I can’t contribute meaningfully to the topic
of the Pandemic, apart from obeying the rules and not being a nuisance. It is
not an area of my expertise.
BIM is.
So, being a believer of the concept, that learning even a
little bit of BIM can do good for anyone working in construction, I’m going to
write a bit every day on the topic, at least while this lock-down is on and am capable
of writing/posting.
The positive in me says, whatever happens ‘after’, BIM
will be useful for everyone, the less optimistic one, that it will not do any
harm to whomever survives and the negative, well, the negative can wait for its
turn to speak.
Let me set out the terms of reference for this exercise I
am planning to undertake.
I will not try to explain (yet again) what BIM is, or is
not. I will not try to convince anyone that they should jump now into BIM, nor
argue for-against particular software packages, although some personal views on
products will be aired.
I will share practical tips on getting a handle on BIM
and being able to contribute to the after-the-tunnel BIM world in a more
meaningful way, than before. You don’t need to be BIM literate to benefit from following
my tips, not even a CAD user. Just open minded about how information on
construction projects is (or should be) created, shared and consumed.
You are working from home, wherever that is. Unless you
already had a home office, you took something home from your usual office, to
enable you to continue working.
What were those ‘things’?
A desktop computer, screens, just the laptop, and/or
boxes of paper-based info?
There is problem number one.
If you took home any paper, even a notebook, we will not
get far with getting you BIM-enabled.
Let’s start with weaning you/ourselves off the paper!
Apocalypse here or there, no better world will be on the
other side for anyone, if we don’t kick this bad habit to the curb.
For the first couple of days, I will share with you tips
on how to beat this pesky practice of ‘needing’ paper to work.
As a 55-year-old – glasses wearing – always scribbling –
learned to draft with Rapidographs (Rotring) 40 years ago - architect, trust
me, I’ve tried every excuse to hang onto it.
But also trust me, no use of BIM, while paper is around.
And not just BIM, no progress for Construction full stop.
So, my tip for Days 1 and 2:
Wean yourself off your notebook!
There are many clever applications you can use, for me, a
simple system works:
Word. As in, Microsoft Office Word document. I use One
Word Document for my general Notebook taking and it sits on OneDrive. (Microsoft)
I will digress for a moment: as I said in the beginning,
I am not interested in promoting, marketing or endorsing products for gain, I
have never done it, in my 10 years of Blog Writing. I have misgivings of cash-free
society, online everything and surveillance capitalism generally, but still
know that Construction must become paper-free.
You can stay fully off-line (if you chose) and be paper-free.
If you don’t want your Word document in the Cloud, have it on a stick, or on
your laptop, or both. (we will discuss cloud based information later).
A Word (type) document can do everything your paper-based
notebook could and more.
But you’ll need to be disciplined about it.
Make a clear cut now!
There are two ways to make that clear cut.
One, keep your current notebook at hand but only for
reference. Any new note-taking will be digital.
Two, scan in your notebook as a PDF and throw the paper one
away.
Give it a go! Any questions - let me know!
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