Virtual Design and Construction Technologies

BIM - BAM - BOOM

2012-11-05T09:39:00.002-08:00

Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA – the CEO of HOK aka the father of the MacLeamy curve, discusses life after BIM.

Trimble continues to "Go BIM"

2012-11-04T09:15:00.005-08:00

Yesterday, Trimble announced it's acquisition of VICO software. This is in addition to it's recent acquisitions of Tekla structures and Sketchup.

"Vico's 5D Virtual Construction software solutions pioneered the category of 5D BIM for construction. With Vico's capabilities Trimble is uniquely positioned to participate in the industry's evolution from 2D to 5D management," said Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president. "Vico provides an important contribution in that evolution by connecting data from the virtual aspects to the physical aspects of a building construction project. It becomes the connection point that binds Trimble's hardware and software suite of products together across the DBO lifecycle."

My last post reflected the future of BIM - this merger will certainly have an interesting impact on that future.

What do you think this will do for the future of VDC?

Future BIM - 2017

2012-10-26T10:37:00.001-07:00

Where will BIM processes and tools take us in five years? I've found this question quite perplexing - I never knew where I would be today if asked this question 5 years ago. This article on the NBS website attempts to predict BIM in 2017 by journaling a meeting of the UK's BIM leaders.

The round table discussed the biggest roadblock on the path to Industry adoption of BIM which seems to be the lack of design models from the entire design team:

"Why is this? One factor may be traditional working practices such as double handling the model creation between architect or engineer and a “BIM draughtsman” which adds to the designers costs. Designers should be working smarter to offering BIM as an inherent part of their service to add value and quality, not as an extra."

In summary the participants agree that:

There was consensus that the UK Government mandate for public sector projects has created a significant impetus for adoption across the whole industry which now seems to have acknowledged that BIM is here to stay and will have a positive impact. At the same time there was recognition that the several centres of excellence which have emerged in industry are outweighed by a multitude of organisations who are still at the very early stages of adoption.

The thought from the round-table that best describes the state of VDC and BIM:

“In five years time, perhaps the industry will be doing what we think we’re doing now?”

NavisWorks Mobile App is now available for iPad

2012-10-08T09:37:00.002-07:00

Autodesk has just announced it's latest mobile offering for the iPad: BIM 360 Glue on the Go

Here is what Autodesk has to say about the product:

"The Autodesk® BIM 360™ Glue mobile app enables BIM 360 Glue users to more securely access Building Information Modeling (BIM) projects from anywhere, at any time. Building, infrastructure, design, and construction professionals can access and intuitively explore multi-disciplinary models online or offline, access all saved views, and review intelligent object properties.

Easy access to up-to-date, multi-discipline BIM 360 Glue projects
•“One-click to BIM” access from email notifications to a precise model view
•Navigate through saved views and access intelligent object properties
•Secure, authenticated, anywhere access to BIM 360 Glue projects

Intuitive exploration of multi-discipline BIM projects in the field
•Navigate using intuitive gesture-based pan, zoom and orbit
•Walk through the model with gravity-assisted navigation optimized for BIM
•View project model details with immersive, gyroscope-enabled look-around

Integrated with your BIM ecosystem
•Coordinate over 50 design file formats in BIM 360 Glue for mobile access
•Publish Navisworks models to BIM 360 Glue for access in the field
•Access large project models and data—online or offline

Autodesk BIM 360 Glue mobile app is licensed under the following License and Services Agreement. Your download and/or use of the Autodesk BIM 360 Glue Mobile app shall serve as your acknowledgement to the terms of this License and Services Agreement with respect to your use of the Autodesk BIM 360 Glue mobile app."

Using Revit to model classical architectural elements

2012-09-14T10:32:00.001-07:00

I want to share this very insightful post from Paul Aubin. In this post he describes some of his research into using Revit to model Classical Architecture. AMAZING! Check out his post here

Autodesk aquires VELA systems

2012-06-22T14:16:00.001-07:00

Part of it's "BIM 360" cloud services, Autodesk has recently aquired VELA systems. I'm excited to this this construction field management tool become part of the Autodesk ecosystem. This will be a trans formative relationship as Autodesk will be able to market and deliver this tool alongside it's current portfolio of products.

Autodesk FINNALY releases design review on the iPad (with video)

2011-09-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

BIMx from graphisoft released with much fanfaire from the BIM community last week on the iPad with native support for viewing 3d models from Archicad. Well on Sunday, Autodesk released Design Review for the iPad and iPhone. This is not native support of a BIM but it has full support for viewing 2D and 3D dwf's from autodesk products.

