BIM is the current star player in the construction industry. Although the technology has been around for about a decade, a lot of buzz has been created about BIM in the field for the past two years. We all know that it stands for building information modelling but what is BIM really? BIM is the process spanning the generation and management of the physical and functional information of a project. The output of the process are what we refer to as BIMs or building information models which are ultimately digital files that describe every aspect of the project and support decision-making throughout a project cycle. It has been thought that BIM is nothing more than 3D modelling but it actually involves more than that. BIM and the subsets of BIM systems and similar technologies feature more than just 3D (width, height, and depth) but may include further dimensions such as 4D (time), 5D (cost), and even 6D (as-built operation)
So, technically, what is building information modelling? This is the US National Building Information Model Standard Project Committee’s definition:
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition (NBIMS-US, 2016).
This Definition seems to be what the rest of the construction industry recognize across the globe (Smith, 2014). As mentioned earlier, BIM covers more than just geometry — it covers “spatial relationships, light analysis, geographic information, and quantities and properties of building components”.
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