Mentor Announcement #4 Summit 2019

Hi there.

It is my pleasure to announce the fourth mentor who is going to lead the workshop Project Management in OpenBIM.

David Delgado Vendrell

Biography

David is an architect (MSc. Arch) by ETSAV (UPC, Polytechnic University of Catalonia), and CEO of DDV (since 2004), a BIM consultancy especially focused on implementing this technology in the public sector and also private companies working in the different stages of the asset life-cycle.

He is a specialist in the use of the ARCHICAD platform and the fostering of openBIM. He is the Director of the Master’s in BIM Management (en, es, pt) of ZIGURAT, Global Institute of Technology, and also collaborates as a lecturer in other BIM educational programs. He is an active member of the BIM User Group of Catalonia (GuBIMCat). He is a member and the Vice-President in Design Area of buildingSMART Spanish Chapter, to whom he represented in the recently closed IUG (International User Group) of buildingSMART International. He also collaborates in the “We Build the Future” Commission of ITEC in Catalonia, in the representation of the CoAC, the national Architects Association. He has co-authored the BIM classification system “GuBIMclass”, an initiative of GuBIMCat and Infraestructures de Catalunya.

Motivation

We are professionals, with a technical background and rational approach, from a sector immersed in the process of digitization that other industries already addressed years ago.

To embrace this challenge, we undoubtedly should face the involvement of the most critical resource for this process to be successful: people!

In this sense, my primary motivation to be part of BILT Academy as a mentor is to push for the combination of these two aspects: technical and human. For many years now, BIM talks about collaboration. But, most of the times, people don’t have an appropriate response to those collaboration expectations due to a lack of suitable communication skills.

As a person who also loves communication and social interaction, BILT Academy becomes the ideal environment to explore and enhance this aspect: young professionals, highly qualified, interested in innovation and with the desire for real collaboration. It will be a pleasure to be part of it!

KLO1 – The basic of processes within the framework of buildingSMART standards

• Learn which are the main buildingSMART standards, especially about Data and Processes.

• Understand the basics of IDM (Information Delivery Manual), as the international standard for defining the information that should be exchanged between project participants in the AEC project lifecycle.

• Learn the basics of Process Mapping, exchange requirements and BPMN as the standard to represent which is defined in an IDM.

KLO2 – Agile and Scrum as an alternative for an openBIM project management

• Understand how concurrent engineering processes can help to have a suitable response to changes in BIM design stages.

• Learn the basics of Agile Methodology

• Learn in detail what is Scrum and Kanban, as agile approaches: definitions, team members, ceremonies, artifacts, hierarchies, board examples and metrics.

KLO3 – Applying Scrum and Kanban to an openBIM workflow using visual web-based tools

• Learn how to apply Scrum and Kanban methods in digital cloud-based boards, as Trello.

• Explore the main features of Scrum and its relation with usual BIM design workflows using Trello boards, triggers and other complementary tools.

• BIM projects use case.

At the end of this class, students will comprehend and apply how the Agile methodology combined with BIM workflows, instead of a system based on strict rules to develop their designs, becomes a support guide, as alternative project management to their future projects, where the value is the primary goal of the client.

QnA

What does openBIM mean to you? In which way is it different from closedBIM workflows in the AEC industry?

We can define openBIM as basically an approach based on BIM collaborative processes in which data exchanges occur using open and neutral standards (not proprietary). ClosedBIM processes are wrongly seen as the opposite of openBIM ones. Beyond that controversial binomial, there is a distinctive border, which is the one between native environments (editable ones) vs QC environments (at least, read-only). When we are producing deliverables from BIM authoring platforms, our environment is mostly native. If there is some workflow in which we are using some open standards (such as IFC or BCF), then we could say that there is an openBIM collaborative framework. In my opinion, the “model as a reference” approach, in which openBIM is based, should be the critical point of any BIM collaborative process which must assure and guarantee authorship, data access across the life cycle and data quality-driven results.

To combine technology and humanity, you are planning on using appropriate communication/collaboration methods, based on openBIM standards eg buildingSmart standards. in what way are they different/more efficient compared to conventional standards/closed BIM workflows?

In my opinion, one of the fields in which openBIM, and especially the use of IFC, enables the best performance is in Quality Control within the framework of BIM coordination processes. Many of BIM technicians are applying excellent QA methods within their native environments. Nonetheless, BIM authoring tools can hide or disrupt some results due to their own internal data architecture. In that sense, we can produce or export these data into an IFC Schema-based models; in other words, a neutral and non-propietary file, to validate them. That enables us to put the QC focus on specific standardized property subsets, without the risk of dealing with native misleading data. And this is where a consistent Information Delivery Plan (IDM, another openBIM standard) is needed, which documents exchanges of information in a project.

In which steps/phases of a project do you see the most relevant usage of project management tools, such as Scrum and Kanban?

Design stage, whether in early phases or more advanced ones, is the suitable one to apply Agile methodologies. The results of this stage are the ones in which the client (or the owner) has the biggest expectation. Although designers start their projects with an initial quite-well defined project requirements, it is usually a phase exposed to high levels of changes during the whole period. Agile methodologies enable those professionals to interact in a more flexible, efficient and effective way, not just among the team, but especially with the client.

What is the most important message you want to hand over to the students attending your lab?

Whether if we are good creating a well-performed work breakdown structures in response and following apparent immutable client requirements, what I would like to show that it is quite easy to change our habits. And it starts with ourselves, in our daily practices using friendly tools within the framework of more flexible collaborative practices. We need to adapt our procedures using BIM, as methodology based on digital technologies, in combination with client-oriented project management approaches if we think that value is the crucial factor which client prioritize.


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 #8

Thankful and proud we are presenting our next Mentor for the very first BILT Academy Summit 2018 in Ljubljana.

Well known as openBIM expert specialized in Archicad and many other openBIM software solutions, he is coming from the other side of the world only to attend and share his knowledge with the future experts of the AEC industry.

We are welcoming on board …

Nathan Hildebrandt

Director at Fulton Trotter Architects                                                              ARCHICAD and openBIM expert                        nathan.hildebrandt@rtcevents.com

Biography

Nathan Hildebrandt is a Director at Fulton Trotter Architects in Australia. He is a Registered Architect and has worked on over 60 projects in the Aged Care, Education, Community and Sport and Recreation sectors. He also leads the Fulton Trotter Digital brand that assists in the briefing, specification, documentation and information management services for asset owners. A highly regarded expert in using ARCHICAD and openBIM processes, Nathan has presented at over 30 events across Australia, North America and Europe. He is Stream Lead for BILT ANZ, Chair of BrisBIM, Chair of ACA QLD | NT / AIA QLD BIM Taskforce, and as a member for buildingSMART Australasia. Nathan has also won the BIMshow Live, Rob Jackson openBIM award in 2018.

Motivation

BILT Academy facilitates the sharing of knowledge from world leading BIM experts with students. The students are the future of our industry and will become the drivers of BIM processes over the coming decades. I have been involved in my organisation since I was a student and valued the learning opportunities that I have gained learning from people within my practice. I want to give back to the community and share my knowledge with students, the future leaders of our industry.

 

At BILT Academy I will provide you with “The openBIM Architect Experience,” where I will take you through a series of processes that you will encounter in your Architectural career. The learning objectives for my sessions will be as follows.

Key Learning Objectives

  • Learn how to create compliant IFC files using ARCHICAD 22
  • Learn about the openBIM coordination process using Solibri Model Checker and BIMcollab
  • Learn about preparing your design models to meet your client’s information deliverable requirements.

 

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.