BIMES Training Schedule Dec 2012 - January 2013

We have been quite busy since April and really did not have chance to conduct classroom trainings.

But no worries!

Some new ArchiCAD and VICO trainings have been scheduled for December and January. The details are below.

If you are interested in any of them, please kindly click "Register" link to submit your details to us. We will contact you to verify your information and complete the registration. By the way, trainings will be conducted in Dubai!

Code	Name	Registration	Duration	Schedule	Price	Advised Prerequisite
BIM001	ArchiCAD BIM Essentials Training	Register	3 Days	2, 3, 5 January	3000 AED / per person	None
BIM002	ArchiCAD BIM Advanced Documentation Training	Register	1 Day	6 January	1000 AED / per person	BIM001
BIM003	ArchiCAD BIM Advanced Modeling Training	Register	2 Days	7, 8 January	2000 AED / per person	BIM001
BIM004	ArchiCAD BIM Advanced Quantity Take-off Training	Register	1 Day	9 January	1000 AED / per person	BIM001
BIM005	ArchiCAD BIM Advanced Collaboration Training	Register	1 Day	10 January	1000 AED / per person	BIM001
BIM006	5D BIM VICO Essentials Training	Register	1 Day	13 December	1500 AED / per person	BIM001
BIM007	5D BIM VICO Cost Planning Training	Register	2 Days	20, 27 December	3000 AED / per person	BIM001, BIM006
BIM008	BIM VICO Schedule Planning Training	Register	1 Day	29 December	1500 AED / per person	BIM001, BIM006, BIM007

Have a fabulous day!


Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Dubai Metro Station with Curtain Wall Tool!

Unlike Europe we do not have much of a public transportation in the Middle East. Dubai is the first and only city in the Middle East who has Metro.

I know it sounds strange but it is true.

The first Metro of the Middle East was launched on the 9 September 2009 with beautiful metro stations. Atkins is the designer and they definitely did an impressive job.

I am not able to use it daily since the metro stations are quite far from my house however if I have guests metro is our first option. The metro line is above the ground and it is not very fast so I use it as a sight seeing trip and works very well:))

Not only my guests but also His Highness  Sheikh Mohammed takes the metro from time to time. My colleagues came across with him a couple of times. I think it's pretty cool!

His Higness Sheikh Mohammed in Metro

All my guests loved the interior design of the stations as well. They are as beautiful as the ones on Moscow but with a contemporary touch.

Burjuman Station

Etisalat Station

MOE Station

Why am I talking about the Dubai metro?

Well, our office has the Dubai Metro station view and Jothi found his inspiration on the station for this week's technical video.

He used ArchiCAD's Curtain Wall Tool to re-model the top shell and then further developed the design with different custom panel options:))

The video would be a great tutorial for Custom Curtain Wall Panels!

Enjoy!

Diyane Koseoglu
Jothi Shanmugam
www.bimes.com

BIM for IT Team

Image from adamr

IT team! They are "the team" I always respect a lot and try to have good relations with since they know everything that I do not:))

However the client visit I had yesterday was exactly the opposite case.

Let me tell you the story in more detail.

Our client is a very strong BIM Server user! They deal with large projects and large teams so BIM Server is the technology they can not live without. Since it is so vital for them every architect and engineer in the BIM team knows BIM Server inside out.

Don't tell me "Ohh it's so simple! What can they know more than "Send&Receive? "

Well, restoring the BIM Server with all users, rolling back the projects, migrating the server to a different computer are not complicated commands for them.

But these are the architects and engineers not the IT guys.

To be honest, we made a mistake with them during the BIM Implementation. We did not manadate the IT team to attend the trainings, especially the BIM Server training.

What is the consequence of this mistake?

Image from Victor Habbick

 Whenever IT guys touch any computer  of the BIM Team, they "destroy" something:)) But they really do destroy.

