SBG Successful BIM Implementation—Case Study: General Contractor

YOUSSRY SALMAN: Welcome to my session, SBG Successful BIM Implementation, A Case Study from General Contractor. My name is Youssry Salman. I am a senior BIM manager from SBG Public Building Division. Having more than 20 years in the field, 15 years was a designer, and more six years now as a contractor, I had successful BIM implementation in several sectors.

I'll be glad to share with you our experience and our information. My co-speaker today, Mr. Mohammad [INAUDIBLE], is a BIM coordinator assigned for one of our largest projects. [? View ?] the position in [? key-- ?] coordinators, you know this is-- he's the one to carry on, this is day-to-day activity with the team.

OK, in this class, we are going to share how we immigrate from 2D to BIM. In SBG, a journey costs us mostly four years from up and downs, up and downs till we reach to a very successful formulas, allow us, as a general contractor, to earn the real value of the BIM.

The key objective, we are going to transfer our large firm, contain more than 5,000 architecture engineers plus. And how we address the challenges and how we move, how we are critiquing and evaluating different softwares, and what is the best practice of BIM implementation. And how you can control over your goals, BIM goals, your model uses to successful goals.

Very quickly, SBG is a family established family business more than eight years now. They are now grow, and grow, and grow to have a huge share market in Saudi Arabia as a construction company. We are working several sectors, airport, health care, multi-facility buildings. So it's a huge company with big legacy heritage.

Saudi Arabia, at the birth of the Gulf region up to the last 10 years, we are having government project, government contracting. So it's have a 2D, most of the project in 2D. Yes, they are immigration to BIM, but project's still into 2D.

So as a contractor, we are spending huge, huge massive of our time just to read between the drawing and the specs and [INAUDIBLE] [? Q, ?] and dimensioning, and understand the job, and making tendering, then start issue our shop drawing, shop drawing, or detailed drawing to the field. This is having a massive time has been wasted. Pure waste of time. Calculated, not calculated, it's a waste of time just to re-translate a document to another document, OK?

This is exercise done by McGraw-Hill Dodge, studying the BIM immigration in the Gulf region, include Saudi Arabia. You can see that there are a [? better ?] [? gross ?] expecting by 2020 to have a massive BIM usage in the Gulf region. And Saudi Arabia is one of the big player.

In Binladin, this is our normal situation. A construction team [? implementing ?] the procurement and the force the engineering, please do finish your job with the first 5%, 10%, give me the drawings to dispatch, and start my work. This one cause-- we are resulting a huge massive drawing, huge massive document. When they go to the field, sometimes it's not properly constructed.

What we did in Binladin, we need to think how to address the market with a new way to keep outstanding our shareholder of the investment, and how to stay there. We have 2D document and economy gross, which is [? are ?] not making sense in a relation. We have a massive job, and we have to finish it with the same conventional way.

So what we did, we developed our understanding of ERP. Bringing engineering in the beginning, engineer everything first, then develop packages. From these packages, we start to procure and execute in the field. So in any situation, the field team cannot process without back to the engineering, who can see the model, who can see the drawing, who can connect things to each other. Without that, field cannot process.

OK, we have many things to success the ERP. OK? So we have a BIM, ERP project collaboration, a lot of things have to sing together to success. Today I'll focus only on what we did in BIM.

We need to understand very carefully the necessity of development of changing things, how to have proper professional selected team. We have a mass of professional people. All are professionals, but who is good to accept the change? Who is going to be my winning horses?

Don't discount your team. Evaluate your teams. Talk to them. Find who is will be happy and having the ability to absorb the change. AutoCAD is very fabulous tools. We worked with AutoCAD for years and years, OK?

So don't tell people, Revit better than AutoCAD. This is a big mistake. Revit is a player. AutoCAD is a player. Both are tools. Both are BIM tools. But where you need to sit your Revit, where you need to sit your AutoCAD? Don't say that AutoCAD and Revit are competing each other. No.

So find the people can help you. Find the [? proper ?] technology. When I talk about [? proper ?] technology, I'm talking about antiquated technology. Don't go for expensive solutions. Don't say, OK, I need Revit, I need this big machine. No.

You need to assess your hardware gradually, gradually, gradually. Use the maximum of what you have. Don't say, OK, I'll make a revolutionary change, change the entire hardware, entire infrastructure to be in BIM. You won't fit.

First of all, you have a huge upgrade barrier. Make your IT work for a massive time, and earning value still with the learning curve is too small. So you cannot convince your boss with this change.

