Graduation Project with Vico!

I was invited to American University of Sharjah (AUS) a couple of days ago to watch 3 young BIMers graduation project:
Ahmed Elmani
Asem Zabin
Islam Al Sharabati

Great guys!

These 3 students saw the value of BIM at first glance while it takes 425 meetings for professionals to see.

My colleagues Hema Nayal and Ayman Aniss helped them during the project but nothing major really. Only a couple of hours training and some Q&A sessions on Vico Office Suite.

The end result was pretty impressive! They build up a 5D BIM Model and presented very nice 4D animations!

The moment they finished the presentation, the audience went mad as if they were in a concert:)) Every single person in the room was impressed including their professors.

After witnessing this presentation and other students' reaction I am very confident that the future generations will embrace BIM much better than us!

Have a Fabulous Weekend!

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Construction Simulation! For marketing or for managing your project?

Lately I am getting involved with VICO more and more...

I am loving it actually!

Great tool for integrating cost and time to BIM Models.

We were discussing using Vico in one of our client's project recently but all of a sudden I noticed that they are interested in creating a pretty animation showing how columns, slabs are built etc only, nothing more.

Well if you are looking for a pretty presentation you can do it in ArchiCAD by using Construction Simulation Add-on which is free.

It absolutely does the job of creating a pretty animation!

But does it really help you managing your project?

If you are looking for a solution to help you optimize your schedule...

or

If you are trying to impress your client by finishing the project 6 months earlier rather than showing him animations just to show off...

Then the solution I would recommend it is VICO!

Because VICO understands location based quantities drives the schedule. So 5D comes before 4D and makes a lot of sense! At the end of the day changing durations without an affect on resources does not make much sense, right?

Here comes a short video about it:

There is a very nice discussion started by Holly on LinkedIn about this actually. You might want to have a close look;)

"I recently spent a long weekend with my two-and-a-half year old nephew. I was told that when he gets fidgety to ask him to sing the A-B-C’s and practice counting one to ten.

I wasn’t too concerned when letters of the alphabet started disappearing. But for the life of me, I couldn’t get him to include a 4 in his counting. I tried using his flashcards; I tried lining up his stuffed animals for the roll call; but 4 was mysteriously absent.

We have a similar situation at Vico. When everyone learned to count 3D, 4D, 5D BIM, we went and changed the order. We count 3D, 5D, 4D.

Quantities drive the schedule and the estimate, but with Vico Office, the estimator takes the lead in the workflow. Here’s how it works:

With Vico Office Takeoff Manager, we automatically examine the model geometry to generate construction-caliber quantities. Now with the quantities, estimators use Vico Office Cost Planner to create multiple iterations of the 5D estimate as the models’ level of detail increases. "

Read more

BIM & Eyeglasses

Image from Jeroen van Oostrom

I lost my eyeglasses! It has been a week and I can no longer stand it.

 Image from digitalarts

I am writing this post with an extreme headache and pain on my eyes.

I noticed that the symptoms of not having eyeglasses and not using BIM is quite similiar:))

Here comes the symptoms:

• A constant headache
• Inefficiency
• Not willing to look at computer screen (in my case the brightness is just hurting my eyes but in "not using BIM case" you would be sick of drafting and not wiling to look at that screen 24/7)
• Dying to get some technological gadget (such as ArchiCAD  & Vico or new glasses:)) to overcome all your troubles

I did take an action, ordered my new glasses. Hopefully I will get them tomorrow.

Dear Non-BIMrs,

For your own sake please take an action! Life is too short to live with all those troubles of the traditional CAD:)

Cheers,

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Design-Bid-Build or Design-Build? Which one embraces BIM better?

Design-Bid-Build or Design-Build

 Image from

These are the two main contract methods in the Middle East. Probably US is also similiar.

Owners loves the first one. Design-Bid-Build.

 Image from Ambro

Why?

Because they can get competitive prices for each phase of the project. First they let the consultants to fight for getting the design job, decrease their profit especially on these days of recession.

Then comes the second part. Now it's contractors turn to bid.

Seems like a smart method for the owner.

Is it?

Each party is responsible for a certain task in the project. For instance an architect is involved in the design part only. He will try to avoid any liability for the later stages of the project. He may not include enough details in the drawings to facilitate accurate bids in the tender.

What will happen then?

Image from Stuart Miles

Disputes, claims etc. The consultant and the contractor becomes enemies.

This is the worst thing that an owner would want in a project. A project can only succeed if all the parties work as a team.

I can hear you saying but the owner can get Project Managers to protect his rights. True! But it comes with an extra cost.

So far the problems were not even related to BIM.

