BIM has made a handful of global companies very rich while the rest of the industry pays to stand still.

 

Somehow, it’s all called progress.

Member of a small consultancy or a tier-one contractor, we pay through the nose simply to communicate within our own industry.

It’s like jumping on the statin train straight out of school and blindly accepting ever-higher doses—all in the name of ‘living longer’ or simply participating.

We once joked that we’d pay for air. Now we pay to use the industry’s ‘language’.

A simple example as a reference from a different field: my husband, in his late 70s, recently tried to join two organisations that communicated only through phone apps. He dropped both activities, despite loving singing and paddling.

We could have stepped in, but once direct communication disappeared, so did his interest.

Access to communication in Construction is also narrowing. The tools grow smarter while participants quietly drop away—and not only older ones. People in their 40s and 30s face the same barriers. They all need intermediaries to access data essential to their business activities.

 “Move to BIM or be left behind” sounds less like progress more an ultimatum.

If you want to work, you must BUY the tools that claim to enable AEC communication.

Don’t mistake this for a shared language serving a better industry. The vendors need projects on their systems, whether those systems serve one user or a thousand. Usability, satisfaction, and broad BIM literacy come second to the business model.

So does quality communication.

Few people are more committed to BIM than I am. I still love the unfashionable acronym and believe in its potential. For some 40 years, I’ve bought licences, upgraded hardware, and kept learning.

If that doesn’t excite us, there’s AI and robotics. Stay excited or scared—but keep paying.

Question mediocre tools and rising subscriptions, and another monster appears to stop us reaching for pen and tracing paper.

Lately, that monster is AI, supposedly ready to make our hard-won software fluency obsolete. I’m curious, but not especially scared; age and experience help.

AI can translate English into my obscure native languages remarkably well, but there’s little evidence it can assemble building-specific connection details.

Decades of poor global documentation give machine learning a harder problem than European grammar.

Sometimes I imagine a ‘tradwife’ movement in modelling: companies abandoning technology to draw beautiful buildings directly onto tracing paper. I’m joking. Half a century later, I still remember the devastation of one wrongly inked line.

Progress and technology are good. But BIM’s ‘mother tongue’—Revit, Archicad, and the rest—is poor by today’s standards. Average games offer better models, textures, interfaces, and speed. SimCity had stronger building blocks for a common AEC language 20 years ago.

I’m told Europe is better. Hard to imagine. Archicad, once beloved, has done little lately to justify its survival. Revit remains slow and clunky while its price rises. Revizto was a welcome change: rebuilt on a gaming engine, it let many people work on one project and lowered the barrier to accessing data. I only wish it had pushed more boldly towards affordable communication for everyone.

 With age, you learn to accept a status quo that still works—sort of.

But the enthusiast in me still searches for the spark beyond the daily slog: the satisfaction of a job well done.

This miniseries will explore smaller topics, mostly around shop drawings.

I’ve worked with them for years and see the process as an outdated burden in need of reform—though my proposed fixes rarely land well.

Let this old blog hold my thoughts on how we might do shop drawings better.

 

Come back again, check it out.

Digital Twin – What is in the Name?

 

If you asked me before yesterday what ‘a’ digital twin was I would have said, an attempt to replicate a building/infrastructure in its entirety, possibly before it is built. Sort of an extension on a BIM approach, where they had run out of ‘D’-es while adding additional attributes to BIMs and someone decided to call it a Digital Twin. Same as the real thing, but digital.

According to the presentations of the Second Annual Digital Twin ANZ Conference, it appears that it is much more, they imply that data used for simulation and optimising before the physical object is created is all part of ‘the’ digital twin. Test scenarios, what if’s, dead end design option, all included.

It is meant to be read as a collective noun describing an approach not a thing.

As in not a virtual building or infrastructure asset nor a platform or other singular application, but ‘everything’.

This may be a logical choice of a name in the context of BIM development for those that dreamed it up, but I see it as a disruption on the way to maturing of the digital building space.

