Under NDA

Is Building Information Modelling the catalyst of improvement in all things Architecture, Engineering and Construction? Is "BIM" the Midas touch for all innovation projects? This article explores the boundary conditions of BIM and suggests reasons for resisting its adoption. A new look to an old discussion. Introduction I am a confessed BIM enthusiast. Early adopter or visionary, I embraced the technology as soon as I was exposed to it, approximately 10 years ago, and have been trying to convince anyone willing to listen about its benefits. Now, a decade into my struggle to make a better world through BIM, I would like to step back and ask myself if there are good reasons why other people have not jumped at BIM with the same conviction... My logic is structured around the three letters of the acronym, hoping to identify the boundaries in these three dimensions. Boundary 1: Building Is Buildings  the only target of BIM? " We don't do Buildings, we do roads ...

A couple of months ago, and a couple of weeks ago I have presented  a quick primer of Python scripting on the Revit Platform at the Manchester and London Revit User Groups. Both have been fantastic experiences, summarized the evening I was having a beer (or #BIMbeer) and heard someone say "I've been told that the other day there was an interesting presentation on Python at the Manchester Revit User Group", to what I replied "That was me, thanks!". My main objective is to trigger curiosity and push at least some people to discover that the programming edge is not that hard to climb, and things appear much nicer from those heights. I have to clarify that among non-programmers I can pretend to be one, but in all ernesty I am a wannabe noob of a programmer, despite a few lines of code I cannot understand does not stop me from trying to understand it!! Following a recent request on Twitter to share the presentation and thinking that they are probably available so...

Shame on me, I have not written in months, literally! I am not writing an apology as I did last time. This time I am jumping directly to the latest of my research projects (and skipping a few that I will have to revisit, like Arduino!). I have to admit that I am trying to steal some attention and try not to think too much about all the excitement I am missing at Autodesk University. I am craving for those classes, and the chance to end up in a random advanced technology seminar, not to mention the networking and the chance to talk to my industry heroes. My latest enterprise is to some extent a jump back in time. It does not include touch-screens, fast computers or mobile phones. So, in times of mobile technology, powerful computing and funky interfaces, why would someone buy a 700 Mhz, 512 Mb RAM, desktop (=powered from a socket on the wall and plugged to a monitor) computer? May suffice that it's only £22. This is not entirely true, it's £22 + local taxes to make up to so...

I started typing a "back from Autodesk University" post... that never got to publish. On the last day of the year I am resolving to publish (even) shorter notes, to keep you all in the loop of what I am researching. My reason for silence during 2011 was that I've been working on some top secret projects and some ongoing projects that can now be mentioned. This year I prepared 4 AU classes, which took also a lot of time. An I did my first lecture as co-speaker and with an invaluable help from Zach Kron (if you don't know his blog, it's a must:  http://buildz.blogspot.com/ ). As I said in the opening statement of the class, I really wanted to attend HIS class, so I figured out that my best bet was to be standing at the front! The class is available online, if you want to find out more about it. Another highlight of AU was a design challenge, to build "something" with a modular kit of 150 cardboard cutouts, the 123D Fab Challenge . I'll try to get ba...

It's been some time since I started to think on this post. Basically, every time I hear people talk about forms of energy, or saving energy, or Green Energy or the like, I wonder if those people have the same understanding of Energy I have. Also, when I read how many calories a chocolate bar has, again I think about a proper definition of Energy and its implications. Without further introduction, here is my question: What is Energy? From a pure physics definition, Energy is the ability of a physical system to perform work. Work in turn is intended as a force acting along a distance. All this was described by Sir Newton 324 years ago, in his Principia. An object is capable of storing Energy because its particles are taken to a position (requiring Energy to do so) and will be able to release that Energy later. Imagine you raise an object, then let it go. That's your Force x Distance on the way up stored in the "Potential Energy" and transformed to kinematic Ener...

