Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in structural design

Offers a dynamic approach to synthesizing various aspects and constraints, such as load-bearing capacity, materials, sustainability, and regulatory requirements.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Enables the creation of detailed, data-driven models that enhance collaboration, streamline the design process, and allow for early identification of potential issues.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

A collaborative process for creating and managing digital, intelligent 3D models that represent the physical and functional characteristics of a project, like a building or infrastructure.

Intelligent 3D Models

Serves as a central data repository for the entire project lifecycle, from planning and design to construction, operations, and maintenance, enabling better communication, coordination, and decision-making among all stakeholders.

(1) Intelligent 3D Models

(2) Lifecycle Management

(3) Collaboration

(4) Data Integration

(5) Applications

(6) Benefits

Key Aspects of Building Information Modelling (6)

Intelligent 3D Models

BIM uses data-rich 3D models that contain more than just graphical information.

Lifecycle Management

3D model is a single source of truth that tracks an asset from its initial concept through its entire existence.

Collaboration

BIM is a collaborative process where architects, engineers, contractors, and other stakeholders work together, sharing information in a unified environment.

Data Integration

BIM integrates structured, multi-disciplinary data, making project management easier and more streamlined.

Applications

BIM is used in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry to design, construct, and manage various physical assets, including buildings, roads, bridges, and utilities.

Building Structures

Always been essential components of building design.

Building Structures

Attributed to the roles and meanings of safety, economy, and performance of buildings for society at large

Buildings

Provided shelter, encouraged productivity, embodied cultural history, and definitely represented an important part of human civilization.

Role of Structures (Addis, 2007)

Are constantly changing in terms of shaping certain quantities of materials to provide efficient support to the architecture against gravity and other environmental forces (and author).

Pyramids

Most common major architectural structures built by ancient civilizations due to the fact that the structural form is inherently stable and can almost be infinitely scaled out linearly in size and proportion to increased loads.

BIM in Education

BIM provides rich visualization of building elements and parametric modeling of behavior, which can enhance students' learning experience in virtual construction, such as understanding how building elements fit together just as they must on a physical site.

Synergy

Refers to the collaboration of multiple objects in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their discrete effects.

Synergy

Essence or shape of an entity’s complete form.

Structure and Architecture Synergy Framework (SAS)

Provides a useful language for understanding the structure as a whole in connection to its close relationship with architecture.

Structure and Architecture Synergy Framework (SAS)

Focuses on the interplay between architecture and structures and emphasizes a learning process that is highly creative in nature.

Structure and Architecture Synergy Framework (SAS)

In this framework, the form of the structures is constrained not only by function, site, and the designer's vision, but also by how it will work as a whole and by the need to provide a rational argument and calculations to justify expectations before the structure is built.

Structural Melodies

Process and Objects Definition

Structural Poetry

Integrates creativity, innovation, artistic expressions

Structural Analysis

Development of Scientific Principles

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Revolutionary approach that leverages Building Information Modelling (BIM) to verify the design and performance of building sytems.

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Enables engineers to identify potential issues, such as conflicts, errors, and inefficiencies, early in the design process

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Proactive approach, helps to reduce rework, improve project efficiency, and ensure the overall quality and sustainability of buildings.

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Particularly valuable for complex projects involving multiple disciplines, as it provides a comprehensive view of the entire building system and facilitates collaboration among stakeholders.

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Process which processes the content of information in BIM-files according to rules specified as pre-defined procedures.

Software, Rule Sets, and BIM-files

Components in BMC (3)

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

One of the best ways to illustrate the power of relevant information in BIM-files

Model Checking

Explores the content of information in BIM-files in a transparent way.

Model Checking

Often used synonymously with clash detection.

Read

• Improving the BIM by enriching the model and increasing the amount of information is not valuable unless the information is relevant for the information required to process the rule.

• The rule must also be relevant for what one intents to check.

• The development of new rules, or adaptation of existing rules, is often required.

• Distinction between BM (Building Model / 3D Model) and BIM, where I stand for information

• BIM community is in its expansive phase, and proponents are claiming that BIM in general and model checking in particular will be a game changer.

• Opportunity is great, but this requires a high degree of input of relevant information from BIM-files and advanced, precise rules for processing.

• The maturity level in exchanging BIM-files with a highly specific content of information is currently low.

• (read)

Clash Detection

Useful way to demonstrate the benefits of BIM in model checking software, such as Navisworks from Autodesk or Solibri Model Checker from Solibri.

Clash Detection

One of the most common ways to demonstrate the practical uses of BMC.

BIM-based Model Checking (BMC)

Replaces or supports the traditional quality assessment of drawings.

Quality Assurance (QA)

Key aspect in BMC.

Massive reporting of non-real issues

General challenge for BMC, and particularly clash detection, which has to be dismissed manually.

Model-checking Software

Has a function for marking the issues as not relevant.

Read

• Severities of issues are often graded by degree of deviation from the rule constraints, not from technical or economic impact.

