Case Studies

“Enscape helps you use Revit more thoughtfully. The feedback makes you go to the next level of detail.”

Brian Mackey | Owner | BDMackey Consulting

Who’s Brian?

I’m an independent information modeling consultant from Denver, Colorado. My professional start was in woodworking and construction. Over the years I have gained a great deal of practical experience that allows me to find unique approaches for each of my clients to help them advance their workflows and become more efficient and profitable.

At the first woodworking company I worked, I was really the only person even able to use the computers we had available. This was back when AutoCAD was first coming on the scene. To utilize the technology, the company decided I was the best person to attend a few community college courses to learn AutoCAD, which then led to CNC programming. I took to the technology and new workflows quite easily. As a result I quickly discovered that much of the work I was producing (mostly shop drawings) were more accurate than what architects were providing.

Eventually one of the architectural firms I often worked with offered me a position in their office. I took the position but due to my non-formal training, I quickly discovered that I had to overcome some amount of bias working among architects. Fortunately, I eventually transitioned to an architecture firm that valued my construction experience.

Eventually, my experience at these firms lead me to work for Autodesk reseller beginning in 2004, not long after the Revit acquisition. I remember when I first saw Revit. I thought, “Wow – Revit is going to completely change the industry.” I soon started using Revit and took to it even easier than when I learned AutoCAD. I stopped using AutoCAD in 2005 and I have never looked back.

During my time at the reseller I trained over 1,000 AEC professionals. Most were in the greater Denver area, but many in other regions of the country. In this time I developed countless relationships with various firms and was able to build on my knowledge and practical experience through helping those firms to learn and find their most profitable workflows.

I met my wife in 2009. Desirée is a structural engineer who grew up in her father’s GC firm. She was familiar with working in and running a family business. Desirée encouraged me to pursue my aspirations of moving beyond the reseller basic-level training and we opened BD Mackey Consulting in 2011. I have discovered that running my own business includes a great deal of stress, but also has numerous advantages. I am able to direct my work so I stay challenged, and therefore interested. One should never underestimate the detrimental nature of boredom! My clients hire me to solve interesting, high-level problems that are ever-changing.

Ultimately, this means I’m able work for the best clients, on the most interesting projects, and really enjoy what I do. In addition to my consulting work, I’m a pretty regular speaker at BIM conferences. I teach classes at RTC, BIM Workshops, and Autodesk University. I also am a member of the leadership committee for our local users group.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/therevitgeek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackeybrian
Company: www.bdmackeyconsulting.com

Why Enscape?

When I first saw Enscape (enscape3d.com) my thoughts were, “Holy crap this is cool!” It’s important to understand that many clients don’t have the time to use Revit to render. Even when rendering in the cloud is fast, it’s not fast enough and not very intuitive. The trial and error of rendering to see what your rendering will look like is a terrible workflow.

This is why I think Enscape has an advantage over Revit’s own rendering engine. Not only is it faster than cloud rendering, the user always knows exactly what the finished rendering will look like prior to saving the image.

Another reason I like Enscape is because it helps to use Revit more thoughtfully. The real-time feedback prompts the user to go to the next level of detail in Revit. As a bonus, the information is kept within Revit.

Let’s be honest, it is not particularly easy to explore Revit projects natively within Revit. Sure, there are navigation tools, but typically the user is on the outside looking in, and the visual quality while navigating in Revit leaves a lot to be desired.

Buildings are meant to be inhabited and Enscape allows the user to practically experience the inside of the building before it’s built. I’ve observed that clients love the immediate feedback, and they gain a sense validation that the design is headed the right direction. The camera tracking tool is enormously useful for giving context in Revit from the view in Enscape.

Whatever the Enscape team does, please don’t become another DWF viewer. I used to love that tool but then it got really bloated and overcomplicated. As a result, I basically stopped using DWF. I don’t need another coordination tool. I don’t need another measuring tool. Keep Enscape user-friendly and simple. People love Enscape for what it does: beautiful and easy to explore real-time experience. Enscape does not have to solve every problem to be successful. Keep improving on what Enscape already does.

Thanks!

I am glad we were able to chat. I hope our brief discussion will result in people downloading the trial and testing Enscape on their own projects. Once that happens, I don’t believe they’ll ever go back.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

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