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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Up next: Your Architecture Career, 3.0 by Elizabeth Connor, MA, MS

All the once-flat components of your world are turning three-dimensional, and not just at the movies. If it hasn’t already, your career is quickly escaping its two-dimensional flatland as well.
If you think of ink on vellum is Your Career 1.0, computer-aided drafting as 2.0, then the three-dimensional capabilities of building information modeling (BIM) constitute Your Career 3.0. And the uptake of BIM clearly has reached a tipping point. In 2008, more than one-third of firms polled by the American Institute of Architects indicated they already had obtained BIM software, more than double the share in 2005. A separate report, this one by McGraw-Hill Construction, said that by 2009, just under half of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms had employed BIM. “Among areas that are emerging for the profession, I would certainly put BIM at the top of the list,” says Kermit Baker, AIA’s chief economist. 
     And it’s clear that the spread of BIM is not just spreading widely across the industry, but reaching deep into the profession. Between 2009 and 2010, the proportion of respondents in the annual Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) salary survey who identify themselves as BIM managers doubled, from 3 percent to 6 percent. And that’s up from the 1.6 percent who identified themselves as BIM managers when the AUGI survey first provided the option in the 2007 survey.
     The introduction of a BIM survey question four years ago reflected AUGIWorld’s growing appreciation of the importance of BIM as a professional specialization. The 2012 edition may distinguish between BIM and non-BIM designers to reflect the evolution of that position, says Melanie Perry, a St. Louis-based technical writer and editor who has for several years produced the survey.

Information, Please
BIM itself has evolved over the years. McGraw-Hill’s definition, the “process of creating and using digital models for design, construction, and/or operations of projects,” is certainly serviceable. When drafting lines were supplanted with digital models infused with AEC information, architecture professionals were able to create more accurate and comprehensive project models. For the first time, all professionals at all stages of a project worked in the same virtual space – the BIM model.

CAD Drawing- drafting lines

For many professionals, one of the most profound changes brought about by BIM appears to affect not just the output, but the very processes that define the industry. When a single BIM model contains all the specifications for a given project, “everyone is seeing the space the same way,” says Rebecca Herr, a 2005 Georgia Institute of Technology graduate who served as a senior designer in the Atlanta, Ga., headquarters of the international firm Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart (SRSS).  “BIM is not just about the architect; it’s a collaboration.”

It’s About Time, It’s About Space
Today, information imported into BIM models can include such fine detail as surface finishes and reflected light, with resolutions sufficiently high to produce realistic renderings of the finished product.
The most current BIM models incorporate the fourth dimension, time. Pulling data from the estimate and project logic models, BIM modeling depicts the sequential construction of a project in a simulated three-dimensional graphic. Estimates and design elements can be updated instantaneously, making it possible to respond to and visualize client requests in real time.

BIM Model- object oriented


Show Me the Money
According to the most recent AIA survey, compensation at architectural firms remained flat between 2008 and 2011, reflecting in large part a struggling economy, But that same survey noted that almost a third of firms offer higher salaries for staff that have BIM expertise.  Your chances for getting a BIM boost in salary were better – 43 percent – at a firm with 100 or more employees. With fewer than 10 employees, the likelihood that a firm would offer a BIM premium dropped to 24 percent
     The latest available AUGI salary statistics, from 2010, further establish BIM’s position as a compensation booster: overall, BIM managers reported an average annual salary of $62,791, while the average annual salary for a CAD manager was $62,014. The 2011 figures are published in this issue of AUGIWorld. 
The averages, though, mask significant variation among the 10 regions. In half of the regions surveyed – Pacific, South, Southwest, Australia, and Canada – BIM managers actually made less than their CAD counterparts. The place to be, in either professional mode, was Australia. There, CAD managers reported an annual salary of $79,583 and their BIM colleagues averaged $77,500 annually, making Australia easily the best-paying region in either field.

