Future BIM Problems - B3 - Leonard Knittel

What are the possible future problems with Revit/BIM?

As we talked about in class last week, there are many advantages to using BIM software such as Revit, however there are a variety of issues which the software causes as well.  In the future some of these problems will likely be ameliorated through faster and more powerful computers, but some will probably remain, and there may be more problems that crop up in the future.

At the current time, there are problems with Revit files taking up an enormous amount of space and processing power to open and run very complex projects.  This issue will hopefully be lessened as more powerful and faster computers come out, but at the same time, if Revit continues to add more features, or if their features become more advanced and more detailed, the files may still be too large to display all together.  This causes issues with the planning of certain features of a building, such as the electrical system, where it may be split into two systems so the BIM software can model it, but it would have been more economical to use one system in the building.  Also, as the developer adds more features to the program, hopefully the users will start integrating them into their design work, but this will also increase the file size and complexity, and it may become hard for future users to use the newest software, just like hand draftsmen sometimes found it hard to do the work they had previously done by hand on software such as AutoCad. 

Another issue I can foresee is that as programs like Revit become more cloud based, and projects are able to be opened and worked on by people across the globe at the same time, it may become much harder to track and see small changes made by others which could have a negative effect on the design.  Also, if the projects are being stored on a server, if that server experiences any kind of failure, then all of the work that went into the model is down the drain.  Hopefully the company would have both local backups and be monitoring their servers for any potential problems, but I feel that the cloud based files may still prove risky if accidents happen.

Comments:

C. Stevens – I think the issue of ownership of the BIM files is a very interesting topic.  Obviously no company wants anything proprietary to be leaked or stolen, but if that’s what they need to show for a potential job I’m not sure if they would be hesitant to release the file or not.  I would think it would be up to the higher-ups in the company to decide if it was worth the risk versus the reward of having a huge client. 

J. Schwakoff – I think that interoperability will probably be one of the biggest obstacles in the future, simply because of all of the competing standards that exist now.  I don’t see an easy solution to the fact that every company will want to lock the industry into using only their software, and will try to make sure it won’t work using another companies.  If there was a way to freely exchange project files between different software without any loss of usability, I think it would be great, but it would also most likely put the company which charged higher prices out of business.