Building Information Modelling for Dummies

BIM for Dummies

I received a complimentary copy of Building Information Modelling for Dummies last week. This is the latest BIM title to hit the internet bookshops in time for Christmas.

Written by NBS experts Stefan Mordue and Paul Swaddle alongside UK Government's Head of BIM Dave Philp it is fantastic to see this title published as part of the world-famous Riley 'For Dummies' series.

The book weighs in almost 400 pages and is split into six main parts. The first part looks at how to get started with BIM, in particular defining what BIM is. The authors stress the importance of the information - without which a model is simply 3D geometry. This publication has an international audience, but it is nice to see that so many of the examples used within the book come from a UK background. In the second part of the book that looks at the foundations for BIM, the levels of maturity that were originally mapped out by Bew and Richards are explained.

The authors

In part three of the book practical advice is given in terms of defining a process around BIM that works for the type of organisation that the reader may represent. One thing that is nice in terms of how the book is presented is the iconography against the paragraphs that highlight where the content is presenting a 'Tip', a 'Warning', 'Something to Remember' etc... For example in the section on standardising your BIM approach, there are a number of nicely written tips on what parameters to include in your objects.

Part four looks at some real-world benefits of the working within a BIM environment. Again, it is nice to see the UK's recent experience being used as examples with the early adopter Cookham Wood case study being presented. Part five then takes an opportunity to look at where the digitalising of the construction industry will next take us. The point is made that organisations need to invest in R&D to keep on moving forward. Organisations need to keep an eye on emerging capabilities such as big data, telemetry and the cloud. These will enable us to start measuring real-world performance enhancements and better outcomes that are tangible. In the coming years the aim will not be simply digitalising a single built-asset but how that built-asset is performing as part of a smart-city.

The final part of the book looks at some nice little 'lists of 10' - perhaps designed for those who like to flick through a book from the back pages first. There are lists of the top 10 BIM questions and answers, the top 10 BIM software considerations and the top 10 BIM resources. One of these resources is social media and it's is very nice indeed to see a mention of this blog at the bottom of page 343 :)

A mention!

Reflecting back on this publication and the recent NBS publication The BIM Management Handbook, neither will give you 100% of the answers to all of the BIM questions. But what they will do is provide an excellent well-structured framework to provide a base for your detailed research and allow you to do some quality thinking time whilst reading through the topics.

To put an order for the book please check out the link below:
- http://www.ribabookshops.com/item/building-information-modeling-for-dummies/85686/

To see my blog review of The BIM Management Handbook see:
- http://constructioncode.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-bim-management-handbook.html

The BIM Management Handbook

New NBS publication

Today I received a complimentary copy of the BIM Management Handbook, authored by David Shepherd and published by NBS.

The first few chapters looks at the how a professional consultant can support and respond to the client to ensure that their needs are met. Clients will have information needs to answer their business requirements through the process of designing, building and operating a facility. David looks at how through the development of employer's information requirements and BIM execution plans the project can get off to the best possible start. There is also a chance to reflect on the processes, tools and skills that need to be developed across a practice to ensure that there is a capability and support to deliver efficiently against the client's needs.

The UK BIM Task Group levels of BIM maturity are then explained with a practical guide to how to deliver Level-2 BIM projects. There is also an examination of the UK's Build Digital Britain plan on how this journey will continue.

David Shepherd

David is BIM Manager at Lend Lease and was previously BIM Manager at HOK London and this experience shows as he gives practical advice on the coordination of models and also how to collaborate effectively in a common data environment. There are lots of examples and illustrations from models and also outputs from these models taken from real projects.

Finally, there is a good section on the use of standardised information and also the key principles of levels of detail (LOD) and levels of information (LOI). It's good to see references here to the huge amount of free online support here from NBS including the NBS BIM Object Standard, the National BIM Library and also the library of 1000s of LOD and LOI definitions that are part of BIM Toolkit.

So, an essential purchase for any office to place in the library or tea room - or an ideal Xmas present for those wanting a chance to reflect on their BIM processes and capabilities over the festive period ;). Also, a final thank you to David for the nice mention in the acknowledgement - a little humbling to be mentioned in the company of the other names listed here...

Thanks for the mention!

