From BIM Model to BQ in less than 60 seconds

What are Masterbill doing about BIM? has been a common question from our existing and potential customers during the last few years and our response has always been that whilst we are keen to embrace BIM we were working hard to ensure that we would do so in a way that would truly deliver benefits to our users.

In 2014 after almost 12 months of development we thought we had done just that and announced the imminent release (in September 2014) of QSBIM our Integrated BIM Measurement Module for Masterbill Elite.

And here we are in the Autumn of 2015 posting our first video of our QSBIM module in operation what happened during the 14 months in between?

In September 2014 we demonstrated QSBIM to a few selected customers to gauge their response and seek their endorsement that we had in fact created a solution that would deliver them real benefit. At that time our approach followed similar lines to a number of other systems on the market where we extracted all the information from the BIM Model and then asked the user how they wanted to incorporate it into their Bills of Quantities and/or Cost Plans. During theses demonstrations although our customers were supportive we perceived that we hadn't really excited them with the prospect of 'taking advantage of BIM' rather we had 'overwhelmed them with data' most of which they didn't need or understand. As a result we headed back to the development studio and completely redesigned the user interface and how the BIM data is both presented and extracted for use.

Now some 12 months on, and having now shown the new look QSBIM to a number of customers we are convinced we have 'got it right' especially as we look around the table and see Quantity Surveyors totally understanding not just the potential of measuring from a BIM model but the reality too. Gone are the days of presenting sheets of data extracted from the model, we are now empowering our users to interrogate the model, to identify the items they wish to measure and enabling them to take advantage of the additional information available if they wish.

This drastic change of approach has enabled us to be able to demonstrate just how easy it is to measure from a BIM model using our Integrated BIM Measurement Module (QSBIM) by creating this brief video.

Obviously there is much more to QSBIM than can be shown in 60 seconds, if you would like to see more then please contact us to arrange a full demonstration.