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A P X B U S I N E S S A N D M A N A G E M E N T C O N S U L T A N T S L T D

THE “BIM” thing is so exciting!

Hector Chapa Sikazwe

Oct 2012

Building Information Modeling or BIM is the latest buzzword in construction industry worldwide.

It has been flaunted on the front page of construction magazines; more seminars are being arranged

throughout year and many companies are involved in developing products/tools around BIM. We

hear it talked about. We see the marketing. We hear there are real savings to be had and money to

be made on this BIM thing. But what does it mean? Especially, how does it affect our businesses?

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So, what is BIM? Why it so popular and what lies there in it for architects, building owners,

Engineers, suppliers of building materials and builders? These are fundamental questions that need

answers for the technology to be adopted and the benefits feasted upon!

Though BIM has been around for about ten years now, the current state of BIM implementation

has been generally described as “tentative”. Reasons for the seemingly slow market acceptance

are varied. Issues involving cost of software, hardware, training, strains on network infrastructure

and limited document management abilities are often cited as major obstacles. These phantom

issues have relegated BIM implementations to large projects or niche markets. Surprisingly, BIM

processes can be utilized on any sized project. Around the world, Building Information Modelling

is increasingly gaining the attention of organizations involved in architecture, engineering and

construction (AEC) as well as the owners and operators of buildings and other structures. Using

BIM properly cuts project time and thereby energy use, as well as cost. At Apex, we aim to make

BIM to become an integral core concentration to all of our project processes within the next five

years when dealing with our clients.

In succinct description, BIM is a process involving the generation and management of digital

representations of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. The resulting building

information models become shared knowledge resources to support decision-making about a

facility from earliest conceptual stages, through design and construction, through its operational

life and eventual demolition.

At Apex, we truly believe that the use of BIM goes beyond the planning and design phase of the

project, extending throughout the building life cycle, supporting processes including cost

management, construction management, project management and facility operation. We insist that

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BIM can be seen as a companion to product life-cycle management as in the product development

domain, since it goes beyond geometry and addresses issues such as cost management, project

management whilst providing ways to work concurrently on most aspects of building life cycle

process. It requires changes to the definition of traditional architectural phases and more data

sharing than most architects and engineers are used to.

At Autodesk, BIM is simply described as a building design and documentation methodology

characterized by the creation and use of coordinated, internally consistent computable information

about a building project in design and construction. For Architects, Contractors and Engineers,

BIM makes a reliable digital representation of the building available for design decision making,

high-quality construction document production, construction planning, and performance

predictions, and cost estimates. Having the ability to keep information up-to-date and accessible in

an integrated digital environment gives architects, engineers, builders, and owners a clear overall

vision of all their projects, as well as the ability to make informed decisions faster.

Recently, BIM has been promoted as the solution to reduce waste and inefficiency in building

design and construction. However, many organizations have taken a wait-and-see attitude about

BIM, looking for evidence for return on investment it entails. Today, it’s hard to peruse a

professional journal without reading about BIM, and software vendors and consultants continue to

promote it as the answer for improving efficiency of the entire construction industry. In a nutshell,

BIM reduces the waste of materials during construction and building management and eventually

assist in sustainable demolition. Energy modelling can also minimize energy use over a building’s

life and thereby lengthen the life cycle of the building.

The larger implications of BIM are not just consistent drawings, cost estimation and bills of

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material and clash detection. Because building models are machine readable, it becomes practical

to use the data they carry in many other ways: for energy, lighting, acoustic or other analyses - not

as post facto checking if an almost finished design is "OK", but rather to provide feedback while

designing, informing the designer of the effects of changes or to explore the relative effect on

alternatives. Customers using BIM save time and money, see fewer design errors, experience

improved productivity, and have access to new business opportunities. BIM is not a technology,

but it does require suitable technology to be implemented effectively. Thus building models allow

for better integration of design processes, allowing the kind of exploration that is equivalent to

having a team of analyst consultants assessing designs as they make explorations. The result is that

designers taking advantage of BIM can develop and demonstrate design trade-offs in ways that

have been impossible in practice until now, and providing better services. Many of the uses of

BIM data are waiting to be discovered and developed. That is why BIM is so exciting.

Participants in the building process are constantly challenged to deliver successful projects despite

tight budgets, limited manpower, accelerated schedules, and limited or conflicting information.

The BIM concept envisages virtual construction of a facility prior to its actual physical

construction, in order to reduce uncertainty, improve safety, work out problems, and simulate and

analyse potential impacts.

The most exciting aspect of BIM is that it involves representing a design as objects, vague and

undefined, generic or product-specific, solid shapes or void-space oriented (like the shape of a

room), that carry their geometry, relations and attributes. The geometry may be 2D or 3D. The

objects may be abstract and conceptual or construction detailed. Composed together these objects

precisely define a building model. If an object is changed or moved, it need only be acted on once.

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BIM design tools then allow for extracting different views from a building model for drawing

production and other uses. These different views are automatically consistent - in the sense that the

objects are all of a consistent size, location, specification - since each object instance is defined

only once, just as in reality. Drawing consistency eliminates many errors. The beginning of the end

of inconsistencies, repeat works, poor information documentation, wrong decision making,

unforeseen costs and inadequate reporting of progress on construction projects has just arrived

with BIM!

Further reads

http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/what-is-bim-model-or-building-information-

modeling-860920.html

http://construction.about.com/od/Technology/a/Introduction-To-Building-Information-Modeling.htm

http://www.apexbusinessmanagement.co.uk/the-bim-thing-is-here-and-is-so-exciting/

http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/markets-technologies/bim

http://www.cadd-connection.com/content/bim-ipd-0

http://bim.arch.gatech.edu/?id=402