Review of Current Estimating Capabilities of the 3d Building Information Model Software to Support Design for Production/Construction

Farah, Toni E

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Review of Current Estimating Capabilities of the 3d Building Information Model Software to Support Design for Production/Construction

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The fragmented environment in the construction industry has a big influence on production. The multi-disciplinary nature of the project development process imposes the need for clear communications and team effort coordination. Information Technology (IT) has been playing a tremendous role in facilitating this process. The most recent contribution of IT in this regard is the Building Information Model (BIM). It is clear that BIM technology improves the design drawings productivity; drawings are automatically coordinated in all views from plans, to sections, to elevations, to details and to perspectives. It also provides an innovative way of scheduling through by allowing a 3D visualization of the construction progress. But, there are still many technical issues that still need to be addressed before this technology is fully adopted by the industry. For example, what are the files formats that BIM supports? What is the needed knowledge for best use of BIM? How does BIM integrate with the estimating discipline? Where does BIM store the building data? What are the codes that are shown in the automatically generated ""quantity take-offs"" schedules? This research attempts to provide answers to these questions and explores possible ways to link different coding systems within the BIM platform itself. After reviewing the basic design concepts from the conceptual to the construction stages and how it is related to the different project delivery ways, this work illustrates the role of different work breakdown structures (WBS) in the life cycle of estimating discipline from the preliminary to the detailed stage. The research reviewed the different database designs and structures, the database management systems (DBMS), as well as the database organization systems. This review draws a picture on how information system (IS) and its tools support the different needs of the multiple players involved in a construction project. The focus was on the object oriented database and building information model (BIM) software, and how it integrates with other estimating and project planning software. The findings seem promising, but before BIM technology can reshape the construction industry, it is still necessary to conduct additional experimental work as the software continues to evolve and becomes mature.

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