What can BIM do?

Abstract: the emergence of BIM will lead to the second digital revolution in the field of engineering construction. BIM will not only bring the progress and update of existing technology, but also affect the change of production organization mode and management mode, and will promote the change of people's thinking mode.


Source: China Journal of survey and design


In the past 20 years, the popularization of CAD technology has freed architects and engineers from the traditional manual drawing, design and calculation, which is the first digital revolution in the field of engineering design. Now, the emergence of BIM will lead to the second digital revolution in the field of engineering construction. BIM will not only bring the progress and update of existing technology, but also affect the change of production organization mode and management mode, and will promote the change of people's thinking mode. What can BIM do?


In the domestic construction market, BIM is widely used in the following fields:


I. BIM model maintenance

BIM model maintenance refers to the establishment and maintenance of BIM model according to the construction progress of the project, the use of BIM platform to summarize all the construction engineering information of each project team, eliminate the information island in the project, and combine the obtained information with the three-dimensional model for sorting and storage, so that all stakeholders of the project can share it at any time in the whole process of the project. At present, the industry mainly adopts the method of "distributed" BIM model to establish a BIM model that meets the existing conditions and uses of the project. These models can be roughly divided into: design model, construction model, schedule model, cost model, manufacturing model, operation model, etc.


II. Site analysis

Traditional site analysis has some disadvantages, such as insufficient quantitative analysis, too heavy subjective factors, unable to deal with a large number of data and information. By using Bim and GIS to model the spatial data of the site and the proposed buildings, we can quickly get more accurate analysis results, help the project evaluate the use conditions and characteristics of the site in the planning stage, so as to make the most ideal site planning, traffic streamline organization relationship, building layout and other key decisions of the new project.


III. architectural planning

The architectural planning uses the logical mathematical analysis of the social environment and related factors of the construction goal, studies the reasonable guidance of the project assignment to the design, formulates and demonstrates the basis of architectural design, scientifically determines the content of the design, and seeks the scientific method to achieve this goal. BIM can help the project team to understand the standards and regulations of complex space through space analysis during the construction planning stage, so as to save time and provide the possibility of more value-added activities for the team. Especially when customers discuss needs, select and analyze the best solution, they can make key decisions with Bim and relevant analysis data.


IV. scheme demonstration

In the scheme demonstration stage, the project investor can use BIM to evaluate the layout, vision, lighting, safety, ergonomics, acoustics, texture, color and compliance of the design scheme. BIM can even be used to analyze the details of the building and analyze the problems that may need to be solved in the design and construction.

In the scheme demonstration stage, BIM can also be used to provide convenient and low-cost different solutions for the project investors to choose. Through data comparison and simulation analysis, the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions can be found out to help the project investors quickly evaluate the cost and time of the construction investment scheme.


V. visual design

For designers, in addition to the preliminary elaboration and stage presentation, a lot of design work should be based on the traditional CAD platform, using three views of flat, vertical and sectional expression to show their own design results.

With the emergence of BIM, designers not only have 3D visual design tools, what they see is what they get, but also, more importantly, through the improvement of tools, designers can use 3D thinking mode to complete architectural design. At the same time, it also enables owners and end users to really get rid of the limitations of technical barriers and know what their investment can get at any time.


Vi. collaborative design

Collaborative design is a new way of architectural design. It can make designers of different specialties in different geographical locations work together through the network. The existing collaborative design is mainly based on the CAD platform. The general file format of CAD is only the description of graphics, and it can't load additional information.

BIM makes collaboration no longer a simple document reference. BIM Technology provides the underlying support for collaborative design and greatly improves the technical content of collaborative design. With the technical advantages of BIM, the scope of collaboration also extends from the simple design stage to the whole life cycle of the building, which requires the collective participation of planning, design, construction, operation and other parties, so it has a broader significance and brings a significant increase in comprehensive benefits.