NBS Digital/BIM Report 2021

The NBS Digital Construction Report is now in its second decade. It was published last week and is available at the interactive website below:
- https://www.theNBS.com/dcr2021

This blog post looks at some of the findings. But before looking at the finals, a quick note to thank a large number of industry leading organizations that help us distribute our surveys within the industry.

Partner organizations and our chosen charity

The first section of the report looks at BIM in general. The most fascinating areas of this analysis for me are always the questions looking beneath the headline of 'have you adopted BIM?'. A lot of the industry defines BIM in different ways, so specifically asking about use of EIRs, responsibility matrices, classification, following standards always gives a better picture.

Under the headline figures

The above chart shows that the principles within the 19650 series of standards are starting to be followed in terms of revision control, naming conventions, indication of suitability and classification. Looking just at the UK, use of Uniclass 2015 is now at 50% on 'BIM projects', but lower at 39% across the wider worldwide participants.

The second part of the survey looked more at technology.

Technology advances

The above chart shows that cloud computing is now dominant. Other findings in the report showed how much the COVID crisis had accelerated digital working and new 'work anyway' working practices. In terms of wider new construction technology - half of participants had been involved in a project using offsite techniques.

The rising star at the bottom end of the scale was Digital Twins. I consider this a little similar to 'BIM' as a bit of a catch-all phrase. Technology within a building around access control, intruder detection, CCTV, wifi hotspots has had an element of 'digital twin' for many years now. How much real time digital feedback do you need before you tick the 'digital twin' box? And will we get back into the 3D visual model debate again?

The final section of the report looks at the wider industry.

Where will you be working?

Only one in five participants expect to go back to 'normal' in the next five years. We're undoubtedly in a period of change.

Thanks to everyone that took part in the survey - over 900 - and thanks to the increasing number of participants from around the world that clearly are aware and appreciate the work NBS do in this area.

One third of participants are from outside of UK now

To find out more - check out the full report at:

- https://www.theNBS.com/dcr2021

To take part in our latest survey on sustainability and the construction industry - please do so below:

- Sustainability survey now open

Digital Construction Podcasts

If you have 30-45 minutes in your day where you like listening to podcasts then some recommendations below...

Firstly a plug for Nathan Hildebrandt's Digital Transition podcast series. Nathan's just kicked off his second series with a chat with myself looking at digital construction and specification around the world. Nathan has been instrumental in organizing BILT events around the world and his series of podcasts has brought together speakers from North America, Europe and Australia exploring digital construction.

To listen to my conversation with Nathan check out the link below:

- https://www.skewed.com.au/podcasts/modernising-archaic-processes-model-connected-specifications-dr-stephen-hamil#.YTHptI5KiUk

To check out the back catalogue that includes some great content see:

- https://www.skewed.com.au/podcasts

The second set of podcasts to point to are those put together by my colleague Paul Swaddle.

The speakers have been hand picked by Paul as he speaks to industry leaders about topics such as information management, education, business strategy, leadership and sustainability. Listen now to these NBS podcasts:

- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-construction-conversations/id1558425839 

Export to Keynote for NBS Chorus

Another feature was released in NBS Chorus this week, the ability to export a Keynote file from the specification.

The NBS recommended method of coordinating model and specification information is through our plug-ins for Revit, Archicad and Vectorworks. This allows to design and write specifications in the same workspace, to read the guidance and to 'clash check' the annotations.

However, through our forums, we recognise that not all customers are using versions of design tools that support plug-ins and they would like to simply export the information from the specification into a 'Keynote' style file so they can annotate items in their drawings.

The screenshots below show how this is now possible. Please click the screenshots below to see the images in more detail.

A project specification with different types of window (WNS-001, WNS-002...) 

Export the clause details to a Keynote text file

Annotate the drawings with the correct specification reference

To find out more about NBS Chorus see:

- https://www.thenbs.com/nbs-chorus

Opinions - New ways of working

As a part of the NBS Construction Leaders' Summit we did a number of Microsoft Teams sessions where we asked questions of the industry around specific topics.

Two of these videos looked at new ways of working like digital and using standardized assemblies. Watch them below...

