SeeingtheFutureBIM

8/6/2019 SeeingtheFutureBIM

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[FEATURE]

From the Beginning

Te BIM label appeared on the radar in 2002

with the concept o capitalizing on design

and construction phase eforts to develop a

coordinated physical acility model populated

by characteristic inormation gathered during

the process.

Recent growth in the eld is enhancing

visualization or clients, improving discipline

coordination during design, and enabling

client system integration and interoperability

in ways that extend the benets o BIM ar

beyond construction and design, says Steve

Cline, structural engineer and BIM services

director or the Burns & McDonnell Aviation

& Facilities Group.

Te immediate benet or clients is a shit in

the project timeline.

With BIM, initial design is aster, allowing

greater exibility or revisions during the

time when design changes have the best

opportunity to impact project construction

costs, Cline says. Owners are able to visualize

their acilities live, in 3D, rather than with still

renderings and plans. For example, a client

can navigate the model o an interior space at

30 percent design and identiy changes

in layout, lighting or unctionality that

would traditionally have gone unnoticed until65 percent completion or even 90 percent.

Tats a huge value to our customers.

Expanding Benefts

Te greatest BIM benets are only beginning

to be realized.

When you add construction scheduling

capabilities into BIM, it creates a dynamic o

enhanced collaboration between design and

construction teams, Cline says. Te level o

BIM products deliver owners greater value rom the design and construction process ranging

rom visual coordination and confrmation to graphic models that contain complete project

documentation. This model o the Gainesville Regional Utilities Energy Center South allows project

stakeholders to see not only the structure but also how it integrates with the surrounding area.

Building inormation

models (BIM) are the ho

topic in the architecturaand engineering eld

today.

But the critical questions

acing acility owners

havent changed. How

can this make my acility

design, construction andoperation better, more

efcient and sustainable

[Building Information Models]

Seeing the

FUTURE: BIMBIM inspiresevolution in design,

construction

and operation

philosophies.

2008 No. 37

[FEATURE]


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detail and sophistication that can be achieved

in construction sequencing increases

signicantly.

Te use o BIM allows tight site coordination

between designers, contractors and

subcontractors, resulting in ewer people on

site, which reduces the risks o injury.

As stakeholders build trust in the model

and work collaboratively to detect and

resolve design conicts early, there is greater

opportunity to abricate components of-site,

reducing construction site personnel,

Cline says.

Into the Future

Designers are connecting building

inormation models to systems that evaluate

Leadership in Energy and Environmental

Design (LEED) characteristics or a acility.

Eventually, geographical data like ZIP codes

and other site inormation will identiy project

specic characteristics like heat loads and

energy costs to assist in system selection and

energy analysis.

Forward Operations

When a building is handed over to the owner,

the cutting-edge benets o BIM become

evident. ypically, design and construction

accounts or 25 percent o a acilitys lie

cycle cost. Te remaining portion covers the

buildings liespan, rom everyday operations

to retrots and upgrades over time. Tose

costs add up over time. Te General Services

Administration is currently designing

buildings to operate or 100 years.

We ollow the data downstream, putting it

to use enhancing operations, security and

emergency response systems, says Robert

Bradord, department manager o the Burns &

McDonnell Inormation Management Group.

Owners have paid or the collection o this

data, and BIM unctionality ensures they dont

pay or it again.

Preserving that data and avoiding its

re-creation is paramount to achieving

BIMs benets. Rolling design data into a

computerized maintenance management

system (CMMS) enables the long-term gains

that owners can use to manage regular

maintenance programs and prioritize andjustiy capital improvement projects.

A CMMS can combine design data with that

generated through other processes, such

as c ommissioning, strengthening the BIM,

Bradord says. A true lie cycle BIM can take al

the inormation and leverage it to the benet

o the client.