So what we did was this understanding of ERP, we shared the formula. Will bring the BIM to be one of the layer up. We have ERP, we have them, we have collaborative, we bring the three teams together. Start talking to each other, not in serial mood, not in parallel mood, but in collaborative mood.

So whatever we engineer, we check the availability of material. Whatever we have available material, we ask of the site team, this is could be installed or not? This conversation is very healthy.

Before I go for implementation, I need to ask who is from contractor, who's from client, who's from designer. So who is designer? OK. Contractor? Awesome. Client? OK. So I see the most of number are designers, and contractors. And then a little are clients or [? presenters ?] [? of ?] [? clients. ?]

Implementation, different-- little bit slightly different from designer to contractor because the field is a little bit wider, but it suit. It could fit here, it could fit there because it has the same sequence. OK?

When I start my implementation, I search [? deeply ?] [? in ?] [? posts. ?] I was in designer firm. I moved to contractor firm. What is the [? change? ?] What is the real challenge? What is the wild horse I have to train?

It's a human factor. Really, it's a human factor, OK? Designer, talented architect, talented designers, you will have a massive resistance with the idea. Why you need us to waste our time or change our [INAUDIBLE] work? And what is the benefit? This is a normal question you have.

So you have to deal with four challenges, and the behavior, the temper, the emotion, the mental, [? its ?] factors. You need to accept the resistance. Don't deal with the resistance-- with other resistance. So, OK, you are not-- you are not accepting the BIM, go away. No, find him as a bad defender, a [? force ?] [? quarter. ?] You know, find him a position.

I had an engineer-- electrical engineer, he's fully resistant to automation. One word, now he is a big ally. If I bring him here, he can give you speeches and speeches in how this-- it's a matter of confidence and trust. I find him a place, suit him a confident trust with the tool. So he start producing more and more.

So you have to deal with your people, not from rejection. You are against the change, you have to be out. No. Find him a right location. Don't eliminate everybody, otherwise you will not find anyone helping you.

This is our history in SBG, how we did things. And you can imagine how big we are, but we take [? not ?] only nine months to make this revolution. And we have 5,000 architecture engineers, field procurement people, and it cost us only nine months because we select the proper candidates from the beginning. This is the right stuff.

We have successful partners, those successful partners who help us to make the proper immigration. We consult Autodesk. We select the right consultant from the field. They work with us hand-in-hand dedicatedly to achieve this success.

Any implementation has three stages. Stage number one, which is pre-implementation. Pre-implementation, this is your preparation period. This is what you need to do as a BIM manager or a section head need to apply BIM or an owner in the company need to apply BIM.

You need, first of all, to hire a consultant. Hiring consultant mean somebody can talk your language. Don't bring people-- don't bring people from a refinery or fabrication or manufacturing to apply. No, he has his success. So find somebody having the understanding of the knowledge so he can talk with your people friendly.

Define your strategy. When you define your strategy, don't go, first, OK, I need to convert the entire company. Start step by step, which sector in your company can be the easy implemented and easily converted.

Don't go for difficult sectors. Don't say, OK, I'm going to do that the cost. No. You know the company better than others. [? Don't ?] [? bring ?] someone. Success in [? costs. ?] I say, OK, I'll deploy in costs. Maybe your cost functionally, conventionally very good.

So don't disturb your process. Find the successful area. What this successful area can be implemented and changes easily? Because when you make change easily, it sounds. OK?

Keep assessment. Keep assessment all the time. You have to assessment every time, every time. Do your planning, and change it, and assess. And-- don't stop [? assess ?] while you are doing. Because, again, you are dealing with human beings. You don't deal with machines. If you forget to assess the situation, you will be trapped because you will have a gap.

IT Infrastructure, it's easy now. Everybody now can easily have a company, have an infrastructure, a server, switches, computers. This is-- it's available. So what you are doing, select something suited your current infrastructure. And do the change. Prove that it's success. Bring your team alive, then start to gradually upgrade your system

I am using Pentium 5, and some Pentium 7, and some Workstation. I have a mix of the resources. We use it all to tail our infrastructure. Then I bring, after a success, I bring the massive huge equipment, which have [? big ?] price boxes. So when the team now happily to change.

Core Implementation. In Core Implementation, you have to select your BIM platform. Yes, Autodesk happily provides us a lot of softwares. It can be a BIM platform. We're talking field. You have several 3D and NavisWorks. In building, you have Revit and NavisWorks, and others. But don't stuck in one platform and say, OK, this platform have to be mandated.

