BIM and Construction Specifications for the 21 st Century ®

Who is BSD? Building Systems Design, Inc. (BSD) is a software company specializing in applications for the a/e/c market, founded in 1983 Headquarters are in Atlanta Staff includes 35 employees, including architects, engineers, spec writers and software programmers, plus outside consultants Major products are: –BSD SpecLink®-E –BSD LinkMan®-E –BSD CostLink®/AE Company also developed and supports AGC’s DocuBuilder® Customers include thousands of firms and users in all 50 states

What is BSD LinkMan-E? It’s the most innovative communications and coordination tool available for linking BIM to construction specifications; it provides interoperability between BSD SpecLink-E & Autodesk’s Revit.

What is BSD LinkMan-E? The LinkMan-E database includes a master list of assemblies organized according to UniFormat and a master list of products organized according to MasterFormat... The assemblies are each linked to the products that comprise them

What is BSD LinkMan-E? By mapping the Revit assembly elements against the LinkMan-E assemblies and mapping the specification text in SpecLink-E against the LinkMan-E products... the elements in a Revit project can be compared to the products specified in SpecLink-E, using dashboard views in LinkMan-E

LinkMan-E is essentially an interoperability manager (LinkManager) that connects and compares information from Revit and BSD SpecLink-E It’s a client-server application using SQL Server, but it can also run alone on a single computer It provides “dashboard” views of a project to show status of project data in each linked application― highlighting discrepancies for corrective action To accomplish the connection, it uses a built-in database of thousands of assemblies and building products that are pre- linked to BSD SpecLink-E and Autodesk’s Revit What is BSD LinkMan-E?

It also allows project specifications to be automatically edited and updated, based on data from Revit It permits creation of customized links between elements created in Revit and specification text in BSD SpecLink-E – both master text and user-generated text It includes a robust keynotes management system that works closely with Revit to provide superior control of keynotes, including automatic global replacement when changes are made What is BSD LinkMan-E?

BSD LinkMan-E – An Overview

LinkMan-E is a Client-Server Application Using SQL Server It Comprises Multiple Components: –Client Software Runs on User’s Computer –Server Software and Database Run on WAN or LAN –All Components Can Run on a Standalone Computer It Uses a Revit Add-in to Communicate It Features SQL Server-Based Master and Projects Databases MS SQL Server Is Built Into BSD Server Install No Separate License is Required; No Database Administrator It’s Available as an Optional Add-On to BSD SpecLink-E BSD LinkMan-E – An Overview

How Does LinkMan-E Work? Ribbon Bar shows Applications Tab Each of the four primary views is accessible via its own tab. Here is the Revit Project view, which displays the status of assemblies in Revit LME imports data about Revit objects that are present and active in a Revit project The lighter background color and green status box highlight objects that are present and active in the Revit project Checkmark shows the Revit object has been linked to an assembly object in LinkMan Data from Revit includes quantities and number of instances

How Does LinkMan-E Work? Applications Tab expands or collapses view to show all or only active products The SpecLink Project view displays the current status of product text in the specifications The SpecLink tree shows which sections are currently active in the SpecLink-E project Checkmark shows the SpecLink paragraph has been linked to a Product object in LinkMan-E The lighter background color and green status box highlight product text that is active in the SpecLink project Text shown on a light background is the actual text as currently selected in SpecLink for the project – including active choices

How Does LinkMan-E Work? The Assemblies Dashboard shows the status of assemblies in each of the linked applications, allowing the project manager to see correlations and mismatches Products missing from the specifications can be “turned on” in SpecLink-E by clicking here, under “Select Specs” Lighter color shows assemblies that are active in one or more of the linked applications For a given assembly, LME shows below which products are included and their status in each linked application Yellow status box in the SpecLink-E column indicates only some of the products comprising the assembly are currently active in SpecLink-E Red status box in the SpecLink-E column indicates one or more of the products comprising the assembly have been excluded in SpecLink-E

How Does LinkMan-E Work? The Assemblies Dashboard View can be collapsed to show only those assemblies that are active in one or more of the linked applications Gray status box in the Revit column indicates the assembly is not currently active in the Revit project The Show Active Objects command hides any assemblies that are not active in at least one of the linked applications Green status box in the SpecLink-E column indicates all products comprising the assembly are currently active in SpecLink-E

How Does LinkMan-E Work? The Assemblies Dashboard View can be collapsed further to show only those assemblies that have discrepancies Red status box in the SpecLink-E column indicates one or more products comprising the assembly have been excluded in SpecLink-E The Show Discrepancies command hides any active assemblies that are not in conflict Green status box in the SpecLink-E column indicates all products comprising the assembly are currently active in SpecLink-E The project manager can use this discrepancy view to determine whether corrections must be made in Revit and/or in SpecLink-E

How Does LinkMan-E Work? The Products Dashboard View shows the status of LinkMan–E products in all linked applications -- and can be collapsed to show only active products or only those that present conflicts The Show All Objects command displays all listed products and their status in each linked application Assemblies that include the highlighted product are shown below, with current status of each assembly in each application

How Does LinkMan-E Work? The Show Discrepancies command hides all listed products that are active in BOTH the Revit and the SpecLink projects If “Auto Select Specs” is not activated, the project manager can manually “turn on” any individual products missing from the specifications by clicking in the “Select Specs” column, thereby automatically selecting appropriate section and product text in SpecLink-E “Auto Select Specs” command allows automatic selection in SpecLink-E of any products missing from the specifications, based on data from the Revit project The project manager can use this discrepancy view to determine whether corrections must be made in Revit and/or in SpecLink-E

How Does LinkMan-E Work? Although many Revit elements have been pre-linked to LinkMan-E, users may create or import their own objects into Revit and link to LME, then link to the appropriate sections and specific products in BSD SpecLink-E By opening the Revit Project and Assemblies Dashboard in the same window, users can drag and drop elements to create links to LME The links created by this drag-and-drop process persist from one project to the next, so it is a simple matter to create an “office master” of linked objects

What About Keynotes? LinkMan includes a robust keynote management system that works closely with Revit LinkMan includes default keynotes for all products and assemblies in the master database The product keynotes are organized according to MasterFormat

LinkMan includes a robust keynote management system that works closely with Revit LinkMan includes default keynotes for all products and assemblies in the master database Master keynotes cannot be altered, but LinkMan allows the addition of user keynotes and modification of copies of master keynotes The assemblies keynotes are organized according to UniFormat What About Keynotes?

On the Revit Project tab, any keynotes from Revit appear, together with master keynotes from LinkMan What About Keynotes?

A right click allows a master keynote to be copied to the Revit keynote column What About Keynotes? It’s also possible to automatically apply default keynotes to all blank Revit keynote fields by clicking “Apply Default Keynotes”

By opening the Keynotes tab in the same window, you can drag and drop keynotes into the Revit keynotes field What About Keynotes? It’s also possible to create or edit new keynotes by right- clicking on a master keynote to open an editing dialog and then clicking Apply

You can import a previously edited set of keynotes by clicking on the Import icon; the keynotes will be merged automatically by keynote number What About Keynotes?

Once you have completed your edits to the Revit keynotes in LinkMan-E, you can import the keynotes in Revit What About Keynotes? You can import all keynotes, all Master and active User keynotes, or User keynotes only

What About Keynotes? Any active keynotes in the Revit project will automatically be replaced with any changes you have made in LinkMan

We hope this brief introduction to BSD’s innovative interoperability product has intrigued you enough to ask for more information about LinkMan-E -- or try a free evaluation copy of the software. Thank you for your interest! Call us toll-free at 888-BSD-SOFT ( ) or visit our website at