BIM and design environments

BIM and design environments: BIM definitely brings great advantages to the designer. Let’s find out why

It goes without doubt that in any design process, the creation of a 3D virtual model allows us to view and assess every aspect of the design phase with a significant reduction of errors.
In addition, BIM technology makes use of parametric objects; the so called, smart objects, that perform as a whole in producing all the relevant construction drawings, such as, floor plans, elevation views, cross-sections and isometric views.

This means that every variation made to the BIM model corresponds to an automatic and dynamic updating of all related drawings and construction details!

The BIM process infographic

This obviously translates into increased productivity, as it completely eliminates the possibility of making mistakes or misalignments between the various construction drawings or working drawings.

Various BIM design software make use of “Real Time Rendering” technology, in one way or another, enabling a real time photorealistic assessment of the project without having to wait endless hours to render all architectural decisions , just as it is designed with the BIM, without having to waith hours for a render top process.
Thanks to Real Time Rendering you can evaluate design choices, experiment with new shapes, materials, objects, lights, etc., and instantly verify any kind of design hypothesis.

BIM and structural calculations

Even in the structural sphere, BIM technology clearly demonstrates the significant benefits that increase productivity.
In this case, the structural designer avoids having to start all over to re-model the structure again. This drastically reduces the possibility of making mistakes.
Thanks to BIM integration with the aspects of structural calculations, adding structural information, such as, (columns, beams, materials, reinforcements, etc.) and perform the relating calculations, is amazingly stright-forward and easy to manage completing the entire process with all the necessary construction documents and drawings.

BIM and plant design

A view of an integrated Plant Design view

BIM integration with Plant design, allows the user to enrich the 3D model with all the plant elements: ducting, cable paths, device boxes, junction boxes, electrical switch panels, etc.

This makes it easy to have control over the entire plant design and see if there are any conflicts with the architectural design or the structural members (clash detection).

Obviously, without the use of BIM technology, plant design remains something confined to itself and can’t be evaluated as part of the building.

BIM and construction estimating

Thanks to the integration with BIM you can get detailed cost estimates of the project in a completely automatic way.
The advantages in this case are also remarkable: the resulting estimates is obtained is dynamic, that is, every variation of the project corresponds to a real-time variation of the cost estimate and therefore, the total project cost. All this, once again, avoids the design team a lot of aggravation and any risks in making mistakes.

BIM and CAD, what are the differences?

BIM is not simply the evolution of CAD. It is a completely new way of looking at the design and construction of a building.

Designers who still use CAD for their building projects draw a significant amount of lines and polylines to represent objects (doors, windows, walls, balconies) to manually generate other relevant construction drawings.

This means that many designers probably still don’t understand the obvious advantages that derive from the use of BIM technology.

What are the advantages offered by BIM?

The various BIM role players & the AEC protocol

Using BIM gives you great benefits that result in:

• Time and cost savings: the designer will no longer have to draw an incredible amount of lines, polylines, and geometric shapes (which take a long time), but simply have dedicated smart objects with their own properties and information (material, cost, thermal capacity, maintenance, etc.).
• Error reduction: floor plans, elevation views, and cross-sections are simply different views of the same object.
  Any modification to the BIM model affects all the correlated views and representations.
• More simplicity: easily create even complex models. Anyone invloved in architectural design can now expand his/her creative skills by proposing ideas and solutions that would never be reached using a traditional CAD application.

Click here to download Edificius, the architectural BIUM Design software