Why I Am... "Autodesk University"

 Autodesk has hosted the Autodesk University event since 1993, started with the original user conference in San Francisco to the international gathering that will continue into it's 31st year October 15-17th in San Diego, CA this year. And yes, I'm working on my proposals this year, with a new slate of topics to elevate the discussion and provide advanced sessions on Revit MEP, Autodesk Docs, digital evolution and more. You can submit your own proposals beginning April 2 at this link.

I posted about this on my Linkedin site and had an a reply from a friend of mine that I have tremendous respect for his contributions to the Autodesk community. I didn't necessarily agree with the response, and was concerned about the tone on one of my posts. 

But I'm a free speech advocate, and don't believe in censoring other's views. I understand where he's coming from, as he's great at expressing his frustration with things that shouldn't be complicated. 

Instead, I wanted to answer here - in my own forum - to explain why I disagree, and provide the reasons why.

I starting teaching at the event in 2005, after attending for a couple of years. As the event grew, I got the chance to meeting such a wide variety of people, from different backgrounds, cultures and countries. AU, as it's well known inside of the design software community, has grown into an event where thousands of people - both in person and online - come together with a common objective. 

To engage.

To learn.

To participate.

To educate.

I know others don't always agree with my personal beliefs or political leanings. But this, for me personally, has been the place where we, as a community, put all of this aside for a common objective. We are engaging and meeting others to learn about their experiences, getting to know them as individuals (and not groups) because we all have the same thing in common. We use Autodesk software to design our world, communities, workplaces and homes. 

Autodesk uses this event to help project their products and vision to the community. And like all visions, they don't always work out as we expect them too. Even the event itself has had it challenges, especially in the last few years. But the fact that they have consistently engaged the community, and worked better than most vendors to leverage that relationship to improve their products, is what separates this from other events I've attended.

There is always going to be someone that has a negative experience with Autodesk (and a lot of other software vendors). My difference is that I choose to use the opportunity to engage with the developers, product managers and other resources to help resolve these issues and improve the product. I gain nothing by trashing a product, group or company personally, as it doesn't bring anyone real satisfaction. 

But I gain everything when I make the effort to help others. I learn when I listen to others at the event when they share their experiences. I grow when I choose to train myself, even if the company isn't paying for it, or if I have to make the investment to attend myself. The impact of seeing that light go off when educating a user, and hearing that excitement when an issue they've been struggling with is given light to help resolve it, is irreplaceable.

One way I witnessed this last year was in my class where the majority of users raised their hands when I asked if they are using these tools everyday. That's big change from just a few years ago, even before Covid forced us to re-think and re-imagine our very work environment. Even AU was changed, and greater emphasis on reaching out to community beyond the event, to make the resources and content more accessible to those who could not participate in person.

Like everything in life, I'm looking forward to winding down after forty-plus years in the industry and enjoying my remaining career as much as possible. I'm almost ready to stay in the background, supporting other instructors through the mentoring program and helping with the event itself as much as I can. This is an occasion that continues to provide that chance - to meet with old friends, engage in all the craziness, learn from my colleagues, to go toe to toe with exhibitors that want to sell me the "next great thing", and then to discover that hey - that really is a great new thing. 

And take advantage of this to continue to challenge Autodesk - meet with the product managers, but also meet with others to gather support for anything you're passionate about to help improve the product and event. I'm listening...and so are others.

It's what you choose to make of it - so if you're ready to step up on that stage, and be the voice for the community, then do it. You'll never regret it.

Remember...#weareau!

The Revit Point of Views – Part 3 – The Demise and Rebirth of Digital Delivery

 I’m sorry to announce (but am going to take credit for) the demise of the sheet. It was killed in a train wreck headed to a digital project delivery meeting on the outskirts of town. Also lost in the conflagration was the CAD standard, widely known for enabling the sheet to be a pain in the butt for owners and designers in the AEC community alike, but greatly respected for keeping layers in line. While their careers were developed in good intentions, they became a financial burden on their parents, costing companies time and money figuring out how to make sure the right font is used so it can be read on a rain-soaked sheet of tree debris in the field. It did enable their offspring (the CAD managers) to create and form a career path we didn’t really know we needed but like today’s social media, fall into the trap of believing we couldn’t live without them. Some of us followed that career path like lemmings, but the Church of Holy BIM Stuff came to the rescue a few decades ago.

