Viewing the NBS specification

Recently I’ve made a number of trips to see practices around the country (Glasgow, London. Sheffield, Aldershot, Brighton, Gosforth…) promoting the latest improvements to the NBS software.

Of all the enhancements, the item that has probably received the best feedback is the free NBS Viewer. The NBS Viewer is installed with all NBS software as part of the NBS Tools or can be downloaded for free from www.theNBS.com/NBSTools

The main primary benefit is in allowing practices with a number of construction professionals to be able to view and publish NBS specifications without having to use up valuable licence seats. Those in the office who have a need to modify specification can do so without the frustration of finding out that there are no licences available. In addition, people in the office who have never have had NBS software on their machine can install this lightweight viewer and see specifications-in-progress without the need to export to PDF or Word.

It should be noted that the Viewer and the other NBS Tools can be downloaded for free by other members of your project team who want to view NBS specifications.

The screenshot below shows the NBS Viewer.

Upcoming maintenance releases of NBS software

Following some major releases of many of the NBS software products earlier in the year, we have been addressing some smaller items of work over recent months. The following will be released in July/August 2010...

NBS Building, Engineering and Landscape

• Security issues in Guidance
  
  The technology we use for the NBS Guidance is Microsoft CHM files. Recently Microsoft have been tightening up security for CHM file use on networks and this has been causing a number of problems for NBS customers. This will be resolved by creating a cache of these libraries locally on users’ machines. 
• Alignment tweak in the published output
  
  There is a 2 or 3 pixel alignment problem where a clause follows a sub heading. This will be fixed.

NBS Scheduler (view more detailed blog post)

• Export dialog
  
  Enhancements to the export functionality to allow export to Autodesk and Microstation keynote format 
• Prelims tweaks
  
  Improvements to Prelims addressing issues where user clauses were not printing correctly 
• Document completeness
  
  At the point of publish, an indication to the document completeness is given. 
• Spell checker in prelims
  
  The addition of a spell checker in prelims 
• PDF merge
  
  The ability to merge PDF documents to create a single document

NBS Contract Administrator

• Instruction forms
  Additional spaces and clipped text on Instruction forms and improved performance on open 
• Database upgrade for D&B contractsIssue fixed if Employer or Employers Agent were already in DB. 
• Practical completion
  Rectification date chanes or all JCT 2005 contracts 
• Cost Tracking module
  The inclusion of the NBS Tools module and in particular the Cost Tracking that allows tender comparisons, valuations to be summarised and these costs to be tracked. 

NBS Perspective

• Improved email filing
  Flexibility on how email attachments are filed
• Ability to set home page to Intranet site
  When Perspective starts up – the ability to choose any web URL to start at
• Ability to add domains to whitelist
  Whole domains (eg thenbs.com) can be added to the white list

NBS Tools

• Updating of annotation fileBug fixed where annotation data cache file did not update immediately following the modification of a specification.

NBS Plus

Each month the manufacturers information within the NBS specification products continues to grow. I did a post a few months back on the huge amount of technical guidance within NBS, this post focuses on the manufacturers information "NBS Plus".

The main purpose of NBS Plus is to provide manufacturers product specifications against generic NBS clauses. However it is also useful simply as a resource of browseable product information.

There are around 550 manufacturers in NBS Plus with tens of thousands of product specifications.

Fig 1 - 25 new manufacturers have joined NBS Plus in last four months

Fig 2 - A list of manufacturers is displayed

Fig 3 - Overview of manufacturer

Fig 4 - Manufacturer literature and product specifications

Fig 5 - The key purpose of NBS Plus - robust, concise product specs when you need them.

Annotating ArchiCAD models from NBS

Earlier this year I posted about how the NBS Annotator had been developed to be embedded in other software applications.

Over the last few months Graphisoft UK have been developing a plug-in that makes it possible for the NBS Annotator to work from inside of ArchiCAD.

