BIM and FM people, new Labs Project

I hope you facilities management types out there, that are keeping an eye out for such things, have noticed the new project from Autodesk Labs.

They're currently testing an application which provides a link between Maximo and Revit (for those non-FM people, IBM Maximo is a CMMS, or a computerized maintenance management system, aka, work orders).

You can get download and test here. If you can try it out, be sure to provide feedback, that's what they want and need to see if they can make this a viable product.

From the Labs site:

Richly attributed data about building assets, that are developed in Revit during the building design and construction phases, can be published directly into Maximo during commissioning or at building "handover," thus supporting more immediate and efficient use of Maximo once the building is occupied. The Revit asset data can be exported in the COBie data specification, if desired. In addition, the BIM/3D asset data can be viewed inside Maximo, in context with Maximo applications and processes.
The technology preview consists of an add-in to Revit 2013 and integrated visualization of Autodesk^® BIM 360 Glue^™ viewer inside Maximo Version 7.1 or newer.

Autodesk® BIM 360™ Glue is a data-centric, cloud-based management solution for building and infrastructure projects that provides easier access to project models and data to support collaborative, multidisciplinary workflows across authoring tools and project control applications. It enhances cross-team coordination globally as updates are made more quickly available in project models. For more information about BIM 360 Glue, please go to www.autodesk.com/bim360

Download an introductory video here. 

My facility has not yet upgraded to Maximo, but, I hope we'll be able to get it done soon.

AUGI 2012 Salary Survey is Revamped!

As promised last year, I decided to take a fresh look at the AUGI Salary Survey this time around. The questions hadn't changed much from the original format I inherited when I started with the 3rd survey, so the whole thing was pretty much scrapped, and we've started with a clean slate.
I appreciate all of the input from fellow AUGI members, as well as my instructors and professors at SLU.

This year's survey consists of 24 questions, roughly broken down into four areas:
Your demographic
Your role
Your company demographic
Your industry's state

As always, this is an anonymous survey. I am the only one who will ever have access to the database of individual entries, the answers cannot be tied back to you or your company in any way, and the information will only be reported in broad groups.

I did bring back some popular questions that will enable us to trend back for a couple of years. But, there will also be some new questions to help focus on the state of our industries.

Did you receive an increase or decrease in pay? Are you thinking about leaving your job? If so, why?
What market does your company serve or how do they specialize? Has your workload increased or decreased this year? Has your outsourcing increased or decreased this year? Have you let subscriptions lapse or purchased new software and hardware? What percentage of your projects are BIM, and, if you are doing BIM, why? Is cloud computing a go or no-go? How did you find your current role, through networking or advertising?

The AUGI Annual Salary Survey is about so much more than just salaries.
BUT! Of course, we all need to participate in order to have data from which we can draw valid conclusions about which industries are performing the best, which have the happiest and most secure employees and so much more.

Application Engineers, Programmers, Architects, Designers, Managers and Coordinators (CAD/BIM/Project, etc), Drafters, Trainers, Interns, etc... speak and be heard!

The survey ends August 4th, get your answers in now and see the results in the September 2012 issue of AUGIWorld Magazine!!! 

(wordle mashup of markets served and specialties)

Autodesk Facility Management Suite 2013

IF Autodesk delivered a Facility Management Suite (which they do not), here is what should be in it.


Facility Management Suite - Standard

AutoCAD MEP
Revit MEP
Raster Design
Image Modeler
Vault

For the Premium Suite, add Showcase and Constructware
For the Ultimate Suite, throw in Green Building Studio

Yes, I know what a couple of you are thinking. You're wondering why I did not include Navisworks (or Adobe Acrobat Viewer) on my list.
Navisworks Freedom is not a Facilities Management (CAFM) tool, and Navisworks Manage has some great features, but, they are extreme overkill for day to day operational needs.

If some have found uses for Navisworks post-construction, in the built environment, that is great! But, in the opinion of someone who has been working in the Facilities Engineering department of a six million square foot medical center (where any given space is renovated once every thirteen years, but, maintained every day) for well over a decade, I declare that it is not a viable approach long-term.

See this conversation on the AUGI forums for thoughts and ideas from both sides of the fence:
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?117785-Linking-Data-Spreadsheet-to-Navisworks-for-Facility-Management

We take in data from various construction projects. We archive the project, then work the MEPFP components into a patchwork quilt which we work off of. If we make one-off changes in-house, those will be drawn up and changed on our documents (using AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP). We then distribute bits and pieces of this information to architects, engineers and general contractors who work on the 50-75 construction projects we have going on around our campus at any given time.
Since we are over 100 years old now, we do have a vast library of scanned blueprints spanning a century of new construction and renovations. Raster Design would be a fabulous addition to our toolset, filling in gaps in our more current electronic records.
With so much information in our archives (that might need to be accessed at any random time), and with such a geographically scattered work team, a good data management solution is in order.
 In their spare time, our staff engineers attempt to find ways to modernize our buildings and reduce our energy consumption. Once they identify projects, they must sell them to our executives in order to compete for the scant funding available.

