Technology in Architectural Practice

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

Ms. Robberson,
  I have found that we have had the greatest success with BIM when we introduced it toward the end of Schematic Design (but not at the end of SD).  We have a BIM manager and technician that begin to develop the model about midway through SD based on what our designers have developed in various media (physical models, SketchUp, AutoCAD, hand drawing, etc) which have received approval from our client.  The BIM model begins a detailed dialog between our designers and technical staff regarding design intent.

The BIM model's blessing is also its curse, for it forces one to go into a high level of detail much to early in the design process.  This is where we have found that by having a very clear vision of our building's concept and design intent we can begin to set up some very certain parameters in the Schematic Design phase that can be clearly reflected in the BIM model and greatly facilitate its coordination with the engineering team.

Another aspect that is crucial in this endeavor is the strict adherence to BIM standards.  Though this is facilitated with the use of templates, our BIM manager and technician work constantly to insure that all associated components of the model are directly accountable to a designer on our team.  This helps eliminate ambiguity and placeholders in the model, though we really rely on our QA/QC process to insure validation of the model before coordination with outside firms.

-------------------------------------------
Ricardo Ramos Assoc. AIA, LEED® AP, CSI
Alpha Analysis, Inc.
Arcadia CA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

From my work helping other firms make the switch from FlatCAD to BIM, I have to say the more programs you enter into the process, the more dead ends you have. Sketch-Up is a great tool for what it is, but it is not an A-Z design tool, maybe A-D. What do you do when you hit the Sketch-Up wall? You end up redrawing the whole project in another program and that Sketch-Up model is now useless. Dead ends can be inefficient wastes of time.

We all begin by drawing walls. Wall thickness and early choices about materials and structure are being decided early on whether you use BIM or not. I've had this argument so many times and I believe most of us just don't want to make these decisions, but we always choose a distance to set those lines apart in FlatCAD. Where did this number come from? What's a 1'-0" thick wall made of? Before you start designing a building, you do code research to find out what your construction type is. Your BIM template file should be populated with many standard wall composites. Most firms design many of the same types of buildings, so if you're designing schools, then it's likely you're using brick veneer over block or metal studs. If you're designing a house, you're likely using siding over wood studs. Wall construction is much easier to predict than most make it out to be.

The greatest mistake is not identifying where the actual structural "edge" of your wall system is within the wall. The face of structural block or face of stud is not on the outside edge of the wall, so in a FlatCAD wall made of only two lines, where's the structural edge? How do you know where the foundation below is? What are you dimensioning? I always dimension to the "structural edge" and you can tell where the foundation line is from the second level (if it stacks). BIM allows you to "construct" your wall, rather than cheat it, and I've found this to be a time saver, not a brain racking exercise. From the beginning, I know my rafters sit on a stud that sits on concrete and it all lines up without me having to think about it because I made those choices from the beginning, using a predefined template. All too often, I see people fiddling with their design as it evolves long after these decisions could have been made efficiently. Going back and reworking an entire design to insert reality later will kill your fee, so get it right the first time all the time. Don't just design, think!

It's not like you can't switch out a wall type or two along the way after selecting the most common wall system first. The bottom line is that you should know what your building is required to be made of before you start using the computer to draw it. It's incredibly advantageous to have built your building in the virtual world in 3D before handing the design to the contractor because you know it works. When you have a great selection of predefined elements in your template, you're more likely to forget about the common paralysis of dealing with reality. You have a whole tool box full of reality in the template. If you're not ready to decide brick or siding, block or studs, then you're not ready to leave the pen and paper. If you're ready to give a wall a thickness, then why 1'-0" or 6"? You're making a decision either way, so why not make a good one the first time?

