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  • DIALOG

    Success Stories

    DIALOG

    DIALOG believes that their passion for design should improve the wellbeing of our communities and the environment they share. DIALOG’s multi-disciplinary team of 700 includes architects, interior designers, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, urban planners, and landscape architects. They practice across the US and Canada from studios in San Francisco, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto.

    DIALOG’s multi-disciplinary team provides their clients with a comprehensive and collaborative approach to design. Their team can overcome the challenges of increased complexity within design and planning with their diverse perspective and expertise for greater efficiency.

    For years, DIALOG has worked on various projects including: designing for urban vibrancy, health and wellness, transportation, education, arts and culture, residential, retail, and commercial. Their vision has always been to think outside of the box and adopt new design technologies that will improve digital collaboration, improve communication among their team and clients, and provide quality services on any project.

    Project Profile

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    Civil 3D Viewports

    A little tip today.  Have you ever zoomed out within a profile viewport and your surfaces and alignments are not there?  The two viewports shown below are nearly identical except the one on the bottom doesn’t display any Civil 3D plan objects, such as the surface and alignment.  Why is this?  No, layers are not frozen or off in the lower viewport.

    Civil 3D has its Plan Production feature which automates the creation of Paper Space layouts, typically for plan and profile construction drawings.  The way it has been implemented is that your drawing template (DWT) will contain a sample paper space layout containing pre-configured viewports.  And those viewports are required to have set a specific property called Viewport Type.

    In the image above, the top viewport is set to Plan and the bottom is set to Profile.  When the viewport type is set to Profile, Civil 3D plan objects such as surfaces, alignments, and corridors are not displayed.  This is presumably to conserve performance, but if you’re unaware of this feature, it can be confusing.

    Reconcile the Differences Between Parameters live in projects without Destroying Data

    Let’s talk about Revit families. Are your Revit users pulling families from manufacturer websites, then having to spend project time individually reconciling the differences between the parameters used without destroying existing data?

    Downloaded Revit family content introduces shared parameters into a project that are often times different from the parameters used in the company’s schedule. These differences often cause schedules to display incomplete or inaccurate data requiring tedious, individual fixes.

    BIM Project Suite 2020’s Parameter Jammer uses a two-step process to swap the parameters in the family to reconcile the differences between the parameters without destroying your existing data, saving users time and headaches. The first step swaps parameters that can be safely identified as a match, while the second allows users to map, add or omit parameters that do not need to be swapped.
    Parameter Jammer is user friendly, and was designed so that Revit users who are unfamiliar with the family editor can successfully prepare a family to be scheduled; it also:

    • Uses the schedule to derive parameter needs; and
    • Allows the end user to push parameters into a non-standard family.

    Maximize your Revit project team’s time with Parameter Jammer and the entire BIM Project Suite 2020 by downloading a free software trial and scheduling a demo today.

    CTC BIM Projct Suite 2020 – Invisibility Advisor

    Find improperly displayed elements in Revit with Invisibility Advisor. Part of the BIM Project Suite, this tool can also identify the cause of invisibilty as well as offer useful information and links to relevant knowledgeable articles for each issue.

    Common Challenges

    Revit users may spend 2-4 hours a week on average resolving object visibility issues

    Revit has various ways of finding objects, and users rarely check all

    Often invisibility can be controlled by multiple factors and multiple users

    Solution – Invisibility Advisor

    Invisibility Advisor searches through almost 60 different factors affecting an object’s invisibility

    Advice is offered to assist with understanding why the object(s) were not visible

    In many cases, an instant ‘Fix’ option is available to resolve the visibility issue automagically

    The Invisibility Advisor can remain on screen while you work, so visibility solutions are available at your fingertips

    ROI

    At even 1 hour per week time savings, Invisibility Advisor can save an average firm $3400/year/Revit user

    For more information visit CTC Productivity Tools to learn more, and download free trial.

    Workaround: Civil 3D XREF Structures Do Not Resize

    My friend and customer, Ben Cartmell from Koers & Associates in Parksville, has brought to my attention a method, of which you may not be aware, for working around a limitation within Civil 3D.

    The limitation is when a drawing containing Civil 3D structures is XREF’d.  The image below shows two viewports in paper space with pipes and structures that have been XREF’d in model space.  The structures are annotative and they should be the same size within the viewports, but they are not.

    There is an easy workaround for this problem.  The file being XREF’d in the example above was saved in model space.

    • Open the file.
    • Switch to paper space.
    • Save.

    Reload the XREF and those structures now appear the same size in paper space.

    Feel free to experiment by downloading these two drawing files.

    NBS partners with SolidCAD to expand digital construction specifications into Canada.

    TORONTO, ON, July 8, 2019 – Today, SolidCAD, Canadian Autodesk Platinum Partner and leading technology solution and professional service provider announced a new partnership with U.K based company, NBS, a technology platform for construction specification, standards and model integration via the web.

    “SolidCAD is happy to be the first and currently the only Canadian partner with NBS,” said Michael Kugan, President of SolidCAD. “We believe in providing leading technology solutions to our clients, and that means investing both the time and resources into our team so they can provide unique expertise that help streamline our customers’ processes. NBS products will help digitize building specifications, standards and regulations within the construction industry. SolidCAD is happy to offer this new solution and support this product to the construction professionals of Canada and help lead the digital evolution.”

    Richard Waterhouse, CEO of NBS, added “We are delighted to be partnering with SolidCAD, to bring digital specification to Canadian construction practices. SolidCAD’s vast knowledge of the Canadian market, high standard of service and deep links with Autodesk solutions made it a natural choice for us when considering a partner for our NBS Chorus platform. Together we’ll be bringing customers the power to write specifications live on any device, collaborate across time zones, and fully integrate their Revit models. This will bring huge benefits in terms of efficiency, reduced risk and speed to market for Canadian construction.”

    Over the past two years, SolidCAD has gone through immense growth. From the acquisition of multiple Autodesk resellers across Canada to establishing new partnerships with technology providers across the world, SolidCAD is dedicated to offering the latest technology solutions and provide quality services for all professionals in Manufacturing and Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries.”

    To learn more about NBS, join SolidCAD and NBS for a webinar on Thursday, July 11 at 10:00 am PST/1:00 pm EST. To register, please click here.

    About NBS

    NBS has over 40 years’ experience of providing specification tools for many of the world’s most established construction organisations. The NBS Chorus platform brings the power of digital specification to Canadian construction practices of all sizes, enabling them to develop specifications more intelligently and more accurately on any device via the web. Through the 2017 acquisition of Alberta-based Digicon Inc, NBS is able to offer a full suite of content in Chorus for both Canadian Master Specification (CMS) and National Master Specification (NMS) – www.thenbs.ca

    Beairsto & Associates Engineering

    Success Stories

    Beairsto & Associates Engineering

    Beairsto & Associates Engineering Ltd. (BASE) has been providing surveying and engineering guidance towards the growth and development of the communities they serve since 1963. BASE provides:

    • Municipal Engineering
    • Building Design Engineering
    • Legal Land Survey
    • Oil & Gas Survey

    BASE offers a comprehensive list of services to its clients and is involved in all stages of their projects including: legal, design, construction and as-built survey; drafting services, multi-disciplinary engineering services and project management for all departments, including procurement and site supervision.

    BASE is an industry leader, facing typical industry issues related to geomatics workflow and wanted to eliminate bottlenecks in their processes. BASE’s processes were dependent on manual intervention and verification at many stages. Without complete automation, there was a lack of data flow and standardization between software and people. Finally, BASE could benefit from a data management platform for the whole workflow, so as to manage data from all processes. This would automate basefile creation, source/destination updates, consistency, tracking and management. A data management system would improve accuracy not requiring staff to track and check the hundreds to thousands of transactions and files generated on engineering projects.

    BASE chose SolidCAD/Cansel because of their extensive experience in workflow optimization in a whole range of geomatics technologies.

    Geomatics Workflow Optimization: Beairsto & Associates Engineering Ltd. (BASE) achieves increased efficiency and decreased risk through automation

    Project Profile

    SolidCAD and Cansel met with the Design and Survey Management team for a discovery session to understand their existing workflows, issues and future goals. Although BASE was doing well with their current manual practices, they needed a new workflow that would increase efficiency and reduce risk.

    During the meeting, SolidCAD and Cansel identified three specific opportunities for their current workflow:

    (1) Enhanced Integration Between Stages of the Process – Enhancing interoperability resulted in the ability to leverage data through each phase decreased the reliance on manual processes that may risk data loss or misinterpretation.

    (2) Reduced Manual Checking and Management – Leveraging interoperability reduced time spent for employees to check and rebuild data value.

    (3) Developed Object-Based Design and Stakeout – CAD systems were configured to receive, design and provide stakeout objects for survey equipment. These objects and supporting data are provided to field crews based on standardized stakeout plans making this process as efficient and comprehensive as possible by meeting the business and technical stakeout requirements.

    SolidCAD/Cansel worked with BASE to study their current survey, design and stakeout for construction processes along with supporting datasets and comparing to industry best practices. This work involved reviewing existing files, personnel, equipment and deliverables to determine the most effective change management for BASE for immediate and future requirements. In turn, this led to the creation a strategic roadmap eliciting immediate and future requirements within the vision, goals and objectives of the company.

    After the initial work, SolidCAD/Cansel worked with BASE to implement a standardized system, workflow and documentation based on industry best practices that integrated with the existing BASE platform. Finally, SolidCAD/Cansel trained staff in the system and assisted BASE staff with pilot projects, post implementation support and strategic planning.

    The Results

    BASE has achieved more efficiency and less risk by implementing survey methods that tie directly to design objects and output to stakeout objects. This maximizes the use of surveyor’s time in the field, linking survey data directly to model-based design templates for both survey and stakeout. The model based design uses templates to standardize road, parcel and utilities design and outputs survey objects for stakeout. The system is supported by an organized file and database system including automated updates from external sources, such as municipal and provincial and a managed historic library of survey data directly accessible to anyone who requires access.

    BASE continues to refine and expand their processes utilizing their standardized platform and strategic roadmap to grow into horizontal and vertical markets. Overall the Workflow Optimization service helped solidfy BASE’s status as a leader in their industry and improved the way they service their clients in Western Canada.

    To learn more about our shared services, visit us at: www.cansel.ca/store/cansel/en/profservices

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    Revit Project Cleanup – Why and How

    As a collaborative BIM software, Revit enables multiple authors to work within the same project file. However, as projects progress files can grow rather large, often time filling up “extra stuff”. This extra data can cause model performance to slow down or lag, causing models to take far longer to open, save, or close.

    Additionally, users may take more time to navigate through this extra information to find the correct view, sheet, content or other relevant data. Some processes exist to alleviate these issues inside of Revit, however they are time consuming, tedious, and incomplete.

    Describing the issue

    The development of Revit project files comes with a lot of work to maintain a healthy file for continued, efficient user workflows. BIM Managers must keep going through the files, cleaning up all the unneeded information. Deleting views, view templates, filters, unused sheets, link & imported elements from the file. Additionally, reviewing all views, trying to find non-standard elements that users might have created in the file. Finally, checking the model to make sure the users are following best practice of modeling correctly. These tasks and more all take time and must be done regularly to ensure that models do not break minutes before major submittals. The breaking of models, file corruption, or file slowdown may require the stopping of work for repair of a problematic model has cost that is not frequently quantified. Fortunately, there are project maintenance tools available in the CTC Software’s BIM Manager Suite that makes this entire process easy to execute, and significantly reduces model downtime, and stoppages of work.

    Workflow Description

    The use of Project Cleaner makes efficient use of time in cleaning up garbage views from the project. Leveraging the Import/Link Manager can rapidly allow identification and repair of the imports in the model. Intelligently running Type Swapper can save hours of model maintenance and cleanup of rogue types. Finally, Dimension Checker makes it possible to identify areas in a model where information has been faked to ‘just get it done’, but could be a liability issue, or a model fidelity issue later in the project.

    Workflow Steps

    Project Cleaner

    • Allows BIM manager to easily manage unwanted or unneeded views, sheets and schedules in the project without re-organizing the project browser
    • Removing user duplicated working views can frequently enable purging of unused documentation elements, reduce file size and speed model performance
    • Using ‘Options’ can enable sorting of views and sheets in meaningful ways to enable rapid decision making about view use and value

    Import & Link Manger

    • All too frequently files are improperly linked or imported into production models
    • While Revit does allow minimal management of links, there is no easy way to find and fix imported AutoCAD files
    • ILM is critical to the regular maintenance of models by finding and fixing imports and update link settings in a simple interface

    Type Swapper

    • If a user copies content from other projects or explodes an imported CAD file, many dimension, text, line styles and fill patterns will manifest in project models
    • Upkeep of these non-standard elements is near impossible manually, but the Type Swapper allows cleaning the model of these non-standard elements by swapping to standard types and purging those that are not wanted

    Dim Checker

    • Sometimes designers and engineers do not feel they have time to properly coordinate modeled object positions
    • Too frequently this leads to overriding dimension values in very dirty ways, mimicking the days of AutoCAD workflows
    • Unfortunately, these are rarely found and more rarely repaired
    • The DIM Checker allows these dimensions strings to be found and reports generated to allow the team to easily repair and coordinate these dimensions where appropriate

    The ROI

    The manual tasks to accomplish the work described above can take many hours per file, with several files within a single project. Often doing this work manually would require users to stop production and exit a Revit model, thus stopping billable work. The tools on the BIM Manager Suite can frequently be used during users working in production. Simple tasks like tracking down rogue line types can be finished in minutes. When speaking with BIM Managers, we often hear that a 1-hour repair cycle is often needed, and in these times, users are not able to be in the model, limiting production time. If the project has 3-5 people working in the model, then their time is lost during this repair effort. At $150 billable rate, this equates to ~$750 each time a repair is needed on each project. If even 2 projects a month require some attention like this, then $18000/year is thrown away to model maintenance. When using the BIM Manager Suite, often these tasks can be completed in 15 minutes, and users can continue to work in the model, so no production time is lost. This is easily a savings of over $17000. Also, since this can be done more easily, projects don’t get to critical halts due to issues. Preventative maintenance has the side-effect of helping projects run much more smoothly, saving time throughout the entire project lifecycle, and making everyone’s work in Revit more enjoyable and productive.

    To download your 14-day free trial of these tools, click here or contact your SolidCAD representative to have a formal orientation on these workflows and related tools.