BIM on the Rocks

Master Planned Community: Parking for the Medical Campus

A few days ago, I wrote Master Planned Community: What Do You Mean By Medical Campus? where I talked about how difficult it is to communicate our early designs.

In that post, I showed an image of the hospital and some conceptual medical buildings. There was also a conspicuous lack of parking and a big beige rectangle.

As the design evolves, more detail can be added. Let’s say our zoning code normally requires 1 parking space for every 2 beds in the hospital, and 1 space for every 200 square feet of medical office. We can run those calculations and work with our structural engineer and architects to come up with a parking garage that meets those requirements. That garage is added to Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler along with any more design refinements. We’re still very conceptual, but as each aspect of the multidiscipline project matures, our model becomes more detailed.

From this level of detail we can have meaningful conversations with stakeholders. We can sit down with the design team and really understand each other’s ideas.

We can show the hospital owners what the visual impact of this type of parking garage would be, and go through some logistics scenarios. Should there be valet parking? What kind of sidewalks would serve the hospital best? Where would staff park? Could it be taken underground? What would that look like?

Another conversation that we might have is with the zoning board. We could use this model to show them what following their current parking requirements looks like. Then, we could use the model to highlight how our community has been designed to be walkable and served by a light rail and bus system. We could tell them how the hospital is offering attractive incentives for their staff to live within walking distance and to use public transportation. We could propose an exception to the staff parking requirements. Then, we could show them what a smaller parking structure looks like and quantify how much more space could remain green and pervious.

Just a few thoughts.

**For those of you that have asked for Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler tutorial videos- hold tight. I am working on editing a few right now, and there are other things in the works.

In the meantime, Lynda created a few videos for the release of Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler this summer that you should check out.

Read all of the posts in this series: http://bimontherocks.typepad.com/my_weblog/master-planned-community/

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencasts

Yesterday, I posted about the new Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis 2012 Technical Capabilities and Functionalities (pdf) document.

James Wedding recorded a series of on-demand screencasts that bring that document to life. The first screencast in the series goes through an overview of the technical capabilities of SSA.

James and I worked with Chris Maeder to make sure that these screencasts included enough information to help you understand the capabilities of the product and make a decision about how best to use the tools in your office.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Overview Screencast

Meeting Regulatory Standards with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencast presents the hydraulic and hydrology methodologies used in SSA. View this video to better understand these capabilities, learn more about the customizable reporting features in SSA, and be more confident that SSA can meet the requirements of regulatory agencies.

Rainfall Definition with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencast introduces you to the design storm definition capabilities available in SSA. Watch this presentation to learn about the rainfall designer functionality and the built-in database of site-specific rainfall data, the rainfall intensity options, and the batch analysis capability for easily comparing the results of multiple storm events.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is part of Civil 3D 2012 and Map 3D 2012. It is available as a subscription download for Civil 3D 2011 and Map 3D 2011 in select regions.

All posts on this blog tagged SSA.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Technical Capabilities and Functionalities

There is a new document available: Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis 2012 Technical Capabilities and Functionalities (pdf)

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is part of Civil 3D 2012 and Map 3D 2012. It is available as a subscription download for Civil 3D 2011 and Map 3D 2011 in select regions.

We put this document together as a quick way for you to find out information about which methodologies are supported in SSA. We get a lot of questions like “Which hydrology methods are support in SSA?”, “Which time of concentration methods are available?”, “How can I input my rainfall into the Rainfall Designer?”; “Does SSA support arch pipe?”

Find out the answers to these questions and more by downloading the document today. It is riveting reading. This brief but robust document contains lists, charts and explanations of how things work in SSA. If it doesn’t answer your question, ask it here, and I will make sure it gets covered in a future version.

Master Planned Community: What Do You Mean By Medical Campus?

The other day in my post A Master Planned Community in Three (or One Hundred?) Acts, I mentioned we are working on a Master Planned community on my team.

We had blocked off a large area in early plans as “Hospital and Medical Campus.”

The other stakeholders asked, “What does that mean?” and I answered, “You know, like a hospital and stuff.” “What kind of stuff?” “Doctors offices, labs, etc.” “But what would that look like? All I see is a big colored in area. A really big colored in area. Does the hospital take up that whole area?"

As someone involved in design, this is where the voices inside of your head start screaming things. The voices say things like:

“I don’t know, what do I look like, an architect?”

