BIM and Beam - Three Buses in a Row ;0)

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It may be pure coincidence, however since my posting on the 31st January about the lack of effort and posting over at BIM and Beam since Wai Chu moved on from Autodesk from the five nominated Authors (The Famous Five), postings on BIM & Beam are now like London Buses. Nothing for ages then three all come along at once (usually one after the other and not side by side as the picture above).

Squeezed out into the blogger-sphere just after my posting and before midnight on the same day, actually making it two posts in January is  Autodesk ForceEffect Version 2.0 Now Available!

This posting is about a free app available for Apple iPad and iPhone from the iTunes App Store that allows engineers including structural engineers to model and simulate concepts. Real time solving capabilities provide immediate feedback on the performance of a design, enabling you to bring engineering to the point of the problem.

No Author credited for this posting which is a real shame because you don’t get to see which of the famous five suddenly burst into life. Nice posting, actually had something to do with structural engineering.

Then as if a Bear being poked with a stick.......

Two postings ON THE SAME DAY – Bly me!  

The first posting is about  Operating Systems support change for Autodesk products Reporting that there has been an important change to the way Autodesk are support Operating Systems for Autodesk products.  This change directly impacts the Revit family of solutions.  Please see the following link for the change and important details Microsoft Windows Vista Support FAQ, it says

Again NO AUTHOR CREDIT, So no answer as to which of the Famous Five Authors is alive, breathing and blogging?

Then as if to answer the question Pawel Piechnik posts  New structural content for Revit Structure is available straight after on the same day.

It appears Autodesk (Pawel) thinks that they have just uploaded some new country specific, structural .rfa content and templates in the Subscription Centre for you to download.

The delivery includes content for Brazil, Russia and Spain Yipppppeeee for them

However it looks like Pawel may have jumped the gun with his posting because three readers have reported that they can not find the material on the Subscription Centre and are requesting a hyperlink!

OK, ok, I know we asked for some action and more postings on your blog, but you could have scheduled the posting for a couple of days in the future, to make it look like you are continually active on our behalf, or at least ensured the material was actually there before you told the world about it......

I know we the User and never happy :0(   The Headmaster now says  "6/10 Better". Now a plug for things UK based ;0)

Autodesk have asked for feedback about what’s missing out of the box for the UK users, so unless you actually helped Paul Oakley gather feedback for Autodesk – don’t complain if when a similar package arrives for the UK it does not have in it what you would like.

Nuff Said

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ANZRS v3 now available!

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Its only 6 months ago that ANZRS the Australian and New Zealand Revit Standard Version 2 was released, changes to ANZRS are not expected to be frequent, as the ANZRS Committee understand the effort required to adapt to new standards and practices.  However, they wish to always keep the feedback gates open, and it is feedback from those who have contributed so far that they understand more of how ANZRS can be even better!

The ANZRS committee have kept significant changes to a minimum, as promised, but have worked hard to take all your feedback into consideration and to present a new pack that would be easier to navigate, more helpful and hopefully more practical to implement – to whatever extent you wish to.

Visit the website, register and download version 3.  

Q: What's happened at BIM and Beam? - A: Nothing Much

Since Wai Chu the Ex Product Manager for Revit Structure left Autodesk, five people have been allocated to take over his Blog BIM and Beam. And it has to be said it looks like they are just names because since Wai's departure there have been very few posts

4 Post in November (I think Wai was still with them then)
0 in December
1 by the skin of the teeth in January, about a non Revit specific Autodesk Blog in French for god sake.......

The individual who are supposted to be supporting what was a good Revit Structure resource are

Brian Haines
Gary Wyatt
Pawel Piechnik
Sarah Hodges
Tomasz Fudala

So there should be at least Five (Revit Structure Specific) postings a month if you only do one each guys

Two of you are supposed to be specifically taking over and sharing Wai's responsibilities on our behalf. Please introduce yourselves formally on the Blog and at least make it “look as if you” are supporting Revit Structure and it’s users. Because at the moment that isn’t the impression the blog is projecting…

Consider this a kick up the rear from your readership

4/10    See Me ... Do Better ! – The Headmaster ;0)

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Updated free technology preview of Structure Generator for Revit Now Available

Over at It's Alive in the Lab Scott Sheppard have just announced that the Updated free technology preview of Structure Generator for Revit is Now Available.

