Mentor Announcement #7 & #8 Summit 2019

Dear all,

I am very excited to announce our mentors for the workshop Collaboration with IFC.

via GIPHY

Drum roll for…

Diane Ramage & Andy Waring

Diane Ramage

Background

I have 30 years construction experience gained within construction across a range of projects and sectors and as BIM Manager at Keppie Design I develop our standards and procedures to align with those of the UK, and now the international, standards, providing guidance to staff and management while ensuring over 70 Revit users have continuing software and procedure skills development.

I’ve been using BIM software and methods since 2004 and have applied them on Architectural projects ranging from small residential units to multi-million commercial and healthcare schemes, working collaboratively with all other project consultants and clients. I have been a passionate advocate of BIM collaboration throughout my career and relish the fact that every day still teaches me something new.

I’m also part of the Keppie team who develop partnerships with further education establishments since I have also previously lectured in Architectural Technology and keep in contact with the education sector, where I’ve collaborated with lecturers in course development. I’ve trained others in implementation of BIM methods, technology and software since 2004 and as a committee member of the Glasgow Revit User Group I’m a firm believer that spreading and sharing knowledge will help the wider construction industry and ultimately be beneficial to the whole industry.

Her Motivation

I take great delight in watching students engage with the subject matter and progress their understanding and skills and I believe my experience can help students put the context of their learning experience into practical use within the “real” world of the construction industry. I’m excited to be taking part in BILT Academy as a mentor because it’ll be an opportunity to share experiential knowledge and help students transition from education to the workplace with confidence in their skills.

Andy Waring

Background

I graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2013 and became an architect in early 2017 completing various projects across the Sports, Education and Justice sectors with a combined project value of £70M in that time. I became the BIM manager of Holmes Miller Architects in early 2018. Holmes Miller has 3 offices, in Glasgow, London and Guangzhou with just under 100 staff. I lead the development and implementation of in house standards and content aligned to international specification and provide extensive training around various standards and tools both in house and externally. I also handle most ICT related matters and specialize in research and development projects ranging from the development of fully automated model validation procedures and various tools to aid parametric design and production. I am also developing integrations between finance software and various analysis tools for the SMT. Outside of Holmes Miller, I am a committee member for the Glasgow Revit User Group (GRUG) and have previously been the chair on various industry summits.

His Motivation

With concepts such as virtual digital construction and BIM becoming mainstream, we need intelligent and motivated students with the right knowledge to be productive and push the industry into the 21st century. Industry collaboration with education is vital to ensure that students are aware and prepared to join us in dragging the construction sector into the 21st century. I am delighted to be offered to opportunity to be a BILT Academy mentor to help guide the innovators of the future.

Key Learning Objectives

01- Learn how to collaborate with IFC files within Revit and to export an IFC from Revit

  • Open an IFC using Revit and save as a Revit file
  • Link a native IFC into a Revit model
  • Export a Revit model to IFC  
  • Export formats
  • Location of Revit IFC Export mapping table
  • Simplified Export process
  • Overview of IFC advanced export settings

02- Learn about the BIM interoperability suite for classification of model elements, and to prepare your model for COBie data

  • Where to access the suite and an overview of the elements
  • Classification manager overview
  • COBie overview
  • Workflow for COBie population in Revit

03- Learn about Revit Model Checker and how to customise it to suit standards

  • Overview of Revit Model Checker
  • Why /when  use model checker
  • Example of validation process using model checker

Short Q&A

1)Where do you see the importance of collaborating with IFC? Why this kind of standards are important for the AEC industry?

Working within Architecture I’m not the greatest advocate of the IFC format, I do think it’s very important that there is a method of interoperability through an open format but I see it more as a necessary complication to my job, since not everyone works across the same software formats. Industry software providers have resisted developing their platforms on a completely open format but the need for IFC import/export adds further time and effort onto projects where fee margins (in the UK) are very tight.


Additionally IFC still is not 100% accurate, and that margin of inaccuracy leave us at risk of being subject to legal disputes, hence it’s important that we adopt a workflow and method to interact with the IFC format, and we always ensure that any output in IFC format is clearly identified as being subject to potential inaccuracy or misinterpretation by the software used to read it as is the case with all exchange formats without a native editing tool

2)Could you briefly explain the difference between Open BIM and Closed BIM approaches? What is the need and role of IFC for Open BIM approach?

Closed BIM relies on every project participant using the same software, being version specific and requires no interoperability between different software formats.  This rarely happens, since CAD, Excel, Navisworks, images would have different formats but are regularly incorporated to inform the project design.

