Building Ops

Overview of the Building Ops tool

It has been a long wait but, with the introduction of Autodesk Building Ops there is a tool that can be fitted into a workflow from Design, to Build, to Operate (PennState phase names).

Over the course of my career I have used several tools to capture building maintenance and they all fell short, where it came to having a connection to the design or build model. Building Ops fills this gap by directly accessing this model information.

Process to get information in Building Ops
Naturally I was curious to get some hands on experience with the capabilities of Building Ops. During the 2015 Christmas period I started an experiment using my own house.

1. modeled in Revit
2. exported to BIM 360 Glue (this can be skipped in with the 2016 Revit add-in, but I would recommend to keep using this workflow). 
3. exported the equipment from BIM 360 Glue to BIM 360 Field.
4. added bar-codes in BIM 360 Field (I will write about this in more detail later). Bar-codes are already nice and relevant when you are working in BIM 360 Field but, it becomes even better with Building Ops. With the bar-code a user can lookup a piece of equipment and log an issue. At the same time all the information available about that piece of equipment will be available both on an information level, such as schematics, purchace dates, etc. as well as a 3D view of the model.
5. exported all information from BIM 360 Field to Building Ops. At the moment the export is only one way.

Platforms
Building Ops currently has interfaces to access the Building Ops platform.

• iOS
  The iOS platform is intended for mobile users.
• Web
  The Web is the platform intended for the people that will be responsible for tasking and overseeing the service providers. This can also be handled from the iOS, however the larger screen will help here.

Users
Building Ops is developed to cater to 3 main user groups.

• tenants / occupants
  This group will be a group of mobile users logging the issues. A room being to hot, window being broken, AC leaking, lights not working, etc. Potentially this can also be used track things, such as chairs, desks, monitors, beds, that sit more on the facilities management side.
• owners / operators
  This group will be the group that has an interest in understanding and controlling the issues and subsequent actions taken. This group will be involved in the setup of a building, the users, task types, signing service providers, etc. The web-based version will be the primary tool for this group.
• service providers
  This group consist out of (frame) contractors, such as plumbers, ac maintenance, glas supplier, carpenter, that have been signed on to respond to tasks issued to them through the system. This group will use both the mobile platform as well as the web-based version.

Example #1

AC unit with bar-code

I currently live in the Middle East and AC units are really needed to make life bearable. At the same time the units will have a lot of issues during a year. Sometimes they will breakdown multiple times in one single week. The current process relies on calling the landlord and ask him to send someone over. Putting a bar-code on all the AC units will make it easier to log and track any issues with the units. This process is very intuitive for tenant, landlord and service provider. Additionally this data can be used for analytics as well. I intent to write more on that later.

Example #2
Being involved with building maintenance, I also was confronted with questions related to tracking of more mobile assets such as desk and chairs. Especially schools did not seem to have any records of what they had, while at the same time they were asked to present write off plans to governing bodies. Having a simple bar-code (like some of us will have on their laptops) stuck to these assets will make the difference of throwing things out or holding on to them for another couple of years. I don't envision a model that is continuously updated to have the right table in the right room, that just might prove to labor intensive.

What should be brought into Building Ops
After all of this the main question will be, how much information should be put into Building Ops. The catch here is that there is no easy one size fits all answer. In my opinion users should restrain a bit, look at which items are already causing issues on a regular basis and put those in. In other words what items will be directly actionable, such as toilets that get blocked, issues related to temperature. The opposite of this is to put items in that have long cycles, painting once every 5 years, replace heater between 15-30 years, recover bituminous roof 10-15 years.A rule of thumb, that I picked up working in the planned maintenance sector, is that 20% of the buildings assets will account for 80% of the maintenance cost.

"Automated" Org Charts - With Visio and Excel

Ever had this situation? You have a list of people and you need to turn it into an Org Chart. Think BIM execution plan. There is a quick way to do this with a little help from Visio.

STEP#1

Open up Visio and choose for an Organization Chart.

STEP#2

In the wizard you will have 2 options use the list you had or create a new one. I would go for the first option. This way you control the data in Excel and it is good to have a list that you have prepared. 

NOTE: If you reopen you can also access this wizard through the import button under Org Chart in the Ribbon.

STEP#3

I will assume you have chosen the first option which will bring you to the next window. In this window you can select the source type. Choose for Excel.

Note that you can also pull directly from Exchange or ODBC. Neither of which I have tried.

STEP#4

Once you have selected the source type you can point to your data by using “Browse…”, Select your file and click “Next”.

STEP#5

Access will analyze your file and want you to provide some more information about how your data is structured. An important piece of this wizard is built around the “Reports to”. This is the field that determines the place in the org chart.

NOTE 1 a person can only report to one manager. I appreciate that some organizations have a matrix like structure and that reporting lines are vague. However I would encourage you to think of a project a standalone organization.

