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What's the BIM Deal?
26 Aug, 2009 By: Robert GreenUnderstanding building information modeling begins with sorting out fact from fiction.
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If you're at all into CAD you've seen the acronym BIM, short for building information modeling, all over the place the past few years. If you're a CAD manager in an architectural environment you're probably starting to plan for, or even test, BIM technology. If you manage CAD in the construction or building engineering trades your senior management may be asking you how BIM is going to change your company's approach to modeling in the coming years. Even civil engineers are scratching their heads over how they'll integrate BIM models into their site planning databases. It seems only those who do machinery design are immune to the long tentacles of BIM.
So what is all the fuss about? How might BIM affect all of us who manage CAD in the AEC environment? These are good questions, and I plan to explore all of them in the next few issues of the CAD Manager's Newsletter. Here goes.
The Basics: Deciphering the Hype
Any time a new type of software hits the market, a tsunami of promotion is unleashed that paints the trend as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The introduction of BIM has been no different in this regard, with all manner of promises of "ease of use" and "higher productivity" touted without much data to back up the claims.
So how can we separate all the hype from the fundamentals we need to understand to implement and manage BIM technology? To answer those questions, we'll need to learn what BIM can do for our companies, define what the limitations are, and gain a solid understanding of the resources required to deploy BIM.
What BIM Can Do
BIM is building design in 3D — and more. The building information model encompasses all data associated with the building design, including geometry and geographic information and quantities and properties of building components.
Ask five different CAD managers what BIM can do, and you're likely to get five different answers. (And I'm sure I'll receive a good bit of e-mail after I set out my own vision of BIM!) So, for the sake of starting the conversation, I'll lay out the various categories of BIM I see in the marketplace now, along with the core functionalities those products bring to the table.
Architectural BIM. A high-end 3D CAD tool that captures the geometry of walls, foundations, frames, roofs, and window systems of a building. By capturing the properties of the building (glass properties, typical insulation values, etc.) and the climate zone information (based on where the building is located), basic energy computations become possible for passive solar heating, minimization of cooling loads, and optimal building placement to reduce building energy consumption. Most BIM tools also include visualization capabilities for pseudo-realistic rendering of projects as they take shape.
Structural BIM. Takes architectural BIM a step further by allowing the detailed modeling of structural beams, supports, and trusses along with placement of building loads for all the elements of a building that place weight on the structure — think steel members, concrete, equipment, furniture, etc. — to qualify the building structure for load compliance.
BIM for MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing). The ultimate extension of the BIM analysis, since everything from water systems, hot water units, sprinklers, lighting, electrical conduits and trays, and circuits can be fully designed inside the building (BIM) model. BIM systems for MEP are relatively new and, thus, are in the greatest state of flux at present.
Unified BIM Theory
All BIM software tools facilitate the production of 2D construction documentation as a byproduct of the 3D models. Obviously, the type of 2D documentation differs as architectural elevations and reflected ceiling plans aren't the same as conduit and cable tray drawings, but the concept is the same. Like mechanical 3D systems, BIM uses the value proposition that once the building is modeled in 3D the 2D prints are a byproduct of the model.
In other words, BIM is simply a way to aggregate all the information we know about a building into a unified CAD software system instead of a bunch of disparate computer tools. So rather than drawing 2D building floors and elevations in a CAD tool, then performing structural analysis in another tool, electrical computations in a spreadsheet, and energy calculations in yet another platform, BIM seeks to unify the process in a single software environment.
I've read a lot of dissertations on what BIM is, but I believe my summary outlines BIM's potential in a lot fewer words with a lot less hype. (You may even want to pass along these descriptions to your senior management teams if they're asking you about what BIM can do.)
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