What is BIM?
Building Information Modeling is a completely new & different way of procuring and managing a built asset. BIM is poised to become a bigger revolution in the transfer of construction information between parties than the advent of 2D CAD superceding the drawing board in the 1990’s.
The whole concept is based on the creation and subsequent sharing of structured data for use by all parties involved in the commission, design, build & operate process. The stakeholders work collaboratively through the creation & coordination of this structured data which mainly takes the form of BIMs (Building Information Models) but can be something as simple as a spreadsheet.
These BIMs are graphical (2D & 3D) and/or non graphical (specification, cost data etc), object orientated representations of the building/s and their surroundings. Different models can be selectively brought together (Federated) at any time and used to create, analyse and co-ordinate the design, simulate the construction process and enable more cost effective construction methods (e.g. off-site manufacture) and then finally, and probably most importantly, they can be used to manage the facility more efficiently throughout its whole life cycle from ‘cradle to grave’.
