We’ve just completed an exhaustive survey of our Ideate BIMLink user base and thought we’d share a few of the findings.
First and foremost, we want to extend a big thank you to all who participated. We had respondents from across the globe share information on how they use Ideate BIMLink. The winner of our drawing for the iPod Touch is Aida Staugaard of HOK in Los Angeles – Congratulations Aida and thanks for the great input!
In many respects, the survey helped us validate the value of the product features and ease of use. To whit, the respondents who:
- Found Ideate BIMLink easy to use = 87%
- Use Ideate BIMLink to manage sheet-based data 6x or more per project = 34%
- Use Ideate BIMLink to manage room-based data = 93%
- Use Ideate BIMLink to manage Furniture, Fixtures, or Equipment Families = 72%, and Doors = 83%
It’s interesting to note that the ROI for editing the sheet-based data alone was easily 20 hours per project saved x minimum of 50 projects per year. If one assumes a burdened salary of $65/hr, the annual savings for just editing sheet data would be $65,000 in the first year!
What was most interesting to us was to learn about the unique ways in which our customers use Ideate BIMLink today. Here’s a brief sampling:
- Sun Shades (Generic Models) - Pushing heat transfer and sightline data from Excel into Revit objects
- Managing Large Volumes of Custom Sheet-based Data - Several customers manage 10+ custom parameters per sheet. For a 100-sheet project, that’s 1000 pieces of data to manage for each issued set (and a lot of painful editing!)
- Restoring Lost Key Schedule Data after mistakenly deleting a Key Schedule - Ideate BIMLink was used to reconnect the Room IDs with the appropriate values for over 10 parameters x 100s of rooms in a matter of seconds, preventing hours of lost time
- Solar Panel Data - The shaded areas are being represented on the facades with Filled Regions. Ideate BIMLink is used to export the areas of all these regions for further calculations
- Hospital Equipment - Producing data-rich BIM documents for hospitals is the only way to stay competitive. Ideate BIMLink help many customers populate reams of parameter data on a variety of families
- Lighting Fixtures - A lighting manufacturer uses Ideate BIMLink to manage a catalog of light fixture data across several product lines
We appreciate everyone’s input and look forward to implementing many of your suggestions into our next release. Share your suggestions with Ideate Software.
Visit the Ideate Software website for more information on our software solutions, training, and support services.
About the Author
Glynnis Patterson, NCARB – Director of Software Development
Glynnis is a registered architect and has worked within the building information modeling (BIM) industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis is the Director of Software Development Services and continues to work with AECO clients worldwide, developing, and consulting on solutions to BIM challenges. In her spare time, Glynnis volunteers for the local high school and with growitgreenmorristown.org. Find Glynnis on LinkedIn.
