Tuesday 20 March 2012

ecobuild 2012 - Day One

In terms of RIBA Enterprises activities today...

1. NBS National BIM Report
This morning I presented the findings of our National BIM Research. This report is the findings from the most comprehensive and accurate research into UK BIM.

If you haven't already read the report, then I'd definitely recommend it. Some really insightful findings and trends and also some excellent articles and comment pieces from the likes of David Philp (UK Cabinet Office) and Angela Brady (RIBA President).
Fig 1 - By the end of 2011 almost a third of construction professionals are using BIM on at least some projects.

The report also includes an excellent case study from small practice David Miller Architects. In addition to the message that is often reported "you must use BIM by 2016". It's quite nice to also have an article that discusses "what's in it for me" - this case study shows the benefits of BIM in terms of hard-nosed return on investment for a company that has adopted this new process/technology.
Fig 2 - Chart above shows the rise in fee income against investment in BIM.

The final part of the presentation looked at "what is BIM?". The fundamentals of software + people + process cannot be argued with. But it's also fair to say that under-pinning all of this is information. And this is not just the 3D geometry that allows for visualisations and clash detection. The 3D geometry must be coordinated and linked to the specification, guidance, standards, regulations, potential manufacturers and cost (financial and environmental).

Fig 3 - What is BIM?

2. RIBACPD.com
This afternoon, Head of Sales from RIBA Enterprises Ben Councell launched the fantastic new website RIBACPD.com. To date the RIBA Providers Network CPD, the online CPD videos and the RIBA CPD activities have been dispersed across a number of quite disjointed websites. This new site provides essential CPD information for the construction industry all in one portal.
Fig 4 - Watch CPD videos at your desk, answer questions and receive the certificate

Fig 5 - Search for CPD on any topic and then filter the results to suit the way you prefer to learn

Fig 6 - Learn about the CPD events organised by RIBA around the country

3. Construction Information Service v4
And to round off a pretty full day, RIBA Enterprises Software Development Director Dr John Henderson launched version 4 of the Construction Information Service (CIS). CIS is joint venture product from NBS and IHS that gives instant full text access to the latest regulations, standards and technical advice.

Improvements to this release includes improved a completely rewritten search engine, intelligent drop down suggestions, more clearly presented search results and the ability to filter the search results to quickly find the document that is needed. 
Fig 7 - Screenshot showing the new CIS site with the optimised search features

So a busy, busy day. Come and see us tomorrow for some more great stuff on stands S1630 and S1640:
http://www.thenbs.com/topics/Environment/articles/biteSized.asp

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