Graphisoft have prepared a short video demonstrating this plug-in working that is displayed below:
(0.00 Introduction and benefits, 2.00 Overview of NBS Building, 5.50 Annotating the ArchiCAD BIM model)

I also include some screenshots from the movie below.
(This plug-in is not released yet - but stay tuned to this blog for further information.)

Accessing the Annotator directly from the ArchiCAD menu

Prior to issue, updating the annotations where they have been modified in the spec

From the Archives - Annotation Manager 1996

With the recent release of the Annotator as part of the NBS Tools it is worth looking back a few years in time.

In 1996, Annotaion Manager from NBS was a plug in for AutoCAD AEC5. NBS provided this and released a library of annotations to accompany each library update of the NBS work sections.

A few screenshots below show this in further detail...

Fig 01 - Spec Man 3

Fig 02 - Picking an annotation from the NBS library

Fig 03 - AutoCAD

Fig 04 - Viewing the guidance and linking to CIS

To go further back in time to 1973 see my earlier blog post. Check out the diagram showing the specification, the drawings and the bill of quants.

Join the NBS Beta Test Programme

Before NBS software is released to users it is given to our Beta Testers.

For example, the NBS Scheduler 2010-2 release scheduled for August this year is currently being tested by our group of NBS Scheduler Beta Testers. This gives those that participate a chance to support NBS in producing products of the highest standard and also gives a direct line through to the Research and Development Team to influence the direction in which the products are developed.

Recent developments such as the improvements to the publishing in NBS Building, the Annotator and the Cost Tracking tool have all benefited enormously from the early feedback we have received on proposed designs and beta software releases.

If you would like to get involved with the development of our product range by testing beta versions, commenting and giving suggestions on new product designs and prototypes then please contact Seth Okai, the NBS Beta Test Programme Co-ordinator, on 0191 244 5597 or seth.okai@thenbs.com.

NBS Scheduler – 2010 software enhancements

NBS Scheduler is being sent to our Beta Testers this week and the 2010 version has a number of improvements based on customer feedback.

For more information on how to become an NBS Beta Tester for any of our products please see:
http://www.thenbs.com/support/betaTesting/

Enhancements to NBS Scheduler that will be delivered to all customers in August 2010 include:

1. Better integration with CAD packages
As with NBS Building, NBS Scheduler now comes with the NBS Annotator application. It is also possible to export to keynote format directly from NBS Scheduler as shown in figure 1 below.

Figure 1

2. Improved formatting of the published output for contract preliminaries
One or two customers reported glitches in the contract preliminaries for NBS Scheduler where words did not wrap correctly and in certain situations the status of clauses where not being respected. These issues are being addressed and figure 2 shows better wrapping of the text.

Figure 2

3. An indication of document completeness when publishing
NBS Building is known for its ability to act as a checklist and for the QA measures that warn you if the specification is not yet complete when you publish.

NBS Scheduler now also has the option for the user to be alerted if there are any suspected work items or clauses that are incomplete.

Figure 3

4. The ability to merge PDF documents into a single PDF
The ability to merge PDF documents into a single PDF has been added. This allows you to merge a custom cover page created in MS Word with your prelims, your schedule of work and any appendices such as door schedules into one single PDF.

Figure 4

5. The addition of a spell checker to the prelims module
The spell checking functionality from the schedule of works editor has now been extended to work for the prelims too.

Figure 5

Journal Article - NBS Specification Software Enhancements

A copy of the article I have written for the up and coming NBS Journal is below.

The NBS Journal contains specially-written articles on specification, and is available twice a year. The current edition and all previous NBS Journals are available to all as PDFs from the NBS website.
http://www.thenbs.com/resources/journals/

NBS Building, Landscape and Engineering Services Software Improvements

The recent 2010-1 update of NBS Building, Landscape and Engineering Services includes a number of significant software enhancements, following over a year of development work. Head of NBS Software Development, Dr Stephen Hamil, presents these in this article.

