Friday 26 September 2014

BIM Book Author

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” - Douglas Adams

I jest, I'm really excited about writing the BIM book for Landscape. The problem isn't the writing, the problem is finding the right people to talk to. Too many of the BIM books that I've read haven't engaged with the people that the book affects. Therefore, I have made it my mission to get in front of as many main contractors, civil engineers, geotechnical engineers, ecologists, arborists... the list goes on.

I'm also trying to find case studies for the book. I expect to beating them off with a stick. We will see.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

BIM Level 2... I can tell you what it is!!

There has been a lot of handwringing, heavy frowns and hairs that were once full of colour falling out or going grey over the UK Government Construction Strategy's requirement for meeting BIM level 2 by 2016. There was good reason for that. The definition of level 2 originally looked like this:
"Managed 3D environment held in separate discipline “BIM” tools with attached data"
Which is a problematic definition in several key ways. It's vague at best for starters... it's also quite prescriptive. So the worst of both worlds then. Highly open to interpretation on one hand, and restrictive by making quite clear requirements on the other.

Okay, so that needs explaining.
Reasons it's vague
What's a "BIM" tool? There are currently 550 definitions of BIM according to the BIM USE Ontology by Ralph Kreider. So that really doesn't help.
Attached data. What's that? What data is that? Who is it for, are they expected to be able to use it outside of the discipline. How is it attached? Is it linked, federated, associated, what what what?!!?

Reasons it's Prescriptive
A Managed 3D environment. A managed environment is one thing, where all information is brought together digitally. You can do that without compatibility issues because you don't try to view the information simultaneously. However, a managed 3D environment implies that you can visualise all geometry regardless of its origin. This is practicable easily within Architecture. It is possible for infrastructure designs. For everything else, less so.


Instead of this difficult to work definition... now we have the SEVEN PILLARS OF BIM WISDOM!.
These are:

1.    PAS 1192-2:2013                     - How to digitally manage a project
2.    PAS 1192-3:2014                     - How to digitally manage a facility
3.    BS 1192-4                                 - How to effectively share information digitally
4.    BIM Protocol                            - The legal underpinning of BIM
5.    Government Soft Landings      - Ongoing support from designers post completion
6.    Digital Plan of Work                - a unified plan of work that spans all disciplines
7.    Classification                            - What is classified as what

It is worth noting that 3 has, I have heard, been rushed through public consultation and at the time of writing the digital plan of work and the classification systems are undergoing development.
However, having studied these emerging standards in detail I am confident that they are much more fit for purpose than a single vague and prescriptive sentence.


For the post that inspired me:
 http://blogs.bsria.co.uk/2014/06/18/the-seven-pillars-of-bim-wisdom/