SPECWAVE tehcnology takes a static specification and makes it dynamic. How? Because when paired with software that contains the same underlying programming (schema) the various softwares talk to each other.
When will paired software be available? Pretty soon and Bentley’s ProjectWise will likely be first.
What does this really mean? When you execute any discreet task using SPECWAVE it will report to ProjectWise. So, if a spec section is finished, ProjectWise knows automatically. If a specifier is behind on task, ProjectWise will know. When CADD software is linked it means that you will be able to see a data level that automatically feeds your specification. The potential for automatic data sharing and updating across all design documentation and sustainment documentation is nearly unlimited.
In the end, SPECWAVE will form the basis of a true ability to integrate data across all aspects fo a project from inception through facility sustainment and disposal.
In the end, you will no longer need separate, incompatible files of tons of data that no one can comprehend now or 15 years from now. All you will need to do is “data mine”.
Data Mining means that you you can access your project file, and for that matter every project file, that used SPECWAVE and find those tid bits of information that drive you looney when you need them and can’t remember where they are.
Want to know who decided what in pre-design? Data mine.
Want to know why some material choice was made 10 years later? Data mine.
If you do proposals with SPECWAVE your documents can be data mined later for projects you have forgotten but that are still in your qualification set.
I have sat through red team reviews where people know their firm did some relevant project but can’t remember when or from which office. Data mine.
SPECWAVE has an almost unlimited ability to provide comprehensive continuity of memory for your efforts.
The challenge is that the continuity is not instantaneous and so the more you use a SPECWAVE product, the deeper and more meaningful the benefit. This is why CH2 has acted as the test bed and is the first subscribing customer. They see a very high future productivity benefit.
How realistic is this dream? We all have frustration with BIM and the promise of automation that never really seems to come true, right?
NIBS has proposed the schema developed by TEEC as part of the National BIM Standard. This proposal is out for vote now according to Deke Smith. What will likely follow is that this schema will also end up incorporated in the ISO standard.
TEEC has insisted that the schema itself remain “open sourced”. That means that all commercial software firms can use it. FIATECH has played a large role in helping push this along.
A major impedeiment to to interoperable software is the desire to create and protect proprietary products. Open sourced schema goes a long way to overcome this challenge. No firm wanted to go to the expense of creating something like SPECWAVE only to find that it got trumped somehow. TEEC was willing to take this on and scraped just enough money together to do the work.
If you buy SPECWAVE now, get familiar with how it works, and use it to build some documents you are investing in your own preparation for a truly integrated design world. We have long thought, dreamed, speculated or absolutely denied that this world would arrive but this world is now right around the corner.
Is there an immediate productivity benefit to you in that this will make your first spec or two go faster? Probably not. The beneift is very much dependent on how much you use the product and rely on past efforts. The benefit depends very much on how fast additional commercial software becomes available that is truly interactive.
TEEC is aligned with Bentley in the hope interoperable products will come to market faster than by other means. Another part of the reason TEEC is linked closely to Bentley is that both Leon and Adam Klatzkin worked for Bentley in the past and it is a natural relationship.
Leon and Adam are programmers, not specifiers. When Leon talks about SPECWAVE he tends to get excited about the programming aspects rather than what we might call the “practical”. For this reason I advise you to go to the presentation and/or talk to the folks at the SPECTEXT Support Center.
What Leon and Adam know about the design industry they are learning from the people associated with SPECTEXT and the folks at CH2. Part of the reason that Leon talks about process industries is his association with FIATECH which has some very large industrial firms as members. I am told that TEEC is very close to closing deals with a couple really big industrial firms for SPECWAVE.
CSRF got involved with Leon some years ago and committed resources to help TEEC along. I believe we made the right decisions to help and we wish TEEC all success.