BIM_GainingMomentum

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Gordon V.R. Holness, P.E., is a consulting engi-

neer in Detroit. He is also treasurer on ASHRAEs

Board of Directors.

About the Author

28 A S H R A E J o u r n a l a s h r a e . o r g J u n e 2008

BIMGainingMomentumBy Gordon V.R. Holness, P.E., Fellow/Life Member ASHRAE

T

his article reviews recent developments in building information modeling

(BIM) and interoperability and the impact of this technology on ASHRAE.

Clearly, sustainability is a major focus of the Society through its 2006 Strategic

Plan and all subsequent developments: Vision 2020, Proposed Standard 189,

Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise

Residential Buildings, the Advanced Energy Design Guide series, etc. However,

paralleling these efforts is recognition that issues such as integrated building

design play a critical role if we, as an industry, are to succeed. Sustainability and

many other issues associated with building design, construction, commissioning,

and operation are interwoven and interdependent such that everyone involved with

buildings must work together if individual objectives are to be fully realized.

Building Information Modeling

BIM is the process o using intelligent

graphic and data modeling sotware to

create optimized and integrated building

design solutions, as dened by the 2007

ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Applica-

tions. More importantly to ASHRAE

members, BIM encompasses the use o

three-dimensional, real-time, intelligent

and dynamic modeling, and can be a

valuable tool in acilitating successul

coordination and collaboration. This is

critical to integrated building design

because it allows all interested parties to,

transparently and in real time, share, ap-ply and update inormation about build-

ings. ASHRAE can play a signicant role

in this eort, i it is prepared to commitresources and develop specic goals in

establishing basic HVAC terminology,data dictionaries, rule sets, and schema

or its Handbook and standards to sup-

port the building industry in electronic

data exchange.

The establishment o an ASHRAEBuilding Inormation Modeling and

Interoperability Steering Committee

under the Technology Council is an ex-

cellent start. It indicates recognition by

ASHRAE o the role technology can playin the development o better buildings(whether better is dened as sustainable,

more energy ecient, saer or less cost-

ly). As ASHRAE rolls out educational

programs, seminars, white papers, and

other publications on BIM, including aplanned ASHRAE BIM guide, it needs to

The ollowing article was published in ASHRAE Journal, June 2008. Copyright 2008 American Society o Heating, Rerigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented or educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or inpaper orm without permission o ASHRAE.


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J u n e 2008 A S H R A E J o u r n a l 29

be cognizant o the bigger picture: the potential impact o BIMon almost everything it does as a technical society, not just ontechnology associated with buildings, but the actual process o

design, construction, commissioning, and operation.

As discussed in this paper, a signicant amount o work is be-

ing done worldwide on sotware tool and protocol developments

by government agencies, nonprot and research organizations,

as well as commercial entities, to acilitate and promote BIMtechnology. Also discussed are developments in application

sotware. The good news is that many, i not most, o these

developments will provide greater interoperability.

Overview o BIM

BIM is the assembly oa single database o ully integratedand interoperable inormation that can be used seamlessly and

sequentially by all members o the design and construction team

and, ultimately, by owners/op-

erators throughout a acilitys liecycle. The desired result is a BIM

model where three-dimensional

(3D) graphical imaging carries

real-time (i.e., immediate and

dynamic access) data, and whereevery line and every object car-

ries real-lie intelligent physical

and perormance data.The technology o BIM is

rapidly evolving and, althoughsome interoperability issues still

need to be addressed, little doubt

exists that this will cause a unda-

mental change in how buildings

are designed, constructed, and operated. The technology willbring greater collaboration between design disciplines, as well

as within the construction industry. Statistics rom the Con-

struction Industry Institute (CII) (www.construction-institute.

org) under its benchmarking and metrics studies indicate that

construction industry productivity has decreased 25% duringthe past 15 years, compared to manuacturing industries, whichhave increased 125% during that same period. Similarly, and

o greater concern, while manuacturing industries have taken

advantage o technology and are at 66% value-added and 26%

waste, the construction industry is at an all-time low o 10%

value-added and 57% waste. This represents a tremendousuntapped resource in the $1.5 trillion U.S. and $4.8 trillion

worldwide building industry; a resource that when tapped can

provide needed revenue to support initiatives leading toward

better buildings. Studies done or CII by NIST (www.nist.gov)

indicate that resolution o interoperability issues alone could

save $15.8 billion per year. In act, the buildingSMART Alli-

ance (BSA) (www.buildingsmartalliance.org) believes thatBIM has the potential to save more than $200 billion per yearin construction costs.

