RICS to host BIM4SME Awards 2015

RICS has raised awareness of how BIM can help UK industry lead the world in innovation and cross-industry collaboration. We support members and non-members alike with knowledge, training and guidance that helps them adopt and implement BIM.

Small and medium-sized businesses are critical to the success of Level 2 BIM in the UK. They are the engine room of our sector and deserve more recognition for their efforts to adopt and implement BIM in their projects.

The RICS BIM4SME Awards 2015 recognise and promote their role and achievements in the UK's adoption of BIM. These awards will spread awareness, promote best practice and highlight the tremendous opportunities BIM presents to small and medium businesses.

• The RICS BIM4SME Awards will be launched at the RICS BIM Conference on 12 February 2015 - you, your firm or your project team can enter from this date on
• The ceremony itself takes place on 18 June 2015 in London.

Award categories

There are eight award categories:

• Best BIM Project – Medium Enterprise
• Best BIM Project – Small or Micro Enterprise
• Best SME BIM Blog
• Best SME BIM website
• Best SME Newcomer
• Best SME Innovation
• Best SME Training Strategy
• Best SME Engagement and Support Programme

 If you'd like to find out more, sponsor the awards or express interest for entering please contact Ana Bajri, London Member Services Manager, RICS.

The future of AEC industry depends on BIM!

The future of AEC industry depends on BIM!As BIM is growing at a constant pace it is mandatory for design and construction professionalsto implement this technology in every possible project as it will only have positive effects on itsexecution. When Building Information Modeling first made its presence in Architecture,Engineering and Construction industry it was in the initial stages of its evolution. It’s beendecades now and BIM technology has grown manifolds since then. When it is implemented in a project its benefits are felt by every building stakeholder be it architects, engineers, contractors,design consultants, fabricators and building owners etc. None of them can survive in AECindustry without the assistance of BIM today.

BIM technology is tremendously beneficial for architects who take the responsibility ofdesigning architecture for a building. Designing the architecture is one of the most importantsteps in building construction and it must be designed appropriately so that building can performeffectively once it is developed in real world. Revit Architecture works as a magic wand forarchitects as too many effective tools are integrated in it and are paramount for architecturalmodeling process. Architectural design is developed with a collaborative design approach thathas tremendous benefits for the project as correct information is included in it. Due tocollaborative design approach innovative design is developed by AEC professionals as everydesign members’ ideas and creativity is combined together to from the design.

Similarly BIM Services is also helpful for developing structural and MEP design. Both structureand MEP are important building discipline and without their proper designing a building projectcannot be accomplished. So Revit Structure and Revit MEP are used by design professionals fordeveloping the design of these crucial building disciplines. Like Revit architecture Revitstructure and Revit MEP are also equipped with significant tools.

Once design is properly developed errors in the design can also be identified and for that clashdetection process is executed. BIM goes beyond design and construction by helping facilitymanagers and building owners in maintenance task.

The constant evolution of BIM so far indicates that the technology may grow even beyond ourimagination and future of AEC industry truly depends on it

BIM Interoperability Dreams Can Come True

Structural engineers using BIM today have a lot of items on their wish list. High on that list for most of them—if not at the very top—is a unified model for documentation and design. 

That kind of consolidated workflow is more possible every day, but there are still some significant challenges to overcome along the way.

Here are some key insights on BIM interoperability, and the things to consider when attempting to integrate design, documentation, and analysis.

What Do We Gain? Why would you want to integrate your structural design and documentation models anyway? This is the easiest question to answer: Integration reduces redundancy.

If you can change a beam size as the result of a design computation and have it automatically update in all the plans and details where it appears, you’ve just saved yourself time and effort. Not only that, but you’ve reduced the risk that the new size will get transferred incorrectly when someone enters the new value by hand.

How Does the Communication Work? When deciding which programs to use for structural analysis and documentation, a lot of factors come into play. Each program has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, even before you get to how they talk to each other. Interoperability with BIM software might actually be pretty far down on your list of decision factors.

For engineering design, the technical capabilities come first. One program might be best for concrete design, another one for steel. Or a program might be good at analyzing lateral forces, while yet another can handle composite floor design. Your company might have a license for a certain program, but not all—a non-technical, yet realistic, consideration.

Once you get down to interoperability, a new set of factors comes into play. First, what element types are able to go between the BIM software and the design program? Different translators can handle different things, some better than others. For example, foundation elements are not supported in all workflows.

Second, even if an element can be transferred, do you want to? Floors are sometimes better off being re-created in the other program.

Third, what element data does each program read when creating the link between models? Some programs differentiate between analytical and physical data, and it’s important to know which values are being used.

