#40 The Future of BIM is Bright (with Woody Dickinson)

Why should installers care about BIM (building information models)?  Could BIM help you avoid working around other trades in a crowded chase?  What efficiency gains are there with prefabrication? Can the files detect errors, before the product is even purchased? What is a digital twin?

In this episode, the guys are talking to Woody Dickinson.  Woody knows Caleffi's technical details like the back of his hand.  With BIM, he is able to take a career's worth of engineering knowledge and integrate it into three-dimensional construction files.  While BIM is often only used to make sure everything will fit into a room, there is so much more.  Hear how this technology is solving problems on drafting tables and in actual mechanical rooms.   

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Transcript

0:05
welcome to ask a leafy the podcast that
0:08
dives into real life problems at
0:10
Plumbing an HVAC technicians face in the
0:13
field we're your hosts from the caleffi
0:15
tech support team I'm Greg Tubbs and I'm
0:17
Dan furkus welcome we look forward to
0:20
sharing some stories from our Tech calls
0:22
and using our background and expertise
0:24
to make your days a little easier
0:28
thank you hey there welcome back to the
0:31
ask leafy podcast we're coming at you
0:34
live from my basement not kidding no
0:37
you're not oh yeah we had a little uh
0:41
building remodel we'll just say going on
0:43
and the podcast has now been moved to my
0:47
basement while we work remote so
0:50
if there's any auto audio qualities we
0:52
apologize up front but I think you
0:54
should sound pretty crispy clear yeah I
0:56
think so I think we'll do all right
0:57
welcome back everybody
0:59
so today our guest is
1:03
our esteemed colleague Woody Dickinson
1:10
how we doing Woody doing really well
1:12
doing really well yeah Woody's The Man
1:15
Behind the Scenes that yo it creates and
1:18
puts together all the tech brochures and
1:20
installation instructions that you guys
1:22
see out in the field and the engineers
1:24
work off when they're specifying our
1:26
equipment yeah so you also have another
1:30
big big hand in our in a project here
1:33
Woody and that's our Bim software that's
1:35
correct Bim is a big part of of where
1:38
we're going these days and we'll we'll
1:40
explore that today yeah yeah it'll be uh
1:43
be a good topic because it's something
1:44
that's becoming more and more prevalent
1:46
when you get phone calls in uh from
1:49
Engineers or even in some cases
1:52
contractors that are using Bim and
1:54
looking for you know a file or just
1:57
wanting to know more about it so and
2:00
immediately we'll probably learn a lot
2:01
today as well absolutely for this so am
2:04
I too
2:06
so what exactly is Bim Bim is a is in
2:10
short building information modeling and
2:13
it's an intelligent 3D modeling based
2:16
process it gives architecture
2:19
engineering and construction
2:20
professionals the insight and the tools
2:23
where they can efficiently plan design
2:26
construct and manage buildings
2:28
it's also a foundation of the what's
2:30
going on now a long underway a big time
2:33
in the aec industry it's a digital
2:35
transformation underway for several
2:38
several years now
2:40
okay it's just something that that they
2:43
use on kind of in the planning stages of
2:46
a project exactly Bim is a process for
2:49
creating and managing information on a
2:51
construction project throughout its
2:53
whole life cycle as part of this process
2:55
the coordinated digital description of
2:58
every aspect of the building is
2:59
developed
3:01
oh that's interesting yeah so it's it's
3:03
actually a process supported by a lot of
3:05
different various tools Technologies and
3:08
the contracts involved involving the
3:10
generation and management of digital
3:12
representations of physical and
3:14
functional characteristics of buildings
3:17
it's it's kind of cool actually it's
3:19
kind of space age if you want to call it
3:20
that but uh building information models
3:23
are computer files which can be
3:25
extracted exchanged and or networked to
3:28
support decision making and by
3:30
individuals and businesses they they'll
3:32
use the the Bim software such as the
3:34
well-recognized Autodesk Revit to plan
3:37
design construct operate and even
3:39
maintain buildings okay are they able to
3:42
bring together you know different
3:44
Mechanicals through the Bim process yes
3:47
yes yes yes yes yes as we'll talk about
3:50
later uh possibly is that yes this is a
3:54
a common platform for peop for various
3:57
trades and uh rules in the building
4:01
process to kind of Center on and discuss
4:04
and and um design the building sure so
4:08
everybody from the HVAC installation
4:11
crew to electricians plumbers everybody
4:14
can get in this and use it
