Building Information Modeling (BIM) can mean different things to different people, and that makes it difficult to benchmark any BIM project against any other. Taking inspiration from lean production principles, Arup has developed a discipline agnostic tool that seeks to measure just how much a project has used BIM and how successful this has been. We call it the 'BIM Dipstick.' This session will detail why we chose to develop the tool; how it is actually used within the business; and how the data from it is used to focus our research, training, and software investment. We originally created the tool itself in our London office, but it is now in the process of being rolled out more widely as part of Arup's global BIM strategy. We would like to take this opportunity to share our experience of using it to date, both the good and the bad, and we hope to give you a version to take away for yourselves.

Saipem is a large, international turnkey contractor in the oil and gas industry. One of the main problems the firm faced was the complex communication between projects’ stakeholders and the need for harmonizing data independently by the software used. In the past years, several initiatives were implemented to overcome these limitations trying to save time and facilitate the decision-making process, but no efficient solution was found. With the Forge platform the game is changing! A “data-centered BIM (Building Information Modeling) dashboard” has been implemented to aggregate data coming from different sources (SmartPlant Foundation, Oracle, Navisworks, and so on) and present them in the model context. During this session, we will present the benefits of the implemented solution, where BIM has been introduced in traditional workflows, with particular emphasis on how the new tool helps Saipem managers, and discipline leads make quicker decisions, improving project delivery quality, while cloud technology provides access from any device.

Greater diversity in the workforce results in greater profitability and value creation, according to a 2018 McKinsey report. Organizations leading the way in diversity initiatives understand that their primary focus is the people in their workforce. Diversity and inclusion are closely aligned with what’s happening in the world around you, not just in your firm. Not investing in the inevitable transformation occurring in your organization and around you is simply not an option for companies looking to increase their competitive advantage. Join a panel of women leaders from leading industry organizations to learn what approach has worked for them, what challenges they see, and what to keep top of mind as you enter planning for the next fiscal year.

In this class you will see a demonstration of the most popular applications available from the Autodesk Exchange for 3ds Max. This includes plug-ins and content you can immediately download and start using yourself. We will show you some cool products available now on Exchange, and also discuss the growth potential of publishing your own scripts, tools, and plugins on the exchange.

Everybody seems to be talking about the gender gap at work, but nobody seems to know what to do about it. Gender diversity is a complex issue and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Most corporate diversity strategies to date have focused on supporting women through programs like mentorship and women’s leadership conferences. This approach sounds good in theory, but it places the responsibility solely on women. The truth is that women are not holding themselves back from leadership; the latest research confirms that workplace culture is preventing women from achieving equality. Things will never change unless all genders take part in finding a solution. In this interactive session, we’ll talk about how all genders can get involved, and how to use the concept of sponsorship (not mentorship) to accelerate women into leadership positions.

This class will be a quick introduction to 3ds Max software scripting, customization, plug-in development, and general hacking. We will introduce each customization aspect, including the new Max Creation Graphs software, MAXScript scripting language, Microsoft .NET API, Python programming language, and the "dark side" C++ SDK. We also will show how you can gain notoriety in the 3ds Max software customization space by publishing your application to the Autodesk Exchange Store, and we’ll discuss the various community aspects around 3ds Max software customization. Today's environment involves ingenuity and social capabilities, so why not talk about or publish your awesome 3ds Max software ideas and make a name for yourself?

Whether you’re part of a small company or a large firm with multiple offices, there’s a great deal of benefit in transitioning to the BIM 360 cloud-based platform to enable flexibility and avoid slowdowns associated with VPN. If you’ve already transitioned, the focus shifts to developing workflows and best practices to maximize the benefits of BIM 360 while maintaining consistency project to project, or even office to office. This class will apply to multiple levels of expertise, discussing how to set up BIM 360 projects, assign appropriate levels of permissions, set up teams, and schedule automatic publishing. We’ll even touch on the less commonly used BIM 360 Model Coordination module and BIM 360 Field software. Diving a little deeper, we will also discuss creating BIM 360 templates, documenting workflows, and providing trainings for wide-scale implementation. We will use Allegiant Stadium in Nevada as an example of the benefits and challenges that result from placing the design team and construction team in the same BIM 360 hub.

