BIM Implementation at a UK Firm and Bentley's "BE Inspired" Event

To date, AECbytes has studied technology implementation in various AEC firms including Gehry Partners, Ghafari Associates, HOK, LMN Architects, and others. The Viewpoint series has also provided insights into the technology implementation at various firms including SOM, WATG, Perkins+Will, Webcor Builders, DPR Construction, and others, authored by their technology leaders. Almost of all these have been firms that are either wholly based or headquartered in the US. In this month's feature article, we get a perspective from outside the US by learning about the technology implementation at a London-based firm, MAAP Architects, that specializes in healthcare design. While the work of leading and highly technologically advanced UK firms such as Foster and Partners, ArupSport, BDP, etc., has been occasionally profiled in AECbytes (see, for example, the report on the SmartGeometry Conference published earlier this year), this feature article, authored by the BIM/CAD Manager of MAAP, provides an insight into BIM as seen and implemented by an average, middle-size firm in the UK and can thus be seen as better reflective of the state of the art of BIM in that country.

Later this month, we will look at an overview of Bentley's recently concluded "BE Inspired" event, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Oct 12 to 14. This event was held in lieu of Bentley's annual BE conference, which went virtual this year in light of the global economic climate. The BE Inspired event featured updates from Bentley executives about upcoming technologies, the most key one being the "i-model" which is intended to facilitate dynamic collaboration. The bulk of the event, however, was devoted to Bentley's annual BE Awards, with presentations from the finalists in the various categories giving a first-hand presentation of their respective projects. These “best practices” presentations were held in parallel for all the varied infrastructure industries Bentley solutions cater to. This month's issue of the AECbytes Newsletter discusses the key business and product-related updates from the executive presentations at the event, while the highlights of the “best practices” presentations from the "Buildings and Structural” track will be covered in a separate article next month.

Be sure to also check out the recently published review of ArchiCAD 13, which features a server-based collaboration solution, making it the first BIM application to have this capability. With a flexible element reservation system and a technology that detects and transmits only the changed elements between the client computers and the server—shrinking the average data package size from megabytes to kilobytes—ArchiCAD 13 has the potential to revolutionize BIM-based collaboration by allowing team members to work together easily and quickly in real-time on modeling projects, from anywhere in the world where a standard broadband Internet connection is available. You can also check out the comments from readers on the review posted on the AECbytes Blog, providing their experiences and insights on the new release.

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > October 2009