New: "ARCxl The App" and 2 low cost subscriptions

Effective today the ARCxl app became available through the Autodesk Exchange Apps store.  Though appearing in the store last week a minor issue prevented downloading.  That appears to have been corrected.  The app is free, and like the website comes with limited access to the library.  Access can be increased with new and lower cost subscriptions.

What does the app do?  If you are using Revit 2013 and install the app, an ARCxl tab opens a panel that provides more convenient access to the library and the ARCxl Planroom.  The planroom will be described in more detail following its actual launch in mid-October 2012.  The ARCxl app simply offers a choice of buttons that open a default browser on a user selected page.  Use the ARCxl website or an app button for navigating.

Get the app for Revit 2013!

Perhaps the most important thing is that it makes users more efficient by serving as a reminder to download a detail for modification instead of starting from scratch.

Minor efficiency gains produce major profits

In this post I’d like to use some basic math to demonstrate my point – that reducing your project production cost by just 5% increases project profit by 50%.  With that understanding it becomes easily apparent that modest changes can have a very dramatic effect on a firm’s overall bottom line or ultimate survival.  Surprisingly or not, our profit is not something Autodesk puts much emphasis on.  Instead they boast that despite a tough economy their 2011 revenue was a record 2.2 billion representing an increase of 14% over 2010 (also a very good year).

Louis Kahn died of a heart attack in a men's restroom in Pennsylvania Station. He went unidentified for three days and despite his long career, he was deeply in debt when he died.

As an architect and having been in the field for more than 25 years, it’s no secret architects consider themselves artists more than they do “bean-counters.” There is a tendency to look down on the accounting department or even the firm Principal that reminds staff of the need to watch the project budget.  Among most architects the emphasis is on doing our best work while believing in at least one of the following diametrically opposed myths:

1. If we do our best work we will be financially rewarded for it.
2. Or, believing that if we produce good work, living in relative poverty is the inevitable price we pay as an artist.

My point is that neither is necessarily true.  Not that there isn’t a relationship between good work and good business, but that there are other factors at stake.  These factors should be exploited to help ensure survival, improve profit and also allow for better design.  We all know architects that defy either of these two widely held beliefs.

Here is the simple and perhaps obvious math to satisfy the original premise:  Traditionally architecture firms strive for a profit margin that ranges from 10 to 15% on any given project.  In the current economy many firms are satisfied to break even and survive in order to outlast the recession.  For the sake of this example let’s assume the project target profit margin is 10% and that it would ordinarily be met.  In order to achieve this profit, total cost of producing the project, from initial marketing through completion of construction administration, should be 90% of the architectural portion of project fees including all office overhead divided among other projects.

In the extreme example above, 10% of total project production cost is saved during the CD phase, effectively doubling profit from 10 to 20%.

Now looking at 100% of the architect's total project cost through the 5 (or 6) phases of a project, if 1% could be saved from each of these phases you would add 5% to your 10% profit margin, or viewed another way increase your profit margin by 50%.  Alternatively any combination of savings from phases in even small amounts could do the same assuming in all cases you don't exceed the budget of the other phases - frequently a problem.  Any savings helps to offset loses or make a project that would otherwise break-even or lose money, a potentially profitable project.

If you are using Revit you have probably found that you are saving man hours during the CA phase with fewer Change Orders etc, and are very possibly saving in other phases as well.  New users will find that the learning curve causes a net loss in productivity and may see no benefits during CA with their earliest use of Revit.  If this is the case, don’t give up now, you're almost there and a recession is the best time to take on the challenge of learning anything new.

The guiding principal behind ARCxl is to participate in improving the profitability or survival of architecture firms also believing that we will be rewarded for the effort.  Our first venture has been to provide non-proprietary Revit detail (and CAD) content that we share among architects to assist in improving efficiency.  The content provided by manufactures is understandably intended to steer architects towards their products but does nothing to improve that architect's bottom line.  Historically architects have done very little to share resources among themselves, frequently repeating the same tasks over and over.  Even within a single office a staff member will redraw a detail rather than search through an office library.  While nothing can prevent the mismanagement of time, we believe that it is possible to offer alternatives to those that would like to.

