Drop the B in BIM. Clay Hickling, GHD. Class Description

Transcription

1 Class Description Don t let the B in BIM, ie the Building, limit your ideas on how to deliver non building related projects. Information Modelling (IM) covers more then just buildings. Large infrastructure projects like wastewater treatment plants or mines can take advantage of IM. This presentation will highlight some example projects and look at the advantages and limitations in applying BIM logic to them About the Speaker: Clay Hickling has been working with GHD for the past 14 years as a architectural and civil designer/documentor. GHD, being a multidiscipline Architecture and Engineering firm adopted Revit some 5-6 years ago. Clay is currently working with an internal development team coordinating the implementation of all the Revit flavours thru the various parts of the GHD business, his focus being Architecture. This entails training, development and technical support. With the motto of working smarter and not harder Clay enjoys sharing knowledge with others. Outside of this environment Clay spends as much time as he can on the golf course

2 Background I have been working with Revit in a BIM sense for some time undertaking numerous building related projects from an Architectural perspective. Combine this with working in a company that is multidisciplined spread across market sectors such as Water, Environment, Transportation, Properties and Buildings and Energy and Resources, I found there was a natural progression to apply the concept or the logic of BIM to many built environment projects that may or may not involve buildings. The session will highlight some areas where BIM could be applied but also to look at how BIM is marketed to these non-traditional building projects. What is BIM As we all would probably know BIM stands for Building Information Modelling. This session is not about to try to explain what BIM is or how it works as there is an assumption we have a fair idea of the logic behind BIM. It is more to highlight a concept that BIM does not need to limit itself to a building. Page 2 of 16

3 Quick english lesson The term BIM in itself rightly encompasses the process that it is trying to promote ie. modelling of geometry and information for a building. The Dilemma As much as BIM is entrenching itself within the Properties and Building market the term BIM is not widely recognised or understood by other parts of the built environment design and construction industries. Eg Mining or Infrastructure sectors. Although the BIM concept may have emanated in the Properties and Buildings business group of GHD, other related business groups are embracing the value of BIM for its clients and self. To that end these other parts of the business are being actively educated on the concepts of BIM. The dilemma that we as the company promoters of BIM faced was this immediate glazing over when we lead with the term Building. We don t do Buildings seemed to be a common comment. In an attempt to move past this nomenclature issue I find that a subtle change in wording of the BIM meaning might have a more receptive outcome. So, BIM = Building Information Modelling or Building Information Model In both examples the Building is the noun. But if, bim = building an Information Model, where building is the verb then we can start to engage with a little less bias to those market sectors that might be hung up on an Architect sprouting from the rooftops the value of Building Information Modelling. The thought also crosses ones mind to drop the term Building altogether and call it Information Modelling. As much as this is a sound idea it is interesting to note that Information Modelling is also a process within the IT industry for developing software systems where terms such as object-orientated and Architect seem to be used. So maybe this is not such a bad idea after all. Page 3 of 16

4 But in the end BIM is so entrenched as the acronym which encompasses the process the thought of trying to have and confuse people with another acronym does not seem worth the effort. So will BIM or bim be here for ever. I think not. Some other acronym or method will come along to provide even more value and efficiency to the delivery of built environment projects, or, BIM will be the norm and it won t be such a hot topic as everyone will be used to being involved in a BIM environment. So what might a bim project be? Properties and Buildings Typcial Buildings and associated works Urban planning (CIM) Transportation Infrastructure projects Bridges Underground services Roads, Rail, Marine Energy and Resources Process Plants Mining, Oil and Gas Water Treatment Plants Water, Wastewater Environment GIS and Mapping Emergency Management Page 4 of 16

5 Examples Urban Planning Greater Springwood Masterplan City Information Model DESIGN / DIAGNOSTICS Previous work had been undertaken on what one might call low-doc platforms such as google map, corel draw, photoshop and sketch up. Building on the concept of BIM and working in both GIS and Revit, including toggling data between the two platforms, we utilised its TOD Performance Model to test certain assumptions regarding investment in pedestrian realm circulation and secondary transit streets. Coined as City Information Modelling (CIM). Page 5 of 16

6 Transport Not all information models need to be 3D or have geometry. Most transport models traditionally have been numbers, tables, reports, traffic counts etc. These days transport models can have real social behaviour informing the movement of pedestrians or vehicles. Put that information into a visual context and we start to communicate and validate the environment we are designing. Input social behaviour to simulate design traffic (VISSIM software) Page 6 of 16

