Related Links: New York City Releases New BIM Guidlines The New York City Dept. of Design and Construction (DDC) is the latest regional agency to issue building-information-modeling technology standards. The agency says the new guidelines establish a framework to enable all future DDC-managed public building design projects to be delivered using 3D design technologies and BIM processes. The guidelines require BIM on new projects valued between $15 million and $50 million, says Craig Chin, a DDC spokesman. BIM provides “a broad platform for collaboration across the project team,” says David Resnick, DDC deputy commissioner for public buildings. The agency joins

ENR's FutureTech San Francisco event attracted over 300 construction technology professionals who attended and participated in a day's worth of demonstrations of the latest and future uses of technology in the industry.During one panel discussion moderated by Isaac Sacolick, CIO of McGraw-Hill Construction, called 'IT From the CIOs Perspective,' CIOs debated some of their main issues in delivering the next wave of information technology services. They also offered tips on how to balance their firms' demands to innovate new systems with the cost to develop and support those innovations.One of the main points: If a firm is building unique applications

Photo courtesy of Autodesk Balfour Beatty work crew with Vela Systems on an iPad The acquisition by Autodesk of Vela Systems on June 8 pulls into Autodesk's orbit a company known for leveraging cloud computing and mobile devices to link building information modeling with the physical activities of construction.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Jim Lynch, vice president of Autodesk's Building & Strategic Technology Group, says after three years of partnering and working together, Autodesk approached Vela with the proposal and they came to terms quickly.  "We signed and closed the acquisition in one day," Lynch says. "We

Related Links: BIM Standard May Boost Sharing C3 Systems: Beyond BIM Experts say version two of the nation's first consensus standard for the setup and exchange of building information models advances the use of BIM by providing a road map and common language for model building."This is truly a big change," says Deke Smith, executive director of the buildingSMART alliance of the National Institute of Building Sciences and the standard's developer. But he also says there is much work to do and obstacles to overcome on the way to a more mature standard. "We have only scratched the surface on

Experts say version two of the nation’s first consensus standard for the setup and exchange of building information models advances the use of BIM by providing a road map and common language for model building.

Photo by Julio Delgadillo, Skanska USA Will Senner, left, an assistant project manager with Skanska USA, and Glen Smith, right, a superintendent, demonstrate how they can use Vela's tools for taking BIM to the field on iPads. Here they match a model view with a project location to "see" in-wall utilities of ductwork, mechanical piping and fire protection piping at the James B. Hunt library construction project at North Carolina State University's campus in Raleigh. A set of new products that graduated from public beta status in late May will let users of Vela Systems' field data management services add

Related Links: Building Groups Seek Unity on Interoperability, BIM Rhode Island Is First State to Adopt IGCC Developers of the first open consensus standard for the exchange of building information models hope to grease the wheels of collaboration.The non-proprietary National Building Information Model Standard-United States Version 2, or NBIMS-US V2, sets forward ways to promote interoperability between BIMs of different vendors and offers practice guidelines for users."Ideally, we want the standard embedded in the software so the user doesn't have to worry about it," said Deke Smith at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition,

Developers of the first open consensus standard for the exchange of building information models hope to wipe out "lonely BIM" by greasing the wheels of collaboration among all parties involved in the creation and exchange of all different types of building information models.

An industry group that hopes to automate code compliance checks for 3-D building information models scaled back its proof-of-concept project recently because the process it hoped to measure against—manual 2-D plan review—turned out to be wildly erratic.

Related Links: http://www.knowledgesmart.net KnowledgeSmart.Net Engineering News Record Bristol, U.K.–based KnowledgeSmart Ltd. is starting to turn heads on the west side of the Atlantic with its independent, online-software skills-gap analysis and industry benchmarking service for design firms.Rory Vance, CEO, says about 25 U.S. companies have subscribed to the service, including Stantec, HOK, Atkins and Cannon Design. Doubling in a year, the number of subscribers on the list globally is now "into three figures."Subscribers are testing hundreds of users—and not just BIM jockeys—for comprehension and skills with specific software tools, such as Autodesk Revit and Bentley Microstation. Others are testing project managers