4:17
exactly okay so if I'm a contractor uh
4:21
you know looking at it from a contractor
4:23
perspective you know why is this
4:24
important to me well contractors they're
4:27
they're using Bim more and more I'm
4:29
learning that all the time here as Greg
4:32
had mentioned even they're getting
4:33
you're getting calls from contractors uh
4:36
Earth would dim sort of questions uh
4:38
they use Revit models to coordinate the
4:40
on-site trades that detect clashes
4:43
that's a big part of it which I'll
4:45
explain real quickly that's to make sure
4:47
that you don't have stuff bumping into
4:48
each other when you're installing pipe
4:50
and so forth um and they sequence phases
4:53
they improve office to field efficiency
4:56
quality assurance and quality control
4:59
um the contractor either receives
5:00
directly from the architect or the
5:02
engineer the project information that
5:04
includes the three-dimensional bin
5:06
drawings and then they need they need
5:08
that they the contractors they need the
5:10
software to reuse it
5:12
so people you know everybody needs to
5:15
know about how to use the software
5:18
um in order to communicate and use it
5:20
and read it and use it
5:22
well the contractor operates sometimes
5:24
contractors do operate in a design build
5:27
mode of course and they will have inside
5:29
staff that that's sufficiently trained
5:31
on this to develop their own 3D drawings
5:33
as the building owners are now demanding
5:36
Bim drawings for continuous use
5:38
you know I'll I'll digress a little bit
5:41
here and you're starting to see in the
5:42
media a little bit about digital twins
5:44
so what this is is that you got a
5:46
building and then you've got a twin to
5:48
the building which is the electronic
5:50
model and so they're able to
5:53
um assess things and and and just manage
5:56
the building by having an exact twin of
5:58
it and put in electronic form so what
6:01
you're saying is things have really come
6:02
a long way from the old paper print and
6:04
just uh looking at it and going yeah we
6:06
got to put it in here somewhere
6:08
exactly it almost seems to me like yo I
6:12
mean Greg and I both come out of the
6:13
contractor world and you'll want
6:15
mechanical room is ever big enough never
6:17
they're never ever big enough so it
6:19
almost seems like from a planning aspect
6:21
you could go in and take a mechanical
6:23
room and lay out your your mechanics and
6:26
your piping and your your system layouts
6:29
just to ensure that you're going to
6:31
actually have enough room on site to get
6:33
that done
6:34
I've even got a real life story for you
6:37
um some of some of these contractors
6:39
they're actually building developing
6:41
building modules such as a boiler room
6:44
like you said off-site in a controlled
6:46
environment using Revit so and then they
6:49
basically build this build it they set
6:52
it on a truck and they truck it to the
6:54
site and with with booms and whatever
6:55
they drop it in they place it into place
6:57
in the building
6:59
um a great we have a great example of
7:01
this and they won't mind me mentioning
7:03
them but Bob Harvey Contracting in
7:04
Bozeman Montana does this yeah and they
7:06
have an offshoot firm called Ally Bim
7:09
that that does this work for them so
7:11
we've been involved with them uh to do
7:13
that in fact some of our video we've got
7:15
some video
7:16
um
7:18
a feed that we're we're utilizing in
7:21
various media to show an example of a
7:25
finished room versus what it looked like
7:26
in Revit well you talk about efficiency
7:29
if you can lay that out and build that
7:31
in a controlled environment where your
7:33
guys aren't driving to job sites and
7:36
carrying their Tools in and out every
7:37
day and looking for materials and having
7:40
materials lost on site you can build it
7:42
almost in a a shop or controlled
7:45
environment controlled environment yeah
7:46
and haul it to the site I mean you've
7:49
probably take a lot of wasted time out
7:52
of the project and you know from getting
7:55
materials there versus pulling them from
7:57
bins in your in your shop to time
8:01
hauling Tools in and out of the project
8:02
where you can set up and build and then
8:05
just take the the material out right
8:08
right see the contractors use that Revit
8:10
just like you said to speed up the
8:12
construction process and detect errors
8:13
even at the early stages so they they
8:16
need that three-dimensional Vision in
8:18
order to test the structure so it's uh
8:20
it's it's a phenomenal
8:23
space aged way to to do your buildings
8:26
yeah I could see where you know when you
8:29
look at scheduling as well you know
8:31
having the ability to build that and
8:33
Warehouse it and take it on site when
8:35
it's needed versus trying to to build it
8:38
on site when the room is ready for you I
