Tag: collaboration

Reconcile Hosting is a Dockable UI Panel for re-hosting orphaned elements

Luke Johnson

Have you ever used Reconcile Hosting?  When you click the appropriate button in the Ribbon, a new UI panel appears (see image below).  You can also assign a Keyboard Shortcut to this panel, although it doesn’t appear as a checkbox item in the View — User Interface list.

You can use the “Sort” button to change the way the list is sorted, and the Show button will take you directly to the appropriate place in the Model to view and “Pick New Host”.

Simply viewing the Reconcile Hosting panel gives you the View Name and Element ID of the orphaned elements.

The panel can be closed by using the X in the top right corner.

Read more:
Reviewing Orphaned Elements from Linked Models – WikiHelp

BIM and VDC tips for multi-disciplinary coordination

Luke Johnson

There is a lot of practical wisdom presented in this recent article by Gensler’s Jared Krieger.

He recommends against “BIM execution plans as long as 50 pages, with page after page of information and procedures.”

A few more interesting quotes:
discussion early on about which team members will be modeling which pieces of the building

where should the model be during the schematic design, design development, and construction document phases

setting up a duplicate workset with the consultants’ grids so they can be turned on and off as needed

On clashes:
concentrate on the areas where you know there are going to be problems. You can’t let the computer do everything. Good architects know where they need to focus their coordination efforts.

During team meetings:
only team members who are proficient in Revit get to drive the model

This one is sure to raise some eyebrows:
“Anything in a design that is smaller than two inches in size—such as wire, conduit, and pipe—should not be modeled, because small components can usually be worked around larger components on site”

Read the whole article:
http://www.bdcnetwork.com/my-bim-journey-%E2%80%93-6-lessons-bimvdc-expert

"More people will contribute to projects in much smaller chunks…"

Luke Johnson

In case you missed this recent article, note how the comments of Philip Rosedale can actually apply to the future of the AEC industry:

“If the technology changes to make it easier for negotiating and knowing what the work product is, and knowing how people are performing, and it becomes easier to do things in smaller and smaller chunks and with more granularity and with less hassle, the nature of firms and the structure of firms will probably change,” he said. “Obviously, they will go down in size and the relationships will become much more transactional. So,” Rosedale said, “my belief became that the future of work will be some sort of a situation in which many more people will contribute to projects in much smaller chunks,” he said.  
…
“I was struck by the thought that we’re reaching a point where the scale and complexity of the things we’re building exceeds our capability as individuals to do planning around them,” he said.

Read more:
Peter Diamandis: Creating a Company Without Employees: Philip Rosedale on Coffee and Power and the Future of Entrepreneurship

collaborate (ANZ) goes live

Luke Johnson

From the About page:
We don’t want to re-invent the wheel. We’re fully aware that many groups / professional bodies / organisations are already out there doing their bit to assist the general direction and goals of the industry.  We differ from these groups in that we wish to present an holistic and unified representation of the AEC industry without attachment to any particular discipline or professional body by using practicing industry professionals to produce meaningful, unbiased recommendations.  We will provide advice to those producing documents and guidelines for BIM / IPD as well as clients that wish to know more about BIM; both what it can do for them and what they can realistically expect from the industry.

To find out more, check out http://collaborate-anz.com, and request to join by filling out the form at:
collaborate (ANZ)

Global Collaboration across Multiple Offices

Luke Johnson

Collaboration is the buzzword in the AEC community for 2013.  Something relatively unique to the current era of technology is Architectural collaboration – more than one firm of Architects working on a single project.

But how do we collaborate across large geographic distances?  And how do Architectural collaborators (we are not talking about consultants here) handle modelling standards and model management in general?

There is so much rhetoric out there, both from a technological and a psychological perspective.  There are a plethora of cloud-implemented technologies, including Revit Server and VEO.  There are a bunch of different theories about the best way to control the entire process.

So, what is your firm doing to solve these problems?

Consider a few thoughts from this case study posted in August 2012, co-authored by Cara Gastonguay, Associate AIA LEED AP, Payette and Carolyn Hoef, Associate AIA LEED BD+C, Ayers Saint Gross.

Different firms have varying electronic standards, and templates and conventions. In the BIM world this also means varying project file templates, families, detail components and even line styles. Choose one team to lead file set-up and commit to using one firm’s library of families and graphic standards.

reference view tags such as section markers, elevation markers and callouts do not appear in the host model. For example, an enlarged plan callout in the partner file will simply not appear when linked into the host file. To work around this issue, we coordinated “dummy views”...

Read more at:
Notes on BIM Collaboration across Multiple Offices

Multi discipline BIM Collaboration

Luke Johnson

I am very interested multi-discipline BIM collaboration techniques, and I enjoy seeing how these techniques are applied in case studies and ‘real world’ situations. Check out the video below:

The workshop aimed to “showcase BIM as a more efficient and effective way for project teams to collaborate, promoting a higher level of understanding and adoption of BIM within the profession and construction industry.” (link)

Toob link via
Revit Professional: BIM Workshop.Conclusion