As a BIM manager, you have to find the easiest platform to change. We have AutoCAD verticals. We have Revit. Both can do the same exercise in the beginning of implementation. If your team's not ready for Revit, they can use AutoCAD architecture, like with the AutoCAD MEP, then move them to Revit when they understand the idea of BIM.

Don't [? harsh ?] and rush, OK? Because software is there. So don't say, OK, let's go all Revit. No. If your team's not accepting Revit, use AutoCAD verticals. It can do as a transition.

And this what I did in my beginning of implementation. I used some AutoCAD verticals. When we will show the result, when we will through the ecosystem talking to each other, [? start ?] [? be ?] happily moving to Revit.

Then, Modular Training. Don't bring all people in the same training. No. Select people, segregate them, and give them bits of training. Don't give long two, three, four weeks training session. People will boring, OK?

Because it's become mentally resistance. Make a partial training. Train people easily, an easy job, like in [? NAB. ?] Tell them how to read the system, and let Revit do the fitting for them. No problem. Forget about. Fitting is wrong. No, no. No worry, no worry. We'll deal with the family later.

But let your people practice the software and get the software friendly. Don't say, OK, gentlemen, it's a closed training. Close your phone off, OK? So they will convert it, like me, and learn nothing.

[LAUGHTER]

[? Include ?] here, in the Core Implementation, something called Test Project. And I explain it in details. There are everybody say, when you come, bring an instructor. So, OK, let's do a pilot project. What's the difference between test project and pilot project? Some can [INAUDIBLE]? What's the difference between test project and pilot project?

AUDIENCE: [? No ?] pilot project [INAUDIBLE].

YOUSSRY SALMAN: Yes. Pilot project can fail, and no one will be off. When you select something totally imaginary, away from your day-to-day business, assembly can fail. OK? Because for your CEO, it's waste of time. You train your people for something, waste of time.

Mirroring a scale of success is very limited. Test project, I mean it, maybe can find better terms than me, but when we test a project, I pick a project. Part of the project already running.

We already developed it conventionally. We have the measurement scale. We know the product. We know that output. We know the challenges. We know the number of RFIs. We know the distance. We know the [? failure ?] [INAUDIBLE]. We know everything about it.

And I remodel it with my trained team, and start leave the same exercise. What is the number of RFI I have to be issued? How we can do things, and start measuring and comparing all the time? That's why back to my [? assess, ?] [? assess, ?] [? assess. ?] I'm comparing all the time the outcomes next to the real project happen to see, I am in the proper progress or I divert? OK?

Finally, we have a common standard for BIM. You can develop your own company BIM standard. And company BIM standard hasn't to be rigid. Don't make this a standard say it's a bible, it's our constitution. Don't move away.

Every project is a unique. So you have to have a minimum company standard, minimum, like, you know, graphic presentation, main output. And let every project tell their own standard, [? pace ?] the new standard.

Don't be rigid. Because if you need to make a standard fit to all your project, you need three to six months of work in progress. You will never end. Keep things simple and achievable. Don't make things complicated.

And BIM is life. So it will grow, and grow, and grow. I start with 15 families. Now I have more than 6,000 families from three different [? project ?] [? result. ?] And I can-- [? exchange ?] with the project are massive. But I develop properly the parameters. What parameters have to be there? And very simple [? families. ?] And I use it. OK?

I resist only and emphasize only in the graphic presentation because this is the product will go to the field where your des-- your construction team and where you're-- the client representative will look at it. So don't kill yourself creating all the families and buying families. No. Your BIM is life. It will keep go. You cannot stop people from generating families because every project is very unique.

And documentary your standard. Then, you measure your success, easily deployed. It's very easy to deploy. And when you deploy it, don't take your test project as a rigid prototype.

Again, go pick small part of the project. I apply BIM. I'll show you. At the end, Mohammad will talk about how we apply BIM in project. Some project is fully BIM. Some project is partially BIM.

So don't say, OK, if the project is not all BIM, I failed. No. Do success here. Do success there. And let success talk about you.

So this is detailed slide. You'll find it in the loaded material, talking about [? how ?] [? the ?] things. You assess, you talk to everybody, try to bring the maximum ally from top to bottom. Don't say, OK, I convinced the CEO. Others have to-- no.