NOTE 2 a person rolls up only under his manager all the way up. This means that for me I will report to my manager but not his manager. This keeps the data clean.

STEP#6

Now that we informed on the link between the people it is time to tell Access a bit more about the information we want to display.

This section has two places to edit.

STEP#7

Now you can chose to not use pictures and just jump to step#10 directly or you can choose to add some pictures.

STEP#8

I like to add visual information so I will add the pictures. Do that by creating a folder one level below where you have stored your Visio (and Excel) file. In theory *.PNG should wold but I have only made it work with *.JPG

Note for this tutorial I ran a search on Google for logo's and used these to test the principle. As I do not own the copyright to these logo's I will not show them here.

STEP#9

Inform Visio of the name that you used for the image files. Consider this before you start setting up your data. There will always be with the first name, some will even have the same first and last name. So if you want to use images of people make sure you are using something more unique, e.g. an employee ID#.

When creating BEP's I like to have a clear overview of who is from which company, so I use company logo's. This chart will not be used by the team working on the project. They can an will use the communications table so many BEP's start with. This information is more for the people around the project.

NOTE that a denominator like Organization is smaller than a individual "name".

STEP#10

The most important part is telling Visio how to export the information. If you do nothing access will start to aggregate and output sheets based on:

-        Reports to

-        Organization

and you could easily end up with more than 10 sheets.

To counter this, use the option to tell Visio that you want to be in charge of which data gets used and how it should be presented.

STEP#11

If the this page holds any all the pages that are there and start setting up new ones.

NOTE that if you change your data source to another source because you need or have another Org Chart you want to create. 

STEP#

Click add to start the wizard. Select

-        The top level “Name at top of page”

-        The depth of the chart “Number of additional levels”

-        A name for you page “Page Name”

STEP#

Click “OK” when done.

Click “Finish” in the overview of sheets to generate your sheets.

You will see Access read and generate sheets for you. Be sure to check if the images you have defined come in. If not try to find out what is wrong by using the dedicated buttons in the ribbon.

STEP#

If you made sure your images work it is time to focus on the formatting of the chart. If you brought in large quantities of data you will see that the sheet gets clogged up. I would recommend tweaking your layout until it looks nice.

Generally speaking don’t go down more than 2 levels in horizontal mode.

I hope this helps you create your org charts in an easy way. Happy Charting

NL-SFB Item Catalogue Schema for Navisworks

Quite recently I have been documenting workflows on how to use the Quantity Take Off (QTO) feature in Navisworks.

One of the first things Navisworks will ask you to do when setting up your model for QTO purposes
is to identify an "item catalogue". This item catalogue is used by Naviswork to create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the model. This WBS is usually dependent on what has been identified in the Project and/or BIM execution plan. This in turn will vary based on your location.

Although I have been working internationally for 3 years now, I do still revert back to the Dutch coding system I grew up with the NL-SFB.  The reason for this is that most of the codes used seem to be hardwired into my brain.

NL-SFB is predominantly used by engineers to breakdown a model of a building. Next to NL-SFB there is aslo a Stabu-coding which is mostly used by contractors and quantity surveyors. More on both can be found here.


I was surprised to see that no one had made a custom NL-SFB catalogue available as a download. So decided to create my own. Using the information and the Excel spreadsheet made available on Autodesk Help I was able to generate the required .XML that Navisworks needs to create a WBS. Once you have gone through the wizard the WBS will appear in Navisworks. If you don't like the breakdown at this stage, hit CTRL + Z to undo. You can omport an updated version of your item catalogue using the Import option on the QTO Workbook Ribbon.

On the highest level it looks like this. For the Dutch users, no I have not created the high level roll up, this would require an adding an extra character.

Drilling down to lowest level.

Kindly note that this is only the WBS. In order to perform QTO one will also need to create a list of resources. These can be defined in the same Excel spreadsheet.

For more information exchanging .XML files feel free to reach out to me.

Translate

Translation of words and terms is something that becomes more and more integrated in our day to day work. Please see the video from +DanielMonsén. He demonstrates how you can translate something from language A to B in Revit. NOTE He does use an additional Plug-In, so don't cheer to soon.

During the past year if have studied how one could translate between Classification systems by using a database. The method Daniel uses is based on the same philosophy, search and replace. NOTE When changing/translating a classification system you will have to do some work manually.

I will now show you the essence of Daniels work.

The first thing you need is a Google account connected to GoogleDocs. Within Spreadsheets there is a feature that you probably will have used before, GoogleTranslate. Now start a new Spreadsheet and type

"=Google...."

you will be given the opportunity to select the Translate function. The "wizard" will guide you through all the steps.

I strongly recommend to have a list of words. That way you can see the result of your work directly.