Here is a quick video I put together...

Revit OpEd: FARO Point Cloud Indexing

2011-08-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Great link to Steve Stafford's blog on integrating FARO data with Autodesk products. Seems there is a bit of an issue with indexing certain file formats. Pertains to some upcoming work I will be scanning with a FARO.

Revit OpEd: FARO Point Cloud Indexing: Note to self: Remember to install the 32bit version of the FARO SDK (software developer kit) so that indexing a .fls point cloud source file...

Plans and Renderings of Apple's new campus.

2011-08-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

The geek in me wants to know which tools where used for the design of this almost UFO like building.

Here are the links to Cupertino's website...

Cover sheets

Site and Landscape

Plans and Sections

Renderings

Amazing 4D Construction Simulation

2011-08-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is the best 4D I've seen. Thanks to David Light.

Project Information Management meets BIM

2011-02-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

Great new Revit Add-in for Newforma users. Allows for Revit document management from within the newforma environment.

Some of the Features included:

Room management
Punchlist Integration
Document Control
Action items and markups in Newforma are linked to Revit Elements
Audit trail for revisions to the Revit model.

I'm excited to get this implemented! But we have to wait until newforma v8 is released in the spring.

Newforma - Newforma Project Center

3D Holographic Prints

2010-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

At AU, I met a gentlemen in the R&D lounge who presented me with a 24" x 24" hologram. His company is called Zebra imaging.
What I was drawn to was that it contained 3D hologram of the Seattle waterfront. He pulled out a few other holograms one being a "multi-phase" hologram of a process plant with one phase showing internal equipment, and the second phase showing internal equipment that housed the equipment. A 90 rotation of the hologram switched the phase.

While an impressive technology that is a less expensive alternative to a rugged laptop and navisworks in the field, it is a static model that is void of the "I" in this whole process we call BIM.

check it out here:
Engadget article
Company website

Autodesk Conceptual modeling - Free!!!

2010-11-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

Go check it out. It's the powerful conceptual massing tool from Revit mixed with the conceptual analysis tools recently release by Autodesk.

Autocad WS - On my iPhone

2010-09-29T10:46:00.001-07:00

Here it is - Autocad LT on the iPhone. I'm just playing right now so here's some pictures. I'll most my comments later.

Autodesk Invests in Vela Systems

2010-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Read it here

I'm hoping to see an integration of Navisworks with Vela and even possibly a full PLM type package for the AEC industry that is integrated into the Navisworks suite and the Revit suite....Let's hope that the construction economy picks up to drive this new partnership.

We all knew it was coming

2010-08-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

Autocad WS Mobile for iphone and ipad.

It's finally here....BIM in the iPad and iPhone

2010-08-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

So a co-worker ran this app on itunes by me today: http://go-bim.iankeough.com/wordpress/

Seems a little fussy - the file published from Revit must be placed in a public location that can be accessed by the app. For me i just use the public folder in my .me account.

I'll follow up with some screen shots and videos after I get the bugs worked out.

If you try it out, let me know how it goes and any tips/tricks you discover.

here's the link to it on itunes: goBIM

Laser Scan on a Backpack - with no post processesing

2010-08-12T10:54:00.001-07:00

This should help drive the cost of laser scanning down - Very little human intervention needed.

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Future of Concrete Construction

2010-07-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Design Review on my ipad

2010-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I just got an iPad to test out here at work. I literally unboxed it an hour ago so I havn't had much time to test it out but the idea it to integrate it into the workflow for our engineers in the field. Here's a quick video showing a visualized version of Design review. Slow, but it works.

ACAD for Mac OS

2010-05-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

After all of these years, Autodesk is finally showing signs that it is going to be porting some of it's software to the Mac platform. Read more here.

disclaimer: I'm not beta testing this software so I've come across this through some mac people.

A case for BIM?

2010-05-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Latest Technology out of FIATECH

2010-04-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you Huston for sharing this

Autodesk's foray into Binary Relationship Information Modeling

2010-04-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Some comedic relief for an update to my blog.....

Autodesk's latest technology patent will do clash detection for annoying personal quirks; run sophisticated FEA (Finite Emotional Analysis) analyses; and even use an innovative technique called Relationship Design Computation to leverage the power of generative algorithms for the power of love.

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/love_maker/

NEW BLOG!!! CHECK IT OUT!!

2009-12-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Tales of Virtual Construction