BIM News

There’s the story about the architect who failed to calculate the weight of books in the library that he was projecting, which caused the place to sink deeper and deeper with each passing year. While there are some who dispute this story as a myth, the message of it is fairly simple – it’s easy for a human architect to forget about an obscure factor, thus putting both lives and property in danger.

This is where the BIM (Building Information Modeling) came in big and allowed architects to focus on the most interesting part of their job while leaving these calculations and estimations to an algorithm. This alone is enough to hint on the importance of this trend for both architecture and the construction industry and there are several additional stories that you have to make on this topic.

1. Not just about 3D modeling

The first thing you need to understand is that some people, who know about the software but have never actively used it, might say that it’s a tool for 3D modeling. In reality, BIM is so much more. It doesn’t just show the projection of the building but also constructs it in the virtual environment. This is why it can inform the user on all sorts of physical properties of the building that wouldn’t be known to one merely observing the 3D projection. One of such traits is the time of the construction and the amount of necessary material. When taken into consideration, these two traits alone are enough for one to figure out why the majority of companies experience an increase in ROI after they start using BIM.

2. Speeding things up

Previously, we’ve mentioned that a BIM can provide a construction company with a fairly accurate estimate of the completion time of the project. Well, it does even more than that, seeing as how it stands to speed things up in more than one way. By providing a full description of what it would take for the project to be completed, this tool can help its user predict and foresee various delays, therefore, avoiding them. Not to mention that it allows for the project to start a lot sooner, seeing as how it facilitates the planning process.

3. The multitude of choice

One of the things that often gets overlooked is the fact that the BIM nowadays has a sub-industry of its own. You see, different companies are regularly coming out with their own tools, some of which offer different services and sets of features. For instance, an industry representative CAD Group has tools specialized in 2D and 3D CAD, as well as product design and manufacturing collections. Some of these tools are, in fact, so specialized that they focus on specific aspects of 3D modeling like steel detailing. Needless to say, these particular tools are both more advanced and more expensive to use. Still, they’re not necessary for the smallest of construction startups and companies.

4.Better end result

Due to the fact that the BIM can predict potential flaws in design and point to them before they come to life, this tool also guarantees better end results. First of all, it gives you time to find a suitable alternative to this potentially problematic element. Second, it may even suggest an optimal path for the resolution of this problem. Finally, sometimes, it’s the riskiest approach that provides the optimal results and testing it in the virtual environment (within the BIM) is a lot safer way to test it. Lastly, keep in mind that corrections, later on, aren’t just harder to make but also substantially more expensive. This is how BIM significantly improves your bottom line.

In conclusion

Technology is driving virtually every industry forward. In this case, it was due time, seeing as how the architecture (in its methodology), was one of the slowest developing industries in the world. To prove this fact, one only needs to take a look at the magnificent structures made centuries and millennia ago and understand what we’re talking about. Therefore, it’s important to mention one thing. The job of these tools is not to revolutionize architecture and construction industry but only to improve it in practical aspects and allow it to keep up with the times.