If you've ever wrestled to coordinate on a design project with multiple companies you know the pain of getting everyone into on system where the design can be shared, viewed, reviewed and iterated on. Join me in a demonstration on workflows and best practices as we explore BIM 360 Design Collaboration, BIM 360 document Management and Revit to show how these products work together to facilitate grand designs. Along the way we will explore tips and tricks for setup and workflow that will save time and frustration as well as explore a few technical tips for troubleshooting common issues.

Managing printing, plotting, and publishing in a multiproject and multidiscipline environment can be a daunting challenge to a CAD manager. You may go to a lot of trouble at the beginning of a project to make sure your page setups are perfect, but your users change things (yes, even if they are not supposed to). Wouldn’t it be great to ensure your setups are always correct every time someone opens a project file? In this class, you will learn an innovative method for doing just that. All you need is a little AutoLISP knowledge (available in the class), some good naming standards, and a little work up front. Newly armed with these techniques, you will no longer have to watch your users click incessantly on plot dialog controls as you make your way through your department. This session features AutoCAD. AIA Approved

Many AU attendees will have encountered, or be in the midst of, disagreements or even expensive disputes arising from BIM. Often, it gets to that stage because the contracts do not clearly set out the position on BIM or parties have (sometimes wildly) different expectations. There is no point having the perfect software system and perfect internal processes if a vague contract will lead you into an expensive, time consuming dispute anyway. We want to provide useful, practical suggestions to avoid this. Even with advanced BIM use, many contracts still contain vague obligations and undefined terms such as “The project will be delivered to BIM Level 2” or "Achieve BIM" and disputes are encountered as a result of incomplete or vague BIM documentation. The Winfield Rock Report, of which May was a co-author, set out the position in the area of legal and contractual BIM in the UK as at 2017/early 2018, and revealed the significant issues and need for progress. Things are however shifting, and May Winfield has been heavily involved in many of the recent positive upcoming developments and guidance documentation in this area within the UK. She will consider and explain the application and impact of these various upcoming guidance documents, including the legal section of the BS EN ISO19650 Guidance Framework and the JCT Practice Note on BIM, among others, and how this area is progressing.This talk is however not for UK residents only but for everyone encountering legal and contractual issues/risks in BIM (which is arguably, everyone using BIM). Applying her experience of BIM issues and documentation in Europe, UAE and the UK, May will discuss common risks to avoid, providing real life examples, and give practical tips to mitigate the remaining risks. There will also be some time for attendees to raise questions on the issues they have encountered, for a hands-on discussion on the way forward.

In this class, veteran financial advisor Kathryn Amenta—who has counseled small businesses for over 25 years—breaks apart the myths and misconceptions of running a small business. She offers best practices for managing and operating a small business, from the crucial first steps to the strategies and tactics that will make your business survive and thrive. Amenta also demonstrates what it takes to adapt and prosper through shifts in the economy and industry. Other featured topics include hiring, payroll, billing, advisory boards, business plans, specialization, partnerships, wearing multiple hats, website marketing, business location, perks and discounts, renting versus purchasing, salary, and work hours.

Inventor software is a high-end, mission-critical application that businesses depend on to generate designs and bills of materials, and produce drawings that keep the doors open and the lights on. Reliability, efficiency, and productivity are key, yet most engineers and IT support staff are uninformed and oblivious to the needs of the tool, resulting in the purchase of hardware unfit for the task. Simply throwing money at the most expensive options on that workstation configurator won't translate into more performance in 3D CAD; in fact, it can have quite the exact opposite effect. So in this class, we'll clarify exactly what Inventor needs from a workstation, and how to purchase right and smart using real-world, large-assembly manufacturing data sets for benchmark testing. We'll also clarify a few hardware myths and confusions along the way, helping you to understand exactly what to buy to power your business as efficiently as possible.