1. How is 'going digital' helping you improve?

2. Can aspects of your designs be standardized?

NBS Plug-in for Revit - the parameters that are used

I've had two or three sessions with customers in recent weeks who want a deeper dive into exactly what parameters the NBS Plug-in uses to connect objects to specification clauses. This blog post summarises this. There is also a support article on our Chorus forums about this:
https://support.thenbs.com/support/solutions/articles/7000043835-parameters-inserted-into-objects-after-association

The screenshot below shows three instances of the same type of washbasin in Revit. The schedule shows the NBS parameters that are inserted into an object when linked to NBS Chorus. These will be inserted into any object - the object could be from National BIM Library or an object a practice has created or an 'out of the box' Revit object - it doesn't matter.

Click the screenshots below to see larger views.

A schedule showing the parameters that will be used

The screenshot below shows how an association can be made between the Revit object and the NBS Chorus clause...

Associate an object with the specification clause

Once the association is made, the parameter values are populated. It should be noted that the expectation is that the NBSChorusProjectId, NBSChorusSpecificationId and NBSChorusClauseId parameters are ignored and are just hidden in the background. But in this blogpost I've highlighted them to show the mechanics of how the associations are made and retained. The NBSChorusPrefix, Uniclass2015Code, Uniclass2015Title and NBSChorusSuffix parameters are expected to be used in schedules and annotations.

The parameters are populated

Again, not something that most users will want to know - but the URL of the specification location matches the GUIDs used in the Id parameters. These are highlighted in colour below and in the screenshot.

In this specific case:

URL=https://chorus.thenbs.com/org/ef335f70-956f-11e8-9420-5985807a4792/project/4eed4d80-cdb9-11ea-af47-1dfdb8ac8056/spec/f30feab0-259a-11eb-abbe-11959d020b9b/viewer/clause/8eef6922-13b8-4c10-9e9f-81537f981558

NBSChorusProjectId=4eed4d80-cdb9-11ea-af47-1dfdb8ac8056

NBSChorusSpecificationId=f30feab0-259a-11eb-abbe-11959d020b9b

NBSChorusClauseId=8eef6922-13b8-4c10-9e9f-81537f981558

The GUIDs can also be seen in the web URL

By maintaining these GUIDs it is possible to maintain the association even if the visible parameters used in scheduling/annotating change as shown below.

The visible parameters may be changed

When the visible parameters become out of sync - the plug-in allows the user to synchronise these once again.

The GUIDs retain the associations and flag any changed visible parameters

By keeping the information coordinated, the drawings and schedules exported from the model can be kept synchronised with information in the live specification.

The plug-in assists with re-synchronising the visible parameters

A few notes to finish on.

Note 1: The rules above apply to Revit system and component objects. For material objects a '_mtrl' suffix is added to the parameter names

Note 2: The above example is for Uniclass 2015 classifications. Similar parameters with slightly different names (for example CAWSCode...) are used for other classification sets such as CAWS or Omniclass.

NBS and Autodesk

Throughout this summer at NBS we have been doing a number of joint webinars with our partners.

This week, as part of the Building Magazine webinar series, we joint presented with Autodesk.

This full webinar is available on demand on the Building webinar portal, but as part of this blog post, I've simply embedded the video captures showing how Revit, Chorus and BIM360 all work together.

- https://events.assemblemediagroup.co.uk/webinars/

1. Collaboration

2. Automation

3. Structuring information

4. Tracking change

5. Interoperability

Find out more about NBS Chorus at:

- www.theNBS.com/Chorus

Podcast interview

Rob Charlton CEO of Space Group has been running a series of lockdown podcasts with people he thinks have interesting stories in the construction technology scene.

It was nice that he asked me in for a chat to help launch the series. Click below to listen to our conversation...

Listen at BIM Technologies Built By Data website

The discussion covers...

• A little on my background - what I studied, how I got into developing construction technology
  From Wallsend to Durham Uni to the Old Post Office
  
• A look back at the early days of the first software from NBS
  Working under Prof Steve Lockley in a start up uni spin out and delivering software to Richard Waterhouse at NBS
  
• A look back at the last ten years where BIM really took off in the UK and around the world
  From the government BIM mandate to presenting to audiences in Las Vegas, Melbourne and Doha
  
• What our vision is at NBS - where do we want to go?
  To create the best construction industry information platform - and take it global

With Rob also being a bit of a north east football fan, there is also a bit of reminiscing about Newcastle United and Kevin Keegan - but you can skip those bits ;)

Delighted to win the product of the year award for NBS Chorus at BIM Show Live 2020

Asking the questions - Rob Charlton, CEO of Space Group

- Listen to the podcast

NBS BIM Report 2020

The 10th Annual NBS BIM Report is now live and free to download:

- https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/national-bim-report-2020

Over 1,000 participants gave their views and the survey was distributed by many leading organizations in the UK construction industry

As always, the findings are of real interest. A couple of items of note below that I thought worth taking screenshots of.