Clearly, the use o BIM technology has gained wider acceptance

in the past two years. A recent McGraw-Hill Construction 2007

Interoperability SmartMarket Report o the building industry

(www.mcgraw-hill.com/releases/construction/20071024.shtml)

indicates BIM is used by approximately 20% o designers. However,the responses also indicate a projected use o 80% within ve years

and 100% within 10 years. Although those numbers may seem

optimistic, it indicates the potential o BIM having a signicant

impact on, and creating a considerable opportunity or, ASHRAE

members, whether they are in the design, construction, or manu-acturing side o the industry. BIM technology already has proven

to increase collaboration between design disciplines and between

designers and constructors. It also allows others who are involved in

the process such as lenders, owners,

and developers to better understandbuildings and more eectively

participate and contribute.

Intelligent modeling technol-

ogy can start with direct data

transer rom the design calcula-tion sotware and spreadsheets,

into graphic layouts (or systems

such as structural steel, ireprotection, or other modular

elements). Alternatively, it canuse the graphic layouts as direct

input to load calculations (such

as pipe sizing, duct sizing, etc.).

BIM models also can link di-

rectly to specications and manuacturers Web sites or datainput. Building inormation modeling technology extends into

ully integrated 4D (adding the ourth dimension o time, e.g.,

scheduling or sequencing programs such as Primavera) and

5D modeling (adding the th dimension o cost or estimating

and budget control using programs such as Sage TimberlineOce). The building design development can continue withthe provision o automatic bills o material and generation o

automatic shop drawings or everything rom structural steel

to sheet metal duct abrication, to re protection and piping

abrication, to electrical cabling and bus duct layouts, etc.

Tool and Sotware Protocol Developments

A major key to the success o these eorts is establishing

common sotware protocols. The National Institute o Building

Sciences Facility Inormation Council (www.acilityinorma-

tioncouncil.org) working in conjunction with such groups as

FIATECH (www.atech.org), the buildingSMART Alliance and

Figure 1: Typical BIM model systems coordination.


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30 A S H R A E J o u r n a l J u n e 2008

the International Alliance or Interoperability (IAI)at (www.

iai-na.org) has developed the National Building InormationModeling Standard Version 1.0 to address this issue. The stan-

dard is available at (www.acilityinormationcouncil.org/bim).

The mission o IAI can be ound on its Web site, which also

provides inormation on programmable language XML datamodels or inormation transer between disparate sotwarepackages. It also oers intelligent and universal data models

InPro, Open Inormation Environment or

Knowledge-Based Collaborative Process-

es Throughout the Liecycle o a Building

(European Project No. 026716-2).

The buildingSMART Alliance, previ-ously organized as the IAI North American

Chapter, has been established as a coun-

cil o the National Institute o Building

Sciences and is specically intended to

address interoperability issues and ostercollaboration among the individuals, or-

ganizations, and entities associated with

the building industry. ASHRAE has a

representative on the Alliance board o

directors and the vice chair o the Allianceis on the ASHRAE BIM steering commit-

tee. The Alliance is still in the ormative

stages. Although it has developed a vision

and mission, its short-term activities are

to identiy what is needed to ully realizebuilding SMART in the U.S. Work is being

done to satisy the vision and mission and

then identiy and help ll the gaps neededor success.

O particular interest is the work beingdone by the FIATECH (a nonprot con-

sortium established by the Construction

Industry Institute and supported by NIST)

towards ully integrated and automated

design and construction technologies. ItsCapital Projects Technology Roadmap

(CPTR) presents its strategy or the capital

projects industry in developing a consensus

vision or the capital projects industry and a

uniying initiative to achieve the vision.

Commercial Application Sotware

Developments

The rst challenge acing private and

commercial enterprises in developing

integrated inormation modeling is thelimited size o the marketplace. Unlike

basic oce sotware where a word pro-

cessing program may sell tens o millions

o copies, building modeling programs

(o ar greater sophistication) may sell

only a ew hundred thousand. The second

through Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to IFC.XML2 ISO

10303-28, which incorporate HVAC schemas compatible withicXML - IFC2X3 code (ISO 10303-11), as well as data ele-

ments that represent entire portions o a building or system.

