Misusing made up words...

Oh words,  you silly silly things you...

After a 2 1/2 hour dialogue this week involving the terminology BIM, we have reached a point where it is as generic as saying CAD or model or ice cream (you gelato people know what I mean...). 

Why, you ask? 

Theoretical Rant:: start::

BIM originally was a push towards a dynamic building model,  which was a resolution of the traditional issues with 2-dimensional documents that were not linked to elevations, sections, etc. Moving into a 3-dimensional environment 10-15 years ago, architects began utilizing 3D for visualization, unconnected models that were detached from the document set.  As we matured, and CADD marketing intervened, we came to realize that we needed architectural models that were the basis of our design, and 2D 'views' dynamically derived in real-time from said model(s).

This, depending on which marketing ploy you conceded to, become Object-oriented modelling or BIM. Throw in some intelligent databasing for scheduling, and you have the basis for what Bentley, Autodesk, Archicad, and others are marketing as BIM today. 

That's great. 

But today the terminology is changing, as we are working dynamically outside the bounds of the architects' offices. Engineers, contractors, and fabricators, are all entering into the 3D arena. One model is not the case anymore, as you have system models that overlay from the EOR and DC trades. Simulation, analytical, cost tracking, sequencing, coordination, and E&O models all exist. BIM has become watered down with all of these.

And worse.

Lawyers are entering into the fray. AIA, AGC, and owners are all trying to interpret this landscape, and without a clear lexicon, this will only create greater confusion.

Where will this go? Hopefully a clean restating of terms. BIM needs to go away, as it is beyond recovery now. We need to look to the future, or even get to where things are today. This includes moving beyond the marketing brochure. This includes a clear definition of activities, who is doing what, and the processes that extend all the way through the lifespan of the model.  

Without this ground, we will not be able to move beyond the developers, able to control and shape the tools and methodologies on our terms.

::end::Theoretical Rant

And ice cream is egg based. Gelato is not ice cream. Sorbet is not ice cream. Get with the times people, these are critical distinctions!!

Zen and the Art of Sheet Setup

So, with this impending deadline, I've spent the last 48 hours setting up 70 some sheets as part of our drawing set. Ah, I can hear the virtual envy in your voices. But this has brought about some introspective thinking about how I would approach this time consuming and dramatically in-need-of-automating task:

• Rinse and Repeat - in a central database environment, it should be expected (unless noted otherwise) that a view will end up on a sheet. That being said, even though there have been great strides in making this more efficient, there is still a level of tediousness when setting up 200+ sheets, especially with plan blow-ups, etc.
  
• Think Indesign - Page layout apps have come a long way in the last 10 years, and CAD apps need to make the same strides. 'Heavy' processing of views is just tedious for large projects, wading from view lists to sheets, and easy guide snapping would be a good thing. Seriously.
• Lite is not just for Beer - With the heavy processing work occuring in the central model, a streamlined viewer or 'page layout' GUI would make life just dandy for large projects. Intelligent video card management, thumbnail placements, and only parsing the database for necessary information would make the process much more efficient and cut down the number of objects being thrown in anger around the office (we are now using only paper cups, and all bottle cap lids are confiscated in the kitchen).
  
• Group Therapy - Going back to multi-disciplanary central database models, we are currently carrying some of our consultants sheets in our BIM model, but they have no way to access and control the layout or content. Turning this into a central file for the entire family will not only make it easier to have one source of content, but allow for easier standardization of consultant sheets back to the main format and content management.
  

This is not meant to be a bitch-fest, but identification of a task that is hammering us from the efficiency side. A little more love in this area could both speed up and simplify this task as well as make it easier to push out to the entire extended team.

Food for thought, I'm going to bed.

G'night Jonboy,