NEWSLETTER

Coming Soon: SpecLink-E and Linkage to BIM

The second and final Beta release of BSD SpecLink-E is due on the street about the time you read this, and its long-awaited public debut will follow the Beta version early next year. BSD SpecLink-E (SLE) is the next generation of BSD’s SpecLink product line. It is a version of BSD SpecLink+ that has been rebuilt from the ground up as a client-server application for use on networks of all sizes. It’s also small enough to run self-contained on a laptop in a single user environment.



In a multi-user environment, the client software resides on each user’s computer and the server software resides on a central server. The data engine behind the BSD Data Server is Microsoft SQL Server, offering a more robust and higher performance data management system than is employed in the current MS Access-based SpecLink+.

SLE’s support for large networks is a major new feature of the system.

Beth Newman, BSD’s former head of Technical Support, now works for BSD as a consultant and leads the quality assurance testing program for new products. Beth now resides in Seabright, Nova Scotia, and she carries out her daily testing using client software installed on her laptop in Seabright with the server portion of the system installed on one of BSD’s servers in Atlanta. She also tests the system in a self-contained installation on her laptop. We enlisted multiple Q/A staff to test the software both in-house and from other sites.

The new SpecLink-E is designed with a whole new approach to supporting individual users distributed across a network and potentially residing in different offices scattered across multiple states (or even countries). It uses Microsoft’s new Click Once installation technology that makes installing this type of software much easier.

To install the client initially, a client setup package is placed on a network server in a location where all potential users can  reach it. Each user then runs the setup package to install the client locally. Administrative permissions are not required, and no questions are asked during the installation. The software is installed automatically in each user’s Documents and Settings directory (or the Users directory if you are running Vista), and it starts automatically once the installation is complete.

From that point on, the client essentially maintains itself, checking for software updates at the location from which it was initially installed each time it starts up. You control when updates are made available by deciding when to place a new client setup package on the network location being checked by the clent software.

Date updates are much easier, too. SpecLink-E will take advantage of your high-speed Internet connection to update its Master database automatically. The continuously running BSD Data Server will periodically check BSD’s servers in Atlanta and download updates as they become available. This activity can be scheduled to take place at night or on weekends to minimize any performance impact on your network.

The Master database updating process can take place unattended, and the subsequent marking of potential updates in each of your Projects is also automatic.

New features not found in BSD SpecLink+ include Find and Replace and Spell Check commands that span a whole project and allow you to select the project sections that will be checked. You can now add, modify and delete choice fields in a user version of a master paragraph without interfering with the master version of the paragraph. The new SLE optionally includes the ability to name the users that can have access to the system and assign Roles to those users (such as Standard, Expert and System Manager). The commands and features that each user can access and use are determined by the user’s Role. For example, Expert Users and System Managers have the ability to approve and apply Project updates, while Standard Users do not.

The last LinkLine issue described in some detail a new type of Outline and Short Form specifications management that will be available in SLE. All forms of specifications use the same body of text. In each section, Outline specifications are a subset of Short Form specifications text, and Short Form specifications are a subset of the Full Form specifications text. The text is designed to allow a specifications writer to begin a project using the Outline Form of specifications; rather than discarding the Outline text and starting over at the next phase, the specifier builds on the Outline text to create Short Form specs for the design development phase.

Similarly, when preparing the final project specifications, the writer can build on the previously created Short Form specifications to create the construction documents. This major feature is designed to improve productivity, maintain continuity from one type of spec to another, and enhance the quality of the final product.

LinkMan-E Follows SpecLink-E to Market

As we complete the initial release of SpecLink-E, we’re also designing and developing a Building Information Modeling (BIM) product called LinkMan-E (LME) that will initially link SLE with the Autodesk Revit Architecture product and provide a “dashboard” interface that lets you connect and coordinate your Revit models and elements with your project specifications in a meaningful way. LinkMan-E uses the UniFormat hierarchy to display Revit elements and connects them to its own set of assembly objects, whose constituent products connect to your project specifications.

A second phase of this effort will link BSD’s CostLink/AE application with both Revit and SpecLink-E to facilitate budget development and quantification using linked assembly objects that are managed by the LinkMan interface.LinkMan-E is a client application similar to the SpecLink-E client, and it shares the BSD Data Server with SLE. It also shares the same SQL Server back end and uses the same BSD Master and Projects databases as SLE. This allows LME to change and update SpecLink-E text.

The user can configure LinkMan-E to actually enable or disable specifications in SLE (based on the content of the Revit model), or you may choose to simply display the current status of the text in the LME interface compared to a product or assembly’s use in Revit. This display then becomes a de facto recommendation or coordination option that the user can act on  as appropriate.

LinkMan-E provides two views of the relationship between applications (for example, between Revit and SpecLink-E). The Assemblies view is structured using the UniFormat II hierarchy and reflects the Assemblies used or referenced in each application. Each Assembly lists the products that comprise its construction, indicating the status  of each product in the respective applications.

The Products view is organized according to the MasterFormat 2004 hierarchy and also depicts the use of each product in the respective applications.

Our approach to intelligent application linking does not depend on any keynoting scheme. While we plan to offer assistance in creating and maintaining keynotes that are coordinated with your specifications, we think the actual text of the keynote should be independent of the linking process. LinkMan-E depends on associating application information with LME’s own master set of objects (data definitions).

Each application’s data is linked to these common objects and each application is thereby linked to the other applications’
data. BSD will deliver SpecLink-E master specifications that are “pre-linked” to LME’s objects. Each paragraph in SpecLink-E is a potentially linkable “object” that can be connected to LME’s product objects.  We are also working to pre-link Revit family types to LME’s objects.  

But the master set of objects are also expandable by the user, allowing users to copy and modify, or build from scratch,
objects that match the various construction assemblies and products used in the Revit model. LinkMan-E allows users to build
their own links between LME’s objects and Revit’s family types, and between LME’s objects and SpecLink-E paragraph objects
(specification text). LinkMan-E will follow SpecLink-E, with an initial Beta Release a couple of months after the commercial release of SLE. If you’re a current SpecLink+ customer you are welcome to sign up early for either of these products by contacting support@bsdsoftlink.com. We continue to look for feedback and would welcome your comments. There are a  number of these articles on one product or another in our LinkLine Newsletter archives on our web site if you are looking for more information. And we’ll try to respond if you want to write with questions.