The Bottom Line
BIM professionals can command top dollar because their skills boost the bottom line of their firms. In that 2009 McGraw-Hill survey, 63 percent of BIM users said they saw positive ROI on their overall investment in BIM and 72 percent of users who formally measure their ROI on BIM report positive returns. Moreover, advanced BIM skills translate into higher returns: 87% of expert users reported a positive ROI with BIM compared to 38 percent of beginners.
The skills and training for BIM are considerable; even mastering a basic component can require weeks of intensive training. In the past, training by your friendly local Autodesk reseller was sufficient to handle basic CAD software, but in the days of BIM, firm’s have to reach out to the few architecturally trained and very experienced Mentors to guide their staff through multiple BIM projects. The AIA’s Mr. Baker notes that, in the current economic slowdown, it is not uncommon for firms to make available BIM workstations where professionals can teach themselves BIM skills in anticipation of a stronger economy. This self-taught method of training while resourceful, has lead to inadequately trained staff, and often discovered too late to help the firm’s latest BIM project. 

Useful at Any Stage
Right now, many architects think of BIM as best suited for the later, more complex stages of large-scale commercial projects; that was Ms. Herr’s initial attitude at SRSS, where she worked on several large-scale efforts, including redevelopment of Atlanta’s Buckhead commercial district. For some, the elaborate functionality of BIM may be more than is necessary in a project’s early stages, where clients may like to brainstorm and work from rough sketches.
“In the beginning, you do a lot of work by hand. If your initial sketches are too finished or too polished, you might even scare a client a bit,” she says.
But even there, BIM can rise to the occasion and provide an appropriate solution. Ms. Herr notes that in the early stages of a project, BIM output can be tweaked to resemble the rough renderings familiar both client and design professional

Widespread applicability
BIM processes can be incorporated into almost any stage of the design/build process. In addition, BIM is rapidly taking hold in facilities management, lease management, and asset management. Still, BIM professionals are unlikely to work exclusively with three-dimensional modeling, says St. Louis editor Perry. Instead, managers and designers are more likely to switch back and forth between BIM and CAD as the professional establishes new professional and industry standards. “People who are flexible are going to be the ones who are successful,” she says.

Elizabeth Connor, MA, MS, is a freelance technical writer and editor based in Roswell, GA. She is affiliated with Advanced AEC Solutions, LLC, in Atlanta, GA, and can be reached at econnor@aaecs.com.



Monday, September 5, 2011

Beyond Conventional Construction- BIM Software Part 3


BIM- Resources
The BIM industry has begun creating new web sources and add-on software that takes all the model information and compiles it for use to create additional benefits. There is a website and add-on software requiring the spot light.

The website is known as BIMWorld by BIMWorld, LLC HYPERLINK "http://www.bimworld.com" www.bimworld.com. This site was made for any designer using one of the major BIM software, who is trying to find manufacturer enriched BIM model content like materials, doors, faucets, etc. The website is BIM software neutral and doesn’t distract with banner ads. After placing BIM modeled content into a shopping cart, the website visitor can download all the components at one time in the form of a small zip file. This content may also be loaded directly into the designer’s project. The website serves to inform and aid anyone using BIM, whether it is the manufacturer or the designer and includes multiple web forums directed at many of the BIM software and from the discipline of the visitors. The website is growing fast and is free to anyone who registers with the site.

The first add-on software is known as BCM or BIM Content Manager also by BIMWorld, LLC (US$350) at HYPERLINK "http://www.bimworld.com" www.bimworld.com. As we begin working with multiple building components (columns, furniture, specialties, etc.) in a BIM environment, we first notice how clumsy it is to find them using Microsoft Windows Explorer interface. BIMWorld has answered this challenge by creating an extension of their popular website. This program allows a designer to visually see images of the modeled content as well as read embedded and specification information within the modeled content, and all this in one easy to display window. Just like the website, a designer having found their intended model content, can simply select a load button and the content is inserted directly into the designer’s model.

