Wednesday, 10 July 2013

thinkBIM Conference – Operation and Maintenance

Today I chaired the thinkBIM half-day conference looking into BIM with respect to operation and maintenance. The blog post below is a little rough and ready - but just wanted to get it out this evening as I'm out and about for the rest of the week.
thinkBIM at WSP Leeds HQ
The WSP 10 truths about BIM publication
The keynote speakers were Deborah Rowland from UK Cabinet office who spoke from a Government point of view and also Reid Cunningham from BAM FM who gave an angle from the private sector.
Key points from Deborah included…

What a “hard landing” and a “soft landing” looks like

  • GSL (Government Soft Landings) champion for Olympic Veldrome – Sir Chris Hoy. To make sure those that use the building are involved in the design.
  • GSL is mandated along with BIM for 2016
  • Maybe only 20% technology, 80% people and process.
  • Essential, desirable and useful – vital statistics about the use of the building
  • BIM Task Group website – all documentation on GSL at
    http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/gsl/
  • BIM + GSL = The best outcome – need them both together
  • Please take part in the survey:
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GSL_GCS_Survey

Super PAM prioritising soft landing requirements
Reid then presented from a private sector practitioner…

  • During a traditional project – the data does not flow through the timeline – from construction to FM and then survey after re-survey during a building’s use. Through BIM we can have a much smoother data transfer.
  • Myth 1 – BIM is only for new facilities – at point of refurb/alteration the building can be surveyed and brought into 3D information environment.
  • Myth 2 – COBie will solve all problems – however the data is out of date as soon as the data is created – and the software is not yet there to pull it into FM systems. But COBie as a principle is a very good principle.
  • Myth 3 – design team can provide all COBie data – however, the sub-contractors on D+B jobs many times specify the product as installed and are in charge of the final COBie data
  • Myth 4 – job is finished at handover “the BIM cliff” – no, the information must be kept up to date and this can ultimately replace O+M manuals
  • Design model to be updated through construction process – then transfer to CAFM system and be kept up to date – this is the dream.
  • Myth 5 – BIM is an IT project – The majority of BIM is in the people and process side and the IT enables us to do this better.
  • “Project Robin” – a BAM project across design, construct and FM. They went from Revit to XML to FM system.
  • Geometrics not necessarily critical to FM – we know where the window is – what about the information.
  • FM information should be accessible on portable devices when standing next to the physical asset in the building.

Design, construction and FM from BAM
Following the keynote addresses the delegates split across five roundtables. These discussion break-outs looked at:

  1. Government Soft Landings with Deborah
  2. BIM for FM with Reid’s colleague from BAM Steve Wheller
  3. BIM for Asset Management with the Amtech Group’s Gary Ross
  4. BIM Legal with Philip Morrison from Shumans
  5. "BIM future gazing" with Martin Brown from Fairsnape

The first session I attended was the BIM for Asset Management session with Gary Ross from Amtech.

  • Imagine the drops as footballs – the data gets lost at every stage – visually how this should be is the football getting bigger then passed back to the start.
  • Two challenges – getting humans involved with expertise early on and also agreeing the rules on data structures.
  • What is important to FM? The design as a whole maybe not so much, but the specification linked with location data and quantities and expected life.
  • The only way to transfer data from what software to another is through agreed open data schemas. This is the only way to transfer data now and to build importers so the tools of the future can read the legacy data.
  • Does the industry have the skills? Will they naturally adapt? Compare a PA from the 1950s using typewriter and post letters compared with one of today using MS Office for meetings, tasks and mail merge. User friendly software is essential and well-structured information.
  • Using FM data from in-use to find out what products work best and feed that information back into future jobs.
NBS Sarah to the left has the gentlemen furiously making notes during the round table session
The second session was a focus group that Paul Wilkinson and Martin Brown were running about new BIM technology ideas.

