buildings. BIM has been successfully demonstrated in
● Architecture and building design
● Civil and structural engineering
● Energy and utilities
● Highway and road engineering
● Landscape and land surveying
● Offshore and marine architecture
● Rail and metro transport engineering
● Services and engineering
● Tunneling and subway architecture
● Urban master-planning and smart city design
✔ It demonstrates that building is a process. It’s not a one-time exchange of data; it’s many exchanges over the life of a project. The majority of model inputs are going to be in the design and construction phases, and the majority of information outputs will be extracted during handover, use, and asset maintenance. The information modeling for the building process could start on day one and still be going strong years later.
In the same way that describing one building that sums up all the buildings in the world is really difficult, summing up BIM using just one example of how it’s been applied is impossible. You can use BIM for every kind of construction project, from giant bridges to manmade islands and even rollercoasters! BIM is a term that has become popular gradually, but it could have just as easily been Construction Information Modeling or Project Information Modeling.
The built environment is very varied and broad in its scope and includes lots of structures that aren’t buildings. When you’re talking about BIM, make sure that you’re not just talking about architecture and the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. A lot of the diagrams and visualizations you see in BIM presentations are of shiny skyscrapers or complex building forms, but people are using BIM workflows elsewhere in the built environment in other ways:
✔ Infrastructure: Infrastructure is the network of systems that keep things moving, whether that’s water, gas, electricity, traffic, or Internet data. The design, construction, and maintenance of these structures need to use the whole lifecycle approach of BIM. For instance, Crossrail (www.crossrail.co.uk) is the largest construction project in Europe and, among many projects, involves the tunneling of 26 miles of brand new underground subway lines. Every aspect of the project, from tunnel engineering to new underground station designs, has used innovative BIM processes for data management and lifecycle operation.
✔ Geographic information systems: Most built environment projects begin with site and land survey information. You can use geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize mapping and geolocational data so that the site information becomes part of the BIM. This is vital for city-scale projects. You can then add existing recorded data to the model, so that you can predict the impact of projects on traffic management, population density, or economic factors. It’s really exciting when you start to think about doing it on a national or international scale.
✔ Landscape architecture: Landscape has been one of the most neglected sectors in terms of products and platforms that support the detail of landscape projects. Don’t think that landscape is just tree and plant selection either; most landscape designers are involved in site modeling, level sculpting, and the overall aesthetics and performance of a scheme. For large infrastructure projects, the scale of forestry, wildlife, or water management can be epic. The platforms still leave a lot to be desired, but more landscape architects are able to coordinate their information with the rest of the construction team.
Seeing How BIM Can Help You
Whatever type of project you’re working on, you can apply the methods and processes of BIM to generate new efficiencies. Don’t forget that you’ll be building a digital representation of every aspect of the project. Some of the data is drawn, much of it in the form of information embedding.
Chapter 3 looks at information modeling and Chapter 4 at geometric, 3D-CAD modeling, and you may be thinking already that BIM sounds complicated, but you’re familiar with a lot of the concepts already. This chapter demonstrates how making BIM processes second nature on your projects can benefit your work flow and the wider industry. The following sections look at some of the key incentives for using BIM processes and help you to make a decision about whether BIM is suitable for your project.
BIM can have numerous varied impacts on the work flow of a project. Here’s a list of just a few of them:
Making design easier
The design phases of a project are one of the areas where the greatest reductions in wasted effort and rework can be made with BIM. From initial concept sketches based on client briefings to technical decision-making and product selection, design can be made easier.
Design efficiency increases through the use of pre-authored objects with embedded properties and relationships, including master template information for costs, carbon information, vendor manufacturing data, and performance specification values. Chapter 10 provides more detail on the development of BIM objects, and Chapter 17 takes a look at how the design team fits into a BIM project lifecycle.
Making coordination simpler
The digital building provides a single source of data, which simplifies managing all of the information, figures, and dimensions on a project. BIM makes it simple to coordinate drawn and nongraphical content. Chapter 10 describes this concept, including terms like federated model, which means that you can understand the impact of your design and construction decisions on everyone else involved in the project.
Ensuring construction is safer
One of the major drivers of BIM, in all applications but especially infrastructure adoption, is improving safety. This means site safety and awareness of potential issues, but also refers to making decisions as early as possible with health and safety in mind and to designing out risk and modeling safe construction and maintenance scenarios. Chapter 16 shows you how BIM collaboration can make a really positive difference in project health and safety.
Analyzing energy use
Busy
