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.
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.
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.
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.
Hopefully see a few people there on Tuesday Nov 13 at 8am.
The class is completely full :), but in previous years they have let people queue and then take the place of those who don't show up.
Again, it's an honour to be co-presenting with Jim Quanci from Autodesk who has led out the Autodesk Developers Network for years and more recently the Autodesk Forge programme.
If anyone attending AU would like to catch up over a cup of coffee - please send me a tweet at @StephenHamilNBS.
The first part of this message is one that could pre-date the use of computers. The need for quality information - whether this is the template content-sets that a practice uses to write their technical information - or the final information that is issued out of the office.
Lots of great tips were given, I like the 'seven Cs' of specification writing in particular.
Master specification systems provide template content
The presentation then moved to look at the further benefits that a digital master specification system can bring over attempting to manage specifications using a tool such as Microsoft Word.
Digital master spec systems - use the right tool for the job
2. NBS Chorus illustrating good specification practice
At the BiLT NA event, we were launching NBS Chorus, our new cloud-based specification platform. I used the opportunity to demonstrate a number of advantages a modern digital system can bring to information assembly.
2.1 Specification creation
When creating a specification, the user is offered a selection of content-sets. In the example below, it can be seen that content-sets from the UK, Canada and Australia are presented to the user.
2.2 Specification editing
When editing a specification, the user experience has similarities between the content sets. The content can be quickly accessed from the right-hand pane. The specification is edited in the central pane and synchronised guidance is displayed to the right. The differences are with respect the classification and section structure. Uniclass 2015 is the format for UK and Australia and MasterFormat for Canada.
2.3 Specification within other key workflows
The following example demonstrates how NBS Chorus will integrate with other software applications within the BIM workflow. As Chorus is a web platform with an exposed API, it will be relatively easy to embed in other applications and websites to give an improved, more integrated, user experience.
2.4 Formatting well-structured data
The well-structured data within NBS Chorus is preserved when assembling a document for printing/exporting to PDF. In the following example, the navigation pane in the exported output demonstrates how this content can easily be reformatted to present in its most suitable format as tender/contract specification.
2.5 Collaborating in the cloud from any platform
Typically specifications have been written on a Windows desktop machine and then shared as Word or PDF or paper documents. The example below shows how two members of the same team can work collaboratively from different devices - in this example, using Google Chrome on a desktop PC and using Apple Safari on an iPhone.
Find out more...
Further information on NBS Chorus is now available on theNBS.com website. Content sets include specification libraries to Uniclass 2015 for use on projects to UK standards and MasterFormat for use on projects to Canadian standards. We also have a preview library for projects to Australian standards.
We have a number of different events coming up where you can come and hear about some exciting product developments from NBS.
Last week we published our Discover NBS web portal which will provide details on these plans:
- theNBS.com/Discover
Some dates for the diary - either to come and see us in person - or watch out for social media to keep in touch from a far:
BiLT NA - St Louis, USA - 9, 10 and 11th August 2018 Hear the keynote from our Chief Exec Richard Waterhouse. Classes also from myself on collaborative specification and standardized BIM objects. Register for a one-to-one meeting - or register for a class.
CanBIM - Toronto, Canada - 19th and 20th September 2018 Presentation on collaborative specification and smart cities. Also come to see us at our exhibition stand. More information here.
Discover NBS event - London, UK - 25th September 2018 A review of recent product developments, customer case-studies, networking and a look at the future of NBS. Sign up here.
Discover NBS event - Manchester, UK - 2nd October 2018 A review of recent product developments, customer case-studies, networking and a look at the future of NBS. Sign up here.
Discover NBS event - Newcastle, UK - 4th October 2018 A review of recent product developments, customer case-studies, networking and a look at the future of NBS. Sign up here.
Discover NBS event - Edinburgh, UK - 10th October 2018 A review of recent product developments, customer case-studies, networking and a look at the future of NBS. Sign up here.
We'll be publishing lots of accompanying web articles over the coming weeks to support the announcements at BILT NA - keep an eye out for them (and I'll highlight and supplement these on this blog). But some articles already live:
Read how we have been working with a group of customers that deliver projects around the world to understand customer needs around a online specification platform with global content:
At St Louis we will be giving an update on both our specification offering and how it will integrate with the BIM content in the model.
I cannot give too much away in this blog post - but we have some very exciting developments to show.
If you are attending BiLT NA, then please come and see us and also add the following sessions to your event calendar:
Thursday 9th August
9.50am - Keynote sponsor address
A chance to hear about what we do at NBS.
3.15pm - Session 1.4 Producing coordinated project information in a digital world
Specifying globally
A presentation from myself and Dave Watson from Digicon Canada. We'll look at information structures for specification and objects. As this is a tech event - it won't be 'death by Powerpoint' - live demonstrations will be given throughout of our Canadian content within an NBS specification tool, collaboration over the cloud and integration between specification and model.
Friday 10th August
1.30pm - Session 2.3 Creating BIM Objects to International Standards
At NBS we have created objects for over 300 different organisations across the UK, Australia and Canada. These objects have ranged from ceilings to boilers to external furniture - and all objects are to the same content standard.
Again, it'll be me doing the presentation - we'll be steering clear of Powerpoint - and looking at some live demonstrations of how we create BIM objects and how we ensure that these objects are to a quality standard.
Creating quality BIM objects
3.00pm - Session 2.4 BCS Roundtable - The Construction industry needs to standardize its processes and data structures and enable value through the use of digital technologies
We'll be chairing this and will look forward to what delegates opinions are on this topic.
Throughout the event we will also have an exhibition stand and access to a room for one-to-one meetings.
We're really looking forward to meeting lots of people interested in BIM and specifications. If you'd like to chat with us - feel free to reach out to any of the NBS team who will be attending through Twitter or by email:
@StephenHamilNBS - Stephen Hamil, Director of Research and Innovation at NBS
@DigiconCA - Dave Watson, President at Digicon Information Inc
@JoanneNBS - Jo Pringle, Director of Global Product Management
