Friday, February 03, 2012

Dear AEC, Get #BIM or a new career. Sincerely, Present Reality

Andy Partridge is an awesome writer and really encapsulates brilliance in his works... Do get into him & XTC if you like thinking!!! Now (below the video) onto the letter...



Dear AEC, 
Recently I tweeted you to get #BIM or a new career and I would like to follow up with more. 

Can you see the fucking elephant in your room???


First let me say I love you.
Building realities from imagination is so natural a human pursuit.
Artists would agree.
Many of us really want to help you leave the inefficient past behind and innovate the industry to become the shining societal leaders we believe ourselves to be...

Unfortunately too many in AEC act like fat bloated politicians interested in personal standing and appearances and not the greater good.
AEC: Not enough of you see the dire straits you are in even though it's all around you.

You are acting with the ignorance similar to the commentator who said of Banksy's (hiding in plain sight) elephant:


I'm not sure what the point of having an elephant in a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles is
Jason Bentley US radio commentator 
Perhaps you are just able to ignore the elephant in the room but some of us will not be so deluded and self absorbed. 

Those of us who see the need to evolve and act on it will be more than happy to swoop in and take your projects more and more (as we have already started to do), so either get on the train or watch as your industry shrinks... We do not need more Architects for instance, we just need better ones... those that hold back technological evolution and betterment will find themselves in different careers... And some already are!!!

As a group your buried head is in the sand
You seem to stick with the status quo and fail to appreciate that obsolete technologies are helping kill you
Those that do see the future and to those for whom evolution is the present, we know it takes courage... courage to step outside of comfort zones and learn better processes and allow oneself to grow.  

Without courage all one has is fear. If AEC doesn't act in the face of BIM fear they are doomed to ambivalent, neurotic impotence.

AEC, you must see that "continuing CAD (drafting) and not completely embracing BIM" is the elephant in your room. The elephant that you ignore (to a large degree)... and you must see how it will impact the world for generations to come... Negatively!!!
Builders of new things must see things anew and use the best tools for the overall good and CAD drafting tools are surely no longer that!!!


Your backwards, destructive ways will catch up to you... shit just look at your own fucking slideshows...



Your archaic ways of thought will splinter you into irrelevancy
Like too many of your ideas
Vision too stale to see through your egos
Driving yourself, powered by fear


I am writing to let you know that BIM can help
BIM can help you win projects
Shit BIM can help you keep projects
BIM helps production
BIM helps lessen litigation
if only you'd hear our cries: Kill CAD (drafting), fully mandate BIM.

We do not mean to kill true CAD: "Computer Aided Design" 
but the CAD that most people hear when they use that term: "Computer Aided Drafting"
That's what is leading the charge in killing you, allowing the lowest common denominators to run the show... How laughable a business model that is!!!


Not able to evolve due to the fear of change and the initial investment needed to learn and grow... You have to recall that without great struggle and risk there can be no great success... you used to know that but now it appears that many in AEC are lost in an ego-drunken, fearful stupor.


Solutions do exist but are being ignored by too many in A, E & C (O too)
I don't feel you can wait 
Please listen to what we say: Kill CAD (drafting)

When you're asked Why BIM?
There's an answer that sums it up nicely:
Because AEC does not want to become insurance salespeople.

Just before I go a few more morsels to think about when you contemplate your business model... (not BIM Model) -There you go #BimModelingFluffyKittenKillas strike again :-)

There are too many people who call themselves designers who are nothing more than glorified graphic illustrators. 
-If a design is over budget or the budget and program is not followed to inform the design, then the "designer" is nothing more than an illustrator, without any insight to client needs or reality. 

I know that "reality" is a debatable topic but I simply mean "the agreed upon business reality" Where the client is given what they want for the money that they want to spend.

Integrated firms are much more able to handle all projects efficiently, which will help save the building industry from itself: the more that teams can work efficiently, even if not integrated the better AEC will be.

Architecture positions in too many cases don't pay enough (like other Professionals get) because so many firms undercut each other in hopes of slamming extra services and printing costs onto the clients, then adding a shitload of fluff, like tons of wasted paper just to recover losses.