“Haven’t you ever been to a doctor’s office?”

“<audible, exaggerated sigh>. Obviously buildings and parking lots and stuff. You know, enough parking to meet code, and stormwater management and curbs. Lots of curbs.”

Then as an engineer you throw something out there that looks like this:

You pat yourself on the back and say, “There ya go! That should answer your questions!”

But they still have a look on their faces that tells you they aren’t seeing it. In the old way of doing things, we’d have to build out a lot more detail in Civil 3D, probably do some hand sketching or even bring out the hand puppets to explain our vision. More time building a detailed model means more time redoing the detailed model if they don’t like what they see.

What has really helped our team is bringing information together in a visual way with Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler. The image below is a combination of the road linework from Civil 3D (with appropriate styles applied in AIM), a Revit model of the hospital from the architect, some conceptual additional campus buildings that Arnab mocked up in AIM.

This model is by no means complete. The hospital isn’t finalized. Detailed grading is still underway. Landscaping is conceptual. There is no parking shown just yet. But even as we move slowly through the planning stage, we bring things together to see them in context. To communicate. To help our stakeholders understand what we mean without any eyerolling or pantomime. Or hand puppets.

So now I can say- “THIS is what we mean by a medical campus.”

And then I can ask a question that we never want to ask. We avoid this question like the plague. We run and hide at the thought of this question.

We can ask our stakeholders, “What do you think? What would you like to see?”

And instead of just crying inside as they answer it, we still have plenty of time to make changes because we’re still in planning.

Behind the Scenes at the LandmarkJCM Video Shoot

It seems like just yesterday that I would drive ninety minutes north of my home to Landmark Engineering a few times a week. I was working for an Autodesk partner, Cadapult, at the time. Cadapult has been serving Landmark for many years. When Landmark was ready to get started using Civil 3D back in 2005, I was lucky enough to be a part of that process.

Last week, I had a chance to visit their office once more. I remember spending hours in their conference room with Aly and Joe B hammering out CAD standards and workflows.

We started in Civil 3D 2006 and ultimately installed Civil 3D 2007 once it was available.

Panorama was small back then, and logistics were sometimes challenging. We would joke that it was like the old riddle about the Fox, the Goose and the Bag of Beans, only instead it was Panorama, a mobile lab of 10 laptops, two venti mochas and my sanity that I was shuttling up and down Route 1 across the C+D canal.

This time, instead of bringing 10 laptops and a projector, I brought a film crew and my colleague Allison to film a customer story.

Aly has always deserved to be a star.

Landmark has been using Civil 3D for six years now. They had been using Land Desktop, but as a multi office, regional firm, they were running into issues with standardization of design process and documentation. What started as a good, hard look at their CAD standards became a Civil 3D implementation. They saw that Civil 3D styles, templates and the built-in AutoCAD tools would provide a platform to meet those standardization and enforcement needs. As we dug deeper into the project and their implementation matured, the flexibility of the dynamic Civil 3D model became invaluable.

The customer story and video will be ready in a month or so, but I did want to share a few of my key takeaways from listening to their interviews.

1. Commitment is key. Landmark had vocal internal champions for the CAD standardization project and Civil 3D implementation, as well as executive buy-in. The senior designers and company vice presidents have a great relationship and trust each other’s judgment. Both sides had a commitment to seeing the project through because they believed it would be best for the company.

2. The current market conditions require flexibility. Some land development or municipal projects take years to come together. Having the power to adjust the plan, provide more alternatives within minimal budget disruption, and give the client the opportunity to evaluate which alternative is best for their business takes the consulting engineer out of the role of worker bee and into the role of trusted advisor. Questions like: What would this project look like as a mixed use? What if we did twins instead of towns? Towns instead of condo buildings? Office park instead of big box? What if we took advantage of cluster design?

3. The public is demanding more detail earlier in the process. They also want to be able to understand and consume that information as quickly as possible. What used to be low detail sketch designs at preliminary hearings has become almost a full blown design with analysis results, compelling visuals, and electronic deliverables that can be posted on the county’s website for residents to download and study. The engineer needs to find cost effective ways to provide this information.

The project I did with Landmark was one of the most important of my career. I was so excited to see them in action last week and see that maybe they found the experience as valuable as I did.

Our work inspired many blog posts over the years, here is one of my favorites:

Rethinking your Approach: Clay Model vs Stone Sculpture (August 2006)

How Do You Know What You Are Really Getting Into?

