Building Information Modeling - 3

dimensional drawings are still the typical way in which design information is conveyed. Design professionals on a project are thinking in 3D but have to abstract their visions into separate sets, by discipline, of 2-D plans, elevations, sections, details and specifications. Each of the many individuals who need to understand that design intent have to re-imagine them in 3D in order t o do their w ork. This leads t o frequent misunderstandings, wasteful re-creation of design work in different formats and sig nificant slowdowns on the sit e or e ven incorrect work being performed due to inconsistencies among the 2-D documents of the various design professionals. Cost and schedule overruns and resulting claims activity are, unfortunately, a common result. With all of these factors at work, it is no sur prise that various studies ha ve shown that the c onstruction industry operates at as m uch as a 50% wast e fact or, meaning time and money expended which doesn't sho w up in the value of the completed asset. Other industries have greatly improved their productivity o ver the last four decades b y standar dizing processes and apply ing t echnology and aut omation. Construction lag s this impr ovement because pr ocesses and tools have not fundamental ly changed to keep pace with the rest of industry. But all of that has begun to change. Variety of project players and IT tools across the lifecycle phases of a project. The Emergence of BIM For decades, aerospace, automotive and shipbuilding c ompanies have been designing and building their complex products with sophisticated modeling software that simulates both assembly and performance. This eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming physical prototyping, because the design is optimiz ed in ad vance for c ost, function and c onstructability. Not only do these companies virtually develop a complete design, but the models they produce can be read by the fabricator's equipment that cuts and mills the customized parts, and the B ill of Materials is an int egrated output of the modeling pr ocess. This eliminat es the t raditional back-andforth drawing and re-drawing to demonstrate that the fabricator understands the design intent. In effect they are building the product twice, once virtually to ensur e optimization and w ork out the bug s in ad vance, then physically in exact compliance with the model, at a high level of quality and pr oduction efficiency . This has c ontributed enor mously t o the pr oductivity gains e njoyed b y non-construction industries. (see Graph) This v irtual appr oach t o desig n and c onstruction is no w being adapted to the c onstruction indust ry. It goes b y many names but for the pur poses of this article I w ill call it simply : BIM, the memorable and say-able abbreviation for Building Information Modeling. I use the term to refer to both the technology tools that produce the models and perfor m specialized analysis on them, and the int er-company pr ocesses that ar e being adopted to collaborate more efficiently, apply expertise at the most cost-effective time and produce better projects. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce BIM 3

Building Information Modeling

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Information Modeling