Firstly, it needs explaining for all that work in the industry but are not yet using it.

Secondly, it encourages opportunities to endlessly argue over the ‘is it or is it not’ question of conformity to that arbitrary term, like it used to be with 3D then BIM than Virtual Construction, then Digital Engineering.

Worst of all, it widens the gap between those ‘in the know’ and those that are BIM wary and are yet to place themselves on the ladder of practical BIM use.

It almost appears like every time a particular term becomes familiar within larger numbers of AEC stakeholders, someone thinks it necessary to come up with a new one. Even if this is not intentionally done to deceive there is a risk of it majorly backfiring and blocking attempts to widen the userbase of BIM practitioners.

It is not a verb, even though it can be made into one – like ‘twinning’ – as a noun its main meaning is of a singular thing while we feel it should imply a group of both ‘things’ and ‘activities’.

The ambiguity of the terminology is probably less worrying than the question of direction where this Twin is meant to be heading in an environment still struggling with the ‘old’ BIM.

One hears so much about the rapid development of technologies, AI and its sisters, the sky being the limit and so on.

We also hear at the conference that these are some early examples of Twins, so why not just say they are advanced versions of BIM?

If I reflect on my own 30+ years of experience in BIM – and I’m just happy to call it BIM - I  don’t yearn for Twins, I see the need to pause and rethink our collective BIM strategies.

We do not always need to gallop ahead of the lot; now is the time to stop inventing new approaches/names and disciplines and focus on widening the field.

We frown on people/companies that are ‘just’ doing 3D, yet a well setup enterprise working in 3D can do magic. BIM practitioners that only use a handful of I-s in their model information fields might also get little encouragements from the BIM elite, yet their use of core tools and resulting productivity gains might overshadow those prone to inventing new approaches.

Build magic BIM models and add clever simulations, tests and other processes on the top of them but no need for a new science to be formed just yet.

I see company after company that focuses on a selected few to carry the baton of BIM (or the Twin) while the large proportion of the workforce carries on business as usual.

Inclusivity should be the magic word, bringing more people of the industry into practical BIM use, getting the masses dirty their hands with models in their everyday work.

I’ve long planned to work on developing a way of measuring an entity’s (company/project) BIM saturation rate, based on people’s engagement and their BIM literacy.

With my renewed interest in this Group, I intend to use this platform for testing such a gadget/formula application, not yet sure of its final shape and format.

I will also run these posts on the original DebunkTheBIM blogpost (now in its 15^th year) to keep a record of them but also reach those old followers that are not active on LinkedIn.

What are your thoughts on the Digital Twin? Could or should the activities collectively described as the ‘Twin’ not fit just as comfortable under BIM or Digital Engineering?

At least until a wider uptake happens and its makeup better defined and bedded in.

Interested in your thoughts!

 

 

BIM for Seniors

BIM had become the main communication vehicle for AEC. Yet it is a language that only a small percentage of the industry speaks.

Now, many in the industry will be quick to dispute the first claim. After all, most construction contracts are still based on drawings and there is a belief that ‘we build off drawings’.

Yet it is undisputable, that a large percentage of those drawings are created in a model-based software.

For better or worse, most of building related data lives in model-based environments.

And the majority of the stakeholders can only access this data via PDFs or printed off drawings.

Curiously, many appear to be happy with this situation and shun BIM in its entirety.

Or are happy to pass it onto the BIM doers, modellers, coordinators, and managers.

Others are interested to know more, get hands-on a bit, peek behind the curtains. These participants of the industry aren’t catered for very well.

The ‘BIM for Seniors’ group is for those that want to learn to understand how to navigate models, find the best tools and pull models apart. Drill down into the metadata that is within those models without the need of complicated digital skills. Get their finger on the pulse of the project and become deeply engaged in their project data.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring model navigational tools offered by Revizto, Navisworks and Archicad (BIMx).

While there are many tutorials available net-wide on all three mentioned, we find that even in high quality training materials the ‘age factor’ gets missed, i.e. accommodating the differences various generations have in learning new tools.