To put in an order for this book, please follow the link below to RIBA Bookshops...
- http://www.ribabookshops.com/item/bim-management-handbook/83973/

Finally, check out my blog over the next week or two to look out for a short review of the other big BIM publication BIM for Dummies when I manage to get my hands on a copy. NBS also had a big hand in this one with Stefan Mordue and Paul Swaddle working alongside BIM Task Group's Dave Philp as the authors.

Update - find this blog review here:
- http://constructioncode.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/building-information-modelling-for.html

A model of a Gherkin

Currently in the entrance to the RIBA is the original physical design model of 30 St Mary Axe (aka The Gherkin). If you are in London and are around and about 66 Portland Place, it's well worth a quick visit...

Sitting in front of the names of the past presidents

Amazing attention to detail for a model

Also on until 9th January is the Palladian Design exhibition.

Palladian design model

Digital change - funny gif

Spotted this one over the weekend...

BSI BIM Conference – BIM Toolkit – Post 3 of 3 – Digital Plans of Work

Following a six week prototyping phase, a six month funded development phase and then five months of industry testing and further enhancements it was really good to be able to remove the ‘beta’ logo from the homepage of the BIM Toolkit in time for the 2015 BSI BIM Conference this year.

The removal of the ‘beta’ logo doesn't mean that the toolkit journey is at an end - but it is a sign that all of the functionality is working correctly and that it is ‘release quality’.

At the BSI BIM conference I presented three of the main concepts behind the BIM Toolkit: Classification; Levels of Definition and Digital Plans of Work. I have written three short blog posts to go through these slides as an introduction to these. This third blog post is on digital plans of work.

A digital plan of work allows a collaborative project team to define who is doing what and when throughout the project timeline. The PAS1192-2 graphic below shows how information is developed throughout the eight stages of a construction project. Using the digital plan of work tool within the BIM Toolkit provides a structured way of generating some of the key information that is required for documentation such as the EIR, the BEP and the MIDP.

The information delivery cycle

The slides below show how the free-to-use BIM Toolkit can assist project teams that would like to work to level-2 BIM.

Sign up and access your projects area of the site

Defining the tasks for inclusion in an EIR

Referencing the PLQ, the specific EIR and providing a brief against the task

Developing the response for inclusion in the proposed BEP

Defining modelled deliverables and responsibilities at the briefing stage

Defining the high-level building fabric elements at the concept stage

Defining the high-level building services at the concept stage

Defining the specific systems to meet the concept requirements as the designs progress

 Accessing the LOD guidance from the context of the DPOW

Accessing the LOI guidance from the context of the DPOW

Each LOD and LOI banding is broadly aligned against a typical stage of the plan of work. So LOI-4 is typical for the end of plan of work stage 4. However, it must be stressed that this may vary from system to system and from project to project. For example on a leisure centre project at stage 4:

Variation of LOI at a particular stage of a project

• The floating floor system may be at LOI-5 where all products are fully specified through the manufacturer product references. For example, this is a centre for excellence for gymnastics and the client must have a specific floor from the manufacturer Harlequin.
• The partition systems may be at LOI-4 where all products are fully designed, but the choice of manufacturer has been left to the contractor – providing the specification is met.
• The surveillance system may be at LOI-3 where the overall system performance and how this will be tested prior to handover has been specified. But the choice of compliant products is the design responsibility of the specialist sub-contractor.
• The paving system simply has an LOI of ‘2’. A brief description indicates what the aspirations are and what provisional sum has been assigned to the item in order to fully specify mid-way through the construction process.

Summary slide

An example digital plan of work that I used for these illustrations may be downloaded below. Disclaimer - Please excuse any technical inaccuracies, please treat it as simply showing the principles. The download has an MS Excel version of the file, a little thumbnail image and also a .DPOW file which can be imported into the BIM Toolkit when you create a project.

- Download the Lakeside Restaurant DPOW file

Step 1 - Select to create a new project, then select to use a template

Browse to the DPOW file to import this project file

Further information:

• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/an-introduction-to-the-toolkit - My article introducing the BIM Toolkit
• Post 1 of 3 - Classification
• Post 2 of 3 – Levels of Definition

BSI BIM Conference – BIM Toolkit – Post 2 of 3 – Levels of Definition

Following a six week prototyping phase, a six month funded development phase and then five months of industry testing and further enhancements it was really good to be able to remove the ‘beta’ logo from the homepage of the BIM Toolkit in time for the 2015 BSI BIM Conference this year.