1. Integration between the specification and CAD

At NBS, one of our main priorities is to develop our existing products in-line with our customers’ needs. To prioritise these enhancements to the software we have a number of customer focus groups and we also have a yearly customer satisfaction survey.

One of the most requested features has been to make it easier to annotate a CAD model from clauses in a project specification. The Annotator application is now installed with your NBS software as part of the NBS Tools suite of the software. This application allows you to quickly access the clause number and title from your project specifications when making annotations in your CAD model.

The Annotator application works through copy and paste; this means it will sit alongside any CAD software such as ArchiCAD, Microstation or AutoCAD. Subject to having a valid NBS licence, you can access NBS technical guidance using the Annotator. This allows you to browse the general guidance in work sections at early design stage to benefit from this comprehensive and trusted NBS information.

Figure 1- Using the Annotator from NBS

In addition to the Annotator, it is now possible from within the NBS software to export to keynote format. This allows you to work with project specification keynote references within AutoCAD, Revit or Microstation. Using this method of working, within CAD you can annotate an element type once and then quickly access this same annotation from all of the matching element types within your model.

This work is very much seen as a first step towards further CAD integration and we are currently researching and prototyping methods to take this integration further.

2. Publishing enhancements

A number of enhancements have been made to the publishing engine. The way the headers and footers are generated has had a complete overhaul. It is now possible to have mixed styles, a separator line and for the text to grow to fill the available space. This is demonstrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 – Improved headers and footers

Another key improvement to the published document is the ability to clearly indicate how clauses have been revised when re-issuing a specification or a work section. The screenshot below shows two clauses that have been revised, one has been removed and one has been added as new. This helps communicate any changes made to the specification clearly to the other members of the project team. Figure 3 below shows an extract from the re-issued specification.

Figure 3 – Revisions to the specification

3. A new search facility

It is now possible to search NBS libraries, project documents and office standards from within the software. Initially, this is useful when you are creating a specification and do not know exactly where to find the content in the NBS libraries. For example, how many customers know where to find fascias and soffits (G20) or underslab insulation (E20)? This search facility allows you to preview the clause and view the guidance prior to adding the work section to your specification. This search facility can be launched through clicking on the search button on the main toolbar.

In addition to searching for content in NBS you can also search for content in your project specifications and contract preliminaries. Once you have found the clause that you have searched for, double click on it to open for editing in the main software window.

Figure 4 demonstrates the user searching a project specification for a particular manufacturer. It can be seen that all of the product clauses in which this manufacturer is specified are returned and can be quickly previewed. 

Figure 4 – New search facility

 4. Financial summary

For smaller projects without a bill of quantities, it is now possible to publish a financial summary at the back of your specification for the contractors to price. Rather than the contractors providing a lump sum cost based on the specification and drawings, the project can be broken down to allow improved analysis of the tender costs and a clearer demonstration to the client of how money will be spent.

Like the Annotator application, the Cost Tracking application is installed as part of the NBS Tools suite of the software. This application also enables the creation of a spreadsheet to allow costs to be tracked through the construction phase of the project.

Figure 5 displays a tender analysis report generated within the Cost Tracking application. Contractor prices are arranged from lowest to highest against a pre-tender estimate. The variations in costs for each priceable item are clearly shown.

Figure 5 – Tender analysis within the Cost Tracking application

5. Further integration with CIS and Building Regulations

The final major enhancement to the NBS software is the facility to seamlessly link with The Construction Information Service and NBS Building Regulations. If you are a subscriber to these services, you can enter your user name and password once and then immediately click through from the NBS guidance to the relevant technical information.

Figure 6 - External links within the NBS Guidance

Figure 7 - Seamless links through to The Construction Information Service

Larger practices can securely enter a company username and password to these services in their NBS office settings file. All users of the NBS software in the office can then immediately click through and download documents such as British Standards, BRE publications and Building Regulations without the need to log on individually each time.

6. Further information

• Video showing these improvements at: http://www.thenbs.com/update
• Free NBS Tools download: http://www.thenbs.com/nbstools