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| Schuyler St. Leger epitomizes the future at Autodesk University 2012 |
There are certain things I never thought I'd see at Autodesk University. In 2009, just a few months after beginning my assignment as BIM Manager for Los Angeles Community College District's Sustainable Building Program, I attended AU and was startled to see one of our Bentley resellers coming out of class with me. Now, I have no true allegiance toward one vendor versus another. But seeing a vendor at their competitor's conference almost felt like it should have been a covert affair, and the sight of him immediately coming over to shake my hand in front of hundreds of people certainly threw me off guard. In fact, he was so open about the whole affair, it made me wonder if we were being recorded by some hidden camera. So I proceeded cautiously.
However, as I conversed with him, he invited me to join him for lunch, and soon afterward, we found ourselves walking the exhibition showroom together. As the afternoon progressed, it became quite evident that "Mr. Bentley's" attendance at Autodesk University had everything to do with his love for technology and his curiosity to learn more about his competition and nothing to do with embracing the "dark" side and joining Autodesk. Just like the mafia, you keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well, maybe it was not as dramatic as all that, but things were certainly not what they seemed. Just the fact that this man in his 80's could probably whip the pants off most of the upstart technologists in that exhibit hall with his knowledge on CAD and BIM technology, brought him a certain Yoda-like presence that commanded respect. From the outside, he looks like the last person to understand Building Information Modeling. But, in the almost four years I have known him, his enthusiasm for technology, innovation, and knowledge of industry trends never cease to amaze me. Indeed, things are not always what they seem, and age should never be a barrier for embracing the promise of technology.
Fast forward to this year's "I never thought I'd see it" moment... one of the feature keynote speakers at was Schuyler St. Leger, a prodigy 11 year old inventor and internet star of the Maker Faire. Truth be told, up until last Tuesday, I had no idea who this kid was. In fact, as a large image of Schuyler was placed side by side with a modified Las Vegas sign that said "Welcome to the Future", I had chalked up his keynote address as a big gimmick by Autodesk. In the midst of 10,000 designers, engineers and builders that were all at least twice his senior, the implication to me was that in a few year's time, innovators like young Schuyler, will be taking the place of almost everyone in this room if they allow technology to pass them by. But then, as I started to think of it, Schuyler's presence at AU, while symbolic in one aspect, was also based on his true story. . As he addressed the crowd, Schuyler's message both verbally and physically was very simple: technology is ubiquitous, and with each passing day, the tools we use to make and innovate are becoming easier to use and more accessible to everyone, especially his generation. He stole the show, upstaging not only the other keynote speakers, but also Carl Bass, Mr. Autodesk himself. Imagine that. An 11 year old inventor as a keynote speaker for one of the largest software companies in the world, and he stood out more to me than all the other speakers in the session. Certainly his age had something to do with it. However, Schuyler's matter of fact approach to innovation brought out the wide-eyed wonder of youth transfused with the entrepreneurial spirit of business trying to solve the world's big problems. Therefore, if my Bentley colleague was Yoda, Schuyler could very well be Luke Skywalker, re-inventing the venerable profession of manufacturing in to a personal venture of making stuff that is more accessible to the masses.
Where technology is racing ahead in industrial design, aeronautics and other types of manufacturing and engineering, the design and construction industry needed a wake up call; and Schuyler St. Leger, in his four foot tall, wide-eyed optimistic, lab-coat-suited glory was the unexpected harbringer. Indeed, as Autodesk celebrated its 20th AU, and the 10 year anniversary of their acquisition of Revit, BIM is no longer some emerging technology. It has now been here for some time, and there is a need to see more traction. Maybe that is why this year's conference seemed to offer more mature course offerings, less focused on innovation and more focused on collaboration and interoperability. The message: our industry can no longer be working in silos, nor rely upon parallel processes where re-work is part of the process, and margins for error still needlessly exist. We need to collaborate now. We need to be able to avoid the adversarial relationships that result in finger pointing, delays, and lawsuits. Just as importantly, this process now also needs to include the considerations of the Owner (in reality, it probably should have to begin with). Gone are the days of simple paper and digital 2D deliverables. Owners and building operators want the live BIM, and they want to see progress. They want to be able to re-use the model and its data for their purposes: measuring building performance, providing operational data, and assisting in scheduling preventative maintenance. Much like the builder, but perhaps even more so, an inaccurate model for an Owner can be a very expensive proposition. For the builder, they can make a change order off errors and omissions. For owners, not only do they pay for the errors and omissions of the design team, but now, they will also pay for undocumented, inaccurate as-builts that cannot be relied upon to help them maintain their facilities. Likewise, if the data within the model is inaccurate and unreliable, the model cannot be used as a baseline for energy performance. Worse yet, the energy analysis completed during design may never have been accurate which means that the owner did not get delivered the building they thought they were getting.
Indeed, as the number of AutoCAD courses continues to dwindle at AU, focus on the "I" in BIM has started to emerge in the workflows presented at this year's conference. In fact, I attended a larger offering of courses showing the workflow between multiple software platforms than I did in the last 3 conferences combined. Interoperability was showcased for anything from Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, to model based quantity take off, to the creation of smarter 3D details and automated operation manuals. All of this interoperability lends itself to supporting a grander vision of building information modeling that allows us to quickly analyze, simulate, or design a building, and then round trip the data and geometry within a cloud based environment. The good news is Autodesk does not think that Revit is the center of the universe anymore. In fact, this year the software giant made it clear that Revit is just one of several tools they offer to complete a project from concept through design and construction and ultimately to be managed and operated. The future according to Autodesk's message at this years conference, is that some of these services will now reside in "the cloud" and will be in partnership with other technologies. Whether it is 3D visualization and rendering, or a CFD simulation to test wind dymnamics, or even a real time collaboration session, the move to a cloud based solution seems to be where Autodesk's focus will be in the foreseeable future.
Just a few examples of this interoparability:
Two of my classes featured a Revit to Navisworks to Quantity Take off workflow that demonstrated how to edit the model geometry and the component data and export the model to quantity take off software for quick accurate estimates.
Another very interesting class featured a plug-in tool for Autodesk Inventor called Eco-Material Advisor, geared toward measuring the ecological impact of product design. The tool was very easy to use, and although marketed toward industrial engineers, building design professionals could also take advantage of this tool as a potential design and analysis tool to support LEED Certification. Although the data from Inventor can not yet be pushed out to Revit Families, there is potential for this tool to be valuable in populating equipment schedules with fields for measuring recycled content, embodied energy, carbon footprint, or renewable resources.
Another strong focus of this year's conference was the push to try to understand owner needs with relation to BIM, and the search for usable metrics to support the relevance of evolving BIM Technology. Unfortunately, I do not think the Owner's perspective has been accurately reflected, and we are still far from reaching the tipping point. While buzz phrases such as "begin with the end in mind" and evidence supporting the need to address long term operational and maintenance costs (estimated at 80% of total building cost over its lifetime) continues to mount, no tangible metrics have been shown that provide direct savings to the owner in the form of building performance or reduced maintenance costs. In fact, it was a bit disappointing to have only 3 or 4 owner representatives at my roundtable discussion for building owners on building a successful road map for BIM Implementation. While there was a lively discussion about the opportunities architects have in helping owners define their BIM Requirements, what the industry needs to hear the most is the plight of the owner. For only an owner can clearly explain why BIM should support their mission statement and business plan. Only an Owner can tell you how they plan to use BIM Technology for their organization, and who in their organization is an expert, champion or liability for a successful BIM Implementation. Most importantly, just as Schuyler St Leger points out, with technology being so accessible and ubiquitous today, only a building owner can tell you if they are willing enough to embrace the change and demand cross-mentoring between the technically savvy boomer generation and the technologically wired Y generation.