Another thing to understand about the connection workflow is what file types are involved, and what plug-ins or external programs are provided or required. Some programs can make their files talk directly to each other, while others require an export/import through an intermediate file.

You’ll need to understand which software programs need what processes. And you should also take the time to study the manuals and tutorials to learn the quirks and nuances of the different translations. (Support contracts also come in handy here, in case you get stuck.)

What If the Two Models Need Different Things? Once you get past the technical challenges, the last remaining hurdle is the different (sometimes conflicting) requirements of analytical and documentation models. Much of the time, the differences boil down to the level of precision required for documentation versus the approximations that are acceptable in analytical software.

As an example, consider open-web steel joists. Their construction typically requires that the top of joist is 2.5 inches or 5 inches above the top of the steel beam supporting it. This offset is critical for proper detailing of that steel connection. However, from the analysis software’s point of view, those elements exist in the same plane.

Another example is edge-of-slab conditions. A few inches of cantilever on a concrete slab on a metal deck might not be a critical factor when designing the slab, but it’s definitely important in the construction documents.

It’s not just detailing that can cause these conflicts. Let’s say that the original schematic design for a building laid out the columns on an 18-foot grid spacing. It stays that way for a few weeks, until some constraint requires a single bay to change to 18 feet, 2 inches. Now what? The engineer knows that the 2-inch shift doesn’t affect the beam sizes, but the documents definitely need to be updated.

What does that do to the link between the two models? You have a few choices: 1) Take the time to update the analysis model anyway; 2) Temporarily fix the documentation model and make a note to update the analysis model later; or 3) Break the link and continue with two separate models. Option 1 is clearly ideal, but unfortunately it is often abandoned due to limitations on time and resources. If you end up with option 2 or 3…well, hopefully at least you got a one-way transfer out of it. Even small steps are progress.

Where Do We Go From Here? None of this is meant to discourage you from attempting to integrate your analysis and documentation models. Interoperability technology is getting better every day, and many of the concerns raised here may be reduced or eliminated in the near future. In the meantime, though, it’s best to be informed about the pros and cons of combining documentation and design, so you can be prepared for what you can accomplish today and what will be possible tomorrow.

New City Building Up from Desert in Qatar

During teenage ages, we may all hear about the story from One Thousand and One Nights, that some cities could appear all of sudden from the plain desert with nothing but sand. Well, right now the Arabic nation is making the magic happen in Lusail city, Qatar. It will be an entire city from scratch, which will also be part of the 2022 World Cup entertainment backyard. Here is a brief summary of this gigantic project. After all, witness such amazing project, or even be part of it, is already stunning me.

Lusail City is Qatari Diar’s flagship project. More than just another development, it is a self-contained and comprehensively planned city signifying Qatar’s progress on a grand scale.

Created by Lusail Real Estate Development Company on behalf of Qatari Diar, Lusail City is the largest single development to be undertaken in the State of Qatar. It embodies Qatar’s National Vision 2030 in the field of real estate development.

More than 200,000 residents will live in Lusail’s scenic surroundings, with 170,000 people expected to work in the city’s different districts, and 80,000 expected to visit its entertainment and recreation facilities. Lusail City’s 19 districts will encompass not only new residential, commercial, hospitality, and retail opportunities, but a full array of community needs, complete with schools, mosques, medical facilities, sport, entertainment and shopping centers.

The city of the future boasts a light rail network, a water taxi transportation system, cycle and pedestrian network. Construction work on the 38 square kilometer, progressive world-class development is well underway.

Lusail City is where the Art of Real Estate comes to life and best illustrates our values and commitment to the communities served by Qatari Diar. Images are all sourced from Qatar Diar official website.

Odeh Engineers BIM Immersion Room

Odeh Engineers has designed a custom BIM Immersion Room where clients and designers can collaborate together. Featuring a 30-foot-wide high-resolution display driven by 10 projectors and has seating for more than 20 people. Two additional confernece rooms each feaure 3-projector wall displays.

These conference rooms and the underlying technology are unique to our firm within the AEC industry, and provide a powerful basis for design and construction coordination of our work.

BIM Projects Through Real-Time Work-Share

Wilmington, DE, January 10, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Building Information Modeling (BIM) is rapidly expanding around the globe and while there are many advantages to the deployment of modeling technology, one aspect that is currently being lauded are its benefits to collaboration within design teams and project participants, in federated and highly disconnected building industries.

While many firms wrestle with getting their BIM workgroup implementations working on desktops in an office, AEC Digital Solutions is aiming to revolutionize collaboration by completing BIM projects successfully on the cloud. AEC Digital Solutions LLC is a USA-based Company, providing BIM Modeling and support services to the AECO industry.

