We introduced you to Shoegnome blogger, Jared Banks about a year ago. Today, we’re proud to announce that Jared, the voice of Shoegnome, will add his voice to the BIM Engine Blog. He’s been an ArchiCAD user since 2006 and can share insight that we’re confident will be a welcome addition.
Soon after starting my blog in 2010, I attended the user group for another BIM software solution. I’d been running our local ArchiCAD user group for about a year and I wanted to see how someone else ran a meeting. My favorite comment from the evening was “If you lose your job as a [competing BIM software] technician, you can get a job as a database programmer!”
What? Huh? Okay. I get the point. A BIM is a giant database. The 3D model is just one view of that. The 2D drawings another. The sheets a third. The schedules a fourth. Ad nauseam. I agree and use this argument often. In future blog posts I’m sure I’ll defend that position as I talk about various aspects of ArchiCAD. But technician? Database programmer? BIM should liberate us from the constraints of our old ways for the better. Not weigh us down and transform us into techno-slaves. Why design with a pencil when you can use a spreadsheet! That’s going to get a lot of converts. How about a tool which helps you understand and execute your designs better? A tool that might be more complex to learn, but will help younger staff catch problems and ask more intelligent questions. That’s starting to sound a little better.
Are you happy with how you work? Do you have someone to talk to about your production methods? Is ArchiCAD invisible to you like using a pencil or do you have to constantly think about HOW to do a particular task? As the newest contributor to the BIM Engine blog, I’m excited to share my experiences with learning, teaching, and using ArchiCAD. I love that I get to work with ArchiCAD on a daily basis because it helps me think more about buildings and spaces. And I love writing about ArchiCAD; not just to show how to do a certain task, but also to share why you want to do it in a particular way. All the advice and tips need context. They need to be viewed from the trenches. And that’s what Shoegnome is about. Whether as the BIM manager at firms in Minnesota or as a consultant training ArchiCAD users and helping firms organize their production methods, I’m focused on the bottom up approach to ArchiCAD and BIM.
So watch this space for both the how and the why of ArchiCAD. Advice and stories that will help you excel as an architect and designer. Want to know a little more about me? Check out the about me page on my blog or my LinkedIn profile.