Structure Generator for Revit is a free technology preview that provides a connection between "massing models and objects created during conceptual design" and "structural elements such as beams, column, walls, and plates."
// Learn more abour Structure Generator for Revit on Autodesk Labs
Software Development Manager, Pawel Kociolek, gave Scott Sheppard an updated installer which he has made available for download. Pawel also noted what's in this update of the technology preview:

• Capability to generate trusses
• Capability to generate secondary beams
• Capability to assign default sections for secondary beams and diagrids
• Enhanced capabilities (i.e., different settings for X and Y directions) during grid definition
• Enhanced error reporting
• Corrections of reported problems

Autodesk conduct technology previews to get Revit User feedback. The technology preview is active until April 1, 2012. At that time, Autodesk need to take the feedback they have received and decide what to do next. Your can help them with that decision by sharing your thoughts at labs.revit.generator@autodesk.com or the discussion forum.

Help Autodesk to develop these items and you might just end up with what you want....
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VEO - Must See Teaser Trailer Video

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You will feel like Johnny 5 after watching the Teaser Trailer Videos and you will definitely need "More Input"

M-SIX State on their Linked-in Company Page

"M-SIX is building VEO™, a cloud-based platform for use in the design, construction, and operation of buildings and other structures.

We have partnered with some of the largest AEC firms in the United States to help us understand their needs and to stress test VEO with large, complex projects. In addition to refining our technology, we are paying a great deal of attention to the "anthropology" – the collaborative workflow.

When connected inefficiently, the tools used in Building Information Modeling add as much friction and complexity as they do valuable insights. Connect these capabilities with a smooth, realtime workflow in which all decision makers have the information they need when they need it – then you will have a solution. Then you will have VEO."

Go Watch 

"GET INPUT" and Blown Away !

"Beautiful VEO™"


This is one program I want to have a play with.

I only hope it's as good as the teaser trailer video.

UK & Ireland Revit User Groups - Jan 2012 Update

View UK Revit User Groups in a full screen map - Click the map location indicators above for links to web sites and linked-In groups 

(A)

LRUG

London Revit User Group

12th Meeting due 18th January 2012 Bi-Monthly meeting Jan, March, May, July, Sept, Nov.

(B)

GRUG

Glasgow Revit User Group

7th Meeting due last week February 2012

(C)

ERUG

Edinburgh Revit User Group

3rd Meeting Dec 2011 Cancelled due to severe weather   2nd Meeting was July 2011

(D)

BRUG

Bristol Revit User Group

5th Meeting due Sept 2011 never materialised   4th Meeting was May 2011

(E)

RUGL

Revit User Group Leeds

4th Meeting was 23rd November 2011

(F)

RUIG

Revit Users Ireland Group

3rd Meeting was 7th December 2011   2nd Meeting was September 2011 Currently looking into setting up regional groups of Revit Users Ireland, to cater for people who can't make it to the quarterly RUIG meetings in Dublin.

(G)

MRUG

Manchester Revit User Group

2nd Meeting was 9th November 2011

(H)

RMUG

Revit Midland User Group

Linked-In Group - No actual meetings arranged yet

(I)

NERUG

North East Revit User Group

Linked-In Group - No actual meetings arranged yet

AutoCAD WS on Kindle Fire

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Autodesk have to announce that AutoCAD WS is now also available for Kindle Fire through the Amazon App Store!

The Kindle Fire is now joining the huge family of Android and iOS devices running AutoCAD WS and allowing you to take your designs with you anywhere you go. Use your Kindle Fire to view your drawings, edit them and share them with your colleagues.

If you just got a Kindle Fire for the holidays, download the app and tell Autodesk what you think.

Christmas for Engineers

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Not my work, something that was emailed to me and I thought I would share...

