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T E C H N O L O G Y
Can your BIM be better? BIM has improved coordination and productivity immeasurably for firms in the AE industry, but the technology still has room to improve.
BY LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
says that an increased compatibility between BIM applications or platforms and the transfer of infor- mation within BIM would improve its use. “It would be ideal to have the ability to add more information for the owner’s future use without in- cluding it in construction documents, which ulti- mately slows down the use of BIM. If the speed of the applications was improved, more information could be added,” Ritchie says. HOW IS BIM BEING USED? Currently, RTM is serving as a liaison between the general contractor and the me- chanical, electrical, and plumbing subcontractor for a new construction project on a higher education campus. As an engineering-based project manager, RTM is working under the general contractor’s um- brella and is providing BIM management on-site. Its scope of work entails analyzing the model to determine which MEP components are going to work,in terms of constructability, and providing conflict resolution to solve any issues.
B y definition, building information modeling should have flawless and smooth data flow from one discipline to another and from one model to another, yet designers, engineers, and modelers still face challenges with integrating information in a streamlined process. Hisham Odish, BIM manager at RTM (South Bar- rington, IL), a 100-person engineering consult- ing firm, says that although the intended process of BIM is solid, a gap still exists among disciplines that makes it challenging to coordinate project data in an efficient and simplified way. “BIM has elevated coordination and productivity to a level that did not exist in the industry before its conception, but bridging the gaps among disci- plines and eliminating duplicate efforts would im- prove its use,” he says. Rachel Ritchie, director of design technology at Lit- tle (Durham, NC) – a 330-person integrated archi- tecture, engineering, and land development firm –
See BIM, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 5, 2015, ISSUE 1122
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