The second add-on software is known as e-SPECS by InterSpec, Inc. (US$2,795) at HYPERLINK "http://www.e-specs.com/" http://www.e-specs.com/. The program ties to the project model file, extracts all the available information and creates a specification. This means you don’t have to type up a full specification as the coordination of information is handled by the software using the model information you entered into the model. The spec can be custom based on your firms style or can be created using the Master Spec system. They also have a web-based spec writing service.

There is another desperate need seldom mentioned across industry platforms. The requirement to actually share your information with other industries that may not be using actual BIM software. Whether graphics model or document information, Clients, Construction Managers, Design Teams and Project Schedulers all need to share information that may come to all in multiple file formats not easily retrievable. Some of these collaboration viewing software are SpinFire Professional 8.2 by Actify HYPERLINK "http://www.actify.com/" \t "_blank" http://www.actify.com/ and Adobe Acrobat 3D version 8 by Adobe Systems HYPERLINK "http://www.adobe.com/acrobat3d/" \t "_blank" http://www.adobe.com/acrobat3d/ and MYRIAD by Informative Graphics HYPERLINK "http://www.infograph.com/" \t "_blank" http://www.infograph.com/. Many collaboration viewing software have available plug-ins to provide for popular applications, including Lotus Notes and Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Project, Visio, Access, and Publisher.

BIM- Training
We do have to be concerned about one major issue as we strive to take advantage of this new tool. We cannot expect to use it as an extension of our 2D CAD methods we currently employ. We must learn to take advantage of the virtual model to save us time and provide us with the component information it so easily shares. It is only responsible to add that a solution is only as good as our commitment to use it. In order to succeed, the BIM solution depends on each company’s commitment to implement BIM methodology, document BIM standards, and train their staff to use it. Without this commitment, we might as well go back to using pen and paper, and push all chances of making profits aside along with our technology. Our industry is just beginning to convert from 2D to BIM, making the availability of designers with experience in BIM hard to find, and of the few who know a little about it, opportunistically concerning. The current available training from Software Sales Companies provides 3-5 days with your staff being lead through the major features of the software, as the Software Sales Companies have done for the last two decades. When your staff, returns to their offices the next week and sit down before their computers, it hits them. They don’t know what they need to know to begin creating design models or how to use the associated scheduling or analysis software. So, they fake it, and through countless lost man hours, they slowly create a rough virtual model that can probably be printed, but may lack many of the basic systems you’ve already been using in your 2D CAD software. It doesn’t take you long to wonder what happened? The answer is, your staff had been trained in the use of common commands needed to use the software superficially and the difficult management and project start-up lessons, well, were totally missed. Due in part, because most of the training staff lack the industry knowledge to apply the use of the BIM software in your discipline, as well as most of the trainers haven’t been in the industry for more than a handful of years. Can you imagine training an intern, if you yourself were an intern? Many firms will tend to rely on this basic training even still, perhaps with the additional focus on short-sighted tutorials and modeling experimentation in the hope of a couple of designers cleverly discovering the BIM software, and passing their knowledge on to the rest of the staff. This method actually works in a light 2D CAD environment, but in the BIM environment, it tends to lead many firms in a blind-leading-the-blind effort with lost man hours and disillusionment with the software as a result. And so we have lost before we have begun, and lost profits doing it. What is needed is a well-thought out plan similar to the way we work in our industry. We require on-going or mentoring effort with one team on one project, and build the virtual model from the sub-floor up. We train our management in the use of this new tool and it’s important to understand that this is a virtual model and not unlike the construction of a real building, the best designers to model or add data for this building are the ones that understand how the actual building would be built. BIM software will, with lost man hours, allow a firm to use interns to build the virtual model, but the process becomes a whole lot more efficient when experienced designers handle it.


