BIM Commandos announced as the Overall Winners of Build Newcastle Live
It's a salute and hand shake for the BIM Commandos as they take the overall prize at Build Newcastle Live. A huge thank you to the entire team. You worked hard and certainly deserve this accolade.
We worked hard, played hard and slept not really at all. Hotbunking down at Faulkner Browns offices in Newcastle meant that we could always stay close to the action. It was hard work, but for what the entire team got out of the experience it was hugely worthwhile.
One thing comes out of this competition for me, and that is the importance of collaboration. Not collaboration in the sense of sharing files, but in the sense of working together, talking and sharing ideas. We had a variety of organisations and individuals involved, some with decades of industry experience and some just starting out. Others had never engaged with a BIM process before and others are old hands. Yet we always felt like a team, working together for a common purpose.
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Final design visualisation worked up by Eyelevel
As the Information Manager and project lead it was certainly an interesting experience. We needed to manage not only our own workflows, but how our outputs feed into other's work. When processing time alone for a render can take in excess of 8 hours and with a 48 hour project time it was vital to ensure that our team could work on the correct information when they needed it. |
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| Integrated Landscape and Building in Infraworks gave the building its context in a realtime 3D model |
We tested a lot of new ideas and taught each other a lot along the way, and that's what this competition was all about. Whether Joao the PhD student from Teesside University was testing his software link between Revit and COBie or Oli from Bailey Street Scene was developing the throughput of geometry and information from Solidworks into Revit, there was always some new connection that we were working on.
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| Prototype curtain wall system |
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| Eyelevel's Augmented Reality app, we didn't manage to get it tested on site, but stay tuned! |
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| It's BIM, of course we have to have a clash detection graphic! |
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| Using Infraworks to position the building (middle distance) within its context |
Data cleaning is an important part of a BIM process. Ensuring not only that each team member has the right information to work with, but also that the information they are using doesn't contain information that could slow them down. Whether it's flying seagulls in the point cloud or 3D models of taps and sinks for the visualisation professionals.
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| Analysing the point cloud shows the elevation change across the site clearly. Big data sets take a long time to download! |
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| Daylight analysis in Infraworks |
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| Some serious structure was required to hold up the huge Innovation Centre |
Integrating different tools from across the Autodesk family is not always easy, but with a little help from your friends there is always a way.
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| Integrating the Landscape, Transport Infrastructure and the building |
We also tested the NBS BIM Toolkit. Many thanks to Seth Okai for okaying that. Really good start to getting a full BIM level 2 project.
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| Our software workflows tested and working |
It was a wonderful experience and the BIM Commandos have a lot of potential for the future. Ensuring geospatial coordination of models and finding ways to make interoperability work beyond the building envelope are themes the BIM Commandos will continue to work on in the background.
The BIM Commandos. We'll be back.
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| The original BIM Commando (Revit skills untested) |