Bottom line:
Those firms and people who don't adopt BIM & further IPD will continue to lose work and find themselves needing new careers, so if you want to stay in AEC we will see you on the BIM train immediately.

Sincerely, 
Present Reality

Monday, January 30, 2012

Revit Project Browser, View & Sheet Organization & Conventions (According to Me)

A good project is an organized project...
Update 02/01/2012: I reposted the document on Scribd since Box.net is flash and doesn't work on the iPadasauros...damned apple...

JBZ Project Browser Organization 2012

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Restructuring for BIM Success: BIM with Intelligence from DesignIntelligence

One of LARUG's Leadership Consortium (Leather Jackets to follow?) has an article out on DesignIntelligence (@dinet) and if you are implementing BIM or any other process and/or process change this article will surely give food for thought... and a bunch of...well read it for yourself!!! Uhhh that's me BTW : )

"To find success with BIM, firms need to look beyond the CAD processes that staff are comfortable using. Assessment, planning, and communication are key." "CAD processes don’t require that architectural practices be good, but BIM processes do..."

Hit the images & links to the article and the resource links & follow the #BIMandments (Twitter anyone?)



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

LA CSI Nite: All BIM & Specs, No Crime Scenes

What are you doing Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 beginning at 2pm?

If you are in the Los Angeles area then plan to come by the (LACSI) Los Angeles Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute's CSI NITE.

Held at the beautiful Los Angeles Marriott Downtown at 333 S. Figueroa St. LA 90071.

So what's on tap (other than food, drinks & awesome networking)...


 Why don't we just see...

QA/QC of (BIM) Project Delivery
Bill Schmalz Perkins+Will
Jay B Zallan Perkowitz+Ruth Architects (hey, that's me)

Evolving CA Practices: Shop drawings and other submittals
Debra Gerod Gruen Associates

Integrated Project Collaboration Software - The Missing Link for IPD
Steve Will Submittal Exchange

Integrating BIM and Specs is Real!
Mark Kalin Kalin Associates Specifications

As always hit the red links and images for more...


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

See BIM, Feel BIM, Touch BIM, Heal BIM... Game=Changed (Soon)

A Fluffy Kitten and Phil Read Walk Into a Bar...

Veo looks like it is what BIM has been dreaming of...next up; the product releases... "soon"
Follow M-SIX on LinkedIn and get the preview videos from hitting the image below... (See Arch+Tech too)...


Thursday, December 22, 2011

Fear and Loathing In a CAD vs. BIM World and a Fluffy Kitten Walk Into a Bar... A 2012 Recap

The following are 15 selected posts from the past year that I feel are still helpful. I did leave out the post on Revit Tools (no not the bad users) since there are a lot of new tools and I am considering a future post for that...

Thanks to everyone for reading, sharing, adding, teaching, voting, supporting, loving, friending, @ing, forwarding, liking, favorite'ing, this blog & me. I am having a great time growing with you all and will continue to inspire, infuriate, confound and everything else I do :-) 
-J

1) Worksharing need to knows

 2) Holograms... "To all my friends" 

3) Skinput (Not helpful 'yet' but super cool)

4) Copy Monitor (Considerations for beginner to intermediate Reviteurs mostly)

5) More Dimensions of Revit (LOOK AT THE F'ing PROPERTIES DIALOGS PEOPLE!!!)

6) What's the best computer for Revit 2012 (a popular post for readers around the world) Get ready I am going to really up the anti for next year's Revit machine needs!!!

7) (most) Everything you'll need to know about Keynoting (just hit the post, then the 2 red "HERE" links)

8) That damned Revit Cow. (Just wait until RTC2012 everyone... we are going to blow your... mind(s))

9) Programmatic uses of Revit

10) Family Considerations to considerate (yes I know)

11) Keyboard Shortcuts Just for You (and you know who 'you' are)

12) So do you want to be an Architect REALLY? -A fun break from the BIM...

13) Detailing the Revit Detailing Process (NO LINES!!!)

14) Take a Ride on The Rails (A new future is inspired)

15) OMFG Building Rigs Have Unforseen uses -Those will follow next year as well!!!
Have a great New Year and be fantastic all year!!!

BIM In Love

Tuesday, December 13, 2011