BIM- Support
The future of our industry is at our door steps. Some of us have already begun the transition by using 3D illustration and paint software, while others have focused on software with some form of automatic scheduling from annotation tags. Within two years, the use of BIM within our offices will be as commonplace as the use of email. Unlike the use of 2D CAD as an alternative to producing production documents, BIM, through its use of virtual models will change not only our methods of design and production, but create a marketing aware graphics opportunity with a level playing field for all of us to compete with the largest design firms. Clients never expect less. They demand more and BIM will provide us the engine to meet their expectations. Through the use of BIM’s virtual models, we will design better, present better, and look as good to our clients as we all wished we had the opportunity to do so.

BIM- we are just beginning to see the next step… Paper > 2D CAD > Virtual Object Model

We at Soft Innovations thank you for this opportunity to inform you about BIM. We are here to train your staff as no Software Sales Company can. We’re with you in the beginning and stick by you and continue to provide you with the best of BIM software support until your firm is comfortable with the software. We are a leader in BIM knowledge and experience with 6 years of practical, real-world BIM experience, 16 years of mentoring and implementation experience, and 28 years of architectural practice, we are your best ally when converting your company to BIM. My name is Scott Ebert and I am a BIM Industry Analyst and the President of Soft Innovations, Inc. Please feel free to call me direct with questions and feedback at 770-855-8059 or email me at HYPERLINK "mailto:sebert@revitman.com" sebert@revitman.com Thank you!

Written by: Scott Ebert, BIM Industry Analyst
© Copyright 2008 Soft Innovations, Inc.


Timberline, Copyright 2007 Sage Software
Innovaya, © Copyright 2007 Innovaya, LLC
ArchiCAD, © Copyright 2007 Graphisoft R&D Zrt.
Sky Sculpting- Multistory Projects with Revit, © Copyright 2007 Soft Innovations, Inc.
Bentley Architecture, © Copyright 2007 Bentley Systems, Inc.
BIMWorld, © Copyright 2007 BIMWorld, LLC.
BIM Content Manager, © Copyright 2007 BIMWorld, LLC.
Chief Architect, © Copyright 2007 Chief Architect, Inc.
e-SPECS, © Copyright 1999 – 2007 InterSpec, Inc.
Revit Architecture, © Copyright 2007 Autodesk, Inc.
VectorWorks Architect, © Copyright 2007 Nemetschek N.A
RenderWorks, © Copyright 2007 Nemetschek N.A.
Mac, © Copyright 2007 Apple, Inc.
NavisWorks Jetstream, © Copyright 2007 Autodesk, Inc
Windows XP and Vista, © 2007 Microsoft Corporation
Masterspec, © Copyright 2007 Architectural Computer Services, Inc.
DirectX, © Copyright 2007 Microsoft Corporation
OpenGL, © Copyright 1993-2007 SG
IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), © Copyright 2007 International Alliance for Interoperability
ICC (International Code Council), © Copyright 2007 International Code Council
SBC (Standard Building Code), © Copyright 2007 Stand-Building-Code.com
BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association), © Copyright 2007 BOMA International Foundation
NCS (National CAD Standard), © Copyright 2007 National Institute of Building Sciences







Sunday, August 28, 2011

Beyond Conventional Construction- BIM Software Part 2


BIM Coordination- Shop Drawings
One of the most promising areas of development as the building industry adapts to BIM offerings, is the link between building models and construction management, in particular shop drawings. Shop drawings will provide one of our most satisfying benefits, the opportunity to create accurate shop drawings using the building model that reflects direct manufacturer components and necessary fabrication systems. This has obvious benefits like, increasing construction accuracy, reducing construction management’s man-hours, cutting down on change orders, and reducing construction delays due to fabrication coordination. The industry currently has a limited connection between BIM and shop drawings as the BIM movement has just begun. We have seen a preliminary effort to link structural framing models to shop drawings with fair success. Actual procedures are far from developed, but you can count on their continual development within the entire AEC/O industry.

