NBS Software Blog

Final thoughts on RICS BIM Conference

2012-02-10T00:03:00.001Z

Some quick thoughts and quotes from the RICS BIM Conference today.

Paul Morrell:

In terms of the cost and carbon situation:
"BIM may be the paddle that gets us out of shit creek"
When asked to deal with cost and carbon at the same time:
"If you cannot ride two horses at once, what are you doing in the circus?"
Why we need collaboration and not an adversarial culture in the construction industry:
"I could have retired at 27 if I could have the time back that was spent arguing"
Looking at how businesses need to adapt:
"Not one manufacturer of radio valves now makes micro chips"

Mark Bew:

On Level-2 BIM:
"We move from just 3D geometry to 3D geometry AND the information behind it"
"In terms of contract currency, 2D information generated from the models is fine for Level-2."
"Nobody is doing Level-3. Level-2.9 is best I've seen"
Looking at plans of work:
"Plans of work need to define outputs. The data drops. What data does the client get and when?"
And in terms of bringing the majority of the industry up to Level-2 BIM:
"The good news is that we set ourselves 5 years. The bad news is that we have already used 1 year up."

Simon Rawlinson:

Forget the Bew-Richards Maturity Model, check out what may just be named the Rawlinson-Coffee-Cup-Diagram. From Level-0 2D cup with no info all of the way to Level-3 cup complete with multi-colour post-its :)

A nice SWOT analysis too - I'll try and grab the slide.

National BIM Report 2012:

I presented the findings from the National BIM Report. Some nice tweets afterwards too - I hope people are finding it a decent document.

Also, great to have the likes of Simon Rawlinson, Brenden Patchell and Bryan Arscott all commenting very favourably about the National BIM Library project.

Chris Millard:

Some real fantastic things from Balfour Beatty here. The iPad augmented reality live demo. Also the photographs of the project team all gathered around a huge screen showing the BIM in the Balfour Beatty "BIM Cave".

Watching a model develop in parallel to the actual construction so that progress can be modelled and an as-built set of information be developed was great.

Brian Arscott:

Brian from John Lewis Partnership showed their ambition as an intelligent client with a "can do" attitude. "The big question is, when can we model our entire estate?"

Nice slide about how BIM is about reducing risk...

RICS BIM Conference

2012-02-09T07:52:00.001Z

Today I am presenting the National BIM Report 2012 at the RICS BIM Conference. The presentation will look at the findings and some of the comment pieces and then I'll explore what RIBA Enterprises consider the "I" in BIM to be.

One thing that worked out quite nicely in terms of preparation was a set of questions I was emailed by an MSc student Candi Brown regarding a study into BIM and the Quantity Surveyor. Some of my thoughts below:
Update: Anybody that would like to help with this research please email:
Candi.Brown [at] uk.rlb.com

1. What still needs developing with BIM software in relation to QS tasks such as quantity take offs and automatic costing?
Quantity take off works well for the major materials such as concrete blocks or plasterboard. Automated costing is not as simple due to rules of measurement, for example a 4m-high x10m-wide brick walls cost less to construct than a 10m-high x4m-wide.
So there must be an intelligent interpretation of this data.
Also, costing is clearly much more than just the cost of construction in pounds and pence. It is also the environmental costs and these costs through the building's operation too.

2. What are the main benefits of using BIM for QS’s?
In terms of meeting with QSs involved with BIM that we have talked to, I’d say:
a. The ability to automatically take off quantities as opposed to measuring from plans and elevations.
b. The ability to link in-house cost databases to the elements in the BIM. This allows cost estimations to be more rapidly developed.
c. Basic collaboration and sharing of information. Through BIM, the design team are forced to make design decisions earlier – the cost consultant can then receive this information in a very understandable format and then advise on the implications of these decisions.

3. What are the main threats/opportunities to the QS?
The threats, to any construction professional, are mainly from “staying still” for too long and not adapting to change. Are there any practices still using drawing boards and typewriters?
Another threat is potentially from overseas competition. The UK cannot afford to stay still in an increasingly competitive global market. Clearly this is an opportunity too.

4. Is there any room for the future for Quantity Surveyor to get involved in adapting the BIM model themselves, for value engineering etc., and that this may be a skill that will be required of the future QS?

The BIM software packages used on a project, whether dealing with geometry, specification or cost must allow for the work flow you describe. What is clearly important though is for each consultant to agree the process and for change management QA processes to be put in place. Clever software and well-structured data are crucial, but skilled people and a defined process are also required.
A QS has traditionally contributed in many ways to the specification process, so there is no reason why this should decrease in any way with the adoption of BIM.

5. Could the QS play a lead role as BIM Co-ordinator/Manager?
I’m interested as to how long the word “BIM” will continue to be used. 5 years? 10 years? Eventually BIM will simply be the way people work on construction projects. Like a CMS is used to manage the production of a magazine or a website. Could a QS play the lead coordinator/manager role on a construction project? Of course. In 10 years’ time, will there be a contract role that is the “BIM Manager”? I don’t think so.

6. Which stage of the construction process is there scope for the QS to gain the most benefit out of using BIM?
The biggest chance to influence financial or environmental impact cost is as early on in the project as possible when the desired outcomes, performance specifications and the budget is being set. Post construction, there is an amazing opportunity now to take the actual information in digital form – estimated costs, actual costs, project duration and then feed this back into in-house systems so that lessons are learned and the next project is even better.

7. Are there implications for QS fees as a result of BIM?
Consultants must be paid for the value they add to a project. If a construction project comes in for a lower price, if the yearly operation costs of a building are less, then the consultants must be rewarded accordingly. So fees should not reduce for those embracing BIM and bringing more to the table.
However, where standardisation is possible with repeat work of the same client, then fees may come down. But this will be “win for all” as everyone will benefit through increased profit margins.

8. What do you think are the key barrier(s) to the uptake of BIM for Quantity Surveyors?
Same reasons people didn’t want to change from typewriters and drawing boards in the 1980s. Fear of change. Reluctance to invest in training and technology.
Businesses evolve through leadership from the top and through encouraging staff to push ideas from within.

9. Are there any good QS case studies on BIM?
We have a number of industry-wide case studies on theNBS.com/BIM – a good cost consultant one is Dick Barker from Laing O’Rourke. We have another case study from John Lorimer (Manchester City Council – intelligent client) which will also be of interest.

- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/

Stay in touch, with NBS email updates

2012-02-08T14:42:00.001Z

Some great coverage today in the construction press for our National BIM Report 2012. If you haven't downloaded a copy yet, then please check it out.

A quick blog post to remind everyone that they can stay in touch with all of the news from NBS by signing up to our email updates.
- theNBS.com/signup/

1. Access the page from the URL above or from our website theNBS.com

2. Select what you are interested in - we won't email you about topics that you don't care about:

3. Receive free, informative, email updates direct to your inbox

- theNBS.com/signup/

The National BIM Library – Behind the Scenes

2012-02-02T18:26:00.000Z

There has been some discussion recently on our linkedin group regarding whether the National BIM Library (NBL) project is really BIM or simply one software vendor format with “lip service” being paid to IFC. In the discussion thread I rejected this opinion, but must accept that there hasn’t been much communication from us on how the content is being produced behind the scenes. This post tries to give a little indication on how the objects are being created.

We have commissioned the BIM Academy to undertake the first big chunk of work on the NBL. This was due to our confidence that the team work between BIM Academy and NBS would be able to do some pretty special things. BIM Academy is a joint venture that brings together Ryder Architecture with their experience of BIM in industry and Northumbria University with their BIM knowledge, software skills and bespoke IFC tool kits.

The process for authoring and production is as follows:

The documentation for the BIM objects is initially done in a set of spreadsheets. These link the object types to the structures and materials and define the type and instance properties. IFC is key to this process, from the object types to the standard property sets and COBie property sets. The screenshots below show a little of this…

This data is the source that can be agreed with the NBS Technical Team. The BIM Academy IFC software toolkits then process this information into verified IFC2x3 format. This central source can then be imported into the object-orientated CAD software. At this stage, the core information is translated using IFC, with some additional matching of material and hatch patterns. But all in all it’s a really good process and something that is really pushing the interoperability agenda.

The files in the native software-vendor format then need a little tidy up and presented nicely to the user. The screenshot below shows this…

Then the objects are ready to use as resources in projects. The two screenshots below show a very simple example of concept walls being developed into detailed walls…

We’re starting to edge closer to launch now. We’re really hoping that everyone will like what they see (please come to our NBS/RIBA Enterprises stand at ecobuild and say hello). By following the process outlined in this blog post, embracing standard property sets and including commonly used UK constructions and workflow, we’re hoping it’s going to be the start of something really special.

buildingSMART - Data Dictionary

2012-01-27T21:38:00.001Z

Today I attended the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (formerly known as IFD) event. It was a great forum for sharing what countries around the world are doing in terms of agreeing property sets for construction products. Chairman of buildingSMART and HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy hosted the day and, as always, he was a very motivational and inspirational speaker.

One of the driving forces behind the buildingSMART Data Dictionary is Jacob Mehus from Standards Norway. The Data Dictionary takes the base IFC property sets for a construction object and then extends them for a local country. By keeping a central dictionary that contains a definition of each property in the native language and international English then this becomes very powerful.

It provides a common set of property sets for a construction product in a particular country. The additional benefit is that it allows the translation of these property sets, with their meaning, across international boundaries.

The benefits for international construction manufacturers are clear to see as they can document their product's property sets once and then pass this information internationally. Some big product multi-national manufacturers attended the day and all seemed on board with this vision.

There are currently four partners in this project: buildingSMART Norway; Construction Specifications Canada; Construction Specifications Institute USA; and STABU Foundation Netherlands.

In addition to this, internationally, other parallel activities are happening. In France the AIMCC that represents 100 trade organisations representing 7,000 manufacturers is working on a project to standardise product property sets. Today, the Germans also presented their work on new standards and in the USA, the SPecifiers property Information Exchange (SPIE) project is underway.
http://www.wbdg.org/references/pg_sptsearch.php
This SPIE project is live and usable to all. It combines IFC, COBie and property sets unique to the US to produce a pretty comprehensive definition of a large number of construction product types.

In the UK, the RIBA Enterprises National BIM Library and NBS Create projects have tried to embrace IFC and create the starting point for a UK engagement with the buildingSMART Data Dictionary. Consider a National BIM Library door. The parameters are a mix of IFC, COBie and NBL defined property sets. One or two screenshots below...

Many consider IFC to be all about the exchange of complete models, but by standardising property sets then smaller parts of the BIM may be exchanged. By defining property sets for objects then all members of a building project may have a schema from which to select what information is required and when.

COBie parameters within the National BIM Library objects

2012-01-23T09:51:00.000Z

In response to question on this blog from Rahul Shah to the post "NBL - LRUG"...

The COBie parameters that will be included within National BIM Library objects are as follows. All are type parameters unless stated otherwise. These are from COBie version 2.26, but it is our understanding the the UK Government COBie file format will be slightly different from this and will be published at the end of Q1 this year. NBL will be adjusted to reflect any changes.

BarCode [Instance] The identity of the bar code (or rfid) given to an occurrence of the product.
Colour Characteristic or primary color of product.
Constituents Optional constituent features, parts or finishes.
ServiceLifeDuration The service life that an artefact is expected to have under current operating conditions.
Features Other important characteristics or features relevant to product specification.
Finish Characteristic or primary finish of product.
Grade Standard grading which the product corresponds.
InstallationDate [Instance] The date that the manufactured item was installed.
Material Characteristic or primary material of product.
NominalHeight Typically the vertical or secondary characteristic dimension.
NominalLength Typically the larger or primary horizontal dimension.
NominalWidth Nominal width of product, typically the characteristic or secondary horizontal or characteristic dimension.
ProductionYear The year of production of the manufactured item. (Note that this is from the IFC property set Pset_ManufacturerTypeInformation and not strictly COBie)
ReplacementCost An indicative cost for unit replacement.
SerialNumber [Instance] The serial number assigned to an occurrence of a product by the manufacturer.
Shape Characteristic shape of product.
Size Characteristic size of product.
TagNumber [Instance] The tag number assigned to an occurrence of a product (by the occupier).
WarrantyDescription Description of the warranty.
WarrantyDurationLabor Duration of labor warranty (years).
WarrantyDurationParts Duration of parts warranty (years).
WarrantyGuarantorLabor Organization acting as guarantor of labor warranty.
WarrantyGuarantorParts Organization acting as guarantor of parts warranty.
WarrantyStartDate The date on which the warranty commences.

I wrote a short article on this subject:
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/bim/articles/whatIsCOBie.asp

The best place for information on this is:
- http://www.wbdg.org/resources/cobie.php

The above page has links to YouTube lecturers from Bill East and also sample files (screenshots below) that include model files, IFC exports and COBie exports in MS Excel format.

If you have any specific questions on COBie, there is a linkedin group
- http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2638637
Both Bill East and Nick Nisbet are active on this group and answer questions quite promptly.

1. Example Apartment

2. Example Office Building

3. Example Clinic

National BIM Library - London Revit User Group (LRUG)

2012-01-22T13:34:00.000Z

I had the extremely difficult task of following UK Chief Construction advisor Paul Morrell as the second presenter at the London Revit User Group last Wednesday. However, with assistance from BIM Academy's Drew Wiggett, the presentation seemed to go pretty well and the LRUG members seemed to be interested and asked plenty of questions at the end.

A selection of slides from the presentation below...

1. Why use the National BIM Library (NBL)? What are the key benefits?

2. When doing concept designs, it is possible to use very lightweight concept NBL objects to help develop the spaces and the user paths in the building.

3. As the design develops the concept NBL objects may then be switched to more detailed objects that define the materials within them, the properties and their behaviour.

4. The detailed objects may then be developed into full proprietary objects with rich pre-populated property sets to help produce specification, construction and FM datasets...

5. The second half of the presentation detailed ideas of how the objects in the CAD model and the specification model can be linked and how users would like to see these ideas be developed into useful tools.
In the pub afterwards a number of people mentioned that I was a "brave man" and probably the only person ever to have demonstrated ArchiCAD at a Revit User Group meeting. :)

Thanks to all of those who filled in the feedback sheets. This was really appreciated.

Top level findings from feedback sheets...

An average answer of between 7-8/10 on the questions "How likely are you to use..." the NBL generic, proprietary objects and proposed plug-ins. I was really happy with this score considering that most of the audience had already invested time in creating their own objects.
You want us to create the generic objects for the basics (walls, floors, doors, windows) and then create other objects such as sanitary ware, rooflights, floor coverings and at least some basic MEP.

Paul Morrell - London Revit User Group

2012-01-19T00:39:00.000Z

This evening I was the second presenter on the bill for the London Revit User Group. The first presenter on the bill was Chief Construction Adviser to the UK Government Mr Paul Morrell.

This is the third time I have heard Paul speak, and as expected it was a super, inspirational, presentation. Some snippets below from my scribbled notes...