I had that poster hanging in my room during my formative high school years, and it still makes me laugh…but it’s still a sheet. Long lost in moves, it’s a relic of the past but still a great memory. I'm sure there are a few business owners and government agencies saying this now as they read this article.

After 36 years of dancing with architects, engineers, owners and municipal managers, I propose a life change. The drawing sheet, a long vestige of AEC design documents for more than a century, has become a drag on projects everywhere, causing project teams to spend untold amounts of time focusing on document appearance more than the quality and content of the design itself.

Why have I taken this drastic step and opinion? Because it’s time. My generation is moving on, and it’s time for the next generation to step up and own the foundation we have built to take design and construction to the next level. 

A few years ago, we had a “life-changing” moment that occurred when we replaced our IT leadership that was bound and committed to the technology and tools of the past, with new leadership that would challenge us to do more, better and take risks where we had been unwilling to do so before. Fear of change is real – while change just for the sake of change can be bad, change made to improve workflows, deliverables and overall quality of life and project are always welcome.

Christian Birch, our Senior Engineering Technology Manager, has been a great example of leadership in managing change in an AEC firm. He’s been able to maintain a good sense of IT integrity while salvaging a relationship with our business lines that had been damaged by years of silos and poor communication. In an early meeting our new IT leadership team, when discussing a content and standards management application (“DDesign” for the Gannett Fleming folks) we had been using for decades that lived in our network that was damaged in a cyberattack last year, we were challenged to use the “Five Why’s” to understand why we needed the tool. It was critical for us to look objectively at what we use and understand its role as well as when it’s time to let it go.

The exercise goes like this – in order to pass the smell test, you should be able to get through 5 “why” questions to understand the need for the tool. All of these started with question, “Why do we need DDesign?”...

My responses went like this:

Because it gives us a local storage solution for our standard content

Because it helps us work when the network is offline

Because Norb and I could push the content to a location where the guy who wrote and managed it…damn, he’s gone and left. Anybody else know how to make that tool work?

Because we can keep it…on our network…and push it across the WAN to the regional LAN servers…damn again. Malware shut the whole network down, and we don't even know where the app is...need to recover projects first...wheels continue to turn...

I never made it to 5, since one of the foundations of the argument was one of the greatest weaknesses we had – our dependency on local and wide area networks that were completely disabled in a cyberattack. While this meant the current state of the content was still available, it couldn’t be updated – and all of our project CAD standards, such as CTB, plot styles and more were also stored there.

At this point we realized that we needed to stop and take an objective look at what we were doing, and research whether there were other solutions available that could solve the problem. But the more I looked at, the more I realized that maintaining standards for every single client we have – into the hundreds – is an incredible labor drag for us and the clients as well. No one client has the exact same standards, even in the age where the AIA National CAD standard that’s been around for decades is uniformly followed and applied…sorry, choked a little on that one.

Let me clarify something for everyone – there’s a huge difference between CAD standards and Drafting standards. CAD standards address software features such as layers, levels, linetypes, fonts, sheet appearance and more. They don’t address what is be presented – like using two lines to represent the inside and outside of the wall, when the complexity of that object is light years beyond that standard. 

But the Drafting standard has been around for nearly a century, where I learned how to create the plan, section and elevation views in such a way that all users, regardless of their standard, could interpret what was placed on the sheet. Born out of the AIA’s Architectural Graphics Standards that were originally published in 1932 (see this link), the series of books explain how to create the views needed to build the structure. Over time, the newer standards for Level of Development have helped the transition from a drafting standard to a modeling standard – which is the key element that makes all of this work. Model LOD is the new lynchpin and key to true digital twin creation.