BIM Coordination- Area Analysis
One of the least understood benefits of BIM is the built-in area analysis features that are provided as a result of creating the building model. Regardless of the number of floors, the overall size, or mixed-use conditions within the building, area calculations can be performed at any stage of the project, whether that be preliminary or later during value engineering. This flexibility allows for design changes and automatic area calculation updating removing much of the human error that accompanies design changes.

BIM Coordination- Collision Detection
Collision Detection, also known as Conflict Analysis can be summed up as the process of determining when, where, and what types of systems or objects intersect each other. For example, collision detection commands within BIM software can find beam conflicts with pipe runs. BIM software typically has this ability built-in and improves productivity and quality in the project lifecycle of building construction. But, collision detection is only as good as the building model, and if your architects, engineers and consultants are using different software, your collision detection will prove shortsighted. When multiple BIM or Virtual 3D Modeling software is involved, there are a couple of proven software, allowing integration of all major modeling software vendors for complete file format interoperability. This kind of software is known as 3D/4D Design Review software. It is scalable, flexible and has a programmable interface allowing for customization to other third party software and databases. One is known as Innovaya’s Composer HYPERLINK "http://www.innovaya.com/prod_revit.htm" http://www.innovaya.com/prod_revit.htm and the other is known as JetStream by NavisWorks (Autodesk, Inc.) http://navisworks.com/en/jetstream. They both allow for complete project management, estimation, and collision detection. They also have multiple additional components that allow for additional services to provide common presentation.

BIM Coordination- Cost Estimation
Providing, the Construction Management Company is included in the sharing of the design models, Construction Estimators can pull preliminary model data early in the design process to provide material quantities to enable faster cost estimates, and saving potential building budget disasters. The preliminary design models will still require a fair amount of estimation work, though this work is lessened with each successive model, and with such information, comes the opportunity to control the design management process and provide the client with much needed support.
To simplify the process, consider the design model as a place holder for our building information. This information must be exported from the model and transferred into software designed to format the information into readable output. A few of these examples are as simple as Excel spreadsheets and Access databases, and as advanced as Sage’s Timberline in association with Innovaya’s Visual Estimation or with Innovaya’s Quantification alone.

BIM- Future
BIM- in the face of unpredictable construction dynamics, the effort to bring order to chaos is paramount. We have attempted for years to bring our 2D documents together with our custom spreadsheets and databases, but the information never really stacked up. BIM is the solution to an age old dilemma, how do we minimize effort and maximize product at the same time, and now we can add to that, how do we maintain control of the project with so many additional chefs are in the kitchen? By blending very smart virtual graphics software with information-packed smart objects, we create a very large database of design and product information, providing us with a very flexible design and management solution. We use technology to work for us, lessening our work load, and automatically coordinating our tedious tasks to enable us to do what we do best- design and manage our projects. We continue to add more and more technology to simplify our industry processes. But in the end, we have more consolidation within all industries and more changes to get used to. The Building Industry becomes a major conglomerates housing all the disciplines under a few roofs with the ability to do exactly what BIM can do now, provide everything an owner with a construction project is looking for, a Master Builder, a company tasked with the effort to build his building without the seemingly disorganized effort that falls upon his building projects today. It seems inevitable. The stronger our computers become, the stronger our software becomes, and with stronger software, comes greater opportunity for savings of man-hours due to coordinated graphics, collision detection, scheduling, management, etc. Some existing industry specific jobs will be lost as BIM envelopes their work, for instance, though BIM is in its infancy, the creation of shop drawing will no longer be necessary as architects and engineer’s BIM models become so accurate as to make shop drawings unnecessary. Or, cost estimating will no longer be a major part of a project as the BIM models will have quantified the building components and the data is a simple extraction to common construction management software solutions. This will be due in large part, because building component manufacturers will finally get on board by providing real-time support for all building designers by the creation of smart BIM models of their companies product lines. This will go a long way in the creation of accurate BIM models, when actual product and specification enter building models via real world information. Imagine, not construction documents as we know them today, but digital construction models with full 3D and 4D functionality including GPS coordination, will begin driving actual survey, management, design and engineering, permit, and construction processes. The entire design and construction process is simplified. As we look at our lives, no one can say that our responsibilities haven’t grown out of control and more difficult with each passing year. Well, the owner/client is also looking to simplify his work. As we look ahead at how BIM will simplify our efforts and create opportunities for our organizations to compete within the global market, our owner/clients are looking for the same benefits. These benefits will come to us as BIM proliferates within our industries. One digital model will bring simplicity and order. What will be gone is all the chaos. There is only one real question left. Who owns the BIM model? I believe, that is a question our courts aren’t prepared to answer, and is more than likely going to be handled by project contract. Don’t take this lightly, but one thing is for certain. He, who owns the model, owns the world.

