Interview with Patrik Mink from Autodesk

Patrik Minks

Autodesk has launched a new range of its products for Building Information Modeling (BIM). How do these products respond to the most current needs of architects and the challenges that architects and designers face today? What is the future of BIM compared to traditional 2D CAD solutions? Patrik Minks, Sales Manager of the AEC division at Autodesk, answered these and other questions.

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The term Sustainable Design has been appearing very frequently with Autodesk products lately. What can architects envision with this term? Do you have a definition for it?
I wouldn't want to create definitions for Sustainable Design, as there are certainly many. From my perspective, it partially refers to what is talked about as so-called green architecture, with an emphasis not only on the building itself but also on the design and construction process.
Buildings must meet certain criteria for us to discuss them as green. Of course, there are not just buildings that meet these criteria 100% or not at all. There may only be a few elements in them that meet or do not meet the principles of Sustainable Design.
From the perspective of Sustainable Design, it is also important how many design variants we have to create, how we assess these variants in terms of energy analysis, how we communicate the project to the customer, and what chance the customer has to understand the project before it is built. There is always a risk that a house will be built only to have part of it demolished because the customer envisioned it differently. This naturally results in wasting materials, money, and energy, even though we will ultimately label the completed building as a green building. Our task is to help architects and designers eliminate such risks.

What solutions can Autodesk offer architects designing green buildings for their daily work?
We offer a tool that allows architects to communicate the design or a design variant before the building is constructed, which can be directly utilized for the principles of Sustainable Design. If the customer has the opportunity to see and understand the building before it is built, significant savings can be achieved. Regarding energy analysis of buildings and the creation of energy labels, we have a solution that allows exporting the model from Revit to tools designed for their execution. The question is how well these tools comply with Czech standards and customs. On our side, it is primarily about export; the manufacturers of these analytical tools must adapt to local standards.
However, Autodesk recently acquired Green Building Studio, which offers a free online tool for calculating energy balance. At the moment, I do not know how well this tool will meet Czech standards in the future.

Currently, tools for BIM are increasingly being used in building design. This can be seen as a quite fundamental revolution in how buildings are designed, and there is undoubtedly a future for BIM. Once a designer works with a building information model during the design phase, a range of options is available for its use. What do you offer architects for working with models created in BIM, such as Revit Architecture?
One of the novelties is the ability to perform photometric analyses and sunlight studies directly in the Revit application. A very important feature, which is not new and has always been in Revit, is conflict detection. This is where our BIM differs from competitors. In true BIM, elements must respond to each other. This is perfectly true in the case of Revit. For example, if a designer tries to move a partition in a floor plan and its other end, which may not currently be visible on the monitor, interferes with a door after moving, Revit automatically alerts them to it, helping the architect or designer eliminate coordination errors, which are very time-consuming to search for manually.
Autodesk's unique position lies in the fact that we have BIM not only for architects. The BIM model created by the architect can be used, for example, in Revit Structure solutions, which is the BIM used by structural engineers. Similarly, there is Revit MEP for MEP designers.

However, many architects and designers still view BIM with great distrust. How do you personally see the future of BIM compared to today's traditional 2D CAD solutions?
According to global surveys, 50% of offices are already using BIM. I am firmly convinced that BIM is the future. Even those who claim they only need 2D tools will have to adapt to it. Buildings that could not be designed with just 2D tools are being built more and more frequently. They consist of thousands of parts which are unique, and if designers had to detail each of them, they would never be able to build the building. BIM not only allows for design but also enables the use of the model for the production of individual elements, which is managed digitally.
The need for higher productivity, Sustainable Design, and better collaboration among all members of the design team across all professions will positively compel everyone to take BIM for granted.

Thank you for the interview.