained, unconstrained,etc. No way Groups work efficiently as they should (as AutoCAD blocks). So my solution to solve this has been to use Groups only on relatively small elements were I don't use the create parts feature, and for the other elements (like the repeating typical floor plan) I use a linked file. I don't like it and it is also not very efficient when you have to edit it (Unload -> Open -> Save -> Reload) but it does allow me to repeat the floor where I have edited all walls using the Create Parts feature.

For more infor on what to do and what not to do with Groups check this post at AllaboutCAD.

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BCF Add-Ins for Revit

If you need to use the BIM Collaboration Format and you are using Revit this Add-Ins might be what you are looking for.
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I wrote recently about the BIM Collaboration Format [BFC]. It is (probably) the soon to be Standard to communicate Issues in BIM Models. If you are using Revit and want to be able to work with BCF, you'll need some Add-in to do it. I found 3 of them and tested 2. Here they are:

Number #01: Matteo Cominetti's BCF PLUGIN FOR REVIT (currently at Version 2.2.2)
Easy to use, Free and With a lot of easy to use Options.
The best one of the two I tried.
You can download it here: http://matteocominetti.com/d/BCFPlugin2.2.2.exe
Check more info at Matteo's website or watch the video below:

Number #02: KUBUS' BCF MANAGER for Revit (there is also an ArchiCAD Version)
Now on free trial until Nov 30th. Apparently at a cost from December 1st.
Less options than Matteo's Plugin, but still easy to use.
Download the Windows x64 version here: http://www.kubusinfo.nl/downloads/BCF_Manager_Revit_x64_r2.msi
Download the Windows x86 version here: http://www.kubusinfo.nl/downloads/BCF_Manager_Revit_x86_r2.msi
You can also use this if you are an ArchiCAD user:
ArchiCAD windows version download here: http://www.kubusinfo.nl/downloads/BCF_Manager_AC17_r2.msi
ArchiCAD MAC version download here: http://www.kubusinfo.nl/downloads/BCF_Manager_AC17_r2.dmg
More info at the KUBUS website.

Number #03: AUTODESK'S MODEL REVIEW Add-in
I haven't tried this one, according to its description is more than just a BCF Add-in, but a full Model Checker:
"Check the accuracy and consistency of a Project or Family against standards set by your firm, your clients, or industry best practices. Correct inconsistencies with a single click or with instructions provided when manual fixes are required".
It is only available if you are a Subscription Customer. More info here too

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Revit: Copying an Element Multiple Times

Copy an Object Multiple Times in Revit
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If you've come to Revit from AutoCAD, you probably noticed that the copy command behaves slightly different by default. While in AutoCAD if you use the copy command you can copy an object multiple times without calling the command again, in Revit, by default, it doesn't work the same way. It probably happened to you for a while as it did to me, that you kept copying an object and typing CO again to copy it another time. That is what it seems you have to do in Revit, so you might get a bit frustrated. Well, it doesn't have to be like this.

If you want to copy an object multiple times, select the object, type CO (the Revit keyboard shortcut for Copy) and before copying the object go to the ribbon and check "Multiple". It is that simple, once you've checked this, Revit will behave like AutoCAD and will let you copy an object multiple times.

Very simple. Now I am wondering how much time I did loose long time ago when I didn't know about this...

UPDATE 01: You can also copy objects multiple times (or just one) by using the MOVE commamnd and holding the Ctrl Key while you move it, this will actually copy instead of moving the object.

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Revit: Control the Number of BackUp Files that Revit Saves.

It is quite annoyint and space consuming to have up to 20 backup files in your folder. Luckily, this can be changed quite easy.
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If you are tyred of having 20 backup files in your folder and don't want to manually delete them every once in a while,do the following:

Click the Revit Icon on the upper left corner of the screen and select Save As.

In the Save As dialog, click Options.

In the File Save Options dialog, for Maximum backups, specify the number of backup files to save.

Click OK.

Click Save.

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Splitting Up Revit Models

What criteria would you use to decide if you are going to split or not your Revit Models? And if you decide you are going to do it, how are you going to do it?

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I just have started working on the biggest Revit project I have worked to date, and as the BIM Manager of the project I had to make certain decisions concerning the protocol to follow in terms of model splitting up. So far, all the projects I worked on where relatively small, so this decision was not so relevant (we basically decided to split models by discipline: Arch - Str - MEP) and it worked good enough. This new project is way too big to work only with this discipline based division, so I wondered what "the experts" would think is the best to go for such a project (and what criteria to follow on future projects).
The project I am working on is a residential complex with a total of around 158.000 m2, and it has 7 residential towers and a common basement, plus some other minor buildings. After looking deep into blogs, forums and linkedin groups, I found this advice by BIM Manager Brendan Smith that I found was exactly what I needed.