8:42
mean you can't you kind of have the the
8:43
system done and built before the
8:45
mechanical room could even be built
8:48
exactly let's uh let's talk about the
8:51
software required like we'll get phone
8:53
calls into tech support they want to
8:55
find a a Revit file or a Bim file and we
8:59
go and look at and they they just ask us
9:02
hey can you open it and just look it and
9:03
and tell me what this is
9:06
I can't do that because I don't have
9:08
that software what can you tell us about
9:10
the type of software that's required for
9:12
this well Bim and Revit are really kind
9:15
of almost the same thing but not okay
9:17
Bim software is three-dimensional design
9:20
and modeling software that can help
9:22
optimize the work of Designing for
9:24
architecture construction Mechanical
9:26
plumbing and electrical projects that's
9:28
in short MEP it does this by helping
9:32
make better design decisions and improve
9:34
building performance but the big name
9:36
the big name in the industry for the
9:38
actual software which is see Bim think
9:41
of this Bim is a big thing a lot of
9:43
different things as I've mentioned
9:44
before but then inside of Bim in order
9:47
to operate with Bim you have to have it
9:49
like a branded software like Microsoft
9:51
Excel or word or whatever well the
9:54
specific there's several different
9:55
brands of of it but the big name is
9:58
Autodesk Revit there they are by far the
10:00
industry leader
10:02
they are the uh the Revit is a Bim
10:05
software widely used uh to create
10:07
unified models that are all disciplines
10:10
And Trades can use to complete their
10:11
work Autodesk Revit was created to
10:13
support Bim okay so Revit hosts the
10:17
information that forms the model from
10:19
which drawings documents and
10:20
specifications are derived in short this
10:23
software shows the building in 3D and
10:26
all the content such as collective
10:28
Valves and separators and that are also
10:30
shown in 3D and carry inside of their
10:33
models parametric information which is
10:36
much more than you see in regular CAD
10:38
environments so it's intelligent so when
10:41
you put a valve in there like it's
10:43
only like a caleffi Z1 zone valve you put
10:46
it in in there well they it contains
10:49
information about that product inside of
10:53
that that file that that software so
10:56
that it can be referred to or whatever
10:58
or that information is actually utilized
11:00
in
11:02
some of the more sophisticated designs
11:04
are actually you know simulating flow
11:07
through the building and so there's
11:09
Delta P information and and flow rate
11:11
information inside these so that they
11:13
can actually simulate the flows in the
11:15
building so that's contained within the
11:17
file
11:18
so so once you have the software
11:22
um where do you go to get these files or
11:24
the drawings or information
11:27
well the most trusted Source we were
11:30
told is the Building Product
11:31
manufacturers bpms like us so they're
11:34
our website
11:35
so yeah our website is is where you can
11:38
go get caleffi um also most designers
11:41
have also found you know fairly
11:43
reputable web hosting sites to be a good
11:45
source usually with ways to organize and
11:47
filter for efficient quick sourcing of
11:49
what they need
11:51
um and among those several sites that
11:52
host uh content are we'll we'll mention
11:55
them North American modelers use Bim
11:57
Smith as one our cat's another big one
12:00
and and the sites where caleffi can be
12:03
found is not only on our
12:05
website okay where you can click inside
12:09
each web page product webpage and find
12:11
and get to a Bim model caleffi can be
12:13
found on Bim object.com and in MEP
12:17
content.com
12:18
so you know it's kind of like Walmart
12:21
Target you know that kind of thing it's
12:23
like okay well there's a number of
12:24
shells out there that people like to go
12:26
find find their Pro their products and
12:28
have reasons that they like them or
12:30
whatever so we're trying to be where
12:32
they are so that they can get access to
12:35
our product okay so even if they don't
12:37
if they're not familiar with our site or
12:39
where to get it on our site it's still
12:41
available through other hosting Services
12:43
exactly
12:45
um but just interestingly enough caleffi 
12:48
launched in February this year a
12:50
dedicated Bim site it's bim.coleffy.com
12:54
and our if you go to our website
12:57
clefti.com inside of one of the web
12:59
pages and you click on the Bim icon it
13:01
takes you to that so we have a
13:03
centralized
13:05
site that can be either accessed via
13:07
collective.com or directly straight to
13:09
it you can put that in your your
13:11
favorites or something and uh but this
13:13
new host side includes access to all
13:15
North American product Revit files and