Skipping over steps that are obvious for a 30-something BiM wiz might put a 40-something newbie off from BIMming forever.

We’d like to help and investigate those roadblocks.

Join the group and start bringing your questions/comments.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14449194/

 

Happy 40th Graphisoft!

 It’s been ages since I last wrote in here. Who writes/reads blogs anymore, anyway?

You want your message heard, you need to be short, snappy and all over the place.

Preferably video based – so no effort needed for reading.

 

But Graphisoft is 40, a worthy cause to dig out the old blog and fire it up.

When I started with ArchiCAD some 27 years ago, I did not think we’d grow old together.

Yet we had.

At the time, paid the price of half a new Audi car for the software/hardware package – come to think of it, it was about half of my annual salary.

I learned to use the blimming thing and added to the knowledge over and over, wore the badge of the weirdo ArchiCAD user with pride.

I showed my commitment to it and kept it over the last 3 decades too.

Grudgingly.

Talk about a marriage of convenience. But let’s not talk about me.

 

Let’s talk about GS and their celebratory message:

“Stay focused, design more”

Is that it?

Aimed at the ‘core market’, the mysterious architect in the black T shirt blessedly ignorant of the world around him, the industry.

Yet, that architect must be getting terribly old if he is happy with the antiquated interface, the clumsy layer system-based workflows, the drawing focused layouts and the overall feel of it, fiddly attribute management, so 1990.

 

Shhhhhh.

Don’t do that! Revit is still worse than that. Slower, clumsier…

It is, but (and I thought I never say this) it plays better with others.

Or at least it is trying to be seen as an ‘industry citizen’ rather than just an architect’s folly.

 

I know, I’m probably being unfair.

GS is a business, needs to survive, grow, make the most of its following until a new messiah of a construction software, language, and communication style is born.

They were at the forefront once, can squeeze another year or decade out of the old fame.

And I do sympathize here, myself closer to 60 than forty, makes sense to sail into calmer waters and keep paddling in low risk.

 

But, what about the younger generations? Not those in their forties but twenties, just entering the industry.

Where is the Archicad equivalent of their time? Or Revit (Sonata?) for that matter?

Getting anything off the ground even mildly in synch with other (everyday) communication styles seems to be still almost impossible in the global AEC these days.

I do like the way Revizto is going in all of this, must mention.

Push those authoring tools in the background and focus on the communication, interface, and usability.

 

Critiquing arch/construction software has always been a thankless job, so closely intertwined users/developers have been over the last 3-4 decades of BIM’s infancy in any/all of the 3-4 main authoring silos. Best way to blow up one’s career prospects, really.

But then, what else is there in today’s world worth standing for than honesty and integrity?

Thankfully so few people read blogs these days!

(picture of an old Archicad project)

 

BIM for Clients: There is a need for independent BIM advocacy!

Building project clients come in all shapes and sizes.

From the very small, ‘let’s build a garage’ or ‘renovate the kitchen’ types, to gigantic institutional owners of city-size developments.

To create their projects, apart from the staunch DIYers, most draw on a plethora of advisors and consultants for assistance.

 BIM advocacy rarely makes their list.

Sure, ‘digital approaches’ do get thrown around by various participants of the servicing pool, most of the time packaged as ways of working smarter, while, a poor cover for an additional fee grab.

Some providers are BIM specialist with genuinely useful offerings of digital construction ware, others are barely fluent BIM consultants of the mainstream type, brandishing their occasional BIM achievements.

But I am yet to see them seeking out independent BIM advice.

 BIM has been around for a long time.

Even if I base it on my own, subjective experience, at least for the last 30 years, BIM has been a justifiable and doable approach to ‘communicate buildings’.

Yet, despite of several big waves of international BIM hypes rising, it has hardly made a visible impact on the industry.

 Many will argue against this statement, mostly those with vested interest in the digital part of the industry and its tools.

The development of AR, VR and other gadgets, drone scanning, robotic devices and the like are collectively considered to be proof of the success of the global BIM journey.

