Why the FISH do we need BIM?

Why BIM is essential? Why does BIM matter? What are the advantages adapting BIM? these three are the questions that I still get from the near and dears and also some of my Social media connections. We may progress on the advance levels of utilizing BIM as we have been using it for the past 5 to 6 years now, but there are still a majority of AEC Professionals who haven’t explored the BIM platform. Keeping all this in mind today I started out to jot down some macro level points that are essential for using BIM in a way everyone can understand.

While the whole brainstorming of generating a workflow, I concluded towards having 3 stages.

And some how the overall shape of the workflow took a shape of “FISH”. HAHAHAHAHA…… its quite a fun way to have it this way. It might become easier to remember as a whole too.

So, the three stages are:

1.    Stage 01- Defining types of work

2.    Stage 02- Set of issues to streamline the work

3.    Stage 03- The list required to track the progress

We will be going right to left in direction for the flow chart to follow.

Stage 01:

Here at a macro level there seem to be 6 steps that are essential and key for successful commencing of any project, i.e.:

·      Visualization

·      Documentation

·      Content development

·      Virtual tour strategies

·      Verification

·      Detail developments

VISUALIZATION

Now here this term not only means the general renders that are not accumulating the calculations of a building. Under this section you will have to branch out teams working on the concept, materials, typology, social and economy study, local by-laws. To put it in a terminology, it will be more of a “Construction Visualization strategy” where you are not only stuck with philosophies but also the practical aspects.

DOCUMENTATION

Now in this the term itself should be clear enough as an explanation. Documentation for the concept, inception and ideas to the fabrication details and good for construction drawings will all matter. And linking all these to used till the finishing of the project is where you will have to be careful about.

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

Here this development will define the processed information that tis required after you have identified the typology for the project and the level of development you will working towards. With this you will eventually be moving towards having a booklet for the building which will tell its lifecycle story and continue documenting its details in the proper sequenced chapter that were decided. Eventually it becomes a fairytale (but in this case it’s all real) of itself for the building with all the information.

VIRTUAL TOUR STRATEGIES

Here the approach in integrating VR to the BIM models will give the opportunity to showcase the models to clients directly with all the proper materials and manufacturer details in a 1:1 scale view where the client experiences the BIM model itself so that they are not involved in the project with the design part but also the practical aspects too. This approach of incorporating the VR with BIM will let the client and working team be on the same page at all instances as the explanations will no more be just on the paper but on a 3d visual 1:1 scale view.

VERIFICATION

Now this shall not confuse anyone. this shall be pretty clear that with every step you proceed in the project you should be verifying and rechecking all the work.

DETAIL DEVELOPMENTS

With BIM the opportunity to explore all the details in the X Axis also opens up, which gives every individual involved in the project to understand the project aspects with all information and clear vision. Now this also tends let you foresee the amount of detailing that will start getting involved for the specific project and how well you can utilize and systematize the overall process.

The Required Intersections of all 6:

Now all these 6 functioning, please remember the project won’t be successful if all these 6 don’t intersect with each other at any given time. For each step to succeed all these will have to depend on one another and collaborate, coordinate, integrate, and sequence to give desired outputs to the clients whenever they ask for specific requirements.

Stage 02:

This is the central body of the whole function and the main reason why we trying to implement this “BIM” in the conventional way of construction. What BIM is actually doing is bring all the information on a single platform and is able to act as a solution provider to each and every issue that may rise for a project, and BIM also becomes an “Astrologer” for the project as its ability to Clash detect issues in the virtual world will help a lot. So BIM at macro level has 4 legs i.e.:

·      Integration

·      Coordination

·      Collaboration

·      Sequencing

With all the 4 legs firmly standing with the 6 bases to support their information input it becomes a given successful project.

Stage 03:

This stage is all about the estimation and calculation of all aspects involved in the project. At broader level you can divide them in 4 parts i.e.,

·      Time Management

·      Scheduling

·      Road maps

·      Quality assurance/ Quality check

While all the other steps from Stage 01 & 02 functioning at their own given moment these 4 sets will be functioning from the background to give them a guidance on set to complete and submit for the client to proceed on the practical front.

NOTE: Now some might ask why I haven’t given fins to my FISH BIM workflow. That is because fins can be the tools for the BIM but are never specific as every BIM user might have their own chosen software to use.

Article written by:

Biswajit Chakrabarty