No one turns into an advanced Dynamo user overnight; nor are the constraints of a full time job conducive to attending a formal months long curriculum on the subject. This doesn’t mean one’s approach to learning the Dynamo visual programming language for REVIT shouldn’t be structured. This presentation aims to give self-directed learners strategies and resources to undertake a substantial part of their own education themselves, as well as providing a healthy dose of support and encouragement that it can indeed be done. Topics covered will include how to get help online and debugging best practices, as well as examples of why learning a scripting language will make any creative or organizational industry challenge easier. Don’t be the person who shows up to site with a shovel; come prepared with an excavator. Main Topics: 1) Available resources. 2) Examples of getting help online. 3) Debugging and reverse engineering. 4) Advancement. 5) How to find time? The answer is why learn Dynamo.

Raw ideas will always be born out of the needs of those commissioning new buildings. When we extract data from these ideas we form the constraints and foundation for a computational or BIM (building information model) approach. This allows us to identify the key decision factors, and visualize them both as mathematical data and geometry within real-time render engines. This future of real-time decision making is the product of technological innovation and the bones of a "Digital Twin". Data-driven design is different from designing to have an efficient plan or to meet BOMA goals because in the latter case, the geometry is attempting to meet a criterion through an iterative process of trial and error. Data driven design will have geometry react to data and be inherently confined to it. This is like seeing a dashboard of data visualization – the graphic story can be expressed in many creative ways but the graphics themselves are confined to represent the data. As we continue to mature, data visualization will become a paramount skill.

Owners mandating BIM is nothing new. However, when an expert owner is a city who understands the benefits of implementing BIM across their projects and across their internal teams ranging from engineering to water treatment, it’s a whole new world. This presentation will cover the justifications for the approach, a comprehensive study of existing workflows and the process and workflows that are being implemented on over $700 million of projects by Ville de Quebec. How the change process was handled will also be discussed as the eventual goal of the project is for Ville de Quebec to be completely self-sufficient in their whole lifecycle, integrated BIM approach.

Through the lens of a FM considering a modification or addition to their existing building, as-built conditions are one of the first steps to developing an aspect of the digital twin: a replica of physical assets that can be used for various purposes. Starting with a laser scan, a point cloud data set is generated with millimetre accuracy and provides the basis for digital reconstruction. Hours can be spent modeling these existing conditions as efficiently as possible with parametric tools. With various disciplines to design, construct and operate a building using different BIM authoring tools, what’s the most effective file format to provide accurate and interoperable as-built conditions to consultants? The buildingSMART .IFC format. This session will provide architects, general contractors, engineers and surveyors with a comparative analysis of the Point Cloud to IFC workflow for as-built conditions. Our presenters have each taken the same single data set in to their respective Trimble, Revit, ArchiCad and Vectorworks applications, modeled the geometry with native parametric tools and then exported to IFC. They’ll present their findings, discuss the roadblocks encountered and share their insight in to the workflow so that attendees can make informed decisions about best practices for their workflow and company.

The challenges related to Design-Build project delivery are numerous and include technical specifications, personnel management, and communication. Recently, Graham incorporated Revizto to address many of these issues. Join Mikko Leppanen (Graham) and Dan McKinnon (Revizto) as they walk you through how Graham coordinated and communicated with key project stakeholders by leveraging a single digital environment for issue tracking, 2D & 3D project coordination, and real-time communication and reporting. During this session we will discuss what motivated the change in Graham’s coordination process, how they adopted this new workflow and the benefit to each of the project participants.

In the theme of Digital Twins, there are several underlying assumptions: we assume that things are built as they are designed, we assume that a digital representation matches the built condition, that the model information is accurate and maintained throughout a building’s life cycle. This presentation will focus on the real project experiences, good and bad, of managing the BIM process on behalf of building owners for many projects in healthcare, airports, education and energy for close to a decade. Building owners have engaged Summit BIM to develop BIM standards and to project manage the BIM process on projects to ensure their needs are met. The session will list various issues, positive and negative that help a BIM project stay on track and be successful. Solutions and challenges faced in the industry will be discussed to help clarify exactly how a controlled BIM process can benefit the entire project team, including the building owner.

The explosion of data spurred on by technologies such as the Internet of Things, along with the growth of computing power and emerging data science techniques such as machine learning, makes possible a renewed understanding of a community's behaviour, which in turn, can assist in more accurately quantifying the effects of operational and planning decisions made by government officials and by those who provide them services. High fidelity demographic and movement mapping through telecommunications data, connected and autonomous vehicles, and mobile location-based services all provide unprecedented data sources to planners, designers, engineers, and technologists alike, opening up a myriad of improved outcomes for how communities are built and will be built in the future. If this data could be better shared and harnessed, it will be possible to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, better identify transportation barriers, plan for more inclusive and sustainable economies, prevent crime and mitigate the impacts of disasters, all with smarter, better coordinated, more efficient planning and operations.

With the dazzling technological development of the recent years, the physical world and the virtual world have come even closer together. After the introduction of various Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions and advancements in Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins have become the new futuristic obsession of various sectors. Developed in the early 2000s, this concept has now come into the spotlight as a technology that is even more avant-garde than Building Information Modeling. It is our opportunity to enhance asset performance, help actors anticipate adverse environmental effects during the life cycle stages, forecast maintenance activities based on sensor data and bring further benefits for built asset all across the globe.

As the head of ETRO Construction—a general contracting and construction management firm that’s grown to nearly $40M in annual revenue in under four years—Mike Maierle has been at the helm of growing the company both in size and in its industry-leading take on innovation in the building industry. Exploring the future of contracting and construction management, Mike will host a discussion about not only what’s required of businesses to constantly innovate internally, but also how the integration of innovative approaches to their building processes—from end to end—will be demanded by clients and communities seeking sustainable and efficient solutions for how projects are managed, completed, and live over time. You’ll connect with the importance that tech-facilitated communication plays in working harder, smarter, and how LEAN approaches can only get more LEAN with the support and integration of digital and cloud based services and products. You’ll do a dive into seeing how leveraging good technology can help do more work with fewer people - causing an uptick in efficiency across the board. And, you’ll take a peek into the future and see how automation and augmented and virtual realities will change the entire game of the building industry.

Value is created by improving the balance between cost, speed and quality. An industry-wide systems change is necessary to unlock the full potential of technology to drive this improvement. This panel brings together visionary leaders with the transformative solutions to address, not just the value balance, but also climate change and social well-being. But, there are barriers. Our panelists will discuss their “Big Ask” – what they need and why - for them to break down those barriers and unlock the full potential of their solutions to optimizing value to building owners, users and the communities they serve.