-------------------------------------------
Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

The power of BIM comes from the engine that runs it, the database.  Therefore when you start "designing" in another platform, you loose the benefit of the additional information that data can provide you to help inform your design process.  Many take a short-sighted view to start their design processes in other platforms and then transition to BIM for the production process.  They primarily have done this because they haven't fully explored or become trained in the use of the preliminary modeling tools available in most BIM software packages (although I am speaking primarily from Revit experience).  Granted these tools may not be quite as robust or user-friendly as sketch-up, but they are getting much closer.  What they may lack in small ways in terms of functionality, they more than make-up for however in providing more information.  When you use the BIM tools smartly, things like energy modeling, solar studies, preliminary spatial analysis and a host of other data can help bring a whole new dimension of information that can help make the design process much richer and help the designer make much more informed decisions earlier on, that will benefit the entire design process.  As Autodesk's Wikki help states about Revit, "During the conceptual phase, create masses to explore design ideas and perform early analyses. As the design matures, manipulate these forms to use as the basis for more detailed architecture."

Get to know your BIM platform and really plumb the depths of the preliminary design tools such as massing and using generic walls that can be converted to final walls later on.  There is balance that is required, that is true.  But when you use multiple platforms you take on other risks, like additional costs, additional training and the loss of the power of the BIM data in the early stages of the process.  Remember BIM = data and data can equal knowledge and power.  I am constantly amazed at how many architects I see using other platforms in the early stages to create things that BIM platforms like Revit can do.  I've seen architects take sketchup models into Photoshop or take CAD plans into other programs to make color presentations and so on.  When all these tools are available to them within their BIM software.  I know that if used correctly, Revit can produce some very impressive preliminary renderings and can produce colored coded floor plans and so on, if you know how to use it correctly.  So, my encouragement is to get to know BIM and use it from A-Z as it was intended and maximize it's potential as early in the design process as you can.

-------------------------------------------
William Campbell AIA
Principle
Sugar Hill GA
-------------------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

I'm glad someone else has figured it out. Why use 3 programs to accomplish the same task your BIM program can achieve by itself? I can draw a quick model in ArchiCAD about as fast as anyone can in Sketch-Up and I have useful information, while they have a dead end and will now redraw the entire building again or use an awful Sketch-Up translator and practically rebuild the project again anyway. Dead ends are inefficient wastes of time! Dollars per hour people, dollars per hour! I spoke to my BIM dealer just yesterday and he was saying most firms that he has visited with Revit are barely using it. If 25% of the projects are on BIM, they're doing great. The last firm I helped convert to ArchiCAD is doing 100% of their jobs in BIM and refuse to go back now that they get it. People are scared to death of BIM because they want to use it like FlatCAD and that's very inefficient. We have managed to over complicate FlatCAD with X-refs, so now we try to over complicate BIM with the same mentality. The model is conceptually like a 3D X-ref that most of your drawings should be generated from. You have to think more holistically and trust in the modeling process. Any thing you can see clearly at 1/4"=1'-0" or in more than one drawing view should be modeled. Drawing something 3D is more cumbersome, but drawing the same thing twice or three times in 2D is even more cumbersome, especially if something changes. Modifying one 3D element is less time consuming than hunting down every 2D view of the same item. It could be seen in floor plans, building sections, elevations, etc. Where does it end?

-------------------------------------------
Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2011 09:28
From: William Campbell
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

The power of BIM comes from the engine that runs it, the database.  Therefore when you start "designing" in another platform, you loose the benefit of the additional information that data can provide you to help inform your design process.  Many take a short-sighted view to start their design processes in other platforms and then transition to BIM for the production process.  They primarily have done this because they haven't fully explored or become trained in the use of the preliminary modeling tools available in most BIM software packages (although I am speaking primarily from Revit experience).  Granted these tools may not be quite as robust or user-friendly as sketch-up, but they are getting much closer.  What they may lack in small ways in terms of functionality, they more than make-up for however in providing more information.  When you use the BIM tools smartly, things like energy modeling, solar studies, preliminary spatial analysis and a host of other data can help bring a whole new dimension of information that can help make the design process much richer and help the designer make much more informed decisions earlier on, that will benefit the entire design process.  As Autodesk's Wikki help states about Revit, "During the conceptual phase, create masses to explore design ideas and perform early analyses. As the design matures, manipulate these forms to use as the basis for more detailed architecture."