In tough economical times
"If your business plan is 'sit tight and wait until the good times return' then you are going to fail".
Quoting Ernest Rutherford
"We haven't got the money... so we have to do the thinking".
We have to build digitally first
"...instead of building something first time in 3D with bricks"
What is the UK government focus
"...is not just about building the building, but managing the asset and the data you need to manage the asset".
"Great design, but how often do I need to paint it?"
The best will look after themselves, we care about the middle
"The BIM Strategy is not for leading edge - good on you. It's about the middle of the field".
Setting a realistic goal
"When Kennedy set the goal to go to the moon, he already knew where the moon was and that they had a rocket that could go that far".
In terms of mandating software technology,
"there may be market leaders, but we're not trying to guess a winner. We're defining the outcome, the market will decide through innovation."
Keeping things lean and avoiding data rot
"As important as data drops are dropping data".
When asked by the 'doubters' to prove the return on investment.
"It's obvious, you may as well cost the value of 'traffic lights' or 'whether cars are good idea'".
Asked about open data formats
"COBie is the first step towards interoperability".
"We want have convergence on standards without locking out innovation".

Then followed 30 minutes networking and then the National BIM Library presentation from myself and Drew from BIM Academy. I'll write these notes up later and post the presentation.

As a final point, just to say well done to Carl, Alan and David for organising the event. Completely free of charge and with 100 attendees and with 100 more on the waiting list it's a fantastic effort. Exciting times for UK BIM.

BIM Activity Coming Up

2012-01-17T12:43:00.000Z

Three weeks into 2012 and it's busy, busy, busy. Some events coming up for the diary...

London Revit User GroupOn Wednesday 18th January, Drew Wiggett from the BIM Academy and I have been askedto present the National BIM Library (NBL) developments to the London Revit User Group:
http://www.lrug.org.uk/
We plan to have NBL content in IFC and a number of proprietary formats (ArchiCAD, Bentley, Revit, Vectorworks), but this is the first demonstration of the content in action to a particular user group.
The other speaker on the evening is the Chief Construction Advisor to the UK Government Mr Paul Morrell.
100+ attendees from different practices have signed up - so it looks like a full-house.
RICS BIM ConferenceOn Thursday 9th February I'll be presenting the findings of the National BIM Report 2012 at the RICS BIM Conference.
We got 1,000 replies in the end to our survey. More than double the response from last year.
We're just putting this publication together now. A fascinating insight into BIM Adoption in the UK, especially comparing the last year's research with this years.
ecobuild
Finally, there will be lots of opportunities to listen to and speak with us ecobuild (Tue 20-Thu 22 March).
- Throughout the whole event we'll have a RIBA/RIBA Enterprises/NBS area where there will be many presentations of our products and services for designers and manufacturers .
- I'll be involved at the "Better Through BIM" main seminar series on Wednesday 21st March:
http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/seminars/session/better-through-bim/60/wednesday-21-march/north-gallery-8-9.html
- Martyn Horne from Vectorworks and I will be presenting National BIM Library at the Vectorworks stand on the Tuesday and the Wednesday.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2011-12-19T22:45:00.001Z

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - 2011 almost over now.

Thanks to all those who have visited this blog and have provided feedback to the various NBS developments through the year. The chart below shows that this blog has had over 5,000 unique visitors this year compared with 2,000 in 2010.

The top five articles in 2011 were:

1. Paul Morrell talks to NBS about BIM
A video interview with the UK Government's Chief Construction Advisor.

2. National BIM Library - Draft Content for Comment
The initial draft of walls and doors that were available for user comment.

3. NBS Create - Specification throughout the construction timeline
How the latest specification product from NBS allows specification to develop from outline through to performance to full to record.

4. The COBie data format and the Government's BIM Strategy
An introduction to the COBie data format that will be mandated on all central government projects.

5. NBS-NLA BIM Conference report
An overview from the first ever NBS BIM conference

The top five search terms were:

paul morrell bim
constructioncode blogspot nbs
nbs specification clauses
national bim library
nbs create

Have a great Christmas break. Back again in 2012 for more on developments on National BIM Library, NBS Create, RIBA Product Selector, RIBA CPD and the Construction Information Service to name a few!

Google Analytics Real Time

2011-12-15T22:54:00.000Z

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/09/whats-happening-on-your-site-right-now.html

Google continue to amaze with the functionality they give you for free.

Screenshot above is me checking this blog in Google Analytics at 11pm on a Thursday night. 3 visitors at that point in time. All arrived from Twitter. One from the North East, one from Midlands, one from South East.

thinkBIM - Half Day getBIM Conference - an update

2011-12-15T22:16:00.003Z

Just a quick blog post to say that the BIM conference in Leeds on Wednesday was a really fantastic day.

Update from Paul 15/12 - All slides from the event will be available at the URL - http://be2camp.com/page/getbim

A really good atmosphere and great use of technology to make things interesting and also involve others around the UK (and the world!).

1. Dedicated twitterers
There were two full time tweeters/live bloggers active on the day, Su Butcher (@SuButcher) and Paul Wilkinson (@EEPaul).

These two have an incredible 80,000 tweets and 14,000 followers between them. So they probably have forgotten more about Twitter than I'll ever know. :)

2. Live presentation from the USA
Mark Sawyer, CEO, VICO joined the conference by Skype to present his views on BIM.

3. Pecha Kucha Showcase
I'd never heard of Pecha Kucha (although I thought I once ordered it in a restaurant with a.pint of Kingfisher to accompany it) But this was rapid fire presentation like never seen before. Exactly 20 slides, exactly 20 seconds per slide. Then done.

4. Roundtable discussions
I chaired the discussion on BIM and specification. The second of these was streamed live on the Internet and the live blogging by Su Butcher can be viewed at the website:
- http://be2camp.com/page/getbim
(click link above and scroll down page to the cover it live blog).

Some screen captures from this below...

3:12 The roundtable had started

3:25 Will the CAD model and the specification model integrate to form a true BIM?

3:35 How can the problem of interoperability possibly be solved?

3:58: We need standards, we need high quality library information for BIM

4:09 Software and data providers need to get together and give the users what they demand

And finally, a big "well done" to @ckegroup for doing a great job of putting the day together and running it so smoothly!

thinkBIM - Half day GetBIM conference - Leeds

2011-12-12T08:57:00.002Z

This Wednesday I am attending the GetBIM conference in Leeds. I'll also be chairing one of the roundtable sessions. An overview of this session is below:

- http://www.thinkbim.org/

BIM and Specification
Construction documentation has traditionally included drawings, specification and bill of quantities all issued on paper. The aim of Building Information Modelling is to fully coordinate this information digitally and for this information to flow from briefing through to the operation of the building in use.
This will fundamentally change the construction industry.
This roundtable session discusses what BIM means for specification.

Definitions

Level-2 BIM is a managed 3D environment with data held in separate BIM tools. This is what UK government is mandating for 2016 on central government projects.
Level-3 BIM is a single BIM model through integration of the data in all BIM tools.

Key Questions for Roundtable Debate

To reach level-2 BIM, how should the information in the specification and the CAD models be coordinated?
What does level-3 BIM mean for traditional drawings, specification and bill of quantities?
In a BIM-world, where will the technical guidance and cost (environment and financial) guidance come from?
In a BIM-world, where will the specification workmanship information come from?
How can manufacturers assist construction professionals in their use of BIM?
Will construction professionals be more likely to specify manufacturers who embraced BIM?

A couple of interesting articles on this subject are below, it'll be interesting however to see what the delegates on the day think.

http://www.thenbs.com/topics/DesignSpecification/articles/futureOfSpecification.asp - RIBAE Exec Director Richard Watson gives his thoughts as part of the NBS specification survey 2011
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/bim/articles/bimforspecifications.asp - NBS Head of Specification Ian Chapman looks at how BIM will change specification practice

BIM Opportunities - video from NBS TV

2011-12-08T10:52:00.001Z

Check out our latest NBS TV video about BIM online now...
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/videos/BIM_Opportunities.asp

Speakers include:

Claudio Benghi, member of the BIM Academy, Northumbria University
Hannah George, Associate, Norman Disney & Young
Karl Redmond, Chief Executive; Construction Sector Network
David de Yarza, BIM Director, Lydig Construction, Inc. USA
Richard Brindley, Group Director Membership & Professional Support, RIBA
Richard Saxon, RIBA Client Design Advisor
Me :)
Ruth Reed, immediate past-President, RIBA
Peter Caplehorn, Technical Director, Scott Brownrigg

RIBA and BuildOffSite - Towards Intelligent Construction Conference

2011-12-01T06:59:00.000Z

Yesterday I was one of the speakers at the RIBA and Buildoffsite Towards Intelligent Construction Conference at the RIBA in London.

The conference was kicked off by talks from Richard Ogden, the chairman of BuildOffSite and Angela Brady, President of RIBA. A few quotes I tweeted...

"Build off site is not a cottage industry anymore"
"Stunning design is possible by building off site"
Richard Ogden

"Architects must make the most of the latest technologies, such as BIM"
"BIM - we need to grasp the opportunity now"
Angela Brady

The first part of the conference was a number of presentations from the team behind the Leadenhall Building (aka The "Cheesegrater"). On stage were representatives from British Land, Rogers Stirk Harbour, Arup and Laing O'Rourke. It was absolutely fascinating stuff. And for BIM fans there was lots and lots there. How the structural steel was modelled and also a key part of the architecture. The myth that BIM is a single software package was dismissed as presentations showed rich digital information being passed from Tekla to Rhino to ANSA to Excel to Nastran. My favourite quote from Andy Butler from Laing O'Rourke was that "the construction was engineering, the engineering was architecture and the architecture is what is making the project work".

The second case study was from Circle's hospital construction team. Representatives from Circle, Fosters and Partners and Brydon Wood took the stage and again it was an inspirational set of presentations. How costs can be brought down from £3,500 per m2 to £2,500 m2 with a view to going down to £2,000 m2 whilst maintaining architectural integrity was shown. How was this being done? By using BIM to standardise rooms and equipment within the hospitals and also from learning from the previous build and feeding this knowledge into the next one - standardising what can be standardised, but giving enough freedom for the architecture.

Those that have been on this blog before will know how much of a BIM fan I am. But one thing I especially loved today was the completely un-ashamed use of slides showing initial concept designs using felt tip pens and pencils. When it comes to designing and developing the RIBAE software we use the latest technology and push the boundaries, but it all starts with pencil sketches on the back of envelopes. So I show no pictures of hospital or cheesegrater visualisations with this blog post, but some simple early stage sketches...

At the end of each case study was a RIBA presentation to summarise. This was a presentation from myself and one from Paul Fletcher. My job for the day was "BIM - the future". Whenever I think of "presenting the future" it takes me back to childhood and BBC's Tomorrow's World. So here are some slides, hopefully the narrative is self-explanatory...

Construction Computing Awards 2011

2011-11-29T20:50:00.001Z

NBS sponsored the recent Construction Computing Awards. Richard Waterhouse from RIBA Enterprises presented the awards. It was really nice to see so many faces from the various construction computing companies that we have been collaborating with this year in the lead up to the launch of NBS Create and the National BIM Library. A selection of some of the pictures from the website ConstructionComputingAwards.co.uk are below. Also, great to have some fantastic company for the night on our table Eric, David, Robert, Nick, John and Alistair.

"One to Watch" - Vectorworks

"Collaboration Product of the Year" - 4Projects Solutions

"BIM Product of the Year" - Graphisoft - ArchiCAD 15

"Project Planning Product of the Year" - Asite Key Professional

"Structural Design Product of the Year" - Tekla Structures

"Building Services Product of the Year" - Autodesk Building Design Suite

"Structural Analysis Product of the Year" - Bentley Systems STAAD.Pro V8i

"Company of the Year" - Causeway Technologies

A great evening - let's hope NBS Create is on the winners' list next year.

NBS Domestic Specification - One year on

2011-11-24T08:43:00.001Z

It's now one year since we launched our digital version of NBS Domestic Specification.
- theNBS.com/Domestic

In this last year, it's been used by well over 500 practices. Many of who have used it on multiple projects. A few screenshots below to demonstrate why it has been such a success:

Figure 1 above shows that the specification system is entirely "cloud-based". It is accessed through your preferred web browser on any platform. This means that there is no need for you to install or purchase any software - it's pay-per-project - and very reasonably priced at £40. In terms of scope of content, NBS Domestic Specification is ideal for domestic clients, professional designers and domestic builders, including home owners/occupiers who may or may not have engaged a consultant to oversee the work.

Figure 2 above shows that after you have taken the specification template and made it project specific then you can publish and issue a professional looking specification document.

Many core NBS benefits such as technical guidance, template clauses and suggested drop down values are included in the web application. The technical content is updated throughout the year, so at the point of specification creation you can be confident in the currency of the content.

So one year on, it is great to see that our first step into a 100% software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering is going from strength to strength.

- theNBS.com/Domestic

NBS Create

2011-11-21T21:22:00.002Z

NBS Create was installed and used by the first customers on Friday. A lot has changed since 1973. Exciting times.

RICS BIM Conference 2012

2011-11-21T08:26:00.000Z

It's now possible to book slots at the RICS BIM Conference 2012 on their website:
- http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/events_info.aspx?eventID=4528

An opportunity to learn about BIM, how it will impact you and how it can benefit your business. The speakers include Paul Morrell and Mark Bew who have been instrumental in terms of developing the UK Government's construction strategy. Also speakers from URS Scott Wilson, EC Harris, CIC Task Force, Pinsent Masons, Rider Levett Bucknall, Balfour Beatty, John Lewis and RIBA Enterprises (me :)).

NBS Create Roadshow

2011-11-16T12:09:00.000Z

I attended the NBS Create Roadshow in Newcastle yesterday and it was fantastic. Some pictures below:

David Grainger outlines the key benefits

Head of Specification Ian Chapman - live product demonstration

Still some places for Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham next week - book a place below:
- http://www.thenbs.com/createroadshow/

Essential reading - Ian's Chapman's article introducing the product:
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/DesignSpecification/articles/nbsCreate.asp

Essential reading #2 - John Gelder's article introducing the CPI Committee's new work section table classification structure:
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/PracticeManagement/articles/newUniclassWorkectionsTable.asp

Naming Convention for the National BIM Library

2011-11-15T16:16:00.002Z

This blog post details the initial naming convention that will be used for the library objects for the launch of the National BIM Library. This is not being presented as a standard, this is simply the initial naming convention we have chosen to go for with release one. The National BIM Library will be a maintained library of BIM objects that will grow and develop over time.

Note: Update 16/11 - "-" and "_" have been switched following wires getting crossed.

1. Introduction
The principle is to provide just enough information to allow the user to find the object they want quickly. It is then the end-users responsibility to configure this object and adopt a project naming convention of their choosing to ensure unique names within a project.

To demonstrate this point, I will put my Software Development hat on and give a Visual Basic example.

Consider an object representing a car:

Class Car
Public NoOfWheels As Integer
Public Colour As String
Public Model As String

Public Property Get DescriptiveName() As String
DescriptiveName = "Car_" & Model & "_" & Colour & "_" & NoOfWheels
End Property
End Class

Using this object, good practice may be:

Dim objCarType1 as New Car
objCarType1.NoOfWheels = 3
MsgBox “The number of wheels the car has is: “ & objCarType1.NoOfWheels

What would be not so good would be:

Dim objRedCar4Wheels as New Car
objRedCar4Wheels.NoOfWheels = 3
MsgBox “The number of wheels the car has is: “ & objRedCar4Wheels.NoOfWheels

Immediately we have a clash between the object name and the parameters within it.