AEC Digital Solutions has been working with several clients across the globe to explore various ways of collaborating real-time on Talon FAST software. AEC Digital Solutions recently completed a large scale commercial project in UK for an architectural firm based out of London by offering its BIM work-share services from its BIM Studio in New Delhi, India. Talon FAST helped AECdsl team to work on the same BIM model file as the client teams in London & Shanghai offices.

The centralized data and files were maintained at the client’s office while extending simultaneous file accessibility into the AECdsl studio to complete tasks which were updated real-time on the main file. This enabled high performance and real-time collaboration between remote teams using cloud-based server. Working on a real-time cloud-based BIM technology, the various project teams were connected seamlessly and BIM workflows were more streamlined.

BIM and Construction Management

BIM and Construction Management, Second Edition is a complete integration guide, featuring practical advice, project tested methods and workflows, and tutorials for implementing Building Information Modeling and technology in construction. Updated to align with the latest software editions from Autodesk, Trimble and Bentley, this book provides a common sense approach to leveraging BIM to provide significant value throughout a project's life cycle. This book outlines a results-focused approach which shows you how to incorporate BIM and other technologies into all phases of construction management, such as: Project planning: Set up the BIM project to succeed right from the start by using the right contracts, the right processes and the right technology. 

Empowering the World’s BIM Community

The global construction industry is enormous, with over US $7.2tn worth of construction projects completed every year, and is expected to grow by 67% to $12tn in 2020. The construction industry is complex, fragmented and rife with problems such as delays, rework, standing time, material waste, poor communication, conflict and being over budget, compounded by the global slowdown and the need to address sustainability issues.

The challenge we all face is to encourage continued investment in tackling these issues in a market made ‘nervous’ by a reduction in the value of property and subsequent threat to profits. A way to restore investor confidence is through reducing investment risk by producing more at a lower cost, which can be achieved by eliminating waste and improving overall productivity across the construction process.

The BIM process

The Building Information Modelling (BIM) process and technologies have been developed specifically with these problems in mind and have been very successful in resolving them. BIM is a business process supported by technology, which itself is optimised by deploying the process. While traditional methods use technology in isolation, the BIM process uses technology in collaboration.

With the take up of BIM growing daily, the construction industry is going through change which many construction professionals believe will revolutionise the industry. Whilst adoption is increasing the actual level of BIM, the use is mostly limited to quantity take off and coordination of multi-discipline activities at the office. However, the use of the different ‘BIM uses’ is slowly but surely growing including project management and construction sequencing. The full impact of BIM in the construction industry sector is yet to be realised.

To help the construction industry have a better understanding of BIM, a number of initiatives have been set up such as BIM associations, BIM forums, BIM task groups, BIM committees, BIM events, BIM conferences etc. all aimed at construction professionals to help them with information sharing and education. The greatest challenge in the construction industry is to connect the BIM stakeholders in a single specialised networking service, enabling the BIM community to work together.

Thousands of companies have started to promote their businesses in line with the BIM adoption in a quest to be more competitive, and are aiming to get a bigger stake of the AEC market. These companies have initiated changes within their organisations by setting up BIM departments and teams, or outsourcing to BIM service providers/ consultants to help with the change process. This has led to an exponential increase in BIM related articles including presentations, papers, case studies, reviews, research material etc. which can be found through a quick search for ‘BIM’ on the internet. Whilst this enormous amount of BIM information is valuable, it is quite unstructured
and takes a considerable amount of time to filter down to what the reader is looking for, and quite often the reader ends up spending hours upon hours searching the internet with little or no benefit in return.

Many of us actively use sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote our businesses. When looking to connect with more business-related contacts we usually turn to sites like LinkedIn to develop relationships with people we have worked with or may want to work with. LinkedIn groups support a limited form of discussion area, moderated by the group owners and managers. The active use of these social sites has helped the growing use of social networking bybusiness professionals. However, these sites are not really suited for meeting the growing need in supporting BIM professionals.

The BIM Hub is a pioneer in providing specialised online networking services dedicated to the construction industry. It provides the first social platform that brings all the construction industry into a single hub. The BIM Hub’s goal is to empower the BIM community to better connect, learn, develop and communicate real world data and help people better understand and engage with the places we live, work and play, and together build a more connected, livable and sustainable world. Features include the world’s first BIM Company Directory, networking with construction and BIM professionals and an expertly curated set of resources for all industry professionals.  In the coming months The BIM Hub will include BIM related projects, tenders, careers and events.

Connect: Until now, connecting with others about BIM has been a formidable challenge. But when the strength and might of the construction sector is harnessed, streamlined and brought together through BIM, the industry as a whole will become stronger, more efficient and more effective. This will lead to improved efficiencies and profitability for those that adopt and adapt.

