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.

Draft Sight and BacktoCAD

Theres a new CAD game in town, and I am liking it.  It's called DraftSight by Dasault Systemes, a French software company.  This new software is along the lines of OpenOffice, which is a free version of the expensive mainstream product, MSOffice. 

With the migration of everyone from Windows XP and Vista to Windows 7, a great upheaval is taking place in the software world.  The old 32-bit AutoCad software will not run on Windows 7 unless you pony up for the Win7 professional version and run the old stuff in what's called XP virtualization mode.  This slows everything down and does not allow you to use the full capability of Windows 7.  Of course, Autodesk has their answer to the problem and it involves your wallet in a big way: upgrade all your AutoCad seats to Version 2011, at a minimum of $575 per seat for LT, or be left in the dust.  And, of course, Autodesk has come out with a newer file structure for .dwg files, that older versions of ACAD will not open.  New and improved, but for whom??

Now enter DraftSight into the fray.  It's a free download from Draftsight.com, installs in minutes on Windows 7 and works just like your old CAD program!  It reads and writes native .dwg files in all versions, new and old, including Version 2011.  It seems to have all of the 2D features that I normally use.  That's the only drawback that I can see: it is 2D only.

If you take a look on Youtube, there are quite a few tutorials available for Draftsight.  These are very helpful in transitioning to Draftsight.  There is also a very humorous look at the frustrations of working around the limitations of AutoCad:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfeteapT35A&feature=related

Download Draftsight for free at http://www.draftsight.com/

Another interesting program that I just ran across is called: Back To Cad -

http://www.backtocad.com

This takes PDFs and converts them to .dwg files that can be edited in ACAD or Draftsight.  This could be quite useful in saving some redrawing time.  I tried it out, and it does work.  You might have to spend some major time cleaning up the line work and fixing text, but for some uses, it will be a time saver.  It works better with files that are directly plotted to PDF, instead of scanned paper sheets.

My next blog post will cover my adventures in learning Revit MEP, so stay tuned.

Pete and Repeat

I recently quoted a project for a parks and recreation client. There were multiple small buildings at 6 different sites. Some of the buildings were a one-off design, but a few were to be repeated at other sites. I had to price the job as one lump sum for the whole project though. It is always a challenge for me to arrive at the correct pricing for repeated buildings as there are a few different schools of thought on this. On the one hand, your client may say: "It's just the same exact building but on a different site; just charge me for the extra prints."

Now you may say that's well and good, but this same building on a new site will almost certainly have a different orientation, requiring that the HVAC system be reviewed, and even possibly recalculated and resized due to different solar exposures.

The perfect example of a repeated design is the mulitple housing unit: one, two, or three floor plans repeated 10 times each in one buiding. You slice and dice, and flip and reverse the floor plans, but it ends up being the same thing over and over, only on one site. This allows for some design efficiencies and may simplify our collective lives a bit. It gets more complicated when the whole building get repeated at that site or sites far removed.

You may also consider that a design for a one-off building is just that, only built once, and any errors or omissions will only affect that one building. A design for a repeated building must be "closer to fine", as any mistakes will be multiplied over and over again. I know we all like to think that all our designs are "perfect", but that is like thinking Windows Vista was also perfect right out of the box!

Other considerations are the additional items that are not repeated:  liability, site adaptation, site utilities, different building codes in different locales, and additional bid and construction phase services. Liability is a biggie, it's the reason we all carry that expensive E&O insurance. It increases in a linear fashion with each design we stamp, and needs to be included in pricing. Site issues, of course, take time and effort to iron out. Building codes may be an issue if the repeat will be done in other counties, cities or states, as well as obtaining additional state licensing where that's required. Let us also not forget the effort we put in every time a new site is bid and constructed. We have bidders' questions to answer, bid addendums, RFIs, prequalification of bidders, bid evaluations, submittal review, construction observation, and punchlists. It's a lot of work!

To put numbers on all of this, I would recommend discounting the repeated design itself, but put real hours and numbers on all the other items that takes your time to deal with. Use a spreadsheet and add it all up - you may be surprised. Your contract also needs to clearly state if this is a one-use design, or how many times it will be repeated and where. Also, add a clause that any design changes for the repeated building be covered at least on an hourly basis.

So the next time a client says: "Oh, by the way we might use this design for a few more sites", your ears need to perk up, and you need to start thinking of how to put a dollar amout on CYA.

Old Buildings and the New Year

Ideas come to me at random times, but one of the best idea catalysts I have had in a while was the book: "The Four Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss.  The premise of the book is that you can so order your work life so as to not interfere with your "real" life.  Along these lines are many ideas for working remotely, collaborating with others, and managing people and projects with greater efficiency.  He is very big on empowering others, using outsourcing, and givng you the tools to live where you want to live.  The book has many real world examples of others who have succeeded in making the transition to working lower hours and getting more done.  Check out his blog at fourhourworkweek.com

Much of his advice can be adapted to the design field, such as the sections on outsourcing and working remotely.  I highly recommend this book, especially if you got a Kindle for Christmas.  (I love mine, it is the only reader where you can actually see the screen while sitting on the beach, managing your 4 hour work week.)