I have modified the formula in my Spreadsheet. Depending on the place in the formula I have blocked either row or column. This give you more freedom to copy or stretch your formula or if you want to add additional TARGETLANGUAGES.

For those who are new to the world of spreadsheets I will explain how the formula is build up. (note that I started in B2)

• $A2
  Always use COLUMN A 
• SOURCELANGUAGE
  Always use CEL A1
• TARGETLANGUAGE
  Always use ROW 1 for the column the cel is in. (again note that I started in B2)

Vertalen - NL

Het vertalen van woorden is iets dat met internationaal BIM steeds vaker voorkomt. Zie ook de video van  +DanielMonsén die laat zien hoe je iets van taal A in taal B omzet in Revit. NB hij gebruikt naast de onderstaande werkwijze nog een aanvullende Plug-In, dus niet te vroeg juichen ;-).

Zelf heb ik mij het afgelopen jaar verdiept in Classificatie en hoe je die met behulp van een Database snel zou kunnen vertalen. De truc die Daniel gebruikt is gebaseerd op de zelfde techniek zoek en vervang. Bij een classificatie systeem zul je echter de link eerst met de hand moeten leggen.

Ik zal je laten zien hoe de truc van Daniel of beter Google werk.

Het eerste wat je nodig hebt is een Google account met GoogleDocs. Binnen Spreadsheets heb je dan een handige functie tot je beschikking die je vast al vaker gebruikt, namelijk GoogleTranslate. Start een nieuw Spreadsheet en type

"=Google...."

en je kunt de functie direct selecteren. Je krijgt een handig hulp menu dat je door je stappen heen leidt.

Ik raad je aan om alvast een rijtje met woorden klaar te zetten zodat je direct ziet wat het resultaat is.

Ik heb de functie in mijn Spreadsheet aangepast, waarbij ik afhankelijk van de plaats in de formule de rij of de kolom heb geblokkeerd. Dit is handig wanneer je rij met woorden langer wordt, je een andere BRONTAAL of DOELTAAL wilt instellen. Met andere woorden de formule is nu kopieerbaar.

Voor diegene die nieuw zijn in de wereld van spreadsheets zal ik uitleggen hoe de functie hierboven, geknipt uit cel B2, is opgebouwd.

• $A2
  Altijd kolom A gebruiken 
• BRONTAAL
  Altijd CEL A1 gebruiken
• DOELTAAL
  Altijd de eerste rij gebruiken uit de kolom waarin de CEL (waarin je staat) zich bevind.

Ik ben zeer aangenaam verrast door de accuraatheid van de vertaling. Deze is beter met enkele woorden maar ook kleine zinnetjes laten zich vertalen. Momenteel gebruik ik het samen met +anne westerhoven om de kinderen Engels te leren. Ze mogen dan zelf elke week 10 woorden op mama's of papa's computer in tikken en printen voor op de ijskast. Zo leren ze en Engels en werken met een spreadsheet, iets waarvan ik denk dat je er niet vroeg genoeg mee kan beginnen.

Navisworks Datatools - EN

Something that I find fundamental to BIM is that it offers the opportunity to see, add and enrich data.

In most cases this done during the design stage, by adding parameters / values, in one of the many design authoring platforms. But how can you do this if the design is frozen? Can data still be added to a BIM? Can maintenance information, from a separate database, be linked to the model? Can you add an additional classification system?

Through the use of Navisworks this seems possible. I will give a short instruction on how to do this. For more detail I refer to my AU2014 Class - AB6967 Navisworks And Classification Based Model Checking that I did together with  Rob Oud. In this class we will go a bit deeper, however the principle stays replace A with B.

Step 1
Select the data you want to link to and open the selection inspector.

Look through the fields and ensure yourself you have all the fields that will help you understand the data when you want to link it to other data. Make sure that you also include a unique indentifier. When you are done export to *.CSV

Step 2
Open the *.CSV in Excel add columns with the new data. You could use search functions in excel to make it easier to yourself. It doesn't really matter how you do it as long as your new columns get filled with data. When you are done save your file as a *.xlsx

Step 3
Now that you have enriched your data in Excel you will need to move the data to Access. Basically there are 2 way to do this.

1. Import the entire worhsheet into Access.
2. Copy the columns into Access
   I am indifferent, but if you are new to Access I would start with this choice. 

If you have done everything correctly you should see something like the image below. In that table I have added Uniclass and Omniclass to my dataset.

Step 4
For this final step I will give some more instruction. If you make 1 mistake you data won't be linked.

In Navisworks click on datatools to open the wizard. Choose "New.." to create a new connection.

1. Name your connection
2. Choose Access in ODBC.
   Other connections are also possible, but I found them to be either difficult or more prone not to work.
3. Define a search string.
4. Inform which field values you want to bring in.

