GOOGLE SKETCHUP 3D BASECAMP, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA--Now speaking is Mark Dietrick with Burt Hill, an international architectural firm based in Pennsylvania. Dietrick described the BIM workflow the company is adopting, which sees Building Information Modeling as a process, not as a tool. Their workflow from initial concept to final construction documents includes Microsoft Excel, SketchUp, Revit, IES, and the
Onuma Planning System, a new web-based architectural planning tool Dietrick calls "incredible." At any time data may need to go in either direction between these products, and the team at Burt Hill seems to do it nearly effortlessly.
In the discussion time at the end of the session, one attendee mentioned there is a new open source web-based product about to come online. I'll check it out after this conference is over, but for now take a look at BIM Server:
http://bimserver.org/Dietrick says Burt Hill's "preferred structural engineers" are now working in Revit, and they have told other engineering firms that they'd better get with Revit if they want any new business.
Not relevant to the discussion, but interesting nonetheless: For years Burt Hill was a MicroStation-based design firm. But MicroStation was not mentioned once during Dietrick's presentation until I asked about it. He said that at the beginning of the BIM era, about the time that Autodesk acquired Revit, they had some of their MicroStation TriForma users test Revit. They preferred the parametric controls, which saved much rework time when compared to MicroStation TriForma. Burt Hill still uses other Bentley products, expecially from their civil division, and Dietrick raves about Bentley's Generative Components. But at the time they made the decision, the key users who had tested Revit did not want to go back to MicroStation.
The more I talk to end users, the more I realize that while Revit may be the fastest growing BIM software, by no means is the "war" for BIM mindshare over. Most firms will evolve a workflow like the one Dietrick described--specific tools for specific processes.
--RSN