e-SPECS

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Register | Edit Profile

Author Message Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 484 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 - 08:59 pm:    Has anyone used or had experience using e-Specs? I'm looking for both the good and the bad and maybe even the ugly. David E Lorenzini Senior Member Username: deloren Post Number: 129 Registered: 04-2000 Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 - 10:47 pm:    Rich, if the Revit model is not populated with the customized data for project materials, then it is a big waste of time to use e-Specs. You can do a project in half the time by just using MasterSpec. When I used it on a major project three years ago, e-Specs had a crippled editor that drove me nuts. It may have had some improvements since, but I ended up downloading many e-Specs sections to Word to edit, and then uploading them back to the system. I think they added something like that to the current version. Another problem was frequent corruption in the deleted portion of the document. It saved the deleted text in hidden red font. Sometimes you couldn't get rid of some the left over characters. You have to download to clean up. Other problems included the lack of California code standards that had to added to each e-Spec section, and the lack of sections for specialized products. I had to convert 35 sections from my own master in to their clunky format. Regardless of the improvements, if the architect doesn't intend to add the intelligence before hand and maintain it for the future, editing MasterSpec in Word or using your own master are better options. David Lorenzini, FCSI, CCS Architectural Resources Co. ken hercenberg Senior Member Username: khercenberg Post Number: 181 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2012 - 12:08 pm:    Take a look at www.csinet.org and check out the recordings from the BIM Practice Group. Beth Stroshane from ZGF did a good job (I think it was the January broadcast) comparing BSD and e-Specs. If you'd care to talk a little about this offline, let me know. Chris Grimm, CSI, CCS, SCIPa, LEED AP BD+C, MAI, RLA Senior Member Username: tsugaguy Post Number: 269 Registered: 06-2005 Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2012 - 07:31 pm:    For a firm that does not have much corporate memory baked into custom masters, or any set way of doing things, it may be well worthwhile to try out e-SPECS Linx and take advantage of editing MasterSpec-based project specs using the checkbox system without doing anything fancier than that. Keep in mind that exporting and importing compounds problems, and if possible, it is better to stay working within the e-SPECS system and get used to how it works. It is not a short-term proposition though. Like SpecsIntact you can't master it overnight. Though it really is a lot easier than SpecsIntact. If you have a lot of corporate memory baked into your masters, you have to be even more committed to making it work. Through e-SPECS Designer you can manage the content of the checkbox system. It is an uphill climb, with bumps along the way. InterSpec can help you do that. Our firm believes the challenge is worthwhile, and worth working around the few pitfalls that are left. For every pitfall, we've found a workable solution and a responsive team at InterSpec to take our prioritized suggestions and implement them into a future version. We really like having MasterSpec available as the base content, with the exceptionally thorough and updated research Arcom brings into the equation. The move to Revit integration is yet another step, requiring planning for how to model, and closely working with teams doing the modeling, so that you doing get garbage-in-garbage out. There's nothing really scary about this -- even once you are using e-SPECS for Revit, "Refreshing" to build a preliminary project manual is still optional. It's not like VIKI from i-Robot will appear on your screen and start trying to modify your specs without your knowledge or anything - http://getdclu.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/making-and-controlling-a-robotic-public/ ...hahaha.) Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1427 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 09:16 am:    Chris, thanks for the thoughts (including that link). I know we'll be contemplating some sort of equivalent move/transition shortly, and every bit of information is valuable. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 441 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 05:06 pm:    Ken, thanks for the tip about the presentation in the BIM practice group. I think Beth did a good job, though I still don't have a clear notion on what the best way forward is. Its amazing how many firms are struggling with this issue right now. ken hercenberg Senior Member Username: khercenberg Post Number: 184 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Monday, April 09, 2012 - 09:10 am:    Nathan, I have more experience with e-SPECS than I do with BSD but I'm learning BSD as we speak. If you'd like to have an offline coversation, please feel free to contact me at khercenberg@payette.com. it's a little hectic this week but I'm sure we can fit in a conversation. Dale Hurttgam, NCARB, AIA,LEED AP, CSI Senior Member Username: dwhurttgam Post Number: 110 Registered: 10-2005 Posted on Monday, December 02, 2013 - 02:45 pm:    I have not reviewed recently and need to do more homework....but I was wondering if there are some success stories out there of firms using specs linked to drawings. In the past, my general understanding was that to break it down to the bare basics that there were two major obstacles to success. 1. The technology was not there yet to end up with a good spec without a lot of extra messaging of the specs produced. 2. Having and controlling the appropriate information embedded in the Drawings was a major challenge. Are there some firms using these systems successfully - or are these systems being used more as an exploratory/development effort. Brian Payne, AIA Junior Member Username: brian_payne Post Number: 2 Registered: 01-2014 Posted on Tuesday, January 07, 2014 - 02:49 pm:    So I have been using E-Specs for about 2 years and we are mostly integrated with our Revit Template. Not trying to self-promote, but for the sake of brevity, the presentation I did at RTC last summer may answer some of your questions. In short, yes there issues with the process and some firms make more sense than others to automate. That said....its great when i can drop a wall type into my project and know that 5 spec sections just got revised. http://archfuse.blogspot.com/2013/08/rtc-2013-presentation-information.html Don Harris CSI, CCS, CCCA, AIA Senior Member Username: don_harris Post Number: 276 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Thursday, January 09, 2014 - 01:32 pm:    Brian, Thank you for your posting. I am a "seasoned" specifier with a week of formal Revit training, tasked with integrating e-Specs and improving the overall quality of our documents. As we are about 3 months into e-Specs your insight was very helpful for helping us see what we are doing right, where we are going wrong and where we need to go. Excellent presentation. Thanks again.