BIM.......
holy confusion batman!
We have just recently returned from the AIA
conference in Boston and our CADdetails booth
location, in the heart of the technology pavilion,
provided us with a unique opportunity to see and
hear how the "Big Three" are selling BIM. By the Big
Three we are referring to Autodesk, Graphisoft and
Nemetschek and their software Revit, Archicad and
Vectorworks respectively.
Each of these
companies have adopted the same approach that
describes BIM as the development of a CAD model with
all of the building information contained within the
the project component of the software. The general
message to the Architect was "the industry is moving
at lightning speed to this new design approach and
the time is now to adopt one of these software
platforms or you'll be left behind!
First of all we
don't believe this to be the case and furthermore
this kind of approach is recreating the whole
VHS/Beta dilemma, this time in the AEC industry with
3 options to choose from.
Clearly, from our
conversations with architects, the jury is still out
on which format to adopt and as they explore these
programs they are finding that the decision doesn't
end with the functionality of the software.
Architects are also looking at the content
aggregators for these programs and finding more
often than not the models are just plain bad.
Our
recommendation, first to the manufacturer is to
build your BIM models so that they will adapt to any
platform and take into consideration the good work
being done by "BuildingSMART" in the Netherlands.
They propose that BIM models use a standardized
nomenclature and format (IFC) so design programs can
have true interoperability between software vendors.
Buildsmart insists this will yield the best ROI on
your investment in the long run.
For the
Architect, choose the system you can get the best
support from. There is a big learning curve here and
the potential for lots of third party add-ons so
make sure you are comfortable with the companies
customer support programs and content aggregators.
History has a way of repeating itself.
Another company
entering the BIM marketplace is ADS (Architectural
Data Systems). This company believes that BIM is the
combination of the CAD model and the Data model
working togther to provide architects with networked
environment that contains the project data outside
the CAD program. This concept gets rid of the
VHS/Beta dilemma and allows the Architect and the
subs to select any of the big 3 as a CAD platform.
Check out these
links.
www.ads-aec.com
seek.autodesk.com
www.nemetschek.net
www.graphisoft.com
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