Have a Great Christmas

eTransmit for Revit Update

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eTransmit for Revit is a free* technology preview of an add-in application for Autodesk^® Revit^® Architecture 2012, Autodesk^® Revit^® Structure 2012, and Autodesk^® Revit^® MEP 2012 software.
For best results, installing Revit 2012 Web Update 1 is recommended. With eTransmit for Revit, you can:

• Copy and detach a Revit model and associated files to a single folder for internet transmission. This removes the typical error messages when you copy central files using the operating system.
• Locate dependent files automatically and include them in the transmittal folder, helping to reduce the possibility of error. All dependent files are automatically converted to use relative paths so the dependent files can be located by the model.
• Choose to include related dependent files such as linked Revit models, CAD files, DWF™ markups, decal images, and external keynote files. You can transmit any Revit (.rvt) model that has been upgraded to be compatible with a 2012 Revit software product.
• Transmit models that are using file-based worksharing or server-based worksharing. eTransmit for Revit will also work with non-workshared Revit models.

Common uses for eTransmit

• Internal archiving
• Sending deliverables to clients
• Model exchange between consultants/partners
• Model cleanup
• Sharing models between disciplines

What's new in 1.1?

In July we conducted a user survey to gather feedback from users who had tried the technology preview. One of the things that we heard very clearly is that there were a number of people who were experiencing problems using the initial version. Based on this, our biggest focus for version 1.1 was fixing issues. For a complete list of what is in 1.1, you can review the release notes and known issues, but highlights include:

• eTransmit will no longer crash when you try to create a transmittal on a network drive.
• The progress bar now updates correctly when there are errors and warnings (previously it gave the impression that the transmittal had failed when there were only warnings).
• You can now use eTransmit even if you have one or more models open.
• Unfortunately, transmitted models still do not open correctly if you double-click on them from the operating system. To open a transmitted model correctly, use Revit's file open command.

Availability

The technology preview will operate until June 30, 2012.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/revit_etransmit/.

Download

You will need your User ID and Password, pop over the the Labs Page to download

Help Autodesk out

See how well the eTransmit for Revit technology preview works for you, and be sure to tell Autodesk what you think by following the feedback link

You can also post comments on the Between the Lines or It's Alive in the Lab blog.
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Finding the Postcode and Location Plan

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Ok, I've had an email saying your maps articles are all well and good if you know the postcode. For some of the work I deal with for example Party Wall, it's kind of important to have the full address, especially for undertaking land registry searches to establish the Building Owners and Adjoining Owners details.

So I pop over to the Find a Postcode function on the Post Office web site at http://www.postoffice.co.uk/postcode-finder

There are Four little search filelds

OK I actually know the building number and the post code as this is my work address, but for this example assume I don't. So above I have only entered the building Name, Street and Town - then click on the Find Postcode and........

 The full postal address including post code and a nice little location plan to boot!

Enjoy.

Unlocking BIM Data - Echo

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Pop over to Revit ST and you will find a link to a white paper from Authors

Simon Taylor FRICS– Principal, Questant Inc., Project Controls and Risk Advisory Services

Christopher Bailey FRICS – Vice President, Chief Cost Planner, Lend Lease, New York

The introduction says

"A paper to introduce the concept of developing an industry standard coding structure for application to 3D design systems to create increased value from Building Information Modeling (BIM). It describes, by reference to the data that can be stored in the model, where the flow of data to ‘downstream’ management and analysis systems and databases is broken, and how the inclusion of standard coding will enable beneficial use of model information, and produce the value of BIM that is not currently available."

So a "thank you" to Glenn Jowett for finding this one
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Environmental Agency Maps

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Continuing on Information and Maps as a theme this posting is about the Environmental Agency web site and maps.

The Environment Agency is an Executive Non-departmental Public Body responsible to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and a Welsh Government Sponsored Body responsible to the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development.

Their principal aims are to protect and improve the environment, and to promote sustainable development. They play a central role in delivering the environmental priorities of central government and the Welsh Government through our functions and roles.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which came into force on 1 January 2005, anyone may request information from a public authority which has functions in England, Wales and/or Northern Ireland.

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs) came into force at the same time as the Freedom of Information Act 2000. They clarify and extend previous rights to environmental information,

The example below is a postcode search looking at Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea

So if you are looking to buy a property near a river or the sea you can do your own research on this subject

CLICK HERE to visit the Environment Agency Map Resource

But its not only the Risk of flooding that can be researched, click the down arrow under “Other topics for this area…” and you get this interesting little list.