The removal of the ‘beta’ logo doesn't mean that the toolkit journey is at an end - but it is a sign that all of the functionality is working correctly and that it is ‘release quality’.

At the BSI BIM conference I presented three of the main concepts behind the BIM Toolkit: Classification; Levels of Definition and Digital Plans of Work. I have written three short blog posts to go through these slides as an introduction to these. This second blog post is on levels of definition.

At the conference, I attempted to work through an analogy reflecting on how content for an event was developed. Three months before the conference the speakers would provide a description of their presentations. Two months before the conference they’d provide an outline of the proposed slide sequences. Nearing the conference date a final draft would be provided and then the actual presentation would be published as a record.

The incremental stages of putting together a presentation

This process provides just the right amount of information at the right time. It allows the client (the conference organiser) to have confidence that the content is progressing and to sell the event. It allows the team of speakers to share their intentions and align their messages. It is not onerous in terms of the demand for too much information too soon.

These principles apply also to the construction industry. These levels of definition can be split into ‘level of detail’ which relates to the geometric detail and ‘level of information’ which defines the information related to the model. The slides below illustrate this:

Technical Article from Alistair Kell BDP and Stefan Mordue NBS

Expected geometric development for building fabric and services examples

Expected information development for building fabric and services examples

Example LOD-2 illustration for a tunnel lining system

Example LOD-5 illustration for a tunnel lining system

Example LOI-3 illustration for a tunnel lining system

As part of the BIM Toolkit so far we have published around 500 sets of LOD illustrations and 5,700 sets of specific LOI definitions (and associated Microsoft Excel templates). All LOI information is available for free in a documented software API.

Summary slide

Further information:

• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/levels-of-definition - Article from Alistair Kell and Stefan Mordue on levels of definition.
• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/for-software-developers - BIM Toolkit software API
• Post 1 of 3 – Classification
• Post 3 of 3 – Digital Plans of Work

BSI BIM Conference – BIM Toolkit - Post 1 of 3 – Classification

Following a six week prototyping phase, a six month funded development phase and then five months of industry testing and further enhancements it was really good to be able to remove the ‘beta’ logo from the homepage of the BIM Toolkit in time for the 2015 BSI BIM Conference this year.

The removal of the ‘beta’ logo doesn't mean that the toolkit journey is at an end - but it is a sign that all of the functionality is working correctly and that it is ‘release quality’.

At the BSI BIM conference I presented three of the main concepts behind the BIM Toolkit: Classification; Levels of Definition and Digital Plans of Work. I have written three short blog posts to go through these slides as an introduction to these. This first blog post is on classification.

Before looking at classification in the construction industry it is worth looking at a world-leading web application like ebay. As a seller, it couldn't make it easier to classify the item you are selling. This allows ebay to gain valuable intelligence in terms of the millions of assets within its data store. It also allows potential customers to quickly find items they are interested in by filtering bases on specific properties. For example, a DVD has a ‘region’, a ‘length’, a list of ‘special features’; a t-shirt has a ‘size’, a ‘colour’, a ‘material’ etc…

Classification made easy by ebay

For the digital construction industry, a unified classification system is important for the same reasons. A part of the BIM Toolkit project we have accelerated the Uniclass developments and have now published a number of these tables. There is consistency between the tables and each table covers objects of the same scale. The slides below illustrate this:

Uniclass2015 – based on the ISO 12006-2 framework for classification

Technical Article from Sarah Delany, Head of Classification at NBS

An example ‘Complex’ is an ‘Airport’

An example ‘Location’ is an ‘Aircraft standing area’

An example ‘Element’ is a ‘Barrier’

An example ‘System’ is a ‘Jet blast deflection system’

An example ‘Product’ is a ‘Jet blast deflector’

As part of the BIM Toolkit so far we have published nearly 11,000 classifications. We believe that this is the first truly digitally classification system. You cannot buy it in a book or download it as a PDF. It is available only in digital form – query it online, download it in a spreadsheet/database or query it using the documented software API.

Summary slide

Further information:

• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/classification - Article from Sarah Delany on classification.
• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/for-software-developers - BIM Toolkit software API
• Post 2 of 3 – Levels of Definition
• Post 3 of 3 – Digital Plans of Work

London's most recent famous buildings

I was around the Tower Hill area in London yesterday for the BSI BIM conference. It was a beautiful clear day. Photographs from a few of London's most recent famous buildings below... impressive feats of engineering.