Collaboration par excellence

Example: Hasselt City Hall, Belgium — The building of the new municipal administration center in Hasselt, Belgium, demonstrates how seamless collaboration in building projects can minimize risks and save costs from the design phase all the way to commissioning.
A joint project of several brands of the Nemetschek Group.
Nemetschek brands involved: Allplan, GRAPHISOFT, Solibri

Pioneering planning and project execution with Open BIM

“The end-to-end use of BIM solutions constitutes genuine added value for all stakeholders in the building process
because it enables seamless and efficient collboration”
Steven Hendrickx, Head Architect in Hasselt

Large-scale, highly complex building projects in particular require ongoing, reliable and efficient coodination between all stakeholders – both internal and external – across disciplines and between companies. Therefore, in association with other market players, the Nemetschek Group is promoting the Open BIM data standard. This is a universal, collaborative approach to designing, constructing and operating buildings based on open standards and workflows It makes it possible for project stakeholders to collaborate, even if the type of software varies from user to user. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) interface has established itself as an open standard and is therefore of central significance.

Sharing and evaluating data throughout the entire product life cycle saves time and money and improves quality. The administration of data is key to this digital transformation, for it is only possible to take full advantage of the potential if each stakeholder can access the data that he or she needs at any given time. This begins with a realistic BIM building model, which is an essential prerequisite for a genuine 5D workflo. This model is no longer limited to just 3D construction data; it also includes data concerning the dimensions of time and costs.

Seamless collaboration exemplified by the Hasselt City Hall

Under the management of the architect team comprising Jaspers-Eyers, MASS Architects and Michel Janssen, a new municipal administration center is being built in Hasselt. The complex, consisting of a renovated building section and a new building, provides approx. 17,000 m2 for the city administration and social services as well as offices. The architects and their most important partners are using Open BIM software solutions for the entire construction process. Three Nemetschek solutions are being implemented for this project: Archicad from Graphisoft for the design and planning of the architects, Allplan Engineering for civil engineering, and the Solibri Model Checker for the BIM quality control carried out by the construction company.

From the beginning, all information concerning the building project is contained in the digital building model – from the draft to implementation – including all design details, desired materials, fire protection requirements, acoustic properties, insulation and building structures, and administration. This constitutes considerable added value for all stakeholders compared to the old standard model, which was purely 3D. Thus, this improvement ensures more than just seamless collaboration between all those involved. The complex project can be turned over to the municipality – the proud building owner – with the required quality, on time and within the specified budget.

Hasselt City Hall is groundbreaking – in terms of design, planning and project implementation.

Independent and yet consistent

Steven Hendrickx, the head architect in Hasselt, recognized four decisive factors with Open BIM over the course of the successful project:

  • Individual partners design their model with their preferred BIM software, and with their own templates. Outstanding collaboration is ensured, though, thanks to a common, uniform standard which is specified in advance.
  • The division of labor is defined at the beginning of the project. Data on statics, for instance, have an essential impact on the architecture and structural design. Data on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, on the other hand, are also important but don’t generally flow directly into the architecture. These data, for example, can be sufficiently analyzed with the BIM solution for quality assurance from Solibri.
  • Design changes in one area don’t necessarily affect the plans of all the others involved in the project. The architecture and the building stage are inherently the most closely linked.
  • The expertise of the staff, i.e., extensive holistic knowledge of the various building disciplines, is also critical for the success of the project.

Two examples of the advantage of precise planning

In Hasselt, the construction company was commissioned with excavation, among other tasks. An assessment of the amount of sand that needed to be removed was done based on a cal culation using conventional 2D planning methods, which yielded a result of 800 cubic meters. The engineers used the Solibri Model Checker based on Open BIM and the data provided by the architects and arrived at a figue that was just half this amount, i.e., 400 cubic meters of sand. This shows how exact the work with Open BIM solutions can be.

