Texas BIM Standards: Texas Facilities Commission Responds

Chris Tisdel Of the Texas Facilities Commission responded quickly yesterday to the post on Texas BIM Guidelines. He states that TFC is working to include the IFC format in their guidelines and that it is not TFC’s intent to exclude any part of the AEC industry from providing usable data.

Jeffrey W. Ouellette, Assoc. AIA
Project Architect, Integrated Practice
Nemetschek North America, Inc.
7150 Riverwood Drive
Columbia, MD 21046 USA

Mr. Ouellette and all Vectorworks users,

Please be aware the you will not need to take any litigation-type steps versus Texas Facilities Commission as our BIM guidelines and standards are currently being revised. I believe that you will be more agreeable to them in their next iteration. Said update will include avenues for the acceptance of the IFC format.
While it is my contention that owners need good, useable [sic] data in order to operate and maintain their building stock, it is understandable that the level of technology across all disciplines is not completely interchangeable or interoperable and as such, TFC is very willing to work with the entire AEC industry, to get the useable [sic] data that is needs.
I will say that this update to the inclusion of the IFC format is a response to the current level of native interoperability between major software platforms and not due to negative response from the AEC industry. I have personally only heard from one Graphisoft vendor with similar views as to the TFC adoption of BIM. I find it unfortunate that instead of contacting TFC directly to discuss thoughts or opinions of the BIM adoption, the reaction is to simply make an open call for litigation.
Regardless, the entire AEC community has and always will be eligible for TFC projects and we have no doubt, extremely capable of meeting our BIM requirements.

Chris Tisdel

April 29, 2010 6:19 PM

Texas Sustainability said…
Mr. Tisdel,

Thank you for your quick response. It’s good to know that TFC is keeping up with the rapid advances in software and the open architecture that excludes no one. GSA requires all submittals in IFC format and have a program which reads IFC.

BTW, Graphisoft makes Archicad. Vectorworks is made by Nemetschek North America, which acquired Graphsoft in 2000.

April 29, 2010 9:36 PM

Texas BIM Standards and Vectorworks users

The State of Texas is discriminating against open source, open standard BIM options while GSA accepts these programs for use on federal projects as long as the models can be submitted as IFC files. This cannot stand. Please support fair trade in Texas.

We have been reviewing the actions of the Texas Facilities Commission
in the publishing of their new Professional Service Provider
Guidelines and Standards. As you may be well aware, they have mandated
that Autodesk Revit, Civil3D, and DWF be submitted as the BIM formats
for all projects.  They have institutionalized discriminatory business
practices in light of open source, open standard options available to
the marketplace (using IFC and PDF). We feel that this action is an
egregious action against open, fair trade rules and should not stand.
As such, I have been told by our CEO, Sean Flaherty, to spread the
news that we will support any of our users who wish to challenge these
guidelines in court by providing full legal services and fees
necessary to represent any user, or group of users, who wish to file
claim against the TFC.

Even if any of you are not directly affected, please indicate to your
peers and fellow Vectorworks users about our support, forward this
email, and feel free to contact us if anyone should choose to proceed
with legal action.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey W. Ouellette, Assoc. AIA
Project Architect, Integrated Practice
Nemetschek North America, Inc.
7150 Riverwood Drive
Columbia, MD 21046 USA

T 410-290-5114
T 443-542-0621
E jouellette@vectorworks.net
http://www.vectorworks.net

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Remodeling Growth: It’s Back

Good news for energy savers. Remember, "the greenest home is the one that's already built."

• From: Remodeling magazine 2010 
• Posted on: April 15, 2010

Remodeling Growth: It’s Back

Latest LIRA suggests spending will accelerate nearly 5 percent this year.

By:

Leah Thayer

 

For the first time since 2006, home improvement spending is on the upswing. Annual growth will be nearly five percent in 2010, and all signs suggest that the positive trend will continue in 2011, according to the latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released today by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

The news comes as some relief to industry observers. “Like everyone else, we’ve been waiting for the market to turn,” says Kermit Baker, director of the Harvard program. “The only modest surprise is how steep the uptick is,” particularly as the fourth quarter “takes us into positive territory” and growth continues in 2011.

Conducted quarterly, the LIRA is comprised of eight data points that impact home improvement spending. These include shipments of building materials (Census Bureau), the Pending Home Sales Index (National Association of Realtors), the Remodeling Market Index (future business expectations, National Association of Home Builders), and the 30-year Treasury Bond yield (Federal Reserve Board).

Of all these indicators, the leading mover for the latest LIRA is pending home sales, which Baker says are “moving very strongly.” The Remodeling Market Index provides a significant lift as well, especially since it was “very depressed for such a long period.” Baker also cites low interest rates, but notes that these are beginning to climb again.

Major problems in the housing industry remain, Baker says, especially the massive inventory of homes for sale. The potential upside of this for remodelers is that “many of these homes will need to be fixed up before they can be sold.”

He also points to continued volatility in the materials market, such as metals and lumber. “The market has been weak for so long that it probably shuttered a lot [of materials production], and it takes a while to get the capacity back up,” Baker says. “If demand comes on faster than manufacturers expect, there could be another round of materials inflation. That would be quite ironic.” — Leah Thayer is a senior editor of REMODELING magazine.

RESOURCES

April 15 Harvard press release on the 1Q 2010 LIRA.

Previous REMODELING coverage of LIRA reports.

Explanation of LIRA’s benchmarking methodologies.  

Credit: Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University