Photos of the new Kings Cross development

Arriving in London today it was great to see the work they have done to Kings Cross station. No longer dark and dingey and horrible - but with the sunlight and blue sky coming through the roof and the new concourse off the side it was really nice.

A good way to welcome us northerners!

Pictures below...

Blue sky ahead

No pigeon shit in sight! 

Beautiful new roof structure

The old and the new come together (and Eric Pickles in the foreground)

Monty Python-esque signs to help the public on their way

Random Big Ben picture with low sun lighting it up

And getting dark by the time I get to Canary Wharf

All the best to everyone presenting at ecobuild. Looking forward to a great three days!

NBS BRAD iPhone App in iTunes noteworthy category

Great to see the NBS BRAD iPhone app in the Noteworthy area of the iTunes Business Apps area :)

The iPhone app is perfect for those who need to access the UK Building Regulations when away from their desk. The screenshot below shows how it is possible to pick a particular subject (say Glazing) and then view all relevant Approved Document content in a single page...

In addition, all of the Approved Documents can be downloaded. Items that are of use regularly can be favourited for quick retrieval.

Hopefully this useful little tool will be seen as a "must-have" item for all UK construction professionals with an iPhone that are out and about. Download from the link below:

http://itunes.apple.com/mt/app/nbs-brad/id437446576?mt=8 

Visit the RIBA Village 10.30am on Wednesday to listen to NBS Content Development Manager and Head of Sustainability John Gelder launch the app. Say hello to NBS at stands S1630 and S1640.

BIM at ecobuild

A repost from the linkedin National BIM Library group...

At ecobuild next week we'll be launching National BIM Library. Thanks to everyone in this group for their support in helping us get there. Please come and say hello at our RIBA Village stand S1630/S1640.

There is plenty more for those interested in BIM over-and-above the National BIM Library launch. Some BIM highlights from our programme below...
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/Environment/articles/biteSized.asp

Tuesday 20th March
10.50 - Presentation of BIM Research (myself) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
11.10 - BIM Operational Assets (Ed Bartlett KyKloud) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640

Wednesday 21st March
10.30 - The Government's BIM roadmap (myself) - North Gallery 8/9
10.50 - BIM - Your Next Steps (Martyn Horne Vectorworks) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
11.10 - OpenBIM (Alan Baikie Graphisoft) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
11.50 - iCIM Project (Steve Lockley and Richard Watson) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
14.30 - BIM - Small Practices have it easy (David Miller) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
15.10 - BIM (Nick Nisbet) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
15.15 - BIM and Interoperability (myself) - North Gallery 8/9

Thursday 22nd March
10.30 - Managing BIM in construction project workflow (Neville Glanville Bentley) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
11.10 - BIM for Resource Efficiency (Jon D'Souza, Constructing Excellence) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640
11.30 - National BIM Library (myself) - RIBA Village S1630/S1640

Update...


It's been a busy couple of weeks putting all of this together, but looking through the presentations today, one that you really want to put in your diaries is the iCIM Project 11.50 on the Wednesday.

I first blogged about this over a year ago http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2010/07/carbon-assessment-tool-project-icat.html it is a TSB research project looking at cost (carbon/financial) assessments using interoperable BIM.

With a team including AEC3, RIBA Enterprises, BIM Academy, Faithful and Gould, BSRIA BCIS and Autodesk - the outcome of this research is pretty special. All using National BIM Library components, IFC and demonstrating the "I" in BIM.

Professor Steve Lockley, Richard Watson and John Gelder are presenting.

Do you PechaKucha? RIBA Village - ecobuild

PechaKucha (chit-chat in Japanese) 20x20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.

You can present your own PechaKucha at the RIBA Village ecobuild auditorium. There are still a few places left. The submission period is now open until Friday 9th March.

If you are interested please see our website below.
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/environment/articles/pechaKucha.asp

This offer is open to both NBS and RIBA Insight customers.

Digital versus hard copy

In my R&D role I naturally fly the flag of digital over hard copy. I've passionately argued the benefits for a number of years.

But I do really like the following RS Catalogue vs Web viral marketing campaign below from RS Components.

For a company like RIBA Enterprises that does digital and hard copy RIBA Product Selector and digital and hard copy NBS it's quite relevant. It nicely shows that not all users have the same requirements.

Enjoy...

RIBA Village - ecobuild

If you are attending ecobuild (20th-22nd March), then don't miss out on the joint RIBA Enterprises/RIBA stands - S1630 and 1640. We'll be presenting many of the latest RIBA Enterprises products and services, there will be speakers from the RIBA and also speakers from key industry figures.

From RIBA Enterprises:The launch of RIBACPD.com with Ben Councell

• The launch of Construction Information Service 4.0 with John Henderson
• Presentation of the National BIM Report 2012 with myself
• The launch of the new Building Regulations iPhone app with John Gelder
• Presentation of our iCIM TSB research project with Richard Watson
• The launch of NBS Create with Ian Chapman
• The launch of the NationalBIMLibrary.com with myself

From RIBA:

RIBA is one of the Lead Supporters of ecobuild, and joining the RIBA Village stand will be:.

