B2: BIM Handbook - Chapter 4 - Husain Ibrahaim

Building information modeling (BIM) is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of structures and buildings. They result in more efficiency when it comes to many different aspects of the building such as energy performance, financial mapping, as well as facility management. The most interesting thing about BIM is that it is a step in the right direction for all building and engineering as it adapts the technologies we use today to aid in the understanding of how we put up structures, this allows us to become knowledgeable about areas that could be hindering us before. These efficient solutions seem to be an obvious aid when designing and constructing a building, but one of the less obvious benefits that I thought was interesting from the reading was that BIM helps project stakeholders understand and support the project more efficiently by giving them better visual simulations and representations, they often have very little time or they can often struggle with understanding the complexities of the engineering behind the structure, so the model helps them understand what they are looking at and how to describe what they want which allows the engineers to accomplish those goals. BIM becomes a must have tool for owners so they can track any possible errors or maintenance issues later.
Owners and facility managers would be very benefited from evaluating the 3d model of the building with all of its system components and examine how the systems interact smoothly.
BIM must be a huge part of Intelligent buildings systems as not only do we try to understand how buildings can be intelligent in a physical way, but also intelligent through having awareness of their selves and how they can be optimized. Information is valuable in intelligence and BIM can help us build better, more intelligent, buildings.

Comments:

Bancroft:

I totally agree with you that BIM "doesn't translate well" and it is a little problem for senior employers to get used to it, where it is time consuming. You noted that realistic data can now be used through BIM, this is a very interesting advantage that helps a lot in Engineering firms for engineers and architects to reduce the amount of time of analysis.

Ritvalsky:

Yes! Revit differs than autoCad that the first one deals with components, whereas the other deals with lines only. AutoCAD doesn't give the sense of BIM as Revit does. This is how BIM differs than CAD.

Yau:
I liked the section where you mentioned sustainable design. It is a great feature to have with BIM where it can analyze energy efficiency and reduction costs in green buildings.

Saldivar:
It's interesting that BIM can really hp organizing design tasks and phases. Also, involving many group of employers to work on it at the same time is very beneficial. I liked when the chapter explains how BIM can help in cooperation of all building systems.

References:

Eastman, C.M. & EBSCO Publishing (Firm) 2011, BIM handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers and contractors, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.