In the AEC industry, BIM tools and workflows changed all of this by forcing a true 3D representation of the entire object.  Even if it still doesn’t consider all of the studs and components used in the framing, it could be included based on the client Level of Development requirements. But the vertical aspects of the wall previously were a result of the designer’s ability to translate manually from the two lines to an elevation everything that’s going on (and keep it current as the plan changed). In BIM and the 3D modeling world, that’s gone – what you place in the model is used for all types of presentation to explain how to build that wall.

My premise boils down to a couple of simple things. The focus of our tasks has been and always will be the ability to communicate clearly to those that build and manage the structures we live in, work in, and use to provide a better quality of life to all. It’s what should be done to create them in a safe, affordable way, with resiliency and quality. With that being said, the evolution of design authoring tools, such as Revit, Civil 3D, Inventor, OpenRoads, Infraworks, ArchiCAD, and so many more software products we use are taking us further away from the need for a sheet or CAD standard to provide clear and organized documentation…beyond an archaic contract obligation that rests its dependency on paper deliverables…or for pretty linework and text that everyone can read…

The next time you work on a project, put a number on the amount of time you spend adding and organizing sheets, and applying common standards to meet the annotation and appearance requirements of a project. Substitute that number with time spent developing and improving the content used in the model to more clearly indicate design intent and reduce errors, rework and changes on project. Use it to develop more design options and alternatives that could result in a more efficient structure.

So, it’s time to put into place our "5 why’s" on the sheets and the standards. Do this exercise back at your office or with your colleagues and see what you come up with – I’m really curious to hear how it goes on your end. Here are the questions you need to start with, and we’ll review the answers in the next article.

What role does the sheet play in the design process when the outcome is a digital twin?

Why do you need to use sheets on a design project?

What role does the CAD standard play in the design process in the production of 3D modeling-based documentation?

Why is the CAD standard an essential part of the design process?

I challenge every single design firm, contractor and owner to ask themselves these questions. At one point do you walk away from “we’ve always done it this way” and look at new workflows, methods and tools to accomplish the same goal. The cost of not doing it is high – lost time, wasted money and lost opportunity are bits of it. Stagnation and regret are what lets your competition win and you lose every time. But the lost opportunity is the greatest cost of all…so how do you take all of the great progress we have made in technology over my generation, and take it to the next level?

Start here.

Eyes Forward…The Role of Learners in a Technology Driven Society

I recently wrote an article for AUGIWorld (https://www.augi.com/augiworld/issue/december-2019), that I hadn’t really put a lot of planning to but instead tried to speak from the heart, and from what I’ve learned in the 59 years I’ve been here. The response has been overwhelming, and I’m humbled by all the attention and feedback. I didn’t realize what a nerve it would touch, and how many people from different aspects of the design industry would even be intrigued enough to read it. It’s interesting how different emotions drive what and how we do the things we do, and what spurs imagination and thought.

As I returned to work on this follow up, I’m struck by how quickly our perspectives can change. We are currently in the midst of a societal upheaval, with uneasiness and fear striking out from a virus that we know little about. Playing the “what if” game drives everyone crazy, and if you own a business or manage one, you’re having to make a lot of tough decisions.

And in the midst of all of this, narrow eyes can’t see the learning experience we are all waist deep in…how we work, where we work and the benefits to so many things that can be had, if we simply look beyond these fears. I can’t express enough how happy I am to be working for Gannett Fleming – the response we’ve had from our IT services group, and the support from everyone on the board of directors down to the core staff that makes our firm go, has been amazing.

We’ve pulled off something I never thought would happen – take thousands of workers, and shift them to a remote access, work from home business model, where we can continue to do what we need to and serve our clients. I’ll admit – I was nervous, and so were a lot of us that are responsible for making this happen. But I also have strong faith, that guides us and provides the direction and vision we need. It’s amazing what we were able to pull off – but it was the team approach and commitment that made it work, with minimal issues.