Here is a view of the same area with regards to Landfill

And here is the information re Pollution

So pop over to the web site and have a poke around you may be surprised just what’s on your doorstep ;0)

CLICK HERE to visit the Environment Agency Map Resource
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Geology of Britain Viewer

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I came across a website that might be of interest to you if you wish to find out the geology for any particular location in the UK.

Try clicking on following link: http://maps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyviewer_google/googleviewer.html

All you need to do is type in the place name or postcode in the white box at the bottom Right Hand courner and click ‘Go’.

If you double click on any of the coloured area on the maps it tells you the bedrock formation and superficial deposits (if any).

Enjoy ;0)

I Blinked And I Missed AU Virtual 2011

I was kind of looking forward to this year, especially after last years fiasco, so those of you that managed to find the time to attend virtually, I hope it worked this year?

I had done my planning really early; I had downloaded all the class descriptions and highlighted those that looked to be of interest.

 I had highlighted the virtual stuff, looked for friends and people I know who were going to present, I’d searched the list for Revit Structure, Revit Structural Suite, Revit Architecture and Revit Architectural Suite.

There is always a lot more under Architecture, and a lot of it is relevant to Structures and MEP.



So due to being busy in both my personal and working life, I blinked  miss Autodesk University, and then I ended up feeling a little like Muttley from Wacky Races cursing to myself indistinctly.

So all I can do now go into squirrel mode, and use my list to harvest all those very useful Revit classes that are to be found on Autodesk University Online!

Click Here to go to AU Online

I may be a bit early with my harvesting because at the moment you can only get Session Handouts and Presentations, but very few Screencast and Podcast have made it to the download pages just yet.  

These normally start arriving a week or two after Autodesk University, so I will pop back in a couple of weeks and pick up the missing resources.

Help Paul Oakley, help Autodesk, help you, and new users

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It's great to see that at least two people on the GRUG user group will feed information back to Paul Oakley see posting below.

When Ralph Pullinger and I were looking for actual wall configurations that have been specified and used over the last 15 years and asked for the UK Revit Users help and assistance we were surprised at the lack of feedback and the general level of apathy that existing users exhibit.

Users out there have the knowledge and experience of what they have actually had to source or create because the out of the box were content lacking. It’s a list of those families that Paul needs so that new users and perhaps older users who have not happened upon an item that is missing yet don’t have the pain of searching various sources or making their own.

By not helping Paul help AutoCAD help Revit Users, you are not keeping your commercial advantage, you ARE just inhibiting the development of the program and BIM generally. Also if you don’t help, then you can’t really complain about the lack of content in the future.
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New to BIM and Revit visit this web site

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After years of difficulty explaining to people what Revit is and the impact BIM will have in shaping our future Ben Fox the Director of igs decided to put together a brief blog with plenty of short videos on the topic.

He hopes in writing and collating the videos for this blog, is that the information provided will assist in explaining to clients, management and anyone else, what Revit is and how it fits within a BIM process.

View the blog here: www.whatisrevit.com

Nice one Ben, it's a very well constructed resource.

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Revit UK Content - What's Missing? What's Needed?

This is “Your Opportunity to have your say”….

Paul Oakley has been requested to put forward a list of issues to Autodesk relating to the Revit 2012 UK Localisation.

The report to Autodesk is intended to report what’s wrong with the “Out of the Box” UK Content plus also what the UK Users would like to see

This includes

Templates          

                What should be in them & What not?

•       System Families(Walls / Roofs /Floors / Railings etc.)

•       Materials / Property Sets etc…)

•       Parameters (Schedules / Annotation / Tags)

•       Anything Else…

                Families:-

•       Types

•       Parameters

•       Annotation

•       Etc….

Any suggestions or  comments please forward to: Paul Oakley

Paul@Oakley-cad.co.uk or paul.oakley@augi.com

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Draft Revit NBL Content - Feedback 2

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I’m up to my ears in work, life the universe and everything so, I’m only getting to review Stephens feedback in the morning as I’m an early riser, here is what I posted over on the NBL Linked-In Group this morning:-

G. Are COBie parameters really needed for wall constructions?
Some of them will not be relevant. Depending on the client requirements, on some projects, it is possible that none of them will be relevant. However, for consistency they have been included. Also, if you used an NBL wall object to build up a pre-fabricated wall construction then you may wish to complete the majority of these COBie FM parameters.

