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1st Topic - What are you using?

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Message 1 of 13
Anonymous
1057 Views, 12 Replies

1st Topic - What are you using?

Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....

What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
choose that particular solution?

andy
12 REPLIES 12
Message 2 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Right now I'm using Autocad and Map - basically as an "Indoor GIS"
approach. When you get right down to it, both GIS and FM handle location
specific data but they use the data in different ways.

_____________
Karl M. Fuls PLS
AEC Training and Consulting
Assistant Moderator - Autodesk Discussion Forums


Andy Ramm wrote:

> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
Message 3 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Hi,

Have used both AutoCAD Map and MapGuide, but I prefer MapGuide, even though
there is problems reading drawings or converting them on the fly. Symbols,
circles, blocks, cells etc has always created problems that we had to work
around.

Other than that, it has been built using ASP on and intranet IIS, with
reporting, simple thematic mapping and digitizing.
We tried to add on OnSite View for a better total solution, but it failed to
meet the requirements, a plain picture is better than a complicated user
interface which cannot be changed.

That was on MapGuide 4 and AutoCAD R14, and now I'm looking at upgrading the
ideas with much more advanced reports and thematic mapping that can be done
with DAT. Onsite Desktop is also a promising application, I'm checking is it
can be customized enough, I need to remove all menus and legend and only
show the function we want, it has to be locked down.

I looked at the FM "solution", it's just a collection of your programs with
ideas how to glue them together, but where is the glue? I think many
consultant out there cannot create that much glue for it to work in a proper
way. Do you plan to add sample applications that workd with the different
platforms you have?
I would like to see a integrated solution with Map, MapGuide, Onsite, Onsite
Desktop, DB that works after you install it and includes sample data. Not
only one small florrplan as previous demos, a whole complex, several floors,
I have customers with 50+ floors, and larger areas, maybe exaple of
difference between a industrial building and a office building, so you can
see that there is differences you have to consider in the design of the two
solutions.

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to speak about FM, I hope for good
feedback too.

Thanks,
Jocke

"Andy Ramm" wrote in message
news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
>
>
Message 4 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

ADT - The Facility is 200 retail stores (3000 to 110,000 sq ft, avg 4500 sq
ft) and ADT was the best combination of "model" and "extended object data"
for our mainly internal fitout/architectural use. We were on plain AutoCAD &
looked at map or more specialist "retail products" before going with ADT.

Revit didn't exist at the time but have been looking at Revit for future use
but too much "stuff" in ADT to consider changing in the short term.

--
Regards,
Robin Capper
Email; robin.capper@thewarehouse.co.nz
Web: www.thewarehouse.co.nz


"Andy Ramm" wrote in message
news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
>
>
Message 5 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

we just jumped into the FM world and are using a product called FM:space.
it seams to be working so far and is designed around a live ACAD connection.


"Robin Capper" wrote in message
news:FF1FAFDE296DC0F4A7EC1676C9AFEF02@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> ADT - The Facility is 200 retail stores (3000 to 110,000 sq ft, avg 4500
sq
> ft) and ADT was the best combination of "model" and "extended object data"
> for our mainly internal fitout/architectural use. We were on plain AutoCAD
&
> looked at map or more specialist "retail products" before going with ADT.
>
> Revit didn't exist at the time but have been looking at Revit for future
use
> but too much "stuff" in ADT to consider changing in the short term.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Robin Capper
> Email; robin.capper@thewarehouse.co.nz
> Web: www.thewarehouse.co.nz
>
>
> "Andy Ramm" wrote in message
> news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
> >
> > What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> > choose that particular solution?
> >
> > andy
> >
> >
>
>
Message 6 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Andy,

First, thanks for following through with setting up the forum. Hopefully,
folks from the AU Industry Session will dive in and get wet as well as
others to follow close behind.

