After BIM Implementation
Improving your skills well into the future
Written by Chad Smith
I don’t think anyone would argue that software training
for your team members is an integral part of a
successful BIM implementation. Jumping right in on a
real project without any form of guidance, is not only a
bad business decision, but also project suicide.
where they think improvements could be made. It’s a
good practice for each user to get into the habit of
keeping a log book at their desk to document these
issues.
Organise one or two sessions each week with your BIM
consultant for the next few months, so they can guide
you through the issues from your log books. It’s also
advisable to email them your issues a few days in
advance so that they have adequate preparation time.
Using this method you will find that you are having more
focused training sessions, which will result in training
that is far more cost beneficial. Over time, your skill
level should go up and the reliance on the consultant
will go down.
In the last issue of AEC Edge, Cyril outlined his “Train
the Project” system, which enables you to get your team
members up to speed quickly, while focusing on real
projects. The benefits being that you’re able to keep
your project’s billable time to a maximum and moving
forward.
But where do you go from here? While completing your
first few projects is a reassuring comfort, you can be
guaranteed that your processes and office standards
can be improved upon, and new modelling and
documentation techniques will be required as you move
onto more complex projects.
Naturally, there will be users who will absorb the
concepts of BIM and the software tools much quicker
than their team members, and their reliance on a
consultant will diminish rapidly. It is these users,
possibly even yourself, that the rest of this article is
aimed towards.
The ongoing development of user’s skills is just as
critical as the implementation itself. If users don’t
understand how to gain the most out of the product they
use daily, then they are unable to perform at their
maximum potential.
IN-HOUSE
OFFICE MEETINGS - THE MINI “USER GROUP”
Over my many years of using Revit, and my past roles
as office CAD/BIM Manager, I have developed and
discovered from other BIM users, different techniques
for training and delivering new BIM information to my
team members. Some of these techniques can be
directly beneficial for yourself, while others are aimed
towards you being the ‘teacher’ and training your team
members.
Once at least 50% of the users are up to an
intermediate skill level, office meetings are without a
doubt the most effective training method that I have
used. At this skill level, users are starting to think about
advanced techniques but typically don’t know how to
tackle them. So why not pull the team members
together for an official office networking session.
Whether you’re a company that is still new to BIM, or
are looking for more advanced methods of up-skilling
users, I hope that you might be able to find some, or
even all of the following suggestions useful. I have
broken the tips down into three categories; BIM
Consultants, In-House and Self-Paced.
I would recommend getting together at least every one
to two weeks, in groups of no larger than a dozen. If you
have more than a dozen users, then you might want to
run multiple sessions back-to-back, then collate the
information and distribute back to the users. But more
on that in a later section.
BIM CONSULTANTS
Here are some tips for your office meeting;
Following on from the BIM implementation and pilot
projects, you probably already find yourself in a good
relationship with your BIM consultant. If this is the case
then there is nothing wrong with continuing to use their
services. Considering that they have already spent
numerous days or even weeks involved with your team
members on real projects, they already have an
understanding of your individual user levels, your
projects, and any company office CAD standards you
have in place. So it makes sense that they already know
how to tailor their own experience toward your specific
project needs.
 Try to keep the meetings structured, and 1 to 1.5
hours long. Attention spans start to wander if you go
any longer.
 Get each user to submit to you one issue a few
days in advance, so that you can plan the meeting
and provide a solution on the day. Once again,
these should be recorded in their log book.
 Get the users involved. If you are fortunate enough
to have a boardroom with a large size monitor or flat
screen TV, make the most out of it by hooking a PC
into it. A wireless keyboard and mouse is also great
for passing around the table.
By this stage, the users should already have a greater
understand of the software, to be able to identify
troublesome areas of the project, and also question
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After BIM Implementation
Improving your skills well into the future
Written by Chad Smith
 Have the users each bring one new tip they have
through a web browser. Users can have a login
profile so that they can provide their own
content for everyone in the company to view. A
lot of good CMS’s will also have wiki and forum
features to promote further internal discussions.
learnt since the last meeting to present to everyone
else, no matter how insignificant they may think it is.
