English vs. Esperanto

[Chris D]

We recently surveyed the 8 or 9 structural engineering firms that we regularly work with, regarding their BIM position. We included a question about IFC amongst the ones about platform and future plans etc.

Of the 6 who responded, all are either using Revit Structure, or planning to switch to it in the next 24 months. A couple of them were already exchanging RVT files with other architects. More importantly, only one had ever considered using IFC and none had Navisworks, Solibri or BIMsight installed.

You know where this is going...it's clear that like DWG was, native Revit files are going to be the lingua franca, like English, while IFC will be like Esperanto...much admired but no one uses it...

[Christiaan]

Ugh, what a backward industry this is.

[Chris D]

Ugh, what a backward industry this is.

True. On a more positive note, I was asked by a contractor* if we were planning to use BIM on a new appointment we have with them and whether we would provide IFC files...first time we've been asked. They have BIMsight installed. The downside is that Tekla don't make a Mac version of BIMsight so we couldn't have got very far with our VW on Mac setup anyway.

...goes back to the Revit training CD on the Windows box in the corner...

* 'Contractor' means construction firm in the UK...not sure about the US

[M5d]

That?s interesting, after reading and viewing the slides linked in Bob's "There is no Central BIM Model" thread, I figured things may be very different in Europe and the USA because the conclusion, of the so called research, was; (Slide 28) All respondents in this experiment were strongly convinced that choosing project partners based on their competence of a specific software tool, prior to the engineering competence, is never preferred.

The conclusion in reference to IFC seemed deeply ironic, because using IFC as the criteria for engaging an engineer here, makes the task impossible.

Perhaps they should have supplemented the question with a second part; And does choosing IFC as the means of data exchange limit or expand your choice of consultants?