I think we have all been a part of projects that have strayed from their original scope. Sometimes, it is OK because it leads to a better project. Sometimes it seems like it will lead to a better project, but it doesn’t. It is important that when you hit a fork in the road, you take advantage of the right tools to make a proper decision. How much will this alternative cost me? Am I better off sticking with the original design? What other factors are at play? What are the real consequences of taking the design or construction a certain direction? Can I simulate the process to experience them in the office instead of the field?

This weekend, Baby Galileo and I were at home alone while the big kids were off at flux capacitor training camp.

Baby has spent more time learning calculus than fine motor skills, so there were a lot of cheerios on the floor.

I let the dogs in to eat the cheerios. My dogs are a bit old and they don’t get in the house much. In their excitement over such an impressive floor buffet, one of them distracted me with cuteness while the other wet on the carpet. So now instead of just picking up a broom to sweep up some cereal, I am pulling out the giant carpet cleaning machine. Which Baby hates. And screams when I use it. So now I am cursing and furiously scrubbing and thinking about what a big waste of time this stupid carpet is anyway, and weren’t we going to replace it with hard floors? Why haven’t we done that yet? Oh, but before I invest in hard floors, we really need to consider knocking down a few walls here and making a bigger mudroom and laundry room and a side entrance while we’re at it. It may seem cheaper and easier in the here-and-now to keep our house as is, but what are the long term impacts? And the potential maintenance and ease-of-use implications?

Original Scope of Project: Clean up Cheerios

Final Scope of Project: Demolition and Renovation

In the end, I wound up lighting a candle and spraying some Febreeze while I mocked up the house in Revit and ran a Navisworks simulation to discover the pitfalls of future cheerio maintenance. Or even the dreaded spaghetti bowl inversion.

I was having a conversation with Roberta Oldenburg of Mortenson Construction a few weeks ago about one of her projects that used Civil 3D, Revit Structure, Navisworks Manage and more to upgrade a freeway. One of the most interesting observations from our talk was the power of experiencing the design at all stages of the project from many angles. For example- how does the final configuration stack up for snow removal? And not just the final configuration, but what does the construction look like from November to March? How will drainage be handled? What seems like an easy fix may ultimately wind up costing more money and more drama.

Roberta will be talking about this project at Autodesk University 2011 in her class: 3D Modeling and 4D Simulation: Mitchell Interchange Construction/Zoo Interchange Design, SE Freeways, Wisconsin. Be sure to sign up!

Class Description Mortenson Construction, in collaboration with our client, used AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, Autodesk® Revit® Structure, and Navisworks® Manage to execute virtual design and construction (VDC) for the I-94 North-South Freeway project. This project includes updating 35 miles of I-94 from the Illinois state line through the Mitchell Interchange. The goal in using VDC was to create a 4D simulation showing the construction of three new tunnels which were viewed as high risk. The team modeled the tunnel structures, surrounding roadways, and utilities to review constructability and clash detection. Most often used in vertical construction, VDC has been successfully implemented into practical and effective use on horizontal projects. VDC encourages collaboration among the project team, and in horizontal construction, also engages nontraditional audiences such as the public, government, and maintenance professionals. This class will give a brief overview of the VDC process, tools used for VDC, and the uses and benefits of VDC in horizontal construction.

Urban Planning, Schools and the Evolution of Libraries

The PTO at Panorama’s school made the mistake of inviting me to join, so last night I went to my first meeting. She’s been going to that school for almost three years now. I’ve avoided joining the PTO because while you may not have met me, I’ve met me. And I am pretty annoying. We were ten minutes into the meeting when my friend had to stomp on my foot as I started to ask if I could see mission statement for the organization and get a copy of their strategic planning document. “We’re planning a spaghetti dinner, not a land product for Asia,” she whispered through clenched teeth.

One of the project ideas was around library improvement, and it reminded me of the master planned community I mentioned we are working on yesterday. My town already has an above average public library, but it is about a mile from the elementary school.

The whole meeting I kept thinking about what a waste it was to have a redundant resource. We talk about sustainability. We talk about switching lightbulbs and using bamboo floors, but all to often we neglect the things that would make a huge difference in the amount of waste.

When Arnab and I were trying to figure out what elements our central area should have, we knew we wanted buildings that were community based, multifunctional and walkable. They should be the kind of buildings you want to walk by on your way home from work, but equally appealing on a Sunday afternoon. We settled on things like: an elementary school, a daycare/preschool, a community center, a gym, a playground, maybe some shops and places to eat.

