Managing BIM’s and projects
Once the principal of BIM has been adopted for a project and the various parties have fought (and lost) the argument for all members of the team to produce the BIM in their favorite authoring software; each will have agreed to stick to the product they know and love (warts and all). Even if the project team are working in the same software there is, unlike in 2D CAD, no margin for error or inconsistency in BIM. Accuracy in the models and structure and management of the process of producing the BIM is key.
BIM Protocols
The management of BIM’s and their production and co-ordination is not a simple matter. BS 1192 lays down the standards, however, as there is not, as yet, such a thing as truly collaborative BIM on a central model accessed by all parties, individual consultants work in their own environment which has described a new role, that of BIM Co-ordinator.
Once a Protocol for a Project has been agreed, it will be the role of the BIM Co-ordinator to manage the information produced by each member of the team and co-ordinate this, usually through a central and separate piece of software where all of the individual models can be merged and viewed as a whole, where ‘clash detection’ can be run, and information signed off as it is agreed.
There is no common standard yet for BIM Protocols, however standards are available from BIM Consultants (such as MetzBIM) which can be tailored to suit individual projects.