• The information in the BIM-file enables BMC software to grade the issues by other criteria, like the type of wall.

• (read)

Reasoning to Assess the Impact of Rule Violation

• Interception of structural wall may be critical, while an architectural wall may be cut without severe impact.

• In a proper object model, the wall type will be derived from the class of the wall object.

• Cases: Wall-pipe interference and pipes of different diameter

'Critical,' 'Moderate,' and ‘Low’ Severity Issues

• Interference between small pipes is considered low severity since that is possible to fix on site.

• It is not always obvious that small pipes are easy to move.

• Example is pneumatic dispatches in hospitals, for which bends are to be avoided.

Rule-based reasoning

• Contributes significantly to addressing the most relevant issues first and when required.

• Can improve model checking.

Eastman from McGraw-Hill Construction (2012)

Stated in status report that model checking is the most important current BIM requirement to effectively advance the industry, followed by improved interoperability. (author)

+Increased model quality with correct solutions is a great motivation for using BMC. Another rationale for model checking is to provide models free of issues so that data can be trusted when used in other software and processes. (read)

AutoCodes project (Fiatech, 2012) in International Code Council (ICC)

The study illustrates that manual checking gave uncertain answers. The number of issues flagged by various jurisdictions differed widely. When one jurisdiction raised one single issue, another raised 43 issues. A lesson from this study is that what is manually checked or not checked is actually undefined. (author)

Sawyer (2012)

Expressed that analysts only know what they found in the manual review but did not really know what they actually looked at in the review. (author)

+BMC processes pre-defined rules, so the scope of review is determined by the selected rule set. One consequence is that a situation which lacks rules will not be checked. Knowing the scope of all rules in a rule set is important for a trustworthy review. (read)

Lopez and Love (2012)

A survey of 139 projects indicates that design issues increased direct costs by 6.9% and indirect costs by 7.4% of the total contract value. (author)

Conover (2007)

Showed that on average, 3% to 5% of the design time of a construction project is currently devoted to code-checking, and even then, not everything is checked. (author)

BMC System

Consist of three parts: software, BIM files, and rule sets

Read

Integrated relationship: logic in the rule set, content of information in BIM file, and functions in model checking software. (read)

Model Checking Software

Includes service and function enabling import of BIM files, processing of rules, visualization, and reporting of issues.

Quality of BIM file

• Measured as the structure and content of relevant information, is of high importance for reliable model checking. This must comply with requirements in the rule to avoid the ‘garbage in-garbage out’ syndrome. (term)

• +BIM guidance and similar specification of content can be used to address the ‘specification of information.' (read)

Rule Sets

• Collection of rules within one topic, such as BIM validation (clash detection), space validation, identifying updates between different versions of the design, comparing the structural versus architectural model, MEP solutions, and content in BIM file (Statsbygg BIM guidance)

• Part of commercial software package.

• It is often possible to update and change to adapt to requirements in the project.

Field of Construction Project Management

In this field, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has emerged as a transformative technology, revolutionizing various aspects of the design, construction, and operation of buildings.

Cost Estimating

One of the important areas where BIM has made a profound impact

Cost Estimation

Relied heavily on manual methods, such as quantity takeoffs and spreadsheets, which were prone to errors and time-consuming.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Offers a more efficient, accurate, and collaborative approach to determining project costs.

1) paper, pencil, and calculator
2) quantity take-off software for electronic drawings paired with a separate spreadsheet application for inputting the quantities
3) any combination of these two

Examples of Traditional Method of Estimating Process

(1) Stochastic Methods

(2) Deterministic Methods

Cost Estimation Methodology (2)

Stochastic Methods

• Use algorithms in which the independent variables are generally something other than a direct measure of the material item being estimated and are subject to the estimator’s judgment.

• Typically involve modeling based on inferred or statistical relationships between costs and programmatic and/or technical parameters.

Deterministic Method

Include counts or measures of units of items multiplied by the unit cost or factors (AACE 2003)

National BIM Standards (NBIMS) 2012

Defines BIM as a technology-enabled collaborative process and facility life cycle management tool (organization)

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

• Digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility

• Shared knowledge resource for information about a facility, forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life cycle

• Defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition

Read

• A basic premise of BIM is a collaboration by different stakeholders at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify information in the BIM to support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder.

• The simulation of alternate factors and parameters that can affect project costs is an important step in the cost-estimating process.

• An analysis of such alternates requires time and reliable information about a project; however, performing these cost analyses and simulations is often limited during the estimating process due to the compressed time allocated for such activities.

• The expectation is that as the adoption and implementation of BIM in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry increases, the design and construction processes will evolve, and so will the technology used to create a building information model.

• As a consequence of evolving processes and technology, the methods stakeholders use to fulfill their responsibilities on a project team will change.

• The future of the cost estimator’s role and responsibilities will change to include more value-added activities to support cost management decisions.

• (read)

Cost Estimating

Complex activity that requires knowledge beyond quantification and pricing of materials and labor.