Step 1 and 2 are reasonable self explanatory, the devil is in in 3 and some in 4. The search string needs to be done just right. A space to many or to few and the link doesn't work. I recommend to use Notepad when defining the search string.

I will now explain how this string is build up.

Code	Doet
SELECT * from import	Select all from database table called "import"
where
“field1”	The field in the database that hold the unique identifier. You can change this to the name you have chosen.
=
%prop(“Element ID”,Value);	properties of the data in Navisworks for "Element ID" with "Value". This Value should be the same as the Value in field1.

Once the data is linked to your file you have to opportunity to store it within the file. This does not have my preference as I would like my data to be flexible. If you do want to try it out for yourself make sure your match the publish settings as per image below.

I sincerely hope that you will be able to get / add more out / in you BIM.

Navisworks Datatools - NL

Iets wat ik fundamenteel vind in BIM is de mogelijkheid data te doorzien, te bewerken en te verrijken.

Veelal gebeurd dit tijden het ontwerp, door parameters / waarden mee te geven, in een van de vele ontwerppaketten. Maar hoe moet dat nu als het het ontwerp al klaar is en de modellen "stilstaan"? Kan er nog wel data aan worden toegevoegd? Kun je onderhoudsinformatie vanuit een aparte database koppelen en linken aan je model? Kun je een additionele classificatie toevoegen?

Met behulp van de datatools in Navisworks lijkt dit prima te kunnen. Ik zal hier onder een korte instructie geven van de belangrijkste stappen voor meer detail verwijs ik graag naar mijn klas voor AU2014 AB6967 Navisworks And Classification Based Model Checking die ik samen met Rob Oud heb mogen geven. In deze klas gaan we wel iets verder maar de essesntie is hetzelfde vervang A voor B.

Stap 1
Selecteer de data waar je naar toe wilt linken en vraag de selection inspector op.

Bekijk je data en voeg waar nodig extra velden toe om je data beter "leesbaar" te maken voor wanneer je er data aan gaat koppelen. Vergewis jezelf ervan dat er een unieke nummer of ander attribuut aanwezig is. Als je klaar bent klik op exporteren naar *.CSV

Stap 2
Open de *.CSV in Excel en voeg kolommen toe met data. Je kunt daar zoek functies voor gebruiken om het jezelf makkelijker te maken. Het maakt eigenlijk niet uit wat je do

et als je de extra kolommen maar op de juiste plaatsen gevuld raken. Als je klaar bent save je de file als een *.xlsx

Stap 3
Nu dat de data is verrijkt in Excel is het zaak je data naar Access te krijgen. Je kunt dit op 2 manieren doen.

1. Je importeert het gehele tabblad.
2. Je kopieert de kolommen direct uit Excel.
   Ik heb geen voorkeur, maar als je nieuw bent in Access zou ik beginnen met deze optie. 

Als je je werk goed hebt gedaan zou je tabel er zo kunnen uitzien. In de onderstaande tabel heb ik Uniclass en Omniclass toegevoegd aan mijn dataset.

Stap 4
De laatste en meest belangrijke stap zal ik wat nauwgezetter beschrijven omdat dit heel nauwkeurig luistert. 1 fout en je data wordt niet gekoppeld.

In Navisworks klik op datatools om de wizard te openen. Kies voor "New.." om een nieuwe connectie aan te maken.

1. Geef je connectie in naam
2. Kies voor Access in ODBC.
   Andere connecties zijn ook mogelijk, maar ik vond ze minder robuust.
3. Definieer de zoek variabele voor de koppeling.
4. Geef de velden op waarvan je de data wilt zien

Stap 1 en 2 zijn nog wel te volgen, maar het venijn zit hem in 3 en een beetje in 4. De zoek variabele luister zeer nauw. Een spatie teveel of te weining en je koppeling werkt niet. Gebuik altijd Notepad om je zoek variabele te definieren.

Ik zal nu uitleggen hoe deze string is opgebouwd.

Code	Doet
SELECT * from import	Selecteert alles vanuit de database tabel die "import" heet
where	waar
“field1”	De veld waarde in de database die moet worden vergeleken. Je kunt hier ook een andere naam gebruiken.
=	gelijk is
%prop(“Element ID”,Value);	properties in Navisworks voor de kolom Element ID met de waarde Value.

Wanneer je data is gekoppeld en je wilt afsluiten kun je ervoor kiezen om je data bij de file op te slaan. Mijn voorkeur heeft het niet omdat ik het graag als 2 communicerende vaten wil houden. Mocht je het toch willen proberen zorg dan dat je publish instellingen staan zoals hier onder.

Ik hoop dat je hiermee met deze informatie wat meer muziek kunt halen uit de data die je hebt.