Issues with BIM
The unstoppable rise of BIM across Europe and the US is undeniable. But what about the problems?
In the UK, there are four principal software vendors within the BIM environment, all of which will be familiar to CAD users in their 2D guise. They are:
• Revit – Vendor AutoDesk
• Bentley Architecture – Vendor Bentley Systems
• ArchiCAD – Vendor Graphisoft
• Vectorworks – Vendor Nemetzchek
Each product has its strengths and a loyal following amongst its users.
Because of the diverse use of these projects, it is often the case that different consultants on the same project will be using different authoring tools for their BIM. Whilst there are viewing tools (Navisworks or Solibri for example) where different file types can be viewed or read in the same environment, the real problem lies in the interoperability (the ability for one piece of software to exchange information with another) between software products. And, because the essence of BIM is about exchanging structured data, not just between these four, but between the myriad of software packages used across all sectors of the construction industry, exporting data from one piece of software does not mean it will be imported into another without corruption or loss of data.
The potential here is for the whole point of sharing data to fall apart.