|
|
AEC From the Ground Up-BIM Update 2006
November 1, 2006 By: AIA ,H. Edward GoldbergHow complete is the building information model?
As I've said previously, in my opinion the building information model is the entire virtual building project, including all information about that project contained within the property lines, infinitely to the sky and the center of the earth. This information includes data about the structures and associated information, weather history, taxes, ground compaction, utilities, manufacturers, equipment and more. The life span of the building information model runs from owner's concept to construction and through the management of the facility. Given this concept, general wisdom says that owners will spend between four and ten times the original construction cost to operate a building over its lifetime, depending on the type and size of project.
This year software developers have been working furiously to improve and expand the capabilities of their BIM (building information modeling) solutions. Generally these solutions deal with the design and construction phases but not with facility management and maintenance. Facility management solutions are available, but I'm aware of only two that internally integrate directly with any BIM software products. This is not to say that good facility management solutions aren't available, but so far, only Bentley Facilities and Autodesk FMDesktop have bridged the BIM gap.
 In this Article |
With that said, let's look at the progress in BIM during the past year. The main developers in the BIM arena are Auto-desk, Bentley, Nemetschek North America and Graphisoft. Nemetschek AllPlan is an excellent solution but is used primarily in Europe. To either maintain market share or increase market penetration, all these companies have been feverishly improving their AEC portfolios, often through acquisition.
BIM Solutions
The main software solutions are the modelers: these are the programs that create the models and construction documentation. Because of market competition, these programs have relatively similar capabilities and features. It appears that any given feature is often quickly mimicked by its competitor.
Autodesk, the market leader, has been on a 12-month update path for several years and has forced other developers to follow suit. Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007, which is its 3D object solution, and Revit Building 9.1, which is its BIM solution (see Cadalyst Labs review), are its latest offerings. There has been a lot of buzz about Revit Building as Autodesk’s BIM software moving into the future. It is the fastest growing BIM product on the market.
Bentley Architecture, based on MicroStation V8 XM (see Cadalyst Labs review), has been drastically transformed under the hood and offers a new display system and user interface. It's also much faster and includes a new Live Render mode. Bentley's approach is to integrate all its products through one similar interface. This policy allows Bentley to offer a customized single solution made from its vast array of modules.
Nemetschek North America's Vectorworks 12.5 is definitely the value leader, offering good capability at an excellent price point. Although sophisticated and fully capable, in my opinion, Vectorworks doesn't have the depth of capability of the other four software products.
Similar to Revit and Architectural Desktop, Graphisoft's Archicad 10 includes a Space object that collects enclosed data. Archicad's Space object is more sophisticated, though, and has the ability to automatically collect 3D freeform enclosed data. Everyone is trying to create interactive compound curve walls and roofs, but to my knowledge, no one has really succeeded.
BIM Analysis
1 2 3
About the Author: H. Edward Goldberg
