BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contracts

After reading the entire book, I highly recommend this to those who are starters in BIM adoption or for those who are willing to understand the BIM and what it can do for their organisation. This book talks about the fundamental concept of BIM, scrutinising different BIM authoring tools in terms of capability and interoperability, and most importantly present you with real life project case studies for you to understand more BIM in real practice.

Some of the information from this book that are worth sharing:

• The book does not directly answer the question about what kind of procurement process that is best for BIM. Instead, it give some opportunities and challenges with regards to two procurement process. Design-Bid-Build according to the book approaches greatest challenge to the use of BIM because the contractor does not participate early in the design process. On the other hand, Design-Build approach provides an opportunity to exploit BIM technology because of a single entity in responsible for design and construction.

• What is not considered a BIM technology?

1. Models that contains 3D data only and no or few attributes (a bit confusing for me)
2. Models with no support behaviour
3. Models that are composed of multiple 2D CAD reference files that must be combined to defined building
4. Models that allow changes to dimensions in one view that are not automatically reflected in other view

• Discriminating BIM issues associated to their usage as a "tool" and as a "platform"

1. BIM as a tool - intended for single/limited purpose usage

• User interface - easy to learn and should have modular structure to their functionality
• Drawing Generation - easy to generate drawings
• Ease of developing custom parametric objects
• Complex curve surface modelling
• Other-tool-level-capabilities

2. BIM as a platform - intended for multiple purpose usage

• Scalability
• Tool interfaces
• Libraries of BIM elements
• Platform user interface consistency
• Extensibility
• Multi-user environment
• Effective support for managing properties

ISO 15926 - a STEP standard for industrial automation systems and integration

Industry Foundation Class (IFC) - is a schema developed to define an extensible set of consistent data representation if building information for exchange between AEC software applications. I will discuss this in more details on the next post.

• IFC Coverage

1. Geometry (B-reps/NURBS)
2. Relations
3. Properties
4. Metadata

Buildingsmart alliance and NBIMS in their process maps adopted a well known modelling language. The "Business Plan Modelling Notation" or BPMN.

• Other effort supporting interoperability

1. International Framework for Dictionaries (IFD) - dictionary was formed to address issues like language differences for a property or any data type in IFC
2. Omniclass - develop by International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and International Construction Information Society (ICIS) and they are classification schemes for building elements and assembly used for specifications and cost estimates mainly in US
3. COBie - Construction Operations Building information exchange addresses the handover of information between the construction team and the owner.
4. XML-base schema - extensible markup language suited for website

"Building Information Modelling" by Willem Kymell

I just finished reading the book "Building Information Modelling: Planning and Managing Construction Projects with 4D CAD and Simulations, 2008" by Willem Kymell. Although this book is not definitely up to date, it is still full of substance and is relevant to our current BIM practice and worth buying. The book talk about the fundamental concept of BIM, its approaches, BIM adaptation processes, team dynamics, etc.

Here some useful points to take note from this book:

• BIM Project Planning

1. Determine the purpose of BIM  -(set project process and goals)
2. Develop BIM Specifications -(choose processes, tools and milestone for the work)
3. Developing Implementation Plan -(develop process strategies, select the team, and develop evaluation and adjustment methods) 

• Model Progress Specification 

• Model Progress Specification Matrix

• Type of Models (based on the author's opinion)

1. Conceptual or Schematic Model - low level of details
2. Design Model - mid-level detail
3. Construction Model - high level detail
4. Shop Drawing Model - high level of detail with necessary information for fabrication
5. Detailing Model - high level of detail specific to a portion of the project
6. As-built Model
7. Operations and Maintenance Model

• Always understand BIM Deliverables

• Overall BIM Processes 

1. Planning the project
2. Communicating the project
3. Information feedback loop
4. Tracking the project
5. Delivering the BIM

• Qualitative Analysis - considers the nature of the issue

1. Communication and marketing illustrations
2. Constructability analysis 
3. System coordination and clash detection
4. Energy Analysis

• Sequential Analysis - study that includes time

1. Assembly and installation sequences
2. Construction schedule and sequence

• Quantitative Analysis - measuring the amount of something

1. Quantity take-off
2. Construction estimates
3. Life cycle cost analysis

The topic I like the most here is about Project BIM Planning. The author only emphasised the important matters the affect BIM deliverables. His processes are quite straight-forward and very practical to current industry practice. I will definitely adopt the principles that I learned from this book. By the way, have also case studies that highlights the benefits of BIM in three disciplines. 