It is quite possible that among some project types that include typical details, the ARCxl detail library will save 5% of total project cost during the construction document phase thus increasing project profit by 50%.  In an economy that provides little opportunity for profit, here's one you should take advantage of.

Further, using the same simple math, it should be apparent that offering similar opportunities for modest gains in other phases could effectively lead to doubling or even tripling traditional profit margins.  The only question is, how many architects are willing to suspend their belief in myth 1 and 2 (identified above) to participate in a collective effort that makes us all more competitive here and abroad?

ARCxl is looking for Beta testers located within North America for our next efficiency improvement project.  To participate you must be a verifiable registered architect and Principal of an architecture firm.  If you are interested, from North America phone me at:  One, eight hundred, five three three - zero two nine seven.

Sales Representatives are Now Directly Accessible

As ARCxl.com has continued to experiment and evolve, our goal has remained providing opportunities to improve efficiency and productivity to architects, architecture firms and others in the construction industry that utilize our services.  Building Product Manufacturer's (BPM's) have long used advertising methods to build their brand and provide access to their corporate websites, ARCxl has been one of them.  But we are always asking ourselves what can we do to improve at making architecture more profitable?

It occurred to us that with so many other online directories already available, maybe we could offer something completely unique and more useful.  As helpful as a website can be, a professional consultant can be much more helpful.

Many times after going only to a product website for a selection, I've eventually ended up speaking to a product consultant and learned that the product I thought I wanted to spec was not the best for the application.  Therefore I may have wasted many hours or even days working with an incorrect assumption that could have been avoided having a single conversation with the right person.

In a World that seems continually becoming less personal, what can ARCxl do to help architects, builders and product consultants, create better working relationships that reduce wasted time?  We have now replaced impersonal website hyperlinks with digital business cards.

These cards do two things.  First they help you recognize your local representatives at trade events and second they put their contact information at your fingertips.  After a relationship has begun, and consultant recommendations made, then it makes sense to go directly to the appropriate web pages looking for the correct information, rather than engage in a goose chase skimming over multiple manufacture sites - often never finding what you're looking for.

You will only be introduced to those sales consultants that represent products in your area.  Using simple I.P. address technology, representatives outside your area are filtered out.  Just as with our former product ads, when you are looking at details that include particular products, representatives of those products are the ones that will appear.  This filtering will only begin to take effect once the number of representatives in your area start to crowd each other out.

New ARCxl Low Cost Subscriptions

We continue to respond to user input and modify ARCxl.com to suit your needs.  With that in mind we now offer both free details/components and new low cost library subscriptions.  The only difference is in the number of downloads available during a 24 hour period.  As a free service we continue to provide up to 3 free completed details and 20 individual components per day.  As a business we offer increased daily detail download access for those willing to pay a small annual fee for the convenience of using our massive library.

This allows users to sample the details before buying a subscription, or if struggling in a tight economy - continue to get some free production help.  Those busy enough to require more access simply make a modest payment and receive the increased access you'd like for the coming year.

For those that have been asking for the subscriptions we now offer, we regret the delay.  As stated frequently, without your complaints and comments we can't improve - so please do.

Email link: Comments and/or Complaints

ARCxl adds CAD/dwg, PDF and Eases Restrictions

Effective July 19, 2011, two very significant alterations were made to the ARCxl website.  We have added CAD/dwg, and PDF file formats to our library.  We have also removed restrictions on account location and email address types.  Other changes have been made as well.  None should significantly impact current users.  As always we encourage complaints if anyone does have a problem with our updates.

Often the obvious escapes attention.  Such is the case with a decision I made a couple years ago to forego offering CAD/dwg versions of our details.  At the time I thought, "everyone already has their CAD library in place, it's the completed details in Revit format that are truly needed".  I also figured that it would only be a matter of 5-10 years before Revit caught or replaced AutoCAD as the dominant method of providing construction documentation.  These beliefs were probably not entirely off the mark, but what was important that I hadn't given enough consideration to is: that if you've gone to the trouble to provide the Revit library, why not also export to CAD for those that haven't yet made the switch?  When they do they'll already be familiar with ARCxl.  And with some minor adjustments Revit makes beautiful dwg files.

