Tuesday, June 1, 2010

BIM Expanded

This year, I will have had the pleasure of attending several conferences outside of my usual engineering and geospatial interests to include architecture and IT focused events such as:
What is especially compelling about these events is the opportunity for me to engage participants on the expanded definition of Building Information Modeling (BIM) beyond the traditional architectural focus. One example of this expanded definition for BIM is this article in Green Building Community by Terry Bennett which discusses BIM from a civil engineering perspective.

Another example is BIM for Sustainable Cities which combines model based design from architectural and engineering design perspectives to include the integrated processes that are built on coordinated, consistent information about the municipal developments, infrastructure and related assets.



A BIM for Sustainable Cities plan is part of a 3D digital cities initiative and depends on the convergence of CAD, GIS and BIM and the integration of…
  • Modeling and Design
  • Surveying & Data Collection
  • Planning, Site Selection & Conceptual Design
  • Clash Detection, Simulation and Analysis
  • Visualization
  • Multidiscipline Coordination
  • Construction & Construction Management
  • Operation and Maintenance
With a BIM for Sustainable Cities plan, municipalities are better able to:
  • Coordinate with architects, engineers, contractors and others
  • Better share digital design information, geospatial data, infrastructure models and other documentation among staff and project stakeholders
  • Use that information to accurately predict performance, appearance and cost
  • Reliably deliver municipal projects faster, more economically and with reduced environmental impact
  • Leverage model-based design information for operation and maintenance
BIM for Sustainable Cities embraces the entire municipal development lifecycle. This expanded view of BIM gives local governments, planners, engineers, architects, contractors and others an opportunity to take a more active role in neighborhood development and infrastructure projects that are planned, designed, built and managed in greener more sustainable ways.

1 comment:

Greg Bates said...

Especially on the CAD & GIS side we have seen the private sector move to BIM quickly when a local municipality makes the switch to Civil 3D or Map 3D. When the city says jump, business says "to what platform?"