In this example the return from the parameter “DescriptiveName” would give a fuller name that is accurate and constructed through adding specific parameters together.

Moving on to BIM now, for this reason, just enough information is provided in the National BIM Library object names to allow users to find what they require quickly. The reference to parameter values are kept to an absolute minimum to avoid the possibility of conflict.

“Tag” descriptions based on the actual parametric values are encouraged within the proprietary BIM tool and in the context of a project.

2. Library Object Naming Convention

Fields to be separated with the “_“ symbol
We suggest that Field 02 is the only compulsory field, although National BIM Library objects will have"nbl" for Field 01.
Data within fields to be separated with the “-” symbol

Field 01

Optional field to indicate the author of the library object.
This is chosen as the first field to allow objects from different authors to be grouped when sorted alphabetically.
No more than six characters will be used.

Field 02

Compulsory field to indicate the system or element
The full name or shortened name may be used. Must be camel case for multiple words.
For example: Door, Wall or AirConUnit.
Note that where types of a common parent are used then the parent name may be dropped. So “Ext” may be used for “External Walls” where Wall is clearly the inherited item.
The common names used will be provided within supporting documentation.

Field 03

Optional field to indicate the supplier name for objects representing proprietary items.
The full name or shortened name may be used. Must be camel case for multiple words.
For example: WidgeLtd.

Field 04

Optional field to indicate the supplier’s model code for objects representing proprietary items.
The full name or shortened name may be used. Must be camel case for multiple words.
For example: Widge1000

Field 05

Optional field to indicate the content that is within the object.
Just enough information should be added here to allow the user to successfully select the library object the user requires.
Shortened names should be used.
For example: ClyBrck-Insul-Blck or Sgl-Pnl-02
The common abbreviated names used will be provided within supporting documentation.

Further notes

Classification will not be included. This information is best placed within the property sets.
Version information must not be included. This information is best placed within the property sets.
Field 05 will not attempt to list all of the information within the object as this will lead to conflicting information as the user changes property sets and materials within the context of a project.

Examples

nbl_DoorExt_Sgl-Vsn-Pnl-01 for a generic door object
nbl_WallExt_Stone_Cavity-Insul-Blck-GypPlstr for a generic wall object
nbl_WallExt_Stone_Cavity-Insul-140Blck-GypPlstr for a generic wall object where a similar object with 100mm of block is offered.
nbl_Chair_WidgeLtd_Widge1000 for a manufacturer chair object

NBS Create - The revolutionary new specification system

2011-11-11T08:05:00.000Z

Anyone wanting to know more about NBS Create, the new revolutionary specification system from NBS - please try and catch us on our road shows around the country. More details at the URL below:

- theNBS.com/CreateRoadShow

To read my blogs on NBS Create from the last 6 months click the label "NBS Create" to the right of this page.

If you cannot make a roadshow - check out the list of webcasts:

- theNBS.com/Training/OnlineTraining

National BIM Library - Draft Content for Comment

2011-11-07T18:06:00.003Z

Those on the National BIM Library linkedin group may now download a sub-set of draft content to review and comment on. A bit of an overview on the why and how behind NationalBIMLibrary.com is below.

Why use National BIM Library Content?

Richness of data
The quality of property-set information attached to the object is of a high quality in the NBL objects. Acoustic designation, Fire designation, Electronic Lock, Break out facility, Hold open… this is in addition to the standard COBie parameters. This is the information that is required behind the basic geometrics. It’s been designed for what is required in schedules and care has gone into deciding whether these are instance or type properties
Supports effective workflow
Where manufacturer objects exist – their proprietary information will populate these standard property-sets. This allows the scheduling of generic and proprietary objects together. This also helps with product selection. This also assists with the maintenance of the facility after it is built.
Intuitive geometric behaviour
Whether a door is double action or has a planted stop. Whether it has architraves front or back or adjusting the sizes of the vision panels. All parametric behaviour for the geometric visualisations that is typically required on a project.
Designed for UK custom and practice
Where British Standards or Building Regs define dimensions these have been considered in the design of the objects. Equally objects are pre-configured in common UK metric sizes so they are ready to use immediately.
Maintained objects
The NationalBIMLibrary.com objects will not simply be written once and then left. They will be maintained over time. As standards and regulations change and new building technologies emerge, then the objects will be reviewed and updated.

A simple walkthrough
A walkthrough in Autodesk Revit 2012 is shown below. Those not using Revit may view the content in IFC 2x3 format using the free BIM viewing tool Solibri Model Viewer.

Fig 1 - Detailed help files are provided to get started

Fig 2 - Design a basic floor layout using the external and internal walls

Fig 3 - Load some door objects into your project and position in the building

Fig 4 - Where different wall type objects are used, rename these so they are unique to the project

Fig 5 - Make your door objects project specific too by modifying the detailed parameters

Fig 6 - Geometric parameters may influence the appearance of the object in elevation or plan

Fig 7 - Modify the COBie parameters

Fig 8 - Export the model to IFC2x3 and see the parameters come through in a platform neutral format

Howitt Consultancy – What is BIM? Conference

2011-11-04T06:55:00.000Z

Many thanks to the guys at Howitt Consultancy for inviting me to speak at their “What is BIM?” conference yesterday. It was great to get in front of a big audience of construction manufacturers again and talk about the changing world of CAD and specification with respect to BIM.

The day started with David Philp the Head of BIM Implementation for the UK Cabinet Office. And as always, David presented some inspirational slides.

There's always room for improvement in the industry...

Comparison to 7 years of feast and then famine in the Joseph story...

Don't be fearful of the government BIM strategy...

A light hearted look at when things go wrong...

If you want to watch a full David Philp presentation, here is below from our NBS BIM conference a few months ago:

Next was Nick Nisbet from buildingSMART. The government cannot mandate any proprietary software packages. So the data must be to open standards… And if you want to know about open standards, Nick has forgotten more about this subject than pretty much everyone else knows. Nick presented on BS 1192, the upcoming BS 8541 and IFC and COBie2.

Nick Allen and James Blood from Metz Architects then gave a live demo of the BIM software package Autodesk Revit. Looking at a large building, the ease at which sections and plans automatically update when objects are modified really push the message home.

Steve Wright from Ramboll gave a BIM point of view from a structural engineer’s perspective. One stat that stood out was that through the use of BIM Ramboll have reduced RFIs by 80%. One particular case study that was used was the Ramboll Headquarters. I had the fortune of visiting this building – http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2010/09/ramboll-head-office-copenhagen.html

Phil Palmer then presented from a contractors point of view. One striking stat from this presentation was that on their first BIM project they spent £25K on software and training but then saved £300K on construction. Phil was refreshingly honest on the drive to save money, this led to an animated Q+A session from the manufacturer audience on product substitution and how to maintain quality on D+B jobs.

I then presented NBS Create and the NationalBIMLibrary.com showing how rich-digital object orientated information gives manufacturers real benefits. Especially those that decide now to be one of the early adopters.

Finally, Richard Blakesley from Howitt Consultancy said a few words on how manufacturers should take a step back and get their BIM strategy correct. Key messages included (a) ensure your information is interoperable and authored to standards and (b) ensure you own you BIM content so you can distribute through as many channels as possible.

A really good day.

National BIM Library - progress report

2011-10-27T19:09:00.000+01:00

The first release of the National BIM Library content set is progressing well. A draft set of content has now been put together and has been sent out for comment to a small set of collaborators. Next week, we will make this available for comment to those in our the National BIM Library linkedin.com group.

I include some screenshots below to show some progress. Our target date for publication is end of November 2011.

Internal Partitions
The screenshot below shows an IFC 2x3 file with a number of commonly pre-configured internal partitions. The materials within the partition may be seen to the left.

External Walls
A number of pre-configured external wall types are also included in the draft content. The screenshot below shows some of these.

Internal doors
In addition to the BIM objects, documentation will provided detailing the parameters and the behaviour associated with these.

External doors
A key driving factor behind the National BIM Library is interoperability. All content will be released in native CAD vendor format and IFC2x3. The example below is a demo building file viewed in the free Solibri Model Viewer. The panel to the bottom left shows the COBie2 parameters coming through in an example project.

Once this set of content is released then other objects such as windows, furniture, roofs, floors, sanitary ware will be developed. The content is being authored in Revit format, but then converted into IFC2x3 as a base data format. We hope that for launch we will include native content in another of other CAD formats too.

All content will be freely available to download, it will be written primarily for use in the UK market (see references to BS 8300 in screenshots above) and will be used as a starting point for those adopting BIM.

BIM in the old days

2011-10-27T13:26:00.001+01:00

BIM = "High quality results are produced faster and more economically than by traditional techniques" - a strap line from 2011? No.

I was at a customer event earlier in the week and was flicking through some of the old copies of NBS 1973 (first edition). Anyone thinking that digital construction is something new to 2011 may be interested to see the following advert. (click for bigger images).

"Automated specifications" and "Computer bill of quantities" in the early 1970s!

"High quality results are produced faster and more economically than by traditional techniques"

Plenty of other nostalgic adverts too - a selection of three or four below.

Beautiful bedrooms

Beautiful buildings

Beautiful bathrooms

And one (hundred) too many needless pictures of young ladies with nothing to do with the construction product!

Also an extract from the front pages of NBS 1973

Inception

The idea of a National Building Specification began to crystallise in 1967 when the Economic Development Committee for Building agreed to finance a feasibility study. A steering committee was set up under the chairmanship of Anthony Laing FRIBA, and John Carter ARIBA was appointed to carry out the investigation and draft a report. This was completed in 1968 and outlined the principles that might guide the preparation of a National Building Specification. The Committee considered that the project was feasible and desirable, and that its preparation should be put in hand without delay.

The original NBS team had six architects, two quantity surveyors, a builder and a structural engineer.

BIM Cartoons

2011-10-26T22:45:00.004+01:00

Just finalising a BIM presentation for next Thursday's Howit Consultancy BIM Conference. Thinking of including some good cartoons I saw at the recent buildingSMART conference (Tahir Sharif buildingSMART ME).

I don't think they need a commentary, but illustrate the need to collaborate extremely well...

Fantastic BIM Job Opportunity

2011-10-20T14:10:00.002+01:00

At NBS/RIBA Enterprises we are progressing on a number of fronts in terms of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Our new ground breaking NBS Create software, the digitalising of our manufacturer content and also the generic and proprietary content for the National BIM Library. To do this, we need to extend our team and we need someone special when it comes to BIM capabilities. If anyone knows of anyone based around Newcastle or London who is interested in the following job please forward them this information.

ICE BIM Conference

2011-10-19T12:43:00.001+01:00

Disappointed not to be at the ICE BIM Conference today.

But I must say I am very impressed by the amount of tweets coming from it. It allows all of those not there to keep up with the key snippets of information in real time.
Posting a hashtag at the start of any conference is an essential.

#ICEBIM

Web 2.0 for the Construction Industry

2011-10-18T23:19:00.004+01:00

Today I attended the first of our two RIBA Insight Consultancy Day for manufacturers. In addition to speaking about BIM, I had the pleasure of listening to to "Web2.0 for the construction industry" presentations from Paul Wilkinson (@EEPaul) from pwcom.co.uk and Pritish Patel (@PriteshPatel9) from pauleycreative.co.uk.

Some facts/points of interest from Paul's presentation:

74% of UK homes now have broadband internet access
27% of individuals in UK now have smartphones. In our conference, the show of hands was nearer 80% (construction industry folk)
Q4 2010 worldwide sales - 100m smartphones compared with 94m laptops
In terms of pushing your online video material - YouTube.com receives 19m unique UK visitors each ~~year~~ (correction - 1 month - see comment below).
UK has the third most active Twitter population in the world
Linkedin.com now has almost six million UK members. One third of all UK professionals.
Big decline in readership of printed construction news - and a shift to the web and a rise in new online media titles.
The importance of your hard copy PR/marketing and your online activity complimenting one another and sending a coordinated and consistent message
The importance of "thought leadership". So positioning your marketing and PR around key topics of interest in the construction industry
Don't be "anti-social" and know the "netiquette".
Authenticity is vital

And some more from Pritesh...

Each year Google changes its algorithm 500-600 times
Your Google rank is not fixed. It depends on who is searching, where in the world they are and what events are happening in the world.
An indication of how well your are promoting your company is how many people are Googling you - this can be monitored and tracked
5 tips on getting good Google visibility: 1. Quality relevant information, 2. Promotion, 3. Get authoritive websites to link to yours, 4. Encourage visitors to share you content on social networks, 5. Measure your success and adjust efforts to improve.
Remember Youtube is second largest search engine - share your content through media such as this
SEO is not a 1 month project - it is forever ongoing

The final point discussed was the importance of getting your products and services promoted on the leading industry directories. So if you are an estate agent, ensure that your houses are on RightMove.com, if you sell cars, get your cars on AutoTrader.co.uk. In the case of construction products then there are a number of leading product directories, for example ribaproductselector.com. Being linked to on de-facto industry sites will further improve your Google index, standardise your product data for consideration by specifier and also cross promote your activities and services such as product information, catalogues, resources, case studies and CPD.

Two super presentations that make you analyse your own activities. If I had to try and draw three conclusions from my thoughts it would be:

As a business concentrate on the quality of your original content and functionality and encourage others to promote this through their websites and social networks
Embrace Web2.0 sites and make the most of them. Concentrate on Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube. ...in my humble opinion, if you're in the construction industry - forget Facebook. (If you are promoting the latest TV show or pair of football boots then FB becomes #1 priority though).
Don't concentrate *just* on the traditional desktop computer. The world is changing. What is your smartphone strategy?

UK BIM Adoption Doubles Within Twelve Months

2011-10-18T08:30:00.000+01:00

For the last two or three weeks, results of our NBS National BIM Survey have been coming in.

Today at the RIBA Insight Consultancy Day for manufacturers I will be presenting for twenty minutes on BIM. As part of this presentation I will compare the results from the 2010 BIM survey and the provisional results so far from the 2011 BIM survey.

The headline figure is that, in the UK construction industry over the last twelve months BIM adoption has doubled. From 13% to 26%.

Watch out for our 2011 BIM survey that will give full analysis into all of the results. We will also look into what do construction professionals mean when they say they have adopted BIM. For now, you can download the report from the 2010 results at our website or by selecting the image to the right.

Update: What a great day. Nearly 100 manufacturers present. BIM evidently an extremely hot topic. Also very interested in listening to other presentations on CPD, specification and Web2.0 for construction industry. All to do again next Tuesday in London!

A couple of pictures from the excellent venue, the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

NBS Create - Prelims, Project Management and Costs

2011-10-11T18:32:00.001+01:00

All of my blog posts to-date on NBS Create have been on the creation of a project specification and the functionality surrounding this. However, as with NBS Building and NBS Scheduler, NBS Create also allows the creation of contract preliminaries.

The first improvement with NBS Create is that sections may be added to your job prior to knowing what construction contract will be used. The screenshot below shows the New Job Wizard and sections such as "Project definition", "Works terminology" and "Works contract procurement" that are selected for addition from the start.