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BIM Guide Documentation Part 1: PAS 1192:2-2013

UK Government is very serious in the implementation and adoption of BIM, specifically BIM Level 2 by 2016. It can be seen through the creation of BIM Task Group and their accompanying standards, protocols and the most popular Feb 28 documents. One of these documents is PAS 1192:2. 

[copyright holder: British Standard Institution Limited 2013]

The heart and soul of PAS 1192-2 is the BS 1192-2007. But in this document, they give emphasis on the use of building information modelling in an asset lifecycle. Let me give you an overview of what is really inside the PAS 1192-2 and what to expect from this document through bullet points:

• PAS 1192-2 is derived from BS1192-2007
• a strategy created by the UK Government in response to reducing construction waste by 20-25%
• a strategy set to address public awareness of BIM Level 2 maturity
• talks about Information Management through the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in a project lifecycle of an asset.
• it also referenced some of the documents ( i will discuss this on the next post) like:

               1. CIC Scope of Services

               2. COBie- UK 2012

               3. CIC BIM Protocol

               4. Employer's Information Request (EIR)

• important figures inside PAS 1192-2:2013

               1. BIM Maturity Levels ,Figure 1. - a diagram illustrating BIM Levels of Maturity in UK BIM Strategy.

               2. Information Delivery Lifecycle ,Figure 2. - a diagram illustrating the exchange of information and management processes from the supply chain to the employer

               3. Supply Chain (Push) and Employer (Pull) ,Figure 7. - a detailed illustration of flow information from supply chain hierarchy to the employer and to answer plain language question 

               4. Roles and Responsibilities ,Figure 10. - a diagram showing the roles, responsibility and authority of an Information Manager and the Coordination Manager between the Design Lead and the Contractor

               5. Volume Strategy ,Figure 11. - only a quick illustration has been shown, but for a detailed explanation, the reader can reference to BS1192-2007

               6. Common Data Environment (CDE) ,Figure 15. - a diagram illustrating the flow of information inside the common repository agreed by the client and the rest of the supply chain

               7. Levels of Definition ,Figure 20. - a table with diagram and definition illustrating the BIM model level of detail with respect to plan of work or project stages

• outline the content of the BIM Execution Plan document
• outline the content of Employer's Information Request (EIR) document
• emphasised and explained file naming convention which also been referenced to BS1192
• new roles / responsibilities created:

               1. Information Manager

               2. Project Delivery Manager

               3. Coordination Manager

• important table in PAS1192 is the Status Code pertaining to file naming convention in Table 3

They said that PAS1192 is a standard documentation guide for delivering information in a project lifecycle using BIM, and a must standard to be followed. I have few questions regarding on this document:

               1. Who will initiate the creation of CDE? And at what project stage?

               2. Who will act as an Information Manager?

               3. There are new roles and responsibilities described in PAS 1192-2, but there is no clause mentioning about the Role of BIM Managers and BIM Coordinators which plays an integral part in creating standards, workflows and protocols of a certain company, how will this new BIM professional be part of the delivery of project information?

To download PAS1192-2:2013, click this link: PASS 1192-2:2013

Certified BIM Manager

Let me start this blog by posting something motivational or shall I say, something to look forward to. Rumours and speculations had been roaming around for quite some time regarding on the creation of a certified or chartered BIM professional qualification. But, the wait is over, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is the first professional body to create a certification to qualify for BIM Manager. 

But, how do they assist the applicants? What are the eligibility in order to be qualified? According to RICS, you need to have at least 5 years relevant experience in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. A recognised professional qualification from a certain professional body, and a 12 month BIM Experience in either cost estimating and construction. And don't forget, your case study submission must have at least 2000 words. There are 3 processes you have to undergo before you will be listed to RICS Certified BIM Managers, first you should lodge in your application including all of the supporting documents, second, an assessment by the trained members of RICS and the outcome will be 20 working days, lastly, if you're application is successful, you have to pay for the final registration. 

But my question is, what if you are a non-member of a certain professional body in UK or other European countries? If there is a BIM curriculum included in your BSc or undergraduate degree, are you qualified to apply for the certification? If you are taking an MSc with direct specialisation in BIM, are you qualified also? Others said that this move is very encouraging, but at least RICS should have consulted first other professional bodies so that this certification will be a wide industry move. Meaning, that all of the professional body will have the same standards and assessment in qualifying a BIM Manager. 

You can download the guide at this link: Applicant Guide for BIM Manager Certification (RICS)