Over 70% say they are aware of and using BIM on projects. But then we are always asked each year - but what does this mean? Around 2/3rds of these do define 'using BIM' as following the standards (and not just 3D modelling). We break this down further in the survey to look at which aspects of the standards are being followed (CDE usage, naming standards, classification etc...) - all interesting stuff.

Another question we are quite often asked is whether BIM is happening in the private sector or whether it is just a public Government mandate thing. The stats show that, if anything, it is slightly more common now on private sector projects. So it may have originally been Government-led - but it's reasonably well spread now.

In addition to the findings, the articles from external experts are again excellent. A couple of screenshots from these below...

So, hopefully this post makes you want to know more. Download it using the link below...

- https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/national-bim-report-2020

Short codes for similar system types

At NBS recently, we've been doing quite a few webinars. One of the most frequently asked questions has been about how practices are using codes to group similar types of systems together.

For example, if your project has 5 of 6 different floor covering systems, then giving each of these a code such as FCS001, FCS002, FCS003 etc... so these codes can be used in planning sheets, annotations, schedules etc...

Examples of this are shown below...

Planning the specification and drawings

Annotating drawings from a linked model and specification

So to get further feedback, I posted a request within our NBS Chorus ideas forum.
- https://support.thenbs.com/support/discussions/topics/7000040360
(to follow link you need NBS ID linked to Chorus subscription)

Chorus ideas forum

Request for contributions

It was great to then see some of our subscribers passing their codes to us to create a 'crowd sourced' Google Sheet. Thanks to Patrick C from AHMM for the list below...

Architectural codes

Lewis from Hydrock then pointed me in the direction of Carl from CIBSE who provided more...

Building services codes

It's an interesting subject. I personally really like the balance between Uniclass 2015 for the in-depth classification, but then an accompanying short code (a bit like a car registration plate) for packaging items and quickly verbally referring to a specific type.

Please keep the feedback coming in. Message me on Twitter or drop me an email into NBS.

NBS Chorus and model integration

Since the launch of NBS Chorus in 2019 one of the features that has received the most positive feedback is the model integration feature.

This blog post looks at seven reasons why those still using keynoting in their design software may want to consider transitioning to the NBS Chorus plug-in.

As of January 2020, this article applies to both Autodesk Revit and Graphisoft ArchiCAD modelling software.

Click on the images below for larger versions.

1. View the project specification from within the modelling software
Probably the biggest advantage of the plug-in is to see the actual clauses from the project specification from the context of the design.
Providing permissions are granted, the spec can be modified from the modelling software. Furthermore, new clauses can be added at the point when corresponding objects are added to the model.

View spec inline

2. View technical guidance from within the modelling software
The benefits of an NBS subscription go beyond the creation of a project specification. It also provides access to thousands of pages of maintained technical guidance and corresponding links to key industry publications. This is now synchronised with what is being clicked on in the model.

Access 1000s of pages of NBS technical guidance

3. View team notes from within the modelling software
The notes feature within NBS Chorus means that those working on the design and specification can share comments alongside the model and specification so that issues that arise can be efficiently resolved.

Capture decisions on projects against the spec

4. See which objects are associated and which ones are not
It is likely that hundreds if not thousands of items are annotated within a large model. A model report is available from the NBS plug-in which clearly shows which objects are Associated and which objects are not. It is also possible to jump to view the object and spec from this page.

View what is linked and what isn't

5. See which associations are broken and get assistance in fixing these
Over time, it is likely that some object associations will break. Clauses or objects may be removed. The type codes may change. In the example below, the type code is 'Type D' for a particular set of doors in the model, it is DRS-004 in the spec. The Chorus plug-in alerts the user to this and gives assistance in fixing this.

Fix any issues that arise as the project develops

6. Link to a single source of truth
When working with files on a file system (such as Keynote TXT file), there can be a problem knowing what the latest version is and whether multiple copies are in exisistence. By linking directly to the live specification in the cloud - designers can know that they always working off the correct, up-to-date information.

