Lawray Architects transition from NBS Building to NBS Create

Lawray Architects is an award-winning RIBA Chartered Architectural practice founded in 1974. Their mission is to provide clients with an exceptional service by using their talent and expertise to optimize each design.

Previously, the team at Lawray Architects used Microsoft Word to produce specifications, but the need to become more dynamic and keep up to date with an ever-changing industry prompted them to invest in NBS Building. Soon after, the business decided to transition to NBS Create, enabling them to benefit from the Uniclass classification system and Autodesk Revit plug-in.

A seamless transition

NBS Create has now been implemented across the business and is used on every new project. The successful roll-out has been helped by training programmes provided by NBS for all technical staff.

John Evans, BIM Manager at Lawray Architects, explains how they implemented the software: ‘We used NBS Create on a number of projects as we progressed through the transition period from NBS Building. Following successful pilot testing, we quickly felt confident that we could roll out the software across the whole business using a “Big Bang” approach rather than piecemeal. This has reduced the time and money needed to fully implement the software and train staff.

“The transition necessary from the Common Arrangement Work Sections (CAWS) clause numbering to the Uniclass clause numbering has been made easier by the comprehensive search functionality within NBS Create. This has greatly reduced the learning curve of Uniclass’ clause numbering”.

The benefits

The team has experienced a number of benefits since it started using NBS Create, including fulfilling one part of their BIM Level 2 board management mandate.

John explains some of the benefits they have experienced: “NBS Create is a major step forward in its functionality compared to NBS Building. It is more comprehensive and with it being an online solution we always have the latest clauses and manufacturer and regulatory information at our fingertips. NBS Create has improved the quality of our specification writing whilst being very easy to use.

“Using the NBS Plug-in for Revit has enabled us to streamline and fully integrate our modelling and drawing content with the specifications in NBS Create. This has enabled us to greatly improve the coordination between specifications and drawn content across all the projects where it’s used”.

Staff have picked up NBS Create very quickly and the training programme was invaluable in bringing all staff and studios along at the same time and pace.

Introducing Create to contractors

The business was apprehensive about how their contractors would react to the introduction of Uniclass clause-numbered specifications. However, they have been pleasantly surprised, with the majority of contactors quickly adapting to the new clauses. This has been helped by Lawray Architects’ clear understanding and direction of how they use Uniclass and NBS Create in conjunction with their Revit models and output drawings.

John explains: “We use the system clause numbers to populate our general arrangement drawings and the products clause numbers on detail drawings. The specification documentation is output to PDF using a similar structure of systems to product clauses. This makes it easy for contractors to read our drawings in combination with specifications and find clauses in the PDF file (through PDF search), or in the printed copy. Because of this, we have experienced very few issues or requests for information related to our drawings, specifications and contractors.”

NBS Create: A must-have solution

NBS Create has not only improved the quality of the business’ specification writing but also their staff productivity, efficiency and accuracy.

John concludes: “Overall, I would highly recommend that any business makes the transition to NBS Create with the Revit plug-in for a complete, efficient, productive and resulting profitable solution that is fully compliant with UK Government’s BIM Level 2 aspirations.”