BIM will now be required for large public projects in Wisconsin
As of late June, Wisconsin has become the first state in the USA to require ALL public projects that have a total budget of $5 million or any new construction with a budget of half that amount to begin their designs from the initial stage of conceptual planning to bidding documents with a Building Information Model (BIM).
A and E firms will now need to use a 3-D model approach that includes information embedded in the drawings, not just two or 3-D CAD plan type drawings. Examples include Tekla, Bentley Structural and Revit.
I have written about the benefits of BIM in my earlier blog entries, one of which dates back a February presentation by Gordon Holmes that I had attended in NYC. In summary, BIM allows one to add information to a drawing in the form of valuable data, while at the same time have all the information about a project available simultaneously. They allow for all users to go backwards and forwards at any time.
In addition, if one makes a change in one part of the project, the entire set of drawings are automatically updated with this change, due the presence of a Parametric Engine embedded in the BIM software. This feature is NOT possible with simple CAD drawings, which are a set of often many separate pages of drawings that are not connected to each other. This means that if a change is made to an elevation on the building side, ALL data will now be updated in all phases of the project. Thus, energy calculations will now be up to date, and in synchronization with the project. The main idea is to have all information available in the correct form to minimize errors and cost overruns, while producing a faster turnaround for the project. Thus, Return on Investment (ROI) is optimized.
One of the main thrusts behind BIM is that it can facilitate Integrated Project Delivery, by making ALL information regarding a project available to ALL involved parties -- designers, planners, architects, engineers, contractors, the property owner or stake-holders, as well as municipal officials.
Wisconsin has five projects that will need to comply as of now, with about 18 more over the course of the next two years. This will force architects to make the change to 3-D design BUT Wisconsin has NOT required Integrated Project Delivery to be part of the law. This potential flaw was brought out by an blog site from Building Design and Construction earlier this summer. In short, it could create a situation where 2-D drawing are simply shifted to 3-D without the intended benefits of Integrated Design, and thus, a truly sustainable design may not be fully realized for all of this effort.
Some engineers that had posted comments, in a rather heated discussion format, regarding this law, and fear that this will result in the ultimate demise of the engineering field, as projects will rely too heavily on computerization without those involved really understanding WHY such designs have certain consequences; they fear a loss of understanding the real theories behind design. They feel that legislating BIM will only allow for the software companies to benefit.
Others feel the reverse, as BIM allows for much more information to be made available about the project from its earliest concept phase. This is especially true for structural engineering applications. The key here is to use BIM as a tool rather than a replacement for actual engineering knowledge and applications. It must approached the same as the calculator effectively replaced the slide rule, and computers replaced hand-written spreadsheets.
In summary, we can see that while BIM holds great promise, and will ultimately be universally accepted in the same manner as the computer has changed the business world, there will need to be the same period of learning curve for BIM to fully accepted and practiced by all, using a set standard.
A and E firms will now need to use a 3-D model approach that includes information embedded in the drawings, not just two or 3-D CAD plan type drawings. Examples include Tekla, Bentley Structural and Revit.
I have written about the benefits of BIM in my earlier blog entries, one of which dates back a February presentation by Gordon Holmes that I had attended in NYC. In summary, BIM allows one to add information to a drawing in the form of valuable data, while at the same time have all the information about a project available simultaneously. They allow for all users to go backwards and forwards at any time.
In addition, if one makes a change in one part of the project, the entire set of drawings are automatically updated with this change, due the presence of a Parametric Engine embedded in the BIM software. This feature is NOT possible with simple CAD drawings, which are a set of often many separate pages of drawings that are not connected to each other. This means that if a change is made to an elevation on the building side, ALL data will now be updated in all phases of the project. Thus, energy calculations will now be up to date, and in synchronization with the project. The main idea is to have all information available in the correct form to minimize errors and cost overruns, while producing a faster turnaround for the project. Thus, Return on Investment (ROI) is optimized.
One of the main thrusts behind BIM is that it can facilitate Integrated Project Delivery, by making ALL information regarding a project available to ALL involved parties -- designers, planners, architects, engineers, contractors, the property owner or stake-holders, as well as municipal officials.
Wisconsin has five projects that will need to comply as of now, with about 18 more over the course of the next two years. This will force architects to make the change to 3-D design BUT Wisconsin has NOT required Integrated Project Delivery to be part of the law. This potential flaw was brought out by an blog site from Building Design and Construction earlier this summer. In short, it could create a situation where 2-D drawing are simply shifted to 3-D without the intended benefits of Integrated Design, and thus, a truly sustainable design may not be fully realized for all of this effort.
Some engineers that had posted comments, in a rather heated discussion format, regarding this law, and fear that this will result in the ultimate demise of the engineering field, as projects will rely too heavily on computerization without those involved really understanding WHY such designs have certain consequences; they fear a loss of understanding the real theories behind design. They feel that legislating BIM will only allow for the software companies to benefit.
Others feel the reverse, as BIM allows for much more information to be made available about the project from its earliest concept phase. This is especially true for structural engineering applications. The key here is to use BIM as a tool rather than a replacement for actual engineering knowledge and applications. It must approached the same as the calculator effectively replaced the slide rule, and computers replaced hand-written spreadsheets.
In summary, we can see that while BIM holds great promise, and will ultimately be universally accepted in the same manner as the computer has changed the business world, there will need to be the same period of learning curve for BIM to fully accepted and practiced by all, using a set standard.
Posted by Alan L. Englander at 8/9/2009 6:04 PM 
Categories: Guidelines, Bidding Documents, Standards, Initial Planning, Building Information Model, 3D Software, Return on Investment
Categories: Guidelines, Bidding Documents, Standards, Initial Planning, Building Information Model, 3D Software, Return on Investment
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