This reply is a cop out. Please actually demonstrate what COBie parameters are actually applicable to a wall construction, and which part of that construction.

If you Scope out your walls and then look at the COBie parameters you will see that very few are applicable. Stephen you have demonstrated your experience in programming, why would you flood a program with variables that you were never going to use?.

Revit is clunky anyway why make families heavier?

“For consistency” is not a good enough reason to do it, because its quick and dirty, and we have not had time to review what’s actually applicable and needed because we are working at speed to produce something, appears to be a more realistic driver for their inclusion.

I challenge your team to apply the COBie variable to standard traditional wall constructions and this pre-fabricated wall construction you site and demonstrate their usefulness in being included within the wall families.

Here they are ….

Colour

Constituents

DurationUnit

ExpectedLife

Features

Finish

Grade

Material

NominalHeight

NominalLength

NominalWidth

ProductionYear

ReplacementCost

Shape

Size

WarrantyDescription

WarrantyDurationLabour

WarrantyDurationParts

WarrantyDurationUnit

WarrantyGuarantorLabour

WarrantyGuarantorParts

SerialNumber

InstallationDate

WarrantyStartDate

TagNumber

BarCode

AssetIdentifier

Most of them are ideal for mechanical plant and items to be maintained, and no doubt this list is going to grow with time.

We at the pointy end don't always have the most up to date computers, some are waiting for the 3 - 4 year replacement program to hit us and with the current economic situation what was 3 years is being extended until real economic recovery takes place.
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Draft Revit NBL Content - Feedback 1

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Looking at Stephens feedback over lunch, I have commented on the Linked-In Group as follows

R) – “Historic Walls are unlikely to be in the first release” IMHO you need to re consider this in order to make the UK System Wall Family worth adopting in the first place. Not all projects are new builds, there are more refurbishment projects going on at the moment than new builds.

In addition Feedback C) Re U-Values – Your Wall family needs to be built around historical wall configurations that have been used from Victorian times to present day. Yes you need to include wall configurations that meet U-values, there is zero value or benefit in providing wall configurations that will not. They can still be generic re the actual makes of materials used.

IMHO you need to look at the published literature by the likes of Celcon, Thermailte, etc and look at the current configurations that meet or exceed the current requirements and adopt those configurations in your library that are already actually being specified by Architects. With the BIM Academy’ and the NBS association with RIBA you have a direct path to that information; it would be folly not to take advantage of it. Carl has offered his list and I'm guessing David Light might share his list of wall configurations if asked.

Currently your range of names is extremely limited, so limited in fact that you have not scoping out all the materials that may make up a wall configuration which is a key element in compiling and creating a naming convention.

Even if you don’t actually have all the Walls in the first release you need to scope out and publish the list perhaps in a format like the spreadsheet that Ralph and I were using. David Light has posted that HOK did exactly the same as you are doing and wasted a heap of valuable time and money in the process, please re-consider and learn by his companies’ mistake because hindsight is an exact science.

Any salesman will tell you that unless you can clearly demonstrate the “Benefit” & “Investment Merit” to your prospect that has a “Requirement” you will never "Close" the sale which in your case is getting your system adopted by end users of Revit type systems.

New Revit Users in the UK need (have a Requirement) for a UK set of System Wall Families because Autodesk no longer supply one

Benefits of NBL Families – Time Saving is one but Only if they are complete and easy to understand and use, I’m sure Clare Watson will find you many more benefits for you, in fact I recall seeing a page on your web site about benefits somewhere.

But without that list of “Real” benefits you will not get that “Investment Merit” that leads a “Close” by adoption by the user base, even if they are FREE.
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Draft Revit NBL Content - Feedback

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If you have read my previous post you will see that I did not believe that due time had been allowed for the NBS to gain a true measured review of the content released, however it has to be said that the feedback following the Monday meeting has been swift and Stephen Hamil has posted it on the Linked In Group

You will have to join Linked-In to access the group http://www.linkedin.com/ which is not a bad idea anyway

Due to it being released only yesterday I have only scanned over it and the additional posting regarding the new naming convention.  The NBS needs you feedback in order to make this thing acceptable and adoptable by end users of Revit and the industry as a whole. Please add your thoughts to the Linked-In Group and threads.