  • Next generation of BIM thinking
  • Drew Wiggett from NBS, Richard Vertigan 4projects, Kevin Lloyd Balfour Beatty contractor side, Chris Witte Knauf Insulation from manufacturer side
  • The benefits to open well-documented data – allowing smaller players in the global industry to innovate and really work with the data – present at the conference that may fall into this category include kykloud, NBS, 4projects…
  • What about big data? Not yet in the construction industry.
  • How is performance verified? If a manufacturer claims a certain performance in a BIM object… then who verifies this?
  • The biggest challenge is the state of the construction industry – client wanting drawings for planning at lowest fee, then these drawings being used for tender – then being novated to contractor and watching the costs getting squeezed and squeezed and arguments throughout.
  • Has the technology level now gone above everyone’s head? The old guys know their construction stuff, the young ones can produce amazing 3d models – but we cannot afford to have a huge amount of staff on a project.
  • Can information be shared over the cloud between practices?
  • National BIM Library concept is that well-structured information can be made available for free for all of the industry – so that each individual practice does not to have to invest in content creation, protocol development and chasing manufacturers for information. If this is done centrally, a huge amount of money and time can be saved across the industry.
  • Where money is to be made – this is where innovation will happen the fastest. Example quoted was the ability for Facebook to maximise advertising click-throughs through the algorithms around big-data on the cloud.
  • “Open Buildings” and BREEAM project. OpenBuildings.com

The conference being beamed out for free over t'Interweb

Conference appreciation tweets coming from Mexico from BIM Girl
Following the roundtables the next speaker was Carol Hagen from Hagen Business Systems. Carol gave a US perspective on barriers and innovations related to construction digital and web-based applications related to BIM.
 https://twitter.com/carolhagen

Carol discussed…

  • Augmented reality – taking daily site photos and having software that overlays this progress against the BIM used for planning.
  • When are visuals too visual?  - If all you need is the paint spec, do you need it modelled. You want the information you need and not having obstacles put in your way.
  • Interestingly Carol then introduced the BlueBeam product – this is one I blogged about a month or so ago… it’s a tidy project that integrates with BIM design tools and helps generate PDFs with embedded BIM data – RFI or AIs in particular would be improved with this technology
    http://constructioncode.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/specification-and-model-in-single-pdf.html
  • 4 out of 60 delegates raised their hand to indicate they were using this product.

Carol presents from Arizona via web linkup
…and to finish off the day we had five short-sharp-20-slide-20-seconds. The brave presenters were:

  • Graham Kelly from BIM Academy. Gave an overview of the 48 hours BIM challenges that they have worked on, Qatar, Singapore and Walker… a nice focus on some of the software development advances around COBie and IFC.
  • Jacqueline Walpole from FSI (FM Solutions) Ltd. Talked about it so important to pull information from BIM platforms into FM systems. Working with Deborah at the Cabinet Office and big contractors like BAM is really exciting at the moment. Great FM tools already map data from HR and SAP systems – we can do this with BIM too as long as designs and contractors let us know the data format.
  • Ed Bartlett from kykloud. Ed looked at how almost as much money is spent on repair and maintenance in the UK as in construction. This is why we need to take FM seriously. Where we are today is 2D documents getting rekeyed into FM systems. We need the IFC and COBie data to suck into FM systems – and this needs to be linked to costs and spec and manuals. Then Ed showed real life examples of it in action – not “can this happen?” but “this is happening”. “FM keeps BIM data alive”.
  • James Austin from Autodesk – James looked at the social media, technology and big data trends. Is Minority Report technology now becoming a reality. When does something become intrusive?
  • Rob Jackson from Bond Bryan – Rob reflected back on BIMShowLive looking at the conference with lots of great pictures. A little bit off me from my blog.
  • Duncan Reed + Matt Owen from 4projects. Matt showed off the 4BIM innovations that shows the BIM via open standards IFC through a web browser. Then how this technology would be used for ThinkBIM members who will be able to logon to 4projects to see example models and data and training materials on BIM.

Always worth the wait - the Pecha Kucha's
Running slightly over time, it was then to nip out to the thinkBIM BBQ (sponsored by 4projects) for a quick drink and a burger before heading off home.

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Construction News Awards 2013 - Fingers Crossed

Two days to go until the Construction News Awards 2013 are announced at the Grosvenor House Hotel at Park Lane, London.

After receiving runners-up/shortlist positions at the recent Construction Computing and Building Awards we all have our fingers crossed for this one.