Chances are there will be at least one user who
won’t have heard it before. I’m always amazed at
how often a single user tip will spark further
discussion, and before you know it you will have a
newly discussed technique that no-one in that room
had thought of before.
1.0 SELF-PACED
SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION
As an example, the tutorial documentation that comes
with Revit would have to be some of the best that I have
ever come across. New users should be offered the
time to go through as many chapters as they can.
 As the meeting organiser, you should try to bring an
advanced tip along. Your role should be to make
sure that each user walks away with learning at
least one new thing.
From a training perspective of new users, I find sitting
them down with the tutorial book for one to two days
straight will get them up to speed pretty quickly with the
basics, and usually with minimal interruptions to you.
After the two days, you and any of the other
experienced Revit users in the office, can mentor them
for the next few months while they are working on real
projects until they become comfortable.
 Make it compulsory attendance. This way no team
members miss out and everyone is working the
same way.
The office meeting is also the perfect place to announce
new features for a new software release. Focus on the
features that you see as being advantageous to the
company and spend some time discussing them in
detail, while leaving the less important features as just
footnotes. You also don’t want to overload the users
with too much information at once.
This training technique works best if you already have
your BIM system implemented with standards
documented, and have the more experienced users as
mentors. This way the new user can concentrate on
their project, rather than questioning if they are going
about it correctly.
During the meeting, it is recommended that you take
notes so that you can write minutes of the meeting to
distribute back to the attendees. Maybe even gloss it up
a bit in the form of a Newsletter, and also throw in an
article about a BIM project you may have come across
on the internet.
Tip: One thing a lot of users don’t know is that Autodesk
provides free printed documentation for each software
license;
http://www.autodeskdocandmedia.com/.
Try
ordering one or two books for your entire office to use.
It’s much easier to go through tutorials from a printed
media than reading from a monitor.
Group BIM training in this kind of environment can be
quite a rewarding experience in being able to payforward your experience to new users. Add to that, while
you may think you know everything there is to know,
you don’t! You will be amazed at the additional small
nuggets of information your ‘students’ will teach you.
[Editor Note: Recent changes within Autodesk and their
ongoing effort to reduce paper consumption may have
affected the validity of this tip by press time.]
THE KNOWLEDGE BASE
DEMO MODE
When you go to all that time and effort to organise your
office meetings, the last thing you want to see is that
information forgotten. You need your users to have a
centralised location to freely access past discussions.
Here are a couple of suggestions;
If users are willing to do extra learning outside of
business hours, and if your BIM software (such as
Revit) supports a ‘demo mode’, give the user a copy to
install at home. Being able to practice and not save, is
far better than nothing at all. All software is different, so
please read the licensing agreement for your particular
product.
1. Server Folder Structure
Possibly the simplest method. You will most
likely already have a folder on your server that
has the company’s CAD/BIM standards
documented, so why not keep the training
documentation nearby.
DIVERSIFICATION
If users are still in search of more learning information,
then there are more public avenues that can be
explored. Large national events such as Autodesk
University (U.S.A.) or the Revit Technology Conference
(Australia) will provide you with a wealth of focused BIM
2. Content Management System (CMS)
This method is definitely for the more
technically skilled. Most CMS’s will be accessed
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After BIM Implementation
Improving your skills well into the future
Written by Chad Smith
topics. With plenty of likeminded software users, these
are events that should not be missed.
Why not use these events to send one or two different
users each year from your company. When they return
to the office, ask them to give a presentation about what
they learned at your next office meeting.
Since you’re reading this publication, then you already
know about AUGI, but there are other great resources
such as Autodesk’s own Discussions Groups
(http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/), and the multitude
of BIM focused Blogs that are around on the internet.
And finally, look for a local User Group in your area.
Taking one evening out of your day every month or two
to attend isn’t that big of a task, especially if you are
unable to make it to the larger national events.
In my experience, I have used all the training
techniques above, and have found them all to be useful
in some way. You might find that only some of the
techniques work for your company, but you won’t know
unless you explorer them.
The key question that you now need to ask continually
is; “What is it that your company is able to do to expand
your collective BIM knowledge?” Be sure to search out
or even create your own processes in order to help
keep that thought progressing.
BIM Strong!
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