Back to the original article - there were a couple of responses that questioned the premise of the article, and a couple more that pointed out phrases that struck home. All were great points, but one response made me think about the one paragraph that no one said anything about – the personal responsibility of your own growth. As we now sit in our homes, and learn new ways to work, you’re gaining a little time – time not spent commuting, traveling or getting to wherever you think you need to be. You’ve been given this gift of time, so how do you best spend it?

The role of college education in a technical society

With our eyes forward, it’s time for a little prognostication. As I sit here and review what our users need to learn in order to help us adapt to this type of change, it’s time to start being honest with ourselves. Based on my own personal experience (and yea, this is my own opinion – I expect everyone’s experience to be different), I’ve gotten far more use of my technical degree than the 5 years I spent wandering through the colleges. This is not a criticism of the schools, but more of my own responsibility.

We need to be realistic that even with all of the critical items an engineer, architect or scientist needs to know, not everyone needs to be in that role. We’re all in a desperate search for that unicorn, as it’s so often referred when searching for that BIM designer, or design technologists that can effectively use today’s tools. We need that design-oriented individual that can create custom structural shapes, form new types of wall assemblies, define the target and source relationship between engineering systems and coordinate the myriad of infrastructure that lies below the dirt. That can do it with a minimal amount of supervision, but with the faith and trust needed to let them get the job done. They’re the ones that can pull the miracle out on a project and get it out the door on time, under budget and with a happy client. Face it – our issues with getting more people into STEM fields are not so much getting younger individuals into the four-year college programs but become the technology experts that can still assemble the building, the structure and the site.

So what does this have to do with the typical four year school? It’s easy – incorporate what we’ve been doing as part of the two-year associate type degree program as the core for the advanced career fields. We get far too many architects and engineers that don’t have the technical capabilities of today’s design platforms. While some colleges are adding BIM, PIM and horizontal design to their curriculum, it’s not nearly enough. This has led to a shortage of technically capable designers that can get 3D models, systems and more assembled in the most efficient way possible.

We’ve also tuned our path for architects and engineers to move almost exclusively towards higher management type positions, such as the project manager, project principal and general business manager. Where is the technical career path that leads this generation towards the deeper thought process needed for simulation, creativity and expression through the tools we continue to improve? Generative design ought to scare the he-double hockey sticks out of every old school professional. The fact that design automation, which can eliminate the redundant CAD and document tasks that continue to control our budgets and schedule, can create its own concepts of how a wheel, chair or building to be designed, should be enough for the design world to stop. We need to start evaluating and altering both technical and professional college programs to move us to lead concepts like generative design and AI – to shape it and make it so we can create the changes to our world that we need.

Make your OWN path

With all of this being said, there’s only one person who can make the choice about the direction for your life and career. In order to break free of the traditional roles and constraints we place on ourselves in the STEM fields as well as our professions, we need to be able to make an honest assessment about our own career paths. But it’s a choice that we as individuals must make. You must be able to challenge yourself…

One great pointy-eared science officer once asked…“Is this all I am? Is there nothing more?”

This past year, as part of my new role, I’m taking the responsibility of redefining our technical training curriculum and programs. The logic I’m using is simple…where do you want to go? We are obligated to maintain our skills in the roles we take. For example, the architect still has to be the great aggregator, pulling all of the different pieces of the built environment into a cohesive structure. We have the job requirements clearly defined…the classes created…the expectations and goals needed to fulfill the job’s obligations clearly enumerated.

The hard part is getting outside of the role and looking at the right kind of “what if” scenario. Not a negative consequence, but a personal growth, desire or ambition. Let’s say I give you the opportunity to define the role in your own image. What would you do different? What do you need in order to be able to make this kind of a change?

OWN can become a simple acronym…opportunity, wants, needs.

How do you take advantage of the opportunity to define your own path?

How do you clarify what you want to accomplish?

What will be needed to make it to this goal?