The steel struts to be installed are another example: With the interface function IFC Exports from Allplan, it was possible to use the BIM model to automatically calculate which steel struts needed fieproofing. All it took was a mouse click to obtain precise results, right down to the running meter. In projects that don’t use Open BIM solutions, these calculations are made by manually entering the data from 2D drawings in Excel or some other software and then recalculating and evaluating the data for use in quotations and planning, a process that is susceptible to error and one that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. These errors often go undetected until the actual cost planning is already completed. In the case of the Hasselt City Hall,  it was possible to avoid such errors from the outset.

Converting to Open BIM pays off

As is the case with any change, it takes a certain amount of time for companies and employees to accept BIM as the norm. The best way, according to Steven Hendrickx, is to start out by planning smaller projects using BIM. The experience thereby gained will make it possible to complete successively larger BIM projects. The advantages of collaborating through Open BIM are obvious: The entire workflow is much simpler for all project stakeholders, and building projects are completed within time and cost budgets.

CONCLUSION

Consistent standards and open interfaces in par-ticular are essential for successful building projects. Stakeholders need solutions that can “work together” for all and any individual tasks being performed. Seamless collaboration between humans and machines: This is ensured with Open BIM, and backed by the brands of the Nemetschek Group.

Reference projects on this topic:

Nemetschek subsidiary MAXON announces new Live 3D Pipeline between CINEMA 4D and Adobe After Effects

Maxon Brand News News Company News

  • First Step in recently announced strategic alliance
  • Streamlined Workflow and Improved Functionality for Motion Graphics and Visual Effects Artists

Munich/Friedrichsdorf, April 4, 2013 – MAXON, a subsidiary of Nemetschek AG (ISIN 0006452907) and leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today revealed the first step in its strategic alliance with Adobe Systems Incorporated, aimed at delivering a new level of integration between its powerful 3D application CINEMA 4D, and Adobe® After Effects®. The recently revealed next release of Adobe’s industry-leading software will include two MAXON technologies, CINEWARE and CINEMA 4D Lite, directly within the new Adobe After Effects.

The new live 3D pipeline between CINEMA 4D and After Effects, which eliminates intermediate rendering between applications, is made possible by CINEWARE, which establishes a bridge between the two applications. One of the biggest benefits to artists will be seen in a streamlined workflow, enabling them not only to import native CINEMA 4D scenes directly as assets into After Effects but also to utilize CINEMA 4D's multi-pass workflow as layers. Users will benefit from decreased rendering time because CINEWARE makes CINEMA 4D’s Advanced Rendering Engine available directly inside After Effects. With access to this functionality, rather than having to render every revision, users will now be able to work on CINEMA 4D projects within After Effects and see the changes in real-time.

“This pipeline cannot be found anywhere else to this extent, and it will completely change the workflow of artists in the future,” says Harald Egel, MAXON’s co-founder and CEO. Also included in the next version of After Effects is a taste of CINEMA 4D's powerful workflow and toolset. This limited, yet feature-rich version of CINEMA 4D gives artists access to an exceptional selection of the software’s functionality. Since CINEMA 4D Lite launches directly from within After Effects, the availability of a full 3D application is expected to have a significant impact for artists interested in or already incorporating 3D into their After Effects workflow.

“Now more than ever, our users have been asking for 3D capabilities in After Effects to enhance their motion graphics and/or visual effects projects,” says Steve Forde, senior product manager for After Effects at Adobe. “CINEMA 4D is a ‘go-to’ application for 3D motion graphics. That’s why we have chosen to work closely with MAXON to provide digital artists a fully integrated 3D pipeline that allows them to spend more time to create compelling, rich media,” he adds.

Artists and other industry professionals who have beta tested the new After Effects release, which includes CINEMA 4D Lite, have raved about the new integration. “Now, instead of waiting for a 3D render to come out of CINEMA 4D, I can drop that CINEMA 4D file into After Effects and start to composite, color correct and add all those extra things that I do in After Effects directly on top of my 3D project,” says Nick Campbell, founder of Greyscalegorilla. “The ability to have CINEMA 4D inside After Effects speeds up the whole workflow like crazy. If there's a change, I don't have to go back and re-render my 3D scene. I can go back to my CINEMA 4D file, make the changes, and it's updated right away in After Effects. I think that's huge.”

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