Topic: Should I Bim or Vanilla?

[JohnK]

Let me lay it all out on the line for [you]. You already are `DOING/USING/BLAH' BIM. BIM is about the information and how you use it NOT a software package.

I say get the free trials and test the packages out.  I cant tell you what software to buy.

sinc, when you get an email that says that ``you need to get into bim'' reply with a resounding `go away'.  The BIM standard is a an attempt at a standard method for using that information (blah, blah, blah. youve seen it a thousand times.) As you very well know, information is a two way street. You need to read it and write it. Right now there isnt really a way to read it. You can write it all day long. -e.g. You can generate geometry with AutoCRAP, write it out to a .xyz file but your `calc' program can only read certian aspects of an .xyz file (but if you can get a .abc' file your life would be golden). ...

BIM maybe useful for a lot of things but the traditional roles are flipped like DinØsaur eluded to.
> we never tried to come up with a very accurate number. 
> The only times our numbers were used was for the developer to obtain
> a performance bond.
Exactly the problem with the BIM concept.  ...I get a kick out of Architects that tell me that they want to ``utilize BIM''. I think its funny that if they would put those buzz words in real language they would flip out at what they were really saying; `I want to adopt a standard which isnt fully defined to create more work for myself which im going to do for the same pay as before.'' Of course there are inherent benifits to BIM later but... And of course im not going to be the one to tell them any of this cause i'm just a lowly designer/cad manager/whatever --like they would listen anyways-.

Anyways, BIM is a moving target. The best advice i can give you is to think about how you do things and see if there are any improvements you want to make and then test out different packages and evaluate the change, cost, time, etc..

[sinc]

sinc, when you get an email that says that ``you need to get into bim'' reply with a resounding `go away'.

To tell you the truth, I'm still waiting for any email from Avatech to illicit any response at all...   

I actually don't even remember how I ended up on their email list - probably something related to AUGI.  I suppose I could unsubscribe, but I like to read about their "push du jour".

[mjfarrell]

Civil users do not BIM exactly, what we typically produce, IS later fed into, or up to a GIS network.
Sadly, all of the 'export' modalities that Civil 3D offers, does NOT generate GIS ready information; as one could do with Land Desktop.  Autodesk, needs, or must reintegrate MAP, with C3D objects, and allow us direct access to the object, and it's built in intelligence (properties) such that one could SEAMLESSLY use the BIM information that one is already generating in the process.
Not create the intelligent model, then export it in some STUPIFIED format, groom that data to add the intelligence that was just stripped out of it back in and then use the data in our BIM (that would be GIS system; as the 'building' we are building is infrastructure, not houses and buildings)

I already know that I am already doing BIM, now I just wish the software would.