BIM; The Tools We Use for the AEC
Welcome to the technological age! The era of communication involving the slow process of writing a letter and mailing it to the post office has been replaced by the quick pace of electronic mail and shared network programs. In this blog, we will be diving into BIM and a little bit of Autodesk BIM 360.
What is BIM?
BIM is an acronym for Building Information Technology. This is the foundation of digital transformation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. BIM is the process of creating and managing information for a built asset based on an intelligent model and enabled by a cloud platform. BIM integrates structured multi-disciplinary data to produce a digital representation of an asset across its lifecycle, from planning and design to construction and operations. That is a lot of words to say; it’s an information hub that makes communication easier between all parties involved in a project. Autodesk BIM 360 is one such information hub; it is a cloud program that construction companies can share and send their plans or models to organize and communicate timelines and any important information that might be missing.
Why Use BIM?
The goal is to ensure that a project is designed, priced, and constructed for minimum cost, minimum duration, and with a minimal risk of mistakes.
Let us break it down with the different parties involved in a potential project;
Architects
BIM explores ideas using modeling tools that help examine designs in the highest level of detail possible. From daylight analysis to airflow analysis. Essential to help communicate with the client/owner what their ideal building would look like and identify certain design choices for contractors and MEP to work around.
Civil Engineers
BIM helps digitally explore alternative design decisions, capture more detail, and enhance coordination when it comes to dealing with the clients’/owners’ existing site conditions. Essential to help indicate to everyone on the project the location and depth of services along with drainage flow and the soil depths shown on their 3D model.
Clients/Owners
BIM lets owners/clients explore more options or more design alternatives usually with daily updated models. This allows for easier and quicker communication with the client/owner why a certain wall needs to be changed in a structural/MEP issue or why a certain colour/material might look better in a certain area from an Architect/Contractor’s standpoint.
Contractors
BIM can be used by contractors to identify conflicts within wall systems when it comes to MEP, the sequence of construction to architects & structural engineers, and material resources to identify cost issues with the project.
MEP
BIM processes design, detail, document, and fabrications into the building systems. It gives MEP project teams insight to show architects and contractors where certain ducts and electrical units need to be. The 3D modeling helps to indicate to everyone where certain walls, floors, ceilings need to have openings in so that the client/owner have functional utilities.
Structural Engineers
BIM helps structural engineers identify the basic skeleton of the building. It has the ability to add rebar information to structural elements to indicate to the contractor what is needed to make it structurally sound. Identifying structural elements also helps show architects and MEPs areas in which their designs would be altered or need to be changed all together.
How to use BIM?
Essentially, the 3D modeling will be done in a program like Revit in which that program can share and link models, synchronize with multiple users, identify collision issues, apply annotations, etc. but we will deep dive more into it in the Revit blog. BIM itself is a practice; it's not essentially a program or a plug-in that everyone will use. Different programs have different workplace shared models to use. BIM at the end of the day is applying the right information into the right 3D modeling element, of whatever program you use, to ensure that when these models are shared with everyone, the communication of information gathered will lead to minimal mistakes, minimal use of time, resulting in improved construction and maximum efficiency.
With technologies always advancing, there are new opportunities we would love to try out with BIM! For site visits, we could be using drones and laser scanning to monitor and communicate on-site information without leaving the office, or simply for spatial awareness and another point of view. Speaking of point of view, a not-so future tech that we could use someday is Virtual Reality. Putting on a VR Headset and walking through the digital building model would benefit seeing the design of the building at a 1:1 scale, giving a clearer picture and notifying possible issues that previous drafting views would have missed!
Example Projects?
Some previous projects that we have used BIM on are Schlegel Villages’ - Milton Long Term Care, and Dancor Construction’s - Element 5 in the Projects tab on our website.
It’s a method that has been very beneficial to our industry and we hope to pass on this practice more in future projects!