Vectorworks and BIM

There has been a lot of discussion on the Vectorworks tech board about Vectorworks and BIM. Some people disagree with me, but I said that the definition of BIM is not finalized. A few people said that I’m wrong, the BIM has been defined by Revit and ArchiCAD.

Maybe I should be more clear. I still think the definition of BIM is so loose, you can define BIM to suit your company. Even if we assume that the definition of BIM is as defined by Revit and ArchiCAD, the implementation of BIM can be defined to suit your office. 

Does Vectorworks suit BIM? I think it does. I also think Vectorworks needs to do a lot more than it does right now. 

It also seems clear that BIM has a relation to the design process. For example, if you use Design/Build contracts, you have definite reason to fully implement BIM. If you are using the traditional Design-Tender-Build process, you still need to create a full set of contract documents, so your BIM implementation has to be geared to that. 

I have just started to read the BIM Handbook by Chuck Eastman et al. (ISBN 0470185287) so expect to hear more about BIM and Vectorworks. 

Training in A Recession

The New Zealand government has just completed a summit to create more jobs and to get out of this recession.  There were 20 main ideas to come out of the job summit (http://www.stuff.co.nz/4862899a6479.html) and a couple of them were of interest to me:

• Keep people in education and add a training clause to government procurement contracts.
• Better matching of training to available job.
• Better support people affected by redundancy.

These ideas suggest training your way out of recession. Then I discovered this article for training your way out of recession (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article5062390.ece). 

Half the companies discovered that training staff made them more likely to stay. One-third found it increased staff motivation, and almost half actually saved money in the process.

“Organisations must focus on nurturing talent if they are to survive, grow and succeed. The continuous development and growth of people is inextricably linked to business performance.

So, there you are. Training is good for the company and good for the employee. Don’t cut your training budget as the money gets tight.