Stephen Hamil • Feedback response

Firstly, a big thank you to all of those who downloaded our draft content and took the time to give us comment both on this forum and in private emails. I have tried to articulate our thoughts in the reply below, I also have posted some thoughts on library naming convention in a separate blog post.
http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2011/11/naming-convention-for-national-bim.html

A. Should material parameters such as “thickness” be in the wall library names?
We believe material parameters should be included in the object library names where it provides differentiation between similar library objects. Please see naming convention blog post.

B. Have the objects been authored against Building Regulation requirements?
The documentation provided for the door objects shows that regulations have been referred to (see references to BS 8300). However, the end user of the objects will be ultimately responsible that any final project design meets the regulations. Our terms and conditions will cover this.

C. Will u-values be calculated for the wall constructions?
The overall u-value for a wall will depend on the proprietary products that are used in the final design. U-values may be included for proprietary wall constructions that we eventually publish, but we will not include them for the generic objects. We believe the end-user should calculate this on a project-to-project basis.

D. Will proprietary materials such as Rockwool be used in the generic objects?
No, they won’t, the generic objects will contain generic materials only. In this example “mineral wool bats” will be used for the launch content.

E. Is the NBL going to be a standard?
No. We hope that over the years that the NBL may become a de-facto standard as NBS specification clauses have become. But these BIM objects are simply a freely available resource that we hope users that like them will adopt.

F. Is IFC a file format that can be used for design?
I think Nick Nisbet has answered the IFC questions extremely well in the discussions so please see his answers. I’ll work on a blog post summarising some IFC thoughts in the next week or two.

G. Are COBie parameters really needed for wall constructions?
Some of them will not be relevant. Depending on the client requirements, on some projects, it is possible that none of them will be relevant. However, for consistency they have been included. Also, if you used an NBL wall object to build up a pre-fabricated wall construction then you may wish to complete the majority of these COBie FM parameters.

H. The object material names are hard to read – can they have a separator character?
Yes. We will introduce a “_“ between the abbreviated names. So “PFBBlck” will become “PFB_Blck”. Please see naming convention blog post.
http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2011/11/naming-convention-for-national-bim.html

I. Can the list of abbreviated names plus explanation be put in the documentation?
Yes

J. Who is responsible for the accuracy and ownership of these objects when used on a project?
Our terms and conditions will cover this at launch.

K. Until you have more than just Revit objects, can you publish IFC content only?
For every object we will always publish at least IFC content. However, to create IFC content we believe we must choose one proprietary system to author it. The decision here was Revit and as such we will publish Revit objects. However, we will work together with the other CAD vendors to try and get other native content in too. We have met at least once with Vectorworks, Tekla, Bentley and ArchiCAD. We meet again with them next week.

L. What are the nbl_iCIMMaterial parameters?
These are for a research project that is currently internal. These will be removed for launch.

M. Should the library provider name really be the prefix to the object name?
We believe it should. This helps sort common items together easily when used in proprietary software. Please see naming convention blog post.

N. Should the library provider name really be the prefix to the parameter names?
No, with hindsight we will change this now based on a number of discussions with other providers of BIM content. “nbl_FireDesignation” will be replaced by simply “FireDesignation”. Within IFC the parameters will be grouped in “NBL” property sets.

O. Should the IFC parameters contain descriptions?
Yes, our aim is to get this in for launch.

P. Should the IFC owner information be included?
Yes, our aim is to get this in for launch.

Q. Should the IFC rules for classification be followed?
Yes, our aim is to get this in for launch. We’ll also include multiple classification systems.

R. Will historic wall constructions be included?
This will be considered, but it is unlikely that these will be in for the first release.

S. Can embodied CO2 information be included?
We think that linking generic materials within BIM objects to carbon and capital cost information is a great idea. We’ve actually been working on this for a little while as part of a TSB funded project with a number of other companies. This project will be demonstrated at ecobuild in March 2012. So, not for launch, but watch this space.

More info on TSB ICAT project and members:
http://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2010/07/carbon-assessment-tool-project-icat.html

Finally, with respect to CO2, Alan – thanks for sending through the LRUG presentation from Arup. Very interesting.