I can't over emphasize that all our details were originally produced native in Revit and only then exported to DWG and PDF format, not the other way around.  You can make a "smart detail" dumb but you can't make a "dumb detail" smart.  My greatest concern about commingling these detail types is that it will create the presumption that our details were somehow converted from AutoCAD to Revit.  I assure you this is not the case and I strongly urge that Revit users never import or convert DWG files.  You always want pure Revit in your Revit project files.

The following video is brief and replaces other introductory demonstrations we have made for our detail library.

The other significant change is that we no longer restrict account creation to North American architects with their own domain addresses.

Less significant changes include making our home page a directory of details instead of requiring that you first enter the site and then reach this detail directory.

Account creation and password reset are now automated but take a few moments to activate so be patient.  All of these should contribute to increased adoption and use of our site.

Warmest regards,

Mark A. Siever, AIA, CSI
ARCxl President and founder

How Smart Can a Detail Be? Part 2

“Hypermodeling” back-to-the-future.

In the June 2 - “How Smart Can a Detail Be?”  I’d really intended no Part 2, but only days after the ink had dried; I was introduced to “HyperModeling” by an old acquaintance and new friend - Rob Snyder.  The term hyper-modeling immediately conjures up intensive and manic models with all their detail built 3-dimensionally.  For someone that has bet the farm on an important continuing role and need for 2-d details, this is a really scary thought, not just for me, but all those that would be expected to do that “hyper”-modeling (and naturally with no added fee).

But fortunately for all of us, the name implies the polar opposite of what it really is.  Assuming I understand it correctly, it is Bentley’s new technology aimed at placing multiple forms of information contextually in 3-dimensional virtual space.  In other words not only might it be a computer generated detail, but it could be scribbled on a napkin, scanned, and located in both the Building Information Model and the drawing sheets referenced with a call-out.  That detail could take many digital forms, pdf, dwg, dng, dxf but apparently not rvt or rfa.

(Now this is where an image and link were supposed to go of Bentley's way-crazy-cool Hypermodeling project. But the video links and a PowerPoint presentation have either disappeared or become broken.  I will check back to fill this gap.)

So what could have been a marriage made in heaven, maybe just an old fashioned shotgun wedding - Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s – Revit and Bentley – or at least ARCxl’s 40,000 details and Bentley’s sexy new place to put them, well let’s just say it looked like the wedding might be called off because of a little file format problem.

Not one to give up easily, I see that Hypermodeling does accept these other file formats.  ARCxl could produce these other file formats.  So why not produce other file formats?  They won’t have all the functionality of our native Revit details but there are still plenty out there using various cad programs that could also use a well made .dwg file. Click on the detail image below to enlarge.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The AutoCAD detail above is an export of an ARCxl detail made with Revit.  In other words, it's a detail from a new technology, exported to an old one (done with near perfect layering standards), that can also be used in the latest technology of a competing product.  So now do you get my Back to the Future analogy?  How about the chalkboard photos of a lecture by Christopher Llyod on time travel and Einstein's lecture on the space-time continuum? No?  If not I probably should have ended at part 1.  As you know sequels are rarely as good as the original.

How "Smart" can a detail be?

As with any two people there are different types of "intelligence". There is the "out-of-the-box" intelligence that Revit comes with, and the "think-outside-the-box" value added intelligence developers and users bring to the table. I'm not knocking out-of-the-box standard intelligence, I'm simply exploiting one of the built in but lesser used options already available in Revit. And making it's usefulness more widely available in addition to keeping the standard stuff.

Recently a BIM manager exploring the possible use of the ARCxl detail library offered me some advice: if we want to be successful, we should dump our "dummy tag" annotations in favor of "intelligent identity information". He went on to explain that the "I" in BIM stands for "information".

As an architect and early BIM adopter, a University Revit/BIM instructor, an invited AIA/CSI presenter and panelist, the recipient of a "Visionary Award" for  work in BIM, I'm familiar with what the BIM acronym stands for.  The suggestion that I didn't know that the "I" stands for "Information" kind of ticked-me-off. But even if the product is free, the customer's always right, right? And I am always inviting comment, so it's a little hypocritical to complain about his sharing a perception if I asked for it. If this perception is shared by others it deserves attention.