New feature, I am getting my head around it and cannot really control it. You have been warned... Blogger has recently launched a new feature for their blogs, that in "modern" browsers enables an exciting way to go through the posts and comments: dynamic views MOSAIC: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/mosaic#!/ FLIPCARD:  http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/flipcard#!/ TIMESLIDE:  http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/timeslide#!/ SIDEBAR: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/sidebar#!/ SNAPSHOT: http://undernda.blogspot.com/view/snapshot#!/ More interesting, it's quite easy to jump from one to the other so it's quite easy to find what you want. The information is always the same, but if you remember WHEN it was posted, you go to timeslide, if you remember an image, you go to snapshot, if you want to see how different topics are related you use flipcard and for a general overview - or most popular posts you grab mosaic. Simple magic. But the good n...

I've been trying to write a long post with a recap of several interesting things I am working on at the moment... but I've been so busy at them that I am struggling to find time to put the pen to the paper... So here I am, killing time while my wife does some shopping, and deciding that a series of short posts are better than the one and only recap. This time I will refer to the mobile technology. Did I mention that I am sitting in a shop? This is in fact my first post using Blogger, a free app for my android. Sweet! Now that around 80 people in the office are using the same phone model I have, we have been exchanging tips and recommendations... and occasional frustration when it 'goes pear shape' (very English expression I learnt only recently). This reminds me a funny tv program I saw a while ago... (am I pushing the app beyond its capabilities? Will find out soon) Yesterday I saw the swype text input on a HTC phone, apparently it's now available as a beta v...

Most of you may remember the great movie High Fidelity , starring John Cusack, Jack Black and Catherine Zeta Jones back in 2000. The main character, Rob, would analyze every situation through listing the “top 5 items” of a category. With Autodesk University just finished, here’s my summary of an intense week with ups and downs: AU 2010: Top 5 High points 1. Discovering the power of mobile communication: You have probably read my previous post, where I explained my glad surprise in regards to sharing information, tips, complaints… “Social Media”, blogging, twitting (or tweeting?!?) is clearly the result of giving every person walking around the chance to shout their thoughts. And in a positive vicious circle we communicate what is the latest advance in communication tools, and it all gets connected. I should conclude with “RT if u agree” ;) 2. Presence of BIM: It’s probably yesterday’s news that I am a strong believer in the BIM revolution and an evangelist of its principles. Seei...

I am going to start this post with a few easy quotes: "The 21st century is all about communication", "We live in a global world", "The world has shrunk because of ease of communication". For many years I've heard these phases and effectively not only believed in them but also enjoyed the meaning of them. From the good old brick mobile phones, allowing to keep talking (or shouting repeatedly "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!???") while on the move, to the sophisticated cloud computing technology, unleashing collaborative addition of "unlimited" computing power regardless of geographic location, there have been many shades and variations of the way we exchange information. And Information is another concept that has become key to modern life: access to information, freedom of information, building information... anything makes the cut under the "information" label. As I've been promising for weeks now, today I have done my AU...

Once again, about a month without posting... An echo from the previous posts says I've been preparing my AU classess. Now finally all handouts are uploaded and classes rehearsed, so just waiting for the big day! In the meantime, I've been working crazy hours in the office to finish a competition (still Under NDA, but I will share in due course some findings on Revit Conceptual Design you may find interesting...) So this is my second day back to normal life, and I want to touch base on the different parallel projects I have been working on/following, and share some amazing findings I came across in these last days: 1. Revit Conceptual Massing: Autodesk has released a free "Revit Light" Conceptual Massing tool, that can be run from a memory stick without installing it... I'm not sure if you are as excited as me about this, but it looks so promising in so many levels I cannot even start to describe it! Have a look: Project Vasari on Youtube 1a. Still on the...

Still busy trying to get my AU Virtual classes ready, so with little time for my side projects... But I changed my Nokia E71 phone (amazing piece of engineering, by the way) for a Samsung Galaxy S. My wife says it's a wannabe iPhone... I say under the bonnet it has a very different beast: the android OS. I got tired of waiting for the android 2.2 version to reach the market... and all manufacturers are promising great new features in the phones "about to be released". So I made up my mind and entered the phone store. I was amazed by the range of options: iPhone 3G,3GS,4... Nokia E72 (I admit it crossed my mind...) and the android ones: HTC, Samsung, Dell... Bigger screens, or bigger memory, or faster processor, or a cheaper plan, they all sound tempting. My decision was based on the Operating System mainly and a balance between screen size and capacity to fit my pocket (the Dell Streak is fantastic... but I haven't seen mobile phones that big since the Motorola ...