• RIBA President Angela Brady will lead a discussion on procurement. She will also answer members' questions at the stand.
• RIBA Chief Executive Harry Rich will be joined on experts on localism.
• RIBA Publishing book presentations Guide to BREAAM, London 2012 Sustainable Design, Biodiversity for low and zero carbon buildings and Environmental Design Pocketbook.

Collaborators:

• The DCLG on Building Regs changes
• A number of presentations on BIM from BIM Academy, KyKloud, Graphisoft, Vectorworks, buildingSMART, David Miller Architects and Bentley.
• CIRIA will be presenting biodiversity
• Social Media and Construction from pwcom.co.uk
• BSRIA will be presenting Soft Landings
• BSI will be presenting Sustainable Construction
• PechaKucha sessions from many RIBA Enterprises customers - submissions before 2nd March.

So a fantastic set of presentations spread over the three days, for more information see:

• RIBA Village official page on ecobuild.co.uk
• Our page on theNBS.com

Special values in a specification

I received the following email recently from a user of NBS...

Stephen,
I have been writing a schedule and was wondering if it is possible to have drop down boxes automatically filled with the text from a previous box?  For example, “Drawing Reference” – I am often referring to the same drawing and it is a pain to have to write it out again and again.  Likewise “To Architect’s approval”, which I often add into “Product Reference” if I have selected “Contractor’s Choice” under the manufacturer’s name.
Is this something that could be considered?
Regards,


This is actually something that has been implemented in NBS Create.

Where a decision is to be left to the contractor or where the contractor must submit proposals for architect's approval, special values may be selected from the drop down options. The screenshot below demonstrates this:

This gives consitency of message and is obviously a time saver (rather than typing "Contractor's choice" again and again). Furthermore, it is possible to report against these values. This can be done at any time when writing the specification (as shown below) - or in a PDF report that may be generated or printed.

The second request in the customer email is to be able to reference drawings and documents external to the specification a little more easily. Again, with NBS Create, this is now possible.

Firstly the set of drawings needs to be defined against a job in NBS Create. This shown below:

Once the drawings are defined then they can be linked from any clause insert. This shown below. As with the contractor decisions, these references can then be reported on and published.

We'd intend to continue to improve the functionality here when it comes to coordinating construction documentation. The natural next step with respect to the links between drawings and specification is clearly doing this at an object level in a structured Building Information Model (BIM). This would allow this link to be done once and then reported in the drawings automatically through the CAD BIM software, and referenced in the specification to the relevant plan/section in the specification software.

Final thoughts on RICS BIM Conference

Some quick thoughts and quotes from the RICS BIM Conference today.

Paul Morrell:

• In terms of the cost and carbon situation:
  "BIM may be the paddle that gets us out of shit creek"
• When asked to deal with cost and carbon at the same time:
  "If you cannot ride two horses at once, what are you doing in the circus?"
• Why we need collaboration and not an adversarial culture in the construction industry:
  "I could have retired at 27 if I could have the time back that was spent arguing"
• Looking at how businesses need to adapt:
  "Not one manufacturer of radio valves now makes micro chips"

Mark Bew:

• On Level-2 BIM:
  "We move from just 3D geometry to 3D geometry AND the information behind it"
  "In terms of contract currency, 2D information generated from the models is fine for Level-2."
  "Nobody is doing Level-3. Level-2.9 is best I've seen"
• Looking at plans of work:
  "Plans of work need to define outputs. The data drops. What data does the client get and when?"
• And in terms of bringing the majority of the industry up to Level-2 BIM:
  "The good news is that we set ourselves 5 years. The bad news is that we have already used 1 year up."

Simon Rawlinson:

Forget the Bew-Richards Maturity Model, check out what may just be named the Rawlinson-Coffee-Cup-Diagram. From Level-0 2D cup with no info all of the way to Level-3 cup complete with multi-colour post-its :)

A nice SWOT analysis too - I'll try and grab the slide.

National BIM Report 2012:

I presented the findings from the National BIM Report. Some nice tweets afterwards too - I hope people are finding it a decent document.

Also, great to have the likes of Simon Rawlinson, Brenden Patchell and Bryan Arscott all commenting very favourably about the National BIM Library project.

Chris Millard:

Some real fantastic things from Balfour Beatty here. The iPad augmented reality live demo. Also the photographs of the project team all gathered around a huge screen showing the BIM in the Balfour Beatty "BIM Cave".

Watching a model develop in parallel to the actual construction so that progress can be modelled and an as-built set of information be developed was great.

Brian Arscott:

Brian from John Lewis Partnership showed their ambition as an intelligent client with a "can do" attitude. "The big question is, when can we model our entire estate?"

Nice slide about how BIM is about reducing risk...