Second, thanks for a well-led session at AU. I remember the same session
from two years ago where Autodesk asked us exactly the same question - "What
do you want?". I found it interesting that, even though it was apparent
from your presentation that somebody's been doing their homework, there is
still difficulty expressed in figuring out what a product should look like.
(I know it's not fancy, but it'd be nice if you'd post your presentation to
the handout download area of the AU web site. I, for one, would appreciate
being able to review the statistics you presented.) After seeing Anne
Greene's reply to your initial message on this forum, showing us the way to
Autodesk FM, it all becomes a little more clear why there is such haze
surrounding FM. The question isn't "What are you using [to do FM]?" but,
instead "What is FM?", though maybe the first is an easier question to
answer and that's why you started there.

I come from the Space Planning side of things. That is, space planning
inside the buildings. That stemmed from our interiors folks wanting to not
have to type in people's names on floor plans. Our first CAFM solution at
the time (AutoCAD for ULTRIX running on DECstations in the early '90's with
a customized Oracle interface) was overkill and, because of the poor
decision on our part to not want to deal with the detail of where each
person sat, basically failed. When our company finally moved to the PC
world, we sought a PC solution aimed at tracking folks better (back to the
original intent), not so much as to know where they were but to help project
and plan for growth and change. We evaluated several off-the-shelf
solutions including Archibus, FM:Space, DataCAD, and others I don't
remember. We considered Archibus both too expensive and too complex. We
considered DataCAD too "out there". We already knew that AutoCAD was the
major CAD program out there and our drawings were already in that format, so
that was a given base. We opted for FM:Space in addition to AutoCAD and
have gotten great value over the years. The folks at FM:Systems were
excellent at helping us get it all set up and configured for our intent.
They helped us think through how we should do things not just how to use it
out of the box. They provide good support as well as continue to build on
their initial product with enhancements and new products. Granted, it is a
very specific solution but it has also been simple and very easy to
understand.

Over the years, however, it has become apparent that this one product can't
do it all. I doubt it would be a good choice for most anything outside of
the building. For that, we use AutoCAD, straight, and simply keep
relatively basic layouts of buildings, utilities, streets, etc. on site
plans. Very crude, I'm sure, if someone from a civil engineering background
were to look at it and actually want to know something. As well, we know
how many acres we own but only because we go to the site plan, draw a pline
around the area based on the legal description as best we can and query its
properties to know its area and, then (whew!), type that figure into a table
in FM:Space along with other things such as tax parcel numbers, etc. Not
real high-tech. Yes, we could switch to Autodesk Map, I suppose, integrate
with MapGuide, whatever. Would that give us a total solution? My guess is,
only if we hired someone to develop a customized solution in each area of
FM - space planning, real estate, utilities, facilities maintenance,
building security, etc., etc.. In addition to that, we'd still have to
integrate AutoCAD drawings from our vendors (who use various other AutoCAD
related software packages such as SPAN, ADT, etc.) into Map, I suppose,
and/or develop processes which allow some of our folks to use AutoCAD,
others to use Map, others to use...you get the picture.

The beauty of AutoCAD and the solution we chose, to us, has been that:

1) we can let others develop the software solution - Autodesk builds/repairs
AutoCAD, FM:Systems builds/repairs FM:Space.
2) we get to influence those others with our desire for change in their
product without us having to learn how to program in the newest language
and/or keep up with the technology quite to close to the front of the change
curve.

The price to us, in addition to annual support agreements and software
upgrade costs, is that:

1) we don't always have the latest and greatest;
2) it sometimes takes way too long for our "wants" to get to the top of the
list.

AutoCAD has been successful because it's possible to attack problems from
several different directions as evidenced by the many different solutions
out there. I remember seeing many, many different solutions for
architectural design and drafting over the years at AU and other conferences
including those that Autodesk eventually purchased and replaced (ASG, for
example). Architecture is a pretty singular usage - draw it, print it, so
the builder can build it sort of thing (though I know it's more complex than
that, and even that's changing as we speak). Unless Autodesk wants to build
singular solutions to each of the needs of FM, the very best thing it can do
is build and continue to develop the base technology and let others use that
technology to create specific products for each of our unique needs.

