Meet the Community: NBS Online Viewer Addresses Three Issues for Project Stakeholders

NBS is committed to offering distinctive, innovative specification and information solutions to construction industry professionals. Its origins lie in the National Building Specification for the UK, and it has produced specification products for over 40 years. NBS specification products cover building construction, engineering services, and landscape design.

Over the years, here are some of the challenges that NBS has faced:

CAD drawings and specification documents were often out of sync.
Up-to-date models could not be viewed on mobile devices and tablets.
Workers using out of date information increased project risk.

To address these challenges, NBS developed an NBS Online Viewer (based on Forge) that helps clients coordinate building models and specifications. The online viewer met a critical need. NBS customers needed to move workflows from paper to online, which was crucial during at all stages of the supply chain, from design to build. The solution had to coordinate building model information with specifications to minimize risk and variable costs. It also needed to include access to dynamic project information in real-time to enable construction project teams—often consisting of global, multilingual employees with technology barriers—to make better decisions.

Moving the construction industry from bits of paper to PDFs to the web browser, on tablets, on Surface laptops, etc. is a huge step forward. Here are three challenges NBS tackled along the way:

Linking of building models and specifications.

The Data Management API provided the tools that allowed NBS developers to sync building models with specifications, a key element in moving the industry from paper to the digital world. The architects gets all the advantages of Revit, i.e., the standardized objects—but in addition to the contractual information and the PDFs, they just log onto the project website and can see one environment that's all connected.
Models needed to be viewable with no extra software and be usable on any device, anywhere.

Because the Viewer is already a browser-based solution that works on desktop computers, tablets, and other mobile devices, any user with NBS login credentials can view models and specifications, with no need for additional software. Using Forge, NBS didn't need to spend valuable resources developing a viewer from scratch. The Model Derivative API allows NBS to translate assets (like Revit models) into industry standard SVF so that the Viewer can display it (as WebGL) to any project member with just a browser. The Forge Viewer handles all of the peculiarities of different operating systems and device types.
Keep all users informed to minimize project risk.

The combination of the Data Management API, Model Derivative API, and the Viewer means users can see all relevant information clearly linked, which leads to fewer errors and better-informed stakeholders. That increased efficiency translates into cost savings both on-site and off-site. The NBS online viewer enables users to click on any object in a 3D Revit or IFC model and view its specifications, and selecting specifications in the content list highlights corresponding objects. The easy-to-use experience eliminates technology barriers, providing powerful tools for even the least tech-savvy stakeholders working on a project.