Completely open BIM would encompass integration of all formats, in particular IFC and COBie, and this happens on most design projects, but it can be a difficult, time involved process and unless participants are familiar with good workflows and processes and have additional interoperability tools to handle the tasks involved these integrations can cause expensive delays to project progress.

An ideal open BIM world would see all software platforms linking together seamlessly using the native software platform formats, but this dream is unlikely to become reality, hence the need for tools to use IFC format and interoperability tools.

3)What is the most important message you want to give to the students after attending your workshop?

Always know the limitations of the deliverables you are signing up for, find out if they are fit for purpose and make your clients aware of this from the outset.


We’ve looked at some of the collaboration tools we use to provide our design services. They are not the essence of our design services, and regardless of how much automation and efficiency these tools provide, never underestimate the need for your design individuality, your thought and intellect, your expertise to inform any construction project. They say a bad worker blames his tools, instead be the expert worker who simply uses the tools to enhance inspired design.

BIM Server for Project and Model Management

Hey folks,

I was writing a little report about how to set up the BIM Server and how to prepare BIM models coming from different native software.
The open BIM Server is an open-source online platform which allows project management to merge IFC models and to provide insight into the models’ accuracy. Additional, diverse plug-in packages can be used, for example, model walk-throughs, queries, checkers and many more.

The goal of this report was to create a use case when having three different models:

  1. the structural model in Revit.
  2. the architectural model in ArchiCAD.
  3. the landscape model from AutoCAD.

One of the main focus was it to prepare the IFC exports so that when merging all models on the BIM Server all elements are allocated as supposed.

By doing so I have noticed that for example the project base point in all three software is interpreted differently.
Further, the properties of the elements have obtained special attention. Especially for the non-structural elements created in ArchiCAD and the structural elements created in Revit.

Read more about it and other findings which you should mind when merging IFCs on the BIMServer. Find the full report here.

Mentor Announcement #10

The final mentor and workshop announcement for our very first Academy Summit… Multi-platform workflows with… Martin Taurer.

One of our unique free minds within the building industry and the BIM world comes to the BILT Academy summit 2018, you shouldn´t miss this one.

Motto: Just shut up and BIM!

Martin Taurer

Livingroomcraftz                                                                                                  Noordeinde 9B                                                                                                                        NL-2611KE Delft                                                    martin.taurer@livingroomcraftz.com

Biography

Martin Taurer is the founder of LivingroomcraftZ and a pioneer when it comes to Building Information Modelling within the Building Industry. Together with his partner Silvia Taurer he runs LRCZ since 2008 and is specialized in implementing and practicing Building Information Modelling Management in Architecture and Structural Engineering projects.

After graduating as Architect from the Graz University of Technology, 1989, he continued working as certified Architect in Germany, Brazil, Austria and the Netherlands. Early 2000 he was part in developing and managing localization and translation of the Autodesk Revit product line. As product manager, Martin was part of major Autodesk developments and could gather working experience in Boston, Sydney and Tokyo until 2007. Due to his intensive utilization of software within the AEC industry his interests, knowledge and skills of smart and efficient workflows have grown over the years. Hence, working as BIM consultancy in Tokyo at 3D Innovation was his kick-off as BIM specialist. This lead to the idea of establishing Livingroomcraftz as a BIM consultancy.

Motivation

Martins personal motivation within the building trade is to communicate and collaborate efficiently in an economically feasible way. In order to do so, he started teaching at the Technical University in Delft as BIM specialist. Additionally, joining the BILT Academy Summit 2018 is a one-time opportunity to show students the latest technologies used by professions in the industry.

“BIM and IPD methodologies are beneficial rather than adversary tools for the architectural design process. My personal aim is to bring this thought process to young people – caring means sharing. Transparent communication between all stakeholders of the design process produces better quality and is simply more fun than writing stupid emails and filling out RFI forms. And the tools we have at hand make it possible. I find that exciting – possible students will think so too…“

“Proactive contribution to the educative community is a means of actively shaping the future of the industry – I am personally actively involved in the Open Source world via DynamoBIM – there we share our knowledge for free. And the same thought goes along with education. It’s sharing our knowledge to shape the future experts within the building industry.“

“And – last but not least – the best things in life are free. Ideally, in nerd-space (where I tend to retire to once in a while) it’s the pure thought that counts and not the money.”

By Martin Taurer

Martin at the BILT Academy Summit

As the name already says Martins workshop will be focusing on multi-platform approaches. The basic idea is that it´s open to everyone with experimental ideas and diverse working approaches. The usage of multiple software solutions is welcome BUT one important thing you should not forget collaboration is one of the major challenges.