Fig 1 - New Job Wizard - sections common to all construction contracts

With the section editor, the experience is familiar to existing NBS specification users. A number of pre-written clauses are presented to the user and these can be completed with the assistance of technical guidance and suggested values.

Fig 2 - Section editor

Assistance is given to the user when selecting a contract. In the example in the screenshots below, the user has specified that the job is for a commercial client, in Scotland and there are contractor design portions. They are then offered a selection of contracts appropriate to this work.

Fig 3 - Assistance with selecting of the contract

Fig 4 - Relevant contracts are presented to the user

Once the contract is selected, all relevant sections are highlighted for addition to the job. The user may unselect any sections that they do not wish to add.

Fig 5 - The sections that are relevant to this contract

Another screenshot is included below to show the improved section editor from within NBS Create. All existing prelims behaviour is supported such as excluding clauses, adding user clauses, synchronised guidance and drop down suggested values. In addition to this, it is possible to quickly report on all reference documents and also it is easy to add office guidance notes and office drop down suggested values.

Fig 6- Completing the contract preliminaries and project management sections

One improvement with NBS Create that we believe will be very well received is the ability to include both project management sections and specification systems within the same document. This allows the project team to work on a combined single document. The screenshot below shows the content for the job all together. An advantage of this is that the cost consultant can see exactly what the design intent is for all of the systems in the job. This will help with team-working and also building-up informed cost estimations from an early stage. In addition, a single coordinated specification for the job can easily be published.

Fig 7 - Specification and project management content in the same document

At any time, the systems from within the job may be exported to a spreadsheet for use in the free Cost Tracking tool. The screenshot below shows an example export. The cost consultant is adding estimated costs against these systems based on the early outline descriptions provided by the designers. This tool may be used throughout the design phase and then the spreadsheets can be compared to perform a tender or a budget cost analysis.

Fig 8 - Costing the systems from the specification

NBS Create is launched next month with Engineering Services content. I'll continue to do monthly blog posts. If anyone has any topics they'd like me to cover - please add a comment to this article.

For all previous articles on NBS Create click the "NBS 2012" label.

To join our Beta Testing Program and help us develop this product, please see:
- http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting

BIM Adoption Case Studies

2011-10-11T13:08:00.005+01:00

Some insightful UK BIM adoption case studies now on thenbs.com...

Studio Klaschka
Robert Klaschka, Principal Director, Studio Klaschka
"So what are we doing as a practice? Where is the business of BIM taking us?"
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/bimTheLongView.asp

Laing O'Rourke
Dick Barker, Director, Laing O'Rourke, Head of Model Based Measurement and Costing.

"Due to the speed of response created by auto-measurement we are able to influence and inform the design as it develops with the knowledge of quantum and cost, not just measure and cost the design, which is often too late."
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/bimMeasurementAndCosting.asp

_Space Group
James Austin, BIM Leader, _space Group
"For the two year duration of Washington, two people ran the job, with two more joining during the early stages for just four weeks in a busy period. Compared with a constant four on the CAD project, rising to six or seven, this represented a significant increase in efficiency."
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/areYouSittingComfortably.asp

Ryder Architecture
Peter Barker, Architectural Director, Ryder Architecture
"We link our specification clauses to objects within the Revit model using a simple cross referencing method. This doesn't directly import data from the spec into the model, nevertheless it has created efficiency savings in change management during the design process."
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/RyderArchitectureAndBIM.asp

HOK
David Light, BIM Manager, HOK London
"When discussing the topic of Building Information Modelling (BIM), people often ask me, 'So this BIM thing you describe, is it a shrink wrapped software solution?' Let me start by saying 'you can’t buy a box of BIM!'"
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/BIM-Implementation_HOK-buildingSMART.asp

buildingSMART Singapore - All presentations from industry day

2011-10-06T09:34:00.000+01:00

All of the presentations from the buildingSMART Singapore conference are now online and available to download:
http://www.buildingsmartsingapore.org/events.htm

A few comments against selected ones below - go to the hyperlink above to grab the presentations.

William Lau - BIM-finitive Way to SMART Construction (1.25 MB)
Grobler - BIM in the US (4.70 MB)
A nice summary of buildingSMART and the openBIM case
Joost - Open BIM in the Netherlands (19.6 MB)
By all accounts, the Netherlands are going for openBIM and mandating it.
Tahir - BIM in the Middle East (12.3 MB)
Stephen Hamil - NBS (3.08 MB)
The NBS-NLA with a little bit more on IFC, interoperability and the National BIM Library
Inhan - BIM in South Korea (11.0 MB)
Ben Thum - BIM and Buildability (11.4 MB)
Silas Loh - BIM for QS (1.88 MB)
Naveen - BIM for Retrofitting and Renovation (9.26 MB)
Eugene Seah - Developing Singapore Standards (967 KB)
Jim Forester - To BIMfinity and Beyond (8.16 MB)
Was interesting to learn more about Newforma
RSP - buildingSMART BIM Conference 21-09-11 (11.6 MB)
LAZARUS - ARUP - BIM workflow (26.1 MB)
See what Arup are up to
Sophie - BIM use in M&E construction (10.9 MB)
Woh Hup - From Design to Reality (26.0 MB)
Tan Shao Yen - BIM in Multi-discipliunary project (1.20 MB)
Cheng Tai Fatt - BCA BIM Roadmap (3.93 MB)
How the Singapore government is moving to openBIM in construction

COBie Master Class from Bill East

2011-10-04T19:33:00.000+01:00

I recently wrote an article touching on what the COBie data format was:
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/whatIsCOBie.asp

For those wanting to watch a master class from Bill East on COBie then I would highly recommend the youtube videos below. There is a series of five videos that are linked from the first one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKdjdc2IxfE

And a few screeengrabs from it:

Screengrab 1 - The digital model sure looks pretty!

Screengrab 2 - But where is the information about the valves and pipes?

Screengrab 3 - And the entire HVAC system is in a single room the size of the building!

Screengrab 4 - how do we turn all of this paper into rich digital information?

Collaborative BIM Series - What is BIM, The Business Imperatives

2011-09-29T08:34:00.001+01:00

Along with 1,300+ others I watched the free webinar from Building and ASITE yesterday.

For full details see https://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/Server.nxp.

First up were Mervyn Richards and Robert Klaschka. Interesting points include:

BIM being about infrastructure and not just buildings - this is especially relevant for the UK government construction strategy. In this sense - the "B" in BIM is a verb "to build" and not a noun "a building".
Discussion around whether fully integrated "level-3" BIM adoption being possible today and whether technology allows this - the general feeling was "no".
The importance of all of the information that goes into building and not just the CAD model.
Figures of £60bn worth of annual waste in the UK construction industry. Lack of coordination accounting for maybe 20% waste (BRE report) and as high as 40% waste overall (BSRIA report).
Information being more important than beauty when it comes to BIM objects.
And the information feed starting with the client and then being reused and built on throughout the assets life.
A screen grab (credit Mervyn Richards) from the presentation below...

Next up where Kamran Moazami (WSP) and Nathan Dought (ASITE):

The need for the flow of information through every stage was again stressed. BIM only has so much value when it is not shared across the project team and through the timeline.
Some great visualisations and clash detection screens again (see below - credit Kamran Moazami)
The value of BIM being all about the successful transfer of the information through the timeline.

Best quotes:

"If we want something different, we have to do something different" (credit?)
"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" (Einstein)

The question time at the end also made me thing about two or three items:

1. The main benefit of BIM is unquestionably the efficiency savings by the construction team when constructing the building and the owner when operating the building. Estimates at the buildingSMART conference were that $1 spent on good BIM design saves $20 in construction and $60 through the costs. So does this mean that the design team are within their rights to raise their fees for BIM projects?
My initial thoughts on this are "yes", but maybe "no - reduce fees" for repeat work for the same client on similar projects.

2. Can we have a really strong case study on BIM for small works please?
BIM presentations quite often focus on amazing skyscrapers. Which is great. But not all construction projects are amazing skyscrapers.
One of the best small works BIM presentations I have seen was from Jonathan Reeves at the ecobuild Vectorworks stand last year.

3. What was the official hashtag of the conference yesterday?
Many people follow webinars on twitter at the same time. Can this be made clear at the start of the webinar yesterday - was it #openbim #bimseries #bim #bim_ubm

National BIM Survey

2011-09-26T21:19:00.000+01:00

At the start of 2011 we published the findings from the NBS National BIM Survey.

Nearly half of the UK Construction industry were not aware of BIM - this was at a time when the government were about to publish their BIM Strategy.
However, many of those aware of BIM were gearing up to adopt it - suggesting that in terms of BIM in the UK that usage patterns would be split right down the middle.

We are now surveying the UK Construction industry again to see how things have changed one year on.

Please send around the following link to those you know working in the industry and encourage people to take part:
http://www.thenbs.com/support/survey/information/index.htm

Marina Bay Sands - SkyPark - Singapore

2011-09-24T09:31:00.002+01:00

Some better photos below from my trip to the amazing the Marina Bay Sands building in Singapore

$8billion dollars, 200,000 m2, 2,500 room hotel, 57 stories, 207 meters high, complete with 150m long swimming pool on the roof.

...and yes BIM was used in the construction - Google BIM Arup Marina Bay Sands - but enough BIM for one week - here are some pictures...

The physical model of the building - amazing in its own right

Full size trees in giant size pots for internal soft landscaping

The famous swimming pool - how close to the edge would you swim?

Of course, only hotel guests could swim, my $20 ticket allowed me to watch

The sunken walkway around the lip of the swimming pool and the huge dock in the background

This is the top floor that Sebastian Vettel has booked out to celebrate after the Grand Prix tomorrow

Looking down onto the grand stand for the Grand Prix

And passing trade can purchase a Porche or two

This diamond necklace was a bargain at $4.3m Singapore dollars (over £2million)

Goodbye from Singapore

buildingSMART Singapore - Day Four

2011-09-22T07:09:00.002+01:00

Today’s topic was one of the most fascinating challenges in BIM - to automatically check BIM models against the initial requirements for compliance.

To produce such a system to do this is one of the holy grails of BIM.

Imagine the start of a project, there are many requirements: from the client, in the building regulations and in the environmental point schemes. As the design progresses, in this vision, the BIM would be used for fully automated checking against these requirements. Imagine the design team being able to check a BIM for compliance prior to an official building regulations submission… and getting the results back in a few minutes. The inspectors for the local authority could then officially do the same check prior to issuing the approval. Equally a report on any additional client requirements from the BIM could be generated following design to ensure all requirements are met prior to construction starting.

Many countries around the world are trying to achieve this and have made progress in this journey.

In Singapore, they have the ePlanCheck’s system. IFC files are submitted to a central repository where the authority can go through the regulations and then mark up the elements that have queries against them and submit this back in a final report.
In Korea a similar project has IFC files being uploaded to set IDM schemas
Two projects in the US were described, the first from FIATECH where trials are underway to move to automated checking.
The second was work AEC3 are doing in the US on turning paper documents specifying requirements into structured rules through an innovative digital mark up system.
Finally, the Norwegians have been working on this since 2003 - progress is being made and they have a road map through to 2015.

It seemed to be accepted that digitalising 100% of compliance checking may be a huge challenge, but it seems clear that BIM will allow at least a portion of this activity to be digitalised.

The final session of the day was Cheng Tai Fatt, Director of Development for the Singapore Building and Construction Authority, outlining the road map for BIM in Singapore.

There has been a $150m budget to provide 2/3% year-on-year savings on construction in Singapore. One key thread is “technology adoption”.

As in many countries around the world (including the UK), BIM is being seen as the main technology driver here and the government are taking the lead through promotion of BIM, investment in education and insistence on BIM adoption on public projects.

A full BIM will have to submitted digitally for code checking starting from 2013 for 20,000 m2 buildings and then 5,000m2 buildings from 2015
There will be an investment in the training for university students in BIM and also material available for construction professionals
Government subsidies will be available to cut the cost of BIM technologies to construction professionals to cut costs by 50%.

And now it’s a few hours until it is time to go back to the airport and then the flight to Heathrow. Looking forward to six back-to-back movies on the plane :)

Update - there was a time for a quick trip up the Sky Park at Marina Bay Sands. Check it out on Wikipedia -a truly amazing building. When I get home I'll upload a set of nice pics from my proper camera (not iPhone camera):

Don't swim too close the edge mind!

buildingSMART Singapore - Day Three

2011-09-21T16:59:00.002+01:00

Today was the “BIM-finitive Way to SMART Construction” international conference. Full presentations will soon be available at http://www.buildingSMARTSingapore.org)

Amongst the 300 delegates, I’d say 75% were local to Singapore wanting to know something about BIM whereas 25% were some of the finest BIM minds in the world from buildingSMART International. So where do you pitch a presentation so there is something for everyone was the thought that had been going around my mind. But before my presentation, as I sat nervously, I had the pleasure of listening to Francois Grobler (US), Joost Wijnen (Netherlands) and Tahir Sharif (buildingSMART ME).

Francois Grobler discussed BIM and buildingSMART from a US point of view. openBIM is now mandated on many government departments, states and private companies. Many of the classic buildingSMART slides demonstrating the benefits of BIM were shown. Two to mention:

How the design changes become more and more expensive the further a project develops – BIM allows you to make design changes earlier in the timeline.
Adopting BIM, for every $1 saved in design, $20 will be saved in construction and $60 in operation. These are the famous Patrick Macleamy (HOK USA/buildingSMART) slides Information model (BIM), Assembly model (BAM), Own and Operate model (BOOM).

Joost Wijnen from OpenBIM.info in the Netherlands then spoke about how the Dutch Government is now pushing for BIM to try and improve efficiencies in the construction industry. One nice example was how people’s attitude to BIM has changed from “I don’t want a nice model, I want a nice house and better value for money” to “I want a nice model so I can have a nice house and better value for money”. OpenBIM.info is a business that acts as consultancy for construction professionals or clients who want to adopt interoperable BIM.

An interesting development in the Netherlands is the announcement by telecoms company BouwConnect who have indicated they intend to invest €50m in an openBIM exchange server project.

Tahir Sharif spoke about how buildingSMART ME is working with the construction industry in the Middle East to improve the adoption of BIM on projects. It was interesting to see how they are working with education establishments to provide BIM certification. All BIM presentations (with the exception of mine) have jaw-dropping visualisations. And as you’d imagine, the Middle East has its fair share of amazing buildings. Some screenshots from these and a few inspirational cartoons below:

Although a little nervous at first, my presentation fortunately went pretty smoothly, it was basically a combination of the one I delivered at the NLA conference with the IFC export slides and a little on the National BIM Library developments. The inter-operable nature of BIM was one aspect that I pushed:

Information will be in CAD systems and specification systems during design and construction – this must come together in one inter-operable format.
The UK government is mandating BIM. They have selected COBie as the interoperable file format. This is buildingSMART’s reduced, non-geometric, more pragmatic subset of IFC. But it is openBIM – non-proprietary – handing over a Revit model and saying you are doing BIM will not be acceptable.
IFC will be the key format in our National BIM Library developments. This will allow Revit models that are authored to be transferred to other CAD formats such as ArchiCAD, Bentley, Tekla and Vectorworks.
Users can view these in free IFC viewers and be confident they have been authored to international standards and made to work efficiently without bloating a CAD model. We know from our NBS BIM survey that the BIM community is split between what CAD software they use, so providing objects in many formats is key the success of this project.