The BIM 360 Product Management Team will review the recent enhancements to the Design Collaboration module and share priorities for the product road map. Learn about how BIM 360 software can help you publish, manage, review, and approve all project drawings, documents, and models across the project lifecycle.

One of our industry’s greatest challenges is sharing timely information between preconstruction and construction teams. Translating the current communication deficiencies into an IPD project makes the challenge even greater. Dealing with different teams outside your company, their unique workflows, and varied project management tools can be overwhelming. It requires the adoption of a common data environment and established workflows between the owner and the rest of the IPD partners. Engaging with a lean BIM (Building Information Modeling) mindset, attendees will identify the key elements to make the most out of workflows for BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, and BIM 360 Build software. We will go through the project’s framework and bridge the gap of siloed data project management with BIM 360 software. We’ve streamlined the stakeholders’ communication by reducing up to 35% of response and approval times regarding issues, RFIs, submittals, and field checklists.

BIM 360 Design software for Revit cloud collaboration has fundamentally changed the way the architecture, engineering, and construction industry works on complex projects that require collaborative workflows. This class will focus on explaining the concept of BIM 360 Design, the new avatar of Collaboration for Revit. We'll demonstrate the fundamentals of using collaborative workflows using BIM 360 Design, and illustrate how multiple stakeholders can collaboratively work on a project using Revit cloud work sharing. The co-speaker—the national BIM (Building Information Modeling) manager of a large architectural firm—will explain how their company used BIM 360 Design to deliver complex projects on time and on budget using real collaboration on the firm's Revit models.

How good is the new aspect of BIM 360 software: Design Collaboration? What if you have more than 10 teams on it? How do you start the BIM aspect of a 75,000-square-meter project? As a leading BIM construction company, VINCI Construction France is always looking to improve project management processes. In this class, we’ll present how the Autodesk cloud-based software is applied on a real project: the iconic HEKLA tower, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel. We’ll introduce the 1.5-year working progress on BIM 360 Design Collaboration (six months after the official launch). We’ll go deeper to understand how we manage a big project that reaches software performance limits. We’ll also show homemade tools that we used on the project: Forge app linked to Microsoft Power BI, Revit model checker rules to improve the BIM quality of the project. To go further, we’ll show some field implementations that are linked to our BIM 360 platform.

The BIM 360 cloud-based design and construction project management platform is designed to improve performance across a project’s lifecycle. Confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customer data is vital to business operations. We know our customers’ businesses are relying on us and we take that responsibility seriously. But how?

Facial setup can be a complex task, but when it is done right, it can be done quickly with flexible results. This class explores methods for setting up faces using a blend of bones and morph targets with the goal of having production-ready controls and flexibility for animators to do their jobs. When morph targets are blended with bone systems and compound targets, the result can be very organic and produce a natural system. Building targets that blend together can be time consuming, but with a few tricks it can be fast and easy to blend compound targets.

ECOFACT is a €12 million, Horizon 2020, EU-funded project made up of 20 consortium members from several European countries aiming at developing an ECO-innovative energy factory management platform using improved dynamic LCA/LCCA toward holistic manufacturing sustainability. The platform will be deployed in four different demo sites: a biscuit factory (Gullon), a Stellantis Group automotive factory (Tofas), a Heineken Group brewery (Athenian Brewery) and a multinational household appliances factory (Arçelik). One team is leading the development of the digital twin platform (DTP), based on Autodesk Forge software and composed of production lines, 3D models, and different applications (material-flow simulations, energy simulations, production planning and scheduling, industrial energy disaggregation, and industrial energy flexibility). The DTP will display simulation results and real-time Internet of Things (IoT) data alongside the 3D models maximizing Autodesk Forge functionalities.

Over the last 5 to 7 years we have seen software and technology explode onto the scene in the construction industry. It seems as though every year there are at least 10 new products entering the market that help improve productivity. How do you evaluate these products? As a company, how do you successfully rollout new software and technologies that are changing so rapidly? This class will dive into some of the successes, pitfalls, and roadblocks that PCL Construction has encountered along the journey of new-technology implementation. The best practices learned during multiple rollouts and evaluations have become a basis for how we deliver these technologies to our employees.