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Volume 2, Issue
1
January 5,2009
Editor-in-Chief, H.
Edward Goldberg
Copy Editor, Judith
Goldberg
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In this Issue:
- New VICO software will estimate with a combined Revit,
ArchiCAD and Tekla model.
In
December of 2008, Autodesk Inc. held its yearly public user forum event,
Autodesk University (AU) at the Venetian Hotel Convention Center in Las
Vegas where the company hosted 9,000 attendees for a four day education,
exhibition, and marketing extravaganza. I was most interested in attending
to get a sense of how the troubling economic climate is affecting the AEC
industry generally and the software sector specifically.
First
Impressions:
While crossing the Venetian’s
vast gambling floor on my way to the convention area, it seemed that much
of the trademark Las Vegas glitter was gone. The casino was eerily silent,
with only the occasional whirr of a slot machine. As I glanced around, I
estimated that only about 15% of the gaming tables were occupied. On the
days that followed, regardless of the hour, the casino remained quiet.
According to a recent article on TIME.com, The
Good Times Stop Rolling , Las Vegas, with gaming industry income
down 25% and no new casino projects planned for the next 5 years, is no
longer a recession-proof oasis.
The slump in the building industry and related
trades is hitting home. On my first night at AU, I asked a fellow attendee
what he did professionally, only to learn that, along with approximately
39 other staff, he had just received a pink slip from a well known
architectural firm. What are concerns in the field? See this from Architect
OnLine. To be fair, most everyone else I talked to mentioned
that they were OK … for now, as am I in my own practice. However, because
of an uncertain future, even with a free press pass to AU and a free room,
I had to think twice before shelling out the dollars for the airfare. I do
think, however, that even in this economy, AU is the best buy for the buck
in the use of Autodesk’s products and is well worth the cost.
The Event:
The
event included six hundred classes for users to become “experts” in
multiple Autodesk products, along with seminars, networking meetings,
parties, executive Q&A, product demonstrations, and forums as well as
an exhibition floor featuring hardware and software products developed by
allied companies. Although Autodesk offers classes for all its products,
the Revit and related BIM classes were mobbed (some exceeding 400
persons). I heard very little mention about AutoCAD Architecture at AU;
although there are presently, more installed seats of that product than of
Revit.
I moderated a round table discussion about
the history, present utilization and future potential of the Building
Information Model or BIM. The consensus of opinion is that there are two
different camps of BIM proponents—theoretical and practical. In the arena
of theory, the government is the major player, with an eye towards
standardizing all the information about its thousands of buildings in
order to control the costs of facilities management. For the hands
on users, BIM software offers increased productivity and enables data
mining for uses such as energy analysis and estimating. Panel participants
agreed that while structural engineers who are proficient in 3D CAD and
Revit Structure are available, it is harder to find an MEP professional
using Revit MEP. This is especially true for small and mid-size
architecture firms looking for subs at reasonable prices.
At AU, Autodesk showed a sneak preview of the next
release of Revit, featuring freeform design tools and a ribbon bar
interface. Using many of their AEC and
manufacturing products, Autodesk gave demonstrations of present cutting
edge capabilities available for the AEC industry. Also shared were
projects that the company’s research & development arm (Autodesk Labs)
is currently working on as well as a few sneak peeks into the future.
Generally, Autodesk foresees greater interoperability of its AEC software
with its software for the manufacturing industry.
Media Sessions:
During a special media question and answer session, Autodesk
CEO Carl Bass stated that Autodesk spends 22% of its yearly two billion
dollar revenues on research & development. Carl feels positive about
the health of the company, which he emphasized has no debt and is enjoying
steady sales. Autodesk may be one of the many entities whose stock price
has fallen below its actual value due to volatile market conditions and
recession worries rather than corporate realities. An indication that the
company is still vigorous may be its continuing acquisition of software
technology related to the AEC industry.
Carl also mentioned new trends that he sees in the
software/hardware industry such as Software As A Service (SAAS) –
where users rent software as needed, owning only a keyboard, and monitor.
He also spoke about cloud computing, where users rent high
processing power over the web. This is available from Amazon now. Carl
didn’t make it clear if Autodesk was developing these areas for future
profit, but if so, it would enable many firms to use Autodesk hardware and
software in new ways.
I attended a
media round table with Jay Bhatt, Autodesk Senior Vice President of
Architecture, Engineering & Construction and Jim Lynch, AEC VP of
Marketing. According to Jim, there are approximately 350,000 Revit seats
(including educational copies) and 550,000 AutoCAD Architecture seats in
use at this time. The Revit and AutoCAD Architecture products are still on
a 12 month update schedule, and most users are subscribers. Jay mentioned
that Autodesk has been improving Revit’s performance, and that the company
has recently introduced a 64 bit version.
In Conclusion:
I came away from Autodesk University feeling
positive about the company, its management and its future possibilities.
Hopefully, by the close of this year the economic pall will have lifted.
In the meantime, downturns are always a good time to get current with new
technology. I look forward to Autodesk U 2009.
Carl Bass & Ed after the Media
session
VICO Office, a new suite of estimating and scheduling applications, featured at AU, is targeted for release in March of 2009. I have been very excited about automated estimating and scheduling from the BIM, as this is one area which adds real value to the construction process. In my opinion, because of VICO’s experience in this arena, Office will be the most comprehensive BIM estimating and scheduling program available.