During lunch I had a good chance to discuss the NBS projects with members of the other buildingSMART chapters. It was great to share ideas with the Australians and the Norwegians in particular.

Following lunch there were a number of demonstrations from firstly solution providers Autodesk, Newforma, Arup and Davis Langdon. Phil Lazarus from Arup and Jim Forrester from Newforma in particular were very entertaining and great speaker. Jim in particular was right to apologies for the worst pun of the day in “To BIMfinity and beyond” as a presentation title.

The day finished with a number of 20 minute case studies from different construction professionals giving their experience of working with BIM in Singapore.

At the end of the day I had the pleasure of chatting with Cheng Tai Fatt who is the Director of Development for the Singapore Building and Construction Authority. He is one of the biggest advocates of open BIM and many countries are now looking at Singapore as an example of how to develop their cities.

Finally congratulations to Joost Wijnen, whose students won the BIMBuzz top prize. 48 hours to design a building on a prime plot of land in Singapore using openBIM. Watch the youtube clip below to see them in action:

Exporting from a specification via IFC to CAD

2011-09-20T11:07:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow at the buildingSMART conference I'll be doing an slightly lengthier version of last week's presentation from the NBS-NLA BIM Conference. The added slides come from some experimental work that we are currently doing in the NBS Labs. As this will be public tomorrow, I thought I'd do a little blog post.

The process described below is using the BIM Academy (Prof Steve Lockley's) xbim component in parallel with the well structured NBS Create specification data to export from a spec to IFC and then import into a CAD model.

I always find pictures are better than words, so...

A wall "type" is configured in NBS Create - in this example, a simple clay, insulation, block cavity wall

In NBS Create this creates a rich model of objects behind the scenes

(BIM without the user knowing they are doing BIM!)

In the NBS Labs the secret button is clicked and the type object is exported in IFC format

Within the CAD program it is now possible to swap a generic wall for the wall that has been carefully pre-configured in NBS Create.

The new wall type within the CAD model is the same as that specified in the specification. Note that the materials and the thickness are the same.

theNBS.com | bimacademy.ac.uk

buildingSMART Singapore - Day Two

2011-09-20T10:42:00.001+01:00

Day 2 in Singapore was a series of buildingSMART group sessions. I attended the International User Group (IUG) sessions. It is the aim of the IUG to promote and stimulate the use of buildingSMART deliverables in order to improve interoperability in the construction industry, and to share experiences among its members so as to achieve a balance between giving and taking. The IUG activities are documented on a public URL and those from Singapore are at the website below:
http://iug.buildingsmart.com/iug-meeting-2011-singapore

The 2020 roadmap was discussed. It is interesting to look at vision, mission, goals and values. Extracts as follows…

buildingSMART is the world authority on open BIM, plays a major part in standards-setting and its ISO standards are embedded in vendor software.
It is an organisation that is neutral and independent, open and transparent and not-for-profit.
Its products and services add value to, compliment or enhance but do not compete head-on with products and services provided by its members.

One topic discussed at length was the increase in activity around the support of users who want to adopt BIM around the world. Many of the chapters of buildingSMART are developing guidelines on how users should use BIM. For example, National BIM Standards USA - http://www.wbdg.org/bim/nbims.php and NATSPEC National BIM guide http://www.bim.natspec.org/. Equally, many of the chapters are developing consultancy services. The aim is for these activities should be coordinated under buildingSMART international so that each chapter can be strengthened by the work of all.
IDM is the buildingSMART “product” that defines what information from BIM is issued at defined times of a project. A good example of this would be with the IDM COBie definitions that define that different parts of the spreadsheet are required at defined stages. These can be seen at http://idm.buildingsmart.no/confluence/display/IDM/COBIE+Project

Example defined stages of completion include “Project Wrapper, ”Space layout”, “Asset Location”, “Asset Installation”, “Job Plans”.
Interestingly IDM is mentioned in the UK Government BIM Strategy. It is a potential method of defining the data that is required to be issued at the four defined data drops (green circles) in the diagram below:

In terms of buildingSMART opportunities there appear to be two clear avenues that need to be defined at further working group sessions. The first of these is the opportunity for each chapter to develop guides, training and consultancy services that could help fund activities. The second was to put more focus on marketing and share success stories across the chapters. The clear benefits of open BIM that were considered are (a) reducing costs, (b) improving efficiency, (3) achieving sustainability and (4) increasing profits.
The final session of the day was when the IUG and the technical group (ITM) come together and agree the conclusions of the meetings. The good news from the technical group is that it appears that the majority of the snags in IFC2x4 are almost sorted. So the newest version of IFC is not too far away.
What is IFC2x4? http://www.buildingsmart.org.uk/buildingSMART/IFC2X4

Finally, why are NBS members of buildingSMART and IFD? It's because the project specification that you generate is not a standalone document. It's a document that describes the same real-world objects that the CAD model describes. In addition, not every member of a project team may be using NBS to write their specifications and this information must all come together to form part of a tender package or an as-built record.

buildingSMART and IFC are pretty much the only show in town when it comes to inter-operable data for the construction industry.

It rains all of the time - just like Durham

Some car race this weekend?

buildingSMART Singapore - Day One

2011-09-19T16:46:00.001+01:00

Arrived at hotel around 9pm local time, so just time for a quick meal and a couple of beers. A few pictures below. A proper blog post tomorrow night.

Off to buildingSMART Singapore

2011-09-18T15:17:00.001+01:00

RIBA Enterprises/NBS are members of buildingSMART. buildingSMART is a neutral, international and unique non for profit organisation supporting open BIM through the life cycle. It is the organisation behind the non-proprietary IFC data format.

This time last year I attended the buildingSMART week in Copenhagen.

This week, I'll be attending the buildingSMART week in Singapore. The schedule is:

Monday/Tuesday - ISO/buildingSMART meetings
Wednesday - Industry Day Conference
Thursday - Workshops on automatically checking BIM models for compliance against building regulations

I'll blog about this each day and as I've just joined twitter I'll do the occasional tweet

#buildingSMART | #BIM

@StephenHamilNBS

COBie and cost

2011-09-18T14:59:00.001+01:00

For the last few minutes of my presentation at the NBS-NLA BIM Conference I looked briefly at the COBie data format that may be produced by exporting structured information from the CAD and specification models.

In the delegate Q+A session that followed there was a question asking where costs fit into COBie?

This is a very good question as it raises thoughts about how costs fit into inter-operable BIM. I'd be interested in others thoughts on this, please feel free to comment below. My thoughts are as follows...

Consider a designer specifying the "Type A Bath", there may be 150 instances of this bath in the building. The designer may look at the manufacturer list price and estimate that this will cost £100 x 150 = £15K. However, the contractor may have an agreed discount with the manufacturer and pay 30% off list price - £70 x 150 = £10.5K. And finally, to replace a single bath that is broken outside of warranty, the owner/operator may have to pay £149.

So COBie has a single column against each "type" item. This is for replacement cost.

Clearly the designer would not make their estimated cost available to tenderers. Equally, the contractor would not share their actual costs with the client.

One further thought, "cost" is not only measured in pounds, shilling and pence. Carbon costs are also high on the agenda now, and the Government BIM strategy paper made it clear that they will be looking to include metrics such as embodied carbon and carbon in use within their final COBie spreadsheet.

NBS-NLA BIM Conference - A quick summary

2011-09-16T16:48:00.004+01:00

My after-the-event thoughts on our NBS-NLA BIM Conference. The presentations will be available soon on theNBS.com/BIM and available to watch at NBS TV.

James Brown from Asda gave a presentation from the viewpoint of a large private client. The opinion that consultants will become more efficient and be able to reduce their fees led to some interesting questions from the largely architectural audience.
The counter viewpoint raised from the floor was that clients should pay more for the delivery of quality information that the construction and operating team can reuse to enable greater efficiencies. James also called for the whole supply chain to engage in BIM and not just the design and construction teams. In particular, Manufacturers need to start supplying their products as BIM objects. This was the challenge laid down to them.

The best case study of the day was the from Turner and Townsend's London Bridge Place. Truly amazing animated visuals presented by John Stretch. The ability to schedule the programme from the model and view how the construction develop was beautifully demonstrated.

Michael Beaven from Arup gave an interesting view from an engineer's perspective. His slide eluding to the fact that adopting BIM, although very rewarding, would be hard work was a good one...

David Philp who is the chosen "Head of BIM implementation" for the Cabinet Office delivered a "Paul-Morrell-style" rapid fire presentation of many inspirational slides. How can we reduce capital costs by 20% and bring carbon down to zero? David compared the current economic situation to the bibical Joseph story with 7 years of feasting being followed by 7 years of famine.

RIBA BIM thought leader Paul Fletcher delivered an energetic and inspirational presentation that produced "Tweet-of-the-day", "Paul Fletcher on fire! Very cool presentation at #nbsbim conference" from @davewlight. Paul shook things up a little by questioning (a) if the right sort of information was getting put into BIM (40% of your efforts are wasted!) and (b) whether people were too focused on "output" and whether it was time to focus on the "outcome".

David Light (aka @davewlight) gave a view from a world-wide architectural practice who have been using BIM for years (HOK). David's past experience working on small projects and also as a re-seller of a major BIM software package (beginning with "R") also made for a well rounded presentation. However, the slide below makes it clear that you cannot just buy a certain software package and find "BIM in a box".

My presentation may be downloaded from http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/bimconference.asp
In short, the message from NBS, is that to adopt BIM all of the dumb information on paper that currently describes buildings needs to be converted into rich digital objects.

The final presentation of the day was from BIM Academy and the need for a BIM Revolution in the universities, but an BIM Evolution in the industry. Prof Steve Lockley called universities to stop teaching 2D CAD - this was compared to how schools stopped teaching slide rules and log tables in favour of calculators. Peter Barker called for greater collaboration and left the delegates with a picture from Ryders in the 1960s and the professionals from different disciplines that formed the practice.

A week promoting NBS Create and the National BIM Library

2011-09-15T18:47:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is our joint NBS-NLA BIM Conference. I've had a week in London leading up to this speaking with some of visiting key customers and some CAD vendors.

At the start of the week we had a special customer focus group session to look into our detailed designs for how office master and validate functionality will work in NBS Create. 9 or 10 NBS specialist users from some of the bigger practices shared their thoughts on how the new system will work best for them. Our developers will now spend time developing this functionality. The feedback was excellent and it was fantastic that so many key customers are willing to give up their time for free to help us develop our new product.

I also had a couple of hours with the well respected Revit blogger David Light from HOK. David, thanks for the tweet "Good to see #nbs create tool today, really liking the export to Cobie feature, specifications for the #bim generation!". David is also speaking at our conference tomorrow.

Finally, alongside members of the BIM Academy we have been speaking face to face with some of the main CAD Vendors to ensure that the www.nationalbimlibrary.com has fantastic generic content across a number of different formats and not simply Revit Architecture and IFC. The pictures to the right were taken from the fantastic Bentley Systems headquarters in London - amazing offices.

So busy, busy, busy - exciting times. If you are attending the conference tomorrow, please say hello! It sold out 300 places in four hours, so BIM is deifinitely a topic of interest.

Peter Millican Inaugural Lecture - Kings Place, Kings Cross

2011-09-14T21:43:00.000+01:00

This evening I attended Professor Peter Millican's (Northumbria University) inaugural lecture.

The venue was the magnificent Kings Place building Kings Cross. And the subject of the lecture was the multi-award winning Kings Place building Kings Cross that he developed.

The title of the lecture was "Why a successful office development doesn’t have to exclude the community". It was inspirational and points of note I took from this were:

With a building development you have to make the finance work. But before you go into detail, it must work on "the back of envelope first". I took from this that sometimes you know something will work. You know it's right and you must follow your instincts and then get into the detail.
The project was a design-build project, but with a tight specification as part of the employers requirements. This ensured certainty of cost without compromise on quality.
Many times Peter stressed that creating a good team was the most important thing on a project. I think this is true regardless of the project or the industry.
Finally, the main thread running through the lecture was the value of both quality design and the creation of public space within a commercial development. This has so clearly been achieved and the pictures showing local school children attending music concerts under the offices of the staff of The Guardian demonstrated this nicely.

A really nice evening.

The COBie data format and the UK government's BIM strategy

2011-09-10T13:33:00.001+01:00

A recent article I have written about the COBie data format is now up on theNBS.com:

theNBS.com - What is COBie?

In June 2011 the UK government published its Building Information Modelling (BIM) Working Party Strategy. This report announced the Government's intention to require collaborative 3D BIM (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) on its projects by 2016. The software and data requirements for this detailed in the report are Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie).

The article examines COBie and discusses the role of CAD and master specification systems in creating this data model. It is aimed at construction professionals who work on government projects and clients in the private sector interested in this approach.

In the article, I also have the thoughts of a number of those behind this strategy:

Paul Morrell - Chief Government Construction Advisor
"For the first year, the total software requirement is Excel"
Mark Bew - Co-chair of the government strategy team
"The reasons for selection [of the COBie data format] were pragmatics around cost, availability and forward compatibility with IFC to start the process of building a useful built asset legacy dataset"
Nick Nisbett - Co-author of the COBie data format
"The argument that drives the demand for COBIe is the management of 'space usage', 'operations', 'cost and environmental impacts', 'repair' and 'replacement' . In short, better value, cost and carbon"

So, hopefully the article is a decent read - please feel free to add comments below here about it - theNBS.com - What is COBie?

(And at the last minute I managed to resist the terrible pub "COBie or not COBie?, that is the question!" as a title for it)

buildingSMART International Conference in Singapore

2011-09-07T08:03:00.002+01:00

I'll be speaking at the buildingSMART International Conference in Singapore in a couple of weeks time. I'll also be doing a blog post a day to give my thoughts on the conference.

I'll be one of the international speakers at the "BIM-finite way to SMART Construction"* day.

SMART Construction overseas

BIM Implementations – buildingSMART International & US Experiences, Mr Francois Grobler, Chairman, International Technical Management Committee, buildingSMART International
OpenBIM and BIM in the Netherlands – Mr Joost Wijnen, Chairman, OpenBIM.Info
BIM Projects in the Middle East – Mr Tahir Sharif, President, buildingSMART ME
BIM Implementations & Standardisations in South Korea – Dr Inhan Kim, Chief Vice-Chair, buildingSMART Korea
The New NBS Object-Based Specification and Its Use of Standards – Dr Stephen Hamil, Director of Design and Innovation, RIBA Enterprises, UK

Last year I blogged from the Copenhagen buildingSMART Summit Week. For those blogposts click here.

* not 100% sure about the quality of this pun mind?

National BIM Library

2011-09-05T07:54:00.005+01:00

On Friday we announced the launch of The National BIM Library. This will be a collection of free-to-use generic BIM objects. It will also be followed by proprietary manufacturer BIM objects. It seems to have caused a little bit of interest so far on the web. The full press release is below - keep looking back to this blog for further updates...