The BIM Hub enables everyone in the construction industry to network and connect whether they are government officials, project managers, consultants, architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers, management operators or educational bodies.

Learn: Learning about BIM requires a great deal of time and effort. Construction companies and organisations are working in silos, left to their own devices.

Before The BIM Hub there were no online websites that covered the full spectrum of BIM information required to implement BIM. The BIM Hub is about usefulness and relevance of information today and tomorrow, in a trusted environment. The BIM Hub works to provide professionals with the best-curated content on BIM.

Develop: The BIM Hub develops the capacity of people to understand and implement improved policies, enhanced processes and overall, a better way of working to shape the evolution of BIM. The BIM Hub showcases the work of leading companies involved in BIM, developing and enabling businesses to benefit from interoperable processes and technology.

Join the BIM community free at thebimhub.com and help shape the future of the construction.

Career Seminar by Prompt Academy

Career seminar at Maharaja Technical Institute, Thrissur, Kerala - Civil Students

Career seminar at Sreerama Polytechnic, Triprayar, Trichur - EEE Students

Career Seminar at Thejus Engineering College, Thrissur - Civil Students

Expanding BIM for Greater Project Performance

Advanced Solutions has combined AEC industry talent with BIM technology to produce the Innovating with BIM event series. The rapid adoption of BIM in the last decade suggests the construction industry is quickly moving away from traditional building processes and is embracing new technologies for building delivery. Attendees will discover how innovative construction companies are using BIM to stay competitive and grow their business. Norb Howell, BIM Manager for Gannett Fleming, shared, “To be competitive, we couldn’t sit back and wait for BIM to take over the industry; we needed to be at the forefront of BIM use.”

Each event will showcase:

• Reality Capture
• Quantification
• Layout
• Field Management Process

The Innovating with BIM event series will begin in St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, followed by a second event on Thursday, January 15, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Each day will begin at noon with a “power” lunch buffet to get the event underway and conclude at 2:00 p.m. The event series will continue in Orlando, Florida on January 21st and Columbus, Ohio on January 27th.

Registration is underway for all locations! Advanced Solutions is excited to offer Innovating with BIM to your members, as part of its ongoing complimentary educational series open to the Manufacturing, Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure industries. For more information on this and other events, visit http://www.AdvancedSolutions.com/Events.

The BIM Design Model as the Main Tender Document

What if instead of hundreds or thousands of PDF files, we could just receive few specifications and an enriched design-intent model as masterpiece of a tender bid? This is not science fiction and has been happening everywhere. Of course, this is a wise way to deliver enriched information when compared with 2D lines allowing several interpretations and dozens of RFIs.

The beauty of this measure is not only the enhanced visibility of the issued solution for construction, but as well the flexibility for many interpretations and approaches of ‘how to make it happen’, following the model. Not even the Bill of Quantities (BoQ) needs to be provided, since the bidder can have direct access to that information inside the model and manage it as per its strategy.

In a nutshell, the contractor has the ability to manipulate the information within the model, and access to a fantastic tool to improve the creativity and increase its competitiveness through a better comprehension of the design intentions and to an early optimization of planning, logistics, construction processes, procurement and others.

And what is the final result? The enhanced certainty and comfort of the contractor about the final delivery is the best way to the first of many savings at the owner's account, through the facility life-cycle.

New Year’s Predictions

Welcome to 2015! It didn’t seem that long ago that we were all hoarding water and paying software consultants to get ready for Y2K. And now, here we are, a very quick 15 years later. It’s hard to predict what the future will bring, but I am going to try.

Predictions are based on perspective. What is even more amazing than how fast the last 15 years went is that a full 20 percent of the current U.S. population wasn’t even born by the year 2000—and that there are many parts of the world where that number is much higher. Nearly half (a full 46 percent) of Afghanistan’s population is under 15.

The disparity between the perceptions of those who are older versus younger continues to increase. Look at the differences in the glass industry today versus 15 years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years. Our industry evolves in starts-and-stops and will continue to do so. Here are some things I’d watch for this coming year:

1. The rise of mega fabricators will continue. By dividing into a nation of super fabricators that specialize in and control certain types of glass, and small local fabricators that concentrate more on the commodity model of glass, our industry will continue to bleed its “middle class fabricators”—those with a strong regional presence and wide variety of inventory. They will continue to feel heat from the super fabricators and the smaller fabricators and, with the exception of the heavily populated major metropolitan areas, it will become challenging for them to remain in business, though the savvy ones will.
2. It’s going to get worse before it gets better—in a number of areas, that is. These include lead times and the availability of certain types of glass, as well as access to jobs that follow a conventional bidding process. Also continuing for the time being is the consultative grip that a handful of forward-thinking glazing contractors have that allows them to be part of the process, before the final project is even drawn. Technology will continue to advance in such a way that the process will eventually open again, but only to certain companies.
3. You’ll need “more” to be one of those successful contract glazing companies. In this case, “more” means advanced engineering and estimating capabilities, and the ability to undertake and communicate through BIM, as well as an ability to install photovoltaic, dynamic and other types of new glasses. This requires more training and additional capabilities. If I were a contract glazier who won the lottery, I’d hire more estimator/engineers, BIM trainers and electricians—yes, electricians–or you are going to be donating out your profit to the electrical companies you’ll need to complete your job.
4. Those who can’t will do labor-only. Those who can’t provide the types of services I mentioned in #3 will evolve into small local storefront dealers and/or do more work on a labor-only subcontract basis. Labor-only used to be a quiet secret, but in this age of Internet RFPs, disintermediation and uber-models, providing the labor only comes out of the shadows and offers some great opportunity for high-quality installation companies.
5. International influence will increase. I know I say this just about every year, so I will explain. I believe that by the end of the year, we will see at least two large international glass suppliers that have had a cursory presence in North America increase that presence significantly and change the way all primaries do business here.

Change is never without bumps, and most times, it’s exciting and scary at the same time—a knife with two sharps—as the Spanish would say. But it is always interesting to cover, and we plan on doing just that throughout the year. I’d be interested in your thoughts on the changes you expect in the way you do business. Please drop me a note and let me know.

And Happy New Year to all! May your 2015 be healthy and successful. And if you already know that 2015 will be a tougher year than 2014, because of illness or loss or other circumstance, I wish you comfort, peace and prayers.

BIM for Project Managers

BIM is not just a powerful set of tools, but also represents a change to what we produce during the design phase of a project. These tools have focused on model outcomes which are driven by information requirements of the client and their asset, and at Beca we are working closely with clients to define their own Goal for the implementation of BIM, but how do we begin to leverage BIM to improve the efficiency of project delivery?

I believe the answer is as simple as these few steps;

1. Understand how well we are doing right now
2. Use our new BIM toolset to facilitate management of the project
3. Measure our progress and apply process improvement strategies

The following is a brief look at how we might follow these steps to improve the quality and efficiency of our design services.

How’s it really going?

All process improvement begins by taking a step back and looking at how we do the things we do, and with BIM there is no exception. You’ve more than likely seen 3D design implemented across variety of projects and each case would have its own successes and failures, but for Project Managers, modelling has typically been a black box activity, a single line on a Gantt chart at which you throw time and money, all the while hoping that you’re getting what you paid for.

How do we measure the efficiency of a black box? This is a question that Clients instinctively understand when you ask them for a 30% progress payment on a model that is incomplete. At which time, “I want drawings, hard facts, something to hold on to that demonstrates we are at 30%”, you might hear your client say.

So “how’s it really going?” is a good question to ask yourself.

To answer this question we are going to have to dig a bit deeper into the toolset we are relying on. We’re going to need a way to measure our progress by looking at a model and the amount of information contained therein.

The good news is that there is a way to do this, a structured approach which gives you and your client the confidence in knowing that things are indeed progressing as suggested.

We don’t normally go into a design not knowing what we’re designing. Rather we usually have a reasonably good idea of the concept that is to be explored and at the very least a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the work to be performed. In the planning phase of a project we start to plan the areas, packages, work, resources, and activities that will be undertaken during the design project. Likewise as we progress our concepts we start to define the model which is being developed. What’s more, since we’ve planned the work we also know the level of detail required for each phase of the project.

As a project manager, you will be familiar with the concept of Earned Value. I’m suggesting there is way to apply those same concepts to your models. Matching your WBS to the model and generating meaningful reports on the progress of the design and the information contained therein.

BIM for Project Managers

BIM isn’t just a tool for designers and engineers, but also for the people responsible for managing the project. Having a good understanding of where we are at in the design, being able to measure actual performance and cost to complete design activities with greater fidelity that previously undertaken means that we are able to look for opportunities to improve the design process. Whether it is through improved design coordination and information sharing, pre-empting of conflict areas and coordinated design workshops to deal with interface areas, or simply managing change and the trends and variations which they generate. We are already able to integrate BIM into the project management processes, and use the wealth of information stored therein to better monitor and manage the project.

Imagine a scenario where the WBS was intimately connected to BIM model, the program, the budget, and the resources; creating an integrated project information management system that allowed the PM to review project performance. Now imagine all the discussions you could have when your client asks you to remove / add / change some part of the design, and you are armed with detailed knowledge on the cost of those impacts in the design, construction and operations phases of their project.

“Yes we can replace that pump and re-route the pipework from A to B, that will cost you approximately $X in additional engineering, but save you about $Y during construction.”