Worthwhile reading is the newJournal o Building Inormation

Modeling (www.wbdg.org/pds/jbim_spring08.pd).Although not widely used in the U.S., IAIs InternationalCouncil has established the European Integrated Project called

Advertisement ormerly in this space.


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challenge acing the industry is developing a commonality o

program protocols that enable a ree exchange o data betweendisparate sotware systems. Here, the work being done by NIBS

and IAI to develop an overall integrated program under the

umbrella o the buildingSMART Alliance shows great promise

in combining BIM technology with Inormation or the Con-struction global ISO standards to ISO/PAS 16793.One o the most important recent advances has been the de-

velopment o open meld protocols that allow the integration o

disparate sotware programs. These programs have the ability

to more easily manage, view, and integrate disparate sotware

programs providing real-time navigation, collaborative com-

munication, and presentation o 3D and 4D BIMs.O even greater benet in the United States, is the advance-

ment in sotware protocols and communication that has been

lead by Green Building Studios gbXML (www.gbxml.org).

According to its Web site,

The Green Building XML schema, reerred to as gbXML,

was developed to acilitate the transer o inormation stored

in CAD building inormation models, enabling integrated

interoperability between design models and, a wide variety o

engineering analysis tools and models available today. Today,

gbXML has the industry support and wide adoption by the

leading CAD vendors Autodesk, Graphisot, and Bentley. With

the development o export and import capabilities in several

major engineering model tools, gbXML has become a deacto

industry standard schema. Its use dramatically streamlines the

transer o building inormation to and rom engineering mod-

els, eliminating the need or time consuming plan take-os.

This removes a signifcant cost barrier to designing resource

efcient buildings and speciying associated equipment. Itenables building design teams to truly collaborate and realize

the potential benefts o Building Inormation Modeling.

Green Building Studio (www.greenbuildingstudio.com)

oers open gbXML schema or direct data exchange oering

Web-based building energy analysis tools integrating data rom

the BIM into DOE-2, BLAST, TRACE 700, EnergyPlus 1.4,

etc., and exporting the results back into the BIM. Many sotwarecompanies use gbXML in related products that are ocused

on the HVAC market, including: Carmel Sotwares Loadsot;

Tranes TRACE 700; Carriers HAP; CADlines Cymap; Elite

Sotwares Chvac; Square Ones ECOTECT; IES, Ltd.s ; Autodesks AutoCAD MEP

, Revit

Archi-tecture, and Revit MEP; Graphisots ArchiCAD; BentleysBentley Architecture and Bentley Building Mechanical Sys-

tems; and EDSLs Tas. Although still not seamless, these tools

have signicantly improved sotware interoperability.

Wrightsot Corporation (www.wrightsot.com) oers a ully

integrated HVAC design package, Right-Suite Universal, whichsupports residential and commercial applications, and includes

an object-oriented, drag-and-drop CAD interace or thermal

zoning and automatic dimensional takeo. It includes all six

current North American load calculation methods, three duct

design and layout methods (including the current ASHRAE duct

database), radiant panel design and layout, automated bill o



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materials generation, cost estimating, operating cost calculations,

proposal generation, project tracking, geothermal loop sizing,

and sales presentation. These modules are completely integrated.Designers can try dierent scenarios because the entire thermal

and HVAC system is a live model. For example, building changesare immediately refected in onscreen duct sizes as calculations

ripple through loads, ducts, and bill o materials. The sotware

can read and write les in a number o de acto standard ormats

compatible with popular applications such as AutoCAD and

Excel. gbXML support will be added later.Certainly the European community, particularly, and to some

extent Australia, are urther ahead o the United States in the

widespread application o BIM. Europe is heavily committed

to development o integrated building design technology with

extensive work being done in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland,Germany, and the Netherlands.

Major players in the eld include Autodesk, Bentley Systems

and Nemetschek Group (which owns Graphisot, VectorWorks,

and Allplan).