13:17
schemes or systems we're developing
13:20
systems now with a very powerful search
13:23
bar and you get to that site from every
13:25
product web page like I said in The
13:27
Classy website or by going direct to it
13:29
so make a bookmark in your browser to
13:31
make it easy and quick to access the
13:32
entire Collette Library there you can
13:34
find over 90 up-to-date North American
13:36
Revit family files yes 90. if we just
13:41
about got the catalog covered as far as
13:44
every product in the catalog for almost
13:47
every one of them has has a Revit family
13:54
and now we currently have five North
13:56
American schemes or subsystem Revit
13:58
project files are called tour hydronic
14:01
and three are Plumbing
14:03
um these offer a quick way to get
14:05
started and include generic equipment
14:07
models along with an appropriate array
14:09
of Collette models
14:11
so these schemes they include like all
14:14
shut off valves all of our products and
14:16
maybe others
14:18
yes yes other appropriate ones yeah so
14:21
like for instance uh the uh the
14:24
commercial plumbing scheme it's got a
14:25
water heater in it you know generic
14:27
water heater it's got sinks it's got
14:31
um you know shower heads and and the
14:33
piping and the various uh caleffi products
14:36
that that are utilized in there and it's
14:38
also got you know generic shut off
14:40
Valves and and other other uh useful
14:42
items in there and and and you in a
14:45
experienced user is going to see that
14:47
well he can certainly Place additional
14:49
things in there but it's a good starting
14:51
point or a template for him to maybe
14:53
have this stuff already collected into
14:55
one site and all these items would be
14:57
collected into a browser that they have
14:59
there and then they can basically
15:00
duplicate them put them in different
15:03
places or they can add to them or or
15:05
whatever so an experienced user would
15:07
know how to how to start from there sure
15:09
this program sounds pretty neat and
15:12
pretty interesting how difficult is it
15:14
to use
15:16
well
15:18
that's a good question it all depends on
15:19
your level of skill in using the Bim
15:21
software you know caleffiis continually
15:23
working on developing updating and
15:25
improving essential tools for the
15:26
engineer to design and specify those
15:28
commercial MEP system
15:31
um this starts of course with how to
15:32
find a Bim content as I just mentioned
15:34
with a variety of websites where you can
15:36
find the content
15:37
I'd have to say that most of our
15:39
industry Partners offering all varieties
15:41
of HVAC equipment boilers water heaters
15:44
radiators they all provide Bim content
15:46
on their websites and in the various
15:48
health sites as well so finding content
15:50
today should be rather easy for most
15:52
designers in fact
15:54
personal personal aside here I recently
15:57
built several sample Revit project
15:59
systems and I found Google actually to
16:01
be a real good resource as well so just
16:04
putting in Google and they'll find them
16:06
in those other sites so you know good
16:08
old Google is is pretty much all
16:09
everybody's go-to anyway you know all
16:12
else fails you just Google it even if
16:13
it's wrong
16:15
yeah so it almost sounds like once you
16:19
have the product families and products
16:21
that you're comfortable working with and
16:24
you have those files downloaded and
16:26
saved into your program it's probably
16:29
pretty easy to build system over system
16:32
and and click on those and move them
16:35
into place in your within your building
16:38
models it's not exactly as simple as
16:40
copy and paste but it's there is a
16:43
procedure now one thing about Revit is
16:45
it's kind of an unusual language it
16:47
doesn't follow the rules of Microsoft or
16:49
anything like that it is a little bit of
16:51
a different language you have to kind of
16:52
get used to and and believe me there's
16:55
plenty of of opportunity out there to
16:57
take training courses and whatnot and
16:59
people are in fact doing that you know
17:01
so um but uh yeah the uh you can build
17:04
your own Library the only danger with a
17:07
caution with building a library is you
17:08
want to make sure you're keeping things
17:10
up to date and I've had uh engineering
17:13
users tell me that well they're basic
17:15
you know always on guard for making sure
17:18
that if there's something they're using
17:20
a a lot of they'll always plug into the
17:24
source of that to make sure that they've
17:25
got the up-to-date model you know sure
17:28
so you're constantly improving on it and
17:30
and changing things as it goes right
17:32
well I can tell you for California on
17:35
that regards just just to tell you about
17:37
the caleffi models that we've spent a lot
17:39