A single source of truth in the cloud

7. Many-to-many associations
It is not always the case that there is a one-to-one link between the specification and the model file. The Chorus plug-in allows one model to link to multiple specifications. Equally it allows multiple models to link to the same specification. This gives the project team the flexability to split model and specification the way they want to.

Split your models and specifications as you want to

For those wanting to use keynoting for projects that are in progress. Export to keynote format is not yet available within Chorus - as a manual workaround we would suggest.

Export the specification to MS Word and generate a table of contents that goes three headings deep...

Export to Word

Copy and paste this content to Excel and format the text to suit the keynote file format required.

Copy and paste to Excel

The feature request to generate a keynote export from NBS Chorus has been added to our feature request Support area. This will be considered alongside other requests - so NBS subscribers can comment in the support area. Additional features to the plug-in - or export functionality can be requested here.

NBS Chorus - Project case studies

NBS Chorus continues to be used more and more now on construction projects around the world. It's been really good this year to hear how it is being used and learn from the experience of the architects and engineers who have been the early-adopters.

We now have a nice case studies page on our website:
- theNBS.com/Case-Studies

In this blog post, I just wanted to highlight two of these below.

1. BDP - Large Multi-disciplinary practice
The BDP case study tells the story of mutli-disciplinary specification across the project team on a new build primary school project in Scotland.

Primary school

The case study is taken from the AU London class from myself and BDP's Alistair Kell. It looks at how specification and model can be developed in parallel from the Developed Design stage of a project through to Technical Design.

If you are interested in learning more about producing a fully coordinated set of design and specification information all classified to Uniclass 2015 then check out the story below:
- https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/producing-coordinated-project-information-in-a-digital-world

2. David Miller Architects - 10-20 SME architectural practice
The David Miller case story covers similar principles to the BDP story. However, it is nice to view the same approach from a small architectural practice that is delivering on complex projects by leveraging an innovative approach to technology.

Wall details from a housing project

Even in a smaller project team, the need for collaboration and coordination is most definitely there. The above screenshot shows complex wall details generated from a model that are coordinated with the specification information in the NBS Chorus cloud platform.
- https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/customer-success-story-david-miller-architects

Watch out for more case studies in 2020. We're hoping to soon have some good stories from practices using Macs/ArchiCAD and clients and contractors who are now seeing the benefit of collaborative cloud specification.

UK BIM Alliance - BS EN ISO 19650 Guidance - Part 2

Earlier in the year I blogged about the UK BIM Alliance's guidance document for the concepts behind the BS EN ISO 19650 standards.

I thought it probably a good thing to do a little post about the part two of this guidance series that was published a month or two ago. Again, this is a free download, and is available below:
- https://ukbimframework.org/standards-guidance/

19650 guidance - part 2

Whereas the first guide looked at the concepts, this second guide gives some really practical support with respect to the actual process of information management. Some screenshots below, from section 2 of the guide, to give a bit of an overview.

The workflow process as information is developed and approved/authorized 

An agreed naming convention for all information containers that are issued to the team

An agreed approach to revision codes for the information

The first section of a worked example showing how the suitability should be indicated using status codes

Finally, a shout out to the team who worked on this and put in lots of 'volunteer hours' to share knowledge and best practice around this...

Acknowledgements

Uniclass 2015 - Resources

At the weekend one or two people on Twitter asked if I could post some of the NBS videos demonstrating how to use Uniclass 2015 so they can use them when explaining classification to others.

So, here are some links to resources that some may find useful.

If you do download them and use them - then please credit NBS (theNBS.com/Uniclass) for use of the content and put a tweet out to help spread the word :)

Short video files showing the concepts:
These have been exported to WMV format so they should work fine when embedded in a Powerpoint. Download below:
- Google Drive Folder containing videos

01-Uniclass2015-IntroductionSequence.wmv

02-Uniclass2015-ClassifyingSpecifications.wmv

03-Uniclass2015-ClassifyingDrawings.wmv

04-Uniclass2015-ClassifyingData.wmv

Explainer article:
In addition to these videos, there is also a good 'What is Uniclass' explainer article from NBS Head of Classification Sarah Delany:
- https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/what-is-uniclass-2015

What is Uniclass 2015?

Download the tables:
...and of course there are the classification tables themselves. Download them for free or quickly query them using our online widget at:
- thenbs.com/uniclass

Download the tables and play with the widget