Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2008 - (Page 48) » 48 BIM, in short, is not itself a new technology—it is the synergistic combination of all of the automation technologies that have appeared in the world of architecture, construction, civil engineering, and mapping automation in recent years. project engineer was worried, and rightfully so: “How can I know that all the calculations are being done correctly?” Even today, experienced engineers perform back-of-envelope, order-of-magnitude manual checks, to at least determine that The tools are no more effective than the person applying them to the problem. the answer has the right number of decimal places. And many older engineers decry the fact that manual approximation is not being sufficiently emphasized in engineering schools, where the students implicitly trust the computer. The power of the tools can be heady, almost overwhelming. Yet the tools are no more effective than the person applying them to the problem. Underlying assumptions, and choices as to how to frame the problem, are crucial. The tool can be ever so powerful, ever so precise, ever so friendly. But if the loads and constraints are chosen improperly, the results are meaningless. As the cliché goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” Communication and collaboration While e-mail is truly wonderful, and its offshoots, such as cell-phone texting, give us an immediacy undreamed of by earlier generations, it is only the beginning of powerful collaboration tools. The Web has given us the ability to create hubs and bulletin boards that cannot only be accessed from anywhere there is an Internet connection, but can keep track of who saw what and when. This quality alone, if properly applied, could greatly reduce the litigation activities attendant upon almost all engineering projects of any size. Let’s consider some of the simpler forms of communication now used so widely, even in the world of engineering: blogs, wikis, and portals. A blog is a trimming of the term, “weblog”—nothing more than a diary, usually date-and-time-stamped. It is an incredibly powerful way to share But as Niccolo Machiavelli pointed out, anyone wanting to introduce a change into the way things are done has a tough row to hoe: The person will have the lukewarm support of those who stand to gain most from the change, and the fierce resistance of those who think they stand to lose by it. This is what hopeful BIM launchers are finding, and it is the essence of the resistance they must overcome. The promise of BIM is enormous. It will, ultimately, totally characterize the way construction and building engineering happens in the world. But we are still in a period of transition, from old ways to new ways. The new is resisted because it doesn’t always answer the all-important ”What’s in it for me?” question at all levels. Analysis The duty of an engineer—the obligations of the professional that are independent of the specific person or circumstances—is weighty. Lives depend on the quality of an engineer’s work. Even beyond the legal and regulatory ramifications, the moral implications of this fact are enormous. So even though analysis software first saw commercial light in structural applications, its industry adoption has been slow and deliberate. The reluctance is simple: How does the engineer know how the software is performing? How can the results be trusted? When the Empire State Building in New York City was being designed, hundreds of “computers”—people, with pencil and paper—were engaged to perform and check the structural calculations. But the chief information. You can create a blog for free at www.blogger.com or at www .wordpress.com, as well as in many other places. You can, in fact, create a blog for every project you’re working on, and one for your family. And you can restrict who can access them and comment on them— all without knowing anything about web programming. Those who are permitted to do so can come to the blog and add entries or comments. The blog can be a contemporaneous record of events and communications. Many engineers and their employers are reluctant to use blogs because of the fear of putting down in writing things that could possibly be used against them in subsequent litigation. That is a well-founded fear. Blogs should be used prudently. For example, see this blog: http://newjmslibrary .blogspot.com. It reports on the progress of the construction of a Rhode Island library. A wiki is a website that can be edited and commented upon by anyone who can access the site. Modern wikis, such as www.pbwiki. com, have free versions, as well as premium versions that allow for more memory, more bandwidth, and so on. Wikis—the most famous one is www.wikipedia.com—are most useful for brainstorming, for sharing information that does not necessarily have a chronological component. They are more subtle than blogs; we’re not used to communicating nonsequentially. But they can be very powerful. Here’s one that the University of CaliforniaDavis uses to communicate and discuss details of its construction projects: http://daviswiki .org/University_Construction. Portals are web pages created by a firm or company for providing access to a wide variety of information, to different audiences. An intranet is a kind of portal for sharing information within an organization or project; an extranet is similar, but has additional security features that limit access to information by people outside the confines of the firm that established it. Examples include services and products offered by Autodesk (www .buzzsaw.com) and Bentley Systems (www .bentley.com/en-US/Products/projectwise+ project+team+collaboration). Consulting-Specifying Engineer • AUGUST 2008 http://www.blogger.com http://www.wordpress.com http://www.wordpress.com http://newjmslibrary.blogspot.com http://newjmslibrary.blogspot.com http://www.pbwiki.com http://www.pbwiki.com http://www.wikipedia.com http://daviswiki.org/University_Construction http://daviswiki.org/University_Construction http://www.buzzsaw.com http://www.buzzsaw.com http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/projectwise project team collaboration http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/projectwise project team collaboration http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/projectwise project team collaboration
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