of time in and effort to make sure
17:41
they're they're good
17:43
um we we've got files that are natively
17:44
modeled in Revit to obtain the highest
17:47
quality and meet or exceed the Autodesk
17:49
standards and they are actually
17:51
certified with real-time technical
17:52
product data for proper interoperability
17:54
they're data Rich they've had recent
17:57
updates and have respectable file sizes
17:59
that use Revit users expect
18:02
so they offer system integration in
18:05
Revit with properly connected components
18:07
that allow Engineers to make informed
18:09
decisions about the products they're
18:10
using
18:11
they also allow the use of calculating
18:13
function functions as I've mentioned
18:16
for instance the flow and pressure drop
18:17
data with just the right amount of
18:19
information and and parameters that are
18:21
delivered in a user-friendly file size
18:23
or what we call very low weight we aim
18:26
for them we aim for them to be less than
18:28
two megabytes in size while delivering
18:31
the power that they do you know so
18:33
that's a pretty big deal to know the the
18:35
flow and pressure drop through a device
18:39
so then the other thing that's coming up
18:41
recently is that recent models we are
18:44
now provide easily selectable options
18:46
within rabbit
18:47
essentially it's a complete catalog for
18:49
the product and now we're also including
18:52
Revit content instruction guides that
18:54
are embedded in the Revit file itself
18:56
that can also be downloaded from the
18:58
colluffy.com webpage and also from the
19:00
bim.colefy.com page so we've put the
19:05
time into creating instruction guides if
19:07
you will that basically show a user
19:09
what's available inside the product
19:12
without having to discover it themselves
19:14
or or misdiscovering it because they
19:16
don't know what's there our Quest is to
19:18
make sure that they're of of the best
19:20
usability for the for for the purposes
19:22
cool alright so you know thinking back
19:24
to my days in the field and Greg
19:26
probably same for you this isn't
19:28
something that I had experience with no
19:31
none at all and I'll tell you look at
19:33
reflecting back on that I can really see
19:36
the value of of the Bim models and how
19:39
that could have simplified my life in
19:41
the field well I can basically say that
19:44
Cliffy Revit files are becoming even
19:45
more powerful now with all the available
19:47
options even those separately purchased
19:49
like the 2930 isolation valves we now
19:52
have they can be selected within the
19:55
file itself
19:56
um I have a designer
19:58
um called these newer Revit files
20:00
literally a complete catalog for the
20:02
product an accomplished Revit user does
20:05
not have to worry about looking
20:06
elsewhere for available options when
20:08
they can see be seen and selected inside
20:10
the file itself and included in the
20:12
output schedules for Downstream
20:14
purchasing by contractors
20:17
our builder of the Revit families tell
20:21
us that the Bim content they build for
20:23
Caleffi has a flow rate limits and other
20:25
things built in to facility easy design
20:27
and selection based on initial space
20:29
considerations for instance someone is
20:32
alerted if they are exceeding the flow
20:34
rate for instance for a particular
20:35
manifold say in Revit and they can then
20:38
place a couple of them side by side if
20:40
needed so that's interesting so yeah it
20:42
is because you're almost protecting
20:44
themselves from making the wrong product
20:47
selection right yeah it has the ability
20:49
to jump in there and correct them from
20:51
that wrong selection you're right Greg
20:53
it's almost a problem solver in that
20:55
aspect an error detector you know to to
20:58
correct it before it gets gets hit past
21:00
the point where you can't
21:02
so uh so anyway that that's that's the
21:05
beauty of it wonderful so Bim is doing
21:08
more than just helping you design the
21:10
project and lay it out it's making sure
21:12
everything is correct in sizing
21:16
um it will fit there physically and it
21:19
allows you to pretty much not 100 fully
21:23
pre-assemble the entire job but it
21:26
really gets you very much ready to go
21:28
there and install the job yeah it helps
21:30
me help you meet your schedules exactly
21:32
well cool well I think we got some
21:35
pretty interesting yeah we got some very
21:37
eye-opening information about Bim and
21:39
what it can do yeah thanks for coming on
21:41
with us Woody we appreciate that totally
21:43
you're very welcome thank you for tuning
21:46
in if you ever need help please feel
21:49
free to contact our tech support team
21:50
anytime at
21:54
techsupport.uscaleffi.com or call us
21:57
during our business hours at 7 30 a.m to
22:01
4 30 pm Central Time
22:04
414-238-2360