department
by: Brian Andresen
AUGI Local Chapters
The Future of LUGs (Local User Groups)
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O
ur southern California LUG has been going strong for more than seven years and we have enjoyed every minute of it! I will get to the past in a minute, but first I want to explain the title. You see, I believe we are in the midst of a major shift, and for the better, from the various options of AUGS, LUGS, and RUGS, to one uniformed goal for everyone involved, BUGS. I know BUGS doesn’t sound that great, but hear me out. There have been many groups formed over the years, from program-specific groups that focused on AutoCAD® and Autodesk® Revit® to industry-specific groups such as structural and mechanical. Over the years these niche groups have worked well because users would work together and create their parts of the projects and never needed to deal with other areas, besides the initial startup, any major changes, and, of course, project completion. Because of that, users were able to specialize in specific software and deal with one set of skills. Twenty years ago, if someone asked an architect what software he or she used, the answer 22 www.augi.com
would be AutoCAD. About eight years ago, the answer could be AutoCAD or it might be Autodesk Revit. But times are changing faster now than ever, and keeping up requires moving right along with it.
BIM is now Our drawing process is changing, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is shifting the entire process of creating construction documents. BIM has quickly become the AEC industry standard. Clients are now asking for (and in many cases, requiring) Revit for projects. Because of that, our process of setting up and running these user groups needs to shift as well. Everyone on the planet knows what BIM is by now, so I can skip that part. I want to spend this time focusing specifically on the local user group aspect. Again, the original concept was to get a group of users together to discuss tips and tricks pertaining to a specific application or industry. Now that BIM is involved, and has pretty much taken over for the better, no one really works alone anymore.
February 2011