Don't discount people. Make your people happily need to share with you. And listen to them. Listen more than you give them. Listen to them, what [? you've ?] [? been. ?] What you-- what are difficulties you face?

OK, you-- I have a success. I convinced the architectural design manager with creating one [INAUDIBLE] in Revit. This has been two days to three client change. I'll do it in five minutes. He said, OK, take it. I did not talk about floors or roofing or anything, just I'm [? make ?] [? it ?] [? clear. ?] OK, bye bye.

A guy has some problem with the electrical loading. I generate for him one, automatic. [? I ?] [? leave-- ?] [? leave ?] people, OK? So people will be willing to deal with you. That's why I say that.

Limit this BIM scope. Don't go and say, OK, all the project have to be BIM. No. Limited, limited. Make things limited because you can measure it. Don't think out of this room. Think about the scope only.

Very important, gentlemen, to identify the challenge. Don't discount any challenge. And don't overestimate it. Identify what is the challenge? And the challenge you don't know, don't enter. If you don't know the things how could be resulted, don't take a risk and bring the team with you.

No, you can make in your [? lab, ?] with your consultant, a side the way exercise, [? in ?] [? all ?] challenges. But select the challenges [? could ?] [SNAPPING] sound quickly, OK? Because you need to have a success.

And how to bring your limited resources, you'll train a few number of people. You need them to do success. You cannot-- I have project was thousands of architecture engineers. I cannot train all of them to success.

OK, this is assemble problems. You can find it when you go for any BIM implementation in anywhere. When you talk to the people working 2D, assembly, they tell you, I need to reduce a process. 2D is a very long process. I need to reduce it. It could be a good target.

Improve the construction workflow. We have shipping a document, and RFIs, and document here, approval there. This could be we have a clue, we'll talk about it.

Design review versus constructability. Does the things buildable or not? We have a lot of design with [INAUDIBLE]. I work in design field. We fail to deliver it buildable, but it looks nice. A very sexy color, coordinated things, or clash [INAUDIBLE], but is not coordinated. It's not moving to the [? communication. ?]

Abortive Works. We need to improve. That's our company moving and [? grows, ?] moving in the right way. So don't select something very strategic, but it's not achievable, OK?

And from one of our projects, you will see here some sort of things disturb our 2D works, like bored in communication. [? A ?] [? long ?] cycle of-- [? exchange ?] the data between engineering field team and site team, problem with a material, client changes. All these things happen, and happen to anyone. You're using BIM, you don't use BIM, it's-- this is kind of interference.

So we selected something after selecting the platform. And make the workflow, test the workflow, and train the team. I'll go directly to the Core Implementation, where this is the families. This is the things.

This is in detail how we make the phasing of our standard. So we have a phase 1. We are gathering the team together. We start standardizing between the CAD and BIM. And we have coordination meeting. Again, [? assess, ?] compare. Don't stop. Don't give up.

We do not eliminate anybody. Mohammad work in Cairo. I'm in Jeddah base, project in Mecca or project in Riyadh. So bring people. Don't eliminate any player.

Don't say, OK, he will be a resistant. Bring him to the table. Make him the resistant. Make him the evil guy, OK? And spend most of your time convince him.

Don't say, OK, Mohammad is my ally, one success. No. You will push the things to the field, you will throw it away, OK? So when you blend the team, people together, you will have your standard.

What we did in Test Project, we select 24,000 building, [? for ?] [? in ?] [? Binladin, ?] 24,000 square meter building. It is a small building. Maybe for others it's a big building. But for us, this is the smallest one we can get, OK?

In my previous firm, we select something 5,000, 6,000. So select small portion, small building, easy to measure, two [? coats. ?] You can close your boundary. Don't say, OK, I have a tower. Revit Architecture, I can design a tower in five minutes. What about MEP? What coordination?

So don't say, OK, it's Revit Architecture, I can create the floors in five minutes. And you [? need ?] MEP five years. So I select something. I assess something with the team. And we select few number of people, good. And we select software Autodesk out of the box.

We do not say about development, [? APIs, ?] I'll talk about it later. I select the Revit out of the box. It has enough sufficient to good start. Again, if it's [? a filter ?] color and your standard is green, and Revit will give it red, don't kill yourself. Make it red now, OK?

[LAUGHTER]

And again, I am a CAD guy, you know? I work, you know-- I mean, mostly 17 years with AutoCAD and 14 years with Revit. But I like AutoCAD better than Revit because I can do many things with AutoCAD. I can [? bluff ?] with my manager, and submit things very quickly with AutoCAD and get rest.

