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Thread: eTransmit for Navisworks projects

  1. #11
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    Default Re: eTransmit for Navisworks projects

    Quote Originally Posted by Wanderer View Post
    Too true, too true! The pieces are there, but, it has to become so ubiquitous that it's smoother and less time-consuming to initiate.
    For now, the contractors resist cobie because it means more setup time (and so our pms resist it as well), and our budgets resist forking out for another program aside from the ones we already need and use on a daily basis.

    I was just getting into mobile workforce implementation when I left my old employer. IT had saved money on their wireless system by not covering any of the facilities spaces (boiler plant, equipment rooms, shops), so we had big holes in our tablet testing. Ah well, job security.
    The hard part about setting up COBie is that it needs to be started early on in the design process by the A/E. It can't just be an afterthought. On my first COBie job, the architect did a terrible job of coordinating their MEP&FS consultants, with the result being that their models only lined up with the architect's on paper. In reality, there were switches and lights and equipment without host walls or in the wrong rooms. It took me forever to sort out and get corrected in the COBie sheet. Once I did, updating it was incredibly easy. I just sent Excel sheets to all of our subs to fill out when they sent in their submittals and synced them with a master sheet using a macro (I'm a bit nerdy for a GC). Had the architect had their models right to begin with, I could count the total number of hours I spent putting the COBie sheet together on both hands for the entire project.

    The mobile implementation is really taking off, and I know it is going to be a huge driver in the industry as tablets get cheaper, more powerful, and more rugged (or at least cases). Wireless access is also getting cheaper and faster all the time as well. We're blanketing entire sites with Wi-Fi access using range extenders and setting up mobile workstations with large monitors (TV's) for PDF plan viewing as well as wireless printing. Almost all of our superintendents and PM's are using iPads, and on our BIM jobs they are using BIM 360 Glue as a viewer to do QA/QC checks in the field. Just two years ago we were having to take pictures and bring them back to the office to make visual comparisons with what was decided on and modeled in coordination meetings. Our guys are spending even more time in the field and less in the trailer because they can take everything into the field with them. With how we're already using models and mobile technology, I know it's going to be huge for owners (eventually).

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    Default Re: eTransmit for Navisworks projects

    I should also add that there are some third party add ons for Navisworks that can take the geometry of an NWC or NWD file and convert it all back into a DWG. This gives you an editable file that you can keep alive once the building has been turned over, even if a system model (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc) was created by a GC's subcontractor using a trade specific fabrication software that you don't have (and thus can't edit). You could always use the A/E's schematic models, but those very rarely catch up to construction in terms of as-built locations because they are for design intent only. As interoperability between A/E design software and subcontractor fabrication software gets better, this will improve, but until then it's a one way street that keeps everything in silos.

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