Get to know your BIM platform and really plumb the depths of the preliminary design tools such as massing and using generic walls that can be converted to final walls later on.  There is balance that is required, that is true.  But when you use multiple platforms you take on other risks, like additional costs, additional training and the loss of the power of the BIM data in the early stages of the process.  Remember BIM = data and data can equal knowledge and power.  I am constantly amazed at how many architects I see using other platforms in the early stages to create things that BIM platforms like Revit can do.  I've seen architects take sketchup models into Photoshop or take CAD plans into other programs to make color presentations and so on.  When all these tools are available to them within their BIM software.  I know that if used correctly, Revit can produce some very impressive preliminary renderings and can produce colored coded floor plans and so on, if you know how to use it correctly.  So, my encouragement is to get to know BIM and use it from A-Z as it was intended and maximize it's potential as early in the design process as you can.

-------------------------------------------
William Campbell AIA
Principle
Sugar Hill GA
-------------------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

In getting back to Morgan Robberson's original question, I would say that you can start with BIM (Revit, Archicad, or other intelligent modeling program) as early as space programming phase. However, many folks strongly prefer to use various other programs such as excel for various tasks such as programming. Too bad you need a plug in to bring an excel file into Revit. In consideration of Eric Rawlings comments, you could do space programming and massing from the get-go right in Revit. Indeed, utilization of massing studies in Revit is very workable. 

Though it may be somewhat inefficient, the ability to bring information from one program to another is a crucial consideration. Otherwise, it's best to do discover and utilize the best way possible with just one program. Unfortunately, Revit does NOT have many widely disseminated tutorials that fully discuss how to effectively use it for initial programming. (Eric - where are you - help us out, but with even treatment of Revit vs. Archicad!)

Checkout the work that's going on with BIM Storm and the Onuma System. It would be very useful if AIA TAP would also address how to best use these programs in early design phase, because there is very little adequate information about it in the text books.
 
-------------------------------------------
Gail Ann J. Goldstead AIA
Wheaton IL
-------------------------------------------



Original Message:
Sent: 11-30-2011 06:43
From: Eric Rawlings
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

I'm glad someone else has figured it out. Why use 3 programs to accomplish the same task your BIM program can achieve by itself? I can draw a quick model in ArchiCAD about as fast as anyone can in Sketch-Up and I have useful information, while they have a dead end and will now redraw the entire building again or use an awful Sketch-Up translator and practically rebuild the project again anyway. Dead ends are inefficient wastes of time! Dollars per hour people, dollars per hour! I spoke to my BIM dealer just yesterday and he was saying most firms that he has visited with Revit are barely using it. If 25% of the projects are on BIM, they're doing great. The last firm I helped convert to ArchiCAD is doing 100% of their jobs in BIM and refuse to go back now that they get it. People are scared to death of BIM because they want to use it like FlatCAD and that's very inefficient. We have managed to over complicate FlatCAD with X-refs, so now we try to over complicate BIM with the same mentality. The model is conceptually like a 3D X-ref that most of your drawings should be generated from. You have to think more holistically and trust in the modeling process. Any thing you can see clearly at 1/4"=1'-0" or in more than one drawing view should be modeled. Drawing something 3D is more cumbersome, but drawing the same thing twice or three times in 2D is even more cumbersome, especially if something changes. Modifying one 3D element is less time consuming than hunting down every 2D view of the same item. It could be seen in floor plans, building sections, elevations, etc. Where does it end?

