So yesterday was held Archidays Conference in Jihlava, CZ focused on CZ AC usergroup. Keynote speaker was Akos Pfemeter, VP of Marketing at Graphisoft, talking about new SW coming from GS, AC18 and BIMCloud solution. Later that day, CEO of Cegra, Czech archicad distributor spoked few words about first glimpse to what we may expect in terms of price of this solution. (I do not wish to discuss those details here since I am not sure if they aren't under NDA and it seems that in the end we will have to do without BIMcloud as we are small practice.)
But First thing first. Lets talk for a while what makes BIM Cloud superior to BIM Server:
Well, BIM server hosts AC file on itself and handles all its data. As far as user is concerned, He can create model as big as he wants as long as server is able to handle it (So, if you set about to make fully coordinated BIM model of 60 story building, 6 years old Mac mini is perhaps not the brightest choice of HW to run BIM server on.)
The BIM cloud is far more advanced in that prospect:
You are connecting to BIM manager and then the manager distributes the workload between infinite number of servers. The cool part her is that those servers can be in your office or in Amazon cloud and can be added on-the fly as projects demands it. Which can be really handy and cost efficient. For conception stage, you can work with that old dusty MacMini, saving on server cost and maintenance. Once file goes BIG (See what I did there?) you just add some of your grown-up servers or rent that Amazon/azure/whatever.
Now that is super thing if you are doing really big projects (Think once again something like BIG's 8 building) It does make them possible in 3D, in full construction detali and that is just awesome and I honestly think there is nothing close to it right now on market.
So where is the problem? I do not think it is price, since if it can deliver, it can surely pay for itself on one project.
The problem is far more humble: It is me:) I am a small user. I do not use teamwork. Now don't get me wrong: I want to use it. Unlike most of small 2-X people practices I can clearly see huge advantage in it and I am looking forward to using it. It is fairly easy to setup BIM server on closed office network. Once you want to access it form outside and you do not have VPN or public IP you are in for a bad luck. And since you have to pay for VPN and public IP I figured I would rather pay perhaps bit more, straight to my favorite SW vendor, especially as it would eliminate the need for owning my server. So in that regard, all I need, as a small practice is for Graphisoft to start program allowing its partners (Perhaps Bobrow group or Gegra here in CZ) to offer this kind of service (perhaps special version of BIM server license allowing them to do so)
What do you think of it?
From Archicad 8.5 all the way to the present.
Passionate Autocad hater as well.
Wish to save palets and menus individualy in work enviroments:
https://bit.ly/3pg3Bx7
