Sketchup, BIM and return on investment

Yes, it will.

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I understand the power of your plugin. It’s the most interesting and complete for taking out information I’ve ever seen for Sketchup. Congratulation

The only problem for me is that it seems a bit over the top for a small office like mine. I will defnitely store it my mind.

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Hi paddyclown,
Opinions can change, all part of the learning curve & yes, workflow not tool !

So, what is the advice if one wanted to dip ones toe in the water so to speak as a complete novice with BIM on very small domestic projects. Is there a basic YOUTUBE video that just explains what typically one should address/include in a BIM workflow for small projects & how this would be beneficial.

Also, a lot of small domestic projects that I’m involved in here in the UK, (even new build dwellings) clients seem to just want you to act as their agent for the Architectural design process for submitting & obtaining Planning permission & the same for Building Control approval. Services after that such as running the job on site, they seem less interested & increasingly seem confident in doing this with their appointed contractors.

Maybe it can help you… SketchUp BIM Workflow

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The level that I suspect you and I both work at, I think it’s not so much that the client is not interested in following on with a project management package, just that the type of project that it is – and yes I would also include the occasional single dwelling – there is a long established tradition in the UK that the builder takes on that project management.

Indeed many of the builders I know are very resistant to the idea of project management by me and to be honest I’d prefer not to get involved and the client wouldn’t want to pay anyway.

That’s the way it is unfortunately but at least many of the builders I know that have worked from my documentation are very competent, detail minded and want to do a premium job.

On the other hand – when I worked in some architects practices many years ago – the experience was different…

Domestic clients wanted the whole package from conception to completion – they would approach architects particularly because that’s what they wanted.

Hi PaulMcAlenan,
Yes, you’re right on those points, however, I do visit site on most projects out of interest only & also offer an ‘ad-hoc’ paid for service to visit site to discuss any issues.

I too worked in a few high street Architect practices back in the day & although clients for small-ish projects did in largeness accept the site works were part of the Architect package, I did see some projects cease with this service early on in the process as the client was quite satisfied with their appointed Building Contractor. I think as UK Building Control make site inspections for compliance with the approved plans under the Building Act 1984 & provide a completion certificate at the end, clients do seem puzzled of why they need site supervision as well, I know it’s more than that, as Building Control don’t look at quality or certain details etc.

As for BIM & my SketchUP Pro, I mostly use SU to complement a project now & then for the odd architectural visual, not for construction plans per-se, that is done with an Architectural CAD programme.

@CJT1963 well, the document @rtches has created is a wonderful resource; I wish we’d had something like that when we set out on our journey into BIM :slight_smile:
For us it came about gradually & in part thanks to our carpenter friends, since we do mostly timber buildings… They were the first to tell us that they did 3d models based on 2d dwgs that we gave them (that we had taken from our 3d models, absurd, no ?!).
So once we learned this we set about finding an exchange format that would let us go back and forth & stumbled upon .ifc and the whole notion of BIM as a formal process.
I then went on a course organized by the Ordre des Architectes (like the RIBA, but french) to learn the basics of BIM management in order to better understand the basic notions & terminology.
Since then we’ve honed our skills as a team in the office & luckily many of our engineers & contractors that we often work with have got on board & started to be enthusiastic & competent…
What I often say to contractors for example is that I’d rather we checked that there’s no “clashes” on a screen whilst drinking coffee in a warm office than be onsite, feet in the mud, & discover that thousands of € of equipment is going to be for nothing because it bumps into a beam or truss or something & everybody starts yelling !
This is really the most basic level of BIM - we call it BIM Bricolage (DIY) & it might be sneered at by people building sky-scrapers or hospitals, but on small to medium jobs it’s already a good start !
Within the design team, we have taken things further in that we want to be able to do quantity take offs & check that we have covered all elements in our spec’ documents, so obviously we need tools to do that.
In SU without plugins that is impossible, so thankfully @rtches à @brewsky have written plugins that help !
It’s all about streamlining the process and making the most of that fact of modelling.
To sum it up, back in the day we did detailed but dumb models (from 2008-2016) then we started adding information & better organising the models so that we could better check our own work & then better check the stuff we received.
What we need now is for Trimble to finally give us inhouse tools to keep up with the growing demand for well informed & documented models…
Obviously if we won the next Opera House we’d probably have to totally change our tools & hire loads of staff that could operate them (Revit or something) but since we are probably never going to do stuff that exceeds 5m€, for the moment we get by with what we’ve got !
Hope that helps.

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To give a follow-up to what i said earlier, here’s a concrete example of how we use a very basic BIM workflow to better anticipate in order to build better:
Currently I’m working on a small (4 town houses) project that is about to go onsite and today the Hvac people sent me their initial ifc which I just pulled into SU & was then able to detect some stuff that needs changing and stuff that I need to change or other contractors will need to change:



Once I’ve redlined those issues on screenshots, I just have to upload them to the platform where all files for the project are kept & the different people concerned can take a look so that at the next coordination meeting, I can get everyone doing what needs doing BEFORE we get on site.
I know we used to do this type of stuff with dwg files, but what comfort to work in 3D !
This is totally entry-level BIM & may be scoffed at by the Big Boy BIMmers of the Revit world, but since I’m not building an opera house I don’t care.
Nobody contracted me to adopt a BIM approach, & contractually the other participants in the project aren’t either, but since several of us do use a BIM approach, it allows us to be more serene knowing that we’ve ironed out many potential issues whilst drinking coffee in a warm office rather than onsite in the cold with thousands of €s of gear that needs changing at the last minute, leading to arguments and delays and all the nightmares that go with that !
So, even if you have a small office, you might want to think again about rejecting BIM as an expensive add-on…

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There is no doubt that having a project in BIM saves a lot of problems in execution and that in the end means time and cost savings.
congratulations @paddyclown

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Thanks @rtches.
And obviously this very basic approach is only the first step on a journey into BIM…
thanks to your plugins we can also start exploiting things like quantity take offs & checking that we’ve written specs for everything that we’ve modelled !
For an increasing number of projects, this is becoming a contractual thing.
But again, for those who are standing on the threshold wondering if it’s worth taking the leap, just dive in and start with the basics, like everything there’s no sense trying to run before you can walk ! :slight_smile:

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let the Revit users scoff all they want. this is what you need and, seems to me, more easily achieved in Sketchup

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Adopting BIM for small-scale projects, like new builds or renovations, can greatly improve efficiency and collaboration, even if not explicitly required. It reduces errors, enhances documentation, and supports lifecycle management.
Though SketchUp isn’t a traditional BIM tool, it can be used effectively with plugins like IFC Manager and integrations with Trimble Connect for cloud collaboration. Educating clients on BIM’s benefits can help demonstrate its value, and it can be scaled to suit project size.

In short, using BIM in small projects offers significant advantages, making workflows more efficient and improving outcomes.

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I don’t believe that for small scale buildings IFC is that helpful.

A 3d model drom sketchup is often more interesting for construction teams.

IFC is important when large coordination efforts matter.

What’s intereting in using Sketchup for IFC in smaller projects ist that you can get a notion on how to deploy it for large scale development later.

Hmm, I beg to differ…
We do mostly small & medium (max 5m€) projects and find that sharing ifc files with our “eco-system” of engineers and contractors works very well.

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I have received an IFC file for structural engineering, for a small project, the first time this week. Never had I seen such a thing as even a 3D model on this project scale. Very welcome btw!

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