WHAT IS BIM

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….

DEFINITION……………………………………………………..

ORGANIZATION…………………………………………………..

SCOPE…………………………………………………………

WHAT IS BIM……………………………………………………

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BIM……………………………………………..

DEFINITION……………………………………………………..

BIM levels……………………………………………………..

BIM TECHNOLOGY…………………………………………………

METHODOLOGIES………………………………………………….

BIM is a single data storage accessible and shared by all the stakeholders……………

Bidirectional processes: Automatic Feedback………………………………

Parameterized objects in the model…………………………………….

Visualization versus Representation…………………………………….

Efficiency of the simulation through all the life cycle of the project…………………

INTERNATIONAL STATUS……………………………………………..

USES AND IMPLEMENTATION AREAS……………………………………..

3D: Modeling…………………………………………………..

4D: Scheduling………………………………………………….

5D: Estimating and cost control……………………………………….

6D: Sustainability and energy efficiency………………………………….

7D: Facility management and maintenance……………………………….

BENEFITS……………………………………………………….

Communication improvement………………………………………..

Reduce risk of error and rework……………………………………….

Optimization through all the project life cycle………………………………

CHALLENGES…………………………………………………….

Need of Standards and Regulations…………………………………….

Cost…………………………………………………………

Need of Skilled Personnel……………………………………………

Operational or Implementation Issues…………………………………..

CASE STUDY…………………………………………………….

DEFINITION……………………………………………………..

STARTING POINT…………………………………………………..

WORK METHODOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION………………………………..

WEEKLY PROGRESS…………………………………………………

CHALLENGES…………………………………………………….

BIM IMPLEMENTATION VALORATION…………………………………….

CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………..

REFERENCES…………………………………………………….

ANNEX 1……………………………………………………….

BIM EXECUTION PLAN

INTRODUCTION

DEFINITION

The following master’s degree project consists of the acquirement of a basic knowledge of Building Information Modeling (BIM) concept and software tools. BIM is a concept that is becoming more and more common in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry worldwide. The student will make the necessary research in order to be able to understand what is BIM, which is the current situation of this new concept in the AEC industry, which are the main areas of implementation of BIM in the AEC industry and which benefits and challenges does it presents. During the information research process is done, the student will familiarize wit one of the most extended used software for Building Information Modeling, Revit.

The student will collaborate in the development of a Revit model of the Water Resources Engineering Laboratory of the Engineering Hall Building of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Within the collaboration in the Revit model and also the use of other support software such as Naviswoks, the student will improve her software skills facing the potential challenges that the model could present.

Finally, the student will combine these two theoretical and practical parts of the project analyzing which characteristics of BIM have been implemented in the Revit model and which others could have been implemented but have not.

Moreover, although it will not be implemented for the development of the Revit model, the student will develop a BIM Execution Plan that could have been implemented.

ORGANIZATION

The paper will be organized in two main parts. The first one, “What is BIM?” will contain all the information related to BIM that will give the reader an understanding of the importance of this new concept and its situation in the AEC industry. The second part, “Case study” will describe the laboratory modeling process and the relationship between the procedure followed and BIM characteristics. Finally it will be done a overall conclusion about the project itself and BIM in the AEC industry.

SCOPE

The first part of the project will need to give a clear and understandable answer to the following questions:

• What is BIM?
• Which are the implementation areas in the AEC industry?
• Which is the current status in BIM worldwide?
• Which benefits and challenges does it have to the AEC industry?

Regarding to the laboratory model, the objective, will be defined weekly by professor Gregory Harrington and the team members. However, the broad objective is to have a 3D accurate model of the current status of facility by the end of May, introduce different design options upgrades to it and provide a realistic walkthrough video of it.

WHAT IS BIM

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BIM

There is a set of landmarks that are worth to mention in order to understand the evolution of buildings modeling’s software through the history that have made possible development of BIM. The following software that are going to me mentioned made a significant advance in terms of building digital representation and disrupted the traditional methods of representation and collaboration.

We could go back to 1962, to find one of the very first ideas that contained some basic ideas of the main BIM software nowadays.  Douglas C. Englebart says in his paper Augmenting human intellect:

“The architect next begins to enter a series of specifications and data–a six-inch slab floor, twelve-inch concrete walls eight feet high within the excavation, and so on. When he has finished, the revised scene appears on the screen. A structure is taking shape. He examines it, adjusts it… These lists grow into an evermore-detailed, interlinked structure, which represents the maturing thought behind the actual design.”

This statement suggests the idea of parametric design of objects that will come several years later and will revolutionize the graphic representation methods of buildings.

