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Revit for Projects

In a world full of standards, processes and technologies all developed and aimed to improve project delivery. There is a varying degree of how well this is achieved. It depends on many factors that must be coordinated and managed. By people who actually have the time to do so.

 

A common issue for many design teams is to be prepared for BIM before a suitable project is available or having a suitable project but not enough time to be ready for BIM.

It is quite evident that collaborating and coordinating between design teams in 3D is beneficial. And BIM is often not a formal requirement from the client on these design team driven 3D projects. It is also quite evident that there are some issues with this approach in terms of geographical coordination, clash detection management and developing and following or not following a BEP.

But, these are concerns that we deal with in the implementation of BIM to be prepared for a BIM project.

 

If on the other hand the waiting for a suitable project before moving to BIM is the preferred option, as it is for many practices. I.e. Revit is the driving factor. A custom Revit resource still need to be implemented along with some project setup support and training. But it is a much faster approach to getting the project up and running.

 

This is what the DDC Solutions – Revit for Projects does.

We install a BIM Level 2 / ISO 19650 compliant Revit Resource customized to the project.

The project team will be trained and ready to coordinate and collaborate on a 3D/BIM project in no-time.

Tags

#Revit #BIM #3D #Collaboration #Coordination #Architect #Engineer #Design

Inspired to progress, in the best way possible. By driving the innovation of technology, process and service to unify an industry. To communicate and collaborate to be the best we can be.
DDC Solutions

LinkedIn Jimi Clarke

Twitter @AEC_People

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BIM for Small Businesses

How to make the move to BIM and minimise risk to cash flow and disruption to the projects.

 

Question: Why is it that about 30-40% of small practices are not BIM compliant, when medium to large practices are reaching 80% for compliancy?

BIM Small Business
NBS Business BIM Adaptation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it due to the misconception that:

  • There is a high initial investment involved moving to BIM
  • BIM Implementation causes disruption to the practice
  • BIM doesn’t apply to small businesses
  • Small businesses don’t have the time or resources to manage the move to BIM

Possibly a mix of all those points mentioned?

The move to BIM and or Revit does not, should not, be that dramatic and problematic. Especially, for small businesses. Small businesses are in a really good position to make the move relatively fast and easy, as there is virtually no need for:

  • Complex chains of decision making
  • Planning for the effect on multiple departments and roles
  • Creation of a large-scale change management strategies
  • Provision of a continuous long-term training strategy for a large amount of people
  • Provision of simultaneous technical support for multiple projects for larger project teams
  • Issues that a large organisation would need to consider when making the implementation of BIM as smooth and effective as possible.

NOTE: With the DDC Solutions Small Business BIM Start-up Pack Options, there are also no need for:

  • Large investments (financial or time)
  • Long-term consultancy contracts

 

A small practice is in a position to make the decision to move to BIM on a relatively informal basis and could inform the project teams with the news and why, in a Monday morning office meeting. (The “why” is important though, so do tell the teams please).

So, what can a small business do to prepare for the move and minimise the concerns for disruptions, change management and financial/time cost?

The first thing to do (and its free): In-house Marketing. i.e. let the teams know a change is in the pipeline and illustrate the positives of why the practice is making this change. Put up a poster in the coffee area and hold a few forums for information and Q&A to let the people know they are involved and can have their say. Make sure that the teams know that it is not an overnight change and that support on technical skills and processes etc. will be provided. And finally, that their jobs are not on the line if they don’t adapt within a certain time period. The idea is that the practice will grow and develop as a team, together and in phases.

Next. (also, free) Arrange for an implementation plan. It is critical to see a plan and understand the time line and how it will affect cashflows and project plans. The plan should include practical training, document handover and technical resources and it should be clear on what the BIM status will be after the implementation. The proposed implementation plan should be free.

As for the investment in the move to BIM (i.e. implementing the agreed plan). It does not have to be all or nothing. It can be implemented in stages with consideration to cashflow and project needs. One thing to remember. It is often cheaper and less stressful to be prepared than to react to a demand.

There are lots of reasons why a small practice should make the move and you can read about the reasons and get an idea of the costs here:

https://www.ddcsolutions.co.uk/smallbusinessbim/

What you should know is that where ever you are in the process of making a decision about BIM. It does not have to be all or nothing, from day one. There are things you can do for free to help the practice and the actual cost and efforts, to make the move when you are ready, does not have to be that alarming.

 

Inspired to progress, in the best way possible. By driving the innovation of technology, process and service to unify an industry. To communicate and collaborate to be the best we can be.

DDC Solutions

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Small Business – BIM Startup Pack

Small Business BIM Startup Pack

This is not your average promotion! There will be no quick superficial information or pointless download links.

This promotion is serious, small business!

If you are a small business 1 – 20 staff and BIM is on your radar, this is for you.

DDC Solutions have put together a couple of options for small businesses to help getting on the BIM train.

If you respond to this promotion and sign up to one of the options, we give you all required documents for BIM Level 2 and ISO19650 compliancy for free. It is not integrated in to the fee in any other way and we don’t get it back through upselling or creating dependability.

This is genuine support for small businesses.