There was also a blogger in Denmark that went even further suggesting that we didn't understand BIM at all because we were making 2-d details. Anyone might reasonably come to the same conclusion based on the fact that seemingly no one else is doing what ARCxl is, while everyone and their mother are building 3-d (and 2-d) component families. It's not because we don't know how or why. I've been 3-d modeling since 1991. Seeing the benefits led me to programs like DataCad, Archicad, and Revit in the first place.

Side note: anyone that thinks BIM is only about 3-d modeling needs to read "BIG BIM little bim" by Finith Jernigan. It's much more than Revit, the third, fourth and fifth dimensions, or access to keynotes. I'll elaborate on our planned contributions to these other dimensions below and in future blog postings. Yea I know, you might be thinking, with a name like Finith Jernigan, maybe he was the guy from Denmark dissing your details? I happen to know that he practices architecture and writes in Maryland. I can't say if he approves of our details.

When I hear that a firm is switching to Revit and then I hear it was a false start, it is invariably followed by.... "but you can't do details in Revit". With our own 40,000 and growing completed architectural detail library, I think we've proven otherwise. But their concerns are well documented as evidenced by all the AUGI threads and blogs devoted to the many "troubles" detailing in Revit. More to the point, with all the fuss over this real or imagined "trouble" it is clear there is still the need for architectural details or the issue would be moot.

So this answers the guy in Denmark, but what about the BIM manager who called our annotations "dumb"? He's at least partly right - we purposely did not include identity data knowing we could (and probably would) add it later, but at any time so could he. And is it really such a big deal to fill in the keynotes data and do it the way you want if you're going to have to do it anyway when building details from scratch? 


Important Note: with ARCxl details you must first import them into a project file before they know where to find your keynotes .txt file. If you don't do this you'll get an error message.

From a practical stand-point there are limits to what kind of identity data makes sense with a detail component. Without going into each, the only strong case belongs to the "keynotes" category.

And every firm will have their keynoting preferences. When I started laying the groundwork for ARCxl, Revit did not yet include a keynote .txt file for MasterFormat 04 and I thought we should be up to date. Additionally, I've counted 22 different possible keynote codes in the standard Revit keynote txt file to represent a 2x6. So which one should we include with our 2x6 component section? 06 11 00 - Wood Framing? 06 11 00.F1 - 2x6? 06 11 00.F2 - 2x6 Framing? 06 11 00.F8 - 2x6 Studs 24" O.C.? Or any one of the 18 others? See the problem? No one fits all, or its so generic as to be nearly useless, ultimately leaving the proper choice up to the individual user. So is it better for us to guess incorrectly at your preferences or not risk the error and have you make the determination?

Faced with no good or clear choice the decision was made to choose another path altogether, perhaps not well understood by everyone, but very obvious to others. We have left Revit users the option of deciding the keynotes that serve their use best, and replacing our "dumb" annotations if they like. Hyperlinks are not supported by keynotes.

Ours do contain "Information" in the form of these hyperlinks to product manufactures, specification pages (future), help files, and others as well as already being coordinated with the component they point to and a proper spec section MasterFormat ID. There is an ARCxl annotation family available that contains all section annotations that can be edited by the end user with some care.

Yes there are limitations to details and detail components. And 3-d BIM components serve a needed purpose as do these 2-d completed details. But what is the answer to how smart can a detail be?  If it's now practical and profitable to switch from CAD to BIM, if its flexible enough to allow your office standard keynotes and/or MasterFormat 04 annotations with hyperlinks to building product information, if it takes a fraction of the time to download and modify opposed to building from scratch or locating in your office detail library, or trying to convert from or link to AutoCAD details, if it brought you to the doorstep of a company that wants to help architects start to win back lost financial ground, it might not qualify as genius, but it aint exactly "dumb" either.  Compared to CAD details, relatively speaking ARCxl Revit built details are "an Einstein".