Bigger than Revit?

[Kell]

I was curious about how many firms are using BIM tools beyond Revit
for design, analysis, or planning. What about tools for managing the
BIM process? There are a lot of very useful services available to
facilitate BIM beyond the usual cadre of authoring platforms. Is
everyone just making the most of Revit or has anyone gotten
adventurous lately?

[Dawn Harrington]

Do you consider Adventurous learning how to use the plan region tool??  I didn't think so. I would classify us as making the best of it!  

No adventure here................... big yawn.  

Dawn

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[Jon Marcum]

Kell,

I'll be honest. I have not branched out much from Revit. But I would use any other platform that was more useful and industry compliant if it was compliant with other BIM producers' formats.

What we need more than anything is for the BIM producers to quit haggling about who has the better BIM file format and produce an industry standard format for all BIM files, so that the design and construction industry will be unified. It won't get any better folks until the companies producing the BIM software titles unify the file formats like the W3C has done for the internet. The Microsoft's and Autodesk's of the world actually hold back the development of open standards by trying to profit from their own specific standard formats. This thought process is outdated, and the companies clinging to it will fall by the way side as other companies help develop and embrace the open standards as the industry as a whole starts interacting cross-platform through those new and developing open standards for BIM. Mark my words it will happen. And when it does it will be wonderful. All it takes is for one person to start the open standard debate and an industry to cry out for it loud enough for the software developers to hear it, and often enough for it to sound like fingernails across a chalk board to them, to prompt them to take action.

Sincerely,
Jon Marcum, P.E., MLE, SECB
bfmj
Consulting Structural Engineers
620 Euclid Avenue
Lexington, Kentucky 40502
Voice: 859.278.5050 ext. 17,  FAX: 859.278.6060
j.ma...@BFMJ.com
BFMJ intends the information contained in this transmission for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed.  This message may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately at 859-278-5050 and delete the original message from your e-mail system.  Thank you.

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[Kell]

I agree whole-heartedly. There is a significant push in the field to
make the information interoperable between software packages. There
are several groups working to make that happen. I suggest you look at
the work being done by the buildingSMARTalliance to create
interoperable standards. Also, one of the greatest BIM gurus working
today, Kimon Onuma, has started pushing the idea that each person
working on a project should be able to do their job using the best
software for that users and that job. The two current approaches,
which are backed by Autodesk, Bentley and Graphisoft (among others,)
are a unified single file format (IFC) and a series of translators
that extract the desired data from a given model (bimXML, gbXML.) I
expect to see more XML tools in the coming years though. IFC is a
great dream and the need for standard formats for data is high.
However, If I were to import a structural model into an architectural
model, I need only a limited amount of data for my purposes, so being
able to extract that data would greatly simplify the exchange. If you
get an opportunity to see the Onuma Planning System at work, you can
see how it imports and exports data between Revit, or Excel... (or
SketchUp, ArchiCAD, Bentley...) OPS in only interested in
generalities so it pulls mostly space data from Revit. Similarly,
programs like IES Virtual Environment that perform energy and lighting
simulations need only certain kinds of information from Revit (walls,
windows, roofs and overhangs...) so it asks Revit for a gbXML file
which contains only the information that IES cares about.

There is a trend right now in the BIM world to allow decentralized
models to exist and thrive. In the near future true BIM will end up
being 50 or more interconnected databases that overlap. Each one will
be made according to the standards of its author and trade. The BIM
applications will simply access the data from each model that they are
interested in and ignore what does not pertain to it's job. Other
technologies like SPIE (specifiers' information exchange) do similar
jobs with BIM data that is traditionally not modeled. It uses
specification data maintained by the various trade associates and
manufacturers in hundreds of databases that link to the model. SPIE
goes a step beyond set standards like XML, by allowing the user to
determine the level of detail they want to access from any given
database. In MPS terms, you could work with anything from a schematic
100 level of detail to an as-built 500 level of detail at any given
time.

The bottom line for this is that interoperability is a hot issue. The
NIST, AIA, buildingSMARTalliance, CSI, NIBS and everyone else involved
in BIM in the US and many other agencies around the world and pushing
for it. Autodesk and Bentley have announced some kind of agreement on
this front already. I don't think we'll see an open standard though.
It's too early in the evolution of BIM for that. We will see the
ability to access multiple application's files though... at least at a
basic level. There's just no need for the mechanical engineer to be
able to access the mechanisms that generate architectural door tags or
schedules. I make mine in a way that makes my life easier... my
software knows what parameters to access for that function, that's all
that matters.

[Jon Marcum]

Kell,

That's great. I would love to see the bimXML come to life.

Sincerely,
Jon Marcum, P.E., MLE, SECB
bfmj
Consulting Structural Engineers
620 Euclid Avenue
Lexington, Kentucky 40502
Voice: 859.278.5050 ext. 17,  FAX: 859.278.6060
j.ma...@BFMJ.com
BFMJ intends the information contained in this transmission for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed.  This message may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately at 859-278-5050 and delete the original message from your e-mail system.  Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
From: lexington-rev...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lexington-rev...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kell
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 10:58 AM
To: Lexington Revit Users Group

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