BIM in Education, the BIM Awards, Revit Building 9, and ArchiCAD 10

AECbytes starts out this month with a Viewpoint contribution from Renée Cheng, Head of the Department of Architecture, University of Minnesota, who posits that with the increased professional attention on BIM software and its increased availability to students, we are likely to see BIM permeate, if not dominate, the studios at schools of architecture within the next few years. However, she cautions that careful attention must be paid to the impact of this particular tool on the curriculum. She discusses issues such as the role BIM should play in architectural education, where is its appropriate place in the curriculum, and how students can be prepared for Integrated Practice, which is the new way of working that BIM engenders.

Next, we will look in detail at the winners and winning projects of the second annual BIM Awards that were handed out at the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice conference held in Los Angeles last month.

New releases of all the leading BIM applications for architectural design are now available, and this month, AECbytes will review two of these in detail: Autodesk Revit Building 9 and ArchiCAD 10.

And finally, the Tips and Tricks section this month will complement the product reviews with tutorials on the new releases: detailing improvements in Revit Building 9; and using ArchiCAD 10 with Google Earth.

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > July 2006