It was time to step back and take stock of our current programming effort, so last week we ran a few focus groups to learn whether Ideate BIMLink, an Autodesk Revit add-on, would be well received by our customers. Ben Bishoff, our Chief Software Programmer (and bottle-washer) wrapped up Ideate Explorer for Revit 2011 a few months ago and has been immersed in the depths of Revit data-mining ever since. We asked Ben to leave his programming lair and meet face-to-face with some customers in our Portland office to hear the unvarnished truth about our newest endeavor.
Ideate BIMLink, in a nutshell, has been designed to export Revit data to Excel where it can be easily modified, then pushed back into Revit. Some of our customers have become very sophisticated in their use of Revit. They've gone beyond the benefits of the coordinated graphical version of the model, and are beginning to really exploit the value of the non-graphical data. Ideate BIMLink liberates this Revit data and makes it more accessible via Excel.
Ben and I met 14 customers over two days to share information on how Ideate BIMLink works and to learn whether it would add value to their projects. Like all good customers, they beat us up a bit. They scoffed at a few of our notions, but also saw great potential in areas we hadn't foreseen, or had foolishly forgotten in our programming stupor. In the end we came away with some great ideas about what Ideate BIMLink can do.
- Glynnis Patterson, N.C.A.R.B., Ideate Director of Services
Glynnis is just one of the highly skilled team at Ideate, Inc. She is a Registered Architect and has worked within the BIM industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis works with AEC clients across the nation, developing, and implementing best practices solutions. In her spare time Glynnis is a member of the Morristown Environmental Commission and builds Lego projects.
Stay tuned! Glynnis will be providing periodic updates on the Ideate BIMLink as the final product is honed and released.
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