I have recently been researching an application for Revit that I found called PK Nail. Although I do not have the ability to test the software myself (due to lack of laser hadrware) I have found various companies and individuals who have - and the results seem very promising. 

As you have all probably heard Autodesk's Project Vasari has finally been released in beta format - "graduating" from Autodesk Labs. It has become a very popular tool with AEC professionals and has been downloaded over 60,000 times in an 18 month period. I have been using Vasari since the initial release for conceptual energy analysis of buildings as well as using the massing tools and formulas for graphical representations.

An update to Autodesk's BIM Curriculum has been released, and this time focusing mainly on the sturctural sides of BIM. This curriculum helps aspiring civil and structural engineers master engineering design and analysis, and structural modeling while promoting new ways of working to create sustainable design and construction.

The eagerly awaited Autodesk BIM 360 Glue iPad app has finally been released! The app appeared in the iTunes store yesterday morning and was officially released on Twitter via a statement from @Navisworks around 16:00 BST. Unless you've been living under a #BIMrock the past couple of months, you will have heard a lot about BIM 360 Glue, and the app release on iPad is an exciting development from the Autodesk team bringing the cloud based management system on to the site!. 

dRofus beta v1.5 was released on Tuesday this week with some useful new features for project & enterprise customers. An official statement outlining the new changes was released on the dRofus website. View the release presentation by clicking on the image to the right. 

Vico Office is a different way of working with Building information models. Used for much more than visualization, Vico Office extends the basic 3D model with constructability analysis and coordination, 4D location-based scheduling and production control with flowline principles, and 5D estimating.

Since my blog post about Vico last week, the software and it's assests have been sold to Trimble. The recent acquisition is another very interesting move for the ever expanding company. Over the past 6 months or so, Trimble seems to be buying out many different design comapnies providing software particularly focusing on BIM. Why?

Asite have joined forces with Tech Soft 3D to enhance their current cBIM platform with the addition of the HOOPS software development toolkits, into a visual 3D coordination tool with IFC visualisation. In short this means that the current real-time open sharing and model management platform will be transformed and upgraded into a real time model sharing platform with instant IFC visualisation. - A very powerful tool for collaboration. 

A global 48 hour virtual BIM competition is kicking off later today, in the form of Build Qatar Live 2012, the first time the event has moved out of London (2008, 2009, 2012). An event held earlier this year, Build  London Live 2012 was a great success with many of the same teams entering again for a second time round. The competition is open for anyone and everyone who has the time and skills to take part! The main sponsor is Nemetschek Vectorworks.

I have been checking out various sessions that were recorded from AU 2012 over the weekend. So far, one of my favoruites has been Beau Turner presenting Scan to BIM: A few million points. This is an introduction and live demonstration of how to use IMAGINiT Technologies Scan to BIM tool to import a point cloud into Revit and step by step, begin to develop these points into real geometry.

Just a quick post to announce Update 2013.1 has been released for IMAGINiT Technologies Scan to BIM add-in for Revit.

The B1M or 'The BIM One Million' website officialy launched today for all those who signed up via email to the 24hour pre-sale. The site will open to everyone else who didn't get the chance to register, tomorrow morning (UK time). I got in touch with Fred Mills who is one of the founders of The B1M who has very kindly agreed to write an exclusive article for BIMopedia tomorrow with the official opening.