BIM by numbers

As well as dropping the initially very promising 5D viewer, Vico has gone away from pushing the concept of “recipes”.

These claims I make based on the (previously mentioned in this blog) product demonstration I had the pleasure of attending recently.

While the first one saddens me, the second move is good.

“Recipes” was not a helpful word to use in the context of an intelligent construction planning toolset.

Not because of its inaccuracy.

The word correctly portrayed the information needed to be collected to fully describe the ‘ingredients’ and ‘steps to be performed’ for a building element, it was more the dangerous suggestion of a ‘BIM by numbers approach’ it tended to reinforce, that I did not like.

Funnily enough, in principle, I’d love to have a ‘BIM by numbers approach’ in place. One day.

I just think, it is a long way ahead for most companies doing anything BIM these days.

It requires the type of ‘knowledge banks’ that most cannot dream of yet, databases that include not just routinely used company and project information but also an extensive collection of know-how, all recorded and structured in ways that are not ‘natural’ for how these companies currently operate.

Time to scale back from the big vision and get some meaningful BIM under way, whether you call those information packages ‘recipes’ or something else.

But, how do you KNOW it is correct?

This is the question I drive everyone nuts-with around work.

They think, it is a trick-question designed to trip them up.

No, I am genuinely interested, how all the entities claiming to be doing BIM models built-off other parties’ 2D outputs are able to satisfy themselves that the 3D model is the accurate representation of the drawings.

Not that it can’t be done, but is it practical?

When you need one party to chew through hundreds (if not thousands) of drawings to interpret and digitise the building, will another do the same, just to check the first’s work is acceptable?

Are ‘spot’ checks really efficient? Are QA procedures really any good?

There is an emerging army of BIM service providers claiming to be specialists in the field, able to create singing-dancing multi-D virtual buildings off anyone’s documentation.

Pretty renders, stills and animations of small to large projects are eagerly distributed to potential clients as proofs to these capabilities.

However when it comes to QA processes their offerings are all pretty ‘bland’, filled with procedural jargon, checklists and tables that give no assurance for me that they cracked this mystery.

I accept that whoever does crack it, will own a pretty nifty piece of IP and won’t want to share it with anyone.

I also suspect, to recognise the real one when I come across it.

Just because a cure exists...does not make it automatically affordable.

Where did we get with this ‘BIM’ thing?

Many clever heads before me have recognised publicly and documented widely that the AEC industry is a highly inefficient and clumsy beast.

There is ‘sort-of’ enough evidence out there to prove that applying a BIM approach to many projects within it would fix up some of the inherent issues the industry has.

But then, there is the subject of cost.

Promoters of BIM like to brush this ‘little problem’ aside...

If pushed, they’d come up with case studies, percentages saved, crises avoided, painstakingly tracked, tabled, monetised.

How often you’d get the claim “300 RFI’s that were resolved before construction...saved us xxx buckets of money...”?

I don’t necessary disagree with this approach used to justify the introduction of a new set of tools to a project or business, I still wish to sound a little warning:

It is complicated!

Much more complicated than a simple equation can describe.

While the problems are often called ‘systematic’ they are also, most of the time triggered by simple errors compounding to bigger effects much harder to handle.

Similarly, the benefits are rarely immediate and straight forward, often delayed and serving a different party to the one that originally invested in the improvements.

Should everyone in AEC contemplate employing BIM?

Absolutely!

But do understand, the question of ROI isn’t easy to answer!

I saw my second pink Hummer in a week...

A cool car if ever there was one...

Am not really a petrol-head (who’d admit to be one), still I often talk about personal transportation, as a manmade system we can learn a lot from.

All of us daily commuters are not friends, business relations, not even acquaintances.

Common to us all is that we need to get from A to B, with as little hassle as possible. So, we abide (mostly) by the rules, operate the machinery in a reasonable manner and look out for the fellow travellers.

Based on these very-basic but common goals and objectives, this system of multiple-parts is continuing to develop all around the world.

Now, imagine if there was a large portion of the travellers that refused to operate the machinery.

No problem, you’d say, that is what taxis, public transport, chauffeur driven limos are there for.

But, what if this segment, due to personal beliefs, fear, arrogance or ignorance decide that the only way they’d take part in this system is by using horses and carts, driven by others.

What would this do to a dynamically developing system of infrastructure, vehicles and road-rules that we are familiar with?

Adjusted speed limits? Allowances made for horse watering holes?

An army of coach drivers matched by another of no-drivers?

Sounds bizarre?

Welcome to information-management within the AEC, as performed globally.

I don’t answer my mobile phone while I’m in meetings...

Nor at lunches, dinners, presentation or whenever someone is interacting with me in ‘real’.

Call me old fashioned, I find the practice rude.

Emergencies? OK, there are some, I admit. But current mobile technology will allow the receiver to know the caller, the place called-from, even the emotional level the message is likely to be set-at before the call needs to be answered.

There is a ‘BIM’ aspect of this little annoyance of mine and today I’ll attempt to describe here, what I call the ‘AEC engineer’s communication paradox’.

The AEC is staffed by a large number of well educated, smart, generally practical and able engineers of various disciplines, age and experience.

Common to most is their strong attachment to the mobile phone, depending on geography they operate in, sometimes two, or even three of them.

Observing them from a distance you’d think their lives are planned out in detail, their work highly efficient.

Contrast this the way they handle project information, building based, something that is at the core of their professional being.

They get someone else to create it, manipulate it, store it, share it...

They must always answer their phone as if their life was dependent on it (and most of the time it is not) yet, they hand over all responsibility to project information to draftsmen, caddies, admin people and others.