Next week, Part 3 will include BIM Training, Resources, and Support.

Written by: Scott Ebert, BIM Industry Analyst

© Copyright 2008 Soft Innovations, Inc.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Beyond Conventional Construction- BIM Software Part 1


         Many of us have been practicing our craft for a long time. Some longer than others, but never-the-less we all continue to grow, refining our own abilities by testing new ideas and the methods for delivering those ideas to our peers and clients. Many of us have seen transitions in the tools we use, like when we switched from drawing our work by hand to using CAD. The change for most of us was difficult at best. Most of us had never worked with a computer before and the experience ushered in new systems of organization and production methods that often were made up as we went along. Instead of drawing on vellum or mylar, we began drawing in a digital world and using pretty much the same methods we did by hand. Beyond the necessity for all of us the learn to type and the ability of the software to allow us to copy, move, rotate, mirror or delete areas within a building and often to copy, rotate, mirror or delete the sheet or file itself, did we really see the difference between drawing by hand versus by CAD? CAD offers us little in coordination of our digitally drawn lines or sheets. For the most part, our CAD work has been accomplished in a 2D environment unable to offer much in the way of product or project coordination, and information sharing in vertical markets. Many of us have speculated our design efforts might eventually fall into a 3D environment, but we have to get past that whole 3D-2D issue to allow our imaginations to fly. The world is not flat! Considering this, many of us have spent our careers hoping for a solid design and management tool, and like a light at the end of the tunnel, we are just beginning to see the benefits of this new burgeoning tool.


BIM
          We have a new paradigm called BIM, which stands for Building Information Modeling. Consider this, when we think of CAD, we think of lines assembled together to look like a building, though lacking design or product information. When we think of BIM, we think of objects, rich with product information assembled to make up an actual building model you can see from any vantage point graphically or information scheduling. When building an actual wall or a BIM wall using studs and sheets of gypsum board, we have used real world objects with actual sizes, materials and shape. They both look the same as you view them in person or in a virtual environment, but the BIM wall is easy to change. In fact, it is a lot faster to change the construction or shape of a virtual wall in a BIM software than it is in a 2D CAD software since the BIM software’s wall is modeled in 3D and represents length, height, material and shape, while the 2D CAD software’s wall is simply a pair of lines with no vertical representation or system information attached to them. For instance, after creating a BIM wall in plan, we can switch to a 3D view, a plan, an elevation, or a section and visually see that wall and its related system information like the stud type, surface material, area, perimeter, and vertical information about the wall from these views, not to forget, we can also find this and more wall information within the BIM software’s schedules. If we change the length, height or make up of the wall, the information adjusts automatically as the change takes place. This scheduling can include all the materials used to finish the wall, right down to the wall trims. Generally speaking, most BIM software is able to schedule information like object material and finishes, sizes, construction assembly codes, keynotes, manufacturer, model numbers, website url’s, type costs, as well as custom parameters we can create ourselves. What is important about this information is it is available within all objects and all this information is live, meaning as a new wall type is added to a plan, the wall is added automatically to the wall schedule. The information does not have to be coordinated manually between the plan’s walls, tags and the wall schedule on differing sheets as the BIM software has already coordinated it. If the wall type is changed in the plans, again the schedules are automatically updated without prompting or any additional effort on your part. Wouldn’t it be nice to create an area plan that adjusts the smart area boundary lines within a wall based on how the space on either side of a wall is used? It is comforting when our software allows us to visually see a design that in a 2D environment would not be possible. The strengths and limitations of what can be coordinated exist on a per software basis, though BIM software offers few limitations in object coordination.