NBS to launch National BIM Library

NBS is pleased to announce the development of a National BIM (Building Information Modelling) Library for the UK construction industry.

The National BIM Library, which will be accessible online and free of charge, will enable architects, contractors, interior designers and other construction professionals to locate and download generic and proprietary BIM objects for a comprehensive range of systems and products such as walls, windows, doors, foundations, cladding and roofs.

The service, which will go live in November with the first set of objects, will be built up to become the primary source of standard and proprietary BIM objects.

By also publishing property definitions for all systems and products, NBS will establish a common approach to quality standards across the construction industry, with a view to encouraging consistency and collaboration.

The development of the National BIM Library is the latest step in NBS’s efforts to provide, share and maintain quality information for the built environment and by extension, support the growth of BIM as an information-rich database and highly effective business process. It also supports the launch of their new NBS Create specification tool, which truly brings specification into the BIM arena.

Stephen Hamil, Director of Design and Innovation and Head of BIM at NBS commented,
“For the last 40 years NBS has been developing and maintaining a national master specification for UK construction best practice. We are perfectly placed to make the next step and extend our building information to include geometry and create a fantastically rich resource for the industry.
Crucially, we will maintain the National BIM Library in line with changes to standards and best practice and ensure that the library truly represents UK industry best practice. We know that our industry is crying out for high-quality, maintained BIM resources and we are the right organisation to deliver this.”

Richard Waterhouse, Chief Executive of RIBA Enterprises Ltd, said:
“The effective use and exchange of information is at the heart of BIM and will dictate the overall impact it will have on the construction industry. By establishing a National BIM Library, NBS will increase access to the information construction professionals need to make the right decisions at the right stage of the building process.
By providing free access to NBS’s high quality BIM information, we can also play our part in ensuring all organisations can take advantage of the latest intelligence and huge benefits of BIM.”

To develop the generic BIM objects, NBS has engaged the BIM Academy, which was launched in June 2011 by Northumbria University and Ryder Architecture, to support the industry‘s take up of BIM by establishing a centre of excellence for related research and education.

The generic models will initially be delivered in IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) and Autodesk Revit formats with the intention of making content available through a variety of alternative formats as soon as possible.

Peter Barker, Operations Director at BIM Academy, said:
"BIM Academy are delighted to be working with NBS on this exciting initiative. With the rapid escalation in BIM adoption over the last few years, there is now a compelling need for consistency in library content and quality. Equally important is the need for these libraries to be available in all common software formats, structured to suit UK construction practice and linked more closely to specification data. We look forward to applying our industry experience and expertise in IFC classification and BIM technologies to help NBS realise this ambition and deliver real efficiencies to the industry through the National BIM Library."

Information and the opportunity to register for updates about the National BIM Library can be found by visiting www.theNBS.com/NBL

NBS featured in Architects Journal AJ Specification

2011-08-25T08:39:00.001+01:00

Great to see NBS featured so heavily in the latest AJ Specification. Editor, Felix Mara introduces the issue "...last year's article looked at the general principles [of green specification], in this issue we focus on the use of systems, in particular NBS Building, their role in green specification and their integration with BIM and CAD software."

Following analysis of NBS and CAD software systems, three case studies are considered.

Case study 1 - William Leech School, Lynemouth, Ryder Architecture

"Since adopting Revit for the technical design in 2006, we have linked our specification clauses to objects within the BIM model."
Peter Barker, architectural director

Case study 2 - Castle School, Newbury, Nightingale Associates
"NBS Specification references were included on the drawings and other documents, for ease of cross referencing."
Lindsay Webb, project architect

Case study 3 - Open Academy, Norwich, Sheppard Robson Architects
"By combining standard NBS clauses with our office master spec we were able to produce a sustainably robust specification. For example, in section M60 we limited VOC content from the outset in order to meet BREEAM requirements."
Gavan Knox, specification writer

Free NBS Half Day BIM Conference

2011-08-23T08:27:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we released details of our 2011 BIM Conference. It's in association with New London Architecture (NLA). Details from the press release below:

Set to become a key part of public procurement, BIM is one of the hottest topics in the construction industry yet nearly half of professionals working in the sector are neither currently using it or aware of its benefits.

Held in conjunction with NBS, this free half day conference will seek to get to the very heart of what BIM is, who can benefit from using it and whether the pros do really outweigh the cons.

Join us for a morning of lively debate and case studies that will provide you with the most accurate, up to date and honest assessment of BIM.

Friday 16 September 2011, 8:30 – 13:00
Building Information Modelling (BIM) - Are you ready for the digital switchover?

NLA, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT

Speakers include:

Steve McGuckin, UK Managing Director, Turner & Townsend
Jason Clark, Head of Engineering Projects, UBS
David Philp, Director of Technical Services, Balfour Beatty
Tony Grist, Head of Architecture, Hassell
Michael Beaven, Practice Principal and Sustainability Leader, Arup
David Light, BIM Manager, HOK
Paul Fletcher, Director, Through Architecture
Grainne McCormack, Solicitor, Eversheds
Steve Lockley, Professor of Building Modelling, Northumbria University
Stephen Hamil, Head of BIM/ Director of Design and Innovation, NBS
James Brown, Head of Model Development and Specification, ASDA

This conference is free to attend but registration is essential. CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR PLACE.

Looking at the conferences for August on the NLA website most seem to be fully booked out - so book now to get a place.

Update 11:56 - 250 conference places all booked out
Also nice to see this blog post is "trending" on the Construction area of linkedin :)

NBS Create - Specifying construction products

2011-08-22T10:58:00.001+01:00

This is the latest in my series of posts on our upcoming new specification product, this month the topic is "specifying construction products". Previous posts have been on Outline and Performance Specs (May), Improved Data Structure (June), Adding your Practice Knowledge (July).

1. Descriptive specification
NBS may be used to describe the construction products that you require on a job without naming the manufacturer or product reference. The NBS guidance and drop down values provide "most likely" values and the very latest links to reference documents such as key construction standards. The example below shows the specifier giving the product selection choice to the contractor but describing the required specification.

The specifier can see an instant "on-screen" report that details precisely where in the specification decisions have been left for the contractor or where the contractor has been required to submit proposals.

2. Proprietary specification (NBS Plus)
Within NBS there are over 20,000 proprietary product specifications from over 600 construction manufacturers. When a product clause is selected, then the available products are displayed to the user to the right of the screen. This is functionality that current NBS specification users are familiar with.

The screenshot below shows that now the available manufacturers are also available to select from the manufacturer drop down.

Once a manufacturer is selected then the available relevant products from that manufacturer are shown against the "Product reference" keyword.

The user may then simply select a product and the NBS generic options within the clause change to the relevant specification options that are required to specify that particular product. These have been pre-authored by NBS technical staff in partnership with the manufacturer.

3. Proprietary specification (user defined)
If the specifier would like to specify products from manufacturers not yet in NBS Plus they may select "Other manufacturer". This allows details for the manufacturer and the product reference to be added as shown below...

4. Reporting on the manufacturers and products
As with the Contractor Design "on-screen report" feature, it is also possible to navigate the specification by the proprietary products that have been specified. This is shown below...

Finally, all on screen reports may also be published to PDF. The example below shows that all of the products from all manufacturers are grouped. The manufacturers' contact information is also displayed in a concise report...

Further reading...
For all blog articles on NBS 2012 - click the NBS 2012 hyperlink to the right of this page.
To join our Beta Testing Program and help us develop this product, please see:
- http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting

TV Times

2011-08-18T23:09:00.001+01:00

At NBS we have recently launched a new service that is free to all NBS subscribers:
http://www.thenbs.com/nbsTV

NBS TV covers a broad range of online video programmes, including case studies, technical guidance and interviews with leading industry figures. These online videos cover key topics in the construction industry examples of which are below:

Sustainability – Code for Sustainable Homes - UPDATE 2011
Featuring Mel Starrs. Mel Starrs is an Associate at PRP Architects where she is a specialist in sustainability and green buildings. She is also a Blogger/ Twitterer on all manner of technical issues.
BIM - Interview with Paul Morrell, OBE, Government's Chief Construction Advisor
Paul Morrell OBE discusses how BIM will impact the construction sector, and how this will lead to a very different, increasingly collaborative approach to building design and management.
Regulations and standards - BS 8300 - Designing for Disability
Featuring Fausto Pereira, director with PH Partnership. An architect with special expertise in designing for people with disabilities and access-related issues, Fausto is a National Register of Access Consultants assessor and was also the Vice Chair and CPD-Coordinator for the North East branch of the Access Association. He is also a visiting lecturer teaching accessible design at Newcastle University.
Design and specification - Vicky Richardson, British Council
Interview with Vicky Richardson the new director of architecture, design and fashion at the British Council. She took up her position on 1st March 2010, just in time to commission muf architecture/art to design the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Building services – Wind Turbines
Featuring Ian Bogle – BFLS Architects, studied architecture at the Mackintosh school of Architecture, and subsequently worked for the Parr Partnership in Glasgow before joining Foster + Partners in 1995 where he worked on projects including the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, The Dubai Cultural Centre, the Swiss Re Headquarters and the Bexley Business Academy, buildings which won and came second in the 2004 Stirling Prize respectively. He joined BFLS (formerly Hamilton Architects) in 2002 and became a director in 2005.
Practice management – Cloud Computing
Featuring Tim Cowen head of the 'Open Computing Alliance', a network of IT companies operating 'within the cloud'. He is also the immediate past Chairman of the CBI competition panel and was the longest serving member of the board of BT's international businesses and General Counsel.
Contracts and law – Pre-Development: The QS's Role
Interview with Julian Heard Director of Cost Consultancy at Cyril Sweett.
Building technologies – Design of Steel Structures to Eurocode 3
Featuring Dr Graham Couchman MA PhD Ceng MICE - Chief Executive of the Steel Construction Institute and a specialist in the analysis and design of steel and composite structures, the behaviour of steel connections, light gauge steel and modular construction, and the behaviour of metallic cladding. He has authored a number of industry guides relating to steel and composite constructions.
Health and safety – Designers' Health and Safety Responsibilities
Giles Meredith is the portfolio holder for designers and CDM Coordinators in the Health and Safety Executive's Construction Management Unit.
Much of his time is spent working with design stakeholder groups, working to produce and improve guidance for designers on CDM and their wider health and safety responsibilities.

So current subscribers to NBS specification products, contract adminstrator, building regulations - check out this added value service:
http://www.thenbs.com/nbsTV

Isn't BIM just 3D CAD?

2011-08-02T23:26:00.003+01:00

Quite often when I'm out and about I'll hear people talking about the BIM and what they really mean is the 3D CAD model.
(Update: Also see linkedin groups discussion thread: "Where is the "I" of BIM If a model is used only for clash detection and generating 2D drawings")

In the article I have written for the August NBS e-bulletin I ask the question "Isn't BIM just 3D CAD?". This article is also posted on thenbs.com/BIM

A CAD example
When analysing the benefits of Building Information Modelling it is often worth taking a step back and looking at a very simple example:

Consider an external wall (as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2). Within the latest CAD systems, walls are now three dimensional objects. The wall object is then broken down into the key products that make up its structure. For example, render, external brick leaf, cavity insulation, internal block leaf and plasterboard dry lining. Each of these is an object itself; this allows the creation of automatic schedules and quantity take-off. For example, within a click of a button, the number of bricks or the sheets of plasterboard within the building can be calculated.

Figure 1 – An 'out of the box' wall in 3D CAD

Figure 2 – Products that make up this wall's structure in 3D CAD

In addition to automatically generated quantities, 3D CAD models from different disciplines can be combined for clash detection. Users can add quite complex constraints so that the objects interact as expected. And, of course, spectacular visualisations can be created. However, can the full benefits of BIM be realised in these present 3D CAD models?

Consider the same external wall in a master specification system, for example, NBS Domestic Specification, our product for domestic new build, refurbishment and alteration work. Figure 3 displays the template description of the wall as a system in NBS Domestic Specification.

Figure 3 – External wall description in NBS Domestic Specification

Additional key products
Immediately, it is apparent that in addition to the key materials such as bricks, blocks and insulation, there are a number of other products that are not described as objects in the 3D CAD model. The external wall in NBS describes wall ties, cavity trays, weep holes, and lintels, and it's also evident that key products vary above and below the damp proof course.

Product definitions
Below this system description of the external wall, each of the products that make up the wall may be defined in greater detail, as for blocks in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Specification clause for one of the many products that make up the wall

In the vast majority of cases this detailed information would not be in your 3D CAD model. For example, what standard a particular product must comply to or what its compressive strength and thermal conductivity is.

The question arises: "Will this information one day be in CAD?"'. If so, the follow-up question is: "Who will maintain its currency?".

Workmanship
A true BIM must contain all of the information required to build and maintain the building. The expected standards for workmanship are a crucial part of this. Figure 5 displays a sample of the level of detail required to specify workmanship for our external wall.

Figure 5 – Specification clause to ensure high quality workmanship

Performance requirements and their verification
The final component of a true BIM that this article considers is performance requirements - crucial in many designs. In modern procurement the designers quite often produce outline schemes and describe the included systems in terms of their performance requirements.

For instance, our external wall will not be specified in terms of the materials it is made from, but in terms of its structural, acoustic, thermal or aesthetic performance. However, listing performance requirements is only half of the picture, how these requirements are to be verified once the wall is complete is also essential. Master specification systems world-wide are increasingly providing and maintaining this content. This information must now be linked to the corresponding objects in 3D CAD systems.

Summary
It is clear that the use of 3D object-based CAD packages provide huge benefits over traditional 2D CAD. However, to really appreciate the true benefits of BIM, the information in 3D CAD models must be coordinated with information in master specification systems.

Figure 6 is an illustration from the very first edition of NBS in 1973. It shows the information on the drawing coordinated with the specification, quantities, standards, regulations and manufacturer information.

Figure 6 – Co-ordinated project information

Technology is now allowing us to accurately and more efficiently coordinate this information. This process has adopted the buzz word 'BIM'. The 3D CAD example that has been considered in this article is a simple wall, but multiply this across all of the systems and products that make up a building and its surrounding landscape and it is clear that integrating CAD and specification information is a vital step to truly adopting BIM.

When you say you have adopted BIM, pause for a moment. Ask yourself have you really adopted BIM or are you currently just using 3D CAD?

Justin King, CEO Sainsbury's - Breakfast Seminar

2011-07-27T22:47:00.000+01:00

I had the fortune to attend a breakfast seminar with Justin King the Chief Executive of Sainsbury's. The venue was the magnificently refurbished St Pancras Renaissance hotel.

St Pancras Renaissance hotel

Justin talked for around an hour and was then good enough to stay for a further hour's worth of Q&A. Although those attending the session were from the construction industry, it was fascinating to listen to business experience from the retail industry and see how it can be applicable across sectors.

Justin's talk was centred around ten key items. He spoke around these items with respect to how he transformed Sainsbury's from a business that was failing to one that has now had 25 quarters of continuous growth.

