Bim (building Information Modeling)

Building Information Modeling (BIM) An arguable technological breakthrough in the construction field, BIM or Building Information Modeling is continuously emerging as the most feasible and reliable option available in the building construction industry. With the advent of BIM — building design, construction and management has become an easier and cost effective task than ever before. A BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the creation of parametric, or intelligent, 3D models instead of 2D perspective ‘un-intelligent’ drawings. A BIM operates on a digital database and any change made to this database is reflected throughout the entire drawing. This allows everyone involved in the building lifecycle – architects, engineers, contractors, developers, and building owners to sync together allowing them to view the model in different ways and seamlessly share information.

BIM provides the potential for a virtual information model to be handed from Design Team (architects, surveyors, consulting engineers, and others) to Contractor and Subcontractors and then to the Owner, each adding their own additional discipline-specific knowledge and tracking of changes to the single model. The result greatly reduces the information loss that occurs when a new team takes "ownership" of the project as well as in delivering extensive information to owners of complex structures far beyond that which they are currently accustomed to having. BIM produces construction documents that resemble those created by 2D CAD Drafting, but are done much faster and contain information about structure, quantities, materials and other data that can be used in both — the construction and management of a building. Using BIM, designers can analyze the building design in detail and locate human errors, if any. BIM can greatly decrease errors made by design team members as well as the construction team (Contractors and Subcontractors) by allowing the use of conflict detection where the computer actually informs team members about parts of the building in conflict or clashing, and through detailed computer visualization of each part in relation to the total building. As computers and software become more capable of handling more building information, this will become even more pronounced than it is in current design and construction projects. This error reduction is a great part of cost savings realized by all members of a project. Reduction in time required to complete construction directly contributes to the cost savings numbers as well. It's important to realize that this decrease can only be accomplished if the models are sufficiently developed in the Design Development phase. BIM also provides adequate information for building performance analysis and evaluation, which is of vital importance for sustainable building design. BIM provides accurate and extremely reliable information about the building, the structure, the materials used, etc including green aspects such as energy efficiency and daylighting. With the construction industry facing recessions, intelligent players are adopting BIM to provide them with a competitive advantage over their counterparts. Most of the organizations using BIM normally have a positive feedback about its effect on their business. BIM is being currently employed by professionals on all building types from the simplest warehouse to many of the most complex new buildings.

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC/ifcXML) are an open specification for Building Information Modeling and are used to share and exchange BIM in a neutral format among various software applications. GBxml is an emerging schema, a subset of the Building Information Modeling efforts, focused on green building design and operation. Although there are many difficulties, two of the main hurdles in adopting BIM technology are training and costs. • Training: Receiving adequate training is the greatest challenge to adopting BIM. This could be particularly difficult because only a limited number of users might be having an expert background that could be used as a training resource. • Costs: Cost of software and required hardware upgrades also form significant hurdles in the adoption of BIM technology. BIM Outsourcing Considering the advantages of adopting BIM technology, handling the work in-house would most probably nullify the advantages due to the involvement of training time & costs, hardware upgrade costs, software costs, etc. Hence, BIM adopters are finding outsourcing BIM work, to countries like India, more advantageous than handling the work in-house. Advantages of BIM Outsourcing are that it can: •

Save you time

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Save you money

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Help you share risk

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Help accommodate peak loads

Advenser offers the following BIM Services: • • • • • • •

MEP BIM Architectural BIM Structural BIM Construction BIM HVAC BIM Quantity Take-offs NavisWorks