Revit it is not easy, you know? You do it all like that, you'll find it like that everywhere. You cannot hide it, OK?

[LAUGHTER]

So don't select something, you know-- select something easy for all.

And this is my warning to you. Don't bring to your test to project all goals of success. No. Make the score 1-0. Better than you go out of the match with half of your team broken, and it's 0-0, OK? Because at that time, AutoCAD devil will sit-in the corner, [IMITATES EVIL LAUGHTER] I won. (LAUGHING) So bring something-- bring something very easy.

I'll show you what we did. This is the project. We do our things. And I have a small video, how I convinced my superior with--

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OK. I select a very simple thing, you know, a nice design building. We easy done in AutoCAD and has no complex in anything. It's not complicated in anything.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So you can see, it's normal columns, no unique-- no unique facade, nothing. It's very, very simple, something humbling. You can achieve it. Maybe the music convinced my boss, I don't know. [LAUGHS]

But from this project, I start challenging my MEP [INAUDIBLE]. Show me. Show me things connected to each other. Show me the relation, the start to end, end to start. Why is [INAUDIBLE] [? of ?] [? flow? ?]

I start [? challenging. ?] Now I know the key of my success. So I start sending e-mails [? with ?] [? challenging. ?] Show me the stables. Show me this loads. Show me this. Show me this. So now you are riding the wild horse, OK?

And you can see-- show them. You see? Some areas disconnected at all. Your [? design ?] [? and ?] [? things ?] are totally disconnected. Some ducts-- you see, some ducts fly away somewhere. No subline, no feeder, nothing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You can see, we have three floors just [INAUDIBLE] based. So we waste energy to remodel from scratch. Just copy, change the label, [? assign ?] [? to ?] [? a ?] [? level. ?] And this is how to make your things, you know?

Don't-- don't go for-- and we start in the coordination. [? Bear ?] [? with ?] [? me. ?] We show things, you see? This is disconnected. This is now the problem here. You have a clash here. You have a clash there.

So you start bringing the engineers [? to ?] your [INAUDIBLE]. Now come. Here, show me how to solve this for me, how to solve that. So you start build your enemy to either neutral or align. This is a good.

Don't say, OK, you don't want to use Revit, hmm, I'll talk to the CEO to kick you-- no. Success is a human being, not the tool. Humans is your success. This is not to discount the tool. The tool is very smart, but-- this is not to discount. You have to make your people-- especially old-fashioned people, people who uses to make the calculation from the [? calculated ?] [? mode, ?] not using even Excel. We have those type of people.

Back to the abortive issues, the challenges commonly in the test project, you'll see some fluctuated results. Some result is been really, drastically changed. I can read it from here, unclear design and specification.

Anyone using 2D, you spend a huge, huge time reading the drawings, especially when [? federated ?] data [? receive ?] PDF, not a drawing. So receive PDF, start try to draw the dotted line, and understand thinking in between.

When we developed the model, and you see, it was a simple one. Easily we see a lot of disconnecting things. Easily you understand why designer make this big duct here. Why designer-- we are a contractor. We are not-- cannot put ourself in the shoes of designer. We are [? shooting ?] the designer. You did this, did that. But now we understand why that.

So a number of RFIs this much, assembly will be shrank to that much. Because you understand things. You will not ask about things. Because when you look at in 2D, you see things you cannot imagine. You look at upper floor, lower floor, try to-- if you miss it, you start [? release ?] a bunch of RFIs. And this is a communication method.

Second, one had been reduced coordination between the field team. We go ask in field team, we take the model to the field team. Can you install this? Can you install that? Can you do this? As is, [? well, ?] [? there's ?] [? no ?] coordination.

And we started to grasp a very valuable information, the know-how of the field team. Those people in the field work for years and years, dealing with the material and labor.

So sometimes, we give them something, it's not installable. It's not buildable at all. And they start wasting their energy treating this as a designer or an engineer. So now, because they say, no. Do take the [? root ?] [? of ?] [? elbow ?] like that. Don't do this. Don't do that.

This is very important. This is really important. Don't-- then don't [? be ?] [INAUDIBLE], and say, OK, I did a coordination! No. Coordination mean it's a buildable. If it's not buildable, it's not coordinated. Forget it. If it's not executed, forget it.

