This is new. BIM? You may have heard about the term from any number of sources, without fully understanding the concept of the topic, or what it implies.

The term BIM stands for "Building Information Modeling". It is also a new concept in today's economy, business related especially. This new system has fully centered its impact on the virtual community and construction societies.

The first step is to know what this term encompasses - what is BIM? It is a single informative system that shares, exchanges, stores and manages virtual models of building projects. Simply put, it gives a 3D model information of 2D traditional buildings, a simulation construction of building facilities. Pretty interesting, right? But it sounds familiar also, in that there is already a software that gives 3D graphics of building structures. This software is called CADD - Computer-Aided Design And Draftings or just CAD - Computer Aided Design. It even has subsystems like AutoCAD. But the point to prove or rather the question is: is BIM like that? Yes, in some ways, it is. In many ways, it is not. Both are software tools of architects, drafters, engineers, and builders. They are applied similarly, yet they yield very different results.

CADD software has improved by leaps and bounds over the years.With CADD, you can duplicate your designs, copy and edit content and even share the designs through the cloud with other members of your team. This software was meant to be mainly for architects and engineers to visualize and provide instructions on how the building components should be manufactured. Yet other disciplines have undertaken the use of the system; interior designers use CADD to create floor plans to imagine how a room could be designed or decorated; urban planners use CADD to analyze plots of land; artists can use CADD to create drawings or to sketch out sculptures before moulding with clay. The aforementioned is a bit of a diversion but our sole focus is on BIM and its effect on virtual design and construction, yet it is necessary to note the comparisons to CADD, just to clear up references between them.

We live in an automated age where every business is digitalized, and every decision is driven by data. From little wood workshops to large construction firms, a new concept is introduced to make things better and BIM is one of these ideas. CADD often contributes toward the manufacturing design database and also touches many aspects of our everyday world, but BIM broadens that horizon to every corner.

Virtual Design And Construction

Virtual Design And Construction (VDC) encompasses various technologies and techniques that are used in the design and construction of buildings, to make the process faster and easier.

A very key information to note is that BIM (Building Information Modeling) and Virtual design and construction are not the same thing. They can exist independently of the other. VDC does not always involve BIM, in the same way BIM can happen without VDC. It’s possible to say the VDC is more general and all-encompassing than BIM, even though some people may argue that it is the other way around. However, they are both effective and advanced technological ways to design, plan, and manage structures and buildings.

VDC has been around since the beginning of this century, almost around the same time BIM started to gain popularity. Overtime, it’s use became even more far spread in the design industry, with its application used in all aspects of a building project’s life span from the pre-design stage, all the way to the post- occupancy stage. These days, VDC spans from creating virtual models of a project, all the way to its physical creation and construction.

VDC enhances collaboration on a construction project by improving communication between the architect, engineers and contractors, fostering a better relationship between them. By using VDC, they can now spend time discussing more significant issues, problems and solutions that the building project may face. There’s better management and allocation of resources, as well as increased efficiency on the entire project. There is less risk as the VDC should have already identified all the potential risks and possible problems the design may face. Better safety and reduced cost make VDC even more valuable in the modern-day construction process.

The Peculiarity of BIM

CADD provides precise instructions on how things should be made, but BIM provides the advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons, maybe even do's and don'ts in designing, building, and operating a building structure. CADD provides graphical representations of building components, including the dimensions of the building and so forth, but Building Information Modeling presents an "accurate" virtual model of a building, a digital construction of a building before it is undertaken in the real world.

Still confusing? Ok, let's put it like this. Imagine two pieces of a sandwich; one with jam and the other with jelly. You bring them both together and it is a jam-and-jelly sandwich. Likewise, BIM takes separate design drawings of a building and puts them all together into a single system to operate the building. All the specifications, designs and plans are collaboratively captured in one comprehensive 3D model.

CADD simply gives a digital aspect of buildings, manipulates the shape or changes the scale of the building. But BIM does much more; it can tell the effect of the change you made during manipulation, whether it is for the better or not. It will even adjust to the "right" position for you. And it saves the data of that information. These systems encourage creativity and speeds up productivity but BIM has the tendency for more growth and development, to be more effective than CADD designs. That is a revolutionary solution to many building design problems, regardless of any opinion. With this new system, any construction team will gladly give their time, energy and all for building projects.

