This blog is part three in a series that discusses the challenges and process involved in implementing BIM at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, a project which saw the team win the 2011 [acronym] Magazine Public Sector CAD Award. Phase 0: Standards and Process Development As discussed in the previous post, Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center senior leadership signed off on the “Big Bang” approach to converting all 6 million square feet of Medical Center space from a 2D CAD based process to an intelligent BIM managed process in November of 2010. Starting in February of 2011, we began Phase 0 of our implementation plan, which included four primary objectives: • Creation of the BIM Implementation Team • Development of BIM Standards and Revit Templates • Development of a process and workflow for model development • Preparing for Phase 1 (Big Bang Conversion) kick off

By Brian Skripac, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Director of Building Information Modeling (BIM) with DesignGroup, Columbus, Ohio This blog is part two in a series that discusses the challenges and process involved in implementing BIM at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, a project which saw the team win the 2011 [acronym] Magazine Public Sector CAD Award. Partnership & Collaboration As Joe discussed in the previous post, the Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center had already reached a decision to adopt BIM in order to get more value out of its space data and transition from AutoCAD, but he now needed to better understand how to implement it. Having decided on Revit Architecture as an important foundation to their overall BIM initiatives, the team still needed to have a much deeper understanding of the technology and more importantly how it would integrate/redefine their existing team and processes. The conversations that Joe and I began to have were driven from DesignGroup’s leadership with BIM through our early adoption of this technology in late 2005. As we’ve evolved into a 100% BIM environment, since the beginning of 2009, Joe had the assurance that we could successfully lead his team through their BIM implementation. Ultimately, the idea of partnership and collaboration became the cornerstone of our success and provided a mutually beneficial outcome for both of our organizations.

By Nancy Mann Jackson, Guest Blogger City and county governments are always looking for ways to plan, design, build and manage transportation infrastructure projects smarter, faster and more affordably. And many of them use various Autodesk solutions to make that happen. With Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Premium, local governments have access to a comprehensive civil engineering and transportation infrastructure solution as a single economical and convenient purchase. The suite includes six Autodesk software tools that give municipalities everything they need to plan, design, build and manage road and highway projects in house and on budget. Here’s how these Autodesk tools have helped solve transportation infrastructure challenges for some local governments.

Arlington National Cemetery is the first national cemetery to use an Army-designed geospatial mapping system to manage operations at its 624 acre grounds.

By Joe Porostosky, Senior Manager of Facilities Information and Technology Services at The Ohio State University The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University is reaching the end of a project to convert all of our buildings from 2D AutoCAD drawings to 3D Building Information Models. This project covers 53 buildings and slightly more than six million square feet. Over the next five blog posts, my colleague, Brian Skripac, and I will share how the project was initiated, how it was executed, and the impact it has had on the Medical Center.

By Pete Kelsey, Technical Account Manager, Autodesk, Inc. 2011 marked my 20th year working in the AEC space. In those 20 years I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked on projects great and small in the private and public sectors all over the world. One might assume my proudest moments would be related to massive projects like The Bay Bridge, The World Trade Center, etc. While I am proud that I have touched many, iconic mega-projects; whenever I am asked what is the work I am most proud of my answer is always the same. I love sharing my knowledge / experience / expertise with AEC technology with folks who in most circumstances might not ever be exposed to it.

More and more government agencies are using Autodesk software to improve communication and collaboration between agencies, gain cost effectiveness and improve the productivity of design and manufacturing projects. Here’s our lowdown of the top five ways AutoCAD is being or can be deployed by agencies to improve workflow processes and reduce cost without sacrificing the quality of work.

More and more government agencies are using Autodesk software to improve communication and collaboration between agencies, gain cost effectiveness and improve the productivity of design and manufacturing projects. Here’s our lowdown of the top five ways AutoCAD is being or can be deployed by agencies to improve workflow processes and reduce cost without sacrificing the quality of work.

Starting February 2012, students at three Alabama schools have been part of a pilot project designed to enhance child safety between home and school! Using ID cards with radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology built-in, students are scanned as they get on and off school buses. Combining the RFID data with GPS, the system transmits the student’s location data to a remote server, which allows a Huntsville school official to access it if they need to. The technology is called ZPass and was developed and by Zonar Systems. ZPass is intended to improve child safety so that parents know if their kids are on their school bus.

Virginia’s Governor, Bob McDonnell, made efforts to push “Shovel Ready” projects into high gear recently by stating: "Without an adequate transportation system, almost every aspect of our daily lives and government are negatively impacted…Therefore, we must get serious and start treating transportation like a core function of government."