Because the one know the maximum bend of the cable, the guy in the field, not you. Don't say, OK, I make it 45 degree and nice. No, no, no. Go and ask the guy. So ask him with a picture. Don't ask him with a drawing.

Because you tell him, your cable will start from this point, end at this point, and this is graphically-- and [? it ?] [? was ?] easily to make the [? work ?] [? through. ?] Or [? Revit ?] walks through, over your cable, costs you 5-15 minutes. And you will bring someone from other site to your site.

A BIM Execution Plan. BIM Execution Plan, we named it BIM Charter to be close to the project charter. So people, our project manager, or [? that ?] [? they're ?] carrying a folder called, (IMITATING) I have a project charter. I have a project charter. This is my knowledge area.

I'll tell him, OK, take the [? 10-- ?] [? 10 ?] knowledge area. Who's BIM? Take it with you. So we make our execution plan. We called it BIM Charter. You can call it anyhow.

Call it Jack, call it Jim, it doesn't matter, but this BIM Charter, where you document your goals and your measurement scale. And this is your constitution you're back to every time to see and measure there the diversion.

So in BIM Charter, we defined something very important, the BIM goal, what I'm going to do, and the priority of each goal. Definitely, though I think very high priority, but it's not achievable.

And Barrier to Entry, it's easy to do. Or I need consultant and equipments and-- OK? And technology, it's available or I have to wait 100 years to be available? And the advantage, it's advantageable or something, you know, after you roll up, and roll up, and roll up, you will end with the same result?

I'll show you some examples we had. We say, OK, we need to control over design and the construct-- the execution. So it's a very high, easy to enter. It's not high barrier.

Technology is available? Yes, we have Revit. We have Navis. We have AutoCAD. We have si-- we have [? Solid ?] [INAUDIBLE]. We have Cyclone. We have a lot of softwares can help you so it's easy.

And, as a contractor, it's very high because-- and I do not tell you, well, it's easy to achieve. Don't say-- don't tell people it's easier to achieve because you have to connect with many parties. So don't say, oh, boss, I have easy goal. And tomorrow you're stuck with something, you vanish. No. Estimate, estimate, estimate. Compare, compare, compare, OK?

We have 3D coordination. What is the-- what is the difference between constructable and coordination? I'll talk about it. Because maybe we'll, OK, I have a design clash for you. We did things clash free. Everything is clash free, OK?

One, that is 3D scanning, simulation, a lot of things. And you will see it has a different. So in my test approach, I select the easy one. What is the easy one? I select the MEPF Coordination. I did not select the constructability.

However, constructability is easier than MEP Coordination. Because in MEP Coordination you can make your model very humbly, LOD 200. Someone knows what is a LODs? What is level of development, anybody aware?

So LOD 200, [? well, ?] you can do it. You can do it. Don't go for 300. Don't go for 400. Don't go for 1,000 parameters in any object, just the minor information so it's easy to do.

This is our execution plan where [? put ?] our workflow, where we [? put ?] our level of elements. Don't say, OK, my product should be LOD 300 so all element is 300. No, sorry. You can take massive number of elements to be LOD 200. You don't need it 300. So don't kill your team for modeling and over modeling.

Don't say that I have to detail everything in model. No, no. You can still add in some refined parameters to your model and achieve the goal. Because some models, you will end up the model with a last minute of turnkey. So don't make your things over modeling.

Segregate things. Your main runs can be LOD 200s. I know that I can do the coordination between the flange and support system in 2D, doesn't matter. So don't then say, OK, I have to model the flange, and supports, and everything, this is very important. No. OK?

And I can make my wall LOD 200. I know it's a rigid, insulated wall, blah, blah, blah. So I can type this as information, and people know that they will buy it from the market [? region ?] installation. So don't say, I have to model it. I have to say, OK, I have the [? correct ?] items, OK?

I'm working Venetian, so I have to make this [INAUDIBLE] column. OK, I can tell-- put anything, and say it's a [INAUDIBLE] [? tech ?] [? crown ?] [? plus. ?] No need-- no need-- no need to kill things. So don't say, my [? BIM ?] is 300, so everything should have to be 300. No. You have to be smart when you [? put ?] things.

This is a [? collision, ?] the coordination. This is a minor one. Who have to clash with what and have to stop? Where is the priority? This is a key foundation.

And for each project, you have to tell in detail what is the priority. And what is the collision have to be decided? What is the minimum tolerance? What is the minimum clearance?

