topic Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report in Modeling

BIM Evaluation Study Report

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:57:15 GMT

Dear Talkers,

AECBytes' Lachmi Khemlani has done a BIM Evaluation Study. It was commissioned by the AIA Large Firm Round Table (LFRT) CEO Committee to provide the LFRT firms with an in-depth comparative evaluation of the main architectural BIM applications that are available. The study was conducted over a one-year period starting from June 2009 and ending in June 2010. The results are captured in a 163 page report.

ArchiCAD was one of the applications covered and the end result and conclusions were in many cases very positive for us.
Unfortunately GS or I cannot make any quotes since it is sold for a fee, but the report has very valuable information.

Anyone interested can find more info about content and purchasing at:

http://www.aecbytes.com/report/2010/BIM_Evaluation_Study.html

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Karl Ottenstein — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:03:52 GMT

Thanks for the heads-up, Laszlo.

Nice concept, but the price is ludicrous. If the roundtable 'commissioned' the report, then presumably they already paid for the work. I don't know any firms that would pay $1,500 to $4,000 for a copy of such a report, especially since it doesn't sound like has a very strong methodology behind it. Seems pretty silly.

Cheers,
Karl

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:33:30 GMT

Thanks Karl, I am not sure about the business model, but looking at the price-tag alone - should be a valuable piece of information (especially for those now in their BIM software evaluation process). Never mind, only and FYI for the readers...

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:11:09 GMT

Karl wrote:
Nice concept, but the price is ludicrous. If the roundtable 'commissioned' the report, then presumably they already paid for the work. I don't know any firms that would pay $1,500 to $4,000 for a copy of such a report, especially since it doesn't sound like has a very strong methodology behind it. Seems pretty silly.

Makes you wonder if that is not exactly the purpose for such a high price: nobody buys, so nobody knows what the study found out.

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Erika Epstein — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:27:32 GMT

Krippahl wrote:

Makes you wonder if that is not exactly the purpose for such a high price: nobody buys, so nobody knows what the study found out.

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:22:59 GMT

Krippahl wrote:
Karl wrote:
Nice concept, but the price is ludicrous. If the roundtable 'commissioned' the report, then presumably they already paid for the work. I don't know any firms that would pay $1,500 to $4,000 for a copy of such a report, especially since it doesn't sound like has a very strong methodology behind it. Seems pretty silly.
Makes you wonder if that is not exactly the purpose for such a high price: nobody buys, so nobody knows what the study found out.

I think this is just typical AIA foolishness. It is remarkable how consistently bad they are at promoting the profession and practice.

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:34:45 GMT

In general these kinds of things need a new business model
As print publishers are finding out everywhere people just don't want to pay for information when there is so much out there for free. They have a very identifiable target audience. I wouldn't mind flipping through a couple of pages of advertising if that meant that the cost would come down to zero.

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Rakela Raul — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:51:56 GMT

these studies are obsolete as soon ass a new version of the 'studied' software are out... so, after a year or so... a waste IMHO

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:58:51 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Unfortunately GS or I cannot make any quotes since it is sold for a fee, but the report has very valuable information.

Well, I guess it's questionable about what is sold for a fee....kind of an "eyes only" peek-a-boo report. Interestingly, it appears not to be an AIA benefit. Members buy it too.

I wrote to Ms. Khemlani about this topic just recently, not having read this thread here. Complimentary copies are not made available to the vendors whose software was evaluated, nor to those who would like to review the study itself.

This is suspicious. What about the "fair use" doctrine? Any work worth its salt allows quotations for scholarly and research purposes. I'm surprised that persons who purchased the report do not have the right to briefly quote from it. Maybe word won't get around, given it's stale already

If it could be shown that Federal funds were at least partially used to fund the study, perhaps it would be a different situation...

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:12:11 GMT

not 163 pages, but here is a free one to get you going: What BIM is and How it is Being Used

Re: BIM Evaluation Study Report

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:36:41 GMT

Thanks Amonle. There's also one from McGraw-Hill from a few years ago - released Jan 2009 or 2010 which we heard presented at NIBS. That report was mostly about the use of BIM (estimated ROI, e.g.) as opposed to not using BIM.

I was curious to see whether the evaluations were deeper and less "conceptual" ("academic"?) than some previous pair-wise comparisons that I've seen, and more in-depth than some of Ms. Khemlani's previous reviews, and what the AIA concludes from this study. I was curious, too, about the methodology used: what role "intuitive interface" and other slippery terms played, what metrics were used, and what criteria various testers judged to be most important in their tools of choice. Guess I'd just have to pay to see that hand...

The bad news for AIA is that the thing is worth less each passing day, until it becomes a quaint museum-quality curiosity, like a review of VisiCalc might be now.