shelidonMay 20, 20171 Comment on The Vote for AU2017 Classes

Well, this year Autodesk introduced the possibility for the community of reviewing Autodesk University proposal before the committee does, and submit a vote. You can do it here.
Going through them, I must say, is really interesting. You get a chance at seeing what’s more relevant for speakers. All that Dynamo, and families, implementation classes, BIM for interior design and of course lots of classes about training itself, including mine. Now the question is: will those topic be considered relevant by the audience? Are we connected? And, ultimately, will Autodesk agree with us while selecting the classes?

Since I think it’s a beautiful initiative, and I want to encourage it, below you find a personal selection of what I found to be the most interesting classes over there, mostly about Revit and BIM of course, divided by subtopic. They are not classes proposed by us (those are at the bottom of the article, in case you are wondering) and unless I mention it I do not know who is teaching them. There’s a section also about classes proposed by friends and it’s worth to check them out as well: they are cool people and always have interesting stuff to share.

1. Model Management and BIM coordination Classes

• Dr. Revit MD: Model Doctor;
• Family Myths: Debunking Common Misconceptions About Good Revit Content;
• Herding Kittens: Advanced BIM Coordination Techniques in your Construction Projects;
• Agile/Scrum Methodology Applied to a BIM Construction Coordination;
• Revit Stethoscope: a Dashboard for Collaborative BIM Management;
• I’m a Model What? (about the predicament of finding yourself to be a model manager without previous warnings);
• Code Blue, Dr. Revit! – How to Resuscitate Corrupt Revit Models (raise your hand if that never happened to you);
• Manage your Revit Model with Dynamo (by no else than John Pierson).

We also proposed a class on the topic: A Revit model management cooking class will be an evolution of what some of you already saw in Singapore at BILT asia: recipes and model management tricks to manage different models throughout different phases of design.

2. Virtual and Augmented Reality (with game engines on the side)

• Holodeck – Virtual Reality for the Construction Industry;
• Power up your Stingray projects! Create smooth Revit workflows and take advantage of your models BIM properties;
• Practical use of Virtual Reality in construction industry – When to use VR
• VR as a Building Design Tool;
• How to Wow – Extending BIM into Virtual Reality for every project
• Augmented Reality: Practical applications for real world problems
• Spice Up your Revit Live Projects with Autodesk’s Stingray Game Engine
• Spice Up your Revit Live Projects with Autodesk’s Stingray Game Engine (a demo by the one and only Marcello Sgambelluri);
• Reality’s in – AECO in the Realities Age (it was gently suggested being by Jay B Zallan but those might just be nasty rumors);

3. Developing and Implementing Standards. This might not be all that relevant to you but it’s a focus of mine at work, so I selected them as well.

• Implementing & Enforcing BIM Standards;
• Documenting Office Modelling and Documentation Standards;
• STANDARDS!!! WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING STANDARDS!!! (yeah, I get that a lot lately);

4. Classes about education itself: training, community building, and so on.

• Revit and BIM education for real life projects – practicing designers vs. academics;
• Creating an Effective Training Program;
• User Group Block Party: A way to connect worlds;
• Use of Video Games to Enhance the Educational Experience;
• Developing and Distributing Revit Training Materials

I also proposed a class about teaching, based on the techniques we developed for my recent book with Gabriele Gallo, my fellow game designer. It’s called The BIM Challenge: A Gamified Framework for learning Revit and it’s a bit of a gamble: we’ll see if our unconventional approach might also interest others.

5. Dynamo, Computational Design, Adaptive Component and Audacious Modelling

• Computational Design for the Common Man;
• Daily Dose of Dynamo + Flux to Boost Your Firm’s Productivity;
• Designing Adaptive Components for Construction with Revit
• Exciting Workflows to make your Families Stretch and Flex Like Never Before! and Flexible Families: Learn to Make your Families Stretch and Flex Like Never Before! (both by John Pierson);
• Building a Better Box: Using Dynamo to enhance and produce Revit functionality;
• Deploying Dynamo In Your Firm – With A Plan;
• Best of Bad Monkeys.

We also proposed a class on the topic: BIM for Hotels – More Revit automation for rule-based spaces. It’s a step up of what we showed you last year, if you want more.