Two main methods of shape digital representation started to appear and be developed in the 70s and 80s. Constructive solid geometry (CSG) and Boundary Representation (brep).

In 1974, Building Description System (BDS), which was design by Charles Eastman, was the first project in which a database was created. This software was the first one in creating a library of elements that could be selected and added to the model. There is not actual prove that any project was realized using this software, but Charles Eastman’s project contained a future vision that would definitely anticipate the future path that software development companies of building modeling will follow.

In 1977, Charles Eastman made another step forward and he developed Graphical Language for Interactive Design (GLIDE) at CMU. This project showed many characteristics of the current BIM platform.

Gábor bojár, founder of Graphisoft co. developed ArchiCAD in Budapest, Hungary in 1982. ArchiCAD will become later the first BIM software used in a personal computer.

Same decade, 4 years later, in 1986 GMW Computers developed The RUCAPS software system, which was the first one that introduced the concept of temporal phasing of the construction process. It assisted the construction phasing in the project for the construction of Heathrow Airport’s terminal three.

In 1995 it is created the International Foundation Class (IFC) file format. A file format created to mitigate the collaborative inefficiency due to the use of different programs. This file format has continued to being adapted to make possible the BIM philosophy and its full collaborative approach. With this file format it is possible to go with one file from one BIM program to another.

In 2000, Irwin Jungreis and Leonid Raiz’s company called Charles River Software, developed “Revit”, which nowadays is one of the most extended software used for BIM implementation.  By 2002 Autodesk bought Irwin and Leonid’s company and started promoting the Revit software. Revit would revolutionize the building information modeling world. Revit introduced parametric components that were created using a graphical “family editor” rather than a programming language like the ones used by the other BIM software at the moment. Moreover it allowed to include a time attribute to the components that provide a fourth dimension of time associated to the building.

Later in 2004 Autodesk released a new version of Revit that introduced collaborative disciplines (Mechanical, Structural, and Architectural) and made possible to model the different disciplines in different files being all of them linked and allowing a full collaborative work between them.

In 2012 was developed formit a mobile device app that makes possible to make conceptual starts of the BIM model in the mobile device.

Currently, software developers are doing research and developments related to augmented reality.

DEFINITION

Building information modeling is a process in which information related to construction projects is created and managed. This information is generated, stored and managed through the use of Building Information Models. According to the National Institute of Building Sciences (2007), building information models are defined in the United States National BIM Standard V1, P1 (Jan 2008) as:

“A digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such, it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life cycle from inception onward.

A basic premise of Building Information Modeling is collaboration by different stakeholders at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify information in the Model to support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder. The Model is a shared digital representation founded on open standards for interoperability.”

BIM is therefore a modern process for the construction projects management. It can be defined as a combination of tools and methodologies. The tools are a group of software that are use to generate parametric models that can store all the information related to the facility during all the phases of its life cycle and provide a multidimensional visualization of the facility. And also the electronic devices that allow the users to create edit and visualize these models, such as computers, tablets, phones, geodesic tools, and others.

The use of these tools and the interaction between them and also between them and the users or stakeholders in the life cycle of a project are the BIM methodologies, which will be defined later in this paper.

BIM levels

Mark Bew and Mervyn Richards developed in 2008 “ The UK BIM Maturity Model”, also known as “The Wedge” (related to its famous shape) or the “iBIM Model” (which is the last level of the diagram/model). In it, they identify different levels of maturity of BIM in the industry. It could also been called a strategy model, policy model o industry roadmap.

In their model, they identify 4 different levels:

• Level 0:  95% produce 2D drawings lacking coordination, increasing costs by 25% through waste and rework. Uses CAD software.
• Level 1: There is a 2D and 3D spatial coordination that provides the potential to remove error and reduce waste and rework. There is still lack of a defined database.
• Level 2: Introduction of the collaborative aspect of BIM, 2D and 3D documents that are coordinated and database defined that enables a collaborative work between documents. Level in which starts the Building Information Modeling.
• Level 3: Full implementation of BIM. Fully integrated and interoperable BIM with the potential to mitigate risk throughout the process and increase profit through a collaborative process. Introduced construction project management in the process. Objective level for the BIM industry to reach, it needs standards to be defined (some of them already exist)

1.   “ UK BIM Maturity Model” by Bew & Mervyn Richards (2008)

BIM TECHNOLOGY

The bellowing table summarizes the different softwares available and used as tools for Building Information Modeling grouped by categories.  One of the most extended used software is the Revit package from AutoCAD and this will be the one that will be used and explored in this project, combined with Navisworks, also from AutoCAD.