Justin's ten key items were:

Listen to customers
Listen to colleagues
Learn from the past – but don’t live in the past
Agree that change is needed and agree where the starting position is
Stand for something
Recruit the right people
Leadership and followship
Admit your mistakes
Think like you're number two
Enjoy it

The London 2012 Olympic rings at St Pancras Station

His final advise to those in the building design industry was:

You cannot afford to wait for growth to come
Work out what you do that makes you special
Work out how you can grow your market share in the current market

The magnificent interior at the hotel

Later in the day I walked past the amazing Shard

A whole lot of information

2011-07-22T08:08:00.000+01:00

Many NBS Building users will not be aware of how much technical content is in their electronic product.

Below is a version of the paper equivalent that still proves quite popular...

On the trolley is 10,000 pages of A4 at 8pt double-sided single-line space - amazing how much equivalent paper information is on one software CD.

NBS Create - Adding your knowledge to NBS guidance and suggested values

2011-07-17T07:46:00.002+01:00

Our major new specification product is not far away. In May I blogged about being able to create outline and performance specifications and in June I blogged about how the specification is now a rich information model forming part of a fuller building information model. This month I am going to look at how soon you will be able to add your information to supplement the NBS guidance and suggested values.

When completing your NBS specification you are presented with a part-complete template specification clause. Expert technical guidance is provided to the right of the editor window. Clicking the drop down arrows in the clause offers a number of suggested values for you to pick from. You can select one of these or type your own.

Where an office has information they'd like to supplement NBS with they may now add guidance notes against any part of the NBS guidance. For example, below, the user has more information they'd like to add to the Image quality keyword of a performance clause for a CCTV system.

The screenshot shows the user adding their information. Once complete, the user selects whether this guidance note will be available on all future jobs or for a specific job only. They also select whether this note must be visible to all users in the office or just a personal note.

This guidance note now appears inline within the NBS guidance at the appropriate context. Who added the note and when they added it is displayed and this note may be modified at any time.

Within a company it will be possible to control who can add this information through the software permissions model. As the NBS data will be delivered across the web, this information can be shared across sites, so if a company has offices at Newcastle, Glasgow and London - then all users of the system (including home-workers) will see this guidance.

As part of customer focus group activities over recent years, a common request for improvement has been to allow users to supplement not just the NBS guidance, but also the suggested values. The screenshot below shows the user selecting the option "Edit Office Values List...".

The user may then add additional values that will appear on all future jobs and be available to all users within a company.

The screenshot below shows the clause now with the new office values appearing in addition to the NBS suggested values. We believe that the ability to customise these values and the ability to supplement the technical guidance makes will help offices centralise and share their knowledge and make best use of this on their construction jobs.

Further reading...
For all blog articles on NBS 2012 - click the NBS 2012 hyperlink to the right of this page.

To join our Beta Testing Program and help us develop this product, please see:
- http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting

Point Cloud Surveys

2011-07-11T08:43:00.001+01:00

For the latest issue of The Architects Journal I was asked to provide a comment piece on "point cloud surveys". A copy of this is below...

"On many new build projects, clients are now insisting on the use of BIM. This is utilised through the design and construction phases, and then passed to the client at hand-over. One of the big advantages to the client is in its application to facility management and the benefits are only increased when this is multiplied across a number of sites. For an owner of hundreds of buildings, having BIM digital records of exactly what materials they are made from can help maximise efficiencies in terms of running costs and renewing warranties. Such records also help manage maintenance, refurbishment and alteration work.

However, the percentage of a client’s new build work can be small in comparison to that of managing existing facilities. This is especially true in the current economic climate. Point cloud surveys are one method of generating a BIM from an existing building. Through laser technology it is possible to survey the spaces in an existing building to create a digital ‘cloud’ of geometrical points. All of this data can then be used to generate the geometry of the building. This is then imported into a BIM enabled CAD package and the materials are identified. More ‘meat on the bone’ can be added to this BIM by adding detailed specification information to these materials.

The cost of a point cloud survey is now roughly the same as a traditional 2D survey. It is extremely accurate and generates a 3D model from which unlimited 2D ‘cuts’ can be taken - so it surely is the future?

I’ve heard it said that ‘if a building is worth building it’s worth building twice, once digitally during the design process and then again physically during the construction process’. Thinking about point cloud surveys, if there are design variations during construction, is it worth ‘building’ a third time? Before hand-over the building could be surveyed to create an ‘as-built’ model that can be compared with the design model, and provide a true digital record of the building."

Interestingly enough, this technology hit the national news the following day with this story on the BBC. A different application, but smart, 3D technology helping with efficiency in every day life.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14091873

Structured Data

2011-06-30T12:34:00.000+01:00

The best software is extremely user friendly and has great functionality. But what is often overlooked is the quality of the structured data that makes this possible.

Looking at two of the biggest websites in the UK RightMove.com and AutoTrader.co.uk, the one thing they have in common is the quality and quantity of well structured data. This allows their web developers to create great functionality and an extremely well designed application.

Fig 1 - Filter a huge dataset to find exactly what you want

The screenshot above shows that within AutoTrader.co.uk the user has very quickly found a car through selecting from a number of questions.

Interestingly, within this blog service (BlogSpot.com), these blog posts are well structured and may now be viewed in many different ways. Select constructioncode.blogspot.com/view and you can see all of the posts presented in some wonderful ways. Equally, the same content can be displayed differently depending on the device the blog is viewed on (PC/Mac or mobile device).

Fig 2 - Blogspot View functionality

Fig 3 - Blogspot mobile device

At RIBA Enterprises we strive to do the same. Improve our data. And then provide excellent functionality and usability on top of this. A current example of this is with our manufacturer product data. This is structured to quite a fine level: (1) Product name, (2) Product reference, (3) Optional properties, (4) Default properties, (5) Third party approvals, (6) Links to literature, CAD objects and CPD.

By finely structuring this data - it allows us to display the same data in a number of different ways in a number of products:

Fig 4 - The Zest cubicle at ribaproductselector.com

Fig 5 - Specifying the Zest cubicle within NBS Scheduler

Fig 6 - Specifying the Zest cubicle within NBS Building or Engineering

Fig 7 - The RIBAE data for the Zest cubicle on the manufacturer's own website

The work we are currently doing with our products and services follows this principle quite strongly. To keep an eye on our NBS 2012 developments and how the structure of the data gives huge benefits keep coming back to this blog.

The launch of BIM Academy

2011-06-22T14:30:00.006+01:00

Last night I attended the launch of the BIM Academy www.bimacademy.ac.uk. There were a number of speakers including Lord O’Neil, chairman of the Nuclear Industries Association and Bill East, Senior Research Civil Engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

It was also particularly interesting to hear James Brown, Head of Model Development and Specification at ASDA speak. Largely through Wallmart's lead, Asda now insist on the use of BIM on all of their jobs and are building up a digital asset record of their 500 buildings in the UK. The use of BIM through the design stages has cut 12 week processes down to 6 week processes and has allowed them achieve fee reduction.

Discussions and questions also took place on public sector work. In particular, the aim of creating effiencies so that the tax payer gets better value from the £38billion that is spent each year on government owned buildings.

It was great to see ex-NBS R&D team members Professor Steve Lockley and Dr Jane Matthews from Northumbria playing a big part in the event. It was also encouraging to hear Helen Whitfield RIBA Enterprises Exec-Director talk to the delegates on how NBS and BIM Academy hope to work together more closely over the coming months.

"Looking to the future, our relationship is set to grow. RIBA Enterprises and NBS will be working with the BIM Academy on a number of key industry initiatives which we hope will bear considerable benefits in the advancement of BIM adoption in the UK",

Helen Whitfield, Exec-Director RIBA Enterprises

NBS Create - The specification as a rich information model

2011-06-20T08:52:00.002+01:00

Last month I blogged about how our new "NBS 2012" specification product allows outline, performance and full specifications to be created.

This month, the article below looks at how the project specification will no longer be simply "words on paper", but it will be made up of objects with pre-authored relationships and constraints that describe the building.

1. Starting with Systems
The screenshot below shows that the project specification is made up of the systems in the job, for example, biofuel supply system, solar heating system, natural ventilation system. This example uses engineering services systems, but it could equally apply to architectural systems such as windows, doors, walls and floors.

Each of these can be opened in the editor to display an outline of the products that make up the system. The screenshot below shows the solar heating system being described in terms of its components such as the heat source, pipelines and insulation. Against each of these NBS have pre-defined the links to the most likely candidate products. For example, against the Thermal insulation component the user may pick from three different types of insulation products.

Alternatively, the user may specify this system in terms of its performance, this was looked at in last months blog post.

In addition to the products that make up the system, at the base of each system outline clause there are pre-authored relationships to clauses describing the execution and completion of the system. For example, what the installation, documentation and servicing requirements of the system are.

2. Products

Moving down the system editor, the products clauses that have been included in the job are defined. The example below shows the definition of a flat plate collector for the solar heating system. This is familiar to users of current NBS.

However, the principle of parent and child relationships is also continued here. The screenshot below shows the relationship between the flat plate collector and its corresponding installation clauses.

The example installation clause is shown below...

3. Visualising the system
In this example, the project specification now describes the the systems (and the spaces they belong to), their child products and their installation and completion requirements for these. Behind the scenes this is a very rich data model that allows some great functionality that will provide better efficiency and accuracy to the user. This is a rich information model describing the building.
One immediate benefit of this is the ability to visualise the system, to see all of the child items and the relationships. This is shown below. As well as a simple visualiser, this view also works as a navigator to open the clauses in the job and the technical guidance also synchronises.

4. Reports
Over the coming months I will blog about the great functionality that this now allows. But to finish this post off, a screenshot of one of the automatically generated reports is shown. The user has clicked to see a report of all items in the job that the contractor has design duties. The user has clicked on an item that is "contractor's choice" and the software has then jumped to the correct item.
Other types of instant reports include manufacturer products, reference documents and user note reports. The user will also be able to define their own reports and it will be possible to publish these reports.

Further reading...

For all blog articles on NBS 2012 - click the NBS 2012 hyperlink to the right of this page.

To join our Beta Testing Program and help us develop this product, please see:

- http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting

BIM Academy Launch

2011-06-18T06:56:00.000+01:00

If any BIM fans are in London on Tuesday evening then I'd recommend attending the launch of the BIM Academy at Kings Place London from 6pm.

RIBA Enterprises have a long history of working with both universities in Newcastle and we are currently involved in two big research projects with Northumbria looking into BIM.

Details from the press release are in screenshot below. I'll be attending and maybe having a glass of wine or two.

New version of ribaproductselector.com is now live

2011-06-14T15:22:00.002+01:00

The new version of ribaproductselector.com is now live. ribaproductselector.com is the online extension of the printed RIBA Product Selector – the market-leading product directory for specifiers and other construction industry professionals. Enhancements include:

1. For construction professionals
The entire website has been overhauled to make searching for what you need quicker and easier.

Start typing "loft" and suggested search phrases are presented....

The search results can be refined to quickly narrow down your search...

Products have detailed technical specifications, PDF data sheets and links to associated documentation such as catalogues, installation manuals and case studies. Once a product of interest is found, then the user can easily browse to find out about related items...

Where a manufacturer has CPD material this is also displayed...

2. For manufacturers
Manufacturers can now manage their own data on ribaproductselector.com - a number of services are available:

A completely free company listing for all manufacturers in the construction trade
The ability to add and manage your own product literature
Many other RIBA Insight marketing solutions such as NBS Plus, CPD and the inclusion of case studies in monthly newsletters

The free listing is as simple as displaying your contact details to improve the number of leads.

NBS Create – Specification through the project timeline

2011-05-27T10:39:00.004+01:00

At NBS we are currently working on our new specification project. We are delighted to announce that previews of this are now available of this now on our beta test server.

Each month now I shall be blogging about features of the new product to try and encourage current NBS users to join our Beta Test program and help us influence developments. This month my article is on specifying through the project timeline through outline, performance full specifications.

1. Outline specification
The current RIBA Plan of Work does not mention NBS until Stage F, “Action F212: Select from the library of standard specification clauses (NBS recommended)”. With our NBS 2012 product the NBS specification process will start at Stage C.

The project specification will be created by adding systems, such as walls, roofs, windows and doors, from the NBS library. A short description can be added to each system to produce an outline specification. The screenshot below shows a typical outline specification created using NBS 2012.

2. Performance specification
Next Generation NBS is a “wizard-led” specification process, where the specifier adds just the clauses they need at the appropriate time. No longer is the user presented with a long list of clauses as a “checklist”.

The screenshots below shows the “system outline clause”, the drop-down pre-authored NBS options and the expert technical guidance allows the user to specify what they need.

Each system has comprehensive performance content that reference the latest standards and regulations.
The user may write a true system performance specification (for instance for a client on a D&B job).

They can also mix and match system performance content with partially completed product specifications (for instance planning submissions).

3. Full specification
Next Generation NBS can of course be used to create tender specifications and these may be updated throughout the construction phrase to hand over a record specification to the client once the building is complete.

Content from the specification model can be published by system or in traditional work section to assist with procurement and dissemination of the information to sub-contractors.

Further reading…
For all blog articles on NBS 2012 – click the NBS 2012 hyperlink to the right of this page.

For articles written by members of our technical team on this up and coming product please see NBS Head of Specification Ian Chapman’s recent article and NBS Head of Content Development John Gelder’s recent article.

To join our Beta Testing Program and help us develop this product please see:
- http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting

RIBA Awards 2011 - Pictures

2011-05-19T08:59:00.000+01:00

Some amazing pictures on the BBC website from the RIBA Awards 2011:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13437089

And from the RIBA website:
http://www.architecture.com/Awards/RIBAAwards/Winners2011/RIBAAwards-winners2011.aspx

NBS BIM Roundtable - Quotes

2011-05-17T21:19:00.000+01:00

To watch the NBS BIM Roundtable click on the link below:
http://www.thenbs.com/roundtable/

A number of quotes from the interviews below...

"BIM is not about one profession, it's about everyone working in a collaborative way"
Richard Waterhouse, CEO of RIBA Enterprises

"...the lower limit [of projects where BIM will be mandatory]... but I think that's probably south of £5million. A lot, lot less than 50 [million]"
Paul Morrell, Government's Chief Construction Advisor

"...there was a debate between the services installer and the services consultant about a pipe through a wall and across a room... so I suggested we just do a quick model of it"
Robert Klaschka, Director, Studio Klaschka

"About 50% of our staff base are trained and are actually using BIM platforms and that is increasing month-by-month"
Alistair Kell, Director Information & Technology, BDP

"[we use BIM] where we think the BIM will add value, and that's not just our decision but the design team and a client decision"
Nigel Clark, Technical Director, Hilson Moran

"I think most businesses will have an implementation plan in place and they are trying to understand when to jump in and what return on investment they will get"
Sam Collard, Engineering Leader, Laing O'Rourke

"The important thing to understand is that it is a way of working so that we can work together, with others in other disciplines, work together through the supply chain. And the important thing is that we're not just talking about geometry, we're talking about every parameter that you can talk about with respect to a building, or a space, or a system, or a product."
Anne King, Membership and Markering Director, BSRIA

"The most important thing, with respect to master specification systems, is that they aren't just words on paper or words in a word processor. The specification has got to be built around related objects so that you can query it... information you can work with digitally."
Stephen Hamil, Head of BIM, NBS

http://www.thenbs.com/roundtable/

Paul Morrell talks to NBS about BIM

2011-05-17T13:11:00.001+01:00

As part of the NBS BIM Roundtable discussions we interviewed Paul Morrel the Chief Construction Advisor.

