Still Alive and Well in AU

Contrary to what my wife may think, I AM alive and doing well here in the vast Nevada desert.

Today is shaping up to be quite busy and full of information, but I wanted to take a moment and give some quick props to Laura Handler (Tocci Building Corp) and David Epps (Holder Construction) for there presentation of the different ways Contractors can arrive at a BIM. They talked about the pros and cons of doing 2D conversions in house, outsourcing the creation of the model and receiving the model directly from the designer. Very well done and worth checking out at AU online when available. CR118-1 (I will provide a link when it becomes available on AU Online.) Be sure to check out Laura's Blog for more about using BIM from a contractor's point-of-view.

I'd also like to congratulate Heapy Engineering of Dayton Ohio for having an Upper Management that totally "gets" what BIM, VDC and IPD are all about. They are technologically savvy and looking to stay on the forefront of the industry even in a down economy (rumor has it they may even be hiring, unheard of right now.). They understand (at every level in the organization, it would seem) that VDC/BIM is not a software implementation , but rather, a complete reorganization of the current project delivery process. Using the new BIM authoring tools (namely Revit) to deliver the same old deliverables with the same tired process is a recipe for disaster. Their successes should serve as an inspiration to anyone making their first steps down the road to BIM and integration. Check out their class MP122-2 (link to come.)