Merle
Merle Hall
Facilities Information Manager
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

"Andy Ramm" wrote in message
news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
>
>
Message 7 of 13
joneschester
in reply to: Anonymous

I agree, the whilst the individual Autodesk packages are great and can go some to creating some kind of FM solution, it is hardly comprehensive, and seems to require considerable effort to bring it up to Archibus or CAFM Explorer standard.

What we really need is a package where the graphical and database information are one, rather than links to databases through ODBC, etc.

But its great that Autodesk are starting to address this area.
Message 8 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

We use what the client has...whether it's AutoCAD r13, r14, 2002 or Map 3 or
5. Trying to get clients interested in using MapGuide, but none want to
commit to the pricetag of the software. Typically using Map 3, and Map 5.

We wrote many FM linking/modifying tools based on the ASE commands that were
discontinued MAP 3, now redefining them for Map 5 using VBA.


"Andy Ramm" wrote in message
news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
>
>
Message 9 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I am a facilty engineer for a general hospital approx 600,000sf. I have been using ADT since release 2 and it works well for me.

I have created a space boundary for each room or space in the facility. From these spaces I have created schedules which I can then export to Excel for reporting purposes. Although this has worked well for me as a one man operation I am not how well it would work for a group.

Bill

William.Marteney@HCAHealthcare.c0m
St. Joseph's Hospital
Parkersburg WV
Message 10 of 13
mr_tilman
in reply to: Anonymous

We use Tririga's Facility Center (FC). It was chosen before my time, by our federal counterparts and it appears to have been chosen for its modularity. Between the 50 states and the federal system, FC appears to be improving our process, but we have a long way to go. One of the problems between our state and the feds is that if we are not using the exact same point-release of FC, we can't talk to each other. This has created problems as we have leap-frogged each other based on funding/timing. And we have yet to specifically get CAD Integrator to work...

Respectfully,
Joe Tilman
Message 11 of 13
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

We use FaciliCAD. It has been easy to learn and use and interfaces very
nicely with either AutoCAD 2002 or Architectural Desktop 3.3. The primary
developer, John Janzen, has been and is still very involved with the
development of Architectural Desktop so that ensures a tight integration
between the two products. FaciliCAD is also reasonably priced in comparison
to the other facilities management software packages and the support is very
good.

While it is very CAD-centric it has good database linkages, as well, to
Microsoft Access, although I believe that support for other ODBC compliant
databases is coming.

While the CAD support of FaciliCAD is outstanding, they also have hooks into
MapGuide for non-CAD "downstream" users as well.

You can get more info about it at:

http://www.facilicad.com

Valerie Dillon
Southwest Research Institute
Facility Management Dept.

"Andy Ramm" wrote in message
news:7F41E61507F1467DC671F7AD6B35611C@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Folks, I'll kick this off with the first question, which is....
>
> What system/products do you use for Facilities Management? Why did you
> choose that particular solution?
>
> andy
>
>
Message 12 of 13
CarolynKoehn
in reply to: Anonymous

We are using faciliCAD also and are very pleased with it. It is as Valerie said, very user friendly and the support has been fantastic. It is wonderful to call and get a 'real person' on the phone with prompt replies.
faciliCAD just updated their web site with a MapGuide demo that shows the possiblities for using faciliCAD and MapGuide for facility management. Check it out at www.facilicad.com/fweb.shtml

Carolyn Koehn
Via Christi Regional Medical Center
Wichita, Kansas
Message 13 of 13
lparrish
in reply to: Anonymous

We have found FaciliCAD to be a great tool, meeting the FM needs of our clients as well as ourself as an Architectural/Engineering firm. The integration with AutoCAD is straight forward and user friendly. The Attribute Extraction tools in AutoCAD allow the export of drawing data directly to the FaciliCAD database.

Libby Parrish, Network Administrator
Berners-Schober Associates, Inc.
Architecture/Engineering
Green Bay, WI

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