A National Overview

BIM Designs a New Way of Working

by Bruce Buckley

The growing acceptance and rapid evolution of building information modeling in recent years has construction industry firms overhauling the way they do business.

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BIM is the logical successor to CAD, moving design from 2D drawing into the 3D world and offering a virtual look at future buildings and structures. Rather than just lines on a screen, objects are "intelligent," backed by a database of information about their physical and functional characteristics.

As it is still a nascent technology, design and construction firms are approaching the pool of current BIM technology with differing levels of caution as some dipping there toes in, others dive head first and a majority sit along the edge and observe. Current solutions range from extensive software packages, such as Autodesk Revit and Bentley Architecture, to simpler options like Google SketchUp for basic 3D modeling. And committing to BIM can cost firms well over $10,000 plus time for training.

Evolving BIM

As more users begin to adopt BIM, its uses are evolving. At its base level, BIM creates 3D images that can create innumerable study images of a project, including detailed system diagrams. By combining information from every aspect of a project-such as structural, mechanical, electrical, fire and others-designers can identify clashes early in the process.

BIM is also used to analyze the performance of a building, such as ventilation, smoke detection, pedestrian movement, structural performance, acoustics, lighting, energy use and site lines.

"Before, the use of computers in design was meant to automate your physical process, replicating what you did with a pencil," says Huw Roberts, spokesman for technology provider Bentley Systems. "The question was, when and how will computers actually change the way that you practice?

When will computers not just support your existing practice, but redesign your practice to take advantage of these technologies and leverage what they can do. That's what's happening now."

Armed with this powerful database, teams have the potential to fully analyze designs, do quantity takeoffs, create schedules, source materials and ultimately hand over pertinent facilities management information to owners.

As adopters of BIM look to expand these databases to include information that affect everyone from building product manufacturers to owners, workflow is requiring levels of collaboration and integration rarely seen in the construction industry. Rather than the traditional linear process where work is handed from one team member to the next, BIM reaps its greatest rewards when information from all parties is shared early and often.

"It's not so much a technology question as it is a cultural change," says Robert Mauck, vice president of advanced technologies at A/E firm Ghafari in Dearborn, Mich.

Ghafari has worked with large owners and developers such as General Motors and Marriott to design projects using BIM in the hopes of generating accelerated, higher-quality, safer and lower-cost projects.

So far, Ghafari's clients claim the system works, realizing 10% to 20% accelerations in schedules, Mauck says. The savings range from fewer change orders to faster steel mill deliveries.

"[Steel mill] orders that took eight to 10 weeks can take us less than three weeks now," he adds. "Direct digital exchange from the design model to the fabricator can do that."

BIM advocates say those kinds of results are likely to get the attention of owners groups-and once the owners demand it, the industry will need to comply. According to the Cincinnati-based owners group Construction Users Roundtable, BIM projects provide a 7% improvement in labor productivity compared to traditional delivery methods.

Inadequate Interoperability

U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology grabbed the attention of owners and facilities managers when a 2004 report claimed that inadequate interoperability among computer-aided design, engineering and software systems was costing facilities nationwide $15.8 billion per year.

In light of those inefficiencies, the U.S. General Services Administration began requiring that all of its new projects use BIM in fiscal 2007. Robert Fraga, GSA assistant commissioner for Capital Construction Program Management, told attendees at a government and industry forum in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31 that within 10 to 15 years, he expects BIM to capture every aspect of the development process from planning and design through operations and management.

"Sometime in the near future this will happen and when it does, look out," he says. "It will be revolutionary like the Internet."

Response from the industry has become more robust in just the past year.

Autodesk claims it sold 100,000 copies of its Revit software, which is based on BIM, between 2001 and 2005. The company went on to sell another 100,000 copies in 2006 alone.

Huw Roberts, spokesman for Bentley Systems, says that virtually all conversations with customers about design software center around its BIM products.

An AIA survey from February reports that 20% of members are now using BIM for billable projects, and 13% have purchased the software but are not using it. Among users, 35% said BIM's greatest benefit is producing higher quality through fewer change orders and more accurate documents. Among users, 17% say it led to faster project delivery.

"I believe we're on the tipping point," says Markku Allison, resource architect at AIA. "At our convention two years ago, the opening plenary session was about BIM, and of the nearly 4,000 architects in the room we got the impression that 85% had never even heard of BIM. Now when we go on the road, the audience can offer up success stories about using BIM."

HOK Pushing the Envelope

Design firm HOK of St. Louis is taking a lead role in pushing toward expanded use of BIM by establishing new forms of agreements with consultants and contractors to improve the exchange of information that can be used in the software. The firm announced in April that it would apply such methods to all of its new projects.

"We're not going to wait," says Patrick MacLeamy, CEO of HOK. "We're doing this quite openly so that others can see what we do and emulate it."

Other applications aimed at streamlining the construction process are also in the works. In Singapore, architects can run automated electronic building plan checks using BIM, cutting out considerable wait time. The International Code Council is in the process of creating a similar system in the U.S.

Autodesk is working with the U.S. Green Building Council to develop an automated LEED-certification check. Rather than sending in plans, a BIM could be checked automatically online to see what its potential LEED rating would be.

Ultimately, technology companies expect BIM's uses to extend into facility management, as relevant information is added into the database. At completion of projects, designers could give building owners BIMs that offer them all the information they need to operate their buildings.

A facility manager could theoretically click on an object in BIM and find out everything about it like size, dimension, material, manufacturer, fire code rating, warrantee information and suggested maintenance schedule.

For now, the key to unlocking the potential of BIM lies in the industry's willingness to break from the traditional construction process.

"What really is going to be successful is if the architect stays involved longer and the contractor gets involved earlier so that there's not as much of a handoff like there once was," says Noah Cole, spokesman for Autodesk. "As part of this cultural shift, [those different disciplines] need to look at themselves more as a team, and look at the technology as the tool to facilitate that process."

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