Autodesk (www.autodesk.com) has sotware that can export

to load calculations sotware such as TRACE and input resultsback to the sotware. This is done with gbXML. Revit also uses

the integrated IES tools or load calculations. AutoCAD MEP

design and construction documentation sotware is built or

mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers, designers, and

draters. According to the manuacturer, Revit MEP sotware

is an intuitive design tool that works the way engineers think. It

can minimize coordination errors between mechanical, electri-

cal, and plumbing engineering design teams; collaborate with

architects and structural engineers using the Revit platormand building inormation modeling workfows; and gain better

building perormance analysis support or engineers.Bentley Solutions (www.bentley.com) with MicroStation

as the primary product or building design, construction and

operation. Recent enhancements include interace with gbXML

or energy analysis using Trace 700 and tie into pipe and duct

sizing, the latter using ddXML.Nemetschek, NA, oers programs such as VectorWorks

Fundamentals, which is an architectural building program that

can plug into Graphisot AutoCAD and CATIA, VectorWorks

Landmark or site planning and VectorWorks Spotlight or

lighting design. HVAC Building Services and 3D Viewer (plusNemetscheks Allplan [www.allplan.co.uk] or architecturaldesign and modeling sotware).

In 2006 Oracle launched a new collaborative building in-

ormation management platorm (CBIM) and is working with

Graphisot to ully integrate building modeling tools with design

collaboration, visualization, lie-cycle management, and otherapplications.

The Mayo Foundation (under the Mayo Clinic) is developing

Mayo Graphical Integrated Computer Aided Design using Magi-

CAD sotware. MagiCAD, developed by Progman Oy o Sweden,

is IFC compliant and used widely in Scandanavia. It is aimed pri-

marily at duct design and equipment manuacturing. However, it

Organization Description Web Site

International Alliance or

Interoperability

Development o a universal ramework

or inormation sharingwww.iai-na.org

National Institute o

Building Sciences

Umbrella organization or IAI and the

buildingSMART Alliancewww.nibs.org

buildingSMART AllianceDevelopment o interoperable technology or

design and constructionwww.buildingsmartalliance.org

National Institute o Standards

and Technology (NIST)

Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and

Standard Reerence Data (SRD)

www.atp.nist.gov

www.nist.gov/srd

Capital Facilities Industry XML

The organizations goal is to oster wide-

spread, practical, cost-eective use o XML

in the capital acilities industry

www.cfxml.org

FIATECH

Capital Projects Technology Roadmap

(CPTR) standard XMLs or the manuacturing

industry and model library

or systems to ISO 15926

www.fatech.org/projects/roadmap/cptri.htm

World Wide Web Consortium

(W3C)

Internet standard XML

schema 1.1 structures or XML www.w3.org

Object Management GroupUnifed Modeling Language and Global

Regulatory Inormation Databasewww.omg.org

U.S. Department o EnergyBuilding systems-related sotware or evalu-

ating energy efciency and sustainabilitywww.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory

International Building Perormance

Simulation Association

Building perormance simulation

or HVAC systemswww.ibpsa.org

Table 1: Sources of general information.


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does include HVAC, piping, and electrical design and application

sotware (running on an AutoCAD platorm). These have the ability

to eed data into EnergyPlus using Olo Granlund/LBNL-developed

BS Pro COM server middleware (with IFC-based 3D RIM).

Other Developments

Although BIM technology is maturing, signicant parallel

eorts are being made in the development o sotware or model

viewing, model checking, energy analysis and simulation, acili-

ties management, etc., to support various use cases associatedwith building inormation. A use case is the task to which the

inormation in the BIM is applied. Cost estimating, schedul-

ing, and confict resolution between structural and mechanical

components o a building are examples o use cases. A signi-

cant component to support visualization o any use case is the

development o model checking sotware. One particular use

case is ocused on compliance with codes, standards, regulations

or other criteria, whether mandated or market driven.

In the U.S. the International Code Council (ICC) (www.

iccsae.org) is supporting a use case to check or compliancewith codes, standards, rules, regulations, etc., through itsSMARTcodes initiative. By putting codes, standards and

other criteria in a smart ormat that can be understood and

applied by model checking sotware it is possible to identiy

and prevent conficts between the building, as represented by

the BIM, and the codes or other criteria. Initial SMARTcodedemonstrations have taken place with the 2006 International

Energy Conservation Code. The 2006 IECC is anticipated or

availability or the purpose o automated code compliance

checking in early 2008.