Then, we go to the improvement. We finish our test project. We show some good results. So what we did in improvement, we make our formula. You can make your own formula.

We'll do in-house 60%, we outsource 40%. And luckily, we have Mr. [INAUDIBLE] from [? Sandview. ?] He had shareholder in 40% one of our big project. He's our outsource. OK? We give him very hard time, and things keep moving here and there.

So why we get this formula, 60-40? This is the minimum we can do with our resources quickly while those experts can do. So we can push the job very quickly. Don't train, and train, and train. We can find experts do for you some job until you are strong enough.

And when you're strong, don't say, I am very strong, enough to carry out all the job. Again, you tie up your resources in one job. If you have another project, what you need to do? You need to train and-- no. So reserve-- reserve your job, and be smart how to slice and dice your things, OK?

However, you have a strong BIM execution plan. So don't worry about slicing and dicing your project. We you-- you can give you outsource one floor, mechanical room. You can do this easily if you have the proper way of create exchanging the data.

We [? do, ?] and [? put ?] [? on ?] [? top ?] [? of ?] [? Revit, ?] a massive number of APIs. We hire his company and hire other company to make a huge number of APIs [? can ?] make the Revit be like AutoCAD. And this is no shame, no shame to do this.

Autodesk already, since 2012, sharing part of the success to their partners. So don't expect Autodesk, when they release 2018 or 2030, it will be better than 2015. No, it would be slight improved. Because we need their outsource or their partners to grows.

So go and run to the partner, and develop custom for you. I'm not buying out of shelf product. I go to people and customize whatever suits me. It's up to you. OK?

I'll show you a [? tool. ?] You get it from [? Sandview. ?] In one project, translate the 2D to BIM. So we translate 2D to BIM. So we are doing things quickly from 2D to BIM. So this has saved me a massive time in my project to translate the 2D to BI Modeling.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OK? So this is one of the keys. You can translate your-- the massive 2D, like lighting fixtures, sprinkler, diffuser. All this stuff, you can take it to Revit so you don't have a headache to model all this from scratch or trace it in AutoCAD for Revit. OK?

We have other tools for [? pre-fab, ?] which has helped me to split my model to be redeveloped outside, out of the field. [? While ?] [? I'm ?] do the casting of concrete, and the steel I do the MEP And it had-- now, Autodesk developed something embedded. But this one, we developed early to suit our project.

I invite Mohammad to talk to you about one of the projects, how we put the goals, how we make our model usage, how we success. OK? So, Mohammad, please?

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Good Morning.

AUDIENCE: Good morning.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: My name is Mohammad Saleh. This is my first time to AU, hopefully not the last. We'll talk about how we successfully implemented the BIM in two of our big projects with the SBG.

The first-- oh, sorry.

[INAUDIBLE]

OK. I'm a bit nervous so excuse me.

[LAUGHTER]

[SIDE CONVERSATION]

So--

YOUSSRY SALMAN: Give me the [INAUDIBLE].

[LAUGHTER]

MOHAMMAD SALEH: [LAUGHS] No, I got it. I got it. OK. It's OK--

YOUSSRY SALMAN: I know [INAUDIBLE] sitting in the corner. So I don't--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

MOHAMMAD SALEH: So our first project actually started in year 2012, and still working until now. The total area was-- is 2,260 square meters. I know most of you don't work in metric system. This is over 2,700,000 square feet. It's a very massive project.

We had to define our goals first. So our first goal was to increase the effectiveness of design. This is by ensuring that the design is constructable and to make MEP coordination.

The other goal was to increase the field productivity. This is by producing the shop drawing directly from the BIM model. This is to speed the work up and to make simpler structural models.

The third goal was to manage also the interface between the existing and new building. Because this building, although it's very massive, it has adjacent parts that already working. And we have to control how are we going to coordinate between the new building and the existing one.

So as Youssry was talking, there's a big-- who is here working in construction, really at sites? Go to sites, right. For you, you know, that there is a big difference between being clash free and constructable.

Sometimes we receive the drawings from the technical office. And it looks good. But when we try to actually build it and do it at site, it's not constructable. It's very difficult to-- it's either very narrow. The areas are very limited. So there's no space for the workers to actually access some of the areas.

So there's a big difference between being constructable and being clash free. So we had to exchange a lot of data between the technical office and the site team to make sure that when we do the model, we actually make sure that it is constructable, that is suitable for them.

