I’m a bit late with this post regarding the Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 21-06-05.
Rich Sales (Salesoft) gave a presentation on Building Information Model technology based on Revit. The proposed change to Auckland Autodesk User Group is needed! As usual Rich gave a great demo of Revit which he has running beautifully. Thanks Rich!
While everyone was impressed with Revit some of the the resulting conversation tended towards the practicality of using BIM in the real world. From minor aspects like where do you track revisions (on the drawing sheet? in the model?) to issues of liability, ownership, etc as the BIM is shared.
I think implementing BIM is more a change in process than a change in technology. Migrating existing office practice to BIM or adjusting office process to fit with BIM is becoming a major factor in successful implementation. As CAD evolves to BIM the emphasis shifts from managing drawings to managing a database, from wrangling lines to massaging objects & data.
While many have used CAD drawing models to store and reference data with BIM you are managing a database from which the drawings are almost an incidental report. Everyone from the workstation to the board-room has to be aware that there is more to it than “doing a drawing”. The pay-off is a coordinated drawing set and a coordinated database which is capable of much more than any drawing but that needs to be understood by everyone.