7 Rail Rail design and for that matter road design has been undertaken as a model for sometime. Be it strings with known vertical elevation and horizontal alignment or actual intelligent objects that know how to react with others.. hmm sounds like the makings of BIM to me but is it BIM to that industry Add to this an formation model of a structure (building) and we start to have a more informed design to aid the project. Marine Page 7 of 16

8 Bridges Bridge incorporating a MX rail model, an approach road 12D civil model and a Revit modelled bridge Cutaway of a bridge bearing who said engineers shouldn t render May look like a simple model but it delivers the information sought by the bridge engineers and contractors Page 8 of 16

9 Treatment Plants You will probably find the design of most heavy industry process plant is already being done in at least a 3D model and you may even find that information is attached to geometry.hmm sounds like the makings of BIM to me but is it BIM to that industry Most of the digital models produced by these industries can be read into Navisworks. Will be interesting to see how Autodesk Plant3D handles this. Page 9 of 16

10 Environment GIS (Geographical Information Systems) are used for a number of environmental analysis. My take on GIS is basically BIM over a larger area. So the concept to merge GIS and BIM data is logical but with some technical challenges. Software such as Autodesk LandXplorer (Project Galileo) should assist with this. Air Quality DESIGN / DIAGNOSTICS Overlay of datasets such as air quality Page 10 of 16

11 Energy Whether it be above ground or not a number of design industries are creating intelligent models, it is just a matter of how they all go together in the scheme of a wider project Underground mine(courtesy VRSpace) Materials Handling Finite element analysis of structure part of a larger assembly Page 11 of 16

12 Case Study Mine Infrastructure Project Page 12 of 16

13 Softwares Traditionally a project like this would have been done using a variety of 2D and 3D softwares. The design 3D models would then be flattened as to produce the traditional 2D documentation. Knowing we had all of these potential digital models and with the knowledge we had gained from attempting BIM on buildings it was decided to innovate a BIM approach so that the disperse design models that were produced were not jettisoned from the design process. - Buildings were produced through Revit - Roads were developed in 12D - Rail was developed in MXrail - Solidworks was used to model the materials handling equipment - and to aggregate all of these disperse models together we used Navisworks. Benefits and Limitations Benefits - By having an aggregated model of the whole of project we are able to have better stakeholder engagement as they are seeing the whole project not just a small portion or just one particular aspect. As much as we can have superior information models for the buildings you want to be able to show that in context with the wider project. - Improvement of the review process by having an integrated project model reviews such as HAZIDs (hazard identification) was a much more streamlined affair as a team of experts don t need to pour over hundreds of 2D drawings produced from disparate softwares when all they need to do is navigate them thru an integrated design model. - With the introduction of smarter and obtainable facilities and asset management tools like Artra or FM Systems the already information rich models can go to the next level and either be informed or inform other models or processes. I see this as the portal to the information explosion. Page 13 of 16

14 Limitations - By its own nature the use of disperse softwares is an issue. Utilising digital information models introduces you to a variety of software outputs or databases that don t typically communicate to each other. - As much as the wholly grail of bim is a seamless two way sharing of data I do not see that happening to the satisfaction of all concerned. There will always be something that cannot be shared or plugged into the IM. But just because it is not interoperable does that mean it is not bim? - File size of all these datasets is always an issue but software like Navisworks or Projectwise and Landexplorer (Project Gallileo) are able to handle these quite efficiently. - Buy in from all parties which is no different to BIM buyin on a traditional building project Page 14 of 16

15 So what next Any built environment project can benefit from applying BIM logic. You may be surprised the richness of models and data that are already available in the non building world. A large number of projects that we do at GHD involve many other sectors other then Properties and Buildings. This allows as to engage with those parties to see how we can integrate our services and the digital model deliverables that we had all already been producing. So yes I may have bored you with projects that don t have amazing renders or curved glass roofs but what I believe is we as building professionals can engage with other consultants and stakeholders in non building projects to see what it is they have and do. This may open opportunities to work on a variety of projects that you would have never thought possible. You may even be able to manoeuvre your services into a non building project based on the sale of your current BIM mindset. Eg architects should be good design managers, therefore good integration managers, therefore good model managers and therefore can have a role in applying IM logic to a non building related project. The amount of information that is out there readily available is staggering, it is just a matter of the right people realising what they have and how to bring it all together. If we don t use this information someone else will. it s about connecting every part of America to the digital age.it s about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building (or tunnel or oil rig) onto a handheld device Barack Obama Page 15 of 16

16 Hope to see you all next year at RTC. Page 16 of 16