We Are Missing the Point of BIM!
Shaun Hughes
Helping building product manufacturers increase specifications/sales through BIM content
Am I reading this graph correctly? It appeared in the 2018 AIA Firm Report listing data on BIM adoption across the U.S. architectural industry. Before I’d read these statistics, I’d expected to see an increase in these numbers – it is what I’m seeing in the field as a representative for GRAPHISOFT in North America. More firms have made the transition to BIM of some sort, although as a whole, we are still a long way from full industry-wide adoption.
According to the survey results, overall BIM adoption increased from 40% to 45% of all firms. That is still less than half. Among that percentage, the survey breakdown looks like this:
- Large Firms (50+ employees) = 93% (down from 96% in 2015)
- Midsize Firms (11 to 49 employees) = 75% (up from 72% in 2015)
- Small Firms (1 to 10 employees) = 34% (up from 28% in 2015)
Note that the largest jump in overall BIM adoption happened in small firms with a slight uptick at midsized firms.
It is interesting to see that the purpose for which firms are using BIM is quite varied. According to the survey (and the graph above), the predominant use of BIM is for Design Visualization (88%) and Presentations/Renderings (85%). Only ? of the firms in the survey use BIM to generate Construction Drawings and only 69% use BIM for coordination with consultants!
WE ARE MISSING THE POINT OF BIM!
A true BIM workflow will improve the design, coordination, documentation, estimation, construction and facility management processes. By using a design-friendly BIM tool (like #ARCHICAD), early conceptual design can happen in the software and progress as the project takes shape, adjusting for changes and delivering all documentation.
According to the survey, less than half of all firms using BIM use it to engage in any sort of clash detection, model sharing with contractors or quantity takeoff/estimation process. While not always applicable to all projects, the information is there to be leveraged, so why not use it to make a better building?
When is BIM Not BIM?
Then there are the firms that think they’re doing BIM, when they’re not, actually. Many firms may consider SketchUp as a BIM tool. At best, SketchUp is biM (with a small b and a really small i). But we all know SketchUp is an easy design tool, while some BIM tools are not so design-friendly (you know which one I'm referring to, don't you!). So, firms use "BIM" (aka SketchUp) for design visualization, presentations and renderings and then generate CD's in 2D CAD. WHAAAAT?!
Actually, that workflow, or something similar, is more common than you realize. I know of many architectural firms who use multiple tools throughout the project design/documentation process. Even many of the firms that are utilizing BIM for CD's are starting the design process in something else, such as SketchUp, Rhino or FormIt. They then re-model the project in their BIM tool for coordination and documentation, essentially doing the work twice and missing the benefits of early coordination that a true BIM design workflow provides!
This unnecessary juggling of multiple tools throughout the design, presentation and documentation of building projects is costing architectural firms precious time and money. Time lost in re-working/duplication of effort and money in lost hours and additional software costs.
So, while the industry is heading in the right direction, we still have a long way to go to realize the various benefits of a true BIM design workflow. Let's do #betterBIM instead ... like these firms - https://bydesign.graphisoftus.com/seasons/season-2/firm-choices/ ... who's with me?
#betterBIM #openBIM #bim #architecture #AIA #graphisoft #archicad #designinyourbimtool
3D Interior/Exterior Visualizer – cgistudio.com.ua
2 年Shaun, ??
Sr. Product Manager at dRofus #DYNWYNI
5 年I completely agree with you Shaun! We are finding that when planning is part of the process (considering this the "I" in BIM before there is a "BIM", our clients are saving 50% of the time spent on program validation during the early design stages and they save time on rework/changes because they confirmed the planning effort BEFORE they went too far in the design effort. Allowing for a flexible change management process to support during design is also key. Testing scenarios before the model is modified allows a team to explore the possibilities using the information they know. In an ideal world, users would start with the programming information, integrate that with the modeling workflow, and pull modeling data back into the same space the programming information start from completing the loop. AND, at the same time, they are gaining the added benefit of the 3D (low hanging fruit) to render and coordinate. I would love to see more "I" value proposed in a BIM workflow. Talking about modeling to create renderings is kinda 15 years ago. Learning from the model to make informed decisions is more powerful. I would love to have seen in your graph from the AIA a spike in energy performance because it too is older than 15 years and we were doing that back them as well. For those of your followers already using Archicad, they should explore our integration for the workflows I am talking about. Using dRofus first and linking to an Archicad model is adding fuel to an already burning fire. Thanks again for sharing!
Lead Cost Engineer MEP
5 年Santiago Hernandez Ramos, Raziel Baruch Rodriguez P., Iago López, what do you thing team?, will we jump to better BIM?
Co-founder at The BIM Crowd
5 年Great post Shaun, I have made similar observations since coming to Europe 5 years ago after working for myself in NZ for 20 years. I had assumed I would be coming into an environment that was pushing the envelope with plenty of architects who knew what they were doing and the best ways of doing it. The reality has been far from that and I have found that I am actually the BIM evangelist spreading the word amongst those I work with. I have tried many times to work out where it has all gone wrong and why so many don’t seem to get the full BIM picture but so far haven’t quite been able to pin point it. One thing I am sure of though is the “Revit” workaround mentality plays a huge part in the problem with many designers schooled primarily in Revit refusing to accept that BIM can actually be as easy as it can be in ArchiCAD, thus consequently making everything so complicated that the benefits are negated making BIM seem like some huge expense rather than a cost saving tool. Designers here also seem to talk about “drawings” all the time rather than “the model” and still don’t seem to realise (after many years of using ArchiCAD) that if you model well you don’t need to really think too much about the “drawings”...
Founding Partner & Director @ Enzyme APD
5 年Excellent point and in my opinion the real problem of the industry. There is not a real adoption of BIM. Not real workflow that takes all the advantages of a BIM workflow. Companies re-do the work in BIM and ask their client to pay for it. Is like an additional service. Abortive work is too high in this way of using BIM tools. Very few professionals are truly making the jump of going from Sketch in Paper to a Virtual model. They prefer to do the whole job using 2D and 3 D disconnected methods, accumulate mistakes and then fixing them by reworking the whole project. Our industry is really left behind in terms of efficiency. We should do better than this. Is our responsibility to be efficient. Is the key to better projects, processes and more sustainable construction. Thanks for sharing