Another Fantasty Football season over

Another Fantasy Football season is now over.

Congratulations for the second year running to Matt Mccarter who finished top in the league of 40.

It was a disappointing end to the season for the mighty BIM Model United FC. We rose to 4th at one point, hovered around the top 6 and then slipped out of the top 10 in the last week.

It is safe to say that there will be no 'taking it easy' over the summer for the BIM Model United FC boys and they'll be training hard and focused all of the way through to September.

A big shout out to NBS BIM software developer Calum McVeigh who finished off 3rd in his first season. Good to see at least someone doing the NBS proud (no mention of Paul Swaddle's team's final position).

So until next year...
(or unless there is a World Cup fantasy league comp?).

Ref: The start of the season preview

Newcastle - A great place to be

NBS was in the news today. A good news story about our expansion over recent years and the purchase and plans for our building.
- http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/forget-detroit---newcastle-new-7109558

Our "iconic building" in Newcastle

The story was partly in response to articles in the press in the weekend comparing the North East of England to Detroit in the USA:

• Original article
  - http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/10/north-east-avoid-becoming-britains-detroit
• Follow up
  - http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2014/may/12/the-north-east-not-the-new-detroit-but-poorly-served-by-the-national-media
• And local paper follow up
  - http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/100-reasons-its-great-up-7050128

One of Richard's quotes in the NBS article mentions the quality of students from local universities and the local centre of excellence around the digital construction industry:
"One of the reasons we are here is because of the quality of students who are in the city and staying not just to work for us. The city is becoming a centre of BIM expertise."

The level-2 BIM toolkit

There is currently some discussion on social media about the Technology Strategy Board project to 'complete level-2 BIM'. I have pulled together what is available on the Internet below...

1. The workshops to develop the brief
The presentations from the first workshop may all be downloaded from the link below:
- http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/technology-strategy-board-workshops/

The workshops at BIS in London

The work needed to finish the level-2 'package'

• Review of workshop 1 (BIM Task Group newsletter 35)
• Review of workshops 2 and 3 (BIM Task Group newsletter 36)

2. The brief and functional specification
The phase-1 documentation set may be downloaded below:
- https://www.innovateuk.org/-/a-digital-tool-for-building-information-modelling

The brief

3. The phase-1 results
Three teams have been awarded funding.
- https://www.innovateuk.org/BIM-Results

The phase-1 results

Various reports in the media:

• Construction Manager - http://www.construction-manager.co.uk/news/ciob-backed-group-lines-against-bre-and-nbs-develo/
• Team NBS press release - http://www.thenbs.com/corporate/nbsNews/14-05_nbs-led-team-scoops-funding-award-for-development-of-free-to-use-bim-tool.asp
• Team NBS in BD - http://www.bdonline.co.uk/nbs-bags-government-funding-for-bim-tool/5068379.article 

4. Phase-2
Phase 2 dates, extracted from the brief

Update - Friday 11th July - Phase-1 documentation submitted...

40 and still going strong

The title of the post isn't about me (although I'm less than 100 days away), but the 40th edition of the BIM Task Group newsletter was published today.

- http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/BIM-Task-Group-Newsletter-40th-Edition.pdf

The 40th edition has a special feature (5 or 6 pages) on our recent NBS BIM Survey. Plenty of charts and even some comments on the findings from BIM Task Group chairman Mark Bew.

Hold the front page - survey coming through

What the experts say

The report can be downloaded for free from our website:
- https://www.thenbs.com/topics/BIM/articles/nbs-national-bim-report-2014.asp

The Government newsletter can be downloaded from the BIM Task Group website:
- http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/BIM-Task-Group-Newsletter-40th-Edition.pdf

The interview with Tata Steel's Steve Thompson who chairs the BIM for Manufacturers and Manufacturing group is also a good read.

Kalzip, a Tata Steel Enterprise, metal profile sheet roofing objects are available at:

- http://www.nationalbimlibrary.com/kalzip

Tata Steel literature and RIBA CPD can be downloaded from:

- http://www.ribaproductselector.com/tata-steel

David Miller Architects and NBS National BIM Library

David Miller Architects have posted their excellent "using BIM tools" presentation to youtube.

Watch below to see how they explain how they design using generic objects and then swap in information-rich Kingspan Insulation manufacturer objects for greater value. The "i" in BIM.

Skip to 7m30s for the tech info section - or if you have time, watch from the start...

For more information on NBS National BIM Library see:
- http://www.nationalbimlibrary.com

If anyone has any videos or screenshots of our BIM objects in action on a real project - send them through and I'll pop them on the blog.

Edit - Apologies for the typo in the original post - this guy's fault :)