Hi, Steve!
5 million sq ft hospital here. I'm piloting FMDesktop right now. Not all
of the Autodesk Authorized Resellers are selling it yet, but, if your
local representative doesn't, call one out of your area for an online
demo. You can't download FMDesktop as a trial version like AutoCAD,
unfortunately, but, the web demos I've seen have been fairly easy to follow.
I took some classes on FMD last year at Autodesk University, which
convinced me I could handle it (it appears a lot less intimidating than
Archibus did to me. I know Archibus is the leader, but, it takes a lot
of customization from what I've heard).
I ordered Facility Manager (for Access), Facility Link and Facility Web
to try out in a small pilot project, in order to get more backing for a
full rollout. I didn't include Facility Request, because we already have
a work order system in place here (based off of an SQL database), and
it's outside of what I'd like to eventually do here.
I'll be including Life Safety, as well as MEP information in my system.
Currently I'm working on which areas are served by which air handling
unit. I haven't run any reports yet, but, it will sure be easier than
doing it manually.
I'm not sure if any of that helped or not, I'm just always excited to
talk to another Facility Manager. Seems all of the FM/CAFM people out
there these days are consultants instead of end users.
Cheers!
Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com
Hydes wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm new to the forum but not to AutoCAD. I work for a 1,329,000 sqft Healthcare facility and we need to find a way to track our Preventative Maintenance and Joint Commission survey's. I just met with a company that would sell us a service of tracking Life safety checks (exit lights, trash chutes, fire doors etc.) with the use of a barcode system and then it would be uploaded to a DWF file... and that got me thinking.... Does FM seem like a good choice to consider for this type of data collection? What we had problems in the company's demo was we weren't able to customize the type of data, for ex: When we check our Fire Protection water flow switches we need to record psi before and after trip, and they couldn't tell us if their program would do this.. Aslo will the data that is entered show a work history on a piece of equipment? Maybe I should ask is there a Demo version of FM to try?
>
> Thanks to all.. if you need more information please ask.
>
> Steve