From the course: BIM Manager: Managing CAD Standards

What is the NCS?

From the course: BIM Manager: Managing CAD Standards

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What is the NCS?

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- [Instructor] Although it's the United States National CAD Standard, it's internationally adopted. As a matter of fact, most CAD and BIM software vendors use this format right out of the box. It's brought to you by the buildingSMART alliance, and it's the most widely adopted set of standards. Unfortunately, unlike other standards and documents we'll look at throughout this course, the NCS website, www.nationalcadstandard.org, is proprietary, and it's not free. So, I can't just give you the documents in this one. Sorry about that. But here's some things I'd like you to know. The National CAD Standard, like we said, has an associated cost. It has an associated cost, but it varies, so I don't know what it'll be at the release of this course. There's over a thousand pages of guidelines. There's so much content here. There's downloadable content. Here's the thing. Take a north arrow, for example. NCS has a north arrow that works for every situation. My company had a dozen north arrows when I started. I'd introduced the NCS, and, let's say, I didn't get 100% compliance with this north arrow. But the good thing was, nobody could decide between the dozen or so. In that situation, I was able to say, hey, it's not mine, I got it from NCS. This is the tie-breaker. You can't decide? We're going with this one. So, that was 10 years ago. Nobody remembers the north arrow they couldn't let go of. Professional training, this is great to take advantage of. If I discussed everything in this document, this would be a 20-hour course. Once you get the NCS, take advantage of this, and get to know the standards. Trust me, you're going to be tested on it from time to time. Some graphics are, well, let's just say they're plain. Here's the thing, though. Some of the graphics, I was never a huge fan of, but they're simple, lightweight, and they're all uniform and the same. What I mean is, the format you see NCS graphics in are easily transferred between projects, CAD platforms, and, importantly, between firms. It's one thing to have your own company using one set of standards, but when everyone is using 'em, man, it just makes life easy. So, as we move forward with more specifics here, let's just say, this standard is a good thing to get on board with.

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