And in their own way, they are massive technical achievements. But they are also ‘just’ tools and equating the smartness of the industry to their sophistication is a bit of a stretch.

 I view BIM as a language and measure its effectiveness by the level of industry fluency.

At its core is the ‘model’, a representation of the building that is different from the traditional process of the ‘drawing’ as the depiction of the same.

While fully defining either of these opposing principles is a complex exercise and requires a lot of dedication from those wishing to understand the area, anyone participating in the building industry should at least know the difference.

 Or, that there IS a difference.

With the emergence of BIM, thirtysomething years ago, a new communication language had come into the industry. Yet, the presence of the new language is rarely acknowledged or accounted for.

We see the tools it brought, not the language.

We see the tools, we choose to use them or to ignore them, and are lulled in the pretense that our involvement with BIM is optional.

Shaping the communicating environment is treated purely based on commercial aspects and the risk of getting it wrong is underestimated.

 These days we operate in hybrid language environments where construction projects get ‘spoken’ simultaneously ‘drawing’ and ‘model’.

On the surface, this is not a bad thing. After all, we live in the transitional period where the communication ‘type drawing’ is growing into ‘type model’.

We are waiting for the contractual arm of the industry to mature to ‘type model’ and while this is happening, we make the best of both worlds.

Or do we?

No. We, the industry is struggling in the worst of both, no longer speaking either languages fluently or hardly at all.

The often ridiculed ‘traditional, drawing based’ communication before BIM had a supporting infrastructure that made it work very well. It enabled everyone in the industry communicate and participate. That infrastructure has largely disappeared by now and BIM has not replaced it.

BIM professionals often push the seamless model-to-drawing workflows as the goal and reality, yet it is neither working as such in practice nor should it really be the aim.

The fact that in BIM language speaking ‘model type’ communication also needs orthogonal projections, dimensioning and notations can cause further confusion.

 In the ‘olden days’ just about anyone could update a drawing, cloud a change, create a revision, enact a design decision and record it. In the new hybrid environment making even the smallest of changes to ‘a’ drawing can be cumbersome and tedious, not to mention time consuming.

There is the paradox of being able to flick over a full-length movie to the other side of the world in seconds yet being forced to wait for a drawing upgrade from a local consultant weeks at a time.

One can also spend hours at project PCG meetings where dozens of people discuss the project yet most of them can’t open a model let alone edit a drawing associated with it.

I’d be surprised if there were other industries in existence where such a large portion of its practitioners did not speak its language.

 We like to hide behind the contract and its illusion of protection through the negation of models.

Yet do we really know what is on our drawings?

 Realistically, in my remaining work-lifetime, BIM (or whatever fancier name it gets given in the future) is not likely to improve significantly.

The toolsets will further modernize and some of the ways we operate may change but the quality of the ‘language’ and its true uptake will likely not improve at speed.

 Still, in the bleakness of the last paragraph lies one aspect of the situation that is still worth fighting for.

That is for building clients’ right for true BIM advocacy.

 Any building client at the outset should be able to clearly define or at least understand the communication language of their building project.

Even before any digital tools get considered, the language must be defined.

Is it going to be drawing based or model based? Most likely hybrid? Proportionally definable? Not? Why not? True pros and cons for each? How cross - overs are happening?

No, BEPs aren’t adequate for answering those questions if they are not fully integrated with the project (contractually too).

How can we measure a company’s BIM literacy?

Can a servicing consultancy be called BIM fluent with only a token BIM manager amongst hundreds of illiterates? Even if the token manager constantly wears fancy AR/VR headsets.

 Building project clients come in all shapes and sizes. Some are smarter than others.

I’d love to see more of them pushing stronger the BIM buttons of their projects, asking the hard questions and demanding answers. Even be brave enough to say ‘no’ to half-baked BIM attempts if confident that pure ‘drawing’ will be spoken effectively.

 We live in a world ruled by supply/demand, their demand should create a supply of independent BIM advocates.