Now, let me tell you about my experience so far.

Consultant builds the BIM Model for design phase. It looks pretty. You can generate basic documentation out of it.

Is it useful for the contractor? NO!

If you do not take the required construction information into consideration in early stages of the modeling, adding it in a later stage will take much more time than remodeling.

I have not seen a model coming from a consultant which can be used by the contractor so far.

In most of the cases, the contractor has to build his own BIM Model.

At the end of the day, the owner pays for this additional cost indirectly.

Is there a solution for this?

 Image from Andy Newson

Yes and No!

VICO developed a Model Progression Specification (MPS) system which allows the consultant to prepare the model in a way that the contractor can use it as well.

But even this requires, early involvement of the contractor in the project and also very good relations between the project parties.

What about Design-Build?

This is my favorite!

In the Middle East contractors get involved with both types of contracts. When a contractor decides to implement BIM into their organization and ask our advise for the pilot project, we always recommend to start with a Design-Build project.

Why?

 Image from Stuart Miles

The earliest you start with BIM, the more benefits you get from BIM.

If the project is Design-Build, you have the power to start BIM from the very beginning of the project.

Not only this, but also you can start BIM the way you want. Your BIM team will take your construction needs into consideration at an early stage and implement MPS properly.

Ohh! I can hear you saying what about IPD? Well, the industry is still experimenting with it. Unfortunately in Middle East I have not seen any examples of projects delivered with IPD yet.

I believe once the BIM expertise of the construction industry in the Middle East matures, IPD will be the preferred contract type as well.

 Image from Idea go

Wow! This became a very long and serious post. I hope you have not get bored while reading.

If you did, let me share something very interesting with you.

I was looking at the Stats page of the blog this morning and found very interesting "Search Keywords":)

Some people searched for the below keywords and ended up in our blog:)))

• pest control 4 construction
• united arab emirates crazy pictures

 Well, I do not want to comment further:)))

Enjoy your week!

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Is BIM Getting out of Control?

"In your opinion, what do you think is the best performing 3D design software package on the market, in order to undertake quality 3D modelling on a BIM project?"

 The above is the title of a poll in LinkedIn.

When I see things like this, I feel the word "BIM" is getting out of control.

Not sure since when SketchUp is accepted as a BIM Solution?

People seems to forget about the "I" and focuses on "B" and "M".

Image via CrunchBase

But then look at the VICO software which I totally respect the way it brings new dimensions to BIM.  I always believed that VICO is the right BIM solution for contractors, project managers, cost planners and I definitely find it very smart that they do not have modeling tool but they import models from almost any BIM tool.

Image via  VBH

Now, here comes the confusion for me.

VICO can import SkecthUp models and add 4D and 5D BIM to it basically.

So you can convert a 3D BM to 4D & 5D B"I"M.

Would I do that?

Probably not:)) But it is good to have the option:))

PS: I guess you all know which one I voted for:))

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com
https://twitter.com/#!/BIMESmarketing

Is face-to-face training really required for learning BIM Software?

Hi All,

Lately we are receiving a lot of requests for ArchiCAD and VICO trainings due to the increasing popularity of the BIM in the Middle East region.

Face-to-Face training requests from companies is understandable for me since they usually have special requirements and a tailored training suits them more. Plus their needs are more on the "process" rather than the actual tool in most of the cases.

However when it comes to individuals, I am not sure if face-to-face trainings of ArchiCAD and VICO is really needed. Both softwares have already enormous amount of Interactive Training Guides on their websites.

Even in our company, if a new team member has lack of knowledge on ArchiCAD Collaboration, we do not conduct a training for him. We just give him the link to the ArchiCAD Collaboration Interactive Training Guides (ITG).

Both ArchiCAD and VICO ITGs are very user friendly (we can even call them as idiot proof) and efficient. For instance, someone who is totally new to ArchiCAD can learn the essentials of the workflow with in 8 hours. ITG will be take you through the core  design, design-development and documentation concepts and techniques of ArchiCAD and by the end of 8 hours you will have a completed 10.000 m2 office building project:)

You can download ArchiCAD Essentials ITG from here.

VICO has similar videos specifically targeting Cost Planners and Schedule Planners.

You can download the VICO Training Videos from here.

So, everything is available on the net for FREE! Self-study them and keep your skills up-to-date with market requirements.


Enjoy!
Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

BIMES starts Blogging...

Hi All,

Eventually  we created our blog where we can share

• Case studies of our BIM Implementations and BIM Services
• Tips and tricks 
• "How to" videos
• Latest news about BIMES

I hope you will enjoy reading us:)
Diyane Koseoglu, on behalf of BIMES Team