All options include: All documents (free), Full BIM Level 2 Revit Resources, 2 days training, Payment plan and discount on all other DDC Solutions services.

Option 1 – BIM/Revit Ready: £2199

Option 2 – BIM/Revit Project Startup £3995 – £4845 depending on number of days required.      Including Option 1 and:

  • Revit Resource Customization
  • Project setup and coordination
  • BIM Awareness training
  • EIR/BEP review and development

 

Option 3 – BIM/Revit Implementation £5395 – £6295 depending on number of days required. Including Option 2 and More customization, more training. more support

 

The offer is available until the 30/04/2019. But if you sign up to an option in February you get an additional 10% discount.

 

Now, let us prove to you why this is the way to go and why it is advisable to make the move sooner rather than later.

1. By not signing up to “full BIM” on day-one. The practice can ease in to the new standards and processes and the risk of cash flow issues and disruptions can be better managed. The Startup BIM pack help with this.

2. Small practices have the benefit of easier change management than larger practices and the implementation process is faster. The Startup BIM pack help with this.

3. About 30-40% of small businesses are still non-BIM compliant. With the major challenges to make the move to BIM being:

  • Knowledge and Skills
  • High initial investment cost
  • Time shortage

The Startup BIM pack help with all of this.

4. Start competing for contracts that require BIM Level 2, or from 2019, ISO19650 and offering an improved “BIM” and consistent service to your clients. The Startup BIM pack help with this.

5. The Centre for Digitally Built Britain and the UK Government, in combination with the publication of ISO19650. Is focusing attention of following the BIM process, to the developers from 2019. We have already seen examples of the requirements of complying to the new ISO19650 standards. And even if we at DDC Solutions don’t think it’s a “code red” type situation. We do believe that the demands of BIM and ISO19650 from the developers, will increase faster than it did for the designers back in 2016. It is better to be prepared than to respond to a requirement for BIM in any shape or form. The Startup BIM pack help with this.

6. Watch this video linked from our website for a practical example and feedback from a known practice on how BIM can benefit a small practice.

https://www.ddcsolutions.co.uk/bim-for-sme/

 

In 2018 DDC Solutions implemented BIM and Revit for:

Stiff & Trevillion – Medium Practice

DSDHA – Medium Practice

Catja De Hass – Small Practice

Consarch – Small Practice

 

Contact us today for further information and with reference to this BIM Startup Pack promotion to apply the 10% discount offer.

Call us on: +44 203 8840975

Email: jimi@aecpeople.co.uk

 

Inspired to progress, in the best way possible. By driving the innovation of technology, process and service to unify an industry. To communicate and collaborate to be the best we can be.

DDC Solutions

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Season for sowing and reason for Revit

This article, purely and simply, highlights a few things that are good with Revit. It’s not biased and it’s not personal preference. There are other platforms out there that provide good aspects and advantages too, but the aim here is to inform and share my experiences if you are considering migrating your CAD/”BIM” platform . . . and Revit is a good choice.

If you are considering when to make the move, then NOW, December 2018, is a good time to saw your software seeds, so that you are ready and equipped for the changes in 2019. True to DDC Solutions’s ethos and goals, we want to be transparent as possible; We work in partnership with our clients, forming long term relationships, assisting where we can. In order to help you, we are currently running a promotional offer for the early birds, where not only do you receive the software licence at cost…YES….AT COST….. BUT we, DDC Solutions, will also help you with additional added value, free advice and give you additional discounts on ALL our other services…..”WHAT” I hear you say “At Cost, free and discounts!”….. As I mentioned, we collaborate with our clients and help where we can. So, take advantage of our “December Promotional offer”, get in touch with one of our friendly staffs to see how we could help your practice get ready for 2019.

 

See the article Get in gear on the topic of changes to come from 2019.

https://www.ddcsolutions.co.uk/getingear/

Ok, so back to the information on Revit.

I will use my experience from previous and existing clients and only illustrate what is true for the majority of the cases. For some of these clients the choice was to migrate completely to Revit and for some, the choice was to integrate Revit in to the practice to be coordinated with the existing platforms (e.g. Vector Works or MicroStation etc.). In doing so, we needed to ensure that the clients and wider design teams could collaborate and coordinate across platforms. Great, all done. Back to Business as usual then.

 

Implementation

Implementation of Revit. When comparing the implementation time and reliability of Revit to other systems, Revit is much faster, more reliable and takes configuration and technical complexity in to consideration. It helps to have an established implementation structure in place but, even when starting from a vanilla Revit download, it is still faster and more reliable. Something I personally started for a new client only last week (28/11/2018).

 

BIM Level 2

To make the software you choose to implement work with the BIM Level 2 process (that you also should implement), one would need some experience and technical knowledge to carry out the customisation. But, when comparing the time and energy required to customise the software to meet these requirements, Revit has caused the least issues and delays. Revit has also allowed the project teams to start producing information and collaborating with the wider design teams, much faster.

Part of the ease in establishing these standards and processes are due to, well first, understanding how Revit works. But also, to the quite easy work environment that Revit present you with. I dare to say that Revit has one of the easiest User Interface of all software. There are some cross connections, configurations and Revit principles that need to be understood. But we are comparing here, and Revit is easier!