Will they come from the ranks of client-side PMs?

 

Pic from Predefine2020 https://predefine2020.co.nz/

(disclaimer: my husband’s company)

An Ode to ArchiCAD…or…can we call it something else?

 I’ve never been happy with the name of my (possibly) most essentials of tools. Not even 30 years ago when I first started associating with it, even though at the time both the Arch part and the CAD part were positive terms. Just did not have the right ring.

Sure, names are such subjective things, aren’t they?

And who am I to criticize a name, having burdened one of my children with one that is unpronounceable by most of the population she comes across?

And does it matter that the town I come from and the country I now call home are known as a ‘new something’ rather than have a more distinctive and original label? They still are cool places.

 About a year ago GS rebranded its ArchiCAD, its logo turning from a somewhat curvy A to an arch with a point. I can only wonder how much effort, agonizing, brainstorming, and money went into that exercise. So, why not update the name too?

Surely those in the know would by now realize that it is holding the ‘product’ back. And, no it was not right even when the ‘by architects – for architects’ mantra was still working.

Highly likely, that those that may have bravely floated the idea of a new name were advised by experts, that the brand capital of the name is too high to throw away – rebuilding will take decades.

 But, would it?

In the industry where all the cool tools are named by zoo animals or have word compositions with no meaning, why not relaunch under something snazzier?

I’d rather be known as an expert in a toolset that requires an additional clarification of ‘you know, used to be called ArchiCAD’ then just … ‘you know, ArchiCAD’.

Revit is better, even if people often mispronounce it. Hell, even Vectorworks rolls better of the tongue.

ArchiCAD just sounds like a snobbier (or more obscure) version of AutoCAD. Eh.

 Talking Revit. I came across a software comparison recently. Check it out, link at the end of this post.

Sure, speed is not everything, but I'd rather drive a slow car and a fast software then the other way around.

People say, it must be biased, hey, it was organized by GS.

C’mon clarify that: by GS from Denmark. They went way out of their way to make it an even playing field. Danes are like that.

I don’t really need any scientific comparison. I turn both on daily. But while I’m happy to drive a second-hand Jap-car to roll into work, I hate waiting for a Joe-average model to even open on my computer when using Revit.

Yes, I know my computer is not that powerful, but does run multiple, above average ArchiCAD models simultaneously.

 In a month or so, GS will likely launch its newest version of AC. Which really is a bore.

Sure, I understand the business strategy behind it, and the keeping up with the Autodesk Joneses game of justifying the subs, but why not just change the name instead this time? 

It was almost 2 decades ago that I was briefly employed by a GS associated company.

I badgered them about the ArchiCAD name, even then.

Chance of it happening in the next 5 years?

 

https://youtu.be/m7Tjbkq9obI

 

 

There are two types of BIM in existence, but only one of them money can buy!

The digital, 3D+ based approach to creating and managing AEC information is usually called BIM.

It has numerous other names as well, the latest, favored by many is the ‘Digital Twin’, I, for the sake of consistency, like to stick to ‘BIM’.

Humor me a bit and don’t get bogged down on the name.

Entertain me just a little bit more, and accept that fundamentally, BIM approaches can be grouped under 2 headings.

The first is the Group of Self-Contained BIM exercises, the second are the Life-Style BIMs.

The biggest difference between the two is that any BIM that falls in the first category can potentially be ‘bought’ while the second needs to be ‘grown’.

The boundaries do get blurred, as many Self-Contained BIMs can be grown from seeds too and Life-Style BIM components can indeed be acquired as semi-functional and off-the-shelf products, but overall this line of categorization is a safe tool to assess if one should contemplate engaging in a BIM-type experience on offer.

Another differentiation will be in clarity of scope, Self-Contained BIM jobs have clearly defined scope of works, while Life-Style BIMs often rely on ‘described outcomes’ that may be ambiguous.

Examples for the first group would be design or documenting in 3D, task-based applications like construction sequencing and logistics, model-based quantity take offs, all flavors of AEC visualizing.

