Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts

Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Safety glasses. Forklifts. Yellow lines. These were common sights I experienced from working for a manufacturer for almost a decade. I often found myself walking through the shop floor to get to meetings. My specific role was in supporting CAD/BIM software platforms for AEC professionals using software such as Autodesk® Revit® and Fabrication CADmep™. I managed manufacturer specific BIM content assets. That said, it was great to have the constant reminder about the realities of the real-life manufactured product in the back of my mind. It proved to be a defining chapter in my career. Valuable Experience – Valuable Benefits It is so valuable to have first-hand experience, especially in an industry where there are labor and skill shortages. In addition to shortages, there are often disconnects between field and office. A couple of years ago, I put out a very informal poll on Twitter. I asked how many times someone as an AEC professional has visited a job site or visited a shop floor. About 20% of the sixty-four votes on that poll stated that they had fewer than ten visits or first-hand experiences. Out of that segmented group, over half stated they had fewer than five visits or first-hand experiences. Note that the informality of the poll did not cover additional details such as career stage, additional breakdowns beyond ten visits, and the trade involved. My purpose for that poll was hoping that the percentage of people visiting job sites or shop floors does not go down over time. This is especially the hope, given that we have experienced a lot more virtual and flexible situations in the industry over the last couple of years. BIM is a technology that can accelerate productivity in the construction industry. If we are to truly realize the full potential, we can focus on BIM content as an incredibly effective driver. To do this, we need to focus on what matters. Focusing on what matters includes integrating real-life constructability and compatibility scenarios. This is especially the case for helping AEC professionals who may experience challenges with resources, training, productivity, and more. Without the right focus, you end up with digital paperweights that unfortunately do not serve the need. On the other side of the coin, trying to make something look perfect in software might not translate to a real-life benefit. BIM Content – More than a Download BIM content (especially for manufacturers) has the potential to be so much more than a download. If we don’t focus on the right things, however, we risk losing the forest for the trees. At a base level, a downloaded file is simply another file in someone’s Downloads folder. It says nothing definitive about what someone did with that download or if it worked for their workflow. Therefore, a downloaded file is not a guarantee that a building product manufacturer product was specified in a project. In addition, a downloaded file could make or break the user experience. For manufacturers interested in making efforts in a BIM content strategy, there is a cost not only in inaction. There is also a cost in acting without both a macro and micro focus on the right things. Taking it further, there is a cost without sustained action. So, to consider BIM content more than a download, we need to change our thinking about it. We propose to define the whole concept of manufacturer BIM content a bit differently. We think of BIM content as a digital asset that represents an actual product in more ways than just appearance. Manufacturer BIM content is a digital asset that represents the product in terms of critical dimensions, clearance, performance, adherence to product standards, availability, applicable features, and system applications. Manufacturer BIM content needs to do this while functioning to the best of its ability in the current releases of the intended software and with respect to the product lifecycle. That is quite a lot of pressure on a downloaded file. How do we address this? The Approach Matters If we are not careful, one-size-fits-all approaches and quick fixes are about as fruitful as the claw games at arcades. I am talking about the ones where you put about $5.00 of quarters in only to leave with a low-quality stuffed animal. Or worse, you end up with nothing for the effort. Additionally, in a real-life piping system, a common phrase I learned from working for a manufacturer is that the system is really only as strong as the weakest point. Connections on fittings are often the weakest point (LeVesque, 2017). In the same way, BIM components, especially those meant to connect to pipe and other elements, are potentially the weakest point in your project. Therefore, quality BIM content for manufacturers needs a more thorough and multi-faceted approach to bridge the gap between real-life product scenarios and digital design for better outcomes. The tricky part is defining quality in a way that is not a blanket statement. Several areas may have potential to have “weak points” or deficiencies with respect to many factors. Different AEC professionals place different levels of importance on various things: Introducing the Quality Polygon Score Defining high quality BIM content risks being too subjective if we do not consider a bigger context as well. To visualize something with a more comprehensive lens, we have created the BIM Content Quality Polygon Score, or QPS for short. The QPS is derived from a series of “Yes”/”No” questions. The questions span in a variety of categories pertaining to Geometry, Functionality, Management, User Experience, and Product Data. In addition, there are sixteen sub-categories. Much like the detailed assessments you can get for your car, the QPS is a seventy-five point assessment we use for evaluating BIM content assets and their likelihood of user utilization. Questions within these categories range from “Can you identify the component as a product in multiple ways?” to “Does this component connect with other components at the right places?” and more. “Yes”

Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content?

Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? There is an overabundance of Autodesk® Fabrication CADmep™ content as well as numerous resources available for content creation. Unfortunately, the quality content seems to get lost in the shuffle. Incorrect or outdated dimensional data, missing model numbers, redundancies, and more can result in lower quality BIM content for use in Autodesk® Fabrication CADmep™. There are several impacts that contractors face as a result: Significantly increased overall project costs Liability issues Reduced productivity Limited workflows due to lack of software integration With these impacts, it is understandable that a contractor may lose trust in the Fabrication CADmep™ content that is available for download. At ENGworks Global, we believe BIM content can be so much more than a download, and we take quality seriously. Here are the ways we approach quality for the content we create for use in Fabrication CADmep™. What is considered quality content? To qualify as a quality BIM product, Fabrication CADmep™ content needs to be accurate, consistent, and compatible with today’s software needs. Accuracy With the increased use of Fabrication CADmep™ content in the BIM process, accurate content has become a need for modelers, engineers, and professionals. However, we know that is not a simple task because there is a lot of data out there that might have been created for different uses, etc. This creates additional costly challenges. According to an article from Harvard Business Review, knowledge workers waste 50% of their time in “hidden data factories, hunting for data, finding and correcting errors, and searching for confirmatory sources for data they don’t trust.” (Redman, 2017). We actively work in collaboration with various manufacturing teams. In doing so, we can ensure that all data used is certified by the manufacturer and that it originates from the engineering and other manufacturing teams for 100% accuracy. Consistency Consistency is an important aspect of quality across an entire library for a productive workflow. Without consistency, you risk snags and downtime on your projects. Fabrication CADmep™ content is considered consistent if an ITM’s connectivity, naming convention, product CID templates, and other factors are being utilized with best practices consistently. We incorporate product ID, dry weights, model numbers, UPC and HPH codes as the minimum metadata required for our content to meet and exceed end-user expectations. Compatibility Compatibility and functionality are two significant features expected in every fabrication part. A lot of content available in the market today is created with unique connectivity rules. This limits overall compatibility with out-of-the-box content and with content such as pipes and tubes. With the constant innovation and technological advances, all newly built content needs to be compatible with the latest software trends. This allows content to seamlessly fit in with the existing workflows. Our Fabrication team continuously verifies our content to assure full functionality and software integration that suits state-of-the-art BIM processes. Now that we’ve gone over several factors of quality involved with Fabrication CADmep™ content, it’s important to note that these are not individually independent considerations. All of these and more are part of our multi-faceted approach as we serve the industry. Our content is called certified Autodesk® Fabrication CADmep™ content because we know that focusing on the right things not just once but over time creates better outcomes. Leveraging manufacturer certified content provides an enhanced user experience with the following features: Correct and applicable representation of parts Correct connections Correct installation capabilities Correct metadata needed for purchasing and estimate reports Certified content provides significant benefits for design teams: Accurate bill of materials (BOM) Accurate installation drawings Accurate coordination with reduced field issues Accelerated time to production, installation, and beyond Next Steps The complicated nature of Autodesk® Fabrication CADmep™ content and the challenges associated with creating, managing, and updating it creates a gap that is tedious, risky, and expensive to bridge alone. ENGworks Global offers an all-encompassing service that involves all the necessary steps to provide your team with highly efficient quality content. Letting us handle your content needs with our expertise will provide more time for your team to focus on modeling, estimation, and project management. We have over 15 years of experience in content creation along with an outstanding industry reputation. We pledge to provide unlocked quality with certified Fabrication CADmep™ content for better outcomes on your projects. To learn more about our content creation, fabrication, and administration services, contact us at info@ENGworksGlobal.com Sources Cited: Redman, T. C. (2017, October 4). Bad Data costs the U.S. $3 trillion per year. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2016/09/bad-data-costs-the-u-s-3-trillion-per-year Autodesk Trademark Notice: Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, Revit, and Fabrication CADmep are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. This publication is independent of Autodesk, Inc., and is not authorized by, endorsed by, sponsored by, affiliated with, or otherwise approved by Autodesk, Inc. The ENGworks Global Team Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements. 1-800-356-8933 info@ENGworksGlobal.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin Back to the Blog Related Posts Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices • August 30, 2022 Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts • May 26, 2022 The 2022 AEC Integration Summit Recap: All Aboard the Train to Connect People and Data The 2022 AEC Integration Summit Recap: All Aboard the Train to Connect People and Data • March 2, 2022

ENGworks Global Transition Announcement

ENGworks Global Transition Announcement With over 30 years in the industry, ENGworks has been characterized as adaptable to different circumstances, and this past year has presented us with new opportunities of growth and evolution once again. ENGworks is now ENGworks Global. Where We Have Been In 1989, Chris DiIorio started the consulting business as SimplyCAD, from a dorm room at the University of Illinois Chicago, to bring much needed technology solutions to the AEC/O industry. In 2002, we changed the company name to CADworks in an effort to rebrand and add additional layers to the services we provided. In 2005, the modeling and coordination industry was emerging in California, so CADworks established a presence there. We became the first U.S. based BIM service company to use CADmep in 2008 and have since completed tens of millions of dollars of fabrication work. In 2007 we were certified as a Premier Provider for Autodesk Seek to support the creation of high-quality Autodesk Revit MEP content for Building Product Manufacturers, a service that still represents a significant portion of our business portfolio. As the AEC industry was coming out of the global recession in 2012, CADworks and ENGstudios agreed to bring our respective businesses together under a new banner, ENGworks. In 2014, ENGworks, Inc. and ENGstudios agreed to operate independently but continue to share the same brand identity, ENGworks. Like many companies, 2020 provided us a moment in time to reflect and refocus on our core business offerings. The driving force of the business in 1989 was to push technology into the AEC/O Industry, always striving to make it better, and to bring new and exciting productivity gains to the industry – and we continue to be driven by that passion today! Where We Are Going As a part of this change, ENGworks is undergoing a transition to reinforce our global services and meet client needs more effectively. Our client relationships have provided us an opportunity to offer revolutionary new services and explore new markets. To successfully cater to these new interests, we have decided to shift our company name from ENGworks to ENGworks Global. We now have global personnel and partners to perform in other regions with the same quality and standards we’ve established in Chicago, IL. We are proudly known as the largest MEP content builder in the world and considered the best-of-breed with Building Product Manufacturers. Nothing will change regarding the continuity of our services. Our clients will not recognize any difference, as it only means we have new emails and a domain but the same superior service. We’re incredibly proud of the work that we do at ENGworks Global and thankful for the employees, the partnerships, and the clients that have accompanied us in our growth. We look forward to continuing to support all of our clients and partners in this new journey forward. ENGworks Global – Our Innovation Has No Borders Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements. 1-800-356-8933 info@ENGworksGlobal.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin Back to the Blog Related Posts Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices • August 30, 2022 Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts • May 26, 2022 Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? • May 10, 2022

ENGworks Presents: Content on Demand Product Launch

ENGworks Presents: Content on Demand Product Launch ENGworks is an internationally recognized leader in Building Information Modeling (BIM) services and solutions. One specific area of expertise ENGworks’ Team excels at is BIM Modeling in multiple platforms (Revit, Bentley, CADmep+, amongst others) serving the MEP, Architectural, and Construction community. For over ten years, ENGworks has been developing useful data-rich building blocks for use in the AEC/O industry. Mainly focusing on the design and construction industries as they saw early on, through their own engineering experience, that there was a significant deficiency in quality content. Architects, Engineers, and Contractors are required to utilize 3D and BIM; however, they are not paid to build content. This is where ENGworks Content Creation Services steps in to assist in the timely creation of BIM content. In the past months, ENGworks’ Product Development and Innovation Team have been developing a great solution for AEC/O’s and Product Manufacturers BIM content needs. With that said, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our new product Content on Demand (CoD). What is CoD? Content on Demand (CoD) is a web-based purchase process that allows end-users of native 3D design and construction software to make a request for ENGworks and/or affiliates to build content for use in projects. What does it do? Content On Demand delivers bespoke digital content to build DIGITAL TWINS to maximize the investment into Building Information Modeling. Why it matters? Delivers high-quality design to construction product content for your immediate project requirements. Saves time and money guaranteeing value. Content on Demand delivers personalized and dynamically created BIM Content whenever and wherever your users need them. Why should manufacturers choose us? Manufacturers all over the world understand that BIM objects are now essential. Those without proper content are at risk of being left behind by the next generation of digital natives who don’t know any other way. But don’t worry about buying expensive software to adjust your models. You can do it with us! Expand your market reach and promote your brand Drive traffic to your website Influence business decisions with analytic insight into content use Rely on secure storage and synchronized data Reduce expensive costs associated with BIM content creation Premier Provider certification Why should End Users choose us? Rely on secure storage and synchronized data Reduce expensive costs associated with BIM content creation Premier Provider certification Discovering new products and manufacturers is fast, accurate and easy Search and compare building products based on technical data, ratings, certifications and file type Request your Content on Demand today! Examples of our BIM Content: Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements. 1-800-356-8933 info@ENGworksGlobal.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin Back to the Blog Related Posts Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices • August 30, 2022 Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts • May 26, 2022 Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? • May 10, 2022

ENGworks Webinar Review: BIM Content Utilization

ENGworks Webinar Review: BIM Content Utilization In the webinar held on May 27th, 2020, Jim Meseke, Vice President of Global Content Services at ENGworks, shared with us his experience and knowledge with the BIM content creation workflows, techniques, and LOD of the content. Jim emphasizes the importance of the object’s data so that they can relate to each other in the models during its lifecycle. He talks about the benefits of using Autodesk Revit for BIM content creation, because of the object-oriented platform it allows the user to basically get there design elements organized. “Content that’s going to not only look right but is also going to be able to pass data from object to object. That’s really the whole point of BIM, it’s a creation of intelligent objects which speak to each other.” Jim Meseke, VP of Global Content Services at ENGworks A useful tip we can take from Jim is when creating BIM content, it is very important to perform an investigation, asking the right questions. What am I creating? What are the functions of the piece? What components or parameters are required from an engineer versus an architect? All these questions will determine what are the goals with the content.   How Can We Help?  ENGworks takes great pride in the fabrication database that we have created over the past 10 years. This comprehensive database allows us to extract highly detailed spool drawings to be used in pre-fabrication. Let our experienced fabrication team help you produce accurate shop/fab drawings from our database or one of your own making. We are certain about the future of BIM, and we will remain at the forefront of that change. We will continue assisting our clients and colleagues to achieve better workflows and faster turnaround times by adopting the latest technologies and efficient workflow practices.    To learn more about our BIM Content services, please visit the following links: Content Management Content Consulting Content Distribution & Syndication Content for AEC professionals built by AEC professionals Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements.     How Can We Help?  ENGworks takes great pride in the fabrication database that we have created over the past 10 years. This comprehensive database allows us to extract highly detailed spool drawings to be used in pre-fabrication. Let our experienced fabrication team help you produce accurate shop/fab drawings from our database or one of your own making. We are certain about the future of BIM, and we will remain at the forefront of that change. We will continue assisting our clients and colleagues to achieve better workflows and faster turnaround times by adopting the latest technologies and efficient workflow practices.    To learn more about our BIM Content services, please visit the following links: Content Management Content Consulting Content Distribution & Syndication Content for AEC professionals built by AEC professionals   Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements.   1-800-356-8933 info@ENGworksGlobal.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin Back to the Blog Related Posts Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices • August 30, 2022 Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts • May 26, 2022 Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? • May 10, 2022   How Can We Help?  ENGworks takes great pride in the fabrication database that we have created over the past 10 years. This comprehensive database allows us to extract highly detailed spool drawings to be used in pre-fabrication. Let our experienced fabrication team help you produce accurate shop/fab drawings from our database or one of your own making. We are certain about the future of BIM, and we will remain at the forefront of that change. We will continue assisting our clients and colleagues to achieve better workflows and faster turnaround times by adopting the latest technologies and efficient workflow practices.    To learn more about our BIM Content services, please visit the following links: Content Management Content Consulting Content Distribution & Syndication Content for AEC professionals built by AEC professionals   Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below to stay up to date with our announcements.   1-800-356-8933 info@ENGworksGlobal.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Linkedin Back to the Blog Related Posts Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices Elevate Your Workflow – Computer Mouse Devices • August 30, 2022 Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts Visualizing BIM Content Quality and its Impacts • May 26, 2022 Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? Are You Losing Trust in Fabrication Content? • May 10, 2022 Content Development – Uponor  A demonstration of how the Uponor building products can be configurated and visualized.    Content Development – Uponor  A demonstration of how the Uponor building products can be configurated and visualized.  Content Development – Uponor  A demonstration of how the Uponor building products can be configurated and visualized.  https://youtu.be/65lKBQiPjY8 Content Development – Uponor  A demonstration of how the Uponor building products can be configurated and visualized.    https://youtu.be/65lKBQiPjY8   How Can We Help?  ENGworks takes great pride in the fabrication database that we have created over the past 10 years. This comprehensive database allows us to extract highly detailed spool drawings to be used in pre-fabrication. Let our experienced fabrication team help you produce accurate shop/fab drawings from our database or one of your own making. We are certain about the future of BIM, and we will remain at the forefront of that change. We will continue assisting our clients and colleagues to achieve better workflows and faster turnaround times by adopting the latest technologies and efficient workflow practices.    To learn more about our BIM Content services, please visit the following links: Content Management Content Consulting Content Distribution & Syndication Content for AEC professionals built by AEC professionals   Please also connect with us on our social media platforms below