We also had to-- so either, most people do clash free through Revit. So we-- instead of that, we used it-- we--

[SIDE CONVERSATION]

I'm working my pace.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: I have a question. Who's do the coordination in AutoCAD-- in Revit?

AUDIENCE: I'm sorry?

YOUSSRY SALMAN: Who's using do the coordination in Revit? Coordination using Revit to do coordination?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

YOUSSRY SALMAN: NavisWorks. NavisWorks, the other hand. [LAUGHS]

OK, it's very good, very, very good. Tips and tricks. When you are doing your own trade, electrical [? versus ?] [? electrical, ?] you can use Revit, OK? Don't immigrate to other platform. So use Revit to do the things, your things [? is ?] sliding, moving away of each other's and workable.

When you talk about other trades, you have to take care of about the tolerance and clearance. So use Navis. And Mohammad will talk to you about the matrix with it for Clearance and Tolerance and examples of both are different.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yeah, this is the matrix that we developed to--

YOUSSRY SALMAN: We have [INAUDIBLE] this size of matrix. So don't say-- this is one slide.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yeah.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: But we are talking about a structure-- of a structure-- inverted.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: So we use Navis to actually define the clearance and the tolerance for every system in the project that it is suitable for the construction team. And we used it in NavisWorks. Like, for example, this-- it's in Revit. It's clash free. It's OK, the model is fine. But if you go to the site, you send us to the site, it's not workable.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: You don't have room to put your stuff.

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yeah.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: So you see it's-- this is like 2 centimeters. So it's nice, you know, for the guy who's sitting at the desk there. He says it's very nice. But we bring the site guys to tell us, it's nice for you? Say no. So [? we ?] [? put ?] [? a ?] [? constraint ?] with-- it's not acceptable. So it's a clash.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yeah, so communication between the site team and the technical team who actually developed the model is very important. You have to know what are the requirements, and to put it inside Navis, and put it in the coordination process. That's the way you ensure that the produced shop drawing or the produced model actually can be constructed at site.

This is another example for the Tolerance, also through no Navis. This is a small portion of our project. And, as you can see, it's very complex. The amount of systems and the amount of-- the nature of the project is very complex. So we use it to extract shop drawings, as I said earlier.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: You can see the-- how dense the information. You cannot differentiate between it in AutoCAD.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yeah, yeah.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

MOHAMMAD SALEH: We tried to input as much data we can inside the model so we can actually extract shop drawings with this level of data. So that site team, they don't need any extra information from any party. They have everything on the drawing, and it's already extracted from the model.

Due to some requirements from the owner, they don't like steel structures. They actually insisted that we used concrete. So due also to the huge scale of the project, this is the reinforcement of one column, as you can see.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: [? I'm ?] [? very ?] [? nosy. ?] This example, we use Revit pure.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: Yes.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: We don't use any massive, complicated, fancy, [INAUDIBLE] [? tool. ?] We use Revit. You can do it. You can-- you know, everything, you can do it. But it's a matter of time.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: And we actually used this to help the construction team to assemble the reinforcement for every column and every beam. There are some areas with post-tension cables. And with the reinforcement, it is practically-- at the beginning, we thought it will be impossible to achieve. But through modeling, we actually were able to achieve it.

As I said earlier, we also implemented the 3D scan coordination. And this is-- we used 3D laser scanning, OK? And we converted the 3D scan into models, into geometry, then into the Revit model to coordinate between the existing buildings, and the part that's already finished, and the part that will be constructed.

YOUSSRY SALMAN: Yes, very important, very important to interface between whatever happened on site. It's happened on site. Whatever happened in Vegas stays in Vegas.

[LAUGHTER]

But the [INAUDIBLE] says, never stay in site. By [? 3D ?] [? scan, ?] we'll bring it back to the-- so we don't have a fake red marks. We did things very good. No.

We go and capture things and bring it to the engineering desk. So we can make the interface between the two systems, the before and after the existing and demolish and new. So we can do anything from your desk there.

Not allow, we will give you information, say, OK, everything quite good in site. And then, you'll find that to the construction schedule slow down, slow down, slow down do to interface and things you would not imagine to expect while you are doing your modeling there.

MOHAMMAD SALEH: OK. And also, through 3D scanning, it was very challenging because the structure is open for public. And as you can see, this is the amount of data we have to analysis and process every time we do a 3D scanning.

The second project, it started in 2014. And this one was a health care project with an area of 540,000 square meters. We updated the goals. We changed the goals a bit because this is now a new project.