Beating the Brexit blues
The uncertainty over Brexit is already having predictable effects...

A farewell to Excel
After all of the discussions about the demise of Excel as companies leverage the graphical and information rich tools we currently have available - see the article on Bentley's ProjectWise EADOC in this issue, for example - I felt that some appreciation of Microsoft's spreadsheet tool was long overdue...

Toasted!
I was going to do something entirely predictable and boring for this month's Comment, as it will be landing on your doorsteps right upon the BIM deadline - but if your organisation hasn't already committed itself to the process after half a dozen years of expositions, conferences, seminars and tuition courses, you have probably decided that, despite the undoubted benefits it will bring you, that is outweighed by the effort of changing the way your company works....

Efficient solutions
There is an emphasis in this issue on improving project efficiency, which is covered in a number of different ways across several articles - two of which also raise controversial points about the focus and direction of BIM...

Bring on the machines!
There was a time when the construction industry, and architects in particular, where castigated as not adopting new technology as quickly as the manufacturing industry, which had moved rapidly into 3D software, product and project lifecycle management, high quality visualisation and rendering, 3D printing and so on...

Information Overload
I hereby lay claim to having been the first person to use the term Information Overload!...

Introduction
The utilisation of BIM grows apace - By David Chadwick, Editor, CAD User...

Steel yourself for the future
We're a bit top heavy on structural engineering in this issue, but each of our four articles on the subject examine different aspect of the industry...

Jack of all trades
What a great time to be an architect...

Soft Landings
The most significant figure in this issue is the difference between the cost of designing and building something, and the cost of running it...

On the right track?
If you are a frequent traveller on the Underground and have to go through Bond Street you will have noted that the station is currently closed, exuding an air of complete abandonment and lack of activity...

BIM, grammatically speaking
While chatting with guests at the end of another successful Construction Computing Awards in November, just prior to going to press with this issue, the subject of BIM loomed large with all the inevitability of the following morning’s sore head...

BIM in the spotlight
This month I had the pleasure of attending the joint NLA-NBS conference “BIM - are you ready for the digital switchover?” at The Building Centre in London and chaired by David Philp, Head of the BIM Task Group...

Kicking off the Bucket List!
One of the most interesting, or possibly most annoying, features of modern life is the compilation of lists of just about everything, from the 10 best goals of the World Cup to the 50 worst sci-fi films (although with my predilection for classic 'B' movies, I would probably rate most of these as the 50 best!)...

BIM comes of age
BIM is focusing the mind of the construction industry wonderfully well. Well, not entirely BIM, but rather the UK Government’s Construction Strategy, which has hijacked the process as a means of delivering improved efficiencies and cost-savings to the industry...

Ecobuild and beyond
Another year, another Ecobuild - and another long trek across London to the Excel centre from Somerset...


As a bit of a Trekkie (enjoy it, won't wear a Klingon outfit) I am fascinated by the re-runs of the original series - not so much for the acting and storylines but the primitive scenery and mostly dreadful props...

Getting the most from the Cloud
As more and more of the software applications that we use are being placed in the Cloud, the time is right to look at its benefits, and whether such a working environment would be suitable for a construction company with employees and collaborating companies spread out around the World. Si Hanks of Ai Solutions expands the idea further ...

Building relationships
Technology is key to building closer relationships and driving customer retention according to Mark Thompson, CEO of m-hance ...

Time to be inspired?
Halloween and Bonfire Night have come and gone with a bang (or possibly a whimper, depending on your batch of fireworks) and suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the Christmas advertising deluge - despite it being only early November at the time of writing ...