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CONSTRUCTION
2022
While integrating BIM into your working practice may take some
adjustments in terms of how you manage and delegate within your
teams, adopting BIM and utilizing everything this exciting technology
has to offer can revolutionize your output and the way you manage
your projects. Rather than wasting time trading emails back and forth
with various stakeholders, you are all able to share the same files
containing information on materials and digital blueprints and access
them together in real time. By increasing transparency for all members
of the team, managers are better able to delegate tasks and supervise
implementation. Architects, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers
are all able to view and enrich data in order to optimize a streamlined
working process. Making clash data available to all stakeholders in
a digital format saves time and money when issues can be resolved,
and plans adjusted before physical materials arrive to the job site. The
benefits of using BIM to work together even extend to the lifespan of the
completed structures. Access to information about the precise location
of parts, including data on the make and model, can help building
maintenance managers to quickly make repairs.
While there are certainly many potential benefits to integrating BIM into
your working practices, shifting into the digital realm doesn’t appeal
to everyone. In 2021, 906 built environment professionals answered the
NBS survey to shed light on the role BIM plays in their professional lives.
According to NBS, 71% of respondents use BIM in some capacity at work.
Though this number dips slightly from the 2020 survey results, only 5%
of those surveyed answered that they resisted BIM. While NBS is a British
company, the survey included feedback from 60 countries and spanned
a range of viewpoints from clients and architects to contractors and
manufacturers. What does this mean for the current state of BIM in
the built environment industry? BIM continues to be an exciting tool in
increasing tandem working and information transparency—especially
as 58% of responses indicated a hybrid approach to working from home
and the office, warehouse, or job site.
overview of what BIM technology actually is and how you can use
it to your team’s advantage. Tracing the technology’s advent in the
1970s to today, we look at what BIM technology has evolved. We
will also examine the difference between BIM and CAD and explain
the advantages of moving towards using BIM in the workplace to
achieve your team’s goals. We will then move towards clarifying
the new ambitions of BIM for various project stakeholders. Once we
understand BIM and its current place in the industry, we can discuss
new innovations taking place in 2022 using BIM—from using BIM to script
AI and Automation on job sites and the way Digital Twins allow users
to run performance testing on materials before ordering them to the
benefits of employing Cloud Technology in sharing information across
all project stakeholders and how Building Energy Modeling can aid us all
in sustainability efforts for a more sustainable tomorrow. Ready to dive
in and get started? I hope so!
BIM also includes features that allow users to consider energy usage
data during both the construction phase as well as simulating a
projection of the energy output and cost of the finished structure.
While this data exists within a BIM file, the key to its significance is
in each team’s use of this report. Interpreting this information can
and needs. To make the most of this data, project managers may need
to adapt their current working practices in terms of how they delegate
tasks and determine project timelines. For example, manufacturers
interested in reaching a wider client base can digitize their products so
that they’re compatible with BIM software and can manufacture this BIM
data. Tagging materials with searchable terms allows users to access
a wider variety of makes and models, allowing architects, engineers
and construction professionals to source the exact product they need
and expand manufacturers’ reach virtually. It might feel uncomfortable
to change long-standing systems but, the benefits of BIM outweigh the
growing pains of shifting the way we do business.
Next, we will discuss how BIM specifically impacts various stakeholders
within the built environment industry and address potential ways for BIM
to enhance their workflow.
Shifting into using BIM simplifies this process. BIM files allow users
to view various layers of the plan—from the foundations and pipes to
the striking design features that catch our eye when the structure is
complete. Rather than create multiple files that need to be layered
and compiled, BIM software allows the engineering team to design the
mechanical and structural layer within the same file as the architects
who are able to build the design. Working on different layers within the
same file makes it easier to see whether the plans coordinate with the
structural design without going back and forth and losing time. The
precision of BIM communicates the exact geometry and data about
materials necessary to bring a building off the digital page and into
reality.