In his post, Brendan describes several Revit model divisions according to the project type and size. In my case, I will work with something similar to his last option: "4. On a Large to extremely large job with two or three buildings". I will not follow literally these divisions (to me the divisions between Architecture and Interiors makes no sense and following something more similar to the Uniformat division might be more logic too) but it is a good start point conceptually for the divisions. My actual chosen division system will follow this criteria (see that the abbreviations are based on Spanish, so you could use something similar with English abbreviations):

Architecture
PROJECTCODE-T01-ARQ-ENV-R01.rvt (Contains all Architectural elements of the façade of residential tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-ARQ-ENV-R01.rvt (Contains all Architectural elements of the façade of residential tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-ARQ-INT-R01.rvt (Contains all Architectural elements of the interior of residential tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-ARQ-INT-R01.rvt (Contains all Architectural elements of the interior of residential tower 02)
...
Structure
PROJECTCODE-T01-EST-CIM-R01.rvt (Contains all Structural Foundations for residential tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-EST-CIM-R01.rvt (Contains all Structural Foundations for residential tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-EST-ESP-R01.rvt (Contains the Floor Structure for residential tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-EST-ESP-R01.rvt (Contains the Floor Structure for residential tower 02)
...
MEP
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-SAN-R01.rvt (Contains waste/grey and rain water piping for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-SAN-R01.rvt (Contains waste/grey and rain water piping for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-CLI-R01.rvt (Contains AC for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-CLI-R01.rvt (Contains AC for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-CPR-R01.rvt (Contains Ventilation / fire escape pressurization for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-CPR-R01.rvt (Contains Ventilation / fire escape pressurization for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-CPR-R01.rvt (Contains Ventilation / fire escape pressurization for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-CPR-R01.rvt (Contains Ventilation / fire escape pressurization for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-GAS-R01.rvt (Contains Gas Piping for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-GAS-R01.rvt (Contains Gas Piping for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-ELE-R01.rvt (Contains Electrical Systems for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-ELE-R01.rvt (Contains Electrical Systems for tower 02)
...
PROJECTCODE-T01-INS-HID-R01.rvt (Contains Water Supply and Distribution for tower 01)
PROJECTCODE-T02-INS-HID-R01.rvt (Contains Water Supply and Distribution for tower 02)

For now, this is our starting point. Thanks to Brendan Smith for the inspiration. After the project is over, i'll share the changes i make to this apporach if there are any.





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MT - Using BIM as a PM Tool: 1.1- Background

The author of this Master Thesis has always been interested in the implementation of ICT in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction [AEC] Industry. During the last decade, the major shift in ICT for the AEC industry has been the proliferation of Building Information Modelling [BIM] in industrial and academic circles as the “new CAD paradigm” (Succar, 2009).

BIM is currently the most common denomination for a new way of approaching the design, construction and maintenance of Buildings. Different authors and commercial firms have chosen to name this new approach in different ways (Table 1.1) but they all refer to the same concept that will be referred always on this dissertation as BIM.

There is not a single definition of what BIM is. Some scholars define it as “a set of interacting policies, processes and technologies generating a methodology to manage the essential building design and project data in digital format throughout the building's life-cycle” (Succar, 2009: p. 357). Other scholars prefer to define it using papers by commercial BIM vendors. Aouad et al. (2006) used the following definition: “building information model (BIM) is a computer model database of building design information, which may also contain information about the building’s construction, management, operations and maintenance” (Graphisoft 2003, cited in Aouad et al., 2006: p. 5). Other software vendors have also stated their own definitions of BIM such as “create and operate on digital databases for collaboration, manage change [...] and capture and preserve information for reuse by additional industry-specific applications” (Autodesk, 2002 : p. 2). For the purpose of this dissertation the author would like to use his own definition of BIM that encompasses the most common accepted views on the topic.

Building Information Modelling [BIM] is the most commonly used term to describe a set of parametric CAD tools and processes for the creation and maintenance of an integrated collaborative database of multi-dimensional information regarding the design, construction and/or operations of a building, with the purpose of improving collaboration between stakeholders, reducing the time needed for documentation of the project and producing more predictable project outcomes.

Table 1.1 Widely used terms related to BIM

(after Succar, 2009 : p. 359)

Although it is sometimes understood that BIM is only the software platform and that all the inter-organizational integrated processes should receive other names (like Integrated Design, Integrated Project Delivery, etc), when referring to BIM in this dissertation, the reader should always understand that BIM refers to the previous definition of tools and processes and never to just the software tools that allow the geometrical modelling and the input of information. It is the understanding of the author, that this holistic definition embraces all the potential of BIM and offers a better understanding of all its scope.

