This interesting article appeared on AUGI recently.  It likens building procurement with what it takes to raise a child … an allegory that, while seeming a little far-fetched, it does seem to carry through quite consistently.  Here are a few quotes:

We are doing this collaboration trick together on multi-gazillion dollar projects, based on the rudimentary idea that we all, to some degree, use the same definition. To me that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. BIM was supposed to make all this more easy. We were supposed to make the entire design and build process less prone to errors. Yet, while we were doing our thing for a few hundred years with those awful “traditional” methods, at least it was clear who did what, how, and when.

When we look at the design process from first conceptual design (birth) to being construction-ready (graduation), we, the professionals in the AEC industry, need to teach our buildings.

The BIM philosophy states that we should do this as a continuous process with a regular addition of skills without gaps or dropoffs.

To do that, we need an educational plan, called a BIM Execution Plan, which defines who does what, when, where and how; and perhaps most importantly, illustrates the ways in which all these elements are tied together.

IPD is a logical next step, where we get one team of teachers to work the educational plan throughout the entire process of growing up. When you use IPD to nurture a building, the BIM-E/BEP is called an IPDP.

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Parenting Your Design – BIM & IPD | AUGI

The more difficult question in light of this article would seem to be – how do you separate and distinguish your BIM revenue / ROI from that you would be producing as a simple CAD firm?

A couple of interesting quotes:
“BIM implementation has been a long-term effort and a considerable one,” says Phil Harrison, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO of Perkins+Will. The firm has overcome the technical and training issues and is now “focusing on innovations and efficiencies,” he says.

President Steven Straus says Glumac made “an enormous investment” in BIM training and software development. “BIM is a new technology that is improving coordination,” he says, “but the software is not ready for prime time.”

Read more / via:
BIM finally starting to pay off for AEC firms | Building Design Construction

Is the future of BIM to become IBM?

BIM is not just about creating more detailed and accurate models; it can bring about a lot more intelligence into the design process, where it is not necessary to painstakingly model every single detail of the building, but where the application needs only high-level ideas and can then rely on inference to model most of the building details by itself. Admittedly, no BIM application currently offers this capability,  …

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Revit Architecture 2013: AECbytes Product Review

The Autodesk BIM for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Management Curriculum can be freely accessed from here.  Click on the various Units on the right hand side of the page.

For example, Unit 1 contains links to various whitepapers.

You can view all of the Curriculum videos here.

Heads up via:
Google Translate of Education – Curriculums BIM Revit Architecture pour les Professeurs en t�l�chargement gratuit ! – Village BIM

WSP Group is a global design engineering and management consultancy specialising in Property, Transport & Infrastructure, Industry and Environment projects.

They recently released a report entitled:
10 Truths about BIM
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFORM THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Personally, I find the following so-called ‘truths’ most challenging:

  • 4 – BIM will destabilise the construction industry.
  • 9 – The software platform is at a crossroads.

I’m unsure what is fully meant by ‘destabilise’ in point 4, but I guess if it means a shake-up, then that is probably true.

Point 9 is quite interesting – I think we are about to see a new battle in software – the battle for Data.  At the moment, we have plenty of model creation tools, and none that truly dominate (Revit, ArchiCAD, Bentley are probably the best known).  But the next phase of BIM software seems to be the client-server packages that store and present your data, such as VEO.  You can read more about some of these competing technologies here.

In the report, it quotes from another article entitled CAD standardisation in the construction industry — A process view, which can be downloaded from here.  This document makes an interesting observation with regard to ‘de facto’ file format standardisation:

And its quite true – DWG, PDF and MP3 have gained ubiquitous status because they won the war to be the defacto exchange format for their particular medium.  We don’t have that yet for BIM – but I guess it is coming…

You can download the full WSP report here.

What do you think?  Have you read the report?  Feel free to comment…

10 points via WSP blog post:
BIM: 10 truths about BIM

Heads up and PDF link via:
Village BIM

You may be interested in this list of abbreviations and definitions.

For example, have you ever wonder what IFC means?

IFC’s – Industry Foundation Classes, is a data exchange method that specifies elements that are used in building construction in an agreed manner that define a common language for construction. IFCs provide a foundation for the exchange and sharing of information directly between software applications of a shared building project model. The IFC data model is a neutral and open specification that is not controlled by a single vendor or group of vendors. It is an object oriented file format to facilitate interoperability in the building industry, and is a commonly used format for BIM. The format is known as ifcXML. ifcXML2x3 (current version) is currently supported by Autodesk, Graphisoft, Nemestchek and Bentley. www.iai-international.org

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BIM Terminology

I’m kind of getting sick of the Building Information Intelligence Modelling Management Model debate.

I also wonder why Bloggers the world over think that blogs are an AIP (acronym invention platform).

Does anyone really think that the blogger who first used a particular collection of letters that apply to a particular phrase will ever receive true recognition or remuneration for it?

What do you think?  Are you annoyed by the intense proliferation of collections of letters that are more painful than they are useful?

Here is a few more to add to the mix.  I’m not sure whether these have been invented before or not – actually I’m pretty sure that some of them have.  However, I think that ‘BIM’ could be divided up into a plethora of sub-categories, each with their own annoying acronym.  Is this a good idea?  You be the judge.

I think the answer is No.

PSM Photographic Survey Model
LSM Laser Survey Model
CBM Client Brief Model
S3M Schematic 3-D Model
BDM Building Design Model
BAM Building Analysis Model
CCAM Cost Calculation and Analysis Model
DCM Document Coordination Model
BCM Building Coordination Model
FMM Facility Management Model
From http://bim.arch.gatech.edu/?id=402