Throwing BIM pearls before...

Yesterday’s post was too specific yet cryptic.

That’s the feedback. Well, let me clear the message I hid so well (badly) only few may have got:

Some BIM products’ sellers should be allowed to set an entry test for their users before they were offered to buy them.

A minimum level of BIM IQ – a threshold of understanding of the approach, below what the clever software was not an option to purchase.

Sounds arrogant?

Maybe. Supply and demand are strong drivers of markets. Limited distribution of a BIM-toolset to only those that use it properly could ultimately turn into a wise decision for a developer.

It is not unusual for educational institutions to select whom they would take on as clients.

Could this not be applicable to BIM suppliers?

Does not tend to be, unfortunately.

The reason I did not spell this thought clearly out yesterday was partially because it was about Vico, and I am unsure of its current abilities, stability, robustness etc...

So, I could not suggest that they take up such selective marketing as to test their prospects before they offer-up for purchase.

But then, little old me, I’m happy to say that I have my own threshold I carefully maintain when I choose for whom I will work for.

Sadly, this had not always been the case and may change too.

What is your BIM IQ?

“With due respect”...said the guy forewarning that what he was about to say, paid no respect to his target...

Can’t quite remember his exact words, but he was belittling the presentation that the young-lady just delivered showing Vico, live.

Now, demonstrating any software real-time is a tricky-business, not recommended for the faint hearted. A bit like attempting tricky acts on stage, performing on the trapeze even...

I was contemplating in wonderment what the presenter just delivered, a sample-workflow shown real-time using an incredibly complex suite, so I missed the beginning of the chap’s talk.

Thankfully got the gist of it by the end, it was to do with how the software-providers presenting were trivialising the tasks that the audience faced daily, you-know, MEP coordination!

MEP coordination? Uttered in the same sentence with a putdown for Vico’s Office shown life in all its beauty?

True, she used only a limited number of building elements in her file. It is not a good sign either when GS’s building-site and brick-buildings are paraded endlessly to prove a point.

The 4D clip shown at the beginning started its life as a revolutionary 5D sample some 5 years ago, so maybe that was a bit of a let-down too.

Still, MEP coordination?

I should choose the events I attend more carefully.

Sorry organisers, my compliments do go to your lady-presenters!

The (lack of) BIM apprenticeships

Many clever heads before me had put their ideas and efforts into explaining why and where the ‘generation thing’ is letting BIM down, I tend to look at it as a see-saw too hard to get into a balanced state.

Consider those in their early twenties entering the profession and you can see they aren’t getting the opportunities they should. A youngster with some inclination to develop within the BIM field will very quickly find his wings clipped and be forced to play-ball (traditional) or search-for more exciting fields to put his talents against.

But then, spare a thought for the forty-somethings, themselves only just making it on the rickety ladder of professional success, having a ‘new’ BIM thing showed down their throat, something that they often ill-understand and would rather ignore.

Rare is the company that manages this see-saw well and gets the best out of both parties.

This than results in an industry where no meaningful BIM apprenticeships exist to those wishing to subject themselves to challenging and demanding boot-camps that will earn them their ‘rite of passage’.

In parallel, those that have spent decades in getting where they are, but more importantly learning what they’ve learned, are afforded no real platforms for passing on the knowledge without looking stupid and out of their depth (on some of the aspects of the BIM-thing).

When did promoting BIM turned to be so un-cool?

When did it happen?

One day you are the flavour of the month, the forward thinker, the innovator, your name is uttered with the utmost respect by the highest ranking in the company...

....next, you feel like you’re selling the idea of eating green broccoli for breakfast to a bunch of preschoolers.

One day people tower over your screen in dozens to admire the latest interactive digital creation you produced, breathlessly watch every move of your mouse. They forward you BIM related internet findings, they refer to you their colleagues with BIM aspirations...

next...they treat you like you were all of the company’s H&S and Q&A officers blended into one and no one shares their table with you at the cafeteria.

One day you are their savour, the ticket out of the drudgery of everyday work, the tamer of the 2D dragon...

...next, you are part of the fun-police, you make rules, talk policies, procedures and are boring (even to yourself...)

The ‘research’ label is dropped from your door, the hologram of your business card fades.

You no longer feel ‘leading’ anything and even your biggest fans stop referring to you as the ‘cutting-edge dude’.

An everyone’s-friend, geek-prince you find yourself turned into a detested autocratic frog!

If this is what one means by maturing BIM, I can’t say that I like it.

Can your Grid do what mine can?

Daily blogging has gifted me with a stable readership.

Steady if largely passive, mostly and thankfully, polite too. Any ‘abuse’ I get comes from those that know me and would probably challenge me regardless of the medium.

Occasionally an anonymous spike hits, but comparing to the ‘anonymous’ phone threats I was subjected-to in the past from concerned competitors, these I easily brush aside.

All-in-all getting on with the blog...

BTW – did you know that ‘generic’ blogging is a bit of a geriatric thing nowadays?

Tumblr is all the rage. Must make an effort to explore it a bit...and if I miss it, there will be another coming up soon...A bit like buses... Or was it girlfriends, someone famous said?

Read a good book last week: Ian McEwan – Solar. Recommend it. Even managed to get my husband to read it, started at the middle, but got back to the beginning and is close to finishing it without losing interest.

Apart from the beautifully crafted language I so enjoy from McEwan it is the way he deals with global warming.

In a thoroughly ‘refreshing’ way if I may attempt a pun.

I wish he could get interested in the subject of BIM.

And what about the grid from the title?

Just realised that Archicad’s grids indeed turn towards the viewer.

The little Mona-Lisas of the BIM world!