Participants in the building process are constantly challenged to deliver successful projects despite tight budgets, limited manpower, accelerated schedules, and limited or conflicting information. The significant disciplines such as architectural, structural and MEP designs should be well coordinated, as two things can’t take place at the same place and time. Building Information Modeling aids in collision detection at the initial stage, identifying the exact location of discrepancies.
The BIM concept envisages virtual construction of a facility prior to its actual physical construction, to reduce uncertainty, improve safety, work out problems, and simulate and analyze potential impacts.
- Sub-contractors from every trade can input critical information into the model before beginning construction, with opportunities to pre-fabricate or pre-assemble some systems off-site.
- Waste can be minimized on-site, and products delivered on a just-in-time basis rather than being stock-piled on-site.
- Quantities and shared properties of materials can be extracted easily.
- Scopes of work can be isolated and defined.
- Systems, assemblies and sequences can be shown in a relative scale with the entire facility or group of facilities.
BIM also prevents errors by enabling conflict or 'clash detection' whereby the computer model visually highlights to the team where parts of the building (e.g.:structural frame and building services pipes or ducts) may wrongly intersect.