By taking some of the gift of time we’re being given to do a little self-assessment, you’d be surprised what you may come up with. With the help of our online training providers at Eagle Point, I’m setting up OWN Learning paths, that each employee in the company can fill out. We’re going to provide them access to all of the training materials we have in our system. No limits. No restrictions. But a chance for them to challenge themselves; document it; and pursue it. The system can hold them accountable for reaching this goal – but it’s still up to them to take the steps. The employee has to be willing to make the commitment to themselves and make an investment of their own time.

The Rule and Conclusion of a Happy Business Life

Knowing the difference between the company’s obligation and your own personal responsibility…that’s a tough one for us to take. If you listen to today’s politicians, which in most cases can’t even be honest with themselves and much less us, one side would have you believe that a “corporation” is nothing but pure evil. But the other side knows that corporations are people. And in some cases, allows them to take advantage of their staff, driving them towards unrealistic conditions that make it impossible to have a satisfying career.

So where does training and career development fit in? Where’s that fine line, the tune that strikes the right note, the right pitch, and makes everyone go…ahhh?

It’s a trade off. It always has been.

So here’s some comments that as an employee, you should never make.

“I’m entitled to free training.”

“If I’m not getting paid for it, I’m not going to training.”

“It’s not my responsibility to learn how to do that.”

“I don’t have time.”

“My clients don’t want it, so I’m not going to do it.”

And my personal favorite…”I’ve always done it this way, and don’t see a need to change it.”

At the same time, the employer can’t carry these rationalizations forward:

“There’s no money in the budget for training.”

“Learn on your own time.”

“I expect you to do this, and I don’t care how you figure it out – just get it done.”

“You should already know how to do this.”

“My way or the highway.”

And of course, my personal favorite…”We’ve always done it this way, and don’t see a need to change it.”

Here’s the big takeaway – in order for a business to have a successful relationship with their employees, it has to be sold and delivered as a partnership. Training, learning, education…should all be part of the employment experience. Great managers know that their role has always been one of service – so from the business standpoint, we have an obligation – and the employee does NOT have a right – to train. I always loved the quote that it’s better to train someone and have them leave, than not train them and have them stay. The greatest way to cripple a business is to become a static point in time, where they no longer see the need or benefit for improving and changing what they do. Ask anyone who still has a boom box or eight track player if they’ve reached the pinnacle of life…if you can still find them.

But at the same time, the employee needs to approach the business as an owner. You have to take the responsibility of owning your skill set.

Of not settling for the static point in time.

Of challenging yourself.

Of taking your own time to learn.

It’s tough to do. Life is busy. It takes. It also gives back what you invest in it.

We blind ourselves to what others need because it’s easy. We cripple ourselves, because we allow others to dictate to us what we’re capable of. But this biggest shame is when we don’t try. When you get to a point in your career when you think you learned all you can, you let yourself down.

But with your eyes forward, the objective is to get past previous mistakes, missed opportunities and failures, where you can stop looking at what’s holding you back, and get to where we all want to be.

I’ve been in it myself now for approaching four decades. And with all that life is throwing at us, the last thing we need to be doing is giving up on ourselves and our potential for what you – and we – can be. I’m not quitting on being a learner…are you?

Welcome to the New World…

It’s been way too long…but nowadays it’s tough to really find time to sit down and put thoughts to paper. Work/life items have their own balance that take precedence, and it’s easy to let time slip you by. But it’s been a journey I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

Ironic as it is, I just received my first promotion based on performance in the engineering world. Most of the time, it was a case of just taking on more responsibility or changing jobs to get ahead. That’s the nature of the technical world, which unfortunately means the design world never has really figured out how to retain and keep good people. But this time around, I was sticking around for a lot of good reasons – not as much financial as wanting to see things through. It was one of the reasons why I left the reseller channel, which is even worse at recognizing and rewarding talent. Getting to see a project completed and in use is still a real kick to me – good or bad, no matter what happens, it’s one of the best things to be able to say, I had a hand in making that happen.

