Tuesday 27 April 2010

Journal Article - NBS Specification Software Enhancements

A copy of the article I have written for the up and coming NBS Journal is below.

The NBS Journal contains specially-written articles on specification, and is available twice a year. The current edition and all previous NBS Journals are available to all as PDFs from the NBS website.
http://www.thenbs.com/resources/journals/

NBS Building, Landscape and Engineering Services Software Improvements

The recent 2010-1 update of NBS Building, Landscape and Engineering Services includes a number of significant software enhancements, following over a year of development work. Head of NBS Software Development, Dr Stephen Hamil, presents these in this article.

1. Integration between the specification and CAD

At NBS, one of our main priorities is to develop our existing products in-line with our customers’ needs. To prioritise these enhancements to the software we have a number of customer focus groups and we also have a yearly customer satisfaction survey.

One of the most requested features has been to make it easier to annotate a CAD model from clauses in a project specification. The Annotator application is now installed with your NBS software as part of the NBS Tools suite of the software. This application allows you to quickly access the clause number and title from your project specifications when making annotations in your CAD model.

The Annotator application works through copy and paste; this means it will sit alongside any CAD software such as ArchiCAD, Microstation or AutoCAD. Subject to having a valid NBS licence, you can access NBS technical guidance using the Annotator. This allows you to browse the general guidance in work sections at early design stage to benefit from this comprehensive and trusted NBS information.

Figure 1- Using the Annotator from NBS
In addition to the Annotator, it is now possible from within the NBS software to export to keynote format. This allows you to work with project specification keynote references within AutoCAD, Revit or Microstation. Using this method of working, within CAD you can annotate an element type once and then quickly access this same annotation from all of the matching element types within your model.

This work is very much seen as a first step towards further CAD integration and we are currently researching and prototyping methods to take this integration further.

2. Publishing enhancements

A number of enhancements have been made to the publishing engine. The way the headers and footers are generated has had a complete overhaul. It is now possible to have mixed styles, a separator line and for the text to grow to fill the available space. This is demonstrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 – Improved headers and footers

Another key improvement to the published document is the ability to clearly indicate how clauses have been revised when re-issuing a specification or a work section. The screenshot below shows two clauses that have been revised, one has been removed and one has been added as new. This helps communicate any changes made to the specification clearly to the other members of the project team. Figure 3 below shows an extract from the re-issued specification.

Figure 3 – Revisions to the specification

3. A new search facility

It is now possible to search NBS libraries, project documents and office standards from within the software. Initially, this is useful when you are creating a specification and do not know exactly where to find the content in the NBS libraries. For example, how many customers know where to find fascias and soffits (G20) or underslab insulation (E20)? This search facility allows you to preview the clause and view the guidance prior to adding the work section to your specification. This search facility can be launched through clicking on the search button on the main toolbar.

In addition to searching for content in NBS you can also search for content in your project specifications and contract preliminaries. Once you have found the clause that you have searched for, double click on it to open for editing in the main software window.

Figure 4 demonstrates the user searching a project specification for a particular manufacturer. It can be seen that all of the product clauses in which this manufacturer is specified are returned and can be quickly previewed. 

Figure 4 – New search facility

 4. Financial summary

For smaller projects without a bill of quantities, it is now possible to publish a financial summary at the back of your specification for the contractors to price. Rather than the contractors providing a lump sum cost based on the specification and drawings, the project can be broken down to allow improved analysis of the tender costs and a clearer demonstration to the client of how money will be spent.

Like the Annotator application, the Cost Tracking application is installed as part of the NBS Tools suite of the software. This application also enables the creation of a spreadsheet to allow costs to be tracked through the construction phase of the project.

Figure 5 displays a tender analysis report generated within the Cost Tracking application. Contractor prices are arranged from lowest to highest against a pre-tender estimate. The variations in costs for each priceable item are clearly shown.

Figure 5 – Tender analysis within the Cost Tracking application

5. Further integration with CIS and Building Regulations

The final major enhancement to the NBS software is the facility to seamlessly link with The Construction Information Service and NBS Building Regulations. If you are a subscriber to these services, you can enter your user name and password once and then immediately click through from the NBS guidance to the relevant technical information.

Figure 6 - External links within the NBS Guidance

Figure 7 - Seamless links through to The Construction Information Service
Larger practices can securely enter a company username and password to these services in their NBS office settings file. All users of the NBS software in the office can then immediately click through and download documents such as British Standards, BRE publications and Building Regulations without the need to log on individually each time.

6. Further information

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Thinking About BIM Conference

A quick blog post to promote the following 1/2 day conference. A few of the NBS R&D team will be attending.

RIBA CPD2010 Extras - Thinking about BIM?

½ day Conference
Date: Wednesday 5th May 2010
Time: 9:30am - 12:30pm followed by lunch
Venue: Sutherland Great Hall, Northumbria University

The Building Information Modelling (BIM) revolution has been advancing quietly, steadily and irreversibly over the past decade.
At the heart of the BIM approach is the ability to share information and work collaboratively, so that we can raise our game. There are benefits for all – from better communication between designer and client, to a smoother construction process and more effective management of the asset over its whole life-cycle.
Sustainability is high on the agenda. BIM offers the opportunity to create more efficient buildings. Energy analysis and life-cycle costing can be done using the building model.
Thinking about BIM? is a call to action. Many clients and suppliers have yet to adopt BIM. This seminar/conference is for you. BIM technologies are available, you will hear about successful users in the North East, and those yet to embark will gain insight into the benefits of BIM, and how to go about it, by listening to industry professionals at this event.


Speakers:
Nick Nisbet - BuildingSmart
Sam Collard - Laing O'Rourke
William Sutherland - WS Architecture Ltd
Nick Deeming & Peter St Julien - Faulkner Browns
Andrew Bellerby, Tekla UK
Robert Barnes - MicroCAD
Mark Cronin - Northumbria University
Margaret Horne / Professor Stephen Lockley - Northumbria University

Cost:
CPD Club Member £41.00 (+VAT)
RIBA/CIAT £47.00 (+VAT)
Others £58.50 (+VAT)

To register for this event, please contact:
Amanda McManus, amanda.mcmanus@inst.riba.org or on 0191 261 7441.


Friday 16 April 2010

Video of new features in NBS Building, Engineering and Landscape

Our marketing team have put together a super video presentation showing the new features off in the NBS 2010 specification software. The video also presents some of the new technical content enhancements to provide further guidance on BREEAM and accessible design (BS 8300).

Select the image below to go to theNBS.com to watch the video:

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Seamless linkage between NBS and The Construction Information Service

The 2010 versions of NBS Building, Lansdscape and Engineering Services all now have the facility to seamlessly link with The Construction Information Service and NBS Building Regulations.

This means that if you are a subscriber to these services then you can enter your user name and password once centrally and then immediately click through from the NBS guidance to the relevant technical information.

The screenshots below demonstrate this.

Figure 1 - Enter your username and passwords to the services in the NBS software


Figure 2 - From within the NBS guidance, click to view technical standards and approved documents

Figure 3 - Without the need to enter your user details again, you are taken to the correct document on The Construction Information Service

Figure 4 - This document can be quickly downloaded as a PDF file

Figure 5 - Again, without the need to enter your user details again, you are taken to the relevant section of the Approved Document