Approximately 2 years ago, VICO Software purchased Graphisoft’s Constructor and Estimator, based on ArchiCAD and originally developed in-house by a large Finnish construction firm. VICO is increasing its market reach by replacing Constructor and Estimator (repackaged as Vico’s Virtual Construction Suite) with a new product, VICO Office, a BIM neutral platform compatible with BIM industry standard authoring tools, Revit and Tekla in addition to their longstanding support of ArchiCAD. Vico executives stated that support for other popular authoring tools will follow, but no specific BIM products or file formats were named. . Office will allow project stakeholders (designers, engineers, GCs, subs) to work with the BIM tools they like best along with model-based scheduling using Vico’s flowline concept (4D). VICO also claims to be the leader in 5D BIM, which is a complete extension of the 3D model to include 4D scheduling and 5D estimating, based on quantities, means and methods, and locations.
The same components that made up Vico’s Virtual Construction Suite will be part of the VICO Office to which files can be published from Revit, Tekla and ArchiCAD. For example, on the Revit toolbar, the user will select “Publish to Vico” to transfer the geometry, element types, and family names to the Vico database. There’s no file type, no conversion, no import required, all properties are stored in the Vico database, ready for model-based estimating and model-based scheduling. Once in the Vico Office environment, the construction quantities are extracted based on the model geometry.
After the Revit model is published into the Vico environment, the construction elements are identified and the accurate construction quantities are derived from the existing geometry. For each element type (based on for example Families or Layers), the extracted quantities are automatically listed as Takeoff Items. By selecting the Takeoff Item in the Takeoff Manager View (Office’s ‘Bill of Quantities’), the corresponding elements in the model are highlighted so users see exactly what they’re working on and which elements are adding to the selected Takeoff Item and Takeoff Quantities.
With the Quantity Takeoff completed, the user can deploy these in a conceptual or an element-based estimate, depending on the types of elements that are available in the model. During the business development or pursuit phase, many GCs start with a square footage costing scheme, based on room square footage quantities. The model’s granularity that gradually increases as more and more specifics, and thus BIM elements, are known about the project. Inside the Excel-like interface, the user can explode a cell to expose the Formula Editor. Using the Formula Editor, the user can access the multiple quantity types in the model that are captured in the Takeoff Manager and customize their specific calculations to account for consumption rates, waste factors, and escalations. Every line item in the estimate can be further refined with one or more additional breakdown layers, which provides for flexibility in the estimate.
Building this “living estimate” is key to helping the Owner make data-driven decisions that help keep the budget on track. But Vico takes it one step further with customizable pane view that allows virtual construction teams to work closely with the owner. These views utilize an intuitive Excel-like spreadsheet for the Estimator, a highly visual model for the other stakeholders, and a color-coded tree structure for the Owner.
VICO, Inc., based in Boulder, Colorado, has offices in Boston, London, Helsinki, and Budapest, a direct sales team in North America and a reseller network spanning the globe. According to CEO, Mark Sawyer, VICO has the most experienced BIM services team with over 250 completed 5D BIM projects under its belt. Its 300+ Customers include Turner, PCL, Webcor, Swinerton, Hensel Phelps, McCarthy Builders. Among its owner/developers clients are St. Joseph Health System, Optima, LA Unified School District, GSA, and Kaiser Permanente. Selected projects include Mission Hospital (Mission Viejo, CA), Kamppi Center (Helsinki, Finland), California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, CA), Denver Justice Center, Ritz-Carlton Resort (Lake Tahoe) and the Pittsburgh Penguin’s Arena.
ECObuild &
AEC-ST
The Ecobuild & AEC Science and Technology
(AEC-ST) conference is a semiannual event held in California in the spring
and Washington DC in the fall. The event I attended in December brought
together both green building information and BIM technology. Because the
American Institute of Architects (AIA), the National Institute of Building
Sciences (NIBS) and other such groups, are located in the District, the
conference attempts to address the interests of these entities.
Additionally, the government, various government departments, and the
companies that serve them are target audiences. In my opinion, the BIM
presentations tended to feature more theory than “hands on” information,
which from my perspective can be somewhat pedantic. As a BIM user, I
personally do not need theoretical information in order to make money in
my private sector market niche. However, the information may be of
interest to those dealing with the government, or having a “futurist”
bent.
I highly recommend the Ecobuild portion of the
conference which featured many green building products, services and
information. I believe we are all aware that green building technology is
the wave of the future. To whit, according to an Autodesk spokesperson,
the recent Greenbuild conference held in Boston from November 17-20, 2008
attracted 35,000 attendees. Again, I emphasize, becoming more fluent in
green technology as well as BIM, during downtime at the office is a good
investment.
Here’s looking forward to a more prosperous 2009!
About Ed:
Ed Goldberg,
A.I.A., is a well known analyst in the AEC Industry, having been a
journalist and lecturer in this arena for the past 13 years. In his
primary occupation as an architect, Ed uses the cutting edge digital
technology about which he writes. During his 30 year career, Ed has
designed and/or built dozens of commercial, multifamily, and rehab
projects. He also headed the CAD and Multimedia Department at Carroll
Community College and the Industrial Design Department at Towson
University. For many years Ed wrote the AEC column in CADALYST magazine.
Ed has authored seven books on AutoCAD Architecture (formally
Architectural Desktop), for publisher Prentice Hall. His Revit
Architecture 2009 book is on sale now.
Ed continues to attend key industry events and
keep abreast of the newest developments. If you see him at an event,
please come over and chat; he would enjoy meeting you. You can recognize
Ed by his trademark hat – black in winter, and white in
summer.
Please take a look at Ed’s Web
Site: http://www.hegra.org
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©
2007 H. Edward Goldberg AIA, NCARB, Ed’s Independent Voice. All rights
reserved
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