So, my new role is Engineering Technology Manager – and we’re still really working out what that means, but in this role,  we’re making two important changes. First was the practice of embedding technical representation on our business line practice leadership teams, and second was to regionalize these positions to help us focus on the needs of the area, rather than spending a lot of time crossing the country. We’ll still be doing everything we did before, but the focus really helps, as we can now more specifically target the technical needs of the people that do amazing work for us. The tools, as they are, should not hamstring the teams, or at best help them radically change their workflows so we can get back to the right work/life balance. It gets frustrating to watch team members working substantial overtime, or never be able to leave for vacation without taking the apron strings off.

Left to Right: Richard Binning, Eric Blackburn and Mike Massey at Guardsman Pass, UT

Over the past week, I’ve gotten to spend some amazing time with BIM managers and directors from across the country to help define what it means to be a BIM manager…or whatever the role name is, but a leader for technological change. It was really fascinating to hear all of the different ideas from people who have had this role for some time, and to really try to understand how to quantify this position. As an industry, we’ve really had a backwards view of the impact of technology. It’s akin to giving someone a hammer, who then promptly uses the handle to pound in the nail – and then have them refuse to see why what they’re doing isn’t what that part of the tool is designed for.

Throw in a nail gun – but it’s useless if you don’t understand all of the coincidental parts to make it work. Without a compressor, or a hose long enough so you’re not moving it around all day, and don’t forget the electricity, nails, and Band-Aids for when you miss). I’ve been doing some carpentry work in the house trying to get it ready to sell, so we can move to the coast and get more out of the life we seem to be stuck in today. That nail gun is a hell of a lot better hammer that my old one, and I’m getting more done with than I ever did by muscling it the old way.

This is where BIM technology is today – and the rate of adoption and adaption is accelerating at a higher rate than even just a couple of decades ago. Reviewing a project on my phone seemed like a pipe dream when CAD came out, but now a millennial expects you to provide the phone, the software and the latte’s to help them work faster in fewer hours per day.

So, my first steps are going to be step back and take inventory of what we have and do – and figure out where the gaps are. Who’s still on AutoCAD 14…who’s using their phone to do a three-way Skype call and share a project on the phone so I can help them figure out what’s happening with design options. Who’s told their users that you don’t have time for training…and who’s taking the software and laptop home at night so they can get better at their job. Too often, we spend way too much time bemoaning between the haves and have nots, and not enough time figuring out how to lift all up, instead of tearing some down. I’m a firm believer in the former – that you don’t get anywhere by taking things away from people, but instead putting the time and tools into those that don’t so they can get ahead. The only ones I’m less likely to help are the ones that won’t instead of the ones who can’t for whatever the reason.

One of the big takeaways I had from the meeting last week was in regard to identify roles and responsibilities for a typical BIM Manager. As we mind-mapped the daylights out of the tasks, we (led by my buddy Mike Massey who deserves the credit for this) came up with four key categories that address these tasks, that all add up to PIE2:

• Planning and Research – this category relates to the preparation a BIM manager needs to be doing to help move and keep a company in the right mindset for BIM workflows:
• Implementation – setting up all of the background tools, tasks, documentation, standards and more that sits behind what BIM applications and workflows need;
• Education – stepping back and looking at technical training from a different light, and being able to take the best of what we’ve learned about education delivery methods and integrating them into today’s technology to provide a better learning experience;
• Execution – no, we’re not shooting people, but we are shooting for PAC – better productivity, more accuracy and improved coordination. The BIM manager has to understand how to execute everything in the previous categories and apply to the new project world. How to run more efficiently from go/no-go, project execution plans, design phases and post design tasks in all disciplines, a variety of project types and with a wide variety of user abilities and tools…a witches brew indeed.

So, taking a step back and looking at the big picture – what does it take to make a good BIM Manager? Patience? Virtue? Irreproachable technical expertise? An affinity for the keyboard and mouse that can’t be explained? A certain level of insanity for taking all of this on?

As I’m staring down the R word in my somewhat near future, I’m really appreciating the confidence from my leaders to challenge me more and take on this role to help solve these issues. There’s going to be days when I want to pull all eight hairs left on my head out, and others when I’ll feel like a proud dad when I see the lightbulb go on for someone who’s struggled. Wouldn’t you?