-------------------------------------------
Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2011 09:28
From: William Campbell
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

The power of BIM comes from the engine that runs it, the database.  Therefore when you start "designing" in another platform, you loose the benefit of the additional information that data can provide you to help inform your design process.  Many take a short-sighted view to start their design processes in other platforms and then transition to BIM for the production process.  They primarily have done this because they haven't fully explored or become trained in the use of the preliminary modeling tools available in most BIM software packages (although I am speaking primarily from Revit experience).  Granted these tools may not be quite as robust or user-friendly as sketch-up, but they are getting much closer.  What they may lack in small ways in terms of functionality, they more than make-up for however in providing more information.  When you use the BIM tools smartly, things like energy modeling, solar studies, preliminary spatial analysis and a host of other data can help bring a whole new dimension of information that can help make the design process much richer and help the designer make much more informed decisions earlier on, that will benefit the entire design process.  As Autodesk's Wikki help states about Revit, "During the conceptual phase, create masses to explore design ideas and perform early analyses. As the design matures, manipulate these forms to use as the basis for more detailed architecture."

Get to know your BIM platform and really plumb the depths of the preliminary design tools such as massing and using generic walls that can be converted to final walls later on.  There is balance that is required, that is true.  But when you use multiple platforms you take on other risks, like additional costs, additional training and the loss of the power of the BIM data in the early stages of the process.  Remember BIM = data and data can equal knowledge and power.  I am constantly amazed at how many architects I see using other platforms in the early stages to create things that BIM platforms like Revit can do.  I've seen architects take sketchup models into Photoshop or take CAD plans into other programs to make color presentations and so on.  When all these tools are available to them within their BIM software.  I know that if used correctly, Revit can produce some very impressive preliminary renderings and can produce colored coded floor plans and so on, if you know how to use it correctly.  So, my encouragement is to get to know BIM and use it from A-Z as it was intended and maximize it's potential as early in the design process as you can.

-------------------------------------------
William Campbell AIA
Principle
Sugar Hill GA
-------------------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

For complex projects my firm uses specialized programming BIM software (Trelligence Affinity) and establishes 2-way exchanges between the programming model (which keeps track of program minutiae) and the design BIM as it develops. We find this process works well although it's not easy to get it set up. The advantages of using specialized programming BIM software are: (1) it handles any level of detail you need; (2) you can store as much as you want without your increasing the size of your design BIM file; (3) you can customize both what information is stored and how it's organized to a much greater extent than Revit or ArchiCAD allows.
However, I think making the transition from programming to schematic design entirely within BIM is not good practice. I need to discard most of the programming information (which is frequently intimidatingly detailed) to start to think about design. You can't design a good building from a bubble diagram. It's even worse when the bubble diagram looks like a building because it's a massing model in SketchUp, Revit or ArchiCAD. I sketch and make simple models until I'm satisfied that a scheme has "legs"- architectural potential as well as the ability to satisfy the program and budget.
-------------------------------------------
David Scheer AIA
2012 Chair
Scheer & Scheer, Inc.
Salt Lake City UT
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 12-01-2011 09:10
From: Gail Ann Goldstead
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process


In getting back to Morgan Robberson's original question, I would say that you can start with BIM (Revit, Archicad, or other intelligent modeling program) as early as space programming phase. However, many folks strongly prefer to use various other programs such as excel for various tasks such as programming. Too bad you need a plug in to bring an excel file into Revit. In consideration of Eric Rawlings comments, you could do space programming and massing from the get-go right in Revit. Indeed, utilization of massing studies in Revit is very workable. 

Though it may be somewhat inefficient, the ability to bring information from one program to another is a crucial consideration. Otherwise, it's best to do discover and utilize the best way possible with just one program. Unfortunately, Revit does NOT have many widely disseminated tutorials that fully discuss how to effectively use it for initial programming. (Eric - where are you - help us out, but with even treatment of Revit vs. Archicad!)

Checkout the work that's going on with BIM Storm and the Onuma System. It would be very useful if AIA TAP would also address how to best use these programs in early design phase, because there is very little adequate information about it in the text books.
 