6. Industrial and Interior Design with BIM. Also a focus of my industry, which might not be all that relevant to you, but nonetheless:

• Workflow management: from Revit to Inventor;
• Revit and Dynamo for Interior Design;
• Dynamo form-finding for Interior Designers by Bill Allen (you might remember him for his speech about the future of BIM not being BIM last year);

Of course we also have a class on the topic and some of you might have seen a glimps of it at BILT asia. It’s Revit for Interior Design – The Forgotten Discipline of BIM and it’s good fun. Probably my favourite of our current roster.

7. Landscape design with BIM. Also a focus of mine lately.

• Think Outside the Building: Practical Tips for Landscapes in Revit (plus Dynamo);
• Are We There Yet? Driving a Square Peg in a Round Hole: Revit and Landscape Design;
• Landscape Architecture Workflows in Revit for Collaboration and Documentation;
• Don’t Leave Landscape Architects Behind: BIM Workflow for Site Design

8. Cool Case Studies. We don’t do case studies and we’re not overly fond of them, but some of these looks really interesting.

• Seattle Opera: From Concept to Construction, A Case-Study in Design Computation;
• THINK BIG Infrastructure – Glen Canyon Dam Unified Intelligent Model;
• The World’s Greenest Airport
• Turning historical London Bridges into Smart Assets using Revit, Recap & COBie
• Getting High with BIM (yeah, it’s about skyscrapers: you’ve got to love the title);
• BIM in Operations and Maintenance: The iconic Paris Grande Arche case study;
• Navigating the Stratosphere: Pushing the cloud to the limits – Salt Lake City Airport and Riding the Giant – BIM Implementation at the Orlando International Airport Construction Project (not sure how many airports do we need);
• Burning Man and BIM (do you remember? I’ve been talking about the Burning Man challenge during our Dynamo workshop in Lecco. Check them out!);
• BIM implementation case studies: from Bulgari Jewelry Factory to residences in Masdar by our very own Giacomo Bergonzoni, one of the most talented BIM managers and instructors in Italy.

Giacomo Bergonzoni from Italy also proposed:

• BIM 4 LEED: how BIM process can improve your LEED design and certification (it’s going to be a Demo, don’t miss it);
• BIM user groups and BIM standards all over the world: how are they connected? (it’s… hey, what do you mean it’s a roundtable?)

Nicola Ianeselli, also proud member of our Italian BIM User Group, proposed:

• General Contractor point of view: interoperability as the key for successful project;
• General Contractors work with BIM, advantages and disadvantages, Stakeholdes (sic.) chain;
• BEP for Infrastructure Projects. How to & Hands-ON.

Giovanni Perego, a.k.a. “Gimmi GIS” proposed:

• Reality Capture for the defense of cultural and archaeological heritage. I really hope this one gets through!

Cesare Caoduro proposed:

• MEP modeling made easy with Dynamo
• A tunnel fairy tale: from a paper sketch to a full detailed construction design.

We also have a couple of more classes in the pool: if you’re curious, just ask.

From other parts of the world, you might want to check:

1. Marcello Sgambelluri, of course. Aside from his Stingray class that I excitedly look forward to hear, he proposed:

• Dynamo for Structure (Hands-on Lab)
• Share your Wits not just your Models to the entire project team (Roundtable)
• Super Cutting Edge Revit Structural Modeling Techniques (Hands-on Lab)
• Using C# to create custom nodes in Dynamo for Beginners (Instructional Demo)

2. John Pierson, aside from the three classed I mentioned above, proposed:

• Hack your Dynamo Player: implementing a user-interface;
• I shipped my nodes: how to create custom nodes in Dynamo;
• Revit goes random with Dynamo!

3. Aside from the class I already mentioned and a class I am not going to mention (a little too PNL-ish for me), his fellow Bill Allen poposed:

• Design to Documentation: Crossing the Great Model Drop Chasm;
• Form-it to Fractal (though I have some serious reservs on the tool itself, it’s always interesting to see another point ot view);
• Revit Matrix Hacks: tips and tricks that you didn’t know existed.

Look out also for Steven Shell roundtable about transition from CAD to BIM (and let me know the exact title when you have the chance).

I’ll do more digging in the next weeks, before voting closes down for good. If you have any of your favourite experts giving a class and you want to boost it with the community, just comment below.

Oh, and see you in Vegas!