BIM Content Development: Standards, Strategies, and Best Practices

Book Preface

UNDERSTANDING BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING

What is BIM? Whether we are talking about building information modeling or building information management, BIM is a technology that has improved the way structures are designed and built. Just as CAD (computer-aided design) improved upon hand drafting, BIM is improving upon CAD. The difference is that BIM involves so many more project participants than just the architect. Building information modeling allows the architect to design and detail, the specifier to document, and the contractor to develop far more quickly than previous methods. The owner and facility manager also see tremendous benefi ts in forecasting and budgeting.

Initially, BIM was viewed as a tool to design in three dimensions and use components rather than lines. In the time that it has evolved, it has grown tremendously, to a tool that is used for model analysis, clash detection, product selection, and whole project conceptualization. Just as the aerospace and automotive industries develop digital prototypes of vehicles, the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) disciplines are now able to provide a digital representation of a building well before the first dollar is spent or the first shovel hits the ground.

BIM is by no means the panacea for all that ails the AEC communities—it’s simply a better tool for the job. There is no expectation that every component will be accurate to the last screw or that colors will match identically. BIM provides a level of detail necessary to design and construct a specific project under specifi c conditions, analyze the design for its merits, and determine specific courses of action based on a greater level of detail than was previously available. Until recently, the components used within a BIM project were generic and simple in nature, more like a symbol for a component that is to be used than an exact replica of a specifi c product. As hardware and software technology improves and the number of involved manufacturers increases, the level of detail and amount of information improve as well.

Manufacturers are becoming more and more involved in BIM because industry trends dictate the necessity of BIM on certain projects. This increases the accuracy of the product information, in turn increasing the accuracy of the project. Some of the greatest benefi ts of BIM are the ability to analyze the benefits of a specifi c product when used in conjunction with others, perform space planning based on different sizes of actually available components, and, in many cases, conceptualize exactly what the space will look like once completed.

BASIC DEFINITIONS AS THEY APPLY TO BIM

• Building: Any structure, project, system, or space.
• Information: Knowledge of specifi c events or topics gathered or received by communication.
• Modeling: Creation of a schematic description of a system, theory, or design that accounts for its known or inferred properties for further study of its characteristics.
• Management: The organization and control of something.
• Building information: Knowledge applicable to a given project, system, or element.
  Building modeling: Description of a structure, project, system, or space by way of visual and graphic representation.
• Information modeling: A description of the attributes of a design for further study of its characteristics.
• Building information modeling (BIM): A technology that allows relevant graphical and topical information related to the built environment to be stored in a relational database for access and management.
• Building information management (BIM): The collection, organization, analysis, and distribution of attributed data contained within a building project.