By nature, no BIM is bad BIM, and I encourage anyone to give it a go – by self-performing or by insourcing as a service from others more skilled in the area. Even if an attempt to do things in a BIM-ish way is deemed to be unsuccessful, either due to perceived high cost or low value, there will likely be intangible benefits to all involved, experience to shape careers and progress.

And while I’ve long passed my BIM-evangelizing prime, everything considered, I get enthusiastic just about any BIM attempt I see, performed by just about anyone, qualified or not. 

Yet, I get very cautious about Life-Style BIMs.

So, how to distinguish these from the relatively low-risk Self-Contained BIMs.

The first rule of thumb is, that if the BIM scope requires a Plan to describe it (like BIM Strategy Plan, a BEP – Design/Construction, BIM Workflow) it is likely that we have a Lifestyler to deal with.

Pay attention to the ‘BIM Goals’ – if there is lot of lawyer-like speech in it, mixed with lofty expectations, there is danger:

“The goal of BIM incorporation is to effectively utilize current and future proven digital technologies to ensure the streamlining of design and construction processes, encourage greater stakeholder engagement, increase cost and time certainty, and to capture the necessary data for facilities management.

To achieve these goals the application of BIM technologies is required across all phases of the project ensuring the development of a coordinated BIM Model generally to LOD 300/350 for design and a construction deliverable of a LOD 350 model for XYZ’s facilities team to utilize.”

In general, Client initiated, mandated and across-project BIMs fall into this category.

They attempt to do BIM on large (and very large) scale, often based on best intentions but also bad advice. A client gets lured into a ‘better way of doing things’ by a BIM advocate and buys into an idea of all-or-nothing BIM.

The all-or-nothing BIM burns through the project, eats up people and companies and at the end no one wants to hear the dreadful TLA ever again. Apart from the overall BIM consultant, that can move onto their next victim. And the occasional BIM service provider that made good living out of an essentially Self-Contained BIM within the project. For example a Building Services Modeller.

The all-or-nothing approach would not be as fatal if they really meant it, i.e. if it was a true, cold turkey BIM only and no ‘traditional’ processes involved.

It would likely still fail but would at least make for an exhilarating ride for all. Instead, these Life-Style approaches like to keep their options open, the following statements just some examples to those intentions:

“The Contractor shall utilize the design consultant 3D Revit models to further develop specific trade/discipline models as defined in the Construction BIM Execution Plan, to achieve a high level of coordination between trades. Note 2D installation layout shop drawings will still be required to be issued for review and are expected to be an output from the 3D model where appropriate.”

When you recognize a tender you are invited to bid on that is as a Life-Style Mandate BIM project, what should you do?

To save your time reading through all these docs, search for the ‘notwithstanding, foregoing and herein’ legalese within the BIM sections and prepare your strategy accordingly.

Cutting the BIM approach to a Self-Contained size through NTTs is one route to take, though it can backfire if the BIM Consultant’s role is threatened by it.

Truly pricing for the open-ended BIM spec but also providing an alternative submission is another.

Of course fixing a price for something open-ended is a bit of an oxymoron, nevertheless you can give it a go, by at least defining the range.

Alternatively, you can play along and propose to fully comply with the Project BIM Plan and hope that the make-believe game of ‘Doing large scale BIM’ will last the length of the project while the BIM-thing will fizzle out.

On most Lifestylers, it does.

That is a pity, because, Life-Style BIM is an exceptionally good concept and will happen one day.

But at present, one cannot buy one. Not because it would be impossible to do it in current times, but because it would be prohibitively expensive, a bit like solving Auckland’s traffic problems by proposing everyone commutes flying around on personal jetpacks.

Flippancy aside, I’ll close with my favorite parallel: BIM is a language that is very different form all other languages AEC uses. In case of Self-contained BIM jobs, the language needs to be spoken by a relatively small number of stakeholders for the BIM to be successful. A project-wide BIM forces that language on everyone within the job. In current times, this is neither practical nor affordable.