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Up to date information

When you use NBS Building, the software will let you know if you are using the most up to date information. If updated material is available, it will prompt you to download it.

Pre-written clauses

NBS Building contains pre-written technical specification clauses and preliminaries for selection and editing to produce project specifications. Clauses are authored by our team of in-house architects and surveyors to be concise and robust and are arranged in accordance with the Common Arrangement of Work Sections.

As the clauses are pre-written, very little typing is involved. Some clauses require additional information which you can either type in or complete with the use of drop-down lists of suggested solutions. Clauses are provided for both prescriptive and performance specification.

Guidance

General guidance with information on materials and design, including workmanship advice and tips on how to avoid pitfalls is provided for each work section. Extensive technical guidance is also provided to help you complete individual clauses.

Guidance provides access to technical information resources including websites and The Construction Information Service*.

Building product information

NBS Building contains building product information called NBS Plus. The manufacturers’ information has been written specifically for NBS clauses and is checked for currency at each update.

Office standards

If you regularly work on similar projects, there is a facility to create, manage and update your own office standard specifications.

Printing and issuing

Flexible formatting options mean that you can present your documents using your corporate style. They can then be printed or exported to PDF.

Intuitive user interface

NBS Building has been designed to be intuitive and simple to use. Specifications and NBS Libraries are organised on the left-hand side of the screen. The centre of the screen is used for editing work sections. The right-hand side of the screen displays Guidance, NBS Plus, Help, and links to other information resources.

* The Construction Information Service is a searchable database of full text documents from publishers such as BRE and BSI. It is available as an online subscription service from IHS, telephone 01344 404434, email marketing@ihsti.com or visit www.ihsti.com.

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NBS Building is a subscription service. As part of the subscription you will receive updates on CD-ROM three times a year. Additional updates can be downloaded from the NBS website when available.

NBS Building is offered in three levels of service:

Full Service:

1. Includes Standard, Intermediate and Minor Works libraries
2. For projects of any size. The Standard work sections include performance based clauses which are suitable for Design and Build contracts as well as traditional procurement. They are accompanied by extensive guidance notes.

Abridged Service:

1. Includes Intermediate and Minor Works libraries
2. For small or medium-sized projects. Scope is comprehensive but sections have been edited to suit the scale of work envisaged. There are few performance based clauses and guidance is less extensive.

Minor Works Service:

1. Includes Minor Works library only
2. For small scale works where brevity is important. There are fewer sections, and both clauses and guidance have been edited for small projects.

Also available: NBS Binders and Discs

NBS Building is also available in three levels of service as the NBS Building Binders and Discs service.

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NBS Libraries

Different NBS Building libraries provide preliminaries, work sections and guidance suited to certain types of work. The libraries are: Standard, Intermediate, and Minor Works, and are offered in the following combinations:

NBS Building Full Service: Standard, Intermediate and Minor Works

For projects of any size. The Standard work sections include performance based clauses, which are suitable for design and build contracts as well as traditional procurement. They are also accompanied by extensive guidance notes.

NBS Building Abridged Service: Intermediate and Minor Works

For more simple, medium sized projects. Scope is comprehensive but sections have been edited to suit the scale of work envisaged, and guidance is less extensive.

NBS Building Minor Works Service: Minor Works

For small scale works where brevity is important. There are fewer sections, which are edited for small jobs.

Scope and contents of NBS Building

The scope and contents of each NBS library follows. The content of each individual work section will vary from one library to another, depending on the projects for which the libraries are designed. The table below shows the contract groups included within the preliminaries of each service.

Current NBS Building scope and contents at March 2008 (NBS Update 2008-1)

S = Standard, I = Intermediate, M = Minor Works

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NBS Software Licensing

NBS software can be licensed for use on standalone PCs, or for use on a network. When running on a standalone PC the software will be licence locked for use only on that machine.

For network installations, the software will be licence locked to the server PC. Other PCs on the network may access the licence on the server for concurrent use, up to the number of licences subscribed to.

System requirements

NBS software requires the following components in order to run:

1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) or Higher
2. Microsoft .NET framework 2.0

Both are supplied on the software CD. All products require a CD-ROM drive for initial installation of the software.
In addition the software will run on the following platforms:

1. Windows Vista (All Editions) 32-bit and 64-bit
2. Windows 2000 (SP4)
3. Windows XP Professional (SP2)
4. Windows XP Home (SP2)
5. Windows 2000 Server and above (for Server PCs)

Full instructions for installation are contained in the Getting Started Guide and help files provided in the software. Our software support team also provide assistance, and you can contact them on 0845 456 9594 (+44 191 232 9594 from outside the UK) and at support@theNBS.com.

Please note that the speed of running any software application depends upon several factors. The following specification is an approximate guide only.

Recommended minimum requirements for all NBS software:

1. Processor: Pentium III 750 MHz
2. Memory: 256 MB
3. Free disk space: 700Mb ~ 1Gb
4. Screen resolution: 1024 x 768 in 16 bit colour.

Microsoft Windows Vista

On 30th January 2007 Microsoft formally launched Windows Vista, to supersede Windows XP.

Windows Vista is available in five different editions, each in both 32bit and 64bit versions:

1. Windows Vista Ultimate
2. Windows Vista Home Premium
3. Windows Vista Home Basic
4. Windows Vista Business
5. Windows Vista Enterprise

If you are considering the operating system, NBS can confirm that we continue to develop the product range in order to be compatible with Windows Vista.

For the latest information please see NBS software Vista compatibility.

Apple Macintosh

We have successfully tested our products on Apple Macintosh computers with Windows emulation software (see specification below). We cannot guarantee, however, that customers' experiences will be the same in all instances.

1. Mac G4, 867 MHz, 640 MB RAM
2. Mac OS X 10.2.8
3. Virtual PC 6.1 & 7.1
4. Windows 2000 SP4 / Windows XP Service Pack 1 (256 Mb allocated to PC) + VPC additions
5. 1024*768 HiColour

We have recently tested the compatibility of NBS software with Apple Boot Camp. The specification of the machine tested on is as follows:

1. iMac 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
2. 17-inch widescreen LCD with 1440x900 resolution
3. 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo with 2MB shared L2 cache
4. 512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
5. 160GB Serial ATA hard drive
6. Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
7. ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
8. Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0

Please Note: In order to run NBS software using Apple Boot Camp users will require a bona fide full version of Microsoft Windows: XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate. (No upgrade or multi-disc versions).

NBS have tested the Specification Family portfolio software (NBS Building, NBS Landscape, NBS Engineering Services), NBS Contract Administrator and NBS Scheduler successfully for standalone and network installations and the platform appears to be very stable.

Although the software has been successfully tested on this platform we cannot guarantee that the software will react the same with another specification Mac. Therefore, we cannot guarantee performance of our software when using Windows on a Mac. Support will be limited for any customers using our software on Mac as we will not be able to determine that the encountered problems are due to our software or the system used.

Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME and NT4

Microsoft has retired support for:

1. Windows 95
2. Windows 98
3. Windows 98SE
4. Windows ME
5. Windows NT4

Microsoft state that these operating systems are outdated and can expose customers to security risks. NBS recommend that customers who are still running the above upgrade to a newer, more secure Microsoft operating system, such as Windows XP (SP2), as soon as possible.

Microsoft has announced that the above operating systems will no longer be supported. Whilst the current versions of the NBS product range will continue to run on these operating systems (except Windows 95 and 98), NBS will no longer support the development of future versions of the product range on these operating systems.

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