4d

This report probes the Building Information Modelling (BIM) for its perception in AEC industry and examines various definitions developed by the professionals involved in this field. It mainly concentrates on the Construction Management aspect of the industry, and what role BIM has to play within different procurement systems. The report examines major BIM applications with deep analysis on the usability and interoperability of the services. It further studies the methods of implementation of BIM and integration of standards covering a wide spectrum of services within AEC industry. The analysis is supported by the application of BIM technology on a live commercial project. The report concludes itself with the study on future uses of BIM.

"This chapter briefly explores the multi-dimensional nature of the BIM domain and then introduces a knowledge tool to assist individuals, organisations and project teams to assess their BIM maturity and improve their performance. The first section introduces BIM Fields and Stages which lay the foundations for measuring maturity. Section 2 introduces BIM Steps – organised in ‘sets’ and ‘types’ – which incrementally separate BIM Stages and act as Key Maturity Areas within them. Section 3 introduces an Organisational Hierarchy which identifies granular scales for applying maturity assessments within the industry. Section 4 explores the concepts of ‘capability maturity’ and adopts a five-level BIM-specific maturity index. Finally, Section 5 introduces the BIM Maturity Matrix (BIm³), a knowledge tool that describes the range of and correlation between BIM Stages, Steps, Maturity Levels and Organisational Scales.

SUCCAR, B. (2010) Building Information Modelling Maturity Matrix. IN UNDERWOOD, J. & ISIKDAG, U. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Building Information Modelling and Construction Informatics: Concepts and Technologies. Information Science Reference, IGI Publishing. (http://www.igi-global.com/Bookstore/Chapter.aspx?TitleId=39468)"

Building Information Modeling (BIM) é uma nova abordagem para a gestão da informação em projeto, construção e gestão da edificação. Baseia-se numa representação digital do edifício, a qual pode ser utilizada para gerar modelos 4D de alternativas de processos de construção. Este artigo relata os principais resultados de uma pesquisa que investigou o uso da modelagem 4D para apoiar a tomada de decisão na gestão de sistemas de produção. Quatro estudos de caso foram realizados em diferentes empresas de construção na cidade de Porto Alegre, Brasil, envolvidas no desenvolvimento e construção de projetos de edificações residenciais. As principais conclusões do estudo referem-se aos benefícios do uso de modelos 4D na gestão do sistema de produção.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a transformative approach to designing, constructing and operating the built environment. BIM includes a wide range of concepts, tools and workflows which need to be learned and applied by industry stakeholders. BIM Education represents the process of acquiring the necessary knowledge and the required skills to generate BIM deliverables and satisfy their respective requirements.

The documents gathered here stem from the efforts of the BIM Education Working Group (EWG). The EWG started its six month mandate back in December 2011 and included 11 members, equally split between industry (practicing professionals) and academia (university/TAFE lecturers and researchers).

There are three documents in the BIM Education section. Read together, they represent the position of the EWG, an invitation for an open discussion, and a foundation for further work. Read separately, each document covers a specific aspect of our work:
–– Document E1 introduces BIM Education, the group’s objectives and the structure underlying this effort. It also identifies BIM Learners and their varied requirements
–– Document E2 identifies BIM Learning providers and the current status of BIM Education
–– Document E3 introduces the BIM Learning Spectrum and a draft Collaborative BIM Education Framework

At the conclusion of each document, a summary set of BIM Educational Principles (EP)s is provided. These 20 principles highlight the group’s position and provide opportunities for future discussions covering:

–– why BIM Education is the shared responsibility of industry and academia
–– what needs to be done to identify the BIM learning requirements of all construction industry stakeholders
–– where best to start in a suitably comprehensive BIM learning approach
–– who needs to participate in defining, developing and delivering BIM education
–– how best to convert BIM educational principles into BIM learning opportunities
–– when a BIM education mechanism can be instigated to deliver BIM learning dividends

The BIM Education working group hopes this effort resonates well with all those who stand to benefit from a collaborative approach to BIM Education. We also hope the three documents, the framework and the embedded principles instigate a fruitful discussion between - and within - industry and academia.