Well, now that I have shared what should be in an Autodesk Product Suite geared toward the Facilities customer, I will be serious for a moment and let you know that I will soon have the opportunity to post a review of the AutoCAD Design Suite, if you'd like the chance to read about something that actually is for sale.

Medical Facility Moves from AutoCAD to BIM

This is the first article in a series, documenting the process that a multi-million square foot hospital went through to make the big move from 2d to 3d.

Moving from AutoCAD to BIM for Building Floor Plans – The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University’s BIM Implementation Project

By Joe Porostosky, Senior Manager of Facilities Information and Technology Services at The Ohio State University

The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University is reaching the end of  a project to convert all of our buildings from 2D AutoCAD drawings to 3D Building Information Models.  This project covers 53 buildings and slightly more than six million square feet.  Over the next five blog posts, my colleague, Brian Skripac, and I will share how the project was initiated, how it was executed, and the impact it has had on the Medical Center.

At that time, we identified the following as the immediate benefits of the implementation:

    High quality 3D visualizations
    Energy analysis and modeling
    Improved planning in the areas of space, operations, security, and others
    Improved drawing accuracy via field verification and further use of as-built documentation
    Time savings in updating to the BIM model following construction or renovation projects versus AutoCAD
    Utilizing industry standard drawing standards
    Improved communication with leadership and customers as it relates to space usage and layout

I encourage you to read the entire article. I'll try to remember to comment and link when the next installments are posted.

What version of AutoCAD are you currently using?

This month AUGI is running a poll on the homepage, there are still a few more days left to take part, so please go to www.augi.com and cast your vote.

The survey is over on the right-hand column, below the Quick Links.

You can see the results of last month's poll in HotNews.
Please feel free to chime in, no matter what flavor of AutoCAD you're using... vanilla, LT, electrical, mechanical, architecture, mep...

Please pick the primary version you/your company is currently using. We'd really like to know.

I'll be adding a little bit of commentary on the article with the numeric results, and I'd love to quote you! Please add a comment below (or shoot me an email) with a quick reason for the version you are using. For example:

We're using 2012 (MEP) because we only have 3 seats in-house and work with a lot of outside files, so it is just simpler to keep on the current release. - Melanie Perry, facilities management

We're using 2005 (vanilla) because we use an add-on software that hasn't been updated to work on a newer version of AutoCAD. - Joe Schmoe, ABC HVAC

Thank you for your participation!

OT: Blackout Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://www.cadablog.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-take-on-sopapipa.html

http://www.blog.cadnauseam.com/2012/01/18/dark-times-dark-sites/

And, of course, being as this blog focuses a lot on Autodesk software, here's a pointed statement reminding folks that, despite their appearance on crowdsourced lists, Autodesk does not, in fact, support SOPA.

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2012/01/autodesk-does-not-support-sopa.html

2011 - Finally

2011 is the year I was waiting for... looking forward to finally completing my Bachelor's degree at age 31. Not quite as soon as I would have liked to do it, but, I'm happy for the opportunity to finish what I'd started so many years ago.

I have been rather busy with my studies and wrote a couple of posts on how I was doing, earlier this year, as well as back in 2009.

If you'd like to know a bit about the coursework I went through during my time at Saint Louis University, feel free to check out this list I put together as an additional page of the blog. There were certainly some fascinating subjects, and some useful and satisfying ones.

Of course, I could not have even dreamed of this without the support of my amazing husband, Mike, and the tolerance of our sons. I also benefited from the support of my boss and coworkers and fellow working students... you are all amazing people glowing with positive energy, Thank You!!!

Announcing Inventor Fusion - it's on the Mac

Although my work is multidisciplinary (MEPFP), I try to post generic tips and tricks for AutoCAD that anyone can use, but, my writing is always coming from the perspective of someone in the AEC industry. I do love manufacturing, though. At one of my earlier Autodesk Universities, I got to play with Inventor in the AUGI Playpen and fell in love. Later on, I even helped to prepare the presentation of the first Inventor Wishlist at AU2005 in Orlando. Too bad I've never needed to take a class on it, because the software is pretty darned neat and a far cry from the type of work I usually do.

So, what's the big news? The thing that made me carve out a sliver of my day to pepper Senior Product Line Manager, Kevin Schneider, with questions?

That would be the launch of Inventor Fusion.

