What the BIM?!!?

Trimble buys SketchUp from Google.!!!

This is earth shaking (to me at least) the "...leading provider of advanced positioning solutions that maximize productivity and enhance profitability," Trimble, acquires SketchUp from Google to "...Enhance its Office-to-Field Platform." 

Game Changer?   Could a light weight modeling application used by millions across the globe, now partnered with a true leader in using data driven models  to construct the Built Environment rock the AEC industry?  Nah, probably not... (Sarcasm Folks, Sarcasm)

Press Releases:

Google SketchUp Blog

Trimble.com

CNBC

AU 2012 Call for Proposals

Au 2012 Call for proposals is now open.

  Learn more.

 

Friday Fun

Evolve!

From the Revit Architecture Facebook Feed.

Reality Capture Magic

The good folks at Sensopia have an awesome little iOS application that is going to change how we capture existing condition floor plans.

This FREE (!!!!!) app captures floor plans of rooms as you drop "markers" in the corners and at doors.  It's not really photogrammety.  You're not taking pictures.  You are capturing points through your view finder using the compass and gyroscope built in your device. Then you stitch those rooms together into a floor plan.
Add multiple floors and BAM (not BIM, not yet.) As-Builts.

How accurate is it?  I haven't confirmed yet. There is a calibration feature.  And I'm sure like most tools, a majority of the how accurate the output comes from user input.

It truly is amazing.  After a half hour or so of playing with it, I think I could put it to pretty good use.  And that was without watching the tutorials (that's not pigheaded manliness, it's just that intuitive (OK, oink.))

I'm going to try an capture the new palace sometime over the next week.

Watch the videos.
Download the FREE app
Capture your world. (FYI, you do have to create an account with Sensopia.  Aren't we all used to this by now?)

Maybe they will develop an app that captures the faces of walls and stitches those into a BIM (model, for you kitten killahs.)  That would be something...

BIM Execution How-to

Follow this link to a document that is intended to spark the conversation necessary to plan the Level of Development (LOD) requirements on a BIM enabled job (i.e. filling out that LOD matrix on your BEP).  It is not a form to fill out (there are plenty of those) nor is it a template to apply to your projects,  It's more a compass than a road-map.

Note: Licensed through Creative Commons


Model Level of Develop (LOD) Planning by Erik Lewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

If anyone would like a .pdf copy let me know through the "Contact" page re: BIM LOD Planning. There's no rocket science here though.  Just good, old fashioned communication and planning.

Don't let that blank BIM Execution Plan (BEP) make you afraid of the Big Bad BIM.

Edit: Added Creative Commons licensing 4/12/2012
Edit: Made document publicly shared and search visible 4/16/2012
 

XPM for AEC with BIM...

Embrace the TLA . Andrew Abernathy at Strings, Connections and Links talks about how Extreme Project Management (XPM) when combined with BIM can bring peace and harmony efficiency to the AEC industry.
Are you Agile?

XPM- taming the Big Bad BIM by being flexible.

Is Drawing Dead? Another view

I recently posted my thoughts about the Yale School of Architecture's symposium Is Drawing Dead?
Joann Gonchar, AIA continues the discussion in her article The Afterlife of Drawing at Architectural Record

Stop saying Revit can't...

Them; "You can't schedule Wall Height in Revit."
Me; "You want them to the nearest whole foot?"

 

(Hint's in the post label...)

Time to step up your game...

R W SMITH (Commercial Kitchen designer and supplier) has a published a BIM Services book to highlight how they can benefit projects using BIM.

Kitchen supplier, folks!!  What was your excuse again?

Thanks to Steve Stafford at Revit OpED for bringing this to light.

Open publication - Free publishing - More architecture

What I really do...