I occasionally am called upon to perform condition reports on existing buildings.  These are some of my favorite assignments, as i get to see how a building has performed in the "real world", as opposed to just seeing it on paper.  You can learn a lot about what not to design by looking at a poorly performing building.  One of the first things I look for in doing these evaluations are the as-built drawings.  More often than not, they are not available.  These are essential for getting a clue as to the baseline condition of the MEP systems, but if they cannot be found there are other ways of getting the information you need, such as an interview with the maintenance manager.  I always use a voice recording device to pick up every word he says, as this will often be the best source of real information on the building.  Photos are another very important tool, especially to put into the report to show your client why he should be concerned about all that corrosion on his electrical panels.

I also try and obtain copies of a years worth of utility billings for gas, electric and water.  LEED is all the rage for new buildings, but I am finding many opportunities for great savings in existing buildings.  There are many opportunities for reducing raw energy usage, as well as savings from switching fuels.  At one buiding that I am now researching they are being billed over $17 per kilowatt of demand per month.  This means that if I can take out two 25 KW commercial water heaters and replace them with gas, the demand charge for electric can drop by $850/month.  The actual savings will be even greater than that as the charge for natural gas energy will be less than the electric energy charge.  The same kind of results can be obtained by taking out any type of electric heating and replacing it with natural gas.  This is why you never see pool heaters using electricity, but for some reason it is often used for domestic water heating.  Even greater savings can be achieved using on-demand gas water heaters.  Electric on-demand water heaters are a poor choice for commercial buildings that have electric demand metering, as the high kw usage on these will spike the demand charges for the building.

A good building condition study will outline the remaining life left of building systems, as well as point out areas that are ripe for energy savings.  Every item that is highlighted for potential energy savings should be followed up with a cost benefit analysis to determine the payback in years for applying energy savings measures.  Of course, doing building assessments often leads to follow-on work, always a good thing!

Gadgets for designers part 1

One of my good clients called me the other day to talk about the Ipad, one of my favorite gadgets of all time.  She wanted to kind of "justify" the purchase for a Christmas present to her husband, and wanted to know a little about how a design type person might use one.  Now the first thing with Ipad you have to decide is 3G or plain wi-fi?  Not a trivial question, as the 3G model costs about $130 extra.  Now you may think, "I am only going to use this at home or where ever there is wi-fi"  so why spend those extra bucks?  And, if you want to use the 3G for data on the road, you will be paying about $25/month for the privilege.  However, you can turn on and off the 3G data on a month to month basis, so when you are not traveling you can save those dollars.

The main reason to get the 3G is that the ipad will give you location information for the maps function. The maps on the Ipad are the best I have ever seen, and I am a map freak from way back.  They use your location information to show where you are, like a giant GPS, but with so much more information.  You can overlay traffic info, or satellite photo imagery, or just do a location search for any local business or landmark.  You can have it draw routes for you, and you can view all those street view photos from google while you are traveling along (and the spouse is driving).  For information while traveling it just cannot be beat.

But what about the business uses for Ipad?  Remember my friend "Bill"?  He got one (without the 3G, he is sorry about that now) to show potential clients a quick slide show of his scariest photos of buildings with long deferred maintenance.  He can get it booted up in 30 seconds, and give the client 100 good reasons to hire him in 5 minutes or less.  Try doing that with a laptop. For photo slide shows, they are just awesome.  Sure you can do some of those things with a smart phone now, but the screen size is just not going to cut it.

Another business use is Autodesks sketchbook pro, a digital drawing program that you use with a small stylus to create ideas drawing freehand or with a grid on screen.  I use it as an engineer to annotate photographs.  You can load a jpg file into the program, then use the stylus to make notes onto the file, great for renovation projects when you are trying to convey your ideas for existing items to your CAD people.  You can also use it when meeting with a client to sketch up quick ideas for approval.  The touchscreen is way more intuitive than trying to use a laptop, and the sketch program only costs $10 or less.

I just downloaded a dictation program from Dragon for my Ipad the other day.  It works amazingly well, no more "training" the program to your voice.  And it was FREE.  There are so many good apps out there for low or no cost, it never ceases to amaze me.

Now the ipad does not have a camera, or any usb ports.  I do not see this as a big deal, as you can use a program like dropbox to access any files you may need while traveling.  To get photos into the ipad's memory though, you need to load them through I tunes from another computer.  All in all, the ipad is a great business tool,  as well as being a lot of fun.