Fast, collaborative 3-D makes BIM more powerful (and fun)
The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has been slow to adopt building information modeling (BIM) technology in all phases of construction project delivery. Architects and engineers use BIM and computer-aided design (CAD) as part of internal design process, but revert to PDFs and printed construction documents for coordinating with contractors and trades. For client presentations and coordination, BIM can be too unwieldy or time-consuming, or use too much computing power. People need to experience a project, and 3-D renderings of BIM are often too abstract-or just too slow-to provide a sufficiently vivid experience.
This leaves BIM’s full potential mostly untapped, including in the metal architecture industry. Digital 3-D models have the power to accelerate review and quality control schedules, significantly reducing errors, change orders and cost overruns. And they can, and should be meaningful to clients and end-users.
Revizto, a visual collaboration tool for BIM and CAD projects, is helping stakeholders to capitalize on the promise of BIM. Using the same technology found in the latest video games, Revizto converts BIM files and CAD data from Revit, AutoCAD, Navisworks, ArchiCad, and SketchUp into fully interactive 3-D environments that are lightning-fast and immersive. This technology makes BIM easy to understand and work with-not to mention fun.
Using technology like Revizto, project team members can access, walk through, comment on and change 3-D project models from the cloud using a PC, mobile device or virtual reality (VR) headset. And because Revizto is easy to learn, contractors, metal fabricators, clients and end-users can explore project models on their own instead of being limited to prearranged, guided demos and walk-throughs.
“Setting up a lot of 3-D views and sheets, and plotting PDFs-it all takes time,” says Aaron Maller, until recently the BIM manager of the Dallas-based integrated design-build firm,
Beck Group
(currently director of implementation at PARALLAX Team, Dallas). Clients, he says, are “getting to see something more real, and we’re cutting out hours of sheet and view prep. Everyone is winning.” For a 10-story hospital patient tower, Maller’s team was able to offer the client group a complete walk-through just a few days after the first time they used Revizto to export a model. The clients were so excited, he says, they asked if they could use Revizto themselves to present the plans to potential donors and others. And they could-from a webpage and without a high-powered workstation.
In fact, Revizto is now even easier to use than ever. The company has created a new version, 4.0, which consolidates almost all of the suite’s capabilities-enhancing presentation and collaboration features, making notes and markups, chatting with other team members online, tracking issues over time and more-into a single potent app, Revizto Viewer. Some architects, engineers, fabricators and manufacturers making design and technical alterations may still need to use Revizto Editor (a fine-tuning tool), but this function is accessible through the user-friendly Viewer. This makes the technology approachable for all stakeholders at every project stage.
The BIM manager at Salt Lake City-based architecture, planning and energy engineering firm GSBS, Melissa Thiessens, adopted Revizto while working on the design of a six-building mining operation in Nevada, including metal building systems. Her plan was to use the technology to help her clients visualize building size and site placement, but soon the design team was using Revizto exports in coordination meetings to find clashes and “things that aren’t necessarily clashing but could be placed more efficiently,” she explains. Coordination meetings included structural, mechanical and electrical engineers as well as the metal building subcontractor. Best of all, each firm enjoyed 24-7 access to the cloud-hosted project model.
GSBS had experimented with other software for creating 3-D models, but none of them had Revizto’s lightweight, gaming-based technology, and their performance was too slow to be useful. “Many times we couldn’t have even successfully opened the model on a laptop,” says Thiessens. “We didn’t even make it through a full week of the trial period before deciding to subscribe to Revizto.”
By streamlining communication, Revizto offers the software add-on that takes working with BIM into a new era, where delays, cost overruns and change orders are rarities. And because of its video game-based technology and its power as a visual tool, Revizto is providing the AEC industry with a robust collaboration platform where designers, engineers, contractors, trades and end-users all speak the same language.
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Arman Gukasyan is founder and CEO of Vizerra, San Francisco. The company develops Revizto visual collaboration software for the AEC industry. Additional information is available at www.revizto.com.