What can BIM offer?

How does the adoption of BIM methodologies improve the building process over traditional construction methods?

BIM has been developed to address issues in the design, construction and implementation of building projects.

Traditionally, 2D drawings (using CAD and other software) have been used to create presentations and working drawings in the construction industry.

One major drawback of this method is the limited coordination of different drawings of the same building, as each one is drawn as an independent plan. This means any changes are done separately, with modifications required on every document relating to the structure.

Consequently, extra time, effort and costs are incurred to the project for any amendments made to the proposed structure.

Although traditional building projects use 3D models to enhance visualisation of the building, the models do not contain enough information. This limits the data that is available for estimates and other work related to the building project.

BIM addresses these issues because information is unified and compiled into a single database. This allows each BIM virtual model to contain automated information extracted from this database.

Other advantages of BIM include:

• The ease of modification to aspects of a building by using just one model;

• The application of adjustments, such as cost, directly to the model; and

• Control of project processes, minimising the time and costs of a project.

You can find further information about the advantages that BIM offers over traditional approaches in the web article from the architectural company Suite, based in Spain: ‘Traditional Methodology vs. BIM Methodology’.

Your task

What do you think BIM virtual modelling offers over more traditional approaches?