Fridays with Vico Marks Its 5,000th Viewer

Popular BIM Webinar Series Focuses on Virtual Construction Case Studies

 

Boulder, CO - June 18, 2009 - Vico Software is pleased to announce that its popular webinar series, Fridays with Vico, has achieved a milestone: the 5,000th viewer. 

 

Fridays with Vico is a free educational forum for General Contractors and Owners.  The series highlights best practices and case studies from customers, as well as showcases new product functionality and discusses industry trends.

 

The organizers understand that many fire drills take place on Friday, so sometimes it's hard to join the conversation live.  To that end, the webinars are provided as archived movie files that you can watch at any time.

 

The organizers recommend that you reserve a conference room and a projector and invite your colleagues to bring a brown bag lunch, or even order up some pizzas.  The sessions usually last 1.5 hours, though some go longer with Q&A.

 

Here's a sampling of the courses:

 

Customer Case Studies

PCL (10 case studies)

Hensel Phelps (Denver Justice Center)

Suffolk Construction (Torrey Pines Research Lab)

Swinerton Builders (4 case studies)

 

Construction Services Case Studies

St. Joseph Health System Virtual Mock-Up

Win the Deal

 

Industry Trends

Webcor and the Model Progression Specification

Conceptual Estimating

McGraw-Hill BIM SmartMarket Report

The Content Plan and MPS

 

Product Demonstrations

Vico Office

Vico for Concrete: Lift Drawings

Change Manager

Vico Virtual Construction 101

Vico and Trimble Integration

 

Many companies make a breakfast or lunch meeting out of the live sessions, so why not try it with the archives?  And if your team has different questions than those posed during the Q&A, by all means, send them in.  Vico would be happy to hop on the phone with you, or even start our own webinar session.

 

Vico's BIM Master Class Series

 

Vico has also designed a series of BIM training classes for the AEC Community.  Designed to work like college and graduate-level courses, the series grew progressively more difficult.  The goal of the BIM Master Class series was simple: instruct as many professionals as possible about the many facets of BIM.  In the end, students (general contractors and owners) should be able to explain the methodology and benefits for model-based coordination, scheduling, and estimating.

 

In case you weren't able to see part of the series, Vico has archived the individual classes for your convenience.  Not only is the course content compelling and fresh, but the questions from the audience are hard-hitting and insightful.  Certainly, it is a resource your team will enjoy and benefit from.

 

BIM 101: this course examines the progression from 2D drawings to the 3D model to the 4D schedule and the 5D estimate.  We also look at layouting solutions from Trimble and highlight how to use the preconstruction work as production control on the jobsite.

 

BIM 201: in this course we examined the subject of coordination.  Instead of concentrate on 3D clash detection, we introduced the idea of coordination in time and place.  This nuance is a very important distinction which helps tremendously with coordination priorities.

 

BIM 301: BIM contracts are starting to work their way into the legal lexicon and this primer on the ConsensusDOCs and AIA 202 is essential. Contracts play a central role in defining deliverables, interactions with project stakeholders, and risk obligations for commercial building projects.  Special guest speaker, Richard Lowe, Partner from Duane Morris LLP and chair of the AGC BIMForum Legal Subforum, delivers the course content.

 

BIM 401:  focused on the theme of model-based scheduling, this course highlighted flowline theory, a visualization of the crews by location by date.  We addressed major themes for Schedulers: location breakdown structures; task lists and logic; quantities in locations; task criticality and prioritization; risks; production control measures; contractor meeting procedures; and resource and production rate commitments.

 

BIM 501: model-based estimating starts with a robust construction quantity takeoff.  With these construction-caliber quantities, GCs can drive precise estimates and schedules.  And with the easy visualization the model affords, estimators can quickly see which elements have been costed already and which elements still need attention.  And it also allows Owners to see which/how areas of the building are contributing to the total cost of the building. 

 

Over 1,500 AEC colleagues have already participated in Vico's BIM Master Series.  Make it a prerequisite in your firm.

 

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For more information, please contact:
Holly Allison
VP of Marketing at Vico Software
Tel:    (978) 882-0170 x118 (eastern)
Skype:    reason8855

Email:     holly.allison@vicosoftware.com
Twitter:    @letsbuildit