-------------------------------------------
Gail Ann J. Goldstead AIA
Wheaton IL
-------------------------------------------



Original Message:
Sent: 11-30-2011 06:43
From: Eric Rawlings
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

I'm glad someone else has figured it out. Why use 3 programs to accomplish the same task your BIM program can achieve by itself? I can draw a quick model in ArchiCAD about as fast as anyone can in Sketch-Up and I have useful information, while they have a dead end and will now redraw the entire building again or use an awful Sketch-Up translator and practically rebuild the project again anyway. Dead ends are inefficient wastes of time! Dollars per hour people, dollars per hour! I spoke to my BIM dealer just yesterday and he was saying most firms that he has visited with Revit are barely using it. If 25% of the projects are on BIM, they're doing great. The last firm I helped convert to ArchiCAD is doing 100% of their jobs in BIM and refuse to go back now that they get it. People are scared to death of BIM because they want to use it like FlatCAD and that's very inefficient. We have managed to over complicate FlatCAD with X-refs, so now we try to over complicate BIM with the same mentality. The model is conceptually like a 3D X-ref that most of your drawings should be generated from. You have to think more holistically and trust in the modeling process. Any thing you can see clearly at 1/4"=1'-0" or in more than one drawing view should be modeled. Drawing something 3D is more cumbersome, but drawing the same thing twice or three times in 2D is even more cumbersome, especially if something changes. Modifying one 3D element is less time consuming than hunting down every 2D view of the same item. It could be seen in floor plans, building sections, elevations, etc. Where does it end?

-------------------------------------------
Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2011 09:28
From: William Campbell
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

The power of BIM comes from the engine that runs it, the database.  Therefore when you start "designing" in another platform, you loose the benefit of the additional information that data can provide you to help inform your design process.  Many take a short-sighted view to start their design processes in other platforms and then transition to BIM for the production process.  They primarily have done this because they haven't fully explored or become trained in the use of the preliminary modeling tools available in most BIM software packages (although I am speaking primarily from Revit experience).  Granted these tools may not be quite as robust or user-friendly as sketch-up, but they are getting much closer.  What they may lack in small ways in terms of functionality, they more than make-up for however in providing more information.  When you use the BIM tools smartly, things like energy modeling, solar studies, preliminary spatial analysis and a host of other data can help bring a whole new dimension of information that can help make the design process much richer and help the designer make much more informed decisions earlier on, that will benefit the entire design process.  As Autodesk's Wikki help states about Revit, "During the conceptual phase, create masses to explore design ideas and perform early analyses. As the design matures, manipulate these forms to use as the basis for more detailed architecture."

Get to know your BIM platform and really plumb the depths of the preliminary design tools such as massing and using generic walls that can be converted to final walls later on.  There is balance that is required, that is true.  But when you use multiple platforms you take on other risks, like additional costs, additional training and the loss of the power of the BIM data in the early stages of the process.  Remember BIM = data and data can equal knowledge and power.  I am constantly amazed at how many architects I see using other platforms in the early stages to create things that BIM platforms like Revit can do.  I've seen architects take sketchup models into Photoshop or take CAD plans into other programs to make color presentations and so on.  When all these tools are available to them within their BIM software.  I know that if used correctly, Revit can produce some very impressive preliminary renderings and can produce colored coded floor plans and so on, if you know how to use it correctly.  So, my encouragement is to get to know BIM and use it from A-Z as it was intended and maximize it's potential as early in the design process as you can.

