CAD, Geospatial,3D and BIM Standards Converge

Now, in many ways, these media have converged, thanks to the flexibility of digital technology and rapid advances in CPUs, hard drives, networks, and personal mobile devices. Multimedia and multimode communication dominates culture, commerce and government.

In the geospatial industry, remote sensing, photogrammetry, GIS, CAD, AM/FM, navigation and spatial database management were once considered different vertical markets served by different technology providers. Now, there is an increasing desire – and market pressure – for geospatial technologies to converge. "Stovepipe" solutions (self-contained systems that communicate poorly with other systems) in the geospatial industry are seen as the legacy of the technologies' earlier inherent or proprietary limitations.

In the next few years, this convergence will have a major impact on professionals involved with infrastructure projects such as bridges and water systems. Infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance professionals need to share information. Beginning with the idea for a project and ending with the demolition team – or perhaps beyond that, with historians who will preserve the memory of the project – it is always the case that many people and organizations create, store and share information about a construction project and its site and surrounding geography.

In 2005, the European Commission's European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP) published a document titled "Challenging and Changing Europe's Built Environment – A vision for a sustainable and competitive construction sector by 2030". The report, prepared by members of the construction industry, states, "For Europe to face its major technological, economic and social challenges, we must be proactive in understanding and communicating within our sector…. An important task is to turn the sector around to becoming knowledge-based…. By improving the construction process, we hope to achieve reductions of up to 30% of lifecycle costs, 50% of delivery time and 50% of work-related accidents." In 2004, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) studied efficiency losses in the planning, design and construction of U.S. commercial and institutional buildings and industrial facilities. NIST found that, in 2002, the annual cost associated with inadequate interoperability among computer-aided design, engineering and software systems in the US was $15.8 billion. That's about 30% of overall cost.

Another European Commission funded project, the Open Information Environment for Knowledge-Based Collaborative Processes throughout the Lifecycle of a Building (InPro) program, is one of Europe's largest collaborative projects in construction-related research and development. The project is lead by five large European construction contractors in close cooperation with other stakeholders of the construction and IT industries, plus renowned research organisations and specialized consultants. The InPro website states, "The main objective of InPro is to "develop and establish a model-based and collaborative way of working in the early design phase, considering the whole life-cycle of a building." And, "The construction industry is standing before a major technology shift – from the tradi-tional 2-dimensional drawings to 3- dimensional Building Information Models (BIM). Advanced design, communication and simulation tools give us an opportunity to change the way we work in the industry, including open collaboration between stakeholders, design for increased energy efficiency, flexibility, constructability, comfort, etc."

ABOUT BIM

Though further research is important, BIM is well beyond the early research phase, and is coming into wide use. As explained by Andrew Pressman, FAIA in the Architectural Record, May 2007: "This is an exciting time to practice architecture. Architects and engineers seem to be able to design and construct almost anything they can imagine, and the data they use enables these buildings to be well managed by their owners. Architects, consultants, and owners are also working together more closely than ever. Integrated practice (IP) is the term that is being assigned to this collaborative process. IP is a meaningful response to the ongoing marketplace mandate for buildings that are faster to design and construct, at lower cost, as well as more sustainable and of higher quality than those built in the past. Building information modeling (BIM) is enabling – some say forcing – this information-sharing, integrated- practice culture to emerge." [https://archrecord.construction.com/practice/projDelivery/0705proj-1.asp] A BIM is a shared knowledge resource containing many different kinds of information about a building, such as site plan and imagery, CAD drawings, connections to subsurface infrastructure, building system and component specifications, tenant information, and building evacuation plans. BIM software can be used to create drawings and three-dimensional virtual models of buildings as well as schedules, budget estimates, and fabrication drawings. The BIM approach increasingly assumes Internet access to a wide variety of data and software services.

FIGHTING WASTE

Integrated practice and BIM are an industry response to waste. Globally, Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner and Operator (AECOO) community faces challenges because so many diverse players are involved and because it is difficult to bridge their different information systems. When a plumbing contractor, for example, discovers a design error that must be corrected by changing a building's floor plan, that change may impact other subcontractors. Not uncommonly, the effects of a change cascade wildly through schedules and budgets, resulting in substantial cost over-runs. With BIM, change proposals can be reviewed in terms of their implications, with streamlined vetting by multiple participants, potentially resulting in both better planning and fewer and less expensive mid-construction changes. That study focused on AEC (architecture, engineering and construction), but the needs of owners and operators also figure prominently in calculating the potential value of BIM. A 2004 study of office buildings, undertaken by the North American Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), found that over a 30-year period, initial building costs account for only two percent of total building costs,while operations and maintenance costs equal six percent and personnel costs equal 92 percent. (Fuller, S. and S.R. Petersen. (1995). Life-Cycle Costing Manual for the Federal Energy Management Program. NIST Handbook 135. National Institute of Standards and Technology.)

Energy costs and materials costs (which usually have a high "embedded energy" component) have risen since the time of that study (1995) and they will surely continue to rise because of supply and climate-mitigation constraints on fossil fuels. Thus there is high value in technology-assisted AEC business process innovations that reduce the percentage of wasted materials and energy and that help architects design for local climate and materials. BIM is intended to optimize the value of time spent by everyone involved in the initial building phase, optimize actual construction, and optimize operational costs by helping designers design buildings that require minimal maintenance and minimal inputs of energy and materials. This is critical to the local and global social imperative of sustainable prosperity.

LEVERAGING THE VALUE OF INFORMATION

The goal is not only to reduce waste, but to increase the value of information. The valued of information extends well beyond its original purpose, because, for almost any AEC or geospatial information, there are many likely or possible future uses as well as possible immediate secondary uses. Building information and geospatial information can support campus, neighborhood and broader urban planning requirements; improve delivery of services; assure adequate safety and security procedures; expedite permitting, plan line of sight communications, optimize wayfinding, support transportation and logistics, and improve customer awareness of and access to retail services.

Convergence of diverse information technologies is necessary to analyze, model, understand and deal with complex and critical issues such as analyzing emergency efficiency, air flow patterns or evaluating the costs and benefits associated with repurposing an older building. Analysts need to consider factors such as cost of future changes to mechanical systems (plumbing, electrical, HVAC etc.); projections of revenue with or without renovations; occupancy history and alternative marketing scenarios; codes, permits and licensing; and transportation and parking. All of these are possible when "virtual design and construction" can proceed with a rich set of data inputs.