Watch the video above to hear his comments:

A £50 million benchmark would “defeat the point” of pushing for bim adoption.
“To restrict it to big projects means it is only about major players and that rather defeats the point,” “We’re looking at whether there’s a lower limit.. and I think that’s south of £5 million. It’s a lot, lot less than £50 million.”
“If you think this is a race between institutions then you’re in the wrong sport.
“There is a huge gulf I think between those who get it and those who don’t. Probably the biggest misunderstanding is that some people think it is about software. They can buy a cellophane wrapped thing and that’s bim. It’s more about cultural change than it is about software and I think that’s not understood.”
“If you say right you’re going to be working in 3d, fully collaborative bim for big bits of the supply chain that would be a political issue. Small businesses in small towns will go to their local MP and say I can’t work for the government anymore because I haven’t got this bit of kit."
“We’ll work up slowly from nothing right the way through to fully collaborative. the expectation will be that the big players will support the smaller players in the supply chain. That’s what’s been happening in America.”

Expert Building Information Modelling Articles from NBS

2011-05-16T19:11:00.001+01:00

Over recent months we have published a number of expert articles on Building Information Modelling at theNBS.com/BIM.

An overview of some of these articles is given below:

BIM – measurement and costing
by Dick Barker, Director, Laing O'Rourke, Head of Model Based Measurement and Costing
BIM – The long view from architectural and design practice
by Robert Klaschka, Principal Director, Studio Klaschka
BIM and building properties
an introduction to Building Information Model written by myself
BIM and education
by Prof Steve Lockley, Professor of Building Modelling at Northumbria University
BIM as a mindset
by James Harty, Senior Lecturer at Copenhagen School of Design and Technology
BIM in construction
by Michael Smith, Information Specialist from NBS
Building Information Modelling: the holy grail?
by Sarah Delany, NBS Technical Author
Building Information Modelling for public procurement
a response by myself to Paul Morrel's 2010 announcement at the Autodesk Conference
Putting the 'I' into BIM
Richard Waterhouse, Chief Executive of RIBA Enterprises, introduces the Building Information Modelling Report March 2011
Standards in construction
by Nick Nisbet Technical Coordinator buildingSMART UK & Ireland
The rapid acceleration of BIM
an article by myself on the BIM developments seen throughout 2010
What does Building Information Modelling (BIM) mean for specifications?
by Ian Chapman, NBS Head of Specification
Why do we need BIM?
by John Lorimer Capital Programme Director Corporate Services Manchester City Council

In addition to this we also published our Building Information Modelling Report March 2011, video interviews with some leading members of buildingSMART and we will soon be publishing videos from our BIM Roundtable.

If you'd like to contribute an article for inclusion by NBS, please get in touch.

To receive our information by email from NBS on subjects such as Building Information Modelling, Regulations & standards, Sustainability and Contracts & law see the website below:
http://www.thenbs.com/signup/

Construction Excellence in the North East Awards 2011

2011-05-14T12:19:00.001+01:00

I attended the Construction Excellence in the North East Awards last night. One or two photographs below...

After a few reception drinks it was into the main area for meal, drinks and the awards.

Northumbria University featured heavily including presentation about their student work in construction in Zambia.

Friend of NBS, Sam Collard from Laing O'Rourke gives the funniest speech of the night. Good also to catch up with one or two of the guys from Ryders, some of our ex-NBS Advisory Panel members and Jon Jo, Amanda and Amy from RIBA North East.

NBS and Bentley Architecture - Software Tutorial Video

2011-05-11T17:27:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Brenden from Bentley UK for providing us with a Flash software tutorial showing how to link the clauses in an NBS project specification to a CAD model in Bentley Architecture.

To view this please go to our BIM mini site and then scroll to the "Useful links" section at the bottom of the page.

- http://www.theNBS.com/BIM

A few screenshots below...

1. Export the keynotes database from NBS Building (or the Annotator tool)

2. Pick the relevant keynote from within Bentley Architecture

3. Associate the relevant keynote with the CAD object

Around the Round Table

2011-04-13T21:01:00.000+01:00

Today I took part in a BIM roundtable event at the RIBA. A number of experts from the UK construction industry attended including the government’s chief construction advisor Paul Morrell and leading voices from Laing O’Rourke, Hilson Moran and BDP. Videos of the discussions will appear on theNBS.com/BIM and other construction industry websites in the next two or three weeks.

In preparation for the event I tried to think of the top ten questions surrounding BIM and answer them. The questions I came up with were:

What is BIM?
Who owns the BIM?
Who will make the most money out of BIM?
What are the legal implications of BIM?
Is the UK falling behind the rest of the world on BIM?
How should industry help BIM adoption happen smoothly in the UK?
Is there a single BIM or many BIMs?
Is affordability an issue and how can smaller practices be persuaded that BIM is a worthwhile investment?
How do master specification systems fit into BIM?
How do cash and carbon fit into BIM?

I’ll write up what I believe the answers to the above questions are and post in the next week. If anyone would like to answer them from their point of view, please feel free to comment.

The NBS Building Information Modelling Report March 2011

2011-03-29T12:36:00.001+01:00

The NBS Building Information Modelling Report March 2011 was published today.

This in-depth research was conducted by the NBS Market Research team to develop an understanding of BIM adoption in the UK.

In addition to the research there are also articles from:

Richard Waterhouse - Chief Executive of RIBA Enterprises
Robert Klaschka -Principal Director, Studio Klaschka
Dick Barker - Director, Laing O’Rourke, Head of Model Based Measurement and Costing
Prof Steve Lockley, Professor of Building Modelling at Northumbria University
and myself

To join the debate on this report please visit our BIM Blog:

- http://nbsbrightsparks.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/nbs-launch-bim-research-report/

Northumbria University

2011-03-08T11:38:00.000Z

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of delivering a presentation to Year 2 Architectural Technician students at Northumbria University.

Northumbria is rapidly gaining a strong reputation for its work in the field of Building Information Modelling - some useful links below:

The Carbon Assessment Tool project - see my previous blog post.
Article from Northumbria's Professor Steve Lockley on BIM and Eduction
Extract: "...Educational establishments clearly have a major role to play in this transition, they should and will seed the next generation of professionals who understand BIM as a technology that supports collaborative working. However, there are barriers to change built into our Universities and Colleges, not least of which is the entrenchment of the traditional professions. In an ideal world these institutions should be microcosms of the way we desire the industry to work in the future."
The Northumbria BIM Academy website

...and back from ecobuild

2011-03-02T19:03:00.001Z

My presentation from ecobuild is now online. It can be downloaded by clicking below:

Thanks again to Martyn and Jacqui from Vectorworks for inviting me. It was good to catch up again. Also, nice to grab a beer with Nick Nisbit and chat about how we could possibly get some IFC import and export functionality into the next version of NBS. There are some really exciting opportunities to specify systems/element types in NBS and then export as IFC and then import into any CAD package. Equally, the opportunity to create an building outline in CAD, export to IFC and then import into NBS to create an outline specification is exciting too.

Some photographs from ecobuild below…

Canary Wharf on a dull March afternoon

The Millenium Dome (again) on a dull March afternoon

ExCeL London with building work in the background – with the Olympics on its way this area of London seemed to be one big construction project.

A live demonstration of building with Straw Bales – note the RIBA CPD logo in the background!

Some really nice timber frame exhibition stands

buildingSMART’s Christopher Groome delivers presentation of BIM and interoperability

When choosing a hotel room, it’s always nice to have one opposite “the birthplace of IRON MAIDEN” :)

ecobuild

2011-02-24T08:56:00.000Z

I'll be presenting some of the NBS Building Information Modelling developments to date and a preview of what is to come at ecobuild on Tuesday 1st March and Wednesday 2nd March as part of the Design Technology Programme (N131).

I'm really looking forward to it and it'll be a pleasure to present alongside the following people from the construction industry.
- http://www.unlimited.com/ecobuild/

South and West Yorkshire Local Authority Training Consortium

2011-02-11T08:54:00.001Z

I had the pleasure of delivering a CPD session to the South and West Yorkshire Local Authority Training Consortium on BIM yesterday evening. We discussed what BIM is, some case studies and then looked at how the data in the NBS specification model could be integrated with the data in the CAD model. (and in between there was some time for some lovely pie, chips, gravy and mushy peas :)).

There were loads of questions and some real interest on the subject. Useful links on the subject below:

The NBS BIM research:
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/What_BIM_is_and_how_it_is_being_used.asp
Tutorials on the different methods of linking the CAD model with NBS:
https://www.thenbs.com/support/softwaresupport/knowledgeBase/KB10168spec.asp
Paul Morrell’s BIM presentation:
http://www.bsria.co.uk/services/design/bim/bim2010/
A recent article I have authored on the “rapid acceleration of BIM”:
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/rapidAccelerationOfBIM.asp
The buildingSMART/BSI publication making the case for BIM (including some good case studies):
http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2010/07/bsi-spells-out-case-for-bim.html
The NBS BIM Blog:
http://nbsbrightsparks.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Clinton to inviting me down - look forward to doing it again some time.

Tour of the Sage Gateshead

2011-02-09T09:06:00.002Z

We held the final session of our current Advisory Panel at the Sage Gateshead yesterday. In addition to discussions on CAD, online specification systems and proposed enhancements to NBS and RIBAProductSelector.com, we also were fortunate enough to get a tour of the building by Peter Udall from Gateshead Council who had been project manager of the construction.

It was fascinating how:

Gateshead was chosen for the development. After proving they could make big projects such as The Angel of the North, The Baltic and the Millenium Bridge happen they had an excellent track record. Also having land in such a prime location available overlooking the Tyne helped win the bid.
Gateshead had three main reports, the cost consultants, the lead designers (Fosters) and the specialist acoustic designers (Arup). From the start they made it clear that the quality of the acoustics and the accessibility to the public were the number one priorities.
In terms of the acoustics, it has been designed so well, that many international musicians rate The Sage in the top 10 or even top three venues for acoustics world-wide. Gateshead are happy they have achieved the aim of providing a truly world class venue.
In terms of accessibility, the public can always walk through the main concourse, it's not an exclusive location. For all of the events put on by Gateshead there are always tickets for £7.50 available.

The main music hall from the drinks reception area on level 1

Peter Udall shows 16 architects around the venue - a tough audience

The magnificent coloured glass balustrade that was fitted recently to line the concourse

Impressive reinforced concrete rolling base

The main concert hall - a world class venue

Free web seminar on NBS and CAD

2011-02-09T08:27:00.000Z

Our training team are running a web seminar on NBS and CAD on Friday 18 February 1pm.

Visit our website below to sign up for it:
http://www.thenbs.com/training/onlinetraining/

The Rapid Acceleration of BIM

2011-02-03T11:04:00.001Z

This week I wrote another short article on Building Information Modelling for theNBS.com - The Rapid Acceleration of BIM.

It looks back at what appeared to be a big year for BIM in the UK. It also gives a little insight into some of the developments we are working on at NBS.

The article will also appear as a comment piece in the upcoming NBS BIM Survey 2010 alongside pieces by Professor Steve Lockley from Northumbria University, Dick Barker from Privica/Laing O'Rourke, Robert Klaschka from Studio Klaschka and Richard Waterhouse CEO of RIBA Enterprises.

NBS Domestic Specification perfect for Real Homes

2011-02-01T07:00:00.001Z

Nice little article promoting NBS Domestic Specification in Real Homes magazine.

realhomesmagazine.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-advice/new-online-building-specification-tool

If you are in the planning stage of a major overhaul of your home or a complete renovation project, then it is essential to fully understand the building constraints and regulations before you start. NBS have launched a new useful online Domestic Specification service, which guides you through writing and completing a successful building specification.

Designed exclusively for small domestic building works, such as housing renovations and moderations, the website offers a quick and easy way to complete the specification process.

The digital service can be used as ‘pay-per-use’, to be purchased as and when require with no subscription. Each specification cost £40, plus VAT.

With guidance and editing features on hand during the process, you can be sure to get it right first time round.

For more information visit www.thenbs.com/domestic

Launched in November, NBS Domestic Specification has been a real success so far and we hope it'll get more and more use on domestic jobs throughout the UK.

Update 2nd Feb
Also quite a nice review of the product in the February edition of Building Engineer magazine:

Click image for full size

ecobuild Design Technology Programme

2011-01-28T15:10:00.000Z

The ecobuild Design Technology Programme is now finalised:
- http://www.unlimited.com/ecobuild/

Construction Industry Attitude to New Technology

2011-01-21T13:40:00.002Z

At NBS we have recently carried out a survey on the construction industry's attitude to new technology.

90% of 500 respondents said they had a positive attitude towards new technology with those over 55 proving the most willing to embrace new technology. Over half would increase their investment in new technology while over a third now use a Smartphone as part of their working lives.

To check out all of the findings go to theNBS.com...
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/PracticeManagement/articles/theTechnologySurvey.asp

And featured at bdonline.co.uk...

- http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/survey-says-construction-more-it-literate-than-thought/5011752.article

Beta Testers Wanted

2011-01-18T12:20:00.004Z

At the CIBSE BIM Conference in December I mentioned that at NBS we are currently working very hard to develop our specification software and data. We are turning our specification content from what currently is simple clause paragraphs of text into "objects" that have relationships and meaning.

John Gelder from our Technical Team also wrote about this in his article Near Future Specification Systems.

This will have enormous benefits to those involved in writing specification. In particular, the specification will become a document that is worked on throughout the time line to firstly create an outline specification, then the same document can be expanded to either a performance specification or traditional full specification. At each stage in the time line no information will have to be re-keyed and no information will be lost.

As this document will consist of "objects" that have relationships and meaning then the user will be able to report on this content as they wish to easily create contractor action reports, manufacturer products reports, reference document reports etc...

In February the NBS Beta Testers will be getting their first look at our developments.

If you are an existing NBS customer and would be interested in being one of the first to see and then feedback on these developments then please contact the Beta Test Coordinator Seth Okai seth.okai@thenbs.com.

Ref: http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting/

NBS Plus on manufacturer websites

2011-01-13T08:39:00.000Z

I wrote a short article for the RIBA Insight January monthly briefing on how manufacturers can display their NBS product specification on their websites:
- RIBA-Insight.com

The screen-shot below show how Knauf AMF display their NBS Plus data on their website...

"One of the most popular recent additions to NBS Plus is its built-in facility to allow manufacturers and suppliers to display NBS product specifications on their website. The advantages of this include:

That smaller practices that specify low-budget projects by writing notes on drawings can now easily also add a robust, concise NBS product specification from a supplier's own website
When a supplier's NBS Plus content is updated (by a qualified member of our in-house NBS technical team), it's also automatically updated on the supplier's website
Clear visibility of NBS Plus branding, making it easy for visitors to quickly identify 'NBS Plus suppliers' (companies that are clients of NBS Plus) and to feel confident that they are dealing with a trustworthy name."