Defining the term though, is not the purpose of this dissertation. As we will see in the following section, despite the potential benefits that we can infer from the previous definition, the implementation of BIM and the perception of its benefits is not equal everywhere (AIA, 2009; McGraw-Hill, 2008 and McGraw-Hill, 2010). This disparity between potential benefits and acceptance is the starting point for our problem definition.

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BIM Thoughts and Conclusions from UK's National Construction Contracts and Law Survey 2013

The recently published NBS report has some insights on the real BIM use in UK's projects
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UK's National Building Specification [NBS], (also available on twitter as @TheNBS)has published recently a report called "National Construction Contracts and Law Survey 2013". Among other itneresting data, some insights on the Contractual Use of BIM in UK is given, and it is interesting, specially in contrast to other more optimistic views about the BIM penetration in the market.

First interesting point related to BIM is that up to 49% of respondents said they didn't use any type of "collaborative technique" in projects started in 2012. THis is a very important point for it means that at least 49% of the industry is not collaborating, thus COllaborative BIM is right now still far from Standard.

image source

The second interesting piece of BIM related information we find is that 78% of the respondents have not started adopting BIM in their contracts and 77% don't even reference to it in their COntracts. This seems to me like BIM is still very irrelevant contractually to most of stakeholders, so the Collaborative BIM Process has still a lot of hurdles to jump to start running at a good pace.

image source

Finally, the last, and maybe the most relevant info related to BIM is the one taken from the question "What information do you normally provide / receive about the project?". Here, only 9% of respondents mention BIM as info being provided by them to the project or received from other consultants.

image source

This, to me, means that real BIM, the one that involves the "creation of a collaborative database with information (...)" is used at the most by 9% of the industry in UK. A bit far (maybe more realistic?) than some of the implementation numbers that one can suppose from data from other reports, like for instance McGraw-Hills "The Business Value of BIM in Europe" from which I adapted the chart below. According to McGraw-Hills report, the "adoption rate for BIM in the United Kingdom among construction professionals surveyed is 35%".

image source

My analysis is, that either those surveyed in the McGraw-Hill report lied, or by "adopting BIM" they meant or understood something similar to "using a BIM tool". Matching the 35% adoption in 2010 with the 9% of respondents who in the recent report (with data from 2012)say they deliver or recieve BIM as information we see that there si a big gap between the two percentages. My guess is that probably the data obtained about BIM in a non BIM centric survey is probably more valuable, for it might be less biased than those reports aiming to show how well the BIM progress is going.

Well, I don't know, maybe I am wrong, what are your thoughts? Please share!

As it is happening recently more and more often the heads up come via Twitter:

Download the free 2013 National Contracts and Law (for construction) survey/report now at our website - http://t.co/6eRKige4eo

— Stephen Hamil (@StephenHamilNBS) October 7, 2013

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World Habitat Day is Today

Happy World Habitat Day.
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I didn't even know till today this existed, got the heads up in twitter by @CarlosCamara:

El primer Lunes de octubre se celebra el día Mundial de la Arquitectura en coincidencia con el Día Mundial del Hábitat Humano: ¡feliz día!

— Carlos Cámara (@carlescamara) October 7, 2013

After that, and before writing this post, I went to the UN Habitat website to see what it is about. According the UN Habitat Website "The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. This year, it will be celebrated on 7 October 2013. The purpose of World Habitat Day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world that we all have responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns." Sound nice.

Digging a bit more, I was specially surprised when I found out that former Barcelona's Mayor Joan Clos was involved in this in some way. (Executive Director of UN-Habitat on the occasion of World Habitat Day, 1 October 2012). So after that, I wonder if this World Habitat Day is anything useful at all considering its Executive Director credentials. Yes, his official credential look very good, Mayor, Industry Minister and Ambassador in Turkey. The thing is, this guy swore his position as a Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, saying "I swore as Minister of JUSTICE, Trade and Tourism...". Yes, he didn't even know what position he was getting I guess.

So, despite the good intentions that one can feel from the motto of the UN-Habitat website, one wonders if this type of organizations are just elephant cemeteries where our no longer useful politicians (where they ever useful?) can retire with a big paycheck and paid expenses to attend events in different countries.

I am sure there are extremely valid people doing hard work in them, I just can't stop wondering how did we allow all these parasites to be our appointed representatives.

Happy World Habitat Day anyway, at least let's remember that all we do, all we try to improve, all the BIM, and Lean and IPD, efforts that try to increase profitability, improve the industry, reduce waste and all these dogmas we repeat ourselves should or may in a way or another make the built habitat better. Maybe, just maybe, all this transformation of the AEC industry we say we aim to achieve, can one day be put to help those without adequate shelter. Maybe a small percentage of what owners save by implementing BIM or Lean in their Projects, can be put to help those in need. Maybe, or maybe we are all too busy building ourselves a career.