ICC anticipates creating SMARTcodes or a signicant por-

tion o all building, lie saety and re protection requirements

Organization Product Web Site

Bentley Systems MicroStation, AutoPIPE, TriForma www.bentley.com

Autodesk AutoCAD, Revit (including Revit MEP)www.autodesk.com

www.autoCAD.com

Graphisot ArchiCAD www.graphisot.com

Oracle CBIM www.oracle.com/global/uk/pressroom/2006/613.html

Granlund RIUSKA www.granlund.f

Viewers

NavisWorks JetStream www.navisworks.com

NemetschekIFC Viewer

Allplan

www.nemetschek.com

www.allplan.com

Neworma Neworma Project Center www.neworma.com

Solibri Solibri IFC Optimizer www.solibri.com

Mayo ClinicMayo Graphical Integrated CAD

MagiCADwww.progman.f

Model Checking and Code Compliance

Solibri Solibri IFC Optimizer/Solibri Model Checker www.solibri.com

CORENET e-Plan and Fornax Viewerwww.corenet.gov.sg

www.aecbytes.com

AEC3 UK Xabio www.aec3.com

Octaga Octaga Player www.octaga.com

U.S. Department o Energy COMcheckwww.doe.gov

www.energycodes.gov/comcheck/ez_download.stm

Project Management

Bentley ProjectWise www.bentley.com

e-Buildere-Builder: Enterprise, Collaborator, and Pro-

essional Versionswww.e-builder.net

Primavera Primavera P6 www.primavera.com

Autodesk Buzzsaw www.autodesk.com

Other

ANSYS CFX (CFD sotware) www.ansys.com

Leica Geosystems HDS (3D Laser Scanning Sotware) www.leica-geosystems.com

Table 2: Key developments in current commercial application software.


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in the ICC codes by the end o 2008, and then working with

ederal, state, and local agencies to put their amendments tothe ICC codes in a smart ormat or access and use with ICCs

SMARTcodes. Those SMARTcodes then would be used by

model checking sotware to identiy conficts or code com-

pliance problems associated with the BIM. This allows thedesigner to consult sotware or code compliance assistanceand sotware to augment the review and approval unctions o

ederal, state, and local government. It also provides a ounda-

tion or evaluating building designs or conormance to othercriteria established by voluntary sector entities.

ASHRAE Related Activities

ASHRAE needs to look ahead at the role its Handbook,standards, guidelines, etc., play in the process and establisha viable path moving orward. The Society uses XML source

les or publishing the Handbook, how-

ever, examination o the basic structure

and development o SMART XMLs is

needed so that all o these documents

(particularly standards) have built-in rulesets that can be read by design and model

checking/compliance sotware.

ASHRAE needs to revisit the basic

terminology used in its documents to

ensure overall consistency and a commonset o identities. Although the Handbook

does provide basic terminology listings,

these cannot be used or inormation or

data transer. The Society needs to estab-

lish a common set o terms, denitions,properties, and enumerations, applicable

or each document type.

ICC has produced a data dictionary

covering energy components. This project

is being coordinated with the Construc-tion Speciications Institute (Omni-

Class Construction Classiication

System numbers) that is being consideredas part o an International Framework or

Dictionaries (IFD) and global dictionary.However, the overall program needs to be

expanded into mechanical and electri-

cal systems and incorporated into all o

ASHRAEs document development and

the results coordinated at the global levelso IFDs will ully support BIM use cases

o relevance to ASHRAE members.

The Society needs to take a step back

and look at where the ASHRAE Guideline

Project Committee 20: XML Denitionsor HVAC&R, is going. The Society needsto go beyond the establishment o sets

o use cases and data objects within the

guideline and determine a recommended

HVAC schema and XML (i.e., gb.xml, aec.

xml and ic.xml). In doing so, ASHRAEneeds to look at the work being done by the

Hydronic Institute, API, ISA, and others to

support electronic data exchange and the

ability to share, import, and export XML,

IFC and other les in dierent ormats.

Guideline Project Committee 20 is spon-



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40 A S H R A E J o u r n a l a s h r a e o r g J u n e 2008

TC 4.2, Climatic Inormation

TC 4.7, Energy CalculationsTC 7.1, Integrated Building Design (originally TC 4.12)

GPC 20, XML Denitions or HVAC&R

SPC 166P, Proposed Standard or HVAC&R Terminology

Also o interest is the work o SSPC 140, Standard Methodo Test or Evaluation o Building Energy Analysis ComputerPrograms, and SPC 183, Peak Cooling and Heating Load Cal-

culations in Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings,

since this could also tie into the BIM model.