I often call upon my visits to see family in Ontario when picturing how someone would move through the day. My brother-in-law walks one son to daycare, walks the other one to the elementary school, grabs a double double at Tim Horton’s, then walks to work all while making a big circle. On the way home, the process repeats, but this time they might stop at the playground or the library and grab some takeout. My sister-in-law can walk or ride a bike to the light rail for her job.

So why aren’t more schools tied into the local public library? There are things we could do with the layout to keep a separation between the school access and the general public access. They could even be separate buildings, just close together. We could also adjust the library hours so that the school use was, say, only on certain days or during certain hours. The benefits of pooling resources for building cost, maintenance, computer infrastructure, etc. would far outweigh the logistical work required.

The rise of ebooks makes this even more interesting. Many libraries have even worked out systems for lending ebooks. I don’t feel libraries will become irrelevant. I agree with Seth Godin that the library is no longer a warehouse for dead books. The library is evolving into a place of shared resources. A place to work, to read, to connect, to sift through data. What does that look like? Feel like? How does that tie into my elementary school PTO? I have no idea.

Maybe I should just focus on the spaghetti dinner. Seems less messy somehow.

Right after I published this, I noticed this podcast from the AIA. Ellen Dunham-Jones teaches at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, so of course that automatically makes her awesome. Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs From the description: Her book examines more than 50 case studies across North America of "underperforming asphalt properties" that have been redesigned and redeveloped into walkable, sustainable vital centers of community—libraries, city halls, town centers, schools and more. ~dana

A Master Planned Community in Three (or One Hundred?) Acts

I really enjoy listening to This American Life. They tend to break up their show into acts. I also like reading Girl’s Gone Child. She is breaking up the story of her new twins into acts. Since it is Thursday afternoon and I am out of original ideas, I’m going to steal theirs.

If you’ve ever worked on a master planned community, (or an area structure plan, or neighborhood design report, or zoning change application) you can relate to the idea of the project happening in pieces. Maybe you start on paper or you get some paper from the planner (as I mentioned the other day.)

Then the client or the planner comes back and says that they want something more iconic. Or curvy. Or whatever.

So you get it into Map 3D and build some basemap information. Then you evolve into Civil 3D, and maybe take it out to Impression for some super early 2D sketching. It’s still rough, but you figure you are starting to get a better handle on it.

And just when you think you really know what you are doing, the architect comes to you with the concepts of the buildings, or residential products, or single family homes.

Then the environmental agency says there is no way you are getting approved for a zoning change without a stream restoration. And the transportation planner at the DOT says you need a new connection to the light rail system and a much better entrance to the arterial road.

And you have no idea what that all really means. How much room does a hospital really take up? You know the footprint, but what does that mean in 3D? How tall should the condos be? What is the implication of having lanes with parking behind vs. recessed garages?

Arnab and I have been working on a master plan as a team along with some external engineers and architects. The process has been greatly improved by using Infrastructure Modeler. I know, I work for Autodesk. I have to say that. But… really. I cannot tell you how useful it has been for communication with each other. The “Oh, I see it now!” moments of clarity happen daily. Sometimes hourly. Or minute-ly.

We’ve changed our minds completely several times when it was still early enough to change. We’ve added things, tried things, erased whole villages and tried again.

I will do my best to document the process over the next few weeks in as many acts as it takes, because it is a story worth telling. A story of starting rough and tweaking, changing, evolving. About not fretting over perfect just yet because you are busy being a hungry caterpillar in the hopes of someday becoming a butterfly. Or maybe a luna moth. That has yet to be determined.

MassDOT Requires Submittals in Civil 3D Starting 1-1-2012

I was reading one of our channel partner blogs, MicroBIM over at Microdesk, and saw the news: MassDOT will soon require Civil 3D files for project deliverables.

Rick Reid and the team at Microdesk worked with MassDOT on developing a new CAD standard to assist with the transition.

Rick posted a video version of his MassDOT CAD Standards presentation

MassDOT CAD Standard from Microdesk on Vimeo.

There is some more cool stuff coming online later this week, so we’ll revisit the roads, highways and department of transportation subject in a few days.

In the meantime, go check out the MassDOT youtube channel. Another great use of social media to keep the public informed and “tell your story”.