Wednesday 27 June 2018

Come and visit NBS at the Great Exhibition of the North

If you are in Newcastle between now and 9th September 2018, please come and visit NBS as part of the Great Exhibition of the North.
https://getnorth2018.com/

We're on the Innovation Trail and we have loads of interactive experiences for 4 to 94 year olds! So if you want to be inspired by the fantastic things happening in the world of architecture, engineering and construction - please pop in and say hello.
On the Innovation Trail
A quick tour of our exhibition below using photographs taken over the first few days...

Our #FutureBuildings trail takes you from the 1860s to the present to the future

A 3D printed model of our NBS building

An Augmented Reality view of some of the best buildings in the North East
Learn more about these showcase buildings and browse them in a 3D viewer at:
https://www.thenbs.com/great-exhibition-of-the-north/north-east-showcase
Inspiring around six classes of kids from different schools each day

How connected technology and the internet of things is changing the world around us
Watch our connected tech video below:
https://www.thenbs.com/great-exhibition-of-the-north/internet-of-things
Whether you are a little kid or a 'big kid' - it's fun to design in 3D
Follow the tutorial below and design a house in less than five minutes using the free educational resource TinkerCAD:
https://www.tinkercad.com/
Everyone loves designing using magnets
What isn't always obvious is how many people put the hard work in behind the scenes to make this sort of thing happen
It always starts off with a sketch on the 'back of an envelope'
A pleasure to watch sketches turn into concepts turning into the real thing
So please pop in, bring your families and say 'hello'.

We're open every day 0930-1800 until September 9th.

I'll be volunteering next on Sunday 1st and Sunday 8th July if you want to be shown around.

- https://www.thenbs.com/great-exhibition-of-the-north

Friday 8 June 2018

NBS Create - Latest software enhancements

The May 2018 NBS Create software update has introduced a nice new feature that allows users to search the content of their project specification.

When a job is opened, the new search interface is positioned above the Contents panel.
New search feature
Searching for text within clauses

All products referencing 'BBA' certification
All mentions of prototypes being required.

NBS Create users can download this latest software update from the location below:
https://www.thenbs.com/support/nbs-create/downloads-and-updates/software-updates?utm_source=NBS_Create&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=software-update

As the specification content and library is delivered via web-services into the product, the content is always the latest. But please remember to update your software.

For non-NBS Create users, check out the three minute video below:
 

Thursday 7 June 2018

NBS - Now in Canada and Australia

Following the launch of NBS in Canada earlier this year, we followed this by launching in Australia at BiLT ANZ last month.

The first NBS offerings introduced into these territories are the NBS BIM Object Standard and the NBS National BIM Library.

Mike O'Brien our NBS Technical Manager in Brisbane led the presentations and exhibitions at the BiLT event. But for those not there, the NBS journey is articulated in four articles highlighted below:
  1. NBS in Australia - Introduction article from Richard Waterhouse
  2. It's all about the information - A focus on technical content from Mike O'Brien
  3. Coordinate and collaborate - A look at data connections and sharing from Jane Hibbert
  4. Emerging technologies - And some words from myself about tech in construction
NBS and the global journey
It was also nice being able to demonstrate some of the work we have already been doing in Australia with Transport for New South Wales. More on this story below:
https://www.thenbs.com.au/bilt/classification-and-transport-for-new-south-wales

Throughout the year we will be doing more overseas as our international journey - so watch this space.

To find out more about NBS in Canada or Australia, please see the links below:

Sunday 3 June 2018

Digital Transformation in Architecture

A quick blog post to mention that our NBS Research Team have been involved in another interesting industry report that is free to download. Working with the RIBA and Microsoft we have published the 'free to download' Digital Transformation in Architecture report.

Having blogged about the recent Contracts and Law and BIM report already in the last four weeks, it's great to be able to talk about even more output in this area.

This report is the output of in-depth interviews and also surveys that involved over 300 architects. It looks at how new digital technologies are allowing for productivity enhancement and also improved client services.

9 out of 10 of the industry agree that digital technologies are currently transforming the industry works. The industry is also of the opinion that BIM is now maturing and, in turn, is reducing costs and lowering risks on projects.

There are plenty of extracted opinions from the survey throughout the report. In addition, there are short opinion pieces from industry professionals such as Aaron Perry from AHMM and Dale Sinclair from Aecom.

The report ends by looking at future trends and the following chart is an interesting one:
Emerging technologies
The NBS research team conducts research across a wide range of topics and for many different clients:

For more information on services provided by the NBS Research team please contact us at:

To download the Microsoft and RIBA report: