NBS Digital/BIM Report 2021
The NBS Digital Construction Report is now in its second decade. It was published last week and is available at the interactive website below: This blog post looks at some of the findings. But before looking at the finals, a quick note to thank a large number of industry leading organizations that help us distribute our surveys within the industry.
The first section of the report looks at BIM in general. The most fascinating areas of this analysis for me are always the questions looking beneath the headline of 'have you adopted BIM?'. A lot of the industry defines BIM in different ways, so specifically asking about use of EIRs, responsibility matrices, classification, following standards always gives a better picture.
The second part of the survey looked more at technology.
The above chart shows that cloud computing is now dominant. Other findings in the report showed how much the COVID crisis had accelerated digital working and new 'work anyway' working practices. In terms of wider new construction technology - half of participants had been involved in a project using offsite techniques.
The rising star at the bottom end of the scale was Digital Twins. I consider this a little similar to 'BIM' as a bit of a catch-all phrase. Technology within a building around access control, intruder detection, CCTV, wifi hotspots has had an element of 'digital twin' for many years now. How much real time digital feedback do you need before you tick the 'digital twin' box? And will we get back into the 3D visual model debate again?
The final section of the report looks at the wider industry.
Thanks to everyone that took part in the survey - over 900 - and thanks to the increasing number of participants from around the world that clearly are aware and appreciate the work NBS do in this area.
To take part in our latest survey on sustainability and the construction industry - please do so below:
Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/10/nbs-digitalbim-report-2021.html October 20, 2021 at 06:24PM
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NBS, Byggfakta Group and Nasdaq
Today (15th October) marks the first day of trading for our parent Byggfakta Group on the Nasdaq Stockholm. Ref: BFG This marks another huge step on the NBS journey which has been quite a ride. Reflecting on some key dates... 1973 The NBS presents architects, structural engineers and quantity surveyors with a unique opportunity to re-appraise and develop their specification practice. The benefits will come to them and to the industry as a whole in the form of better and more efficient building. More info: https://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2010/02/1973.html September 2002 More info: https://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2019/09/twenty-years.html June 2018 Press release: https://www.thenbs.com/about-nbs/press-releases/riba-and-ldc-partner-to-support-the-future-growth-of-nbs November 2020 Press release: https://www.thenbs.com/about-nbs/press-releases/nbs-joins-byggfakta-to-bolster-growth October 2021 Press release: https://mfn.se/a/byggfakta-group/first-day-of-trading-in-byggfakta-groups-shares-on-nasdaq-stockholm Exciting times - with complementary businesses in the group now across North America, Europe, Australia and SE Asia - we now have the amazing opportunity to digitally connect the specification, product, tendering and project data world together! Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/10/nbs-byggfakta-group-and-nasdaq.html October 15, 2021 at 07:24PM
NBS and sustainability
It's clear that how to create a more sustainable built environment is one of the key challenges facing the industry today. The UK and other developed nations must lead by example. Within the UK, organizations, such as NBS, that have influence over thousands (millions?) of specification decisions made each day on large construction projects must support the industry overcome this challenge. Well over 3,000 design practices subscribing to NBS to specify the nations schools, hospitals, offices... Well over 1,000 construction manufacturers work with NBS to publish their technical information. Small changes we can make will result in huge changes across the country. In this blog post I'm highlighting three areas where we are trying to make a difference... 1.Education Our NBS webinar series continues to be a huge success. But one of the webinars we hosted that had the most attendees (over 1,000!) was our joint webinar with the RIBA (Gary Clark HOK) on sustainable outcomes and the RIBA Plan of Work. This is still available on demand at the link below: Throughout October 2021, leading up to COP26 we have a series of webinars on sustainability. Sign up for these now below (or watch on demand once October has past): We are also running our sustainability survey now (throughout Q4 2021) - please click the link below to take part and then be one of the first to receive a copy of the final report. 2. Product development The NBS specification content we research and maintain allows for sustainable outcomes to be specified on projects. The article below gives specific examples against each of the RIBA sustainable outcomes that are aligned to the UN sustainable development goals. Brief examples of specification templates and guidance in NBS relevant to sustainable outcomes includes:
3. Practice what you preach We recognise that the biggest impact we can have is positively influencing design and specification decisions our customers will make on some of the largest construction projects in the UK * through encouraging sustainable decision making within our products and through using our platform to help with education. However, we need to practice what we preach too. For this reason, we have signed up to the UN Climate Neutral Now initiative. Through this, we now (a) measure our impact as a business, (b) analyse what we could do better, (c) put into practice initiatives on how to reduce our impact and (d) report on this annually. Our annual report may be downloaded below: Furthermore, at NBS we are now part of the much larger Byggfakta Group of companies operating around the world. My NBS colleague Lee Jones has been key in terms of developing the sustainability approach at a group level and more on this approach is at the URL below:
* Due to current market profile of the majority of NBS customers, this blog post mentions 'in the UK' - but of course UK architects and specifiers use NBS for projects around the world (Africa, Middle East, South East Asia in particular) and we have rapidly growing businesses in Canada and Australia too. Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/10/nbs-and-sustainability.html October 07, 2021 at 06:24PM
Digital Construction Podcasts
If you have 30-45 minutes in your day where you like listening to podcasts then some recommendations below... Firstly a plug for Nathan Hildebrandt's Digital Transition podcast series. Nathan's just kicked off his second series with a chat with myself looking at digital construction and specification around the world. Nathan has been instrumental in organizing BILT events around the world and his series of podcasts has brought together speakers from North America, Europe and Australia exploring digital construction. To listen to my conversation with Nathan check out the link below: To check out the back catalogue that includes some great content see: - https://www.skewed.com.au/podcasts
The speakers have been hand picked by Paul as he speaks to industry leaders about topics such as information management, education, business strategy, leadership and sustainability. Listen now to these NBS podcasts:
Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/09/digital-construction-podcasts.html September 03, 2021 at 08:24PM
NBS - August 2021 Update
Monthly update below... Links from everything mentioned in the video below... - Register now for the NBS Autumn Summit: https://www.thenbs.com/events/CLS2021-Building-Better - Find out more about Chorus Pro: https://www.thenbs.com/nbs-chorus/plans-features - Watch a preview of the new Organization Notes feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uy527BbMU8 - Watch our 'on demand' webinars - Chorus Pro intro and our July panel discussions - Find out more about NBS Source https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/making-the-most-of-nbs-source Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/08/nbs-august-2021-update.html August 03, 2021 at 07:24PM
Uniclass 2015 to CAWS system and product mappings/relationships spreadsheet
A few folk on social media have been asking if there are any mappings available between Uniclass 2015 and CAWS. A spreadsheet with a number of relationships (not necessarily perfect 'mappings') can be downloaded from the link below: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dklrgxz1AY4wcJXX_N_HPDN0TTtut_NG?usp=sharing The blog post below describes a bit more where this data comes from and why these sort of relationships will never be one-to-one (unfortunately): https://constructioncode.blogspot.com/2020/12/classification-mapping-uniclass-2015-to.html Introduction from the first worksheet in spreadsheet copied and pasted below. A couple of screenshots further down too. V1.0 - Generated 15th June 2021 Notes 1. This set of Uniclass 2015 to CAWS relationships was produced by looping through all of the manufacturer systems and products listed in the NBS Source platform. 2. As manufacturer product listings in NBS Source are positioned against a primary Uniclass 2015 classification and CAWS clauses then it is possible to report on each of these relationships. 3. If a system or product classification does not have a manufacturer listing in NBS Source then no relationship is provided. For example, there is no Pr_60_60_08_59 Oil-fired steel shell boilers products in NBS Source - so there is no relationship provided for this item. 4. Only systems and products are considered as part of this automated routine - so NBS clause content for preliminaries, system performance, execution or system completion is out of scope. 5. Disclaimer - This spreadsheet is meant as a free download to help inform industry - it should be considered 'beta' and the data should be tested before using. Feedback is welcome.
Screenshots...
...and to find out more about NBS Source, feel free to have a read through this article:
Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/07/uniclass-2015-to-caws-system-and.html August 01, 2021 at 12:24AM
NBS - July 2021 Update
July update from myself below... Useful links below 1. Support around the retirement of our desktop products: 2. Article and webinar looking at Chorus and Source integration: 3. Financial summary export for projects of a more simple nature 4 Keynote export for those that cannot use our plug-ins 5. NBS Chorus case study featuring ADAM Architecture 6. Watch over 50 webinars 'on demand' and sign-up for upcoming events via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/07/nbs-july-2021-update.html July 09, 2021 at 07:26PM
Export to Keynote for NBS Chorus
Another feature was released in NBS Chorus this week, the ability to export a Keynote file from the specification. The NBS recommended method of coordinating model and specification information is through our plug-ins for Revit, Archicad and Vectorworks. This allows to design and write specifications in the same workspace, to read the guidance and to 'clash check' the annotations. However, through our forums, we recognise that not all customers are using versions of design tools that support plug-ins and they would like to simply export the information from the specification into a 'Keynote' style file so they can annotate items in their drawings. The screenshots below show how this is now possible. Please click the screenshots below to see the images in more detail.
To find out more about NBS Chorus see: - https://www.thenbs.com/nbs-chorus Via Home http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/07/export-to-keynote-for-nbs-chorus.html July 02, 2021 at 06:26PM
Financial summary and NBS Chorus small works
When specifying on small works projects where the contract does not support the use of bills of quantities then it can be useful to create a financial summary based on the content of the specification (see article on our website for further reading). This financial summary can be used for a number of purposes.
Figure one shows how to generate a Financial Summary from NBS Chorus:
(Click the images below for larger versions)
In Figure 2 below, it can be seen that each section in the specification is listed as a row in the exported spreadsheet. The total value at the base of the spreadsheet automatically adds the values of each row.
A second worksheet is also produced with a list of all clauses in the specification. Any of these items can easily be copied across to the main worksheet if costs need broken down at a finer level - for example of plastic and timber windows need priced separately within L10.
And finally, great to see some positive feedback immediately on social media for this development. The screenshot below shows how Jeremy Foster takes this exported information and copies it straight into his template for managing costs on his small works projects.
via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/06/financial-summary-and-nbs-chorus-small.html June 24, 2021 at 06:26PM
Examples of different manufacturer products in NBS Source
NBS Source is our construction product information platform. Whenever I am demonstrating it, I make sure that I try and show off some good examples to demonstrate the content structures. Within this blog post, I highlight some examples below. Before I do so though, I thought it would be good to reflect on our user-focus group sessions from 3-4 years ago when we were first developing NBS Source. What did the construction professionals that we listened to tell us they wanted from construction product manufacturers?
So below, here are some content examples relating back to our findings of what the industry was asking for. Each example contains a screengrab and a hyperlink to the product itself.
Specification information Note how the specification properties and values have been researched and aligned to the standards in the country of use (in this case BS EN standards for UK). This is aligned to the NBS generic specification template in our NBS Chorus specification platform. Variant specification information Note that the thermal and acoustic characteristics of the boards adjust as the thickness of the board changes. Third party certification and guidance on application Example - Glidevale Protect VP400 from BPD Ltd - https://nbs.fyi/myosaK Note the prominence of the BM Trada third party certification and the clear guidance on application for the use of the product.
Consistent environmental information Note that, in addition to specific information to the particular product type, more general information is also provided around items such as material origin, carbon and reuse of materials. Permanent links and 'replaced by' information Note that when a product is no longer available or has had a major revision, then the original web link (permalink) is still maintained. The user may choose to read the information that was published at the time and also click across to view the latest information. Comparable information Note that products from different manufacturers may be compared. Linked literature to product Note that catalogues, certificates, manuals etc. can all be linked to related products. These links work in both directions. From customer-story to product Case studies may also be linked. So real-life usage of products may be demonstrated. 'Light' digital objects to aid design process Many products also have digital objects to aid the design process. This allows the product to be specified in the NBS specification, but plans, sections, details, visualizations, schedules also to be generated from the 3D modelling environment. In the example below the object is just over 1MB in size but has different options for fittings that can be shown on design details. ...and last, but my no means least, for this content to integrate into the design and specification process - not to just sit on a web platform that is a silo. Watch the webinar below to see how NBS Chorus and NBS Source work together: ...and check out and bookmark NBS Source now... via Blogger http://jonasjjackson.blogspot.com/2021/06/examples-of-different-manufacturer.html June 22, 2021 at 11:26PM |