Another year has come and gone! And what a year it’s been! We laughed, we learned…
… but please, let’s dispense with the clichés and talk about what’s really important here: the three major releases of the year for the BIM Track platform, and how it has made your workflow easier than ever before.
BIM Track Mobile
Released in May 2022, BIM Track Mobile is the companion app to the BIM Track platform. It is available on any Android or Apple mobile phone, and is the modern tool of construction field coordination.
BIM Track Mobile allows you and your team to:
- See the exact tasks and issues you need to address on your project, so that the nature of the needed work is clear
- Have all conversations and questions about a task be tied to a specific task
- Create issues in the project from anywhere, so that challenges are reported on as they are encountered in the field
This cuts back on a lot of extra work that your colleagues and partners in the field would otherwise need to do, like typing up notes at the end of day, making phone calls, or preparing RFIs for issues that don’t really need them if they can be addressed quickly.
After all, why should you spend all your time curating various channels, when everything you need is at your fingertips, and automatically updating the model back at the office?
Visit BIM Track Mobile to review all of the documentation you need
The NextGen Viewer
Released in September 2022, the NextGen Viewer is a long-anticipated update to the existing BIM Track viewer. Fast-loading and lightweight, NextGen Viewer allows you to open models and drawings with minimal delay. The viewer also allows you to activate many more building information models than was previously possible.
The NextGen Viewer has several new functionalities over the older edition, which include:
- External URL support, allowing you to access outside issues directly in the viewer
- Comments and issues can be can be edited from inside the viewer
- New controls to manage which sheets are being reviewed
As of today, the NextGen Viewer is still open to public beta (with new features - it’s not done baking yet), so it’s not too late to give your feedback on the new tool! You can open it by opening the BIM Track viewer and clicking the link on the top-right corner.
The legacy viewer is still available for those who prefer the original look and feel, but it will be gradually phased out in later 2023.
Click here for documentation on the NextGen Viewer.
BIM Track Academy
This labor of love was released in November 2022, and is a great tool to help you and your partners onboard with BIM Track. After all, a workflow is only as efficient as its buy-in from the team!
BIM Track Academy is a structured training program for the BIM Track platform, so that you can master both its fundamentals and its best practices. With BIM Track Academy’s interactive courses, you will be guided on how to successfully implement its tools into your existing process and workflow.
What about the courses offered at BIM Track Academy? Essentially it has everything you need to be totally proficient in the platform, which includes:
- Launching and Maintaining your BIM Track Hub and Project
- Cloud-based Issue-management
- Revit & BIM Track for Project Design/Review/Modeling
- Navisworks & BIM Track for Project Coordination
The best part of BIM Track Academy is that it’s included free with any plan! After all, if you’re going to pay for the platform, it’s in yours and your team’s best interest to know how to use it best.
Visit here for more information on BIM Track Academy.
What’s in Store for 2023?
It should come as no surprise that BIM Track has exciting plans for 2023; but like most companies with new ideas in the pipeline, it’s hard to talk about things while they’re still baking in the oven!
So instead we can discuss the trends we’re seeing in the AECO industry.
To start, good coordination is about more than just centralizing issue management. After all, AEC is a project-based discipline and projects need contract management, communication channel management, resource management, and above all time management. Having the ability to answer all these questions is paramount, and BIM Track is in the process of developing these tools.
And second, the world of information technology is trending toward more and more sophisticated artificial intelligence: from chatbots that can write rhyming poems based on a text prompt, or image generators that can create unique art. But in the AECO industry, AI has a different application: to simplify work and make calculations that would otherwise be cumbersome for humans. Here again, BIM Track is developing something to answer this need.
Be sure to stay connected through our usual social media channels as we unveil everything in 2023!
We know where your head is at! Go on, take that hard hat off and go celebrate!
