ok, the big question:
What is BIM? And what is IPD?
BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modeling or Building Information Management. When the principles of BIM are broadened to include all aspects of a project, the process is known as IPD, or Integrated Product Delivery. When I discuss BIM, it's this farther-reaching approach that I'm referring to, since without making BIM the common thread running through a project, the true value and power of BIM is not being realized. These simple phrases represent considerable potential, but what do they really mean? This question has been tackled by many knowledgeable people, most of whom have more profound things to say than I do. You can look them up. What I want to address is the practical side – what does BIM mean to you, your staff and your company in its everyday application? I can tell you from my experience that the introduction of BIM has heralded a sea change unlike anything any of us has ever experienced. This date – when BIM arrived – has been bounced around so much that to give it any precision is nearly impossible, but let's say that prior to 10 years ago if you brought up the subject with a group of AEC specialists, you'd get a lot of puzzled looks. What we're seeing is a development that surpasses the shift the industry made in the late '80s and early '90s into CAD, which, from this perspective, looks like not much more than a glorified pencil, though admittedly a very powerful pencil. CAD drawings lack the underlying intelligence that BIM is all about.
With BIM, you can offer your clients an entirely new and powerful product, and not just a better version of what you've always offered them, but rather something entirely fresh, that, on its own, occupies a new, valuable platform on the AEC stage. The BIM database is the complete story of the building; you can think of it as a living, dynamic biography, a never-ending tale, written while the subject is growing, beginning at inception and constantly expanding through the building's design, construction and facilities management stages-of-life. BIM is allowing Architects, Engineers, Contractors and Owners a level of connectedness that many have dreamed about, but until very recently existed only in science fiction (but so did earth-orbiting satellites, cell phones and wall-mounted 80-inch TVs: who, at the time, other than a few visionary writers, thought these would someday be common-place?) BIM is science fiction no more, in fact, it's now on the verge of becoming common-place. This is why the urgency is on us in the AEC industry for coming up-to-speed, because now, through the proper application of BIM tools, we can not only effectively be the responsible citizens we want to be in this leaner, energy-efficiency-focused society, but so can our buildings.
the economies of BIM
Implementing of BIM principles and technologes in large and small projects has proven to lead to savings in time and cost. Figures of from 10% to 20% Total Project Savings are being reported.
the BIM Revolution
The computer representation of a building designed with BIM tools is no longer the collection of lines and other graphical devices it was in the pre-BIM era. It's now composed of objects – walls, floors, roofs, windows, doors, plumbing fixtures, etc. – that retain not only "knowledge" of themselves, but the knowledge of how they interact with each other – windows and doors cannot exist without a wall to "host" them, plumbing fixtures (or light fixtures, furniture, etc.) know how they relate to the objects they attach to, whether floors, walls or ceilings, and changes to a hosting object will have cascading effects on the objects it hosts - move a wall in the model and anything attached to it – doors, windows, fixtures – move with it, just as would happen in the real world. This behavior stems from the underlying intelligence, the connectedness, of the database that drives the BIM model and which can do much more than simply directing the behavior of objects: the BIM database is a rich resource that allows the mining of data, the defining of the phases of a building's construction, cost estimating and a growing list of more advanced uses, such as environmental impact analysis, compliance with LEED standards and assistance in designing MEP systems.
It's going to be quite a ride. Remember – try to have some fun along the way.
For more information on BIM, go to the GSA website, here. The National Institute of Building Sciences is another good source, here.