For more information, contact Steve Cline, (816) 349-6637

Read how Burns & McDonnell is taking

BIM to the next level or a new combined

heat and power plant on the Texas Medical

Center campus in Houston. The TECO project

center stations 25 key sta in a high-tech,

collaborative environment linked to other

ofces and to the project owner.

Please visit www.burnsmcd.com/teco.

Beyond Basics:A CustomizedApproach

A one-size-ts-all approach never works,

even in the simplest o acility design projects.

It is out o the question in the complex world

o building inormation models (BIMs).

For hospitals, clinics and other healthcare or

research acilities, BIM opens up possibilities

early in the design process or owners to

quickly evaluate several acility layout

options in ways they never could beore.

3D graphics enable visualization o designs

more clearly than at oor plans allow.

Hospital design requires the integration

o many key actors, rom aesthetics

and individual patient needs to lie

support systems and interior adjacencyrequirements, says Rich McKown,

engineering manager or the Burns &

McDonnell Healthcare & Research Facilities

Group. BIM design enables us as architects

and engineers to give our clients a 3D visual

representation o several plans in a ormat

more easily understood than a at blueprint.

BIMs also provide benets or contractors

bidding on hospital construction projects.

Being able to extract data rom the model

enables more accurate estimates and

scheduling.

Beyond Facilities

BIM principles and data techniques apply

to a wide range o project types. Some o

the other areas where modeling actors into

Burns & McDonnell services:

When identiying corridors or new

electrical transmission lines, data models

can be built to actor in the presence o

environmental constraints, urban areas or

other actors that could make a particular

corridor more or less suitable. Tesemodels can be used to inorm the public

about the selection process.

Data linked to GIS maps and models

are the oundation o OneouchPM, the

Burns & McDonnell tool created or the

Middletown/Norwalk Bulk ransmission

Project, a $1.4 billion electrical

transmission program in southwest

Connecticut. Managers at a construction

site can access details ranging rom

structural oundation details to right-o-

way negotiation status anywhere, anytime.

3D models have become standard

procedure or industrial acilities like

power plants, chemical plants or reneries.

Te clash detection capabilities help

reduce costly intererences during

construction, providing signicant cost

and time savings. Te 3D modeling

also provides more precise inormation

to subcontractors to allow or b etter

understanding o the scope o the

project and more accurate bidding o

construction. Owners and designers also

are able to better visualize the spaces

around equipment to ensure maintenance

access requirements are met.

The BIM or the Brownsville Community

Health Center creates an accurate visualrepresentation o the space, allowing the

owner to make more confdent decisions.


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2008 No. 3

At the schematic or conceptual design stage o

a project, BIM tools allow Burns & McDonnell

design teams to rapidly create schematic models.

Tese early models capture client requirements,

preerences and site data.

I.Te BIM is sometimes initiated during a design charrette, where building

owners, operators and other stakeholders gather with architects and

engineers to conceptualize the acility, its key unctions and its initial orms.

Sotware tools enable designers to create an early visualization o the structure

or ongoing development beore the charrettes second day begins. Ater the

charrette, the BIM is rened and expanded to encompass design details and

stages, eliminating duplication o eort.

For the Fort Riley, Kan., Runway and Southside Facilities project, BIM tools

enabled not only a quick project kicko but also increased the productivity o

architects and detailers. A team o two architects and two draters prepared

hundreds o architectural drawings or eight buildings released in multiple

ast-track construction packages on a condensed schedule.

We have learned that integrated modeling throughout the project delivery

provides a level o coordination between disciplines that has not previously

been achievable, says Robert Fish, senior architect on the project. Tat

translates into time and money saved during construction, since better

discipline coordination results in ewer change orders and delays.

This BIM initiated

during a two-day design

charrette enabled designers

to rapidly capture the clients

needs, getting the project o to a

running start with a highly productive

team o architects and draters.

Seeing is believing.

A acility owner who aces

a pivotal decision about aninterior layout or equipment selection can

make more inormed choices when presented

with a 3D visual representation o the space.

