I think it was 1998, and the drawing office I was working in at the time was buzzing with anticipation.

Are you checking to confirm your Vault backups are occurring?

If not or you assume they are, I highly suggest you put a plan in place to confirm backups are occurring. Even if the responsibility lies with another individual or a group, simply ask them. Most time Vault backups run without incident. But there are times when it fails and no backup occurs.

In the end, no one wants to deal with lost data but it will happen at some point. So is your organization prepared?

Skanska USA recently published an insightful blog on how facility owners can make the most of BIM, but did you know that the public sector is actually leading the charge in the adoption of BIM for facilities management? Several agencies and organizations are making use of dynamic BIM models from the design/build stage and even creating post-construction models to help deliver operational and maintenance savings across the lifetime of government buildings.

Autodesk recently unveiled five new green building apps on its technology preview site Autodesk Labs. Currently in beta, these apps help building and infrastructure project teams cost-justify sustainability strategies and bring tighter integration between Building Performance Analysis (BPA) and BIM workflows for Revit and Autodesk FormIt users.

Creating better designs is only part of the promise of BIM technology. Many small and medium-size organizations are using 3D design to collaborate with general contractors and construction managers to automate production of their designs and prefabricate building components such as mechanical equipment and curved glass curtain wall systems.

Looking to refine your Autodesk software skills but can’t make it to Autodesk University this year? The good news is there are plenty of options for doing so, right from your desktop or mobile device.

Autodesk University Online

Can’t get budgetary approval to attend Autodesk University this year? Share your BIM stories and go for free!

That’s right; Autodesk wants to hear how your agency or organization is pioneering the use of building information modeling. Enter the #DestinationBIM contest for your chance to be one of the four lucky winners who’ll get a free pass to AU in Las Vegas from December 2-4, 2014.

So you know that your organization needs to move to Building Information Modeling, but how?  Perhaps you read our posts about BIM 101: An Introduction to Building Information Modeling or the BIM Pilot: Getting Started Guide, and now you are wondering how to put this knowledge into use.

The promise of field-accurate site conditions inside a 3D building information model is becoming a reality on construction sites and in early design discussions, thanks to better software import capabilities and newer, less-expensive field scanning technologies.

Last week, Autodesk added a new BIM 360 Layout app to its BIM 360 cloud service (which gives construction field workers access to project data anywhere, anytime). This new app connects BIM to the construction layout process and replaces what can be an error-prone process with laser-guided precision.