Issues and Benefts

O course, development and use o all o this technology does notcome without cost. Experience on large industrial projects ($75 to

$150 million) indicates that the added design cost represents a 5%

to 10% premium on the architect-engineers (A-E) ees (or roughly

0.25% to 0.5% on construction cost). The A-E cost premium can

be higher on smaller projects. More than osetting this are all othe cost savings outlined previously. Immediate savings o 3% to

7.5% have been seen through improved coordination and reduced

conficts. (The Construction Industry Institute analysis indicated

a potential savings o 7% or this element alone.) This can only

increase as more trades come on board and BIM capabilities, suchas automatic shop drawings and quantity takeos, are realized.

Increased use o shop abrication and elimination o waste

is, itsel, expected to produce savings o at least 7.5% to 10%.

Recent experience in the construction o major automotive plants

shows that it is possible to eliminate 20% o sheet metal waste,develop programs 15% to 25% aster, reduce RFIs by 50%,

eliminate 25% o all change orders, and reduce construction cost

by 4% to 10%. The greatest potential savings may come romthe application o value-added and lean construction techniques

that BIM enables. In the interim, A-Es must convince ownersthat this added investment justies increased ees. It is clear that

the economic driver is the building owner/developer. I they can

be shown that by having a BIM they can get the building up and

leased sooner with less hassle and save money on construction

cost, then they may see the benet associated with paying ad-ditional ees up ront to have the AEC team use BIM.

To achieve all o the benets o BIM, more work is needed.

The interoperability o sotware components is still not ully

there, requiring separate and distinct input and output data. Suc-

cessul widespread implementation o BIM or ully integrateddesign depends on the ability o architects and engineers, as adesign team, to easily input and exchange data. The key is or

the integrated system to continually and dynamically model

the building and all o its systems, through daily and seasonal

operational cycles. This allows the what i scenarios to be

played out using dierent systems and components and allowsthem to be evaluated on a rst cost, operating cost, and lie-cycle

cost basis. The industry is ar rom that point.

Conclusion

Research into engineering rms specically or inormation

related to their experience with BIM programs as design and

construction tools, shows wider application today. Although the

Society has seen companies ully integrate structural design andanalysis programs into those architectural models, only a ew

companies are able to demonstrate BIM model tie-ins that can

ully integrate, dynamically and seamlessly, HVAC-related design

programs (such as load calculation programs, pipe and duct sizingprograms, building energy modeling/analysis programs such asDOE-2, EnergyPlus, BLAST, IBLAST, TRACE 700, etc.).

There are ew companies that have ully integrated build-

ing owning, operations and maintenance programs or acili-

ties management. And, ew companies have ully integrated

natural daylighting design programs (such as Superlite 1.01,

LUMEN, or Radiance 3.4, or illumination design programssuch as AutoLUX, AG132, ESP Vision, Autodesk Lightscape,

Lightcalc+Art or ALADAN) into BIM models. Yet the spatial

planning, modeling and orientation technology embedded in

3D, 4D, and 5D models seems a logical input database or such

programs and recipient o the output.Despite this, the tremendous opportunities or improved e-

ciency by integration o the design and construction process coupled

with the building owner/developer seeing the economic advantages

over the long haul will continue to drive the technology orward.

The inormation technology required or these processes is com-plex and dicult to implement and is straining the limits o design-

ers current hardware, sotware, and sta capabilities. More work

must be done to enable the technology to be applied on a daily basis.

However, the industry is much closer to having an interoperable

system that can enable ully integrated system design. The great-est opportunity lies with ully integrated multidisciplinary A-Es

practices and where BIM integration is being done as a continuum

o the design process, as well as the construction process.BIM is gaining considerable momentum as the technology

evolves and greater interoperability occurs between disparatesotware systems. The rapidly emerging goals o green building/

sustainable design, towards net zero-energy buildings, coupled

with goals or carbon dioxide emissions reduction, requires

whole building, ully integrated design and construction as a

dynamic process. BIM can help provide that integration.

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tion with sotware interoperability. International Building Perormance

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Homann, T. 2003. Interoperability: present trends and utureroles. ASHRAE Journal 45(2):40 43.

Holness, G.V.R. 2003. Smart images or project management.ASHRAE Journal 45(1):22 27.

Holness, G.V.R. 2006. Building inormation modeling: the uture

direction o the design and construction industry.ASHRAE Journal

48(8):38 46.

Holness, G.V.R. 2007. Building inormation modeling: technology

or ully integrated design and construction. CLIMA.

Laine, T. 2007. Benets o building inormation models in energyanalysis. CLIMA.

Malin, N. 2007. Building inormation modeling and green design.Environmental Building News

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BIM_GainingMomentum