We are nding that acility owners are muchmore comortable making design decisions

and communicating preerences when a

BIM is created, says Steve Cline, structural

engineer and BIM services coordinator or

the Burns & McDonnell Aviation & Facilities

Group. Being able to picture that space

and see how people will interact with the

environment makes a huge dierence.

Te design team also benets rom BIM

visualization and clash detection capabilities.

Superior coordination between structural,

mechanical, electrical, civil and architectural

designers has always been a priority at

Burns & McDonnell, Cline says. BIM

tools are allowing our design teams to take

coordination to the next level. Tey virtually

walk through acilities looking or clashes and

discrepancies. Tis is a signicant change

rom our traditional coordination process,

Modeling enhances a clients ability to

visualize how a completed space will

look with dierent design and equipment

selections, as demonstrated by these

renderings or a Lockheed Martin employee

caeteria design.

Architectural, structural and mechanical-

electrical-plumbing renderings demonstrate

how disparate design systems can be brough

together to clearly defne how those systems

will interact in a completed acility

II.

Visualization &[Clash Detection][Schematic Design]where 3D visualization took place mostly

inside a designers head.

[F E A T U R E ]


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B U R N S & M c D O N N E L L 8

Te construction planning process may

experience the most signicant changes

during the BIM evolution.

Te integration o schedule and cost inormation into models

vastly improves sequencing during construction, says Mike

Fenske, engineering manager or the Burns & McDonnell

Aviation & Facilities Group. Watching the elements o a designcome together onscreen helps the design and construction team

improve accuracy in construction sequencing and material

quantity takeos.

Tat 4D and 5D realm is what dierentiates BIM rom other

technological advancements.

Its really a complete change in the design process, Fenske says.

Adding scheduling and cost inormation is what will make BIM

innitely more valuable during the design and construction

process. Designers and constructors are able to understand

the complete picture during each decision-making process.

Ater an owner takes the keys to a new

acility, the BIM opens up a realm o

possibilities. Te data in a BIM, tied to a

computerized maintenance managementsystem (CMMS), streamlines day-to-day maintenance

programs, making equipment specications and schedules

quickly accessible. Critical unctions such as re protection

and lie saety eatures can be integrated into systems to

make them more eective in a crisis.

Facilities oten outlast their initial unctions. Capital

improvements can be justied and managed more

eciently with the data in a lie cycle BIM system.

Te existing data can be enriched with details about

changes made.

Te benets o BIM are not limited to models created or

new construction. Existing structures can be modeled to

enhance operations systems o all types. Burns & McDonnell

worked with the Mission Assurance Division o the Naval

Surace Warare Center, Dahlgren Division, to integrate

the Washington Headquarters Services and the Pentagon

Force Protection systems. Te primary goal was to provide

an incident commander with real-time acility inormation

during an emergency situation, but day-to-day operations

also will benet rom the BIM.

In a building as massive and

complex as the Pentagon,

acility data such as re alarm

locations and types, standpipelocations, sprinkler zones and

escape routes are critical in

an emergency situation. We

created a Web interace that

could be displayed on a video

wall, allowing the incident

commander to drill down

into systems and applications

rom legends, devices and

foor plans, says Fred erry,

project manager in the Burns

& McDonnell Business &

echnology Services Group.

Te system integration

leveraged existing databases without aggregation in a single data

warehouse, eliminating issues with security classications.

Day-to-day applications o the Web interace provide technicians

inormation about installed equipment drawn rom the c ommissioning

and CMMS databases and establish more specic dashboards

to monitor alarms and trends and to track workfows in normal

operations as well as during an emergency.

Integration o schedule inormation in a BIM, as in this example

rom NavisWorks, enables staging construction processes and

equipment deliveries in tighter, more efcient timelines that improve

saety and accuracy.

Databases integrated with the BIM

put key acility inormation in thehands o acility managers when

they need it most.

III.

IV.

Integration of[Schedule & Cost] Life Cycle[System Integration]

[F E A T U R E

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