There's the saying that "there is no 'I' in team, but there is an "I" in BIM, and it expresses an important term called "information". Just like any other technology, BIM requires collaboration to be successful. It helps construction teams to make use of complicated information to improve overall efficiency in project delivery. It links people, technology and processes to improve outcomes in building and construction. The project team(contractors, design team, architects, engineers etc) share the information with each other and resolve design and construction related issues in the virtual world before applying to reality. But how does this help in the real world? Here is a list of some benefits of this exciting software:

It encourages transformation from 2D environment to a model-based one. Basically, bye bye, pen and paper.

It is easier to experiment with it. Different scenarios are explored faster, allowing for more iterations of the architectural, structural and engineering systems, resulting in an accurate optimized building design.

BIM is almost like the dream of any person involved in a building project as it eases the workload in this line of work. Construction teams (architects, engineers, designers, quantity surveyors, builders, production managers, etc) are able to focus more on obtaining and interpreting data in designs simultaneously. It also applies to all careers that require the use of this virtual method such as textile industries, manufacturing firms, automobile designing corporations, etc.

Cost is limited and profit is far more than surmised. When experimenting with bricks and mortar, products are wasted and there is pressure on time, finance, rapid deadlines, bulky working teams and huge fiscal borrowing. But with BIM, there is more than just preplanned cost reduction but it also reduces lifetime costs of a building. Repairs and maintenance costs are minimized for a longer duration of the lifecycle of a building.

Another important fact is that BIM supports green-issue concepts; In terms of consumption of energy in industrial countries, the building sector takes the cake. So BIM (Building Information Modeling) and BEM (Building Energy Modeling) are important tools to ensure the workings of a neutral energy building structure. When plans for construction projects are underway, environmental factors should be considered and BIM addresses this fact by providing information for assessing environmental performance, and it also evaluates or explores other options for future development. This is very valuable as energy efficiency is very important when you want to sustain building designs.

To enable real-life projects, it can minimize errors or omissions made by the project team, using CDT( Conflict Detection Technology), which tells the team which parts are not agreeable. After completion of the simulation for the building plan, all the relevant data and accurate geometry of the model to support the construction, fabrication and procurement activities to execute the projects are stored and managed. BIM also supports prefabrication of a building structure. Prefabrication is a process in which all the parts of a building are constructed somewhere off-site or it is partially installed, and it is brought to the building for the final installment. This method is far superior because instead of making everything from scratch and littering materials on-site, with BIM, the construction, speed, and cost invested in prefabricating are executed with precision, even if it is for a test drive. Therefore, less waste saves both materials and energy.

It can enhance the other technologies like virtual reality(VR) equipment, augmented reality (AR) equipment, or a combination of both (mixed reality(MR) equipment). Even 3D printers can be improved by the use of Building Information Modeling. Engineering calculations and energy calculations can be performed quickly, directly and easily, such as lowering carbon emissions, assessing MEP(Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) systems to lower electricity and water consumption during operations etc. BIM can help construction teams use intelligent, connected workflows to enhance predictability, productivity and so on. Even the perspective from the occupant community during the designing stage contributes to produce more successful buildings.

BIM capacitates building, and facility management systems like intelligent buildings or smart houses will not only tell about the operation of the building, but also any possible faults, and the object of the problem.

The list goes on. The most important detail is that BIM improves efficiency and quality of work. It can take various forms; from robotic layout systems, to introducing prefabricated construction methods to reduce the time to complete a project. BIM may not be a solution to all the problems in the construction industry or any industry at all, but it will help, and do so much more, if not better, when it is used correctly. It could make life easier.

Furthermore, BIM is popular, but is yet to really captured the masses. Although countries like Saudi Arabia, USA, China, Japan, Germany, and even Egypt have begun to make use of it and it has yielded satisfying results. Now that it is in its early stage, it is advisable for building firms, construction management firms, and even government agencies to start implementing the application of BIM in their designs or construction practices. With its potential creation of more advanced cost-effective buildings through more accessible knowledge and collaboration, it could blow up in the future and become something that completely alters the design and construction of buildings.

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