Process Map for Cost Estimating and Budgeting from the Total Cost Management (TCM) Framework (Hollman 2006)

• The traditional process is depicted

• Shows relationships between creating a plan to estimate a project’s cost, the quantity take-off (QTO), pricing the quantity take-off, costing the scope content, and simulation and optimization of project costs. estimate

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Emerged as a transformative technology in the construction industry, offering numerous benefits such as improved collaboration, efficiency, and quality.

BIM Inertia

• One of the factors hindering widespread BIM adoption.

• Phenomenon characterized by resistance to change and reluctance to embrace new technologies.

Jongeling, 2008; Eastman et al. 2011

BIM implies an increased collaborative effort in the early stages of construction projects

US, Ashcraft (2008)

Highlighted the need to re-craft existing contractual relationships to facilitate collaborative decision-making and to equitably allocate responsibility among all construction participants.

American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Developed through its partners a series of new contractual arrangements compatible with the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) philosophy.

Cohen (2010)

Reports are emerging on the successful and advantageous application of IPD to support BIM, whilst elsewhere, the industry is toiling with half-hearted collaborative processes, thwarted by contractual inertia imposed through traditional procurement routes.

Saunders et al. (2009)

A qualitative approach was adopted from a critical realism perspective, where acknowledgement is made to contextual factors (associated with case) whilst also arguing the phenomena under study can occur in similar settings.

Yin (2009)

Adoption of this approach supports the investigation so far that it allows for the study of complex and contemporary phenomena over which the investigator had little or no control.

Read

• Data gathered has been deductively analyzed to expose and interrogate the key components that influence the particular phenomena under study, enable a clear understanding of both contractual and behavioral challenges to BIM collaboration in context, and provide insight into emerging issues that can be deemed relevant generally.

• The main findings on BIM inertia, contracts, and behaviors build upon a critical analysis of the key documents outlined below and apply Focus Group Interviews (FGI’s) as a secondary research method of data collection to identify where industry perceives hindrances exist and assess the level of concern.

• (read)

Denscombe 2008

FGIs differ from surveys and questionnaires, as they not only enable the collection of more in-depth data, but they also provide forum for the different disciplines to share and clarity their views on various discussion issues

Review of Key Documents

As part of the empirical data collection in connection with this study, several key contextual documents were collected and reviewed, including existing local contract documents and BIM supporting documents such as the AIA Document E202-2008 (AIA, 2008), Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide (AIA, 2007), and the building SMART alliance BIM Project Execution Planning Guide (Anumba, 2010)

Level of Development (LOD)

Refer to a standardized framework for defining the amount of detail and accuracy that should be included in a building information model (BIM) at different stages of a project.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC)

Established a commonly used LOD framework that breaks down the building model into specific levels.

LOD 100: Conceptual design

At this stage, the model represents the basic shape and size of elements without detailed information. It's used to convey the overall design intent.

LOD 200: Schematic Design

The model becomes more refined, incorporating approximate quantities, sizes, shapes, and locations of elements. It helps in analyzing spatial relationships and early design concepts.

LOD 300: Detailed Design

In this phase, the model includes geometric information, specific sizes, shapes, and detailed object components. It’s used for producing construction documents and coordinating different disciplines.

LOD 350: Construction Documentation

The model includes detailed assemblies and fabrication or construction-level information. It’s used for generating construction documents and shop drawings.

LOD 400: Fabrication and Assembly

This level involves the creation of detailed models with specific assembles and connections, suitable for fabrication and assembly purposes.

LOD 500: As-built or Facility Management

The model at this stage includes information about the installed and operational elements of the building, reflecting real-world conditions for maintenance and facility management.

Levels of Development (LOD)

Integral to the construction industry because they allow model authors to clearly define the reliability of their models and help downstream users understand the limitations of the models they receive.

Read

• By standardizing the degree of reliability and accuracy required at each project stage, LOD minimizes misunderstandings among stakeholders, optimizes resource usage, and aids proactive decision-making.

• While Levels of Development (LOD) comprise a valuable framework widely used in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, its adoption varies based on project-specific factors.

• Complex projects with intricate designs, those adhering to specific regulations, and projects with experienced teams are more likely to implement LOD comprehensively.

• (read)

Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Levels of Development (LOD)

Closely interwined in AEC

BIM

Forms digital backbone for LOD implementation, enabling creation, management, and sharing of detailed digital representations of building elements.

LOD

Establish a framework that specifies the depth of detail and accuracy to be included in BIM models at various project stages

Read

• Responsibilities for creating and maintaining BIM models at each Level of Development are assigned to relevant stakeholders. (read)

LOD Matrix

• Essential component of BIM Execution Plen (BEP), LOD are tracked in projects through this.

• Project tems defines and outline LOD requirements for specific building elements and systems at various project stages.

• serves as a reference, guiding the creation of BIM models to meet the designated LOD requirements, and it is continuously monitored for compliance