Using BIM can also help architects and engineers consider new uses
of materials and minimize environmental impacts. BIM software
allows users to search for particular products such as double-glazed
windows or experiment with different flooring and see data on product
availability, ability to withstand the elements, and how each element
works within the design—both in a standalone capacity as well as in
collaboration with other aspects of the design. This kind of data was
impossible within a 2D model and has the capacity to truly revolutionize
how architects think about the design process.
CONSTRUCTION
MANUFACTURING
First and foremost, you may need to restructure your current system
of providing product details. In order to make your products more
searchable, and thus increasing the likelihood of being chosen for a
project, manufacturers need to use smart data. Formatting product
data to optimize analytics allows for architects or contractors
searching for a particular or popular product feature to find your
product whether they’re familiar with your brand or not. By using
smart data, manufacturers are expanding their sales funnel. To do this,
manufacturers may need to streamline and standardize the information
about each product across their system to correspond with BIM. It’s
key to use industry standard language to describe products, allowing
for searchability. While this may seem like a lot of extra work to
reformat existing data, this standardization will pay off. If more industry
professionals have access to precise product specifications and
object geometry, it’s more likely that they will select these products to
incorporate into their current and future projects.
Similarly, BIM digital blueprints continue being useful even after the
project is built. Facility managers are able to use these files in building
maintenance. Knowing the make and model, as well as the “lifespan” of
a product used in the built environment, allowing facility managers to
create their own maintenance timelines to replace critical objects on
time. Similarly, if an object does need to be replaced ahead of schedule
for any reason, manufacturing information is accessible. Additionally,
repairs are streamlined based on knowing the precise location of various
elements. For example, in the case of a water leak, facility managers
are able to identify the location of pipes, saving time and money during
a repair.Furthermore, if sustainability goals are important to building
owners, they are able to compare their projected energy usage that
was determined during the design phase to their actual energy use. By
having these statistics on hand, facility managers can make decisions
regarding energy usage using concrete data in order to facilitate real
change.
Software engineers are always thinking outside of the box to create new
ways for BIM to advance the built environment industry. What’s new in
BIM in 2022? From involving AI and automation or using digital twins to
employing cloud sharing and focusing on building energy modeling, BIM
technology is adapting to an ever-changing world. Let’s take a closer
look at what’s new and how teams can use these advancements to their
advantage.
AI AND AUTOMATION
One of the strengths of BIM software lies in its data collection. From
information about manufacturing products to the precision of the
structural design, a BIM file is rich with possibilities. By feeding this data
to AI, the computer will assess all the possibilities of the various objects,
quickly coming to a conclusion that could take hours if done by the users
themselves. By inputting criteria into the program via coding, users
give AI a range of design options to work within the script, with this
being labelled as a generative design Once the computer has finished
designing a blueprint based on the initial information range, users can
then opt to tweak the design. Similarly, once planning has left the design
stage and moved towards the job site, using AI can prevent workplace
injuries and on-site accidents by identifying possible health and safety
risks based on the information accessible within the file. Identifying risk
DIGITAL TWINS
The differences between Digital Twins and BIM technology can come
across confusing. While both involve digital models of an object (or
in this case, of a structure), they serve different purposes and can be
used together to show stakeholders how digital models can be used
throughout project development rather than act as static plans. Let’s
start with the basics: what is a Digital Twin? Simply put, Digital Twins
are digital replicas of a model, file, or object. This includes data on the
various materials used as well as the design. BIM takes this information
to the next level by focusing on layering various data from the blueprint
to timelines for product delivery, enhancing efficiency and best
practices for project management.
Digital Twins can certainly be used on their own but, the benefits
of having a digital replica are enhanced when combined with BIM
technology. Where Digital Twins act as a digital replica, BIM technology
allows users to visualize and optimize the transformation of the digital
plan into a real structure. Plugging a Digital Twin into the datasets
CLOUD TECHNOLOGY