What is Residential BIM

[Ed_Downunder]

I can remember quite clearly moving from paper based spreadsheet to electronic spreadsheet. Lotus 123 on an IBM clone and DOS. That was hard work and always high risk. Hours of work lost in an instant.

At that time there was a move to electronic accounting systems. We tried to implement a system called DAC Easy. That was hard. Very Hard.

The point is those are just memories. Spreadsheets, accounting packages aren't even a conversation today.

A CAD system replaced the paper based system. A cad system by definition is 2d. The new is always replacing the old being driven by efficiencies.

Enter Chief Architect: So what is so great about Chief Architect and what efficiencies does it bring to the table. Peel away the bling for the sake of this conversation. The bling is a valuable feature and is not being dismissed by relevance.

Traditional building design was largely reliant upon two-dimensional drawings (plans, elevations, sections, etc.). Building information modeling extends this beyond 3-D, augmenting the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height and depth - X, Y and Z) with time as the fourth dimension and cost as the fifth. BIM therefore covers more than just geometry. It also covers spatial relationships, light analysis, geographic information, and quantities and properties of building components (for example manufacturers' details).

In Practice this is saying when you build a slab with walls and a roof those components are aware of each other. When you get an elevation from that model the elevations accurately reflect the model. Contrast that with 2d cad where each elevation is drawn and there is no relationship between the lines. So the potential for inaccurate elevations is greater simply because each elevation is drawn in full. The inefficiencies are obvious.

Now we are using a model based architectural drawing system we can change room heights. Our elevations are automatically updated. That is an efficiency. Compare that with 2d cad where all the lines are redrawn for the whole plan to reflect the changes.That is a mind boggling quantum shift that is a game changer. We have terrain data and we have a great deal of information about the components that are used to create our models. We can do shadow studies.

So what is the purpose of this conversation. In my view it's this:

BIM is an acronym Building Management Modeling. It's a system - it's a solution - it's not just software.

3d software is BIM because the models we create are based on real word components. A house brick is described as width, height and depth - X, Y and Z and has a name. No such reference exists with 2d cad. My brick occupies a spatial place in my model and has a spatial relationship with other components it can be counted by item, area and volume. No such calculation exist in the 2d cad.

So we have and are using 3d BIM and at one level the conversation is about how the information that is inside our model reports. The model is there there information is an integral part of our models.

So BIM is relevant to all Chief Users because we use it. The question now is do we understand that we are using it.

Inside Chief some areas are more efficient than others. Look at the complexity and depth of reporting for cabinets. That is BIM working seamlessly, beautifully, gracefully, peacefully---you get the point. Compare that with foundations (sorry about that old chestnut) So inside Chief the 3d BIM there is room for improvement.

So really what is all the noise about? It's this. 3d BIM is an efficient way to draw. It is drawn once and that is key. That is the point. That is the efficiency.

Chief tries to report a materials list. That is an efficiency and fits the BIM model. Chief is already more than 3d BIM. The materials list is what takes chief past the 3d model. Unfortunately the materials list has been abandoned by many and other solutions are recommended. Planswift pops up on the radar as one solution. That is counter productive, it is an inefficiency. The information we want is coming from our model we have spent days, hours or even weeks developing our models and we hand it off to a third party software to reinterpret our model.

The inefficiency is not hard to grasp. The pencil needs to be sharpened not replace. This is not a swipe at Planswift they are who they are for very good reason but to use 2d to calculate quantity that exist in our 3d model is a retrograde step not using the information we already have is duplication. The model already has measurements, quantity, area and volume. It has more, there are components - electrical - Cabinets - sinks -toilets etc etc. It can be argued that some get very good quick accurate results from Planswift. Thats not the point. The efficiency of the system is being challenged. If you alter your model you have to recalculate the Swiftplan. Import a revised DWG etc. As you can see updating your 3d model is the same as updating quantities now converting it again to a DWG for Swiftplan is inefficient and a duplication.

Chief has no job scheduling ability at this time so no point bringing it into the conversation.

Staying with BIM there is a lot of difference BIM in a large enterprise and a small enterprise and of course it's the scale of work undertaken. The discussion about residential BIM is already there in Google land. So the question is what is required to implement BIM into small business. That will be different for different businesses. There is not a one size fits all.

So we have 3d BIM because we are using Chief Architect. The starting point for practices still using 2d cad is to get 3d BIM. So it's a question how we share that information within our own enterprise. What are our specific needs.

Like many we draw in house and we build. So to produce a materials list in chief is of great value. To export that list to excel and make it workable is inefficient. While excel is perfect for the job it requires duplication. The cycle of exporting and updating excel is obviously inefficient.

We are still using inefficient duplication practice with the associated risk of error. To change that we need other people to work on the plan simultaneously. I don't mean we have the plan open more than one instance. I mean that the girls in the office have access to the materials list. We are able to share common information from the same plan at the same time. We are all using the same data set. The concept of BIM leverages human assets, avoids duplication, improves collaboration, avoids fragmented information sets.

In theory this is what Chief is capable of right now. I don't want multiple licenses so another member can input data so this is an issue for chief to ponder. We have a viewer - perhaps an inhouse viewer is a solution.

Residential BIM is here. You are using it. So really it is a conversation about our understanding and implementing BIM.