Monday, December 5, 2011

ATM Machine, PIN Number.. BIM M#D$L

 

David Light has recently put together a nice little post on the use of the phrase “BIM Model” and its consequences as described by James Vandezande.

It’s a very timely example of the need to get our collective stories straight when it comes to industry terminology.

 

Enjoy.

Welcome to BIM Use

In my work at HOK I and a great many others are spending more and more time developing and reinforcing the language of BIM.

A key aspect of this is the term “BIM Use.”  Each BIM Use describes what a BIM is being used to do, or used for.

As example the BIM Use of  “Design Authoring” means that BIM is being used to create the Design, where “3D Coordination” implies that you have have a BIM that will be used for coordination.

There are some common ones that come to mind;

  • Programming
  • 3D Coordination (We like to call it “Model Based Coordination”)
  • Existing Conditions Modeling
  • Phase Planning
  • Many Others

The genesis of the term BIM Use comes from Penn State’s Computer Integrated Construction(CIC) Research Program, which developed the Project Execution Planning Guide

In the guide they developed and captured a number of BIM Uses outlined here.

At HOK have internally defined “BIM Certified” (Air Quotes) objectives that use these BIM Use terms as their basis. I’ll talk more about that later.

In upcoming posts I will use BIM Uses as a method of discussing important technology and processes that have both short and long term baring on the AECO space.  Some of the discussions will be very basic BIM Uses others you might not have thought about.  I hope you enjoy.

Regards,

Greg