Renaming or renumbering elements is one of the most tedious and labor-intensive BIM tasks confronting architects and engineers. Many factors can contribute to the need to edit element names and numbers, including complying with external facilities management (FM) database requirements, such AiM, SPIE, and COBie.
The good news is that Ideate BIMLink makes this task painless. Users, including those who are not Revit users, use the software to pull Revit model data into Excel for easy editing, and then push the corrected data back into Revit to update the model.
Below is information on how much time our users reported saving.
Task: Gathering Data for External Facilities Management Software
Calculate Your Return on Investment
If you’d like to figure out the value of Ideate BIMLink to your company, simply:
- Review the chart above as well as additional related data to learn how much time can be saved by using Ideate BIMLink for various tasks
- Compare that amount of time to your number of projects and your software purchase price
Two ROI Examples
For simplicity’s sake, both these examples assume you will save four hours per project. Because our customers reported an average savings of 20 hours per project on the task featured in this blog post alone, your payback will likely be much higher.
- A single standalone license of Ideate BIMLink costs approximately US$795. If you have 20 projects per year and save four hours per project, you’ll save 80 hours per year. According to the 2018 AIA Small Firm Compensation Report, the average designer salary is about $60K per year. Assuming a corresponding hourly rate of $29 (which would exclude overhead), you will have a payback (over covering software costs) of more than US$1500 each year.
- For larger firms, network licensing can experience an even higher return on investment. For example, the cost of a single seat is about $2,000 per year. Assuming that you save four hours per project, pay a higher burdened salary rate of $50, and have 50 projects, you will have a payback of more than $8,000 per year.
Learn More
We have several resources available online that can help you get the most out of Ideate BIMLink:
- 5-Minute Video: Renumbering and Renaming – A COBie Example
- Blog Post: Ideate BIMLink and Facilities Management 101
- Videos: Ideate BIMLink video playlist
- Blog Posts: All Ideate BIMLink blog posts
- Help Files: All Ideate BIMLink Help files
Similar Posts
This post is the 12th in a series related to the results of our survey of architecture, engineering, construction, and building-owner companies. Our previous posts covered the time savings reported by using Ideate BIMLink to:
- Manage Revit sheets
- Create and modify rooms and areas
- Swap structural framing instances
- Coordinate spaces & rooms and audit & fix device elevation
- Compile quantity takeoffs, assign assembly codes, and swap types
- View and revise tasks
- QA/QC doors, hardware, and other elements
- Extract/Import coordinate data and confirm level and grid information
- Perform general data management tasks
- Manage Interior Finish Data and Generate Plumbing Fixture Counts
- Audit Analytical Columns, Structural Framing, and Rebar Shape Data
Keep an eye out for our next blog post, and check out our Ideate BIMLink ROI web page, where we separated the all the time-savings data by discipline.
Contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.
Browse our website for more information on our Revit productivity tools. Give them a try with a free trial version, or subscribe today.
About the Author
Sash Kazeminejad - AIA, LEED AP - Customer Success Manager
Sash earned his Master of Architecture from Montana State University and is a California registered architect, LEED Accredited Professional. He has extensive experience in project management; BIM management; design for architectural firms in California, Montana, and Oregon; and leading classroom and online BIM training. He provides consulting, sales, support, and training solutions to AECO customers around the globe. Find Sash on LinkedIn.
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