Measure and Improve

Taking modelling and information management out of the black box and shining a light on it is the only way we can measure current performance, and is the first step in identifying opportunities for process improvements.

Understanding how much time we spend on specific modelling activities empowers organisations to better estimate the time to undertake those activities in the future and also suggest areas where it is possible to optimize our approach to BIM.

Whether it is through reducing or eliminating repetitious activities, or by improving communication to reduce rework, there are countless ways in which BIM will continue to help us to improve our performance.

Smart cities market forecasted to reach over $ 1 trillion by 2019

Urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon.  Smart city technology is becoming an essential element in the development of the world's megacities.  For example, the new Indian government's just released budget includes an allocation for initiating the development of 100 smart cities.  Songdo IDB in Korea and Fujisawa in Japan are two smart cities already under development. China has 36 smart cities in development and a low carbon model city in Tianjin.  Singapore plans to become a smart nation by 2015.  Iskandar is Malaysia's first smart city.  The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) incorporates smart city concepts. 

According to the report "Smart Cities Market - Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019)", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global smart cities market is forecasted to grow from $410 billion in 2014 to $1.1 trillion by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%.  This includes smart homes, intelligent building automation, energy management, smart health, smart education, smart water, smart transportation, smart security, and related services.  Most of this activity is expected to occur in Asia and the Middle East.

Navigant Research forecasts that cumulative global investment in smart city technologies, including smart grid, advanced water monitoring systems, transportation management systems, and energy efficient buildings, could total $174.4 billion from 2014 to 2023, growing from $8.8 billion annually in 2014 to $27.5 billion in 2023.  Navigant forecasts that annual smart city technology investment in Asia Pacific will increase from $3.0 billion in 2014 to reach $11.3 billion in 2023.

What are cities already doing ?

In a recent study by Arup and University College London, Delivering the Smart City, the researchers analysed the spending patterns of eight U.K. cities; Leicester City Council, Manchester City Council, Leeds City Council, Portsmouth City Council, Sheffield City Council, Liverpool City Council, Bristol City Council and Coventry City Council.  These are medium-sized cities with populations between 200,000 and 760,000. 

This type of analysis has become much easier because of the open data movement in the U.K. which has generated significant amounts of accessible  data about government spending and procurement.   The analysis showed that the eight cities were spending on average 6% of their expenditure on information technology (IT). That's an average of £23 million a year on IT.  Four of the eight spent between 8 and 10% of their budgets on IT. To put this in context the proportion that these city governments are spending on IT is more than many industries and is comparable to the banking and financial services industry which spends on average 8% of operating expenditure on IT.

This research shows that cities are already investing a significant amount on something which is a foundation for smart city technology.  IT already underpins many services offered by city governments today including public security and health, transportation, public works, natural resource management, and permitting and licensing. 

Other research also shows that city governments globally are spending a significant proportion of their budgets on IT.  Gartner analysed the IT spending patterns of 99 local governments across 80 countries in the U.S. and found that that IT accounted for 3.8% of their total operating expenses.  U.S. local governments, including 3,200 counties and 19,000 cities, spent approximately $34 billion on traditional IT goods and services in 2013. 

According to Gartner national and regional governments in the Middle East and North Africa will spend US $12.2 billion on IT products and services in 2014, up 1.3 % from 2013. This includes internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services.  Saudi Arabia is investing in various digital government initiatives including King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).  The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is planning multiple smart cities.

City governments are not the only organizations providing IT services to support city operations.  For example, installation of 5,000 smart meters in homes and businesses across London involved investment from private companies including EDF Energy, Siemens, Logica, as well as the electricity transmission and network operators, National Grid and U.K. Power Networks, the transport operator Transport for London, and the city government Greater London Authority.

The U.S. spending analysis also showed that local governments, in addition to more traditional IT products and services, are procuring cloud-based services to modernize citizen services and reduce operational costs.  An example is online portals for tax collection and business licensing.  These IT projects are usually part of wider modernization projects being carried out within departments rather than standalone technology initiatives at the city level.

UK city governments buy IT products and services from large vendors

City governments in the U.K. tend to purchase their IT products and services from large vendors.  According to the UK analysis of eight cities large and middle-sized vendors accounted for the overwhelming majority of IT spending (98%) with small businesses only accounting for 2%.

Doha New Port Project

The New Port Project Tender Committee invites companies to register their interest to participate in the package for the QENFB Buildings & Infrastructure – Package 2 and Package 3.

Package 2 includes the construction of 130 No. Buildings, approx 224,927m2 Gross Floor Area, and associated Infrastructure and Landscaping Services, Fit out, Furniture and Specialized Equipment;

Package 3 includes the construction of 14 No. Buildings including sports and medical facilities, approx 153,416m2 Gross Floor Area, and associated Infrastructure and Landscaping Services, Fit out, Furniture and Specialized Equipment.

watch video on : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDa-6EQVcXE

Some handy BIM/VDC-associated technologies which can make a sea change in AEC Firms

The workflows of AEC firms are improved to a great extent with the implementation of building information modeling & virtual design and construction. Several upgraded techniques emerge out to transform 3d co-ordination process to a superior level.

The followings are some handy BIM/VDC-associated technology trends which facilitate the building team to design, build as well as operate buildings efficiently in the future course of time.

3D laser scanning: Lots of softwares contain less expensive field scanning techniques which perform through BIM models having perfect field information for construction sites. A scan is performed through the strong laser recording of the building structure that gathers the shape and look of a site. These conditions are transformed into a cloud of data points which are imported into a BIM model.

On a solo project, 30 minutes of scan time in the jobsite and 30 minutes of post-processing and uploading the point cloud into a Revit model can lead to saving of $30,000.

Model energy performance on the fly: With the emergence of new software tools, energy analysis of a building is executed throughout the conceptual design stage. Autodesk and Sefaira have launched various applications facilitating designers to accomplish energy study of early concepts on the fly. These applications compact the time required for assembling and crunching energy performance data for a long period. It facilitates the design teams to adapt their designs on the fly on the basis of the data.

Prefabrication will transform building delivery: Several Building Teams are applying BIM methods to collude with general contractors and construction managers to prefabricate and set up building components which range from mechanical equipment, plumbing infrastructure, and even complete restroom pods.

BIM makes the prefabrication process easy and smooth as the design become constructible in the model to be prefabricated and installed.

Data management: Some leading software companies like Assemble Systems and Panzura have built up cloud-based devices to manage, preserve, and distribute project data in a sophisticated way.

Computer-aided manufacturing: With the arrival of prefabrication and manufacturing processes like Lean construction, it opens savings and process efficiencies, the AEC are compelled to comply much the identical way computer-aided manufacturing changed manufacturing. Various CAM technologies together with BIM processes can deliver ready-to-install modules.

Some Advantageous Ways of BIM Service

BIM services indicate (Building Information Modeling), which takes imaging and documentation of buildings to a whole new level. These take into account sophisticated software as well as programs that are not limited to the primitive 2D images that were prevalent in the past. Basically, the advantage of using BIM services in Canada is that the whole of the building product lifecycle is catered to at the click of a few buttons.

BIM services are very advantages to building design and implementation as the reason it considers what are known as intelligent design and storage facilities. In a traditional 2D image, you could do only so much with reference to data storage and modification. Hence, BIM gives a dynamic modeling option wherein you can look at not only the building and its interiors in a dynamic manner. But the whole eco-system of buildings, surroundings and landscape around are integrated in a very savvy manner.

BIM is also a great use in marketing and advertising of building, especially when it comes to commercial, as well as residential buildings. Consumers are no longer satisfied with simple broachers that give a 2D image of the prospective office, retail space or an apartment. They want dynamic and slick computer based representations of the proposed building that is quite effective in giving a beautiful image from all angles which are indeed the best advertising proposition that a building marketer could expect.

On the other hand, BIM services are extremely useful for data storage. It is quite helpful for construction industry and you can save a lot of data through this. With these modeling services, a saving data is extremely simple and you save up data pertaining to various versions of design in a simple and non cluttered manner. For all above the qualities and advantages BIM services have gained lot popularity nowadays

Lifecycle BIM: A Comprehensive Solution for Facilities Management

For building owners seeking to improve facilities management, Lifecycle BIM is a comprehensive solution that incorporates industry leading building design, GIS, data management, and facility management software into best practice workflows to enhance communication, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Advanced Solutions’ fully integrated solution enables owners to optimize their building operations from cradle to grave.

Advanced Solutions Design Software has partnered with Codebook International, Brockwell IT Consulting, and Ecodomus, to provide each of the key components within the Lifecycle BIM solution. Each of these unique companies is a strong addition to the Lifecycle BIM solution, complementing the current Autodesk software solutions Advanced Solutions delivers to its customers.

The Lifecycle BIM solution is a welcome addition to the Advanced Solutions portfolio of products and brands. As a diversified technology company, providing integrated software solutions and services, enabling businesses to achieve more effective products, processes, technologies and ideas, Advanced Solutions is proud to offer Lifecycle BIM.

Re-energising the construction industry in Kuwait in line with the national five-year development plan

The recent announcement of Kuwait’s new five-year development plan (2015-2020) signifies a renewed commitment by the government to re-energise long-stalled mega strategic projects. This brings with it new opportunities for the construction industry, with estimates putting the total value of projects to be launched or completed in Kuwait over the next six years at US$188 billion.

BIM 4D for Construction Scheduling Has Created Wonders in the Construction Industry

Architosh published this viewpoint article by BIM consultant Bhushan Avsatthi who offers information and advice about the benefits of 4D BIM, mentioning the techniques and methods of Construction Scheduling. Today’s software market is filled with software tools addressing this segment of the BIM pipeline.

With the advent of advanced technological tools in the field of construction things have drastically changed! It has made the process of designing a building more effective, technically flawless, less time consuming, and more cost-efficient. This is the BIM revolution.

And now with 4D Simulation and Construction Planning—also known as 4D BIM—becoming a norm, architects, engineers, and builders are now completely exploring further areas for benefit.

One of the biggest benefits of BIM 4D Modeling is that it allows various people associated with the construction—right from architects, designers, and contractors to the owners—to get a clearer and more visual representation of the entire process through a series of simulated events.  The phases of progress of construction activities throughout the lifetime of the project can hence be observed and analyzed.

With an increase in the BIM-centric approach towards project management, techniques have resulted into a high potential for improvement in the management and timely delivery of project, irrespective of its size or complexity.

Since things are now done in tight deadlines, scheduling has become a must. BIM scheduling combines a number of factors and quantities based on location, flow-line, on-site production control, along with communication. This is an extremely dynamic and powerful process. Let’s take a look at things in more detail to understand them and their benefits.

Qualities by Location

Qualities by location helps one to segregate the site into small and more manageable areas per trade. This divided area strategy leads to clean and uninterrupted processes, eventually making the crew more productive. Also, it leads to a safe site environment which is always of importance.

The operator can define multiple location systems for trade-specific work sequences. These locations are further used to perform location-based quantity takeoff that is the input for location-based expense as well as schedule planning.

Flow-Line Scheduling

This scheduling method revolves around continuous work flow for trades and works closely with locations. This method has a scientific origin in the BIM model geometry for the quantities, along with locations and productivity rates of the crew. Utilizing this flow-line theory, Schedule Planner enhances the construction schedule by at least 10 percent.

On-Site Production Control

It is all about on-site tasks rather than the usual desk job. This method helps in calculating an optimal construction schedule as well as managing the project on-site. Determining the work put in place by location and measuring up actuals to planned helps in seeing the potential conflicts much in advance. This helps the team to work together as well as solve the scheduling conflict and prevent cascading delays.

Communication

Much in the similar manner to 3D BIM—4D BIM makes scheduling easy for the audience (Owners, trades, teams) to visualize how the building will look like. It is a robust playback of the scientifically-derived Flow-line schedule built on quantities by location along with crew productivity rates.

BIM Modeling Services Effective Constructability Review And Clash Detection

In a construction project, constructability review and clash detection services are two main part of the project. The main purpose of constructability review is to review the entire construction processes from start to end in the pre-construction or early design phase. Constructability review helps to identify and resolve various types of issues before the actual construction starts and it also helps to minimize errors, delays and cost overruns.

When the building design is developed, basically all the elements of each engineering trade i.e. architectural, structural, mechanical HVAC, electrical, and plumbing are coordinated with each other precisely. It often happens that any two or more elements fight for the same place that results clash between these elements at that place. The clash detection process is executed for identifying clashes between various elements of architectural, structural, mechanical HVAC, electrical and plumbing engineering trades.

One of the key advantages of BIM is that it helps the project managers and designers to measure sustainability of a building in the early design phase. For performing energy analysis, the designers import the model into programs such as IESVE and eQUEST to measure the effectiveness of the building.

When professionals perform constructability and clash detection analysis, they generally used project review software such as 'Autodesk Design Review' and 'Autodesk Navisworks' for identifying constructability and conflicts and fixing them in an efficient manner. It helps to enhance the design quality of the project to a great extent.

Nowadays, for performing constructability review and clash detection, professionals use 3D BIM model. The 3D BIM model is also used for preparing effective construction plans and equipment fabrication as well. Prior to BIM, professionals generally carried on the constructability and clash detection manually. Professionals spent ample time and effort to get an accurate result by executing the manual constructability review and clash detection process.

• Clash detection helps to perform effective evaluation, identification and reporting of interference clash in a 3D building information model between various 3D elements. Therefore, it helps to eliminate the risk of human error during model inspections.
• Once the building information model is completely developed, it is imported into the 'Navisworks' or 'Tekla' for clash detection and resolving conflicts in the pre-construction stage.
• So, constructability review and clash detection is very important for obtaining high quality and accurate project design, reducing costs as well as times in a significant manner.