NBS have been shortlisted in two categories. National BIM Library is in the "BIM Initiative of the Year" category and NBS Create is in the HM Government/CIC sponsored Digital Built Britain Award. What makes this award competition special is the fact that it is not just about submitting a proposal, those short-listed also have to make "Dragon's-Den-style" live pitches to members of an esteemed panel of construction experts. This panel includes names such as Simon Kirby (Network Rail), Tony Jacob (John Lewis Partnership), John Mead (Crossrail), Tony Giddings (Argent), James Pellatt (Great Portland Estates) and David Philp (Cabinet Office).

So fingers crossed we can sneak a victory in one of the categories - but just to be shortlisted is fantastic - especially looking at some of the fantastic other entries in both categories...

All of the hyperlinks below go to more information about these fantastic projects. It really is worth clicking on each one...

1. BIM Initiative of the Year
sponsored by Asta
NBS National BIM Library



...and it's great to see the nominations heavily influenced by fellow #BIMGeordies (4projects, BIM Technologies (240 Blackfriars), Ryder Architecture and BIM Academy - I'm sure the banter will be good on the night :))

2. Digital Built Britain Award
sponsored by HM Government and CIC
NBS Create



To find out the winners first - tune in to Twitter on Thursday evening and search for #CNAwards.

To find out more about the NBS entries please see:

Monday, 8 July 2013

The "I am an Architect" song

Start the week with a smile.

This went viral last week on social media - very funny and very well done...

Friday, 5 July 2013

Newcastle at its finest

Thanks for James (@virtuarch) from Twitter for this fantastic video find below.
This is a video of what the "BIM capital of the UK" :), Newcastle upon Tyne, looks like...

Newcastle Time + Motion from Adam Lawrenson on Vimeo.

Note 1: NBS HQ is about 100 m to the right of the third bridge along for those that have never visited.


View Larger Map
Note 2: It definitely isn't anything like this. :)

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Singapore 48 Hour BIM Challenge - update 4

The software development Big Push
The fourth and final update from me from the Singapore 48 hour BIM challenge.

The time is after midnight and into the last couple of hours and the NBS work is coming to a close.

The NBS contribution centred on the authoring of specification content and live software development.

However, before looking at this in a little more detail, the video below is probably my favourite thing of the 48 hours. What started off as one software developer from NBS at the start of 48 hours turned into seven mid-way through the second day (pictured to the right). The video below shows the xBIM IFC viewer embedded in NBS Create. The IFC model and the NBS Create specification are working side-by-side linking geometry and specification in one application.


...and a fuller report below...

1. Creating content
The NBS Create specification system was used to author a number of the BIM objects. The example shown in Figure 1 shows the specification of the Green Roof. Bespoke software was then written to convert this to an IFC type before being imported in the design model. Figure 2 shows this Green Roof with system properties and material build-up ready to be added to the main roof structure. All generated BIM content was to National BIM Library authoring standards (classification, naming convention, defined property-sets).
(click on images below for larger images)
Figure 1 – Authoring BIM objects using NBS Create
Figure 2 – The generated BIM object in the design model via IFC
As a low environmental impact was required, the project specification took this into consideration including:
Plants specified that are drought, salt and shade tolerant are locally native species;

  • The lowest NOx emissions chosen for the boilers; and
  • The procurement of wood managed in accordance with international agreements such as the Convention on International, Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), with Chain of Custody/ Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

2. Specification into the model
The NBS Create system already links to the design model at a database and an object level. Additional software development took place over the 48 hours to take this link further down to a property level. Figure 3 shows the specification of doorset performance in NBS Create. Figure 4 then shows the import of these properties into the design model. Differences are highlighted to the user and these modified properties can then be imported and displayed in schedules.
Figure 3 – Specifying performance in NBS Create
Figure 4 – Importing the specification into the design model for scheduling
3. Model into the specification
One final big software development initiative was to embed the IFC exported from the design model into the specification software. This allowed the design to be used as a navigator for the specification. Figure 5 shows that the NBS Create specification system has the IFC model embedded to the left of the application. By double clicking on the objects – the corresponding specification opens in the editor.
Figure 5 – Embedded IFC model driving the specification system
All IFC work used the xBIM software component developed by Professor Steve Lockley from BIM Academy.

