BIM: How I learned to stop worrying and love Revit

After being asked quite a few times the question: "Are you using Revit yet?"  I decided to dip my toe into the waters of Building Information Modeling.  Up to this point I had resisted for several reasons, and you may be hearing some of these too:

• It requires a lot of computing horsepower.  You will need at least a dual core machine running 64 bit Windows 7, having as much RAM as you can afford.  8 to 16 GB is common for users, and if you intend to work with large models and buildings you may want to go up to the maximum 192 GB that 64 bit Windows 7 can address.
• The software is expensive.  A single seat license is $6K, a subscription license approaches $7K.  Now this does allow you to install on one work and one home computer, and also gives you a full version of AutoCad.
• A steep learning curve.  The commands are different than your CAD program, you will need to spend some qualtiy time with your tutorial book.  But the capabilities are also much more robust.  For example, the MEP version has a built-in heating and cooling load calculator.  Revit can also help you design electrical ciruits and tablulate the loads for you, building panel schedules at the same time. 

Some of the reasons architects seem to want their Engineer to use Revit fall along these lines:

• Coordination of the trades.  One main 3 dimensional building model is produced by the architect and is shared to the MEP and structural engineers.  Engineers build upon the same model so that everything gets fitted together like you are building a machine or automobile.  This takes the guesswork out of pipe/duct interferences and ceiling space getting too packed up to move a ceiling tile.  It also helps where structural beams may get in the way of conduits or ducts, and automatically shows your intereferences.  Change orders should be greatly reduced for these types of field problems.
• Existing buildings:  You can now set up a laser scanner to collect both exterior and interior data points, and use this to generate a "point cloud" in your computer model.  This point cloud can be imported into Revit, and then used as a template to construct your 3D model of the building.  This can save weeks of field measuring work.  There are companies now doing this scanning as a stand alone service.  The files generated can be huge though, in the multiple gigabyte range.  Your computer needs to have plenty of horsepower to use this technique.

As far as the learning process goes these are my observations:

• You can download a trial version of the program from Autodesk, which is good for 30 days of free usage.
• I am using this book for learning Revit: The Aubin Academy Master Series, by Aubin, McClelland, Stanly and Schmid.  Cost was about $45 from Amazon, and it includes downloadable practice exercises.  It is a tutorial style book, with each lesson building on the previous one.  In general, it is a great way to get an overview of the capabilities, as well as get some practice on actually producing plans.

It is definately the wave of the future, and many clients are now expecting it, so why wait any longer?

Getting my CEM - Certifified Energy Manager

For the past week, I have been taking an online course from AEE, the Association of Energy Engineers.  The course is the CEM "fast track", and is required (by AEE) in order to be able to take the test to become a CEM.  You used to just be able to take the test, and if you passed it, you were in.  Now I also had to submit some credentials and experience qualfications as well, but these were formalities (at least for someone like me who has been doing engineering since Edison invented the bulb).

This "course" is a very quick run through 17 different topics including energy codes, energy economics, energy auditing, green buildings and so on.  The course is taught by one person, over Microsoft Web Meeting.  For the audio of the course, we have to dial into a separate phone line, but all our phones are muted and we cannot ask questions during the class time.  It is 2 hours/day for 6 days, thats it.  There are 72 people taking the class at on time, you can see the whole list in a window in WebMeeting.  Doing some quick math, lets see, 72 students x $1100 each for the class = $79,200.  Nice work if you can get it.  This is not some rocket science course either, it is very basic.  This cost is just for the class, no live instructor, no hotel ballroom, no tea or crossaints.  Now when you go to take the test, it's another $400.  Oh, by the way, you dont get a book either, just some PDFs you download, these cost over $30 to print.  You want a book, thats $200, a sample test, thats another $80.

Somehow the AEE has lobbied the Federal government, so that their qualifications are required on most Federal work these days, creating a "monopoly" of sorts for this cerfification.  Thus the high prices for courses, books, sample test, etc... 

Soon this will be just like LEED cerfication, 100,000 people will get this, and it will no longer have any meaning.  But here I am CEM certified, and ready to take on those energy monsters.

Evernote, you will love it!

I just discovered a new toy, and it's part of a bigger toy.  I have a new Blackberry Torch, and have been researching some of the apps that are available.  One of the best apps to come along is Evernote: an information synchcronization and sorting device, and the basic version is free.

The program installs on your smart phone, and any other computers you may have, including the iPad.  Any item stored in one place instantly shows up on all the other devices, thanks to the "cloud".  You can store voice recordings, photos, text notes, or any type of file there, but what makes it even more useful is the built-in tagging and text recognition. Here's one example of how handy this app is:

Take a smart phone photo of something you want to remember, such as the nameplate on a heat pump, and then the magic starts.  Put a text tag on the photo, enable your phone GPS to put a geo tag on it, then upload it to your Evernote "cloud" over 3G.  Any text appearing in that photo is recognized by Evernote and becomes searchable as text, even handwriting. 

This program also provides an email address, so that you can email any documents right to your space.  You can also use a "clipper" to save webpages to Evernote. 

You can even set up multiple "notebooks" inside Evernote to presort your information into, say, "projects."  Even if you just dumped the information into Evernote without doing that, you still have many ways to retrieve your information again.  You can search on any keywords, either from your tagging, or within photos. I see this as a great place to dump all the random information you get from projects.  Say you have a new renovation project: You go out to the field with your smart phone, take photos of equipment nameplates, get voice memos from the maintenance guy, take photos of business cards and as-built drawings.  You upload all this to an Evernote notebook you've named "Taco Hut Renovation".  While doing the design work, you have quick access to all those random notes, voice memos, business cards, and drawings from any computer you happen to be near at the time. Amazing! Convenient! Useful!

I am looking forward to the next project, where I can put all this to the test.  I will post more on my actual experience.