 Those of you who keep an eye on the Autodesk Labs have likely heard of Fusion, since it's been in a Beta state for a couple of years now (from January 2009 through Fall of 2011), where it has been downloaded over 150,000 times.
While Fusion can be used on it's own, it will also work with AutoCAD, Inventor, Algor, Moldflow and AliasDesign. 

Schneider explains that Fusion is not intended as a replacement for Inventor, but, rather a tool that folks can pick up and use without a lot of extensive training and experience, something geared toward intuitive editing of existing models. I did not remember to ask for a list of filetypes, but, the intent is being able to use models from disparate sources, so I'd imagine the main players would be represented.

Don't get me wrong, there are model creation tools in Fusion as well, they are slightly more suited than AutoCAD for creating flexibly editable 3D shapes. This product is not intended for heavy engineering work currently done in Inventor, but, for small businesses and hobbyists and students who want to explore. There will also be some sort of simple connection 'to the cloud' for sharing.

I haven't used Fusion myself, but, I did download 123D when it was on the Labs, because I thought my 3rd grader would get a kick out of it (which he did). As Kevin was demonstrating the ease of use of Fusion, I asked him if there was a connection between the products, because I'd found 123D so simple and intuitive and they had a lot of similarities. He did say that that was the type of thing the teams were going for, sharing the ideas of usability and what was working for users and what wasn't... in the half a dozen releases of Fusion to Labs, different approaches to intuitive manipulations of models were tried and either vetted or rejected.

images Courtesy Autodesk

Do people still feel that way about technology?

This post isn't cad/bim/fm specific, but, I feel the issue encompasses those fields so I'll go ahead and post my little opinion piece here.

As I've noted, I have been a student at Saint Louis University since 2008. I'd originally wanted to complete a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but, there were no engineering degrees offered through the night school. Instead I opted for a coursework in computer science and management. Half of my classes came from the computer science track, the other half have been organizational studies.

In the Organizational Studies courses I have had, I am used to helping out a little with the technology side of thing, either setting up the projector for the teacher or giving the other students advice on what tools to use and how to use them. It's sort of what I do in school, and, heck, even working in an office full of engineers, I'm called upon to do it.
Even in the Computer Science classes, the majority of students are women and the average age is probably 45.
At 28-31, I've definitely been on the younger end of the spectrum, just like I am at work and in my social group in our neighborhood. In other words, I don't have many friends my age or younger, except those that I've had for more years than I'd care to count, which should help explain my sense of shock.

I must have some misconceptions about the world today.

For my final course, I am working on an extensive group project that accounts for our grade. I suggested that we use Google Docs, for sharing efficiency and for breaking down the papers into manageable chunks, which we could divvy up amongst ourselves. I did not think it was a big deal that 3 of my 4 group-mates hadn't ever used it before, since Google Docs is so simple to use, if you've used a web browser and MS Office.
Evidently I was wrong.
I ended up bringing my laptop to class to demonstrate the use of google docs and make changes to our papers during class.
At one point, the oldest member of our group asked me if I could fix her computer. I advised her to take it to a professional since I hadn't taken apart laptops before.
Then, the youngest member of our group commented that I'm obviously one of those techy people, and how she hates it at work that all of the old people assume she understands how to use computers and software just because she's young, and went on to say that she was too busy being outside playing when she was younger to care about computers.

:-/ Really?

That's what techy people are? Adults who used to be kids who sat inside all day and didn't play outdoors?

So, the reason I am shocked here, is not because people in general have a misconception of those with technical skills, but, really, because someone around my age has those misconceptions. I mean, I can understand it from my Mother's generation a little, but, I really thought the world was more enlightened and accurate these days.
I posted about my guidance counselor back in high school advising me to put my math and logic skills to use as an accountant, but, again, she came from a different generation with the ideas of gender roles and as I had no real strong opinions myself ~shrug~. In the 10 years that the AUGI Salary Survey has been running, female participation has stayed steadily near 15%.

But, gender issues notwithstanding, I am really shocked to hear a young person imply that techy people aren't normal. I thought techy was mainstream enough these days?

But, no, computer geeks and engineers et al are evidently basement-dwelling oddballs.
~sigh~

Obviously, WE know that's not true, don't we, faithful reader?
We see the foursquare checkins from our fellow geeks at exotic locales and admire the flickr streams that show where they've been hiking, biking and boating, and follow the progress of their marathon training on facebook and google+.

We know that we're not just good with tech because we sit at home with nothing better to do, we are good with tech because it's something we're passionate about, just like all of our other fascinating hobbies.

Friday Funny: Most Powerful AutoCAD Ever!!!

Just to end the week with a chuckle, please see the flyers in this image: