A Christmas present for my wife…

I don’t often have personal posts on my blog, but with the two little girls, being busy at work, etc (I know we are ALL busy this time of year) I wasn’t able to get everything I wanted for my wife.

So, right about now we are waking up and making our way down the stairs with the girls. It’s a first Christmas for one and the first that the other will really remember.

What my wife doesn’t know is that in addition to the presents under our tree and in her stocking, she has one more big gift.

And that’s the purpose of this post. The only thing she has to do know is choose one from all the great suggestions she has put out there for the past month…

Will it be the bedroom furniture set? The living room furniture? (I see a theme…) The flat screen TV? Or the… dare I say it… the mini-van?

She doesn’t know I’m writing this, but she does subscribe. My prediction is, when she sees this on her radar, she will think it is a big joke… Well, that’s why it’s HERE, out where EVERYONE can see. I want her to know that this is better than your everyday IOU. I’m sure one of my “Loyal Readers” will hold me accountable…

Stay tuned to see what she chooses. (I'm wishing Flat screen, but I'm thinking a van... you know the one with cool remote open/close doors, the DVD and the convertible seats? Yeah, THAT one...)

Meet the 2009 Routan APR Special.

0% APR* for 72 months.

Merry Christmas to all, and all a Good night.

Happy Holidays... I think.

Rather than compose my own politically correct, religiously neutral, legally viable, and morally responsible Holiday Greeting, I will just link to the all encompassing greeting at REVIT Structure Learning Curve.

Happy Holidays All!! Even you CAD users out there...

Santa is a Reviteer?....

The general Revit population, must have been good boys and girls this year. Check out this link to a special Christmas Eve gift from Arch in 3D.

Happy Holidays and Peace on Earth.

AU 2009 Classes available online…

At least according to the email I recently got from AU. I haven’t double checked, but here is the link if you want to see for yourself.

AU 2009

Yep they are there... Just checked.

Autodesk Design Review Usage and Features Prioritization Survey

Take the 10 mins and give your feedback on Design Review.  This is your chance to influence which way the product develops and help ADSK understand who uses the product and how they are using it.

Can’t hurt, might help.

Link to Survey

AU afterglow… aftermath…

I suppose it depends on your viewpoint, but no matter who you are, another AU is in the bag…  While I haven’t heard any hard numbers yet, the estimates I heard run from 5900-6800, but I think that those are all hearsay.  Even as a newcomer, I can tell that it had been scaled back.  From stories of hotel suites with sunken living rooms and free top-shelf booze last year to the reality of this year’s standard King or Double rooms and no “hard stuff” at all at the exhibit hall or parties.  Add to that the “technical difficulties” the sound tech was having during the string concert at the AU Bash and the slightly (ok, seriously) cheesy Karaoke, and you have a formula for some disappointed AU-ers.  That said, in this down economy I think Autodesk did a wonderful job.  I think they kept quality classes and a reasonable price.

As far as I’m concerned, I thought the whole event was great.  I feel so lucky to have been able to meet some of the hardest hitters in the industry face-to-face in an environment of sharing and collaboration.  Isn’t that the point?  Folks at AU freely share content, templates, ideas, processes, etc.  It’s so exciting to be part of our industry right now. 

I don’t think it was the glitz and glam of Vegas (it has more to do with the weekend spent with my family after the fact) but I am re-charged and re-energized by great conversations and information exchange with awesome people.  The weather over the next few days looks promising for a couple of in-depth blog posts. Gotta love blizzards!!!

AU 2009 Day 3 Part 2

While I have been a fan of his blog for awhile, I didn’t expect the sheer amount of personality that David Butts posses (as was evidenced by his Gold 2010 shaped glasses, his Mardi Gras bead prizes for audience participation.)

In his class MP314-1 Revit MEP Powerful tips and tricks is a must watch for anyone in the beginning to intermediate stages of using Revit MEP.  When this is posted online be sure to watch and download the accompanying material.

Bonus: He usually posts a Kick @SS MEP Systems Project template to the class site that will go a long way towards helping you create an office standard template.

Also, check out his new instructional books for Revit MEP Basic and Advanced

AU 2009 Day 3

One thing I didn’t expect (I probably should have) is that having all of this dialog with other users and managers involved in the BIM/VDC/IPD process has given me NUMEROUS ideas for future blog posts.  I HAVE been taking notes and hopefully I will be able to get these ideas out here for everyone to share in the upcoming weeks.

One of the stand out sessions (for me anyway) from yesterday was put on by Joshua Kanner from Vela Systems, INC I posted about VELA a few months ago, and I was very excited to see the product a little closer and be able to have a conversation with Joshua in the exhibit hall after hours.

What a neat tool.  It allows your field personnel to interact with the BIM using a very friendly interface (one that is probably not far removed from what they use now, even if they are using hard-copy forms) that is task/process based. An example would be the staff commissioning the facility can use a barcode (or even RFID) scanner to track equipment (Received, damaged, ready to install, installed, prepped for functional test, etc) using a simple procedure that is familiar to them.  The barcode/RFID tag can add data directly from the Vela database when scanned.  That data (manufacturer, model, whatever the supplier decides to add) can then be automatically added back into the NavisWorks model the GC is working in.  Read that again… Automatic bi-directional information transfer.  WE ARE THERE!!!!   This IS BIM!!!!!  The sky is the limit.  Color code views to show equipment status (delivered, damaged, etc)  Pan back and see your major pinch points visually. 

Can you tell I’m excited?  Geesh….

Thought  provoking idea of the day:

How can I use the model to not only maintain my building, but control it as well?  With automatic control and sensing systems out there, are we really that far away from this?

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.)

Alive and well in Vegas...

Touched down around Noon yesterday and had a pretty laid-back afternoon. Took in the "daytime" Strip (the place is so over-the-top,) watched part of a disappointing football game (C'mon Pats, you're killin' me) and checked out the AEC Mixer.

Somehow I missed the invite to the Blogger mixer, heck I didn't even know there was one. Ah well, guess that's what I get for not posting much in the days and weeks leading up to AU.

Looking forward to awesome day of classes and meeting some of my blog-o-sphere friends and acquaintances.

More to come...