Image from Ambro

So now, the BIM guys do not want anyone from IT to enter their room even. They even told me the two computers that they never let IT to touch are working perfectly. The rest? No comment:))

Actually the problem is IT has no idea about the consequences of their modifications on BIM Server. They claim what they did was a tiny little innocent change.

What is the lesson learnt from yesterday's visit?

BIM Server Training for IT!

We will start working on a 1-Day course tailored for IT. The course will cover license sharing, basic trouble shooting and BIM Server.

 Image from digitalarts

Hopefully this will bring peace to IT and BIM team's relationship:))

PS: Jothi's latest video about how to restore your BIM Server including users, projects, libraries and access rights in Windows OS is now available.

Diyane Koseoglu
Jothi Shanmugam
www.bimes.com

Can consultant's BIM Model be used for construction?

Can consultant's BIM Model be used for construction?

This is the popular question of last few months?

Let me give you some background information before going into the discussion. Especially in the UAE almost all the large consultants are already using BIM. Of course with different level of expertise and success. However compared to the contractors, consultants are BIM gurus:)

So, what happens in a project?

Image from Ambro

The consultant educates the client about BIM and recommends to mandate BIM usage in the tender. Client is happy because he thinks he already have the BIM Model so the contractor will only operate it.

The consultant hands over a LOD 300 model with no/limited liability.

The party starts here!

Contractor believes that he can use consultant's model for shop drawings, quantities, cost planning, scheduling etc.

I have experienced this myself. When we told the contractor that the model coming from consultant can not be used as it is, they do not want to believe and most of the time they do not believe.

Now, let's imagine a project in which the design consultant hands over a LOD 300 BIM Model. (If you are not familiar with LOD please check James Van's blog! It is pretty cool)

First of all, we should define what is LOD 300.

"LOD 300 - Model elements are suitable for the generation of traditional construction documents and shop drawings.  As such, analysis and simulation is authorized for detailed elements and systems."

When a contractor reads the above statement, he is quite sure that the model will work fine for him. Unfortunately what a consultant understands from "shop drawings" is slightly different than contractor's understanding.

A basic example. A consultant can use a multi-story column might work fine for the shop drawings of a consultant but it should be from slab top to slab bottom in contractors model.

The consultant does not care about the concrete grades but for contractor it is very important.

Even for design coordination! Many people believes that clash detection within a LOD 300 model is perfect. But not really! In a complex project, the slight difference on the radius of the bend might create a clash in LOD 400 model where LOD 300 is absolutely ok!

What do we usually recommend for contractors?
If the consultant does not accept "full" liability on the model, do not rely on it.

Freeze the consultant's design model as a reference model and create your own. You might create your own model by just modifying and developing the design model but we saw cases in which it is much easier to create the model from scratch. So evaluate both options.

Image from jscreationz

Have your own BIM team since you can not freeze the design model forever. There will be changes. Your BIM team should update your model continuously.

Yes, I know it does not seem very productive but it will still be much more productive than the traditional system. Plus it will be much more accurate.

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Diyane's Top 10 ArchiCAD Features - # 6

#6 - BIMx

September 22nd, 2011!

Jumeriah Zabeel Saray, The Palm Island, Dubai. BIM Seminar organized by BIMES!

The announcement of BIMx for iPad & iPhone took place during this event! We have introduced BIMx just for 15 Minutes before the break and provided the password of the Wifi!

Every single person in the conference who had iPhone, downloaded BIMx right there! They were playing with it like kids. Trying with the 3D glasses, asking us questions...

After the conference, all the "thank you" emails we received were talking about BIMx as well.

Especially in the Middle East, BIM is treated as some sort of "rocket science". Most people are scared of it's complexity.

I believe BIMx is the tool which made people more confident. They were able to "explore" the alien "BIM" within their palms.

I am also happy that there are other solutions in the market that are trying to bring BIM to the hands of non-experts. It's very good of them to try but of course our thanks goes to Graphisoft for actually achieving it:)

Have a great weekend,

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Learn ArchiCAD during March, 2012

Hi Everyone!

Although I have recommended self-studying on this blog earlier, we have received quite a lot of applications for a classroom training.

It seems like nothing supersedes the face-to-face experience when it comes to learning.

So yes, we organized a new training session!

ArchiCAD 15 Essentials Training will take place in Canadian University of Dubai on the 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25 March 2012. It consists of 7 evening classes and total cost is 3500 AED. For more information on the course content please click here.

The training will be conducted by Jothi whom you know from the famous technical videos such as Shell Tool in Action and ArchiCAD TeamWork Project Restore from Backups on a Different Computer.

He is one of the best ArchiCAD trainers I have ever seen. Very patient and he explains even the most complex commands in the simplest possible way. I am sure you will agree with me after the training:)

Upon completion of training you will receive Graphisoft Training Certificate which is internationally accepted. Great value for your profile.

By the end of the training, you will be able to understand the overall workflow of ArchiCAD. If I need to speak with facts, you should be able to get a result over 50 on ArchiCAD Competency Challenge.

Of course, this training will not make you an ArchiCAD guru.

It requires some more training and also some hands-on practice on a real project.

If you are interested you can register online directly from here.

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Very Big Problem!

I returned from my meeting and while saying hi to everyone I noticed the strange look on Jothi's face.

DK:
"Jothi, is everything OK?"

JS:
"No! Big problem, Diyane, very big problem!"

Oupps! Jothi is normally a very calm person and this was the first time I heard such a sentence from him.

He said our biggest client in the UAE moved their office and IT guys deleted the former user account and created a new one but they forgot to backup the BIM Server. Instead they copied some files which the BIM Server does not have access!

Yes, definitely a BIG problem!

I can freak out with small things such as being late for a meeting but when it comes to really BIG stuff I am usually very very calm.

As you can imagine this time, I was very calm as well:))

I calmly said "Don't worry Jothi! I am sure there is a way to access to those files. Please explain me exaclty what they have done."

This is usually the best way to solve a problem.

While summarizing the problem, he will either find a solution himself or somebody in the office will hear and come up with a genius solution:)

In our case it was both! Jothi solved half of it and Daniel helped with the remaining half.

All these happened last Thursday afternoon and every single person in the office was supposed to travel during the weekend and it would be only me and our office admin who would be left in the office.

Obviously it will be my "pleasure" to fix the problem on site since no one else is in town from the technical team:))

This means I have to learn all these tiny little tricks Daniel and Jothi has just discovered!

Aiaiai!

I took my notebook, sit next to Jothi and start listening!

Oh my god!

I didn't understand anything in the first run! This means many people will have the same experience!

"Jothi, let's make a favor to the ArchiCAD world. Record this as a tutorial please so that we can share. I am sure there will be people who would experience similar problems and this video will save their lives:)" I said.

Of course it saved me from taking pages of notes as well:)))

Here comes the video... I hope you will enjoy it.

PS: I visited our client's office on Saturday and fixed the problem with the help of this video:)) Thanks Jothi:))

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Contractors! Please do not fall into the same trap as I did!

Contractors!

One of the strangest organization type in the world!

Especially in the Middle East contractors are gigantic organizations and their internal communication is quite weak!

You would assume a technology such as BIM, which brings clarity to the project and provides better communication would be immediately adopted by contractors.

No! Not at all!

Contractors are usually the latest adopters of any kind of technology. They do not "like" the word "change" at all.

Another thing that I have noticed about contractors is, they prefer micro management to macro management.

Everyone is interested purely on the benefits that BIM can bring to their own project or department. No more no less! They do not care about looking at the big picture!

Let me give you a solid example.

Think about a room of contractors. 100 - 120 attendees listening a 2 days conference on BIM!

They watch presentations about BIM usage for each phase of the project... from design to facilities management...

Guess what is the most popular question at the end?

"CAN WE HAVE ONLY 4D BIM?"

Well, in order to have 4D you need to have 3D model. Once you have the 3D model you can easily go for 5D.

Wouldn't it be wiser to look at the whole picture and see what BIM can bring to the whole life cycle of the project?

"No, I am only interested in 4D"

Well, what to reply to this now?

This reminds me of myself during Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF).

Last year, we decided to buy a TV during DSF. I am not much of a TV watcher actually so I was not very interested in specs. What attracted me was the gifts they were giving with the TV.

One offer was 15% voucher! Yihuuu! I can buy whatever I want:) 300 packs of brownie for instance:))

The other was free PlayStation with Move! Yihuuu! It's really fun!

Another offer was 3D Glasses! Yihuuu! I can watch Nemo in 3D:)) Can I conect it to my computer and view BIMx Models in 3D??

All these toughts were going through my mind and then I noticed that I wasn't focusing on the actual item we are trying to buy for the family but focusing on the item that I would enjoy:))

Very selfish of me:)

Contractors! Please do not fall into the same trap as I did! Remember BIM is a process which can benefit all phases of the project, and not just your project but the whole company!


PS: For the curious ones, we bought the one which gave 15% voucher but I did not buy brownie with all of it:)))

Have a great weekend!
Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com

Hiring the right people for your BIM Team!

There is a very popular topic in linked in.

ArchiCAD vs Revit

701 comments so far and it is increasing every day.

At the beginning it was quite interesting.
But after  a couple of weeks I lost interest.

The main reason was comments were basically repeating the same things with different words.

(some comments were too long and boring as well.)

A couple of days ago, I saw few interesting comments and returned back to the popular, old topic.

People were discussing the availability of architects/engineers with the knowledge of a specific software is a criteria for selecting BIM software to use.

Well, if a company hires me just because of the software skills I have, I would be quite offended and probably would not accept the job.

I think an architect or an engineer should be more than the software s/he uses.

Last year, we provided an HR consultancy service for a medium size contractor. Our responsibility was to test the applicant's ArchiCAD BIM skills.

We have interviewed around 10 persons and some of them were quite good actually. We wrote our reports and send with the actual test results?

Guess what happened?

They did not hire any of them. They hired an architect with 0 BIM knowledge!

Yes, he did not know anything about BIM but he was smart, experienced and a very good architect.

I think this was the right decision.

We trained their new architect for 10 days and applied the same test and his result was the highest so far.

So, be smart! Select the best BIM Software based on your company needs and hire good people!

Success will be inevitable!

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com
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Shell Tool in Action!

Middle East!

Where the dreams of Architects come true!

The tallest, the most slanted, the biggest, the most luxurious, the most sustainable buildings... They all come true in this part of the world!

Our clients... They looove free form designs... My colleague Jothi receives a lot of questions about the new Shell Tool.

We wanted to share one of the recent ones.

This is one of the facade elements that our client designed by using ArchiCAD Shell Tool. At this stage I can not tell / show you more about the rest of the project but we will publish the case study soon.  As you know we need to get approvals etc.

Anyway, our client modeled it but since they were still in the design process

- sketch...
- model...
- nope... let's change here a bit more....
- modify..
- seems ok...
- not really... let's change here...
...
...

They ended up with so many operations and the result element was basically freezing even their super computers.

By the time, we received the model the design was final. So Jothi just made a "reverse engineering" and modeled the same geometry by using the same "Shell Tool" and operations. The result is a lot more lighter tough since he worked a bit more cleaner...

For the curious ones, here you have a video showing how to model it in a few steps.

Enjoy!
PS: The video is uploaded to YouTube but  YouTube is being a bit nasty today. Although it has been more than 8 hours it is still not listed in the searches. Anyway, here comes the YouTube link!

Diyane Koseoglu
Jothi Shanmugam
www.bimes.com