 

Learning and modelling

The easy UI helps when you train up new users. They “get it” very fast. (some credit must go to the trainer as well). I am comparing this with experience on delivering workshops and training sessions on MicroStation, AECOsim, Solibri, Navisworks and having attended training from “market leaders”. There is definitely a right and a wrong way to deliver training! With the right delivery method, Revit allows the users to do very impressive stuff in very short time whilst being more efficient and more cost effective, for the practice…. In other words,…saves you time and saves you money!

Examples are:

  • Full concept models for large commercial and office blocks developed over 14h, with no previous experience of Revit at all.
  • A team of one with no previous Revit experience at all, migrating from a 2D platform and delivered a fully coordinated project stage in less than 4 weeks.
  • A team of 2 delivered the interiors of a large shopping centre in 4 months with no previous Revit experience. The project was coordinated with building architects and structures across the globe.

 

Project Coordinates

The next topic is not an easy one and is one that causes a lot of issues and confusion on all platforms. I am obviously talking about Project Coordinates. Sure, it’s not a beginner’s topic, but the setup and management of project coordinates in Revit is, in my experience, much more approachable and allows for cross platform coordination, even if other stakeholders don’t know how to set up Shared Coordinates properly (it happens). i.e. Revit allow for different coordination setups. And with the Management system DDC Solutions implement, the Revit Project Coordinates is pretty robust.

 

Output

Getting the information, you need out of the Revit model is something that the users are very positive about.

We do need an understanding of parameters and some settings and it comes with a little bit of a learning curve. But the learning curve is not as steep as with other platforms and the ease of how one can get the information output is brilliant. Schedules, Drawings, DWG, DGN, IFC, COBie, PDF. It’s all automated (after a sound implementation) i.e. the data update as you produce, and the export and prints are all batch enabled and pre-set to output at a “click of a button”.

 

Everything mentioned here can be done with other platforms as well! Revit is not technically unique with the points in this article. But, what I have seen over the years is that these points raised here, are in general, much easier in the Revit environment and the users don’t have to deal with technically difficult user interfaces, raising support calls on configuration issues or deal with hordes of reference models and CAD layers. Working in the Revit environment is a lot friendlier than with some other platforms and so is coordinating across disciplines.

If you are looking to move to Revit and are and are unsure as to when/how to purchase the licenses, then get in touch.

DDC Solutions will help you with the cost of both software and implementation and will ensure that your investment is future proof and the teams ready to reap the rewards.

 

 

 

 

Tags

#Revit#Preparation#BIM #Licneses #BIMLevel2 #Discounts

Inspired to progress, in the best way possible. By driving the innovation of technology, process and service to unify an industry. To communicate and collaborate to be the best we can be.
DDC Solutions

LinkedIn Jimi Clarke

Twitter @AEC_People

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Custom Revit ini

Honour the settings in Revit

 

This article aims to help with some questions relating to the use of a custom Revit ini file.

The initiative to test and write this came from some questions raised to me in person and some existing threads online, dating back to 2015, about the ini file settings not taking effect when launching Revit.

The first question I had then was. Have the ini file been customised in a text editor only or was the settings set from with-in Revit? E.g. Family Template location set in the Revit options to be written to a blank FamilyTemplatePath line in the ini file.

When developing an ini file. The standard settings should be setup and written to the ini file from within Revit and then saved. This version of the ini file, stored in the users roaming location, should serve as the default ini file for a deployment or standalone installation. I.e. save that copy of the ini file from the user roaming location in to the UserDataCache location in the general resources on the network. Then delete the ini from the user roaming location and the ProgramData location.

My second question was. Is the Revit install based on a Deployment or a Standalone install?

If the installation is from a deployment you need to ensure that the installGUID value is defined and identical in the copy of the ini file in both the ProgramData/ UserDataCache and the users roaming location.

i.e. don’t edit the installGUID.

One issue that I had, and you might have come across, is that even if you have an identical InstallGUID in both locations. Still the settings are not picked up. Why? I don’t know. But What I did to fix this was to run a repair of Revit to generate a new ini file. I then copied over the custom ini settings to the new ini file generated from the repair.

I did copy over line by line and fired up Revit after each copy, but I never came across the root if the issue again. But Revit is now picking up the settings.

Once the ini file has been created and Revit deployed or installed on a single machine. The ini file should be copied (or deployed to all users via PowerShell) to the ProgramData/ UserDataCache.

When Revit is fired up, a copy of the ini file is saved to the users roaming location and the custom settings in the ini file should be picked up.

So, some key points:

  • Run a Revit repair to generate a new ini file with the InstallGUID
  • Copy the custom ini lines in to the new ini file. Generated by opening Revit and making the settings, as well as typing the lines for the settings you need e.g. Export file locations etc.
  • Save as a default ini file to the resources
  • Use for deployment
  • Don’t edit the installGUID
  • Make sure the PC have access to the network before you are testing. (that was 10 min I never get back!!)

 

#revit #ini #configuration #aecpeople