According to the American Institute of Architects, the term Building Information Modeling (BIM) was coined by Jerry Laiserinto describe "3D, object-oriented, AEC-specific CAD" - digital representation of the building process to facilitate exchange and interoperability of information in digital format. This covers not just geometry, but also definition of building components (including manufacturers' details), documentation (such as specifications) and of the process of construction and operation of facillities. Quantities can easily be extracted. The American Institute of Architects has further defined BIM as "a model-based technology linked with a database of project information", and this reflects the general reliance on database technology as the foundation.
The term itself is not in favor throughout the construction industry, and it is yet to be seen whether it will win over alternatives, which include:
1.Virtual Building Environment (VBE)
2.Virtual Building
3.BuildingSMART
BIM is often associated with IFCs (
Proponents claim that BIM offers:
Improved productivity due to easy retrieval of information
Embedding and linking of vital information such as vendors for specific materials, location of details and quantities required for estimation and tendering
Increased speed of delivery
Reduced costs
In August 2004 the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a report entitled "Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry" (NIST GCR 04-867 (PDF), which came to the conclusion that, as a conservative estimate, $15.8 billion is lost annually by the U.S. capital facilities industry resulting from inadequate interoperability due to "the highly fragmented nature of the industry, the industry’s continued paperbased business practices, a lack of standardization, and inconsistent technology adoption among stakeholders".
1 comment:
Excellent blog!
Right now, it's about educating the populous on BIM, then we can go from there.
Please read my blog (It's "Blink", borrowing from Malcom Gladwell's book on appearances and perceptions) - because most people try to sum up BIM in the first few seconds of hearing about it...and it may not sink in at first.
It's up to informants like you to shed more light on a relatively unknown methodology.
My Blog:
"The BIM Blink"
BIM - (Building Information Modeling), which combines the objectivity of progressive cad, also strategically offers the practice of four dimensionality (4D = 3D + time,) can generate queried databases, renders with striking photorealism, and allows for complete building sets to be executed in profoundly different ways from ordinary traditional and digital drafting. BIM technology incorporates a practical, egalitarian system by using parameterized tools as its foundation. These parametric objects, somewhat familiar to those using cad, are extensively more accessible and can be managed much more comfortably within the framework of BIM programs. However, BIM projects are often misunderstood.
The foundation of BIM is the use of objects in lieu of 3D drafting with vector based lines, which ultimately created forms, but which led to bulky sized 3D files that were hard to edit; in other words, non virtual, non sustainable 3D cad files. BIM erases this problem automatically. Because BIM objects are: built based on typical standardized divisions, have been pre-coordinated and packaged to contain all the necessary information common to a project with programmatic development. This containerization has served to address both commodity and nuanced element pertaining to the architecture being considered. Inside the container all programs are in a multiple stack as sequenced families. This sequence is subsequent to the research and development by that which the manufacturer stands behind. In essence, think of the BIM model, already having the shop drawing information built in as per the manufactured unit, system, or type, and can be augmented by the designer based on future determined points. Of course this applies when only those manufacturers producing BIM objects are involved with the BIM data they represent. It has to come from BIM, first hand to truly represent.
With BIM technology, the exploration of interstitial, aggregate space is performed in ways quite varied from what typical designers normally practice with drafting. Actually, with BIM technology, architects have been compared to the early builders who had built with modularity and derived a building practice from this. A strong de-engineering, de-constructing, component is felt mostly when executing a BIM project but need not be considered austere. Rather than what might be felt drafting, as linear mediums are not always as precise and as predictable (especially when floor plans can sometimes stack up incorrectly, a frustrating dilemma) the relative ease of execution, with BIM, can be felt as enlightening. When building vertically in BIM technology, a seamless, imperforated spatial continuation exists, and allows for more site and space specific views. This means there is no worry for selecting something off in space that may overlap an object in the foreground. With BIM this is never an issue.
The BIM revolution will be gradual, perceptions of this technology show that is slow to be accepted. The fact that this methodology is perceived as imposing reveals the paradigm shift but it isn’t at all unattainable, as far as I see it. Written by Joseph J. Nicholson
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