BIM has revolutionized
the Building Design, Construction and Operations industries through the power
of 3D visualizations and embedded information. This evolution has allowed AEC professionals
to become more productive and efficient in their processes.
Traditionally, the building design
and construction process has been largely conducted via two-dimensional
drawings (plans, elevations, sections, etc.). Building information modeling (BIM) extends beyond 2D and 3D drawing
based design, augmenting the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height
and depth) with time as the fourth dimension (4D) and cost as the fifth (5D),
etc. Essentially, the building information modeling process builds a building
virtually, complete with a 3D geometric representation and in-depth product and
building material data, before it is physically built. This helps design and
construction challenges be more likely to arise during digital design rather
than in the field during construction.
A building information model is
built as a compilation of "objects” that carry their geometry, relations
and data attributes. Instead of creating a set of drawings to produce pages of
a construction document set, with BIM, drawing views are extracted (think of
digital snapshots) from the 3D model. Construction drawings are simply a
bi-product of creating a digital building information model. These different drawing
views are automatically consistent with each other, being based on a single
definition of each object instance. BIM also defines objects parametrically;
that is, the objects are defined as parameters and relationships to other
objects, so that if a related object changes, dependent ones will automatically
change as well.
For project teams, BIM enables a digital
model to be handed from the design team (architects, civil, structural and
building services engineers, etc.) to the general contractor and subcontractors
and then on to the owner/operator; each professional adds discipline-specific
data to the shared model(s). This reduces information losses that traditionally
occurs when a new team takes 'ownership' of the project, and provides a very
valuable and extensive wealth of information to owners of complex structures.