In this paper the Open Source IFC model server project bimserver.org is introduced. A brief overview of existing
IFC toolkits and model servers both as commercial applications as well as research prototypes is given.  An
implementation-independent meta-model from current IFC STEP EXPRESS schemas is generated and used as a
venture point for a database persistency framework. A model server application is introduced that is based on this
framework which enables the storage, maintenance and query of IFC based building information models for the
collaboration among different stakeholders

The need for Building Information Model (BIM) servers to facilitate collaboration has been repeatedly
reported in literature and stated by industry practitioners. To date, only a few commercial
implementations of model servers are available. However, these applications are either limited to vendorspecific, proprietary data models or their complexity and pricing structure imposes a considerable
threshold to their adoption by SMEs. The academic, standardization and development communities suffer
a lack of open platforms that allows the integration and evaluation of research results and prototypes in a
larger context. Although promising efforts aiming the creation of free and open platforms for a larger
audience have been made in the past (Kiviniemi et al, 2005), none of these initiatives is still in existence
to date.
In this paper we report on the progress of the bimserver.org project, a collective effort to create a software
framework that serves both as an open, low-cost entry into collaboration using shared building models for
SMEs and as a test bed for research and development. We introduce conceptual, methodological and
implementation specific advancements that have been made compared to earlier publications. Based on a
series of interviews and a survey we report on user experiences that have been made by a diverse
audience of architectural, engineering, project management companies as well as educational projects in
academic environments and third party developers.
A discussion of future research and development directions concludes this paper. Among these
prospective additions to the framework are customizations and tailored solutions of external parties that
use the open nature of the platform to suit their specific needs.

When designing construction objects, different disciplines have to collaborate intensively. Each
discipline is responsible for its own contribution to the overall design. However, when the partial
designs are combined, objects from different disciplines might occupy the same position in space or
'clash'. Such a clash will often be noticed during the construction process requiring a lot of extra time
and cost.
Using 3D visualization, it is possible to combine the partial designs of all partners and find the
clashing objects visually in an early stage. However, when the complexity of a construction project
increases, a clash easily stays unnoticed. Besides, much more time is needed for inspecting a complex
design. Therefore, an algorithm to discover clashes will be more reliable and efficient.
Clash detection techniques are already available in 3D graphics (referred to as 'collision
detection’). There are a great number of methods described on the internet on how to perform this
collision detection. All these methods are based on describing objects in terms of 3D shapes, but do
not take into account the structure/hierarchy of objects that is common in construction projects.
In the AEC industry, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) open standard holds this structure next
to the 3D shape of building objects. By using the IFC standard to perform clash detection on
construction models, the structure of objects can be utilized, resulting in a much higher performance.
This paper will demonstrate how to combine the best collision detection methods with the structure
provided by IFC, making clash detection fast enough to be used inside a real time environment like a
server. This clash detection is currently implemented in the IFC Engine viewer developed by TNO,
and works on models opened from their open-source BIMserver (Building Information Model) where
the collaboration starts. The next step would be integrating the clash detection inside the server.

A leading, international, engineering and construction company has carried out efforts to engage a new tool set and work process. Four-Dimensional Planning and Scheduling (4D-PS) is the new work process that aims toward better, more efficient planning and execution of large construction projects. This paper describes the case history and forecasts how this revitalized technique may ultimately impact the
construction industry. Despite academic and practitioners’ research and
development efforts to leverage from Information Technology (IT) in construction, the industry at large, being generally conservative, has adhered to the values of predictability and existing methods to minimize risk. 4D technology has struggled to find its way into mainstream construction practice for several years, and just
recently it has been shown that commercially available software and hardware can be applied effectively toward this end, greatly reducing investment risk. These relatively new tools promise new impetus to the use of 4D-PS in the construction industry. This paper describes how 4D-PS was applied on a major construction project, giving rise to a new work process that proved to be productive and cost effective. Emphasis is made on the fact that those expected to use such technology
must have the necessary training and, conversely, near-future versions of computerized tools can be made more intuitive for more widespread use. The use of such techniques will necessarily draw engineering/design and construction entities closer together, essentially improving coordination among them.

An introductory speculation, Ways of Being: The Spectator and the Spectacle is a consideration of the epistemological, ontological and metaphysical downfalls of film theory’s understandings of the spectator and the spectacle; with particular emphasis directed towards the neurobiological implications of the spectator’s body.

The thesis will argue that these shortcomings are representative of wider ranging issues of complacency engulfing the film industry and film exhibition as a whole. Furthermore, the fundamental disruptions of the digital upgrade of cinema, and the expanding means through which film content can be experienced, will be explored in relation to the pressing need for film theory to reassess itself.

Drawing on a plethora of empirical and non-empirical research, this dissertation is a highly progressive expression of how film experience has always been about transcendence and, as a result of its digital re-birth and diversifications, it is now becoming even more so.

This paper presents some results of the application of research thinking within
an industrial project environment. During the last five years the impact of Computer
Advanced Visualization Tools (CAVT) in the design and construction process of industrial
projects was studied as part of a research carried out by the Universidad Católica de Chile and
Bechtel Chile Ltda. A Ph.D. researcher working within Bechtel developed methods and
procedures to conduct 4D Planning and Scheduling (4D-PS). His work included pioneering
the first 4D application on a large project that rendered significant and demonstrable savings
in man-hours and materials, showing that 4D technology is viable and cost-effective. Benefits
of applying CAVT to the design process, new conceptualization of the design process, review
of the constructability concept and guidelines to manage organizational change due to IT
impact are examples of the research results that will be presented and discussed in this paper.