BIM- Collaboration
          BIM software, allows us to create a virtual model of our building, adding the ability to review the design as we work and benefit by visually catching design mistakes common to us when using 2D CAD software. Often, the BIM software itself prevents us from making simple mistakes, as it is aware of the associated relationships between various types of objects and systems within the model and comments on our work as we create design conditions the software considers unworkable. The ultimate power of BIM lies in its ability to pass all the information within the design model through to other industry disciplines. At first, this seems as simple as coordination of Construction Management, Architectural Design, Structural, MEP, and Interior Design team members. In fact, at this point, one would have to ask, has anything really changed in our organization to coordinate a project. But, as we pass our model to all of our team members, we are providing them with all the virtual information we have and not just a plan or elevation of particular areas within our design. This virtual model enables everyone to coordinate visually and through software controls, all possible conflicts between our design, structural and MEP systems. For instance, as we renovate the interior space of an aging building, everyone involved can either visually, or through associated documentation called Metadata, verify as-built information like head room considerations and structural elements when adding a new ceiling under an existing floor assembly. We don’t have to guess or assume that any one condition in the building allows for clearance for new systems. We actually see the clearances and in a variety of views as we require to understand the condition, not simply what a software wishes to show us. That is true coordination. As we are developing our BIM models, we can pass our models on to other Horizontal industries like, Marketing, Facilities Management, and Lease Management. All the design information you and others have entered can be scheduled within the BIM software or exported to spreadsheets and databases for further building clarification as required by additional design firms, developers, contractors, and specification writers. Our models live on and all the information collected by each discipline is available to our clients for further processing. This Collaboration is another key benefit in the use of BIM within the AEC/O industry. The concept of collaboration is a simple one of sharing information or resources. In short, as the building model begins development by the architectural design team, the architectural model is passed back and forth with the engineering teams to create their discipline specific building models and enable coordination. It is at this early design stage that design and construction managers can prevent serious preliminary project blunders like designing over budget or building beyond construction schedules. Construction managers can evaluate early design models to confirm construction types and methods. In addition to providing faster cost estimates and real project design information, comes the opportunity to control the design management process and provide the client with much needed project coordination and support.
We do have a long standing glitch in our industry that will have to be ironed out. Trade arguments in the AEC/O industry similar to the AGC (Associated General Contractors) and AIA (American Institute of Architects) over responsibility ownership during construction projects and the AGC’s member’s unanimous vote against A201 endorsement for the General Terms and Conditions Document. Information technologies and specifically BIM (building information modeling) are driving AEC/O changes in risks, roles, rights, and responsibilities across the whole building project delivery system, including building lifecycles. And it is the roles, risks, rights, and responsibilities that are at the heart of any contract and contract-related document. We have even see a new united front named ConsensusDOCS spring up to provide an owners, contractors, subcontractors, designers, and associated vendors agreed upon standard contract that is fair to all parties, though architects and engineers have not officially weighed in on these new contracts. We will continue to see arguments like these as long as the industry remains divided, but contract coordination is vital to our industry’s long term success. It is to our advantage that the vary topic of BIM provides us with an easy coordination of all project information and contracts are just the tip of the iceberg.


In Part II, we will discuss BIM Coordination and BIM Future.




Written by: Scott Ebert, BIM Industry Analyst, Janurary 22, 2008

© Copyright 2008 Soft Innovations, Inc.