...and finally, magnificent work by @Clare_Watson and Ellie for all the blogging and videos and pictures and tweets over on the team's official blog -
http://www.thenbs.com/blogs/bim/

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Singapore 48 Hour BIM Challenge - update 3

In my last post I showed screenshots of the software development progress. A couple of videos (taken on an iPhone) demonstrating this below.

1. Creating IFC type objects from NBS Create...


2. Sucking properties out of NBS Create into the design model...
(jump to 2'29 to see the magic)

Monday, 1 July 2013

Singapore 48 Hour BIM Challenge - update 2

As part of the Singapore 48 hour BIM challenge we're giving a big focus to software development. After around 17 hours of non-stop coding progress has been pretty good in terms of writing the code and testing it with prototype models.

A few screenshots below demonstrating progress:

1. Generation of IFC directly from NBS Create
The first big development has been around the generation of IFC directly from the objects and property sets in NBS Create.

This is shown in the screenshots below. An external wall is specified using NBS, this includes the key products (blocks, insulation and bricks) and the key property values (recycled content, thickness, U-values. And then this is translated into an IFC type object. Within the design-tool the designer may then substitute a generic wall for the specific wall. We do have technology similar that helps create National BIM Library objects - but doing this from NBS Create would be really nice.
Specify in NBS Create
Generate IFC type objects
2. Import of property sets from NBS Create
The second development allows linked objects in the design model to have their property sets updated live from their corresponding object in the NBS Create specification. The screenshots below show this in action...
I can see the geometry - but where is the information?
The information can be populated in NBS Create with the help of expert technical guidance
Select which objects you want to update
Hey presto - the "i" in BIM appears
I'll probably do a video demo of both of these developments in action tomorrow once we have tidied things up a bit. We'll also be using both parts of the technology in the actual BIM for the competition tomorrow as it develops from a concept model with spaces into a model with a little more detail in.

Oh, and good to get a nice round number of followers on Twitter :)

Singapore 48 Hour BIM Challenge - update 1

BIM Programming
We are currently taking part in the Singapore 48 hour BIM challenge. As part of "Team BIM Academy", NBS are working alongside VINCI Construction UK, Ryder, kykloud, Cundall, Turner and Townsend.
are now around eight hours into our

Progress can be followed at our official team blog:
http://www.thenbs.com/blogs/BIM/

In terms of the NBS role on the project, we are providing specification support in addition to a big push on software development. This software development is focusing on interoperability and IFC.

The sketched out plan is below...
The software development plan
There are four areas we are looking into...

1. IFC object creation 
This is the journey...
1.1 Specify your wall's material layers in NBS Create
1.2 Specify the material properties with the assistance of expert guidance and drop down values
1.3 A small external configuration file allows the user to define what materials and properties are mapped
1.4 Generate any wall configurations and property sets starting with NBS Create
If we can get this technology working then it allows an infinite amount of BIM layered objects to be created that align to NBS Create and the NBS National BIM Library naming convention, classifications and parameters.

2. Combined IFC export
This is already in beta format in the NBS toolbar for Revit that is live. However, it currently only works for objects with IFC 2x3 definitions. We're changing the configuration and mapping files around now so that it works for any object. Through the mapping file any user will be able to map any object to its equivalent object in NBS Create.
For more information see:
http://constructioncode.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/bim-specifications-and-ifc.html

3. IFC stamping
As above, the output will be the same. But the journey the user takes will be different. Instead of starting in the design tool with mapped NBS Create specification, the user will be able to "punch out" property sets from NBS Create into the IFC file.
Combined IFC from design model and NBS Create
4. Filling IFC property sets at design time
Taking one step back from a full IFC file, all National BIM Library objects contain the IFC 2x3 property sets. For example for a door:
http://www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ifc/IFC2x3/TC1/html/
We will be working on sucking these properties from NBS Create and pushing them into the object at design time.
IFC property sets in the design tool coming through from NBS
The team
We have myself, Calum and Chris from NBS working on this. We are also receiving support from Prof Steve Locklley whose xBIM toolkit we are working with.
Lockley