To get an idea:

You will receive an architectural design of a building either in PDF and DWG, as a Revit model, as an IFC model, or even on Paper. Design issues will be included which need to be resolved, how? you can use all kinds of 3D BIM software, Visual scripting but also programming. The openBIM Server will be settled up for you to collaborate together.

One thing for sure, Martin will be the correct person to ask and work together when it comes to multi-platform solutions. check his BLOG 🙂

His Key-learning Objective

  1. Utilize BIM/IPD Tools creatively                                                                                            How to use different tools to cover unusual challenges
  1. Think outside the box                                                                                                                If there is no tool available, let’s create a new one
  1. Step onto the platform                                                                                                  Utilize current methods of design development and design communication to fully utilize the integrated process

 

Mentor Announcement #6

A proper model organization including model control via clash detections are one of the most important topics when it comes to appropriate model management.  We, the BILTAcademy are more than happy to announce its fifth and sixth mentor, Arik and Moty, who is going to hold a workshop table on this topic (Lab3). Coming especially from Israel in order to participate at the BILTEurope and BILTAcademy Summit. Many thanks to you, we are looking much forward.

Arik Shiby

Founder & CEO of WeBIM Ltd.                                                            Ariks@webimit.com

Biography

As the CEO of WeBIM, the leading company regarding BIM in Israel, Arik is a specialist when it comes to model and project management. With his broad knowledge and ambition, he started 2015 to establish and manage BIM Israel Forum. It aims to unite all the companies from the building and infrastructure industry to create a local BIM standard (Israel). Recently, he founded the REAL BIM FORUM which brings together all the BIM manager to enhance dialogue and cooperation in the assimilation of BIM in the industry.

Personal Motivation

Arik is involved in the architectural and building industry in Israel for over 25 years, first as senior design lecturer at the SADNA environmental college in Tel Aviv, and after as the AEC (Architectural, engineering, construction) industry product manager for 17 years. As the leading persona of the BIM scene in Israel and through his experiences in lecturing at colleges and preparing and conducting professional conferences for hundreds of participants, his passion for educating students about BIM technologies is part of his DNA.

 

Collaborative Design for Students

The first quarter at my University is over; this means a lot of nice projects and research papers have been finished within the last 2 weeks.

One of these courses is Collaborative Design which I would like to present to you within this blogpost.

The main approach was it to collaborate within one Consortium existing out of three companies, Architects, Urban Planners and Structural Engineers. The task was it to create within only eight weeks a development project in Strijp T, an industrial area in Eindhoven. This should include a Project management plan, a design including 3D model, IFC based, and a communication platform.  The main focus was it to concentrate on how to collaborate and create a multi and interdisciplinary working environment. In fact, we were all somehow familiar with the BIM methodology but everyone within their own profession. This is why I would like to show you how we approached this task and made it happen to collaborate altogether within one working environment.

  1. Setting up a Project Management Plan

We used the online environment Relatics in order to set up our project management. There are several parts included which I am going to show you with this graph below:

#1 Project Requirements:

It includes all of the municipality’s vision goals. What needs to be developed and why, including all requirements such as functionalities and buildings properties, size, area, material etc.

#2 Organization Hierarchy:

Includes all participating companies in there set up and functionality towards the project.

#3 Process Breakdown (Process Mapping)

This is one of the most important parts for organizing a project in first place. Most consultancies are creating process plans and event-logs in order to keep track of the whole building planning, modelling and realization process. This allows comparing the “as-planned” situation with the “as-modeled” and “as-built”.  For the process planning we used the software Visio.

The second big challenge within a project was how to set up an appropriate 3D BIM model, especially how to organize and manage it.

  1. Model Management

Every company in our consortium, Architects, Urban Planners and Engineers, had one file in which every team member had access to and could work in. We decided to export weekly all three files to IFC and upload it to the BIM Server.  This allowed us to present it easily towards the professor to show how our design progress was.

An additional solution for managing and organizing the workflow within each company’s model, we decided to use BIMCollab, the BCFmanager. It’s a very handy tool in order to communicate within a bigger project; you can assign tasks and issues towards specifically chosen persons and can so keep track of your models development.  Additionally due to its BCF file format it can be read as IFC from almost every AEC software. This allowed us also to upload the IFC models including the BCF report on the BIM Server.

In this graph bellow a common workflow is visualized. Three 3D models, explained in all Level of Development, steady IFC and BCF exports of each model plus collecting all models together on the BIM Server.

 

If you wanna know more about it don´t hesitate to contact me or to read the full research paper on issuu.