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

CPA and NBS - Product Information Report

This week saw the publication of the CPA and NBS Product Information Report. The report was, in part, a look at the challenges set out in Chapter 7 of the Hackett Report, which relate to communicating construction product information in a clear and unambiguous way.

CPA and NBS report

In terms of what information 'users' of construction product information require, there were some clear requirements:

• Technical product information to complete the specification
• Third party certification
• Suitability information - in particular if the product forms part of a system
• Currency/availability information
• Supporting guidance

It was also very clear that users want information digitally. The only significant requirement for 'physical' information was product samples and delivery of in-person CPD. This is a huge change in a decade where printed literature was once common place.

There was also a difference in understanding between what users wanted and what providers thought they wanted.

Focus more on:

• Making product information more accessible from search engines
• Making product information more accessible from online product directories

Focus less on:

• Brochures
• Sales reps
• Trade shows
• Promotion through social media

Clearly, the provision of well-structured, comprehensive and accurate product information is an area the industry must improve on.

However, the report also highlighted industry bad-practice around product substitution. This was found too often to be (a) badly documented and (b) not following approval mechanisms.

Certainly a few things to think about. Some screenshots from the key findings below...

The key information required from provider and user perspectives

Do product substitutions follow an agreed process and get documented

Are product substitutions always approved

How can accurate manufacturer product information be insisted on

Download the report for free below:
- https://www.constructionproducts.org.uk/news-media-events/news/2019/november/construction-industry-takes-first-steps-at-improving-product-information/

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

Construction Project Information - Old School

I got handed some old project documentation today that was used to help inform the development of the very first National Building Specification in 1973.

This is from 1971 and I assume the original authors of the NBS took lots of 'best practice' examples to look through (such as that below) to standardize a national template structure.

Click on the photographs for a larger version...

Hand written specification from 1971

Think about the physical item, draw it, add the spec code, write the spec, work out the quantities - simple

CI/SfB codes - still used by many for work packages/drawing numbering to this day

Good old BS 1186

As everyone knows, BS 1186 was updated in 1971 and then again in 1990

It's 1971 and we need to invent a product that will bridge the communication gap between designer and contractor

Who needs Revit/ArchiCAD to generate schedules - it was so much more fun in 1971!

...and along came NBS in 1973.

Anyone else with nostaligic items from the past - feel free to send photographs through :)

Twenty years

In the first week of September in 1999 I took my first job after leaving university to work on software products. These software products were for a company called NBS. We were taking paper based workflows and digitising them.

Twenty years later - I am still very much working on defining the next generation of software products for NBS.

Back in 1999 it was a small research centre (Construction Informatics Research Centre) that was connected to Newcastle University. In September 2002 this research centre moved into the NBS business to become the R+D department.

The old CIRC building on Claremont Road

Of the team that moved down, Andrew B, Emma H, John M, Mark W and myself are all still with NBS. AT NBS, we also still work with Richard Watson and Kay Rogage (Northumbria University) and Steve Lockley (co-founder of BIM Academy) on projects and they are very much part of the North East BIM Community.

The newly formed NBS R+D team

Richard Waterhouse who led the digital developments for NBS back in 1999 and who brought us down in 2002 is now CEO of NBS and my boss. Helen Whitfield was part of the finance team back in 1999 and is now an Exec Director at NBS. It's been fantastic to have some great continuity over the years,

Since 1999 I have worked on pretty much all of the NBS software products - from NBS Specification Manager to NBS Plus to NBS Create to NBS National BIM Library to NBS Chorus. But the first development I worked on was called NBS Office - it never got fully released, but a part of that project was NBS Scheduler which did - and I've dug out some screenshots from an early beta release I worked on the code on.

The branding changed slightly prior to the first release - so these screenshots from the 2000 beta have never been seen before :)

NBS Office - for all of the needs of an architectural office

A new innovative method of browsing specification content from standard drawings

Using new web technologies to offer users drop down suggested values when specifying

As a twenty something starting off as a software developer it was a great time with new technologies coming out each year and the internet really starting to take off. I'd say the first ten years were about changing our information delivery products to be web based, the second ten years have been about integrating work flows and then moving information production products to be web based and collaboration. Let's see what the next twenty years bring.

Some highlights of the twenty years have included:

• Launching the new improved NBS Plus from the top of the Gherkin
• Winning awards for how our products fit into the BIM workflow
• Getting our cloud developments featured on the main stage in front of 10,000 at AU Las Vegas

...and a web cam picture from 1999 of three of the developers who worked on the code
(and had the occassional game of 5aside/ beer/ night out)

The team back in 2004 working on Building, Scheduler and NBS Plus

So - that is 1999-2019 in a blink of an eye. Let's hope there are many more interesting products to work on over the upcoming years!

Connecting specifiers and construction manufacturers

At NBS we have been refreshing our messaging around our offerings lately.

I particularly like the new videos...

If you are a specifier
Find out about intelligent construction specification, in the cloud at:
- theNBS.com/Chorus

If you are a construction product manufacturer
Find out how you can get the exposure no other marketing channel can match at:
- theNBS.com/Manufacturers

NBS use on a real life projects

A few weeks ago I did my fourth Autodesk University class. This one was in London and I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Alistair Kell from BDP.

It's always good to co-present with someone who can give real-life project example. It adds a bit extra over and above the theory of how it should work. The two examples in question where both BDP projects in Scotland - one a huge railway station project and another a smaller new build primary school project. It was interesting to see the commonality between the two projects with respect to digital structure and process.

To watch the full presentation on the AU website click the first link below.

To watch a few 60 second snippets and read a bit of an overview, click the second link to go to the NBS website.

Watch the full class at the AU website

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Producing-Coordinated-Project-Information-Digital-World-2019

If you are short on time - catch a summary on the NBS website

https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/producing-coordinated-project-information-in-a-digital-world