The Charette Project

Friday, March 25, 2005

MindManager and Architecture
Before I joined Mindjet, my career was about the combination of Architecture and Information Technology. I was educated as an architect and worked for eight years developing CAD software for building product manufacturers like Boise Cascade. I joined Mindjet because the mind mapping technique is one that I enjoy and that I have been using for years:

Notes from a Tanzania Safari

Becuase my colleages at Mindjet knew my of background, they connected me to some of our customers who are architects and builders who use MindManager to plan and organize the resources of architectural projects.

From my conversations with those customers, and I have been trying to understand if MindManager could be integrated with some of the systems and technologies that are used in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) field. One of our biggest enthusiasts, Robin Capper, gave me an idea to map AutoCAD's DWF files and, with a minimal amount of work, I was able to create something pretty cool:

Another idea from a user was if MindManager could be used to view and modify information in Building Information Models (BIM). This would be much more sophisiticated but I think that it would be a much more powerful integration. In the same way that we integrated with the Salesforce.com web service, we could integrate with a building information model. The problem with that is that as web services, building information models are still in a very experimental stage with very few firms actually using them. Because the US GSA is mandating for 2006 the usage of IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), a BIM implementation, this might start moving along much faster.
I have started a forum to discuss this because I want to find something in A/E/C that would really benefit from using MindManager.

¶ 2:22 PM

Comments:

I loved the blog on mindmapping and the very interesting combination of interests in your background. If 3D visualization, software and mind mapping are all passions of yours, as your blog suggests, would you like to sign up as a beta tester for Topicscape 3D concept-mapping software?

I'm in the beta team of a very small group of developers that's been building a 3D concept-mapping tool for a couple of years. (As I'm sure you know well, concept mapping has many similarities to Buzan's mind mapping.) This tool is called Topicscape and we’re looking for people interested in trying it out. It is at the Beta 2 stage and has been through a few months of testing by a small group of outside users.

I've been using Mind Manager since version 2 (in 1996 when it was called Mind Man) and still use it almost daily. We chose to build 3D software, because sometimes mind maps can get too big if you use them on big projects or as a place to organize a lot of reference information. We’ve found that using 3D on a computer screen allows us to take in and understand much more at a time. Topicscape is complemetary to Mind Manager - it lets users take a big mind map and develop it further than is possible on a screen or even an A2 sheet of paper.

Topicscape uses a concept mapping approach because we think that’s a great way to think and plan but it’s really a tool for organizing all sorts of information as well as getting your thoughts straight. Each node can have files, URLs, emails and parts of files dropped on it. You can have many files on a node if you want.

It’s a personal edition (one PC). If you, or readers of your blog, would like to try it, the web site is www.topicscape.com. There are screen shots and stories from users showing how they organize their work, personal information and hobbies. Active Beta users will be given a free licence for version 1.0.

Roy

# posted by Roy : 8:45 PM

There is a new Beta version of Topicscape available now at http://www.topicscape.com, Beta 2.1.

Topicscape is the 3D concept-mapping software that lets you fly through you ideas, project materials and reference data, and the new version reflects comments, suggestions and errors reported by our beta users.

It includes some significant fixes, performance improvements and several enhancements to topic and occurrence deletion.

There is a summary of changes at http://www.topicscape.com/whatsnew.php

You can still sign up for our beta program if you have not tried Topicscape yet.

Oh, and by the way . . .
If you tried an earlier version and found you were getting stuck at 5%, please visit our web site and search on "5 percent" for solutions. We have found that two security suites (out of 25) are incompatible, when they are first installed, even if you give all the permissions described on our networks page (which is at http://www.topicscape.com/network/) and even if they are not running. The manufacturers have given us fix instructions, which are on our web site, and they are looking into the problem.

# posted by Roy : 6:34 AM

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