-------------------------------------------
William Campbell AIA
Principle
Sugar Hill GA
-------------------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

Introducing BIM in the schematic design phase does not require any more decisions than using Sketch-up and certainly less than 3ds. If you have your modeling system in place you already have access to Exterior and Interior wall systems, curtain-walls, doors, etc., so place holder walls will not be forgotten as you develop the design. If you have the Levels of detail and view scales set appropriately you will see the type of walls you are using. Even if you use a generic (undefined other than width) walls they will still define the space as well as any Sketch-up or 3DS walls. The bonus points come in as the design development progresses. I do not have to go recreate the information from the external design tools, I just start to add the detail that I need, structure, furniture ceilings, equipment.

If I need simple renderings I can even do those in the Model, or if I need more detailed (usually well after schematics) than I can export the model out to 3DS or other renders to work with, usually for walk throughs or photo realistic plots.

BIM is a tool, just like the old school paper and pencils. We still imagine the looks of the building and its material palette and make design decisions early, we just get to see and document those decisions earlier.

-------------------------------------------
Robert Woodhull AIA
Principal
Robert L. Woodhull, A.I.A. Architects
Plano TX
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------

Well said Robert.  Revit or other BIM tools can be used throughout the entire design process, and the earlier you include it the farther along you will be when you start construction documents.  Also keep in mind that because you are drawing in 3D, you don't have to show presentation drawings in 3D.  I often start with sketches of floor plans to get an idea of the space, then go back and modify the materials, and 3D data later as I refine it.  Doing a rough 3D block model can also really help to get a grip on the project, and understand how it will work in the real world.  I find it extremely helpful in the early stages to do a very basic 3d model, then print it and sketch by hand over it to show more design detail to present to the client.

Going back even futher in the process, Revit can be a powerful tool for skematic design and diagrams.  For instance, I may use walls to simply block out a certain size space, then use it to represent commercial, circulation, service, etc.  You can add room tags and have them show up as a colored diagram.  You can then move around the spaces to help build relationships.  At the end, you have a nice color coded diagram with a schedule that gives you information like square footage, which can even be broken up by floor or phase.

The only problem I ever have using Revit (or any CAD) in the early stages, is that a hard line drawing looks "committed" to the client, where as a sketch makes them feel like it's still in the developing "I can still change it" phase.  Doing the hand sketch over the 3D, or color coded diagrams seems to solve that problem.

-------------------------------------------
Jeff Hammond Assoc. AIA
Owner
Hammond Design
Yucaipa CA
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2011 16:32
From: Robert Woodhull
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

Introducing BIM in the schematic design phase does not require any more decisions than using Sketch-up and certainly less than 3ds. If you have your modeling system in place you already have access to Exterior and Interior wall systems, curtain-walls, doors, etc., so place holder walls will not be forgotten as you develop the design. If you have the Levels of detail and view scales set appropriately you will see the type of walls you are using. Even if you use a generic (undefined other than width) walls they will still define the space as well as any Sketch-up or 3DS walls. The bonus points come in as the design development progresses. I do not have to go recreate the information from the external design tools, I just start to add the detail that I need, structure, furniture ceilings, equipment.

If I need simple renderings I can even do those in the Model, or if I need more detailed (usually well after schematics) than I can export the model out to 3DS or other renders to work with, usually for walk throughs or photo realistic plots.

BIM is a tool, just like the old school paper and pencils. We still imagine the looks of the building and its material palette and make design decisions early, we just get to see and document those decisions earlier.

-------------------------------------------
Robert Woodhull AIA
Principal
Robert L. Woodhull, A.I.A. Architects
Plano TX
-------------------------------------------






Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2011 21:20
From: Morgan Robberson
Subject: Introducing BIM in the Design Process

When do you introduce BIM into your design process? Do you do schematic design in something like Sketch-up or 3DS Max and then transition to BIM? Or do you start with BIM from the beginning?

BIM requires the designer to make so many decisions at the beginning (or risk sticking in a placeholder that no one else realizes is only a placeholder). How do you maintain the balance of making too many decisions early on with leaving to much ambiguity in the model?

-------------------------------------------
Morgan Robberson Assoc. AIA
Oklahoma City OK
-------------------------------------------