What are the current problems with Revit/BIM?

As we discussed in class last week, interoperability is a major concern in the BIM community, where programmers and engineers want and need systems to work seamlessly with one another. This was, is and will continue to be a serious issue of BIM if a universal program or sister applications can't be created to make all disciplines and aspects of a project function without any problems. The first source briefly touches on this subject. "In addition, dual platforms functioning within the same office pose a staffing challenge". In the past (prior to when BIM became to how we know it today), most companies only utilized CAD in their projects/design work which made it possible for any employee to be a part of that project. However, now programs such as Revit and BentlyArchitecture limit the personnel that can contribute to a project. BIM programs can be more challenging to learn due to their intricacies and vast array or capabilities but do provide valuable functions once they are understood. This can lead to companies either being forced to not bid on a project or needed to spend a lot of money and hours to train the staff to use a specific program.

Another question raised about BIM that never crossed my mind before was liability. My second source asks the question "who should hold liability if the building fails to comply with the recent or latest construction codes"? Is it the contractor, architect or engineer? The reason this is an interesting topic to address is because the overall goal of BIM is to have a large variety or personnel and engineering disciplines working on the project at one time (or each group dealing with specific aspects). Legal issues could arise due to designs that are incorrect or misrepresented. This misrepresentation could be attributed to a general contractor not being exposed to the 3D drawings or terminology that an architect might use on a daily basis. Legal fees can lead to larger overall cost of the project as well as scheduling delays. Additionally, BIM models can be used to produce a rough estimate for an overall building cost, however it cannot "consider actual price variation from emerging market, such as metals, petroleum-derivative products, high gas prices, and other natural disasters affecting manufacturer’s plant”. While this may not be on the top of BIM developers lists of things to fix, this feature could drastically change how buildings are constructed, scheduled and price, creating near perfect accuracy for cost estimates of all aspects of a project.

Comments:

Zilong Juno Xiao - You bring up an interesting problem with Revit/BIM in the future. While we have talked about original draftsmen who became unemployed when CAD came about and now how CAD draftsman are hesitant to learn BIM, I never thought about the younger generation (us). Will people slowly not need to know building codes as well as they do now because BIM will eventually do all of the calculations and checking for us? It will be interesting to see how integrated BIM will become in the design process.


Grig Papadourakis - I too came across the article "Growing Pains" while looking for material on our blog topic this week. Its interesting because when I think of BIM I instantly think of structural and architectural systems being able to function together in a building design. I feel like MEP, and in this case electrical especially, is always left on the back burner. Hopefully as the AutoDesk software gets better and the growing demand for BIM to be implemented in more and more projects, electrical contractors will have more experience in BIM because of is advancements in the software itself.

Illana Ritvalsky - It will be interesting to see how BIM effects the employment rate, but I'm skeptical to it having that significant of a negative effect and definitely not nearly as much as when 2D CAD came about. Right now it is a highly specialized field, but so was 2D CAD when it was first released. I think people in general are much more computer savy and will be able to pick up the nuances of BIM fairly quickly. With BIM rapidly becoming integrated in larger and more complex projects, it will only become more mainstream.

References:

Architectural Evangelist - BIM Implementation: Problems, Prospects and Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2015, from http://www.architecturalevangelist.com/building-information-modeling/bim-implementation-problems-prospects-and-strategies.html

Rodriguez, J. (n.d.). BIM Risks: Building Information Modeling (BIM) Risks. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from http://construction.about.com/od/Trends/a/Building-Information-Modeling-Risks.htm