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BCF: BIM Collaboration Format

BCF is the format that might become standard to share issues found in BIM models from one platform to another
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BCF is an open standard to enable workflow communication between different BIM (Building Information Modeling) software tools. I came across this format by the first time while whatching a Solibri Model Checker Demo. It is currently in the process of being accepted as an Open Standard by BuildingSmart. It works together with IFC models, the idea with BCF is to separate the “communication” from the actual model. You can watch a short video about the Collaboration Workflow it would allow:

More info also available here.

Another example of BCF in use can be seen in this video about IFC (minute 41:20)

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MT - Using BIM as a PM Tool: 1.- Introduction

The development of a construction project goes through several stages and requires a wide range of services (Clough et al., 2008). During any project, there will be reciprocal interdependencies between different stakeholders, such as financing bodies, authorities, architects, engineers, lawyers, contractors, suppliers and tradesmen (Ibid.). Another driver in the project-management domain causing an increase in reciprocal interdependencies is the rise in concurrent engineering [CE] (Williams 1999).

To this inherent complexity of stakeholders we must add that construction projects are becoming much more complex and difficult (Chan et al., 2004; Williams, 2002; Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003). The big size of projects is traditionally seen as the cause of project complexity (Williams 2002) although it is argued that it is not the size itself but aspects derived from the size of the project - like number of stakeholders or number of project management tools and methods – that contribute to project complexity (Bosch-Rekveldt et al. 2010).

On the other hand, studies show that while productivity in other industries has increased considerably in the last 40 years, the productivity of the construction industry has actually been steadily decreasing.

Fig. 1.1 – Construction and Non-Farm Labour Productivity Index (Teicholz, 2004)

To cope with the increasing complexity of projects, information and communication technology [ICT] has been developing at a very fast pace (Taxén and Lilliesköld, 2008). This uptake in ICT did not bring yet all the expected benefits to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction [AEC] Industry (Majer et al. 2010), such as an important increase in Labour Productivity. This could be because the human ability to cope with these complexities has not developed at the same rate as ICT (Taxén and Lilliesköld, 2008), or because the implementation of ICT alone is not enough and the industry needs a shift into a new way of working.

In any case, understanding what ICT can do to help industry professionals cope with the increased complexity of projects is key to reach successful project outcomes and could be the key to increase the overall productivity of the industry. Any changes in tools and also in processes that may help the Construction Industry shift its tendency towards higher productivity should be considered and studied in detail.


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Software Currently Certified for IFC Import or Export

A list by BuildingSmart of the BIM tools currently certified to Export or Import IFC files
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If you are into BIM, you know what IFCs are. If you don't, read about it. A lot is written about IFCs as a standard format. And a lot is written too about "what is the best BIM tool?". Well, one criteria you could use to decide which BIM tool is best for you is how they handle IFCs.

According to the following Table from BuildingSmart, these are the BIM Tools that have been certified for Importing or Exporting IFC files properly:

Application	Organisation	Certification	Export/Import	Finished	Pdf
Scia Engineer	NEMETSCHEK Scia	CV2.0-Struct	import	2013091717-SEP-2013
ArchiCAD	Graphisoft	CV2.0-Arch	import	2013092020-SEP-2013
Revit MEP	Autodesk-R	CV2.0-MEP	export	2013071111-JUL-2013
RIB iTWO	RIB	CV2.0-Import only	import	2013090707-SEP-2013
ArchiCAD	Graphisoft	CV2.0-Arch	export	2013041616-APR-2013
Allplan 2013	NEMETSCHEK Allplan GmbH	CV2.0-Arch	export	2013041616-APR-2013
Revit Architecture	Autodesk-R	CV2.0-Arch	export	2013041616-APR-2013
Scia Engineer	NEMETSCHEK Scia	CV2.0-Struct	export	2013041616-APR-2013
Revit Structure	Autodesk-R	CV2.0-Struct	export	2013041616-APR-2013
Tekla Structures	Tekla	CV2.0-Struct	export	2013061212-JUN-2013
Vectorworks	NEMETSCHEK North America	CV2.0-Arch	export	2013053030-MAY-2013

In the list of tools that passed the Building Smart's certification for exportin IFC files are Tekla, Revit, ArchiCAD, Scia, VectorWorks, Allplan and RIB iTWO. This means that they can save their models in IFC complying with the format standards.

The list of programs that are certified to import models from IFC format is smaller and comprises only two programs: Scia Engineer and ArchiCAD.

via BIMequity Blog.

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