This paper describes a system that combines a 2D digital board that shows dynamically in rows and columns arranged in a special layout, starting and finishing dates of subcontractors work linked to the fourth dimension, time, coming from construction schedules. The system is the result of a research project whose objective is to improve planning, scheduling, and controlling the work of subcontractors of finishings in building projects. The system will be tested on case studies projects for planning, scheduling and controlling the work of subcontractors. It is expected that the systems will act as a powerful real time Visualization, Planning, Analysis and Communication Tool in the case studies. Despite the 3D case studies models were very useful for constructability and other purposes, the traditional 4D approach that combines 3D + time was not very useful when dealing with construction works that remained mainly “hidden” within the project 3D model. Applied to the case studies, the digital board shall provide different ways to display, communicate and understand information about resources, costs, dates and relationships coming from a traditional CPM network using 4D in a new 2D + time conceptualization.

Graphical analysis is employed in the research setting to provide quantitative estimation of PET tracer kinetics from dynamic images at a single bed. Recently, we proposed a multi-bed dynamic acquisition framework enabling clinically feasible whole-body parametric PET imaging by employing post-reconstruction parameter estimation. In addition, by incorporating linear Patlak modeling within the system matrix, we enabled direct 4D reconstruction in order to effectively circumvent noise amplification in dynamic whole-body imaging. However, direct 4D Patlak reconstruction exhibits a relatively slow convergence due to the presence of non-sparse spatial correlations in temporal kinetic analysis. In addition, the standard Patlak model does not account for reversible uptake, thus underestimating the influx rate Ki. We have developed a novel whole-body PET parametric reconstruction framework in the STIR platform, a widely employed open-source reconstruction toolkit, a) enabling accelerated convergence of direct 4D multi-bed reconstruction, by employing a nested algorithm to decouple the temporal parameter estimation from the spatial image update process, and b) enhancing the quantitative performance particularly in regions with reversible uptake, by pursuing a non-linear generalized Patlak 4D nested reconstruction algorithm. A set of published kinetic parameters and the XCAT phantom were employed for the simulation of dynamic multi-bed acquisitions. Quantitative analysis on the Ki images demonstrated considerable acceleration in the convergence of the nested 4D whole-body Patlak algorithm. In addition, our simulated and patient whole-body data in the postreconstruction domain indicated the quantitative benefits of our extended generalized Patlak 4D nested reconstruction for tumor diagnosis and treatment response monitoring. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Mass customization is one of the most promising computational developments in the AEC industry. Despite recent advances in the production of research-based knowledge, the professional practices lack of a consistent and permanent technology adoption scheme and remain as a very resilient and fragmented industry. This work is a part of an ongoing research project developing guidelines for improving both physical and virtual modeling processes within an architectural design context. Here, we present a customizable model of a space layout explorer. The implementation of the user-driven solution-finding process is based on constraint technology embedded in Autodesk’s Revit® 2011 macros tools, commonly used in the professional practice. The aim of this work is to demonstrate a practical use of a small constraint-based system on software of widespread use. Even though there is still a lack of building information, the model has already several applications in the definition a floor plan layout and in the comparison of several instances of the design solution in the 3D user view. User-driven modifications are not made directly through the 3D model, but through different explicit text tags that describe each parameter on 2D views -although a real time 3D visualization of the model is also available-. The main findings are discussed as guidelines for further research on the end-user involvement on a ‘creative mass customization’ scheme. Also, the implementation of visual aids such as text tags during the customization process can bridge some technical obstacles for the development of interfaces for constraint-based mass customization systems. Before the final discussion, some limitations on the use of this model are described.

La generación del presupuesto a partir del modelo BIM es una de las grandes ventajas
difundidas por los promotores de esta herramienta digital para la redacción del proyecto.
Los autores han colaborado en el desarrollo de numerosos enlaces entre programas de
dibujo y modelado de arquitectura, desde mucho antes de que existiera el propio término
“BIM”, comprobando en qué condiciones esta generación es posible y por tanto qué
aspectos son clave para su éxito o su fracaso.
Los aspectos clave están relacionados con el proceso de trabajo de los profesionales, no
con las características técnicas de los programas, y son:
1. Pueden existir profesionales distintos en la etapa de modelado y de gestión del
coste, con distintos grados de colaboración.
2. El proyecto y el desarrollo se desarrollan en paralelo, no en serie, y el modelo BIM no
necesariamente contiene la totalidad del presupuesto.
3. Los usuarios sólo introducen la información que les resulta beneficios a a corto plazo.
Las nuevas tecnologías, aun proponiendo una forma de trabajo mucho más eficiente, deben
encajar en el ecosistema existente, o tendrán que esperar a que el ecosistema se adapte,
un proceso mucho más lento