Soon, we may have to encounter the inconsistency between the rapid development of BIM software and the advance of computer hardware. In fact, BIM software will contain a tremendous amount of database requiring a hi-end processor to execute. Also, a good Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) will be essential for aesthetically rendering a BIM model that contains a huge amount of graphical data. Therefore, investment on computer hardware is crucially required for supporting BIM. However, companies will face a real trouble on repeating these investments, as BIM technology continues to increase massively. I interviewed at a small consultant firm in the suburb that shared his story about purchasing a workstation that can support BIM/Revit. That was a huge bite on his budget to operate the company.
Another possible problem is the establishment of curriculum for Civil, Architectural, and Environment Engineering (CAEE) students that will mostly focus in BIM/Revit. As BIM will become a bright future on building design, I am strongly agreed that adding some technical electives, and student projects concentrated on BIM topics will benefit students on their professional career (In fact, they will not rely on learning BIM/Revit at their Co-Op firm). However, several engineering and natural science courses will be cut if BIM becomes dominant courses in CAEE curriculum. It will be dangerous for engineering education as students will not understand on foundation, and theoretical knowledge behind BIM design and database. For examples, you can successfully create a complete building model in Revit with a little knowledge on building construction, but you will struggle in selecting a reliable material and interior features for the model, or running a structural, HVAC, and energy analysis to improve the model. In the other word, it is unrealistic to construct the actual building based on unrealistic data.
The previous problem proposed a trouble in overdependence on BIM software. As the software packages includes data to make design decisions, faulty data selection contains negatively impact on the design decisions. Moreover, it contains a possibility to be replaced by unreliable data that would awfully affect the whole project, or the software can be hacked for purposes. Therefore, blindly trust on software is dangerous, but it is unavoidable as more and more projects are designed through BIM technology. As a fact, BIM/Revit can be a powerful toolkit only for professionals that contain an ability to express their design idea to the computer, and have enough experience to control BIM data.
Comments
Mark Odorizzi
Thank you for sharing real experience during your Co-Op throughout your blog post. While building my new PC two years ago, I chose a used core i3 processor (CPU), and a pre-owned motherboard for affordability. However, I suffered in staring and the monitor to wait the computer for responding my MS Excel task. I believe fast data processing would be a keystone for BIM technology, and a huge demand on hi-end CPU on AEC industry will be a real thing. My only concern is about thing happened at a time when none of the hardware could support BIM technology.
Zac Arnold
It is absolutely true that AutoCAD is a digital version of pencil and drafting paper. Thus, it is very time-consuming while architects and/or engineers decide to replace something in the technical drawing of project. During my first Co-Op, We have waited for 2 weeks for changing an elevation of 7' sanitary sewer in the technical drawing due to a mistake. That mistake was a misrepresentation of linetype (the correct linetype was a dashed line instead of straight line on the previous drawing). Thus, a BIM drawing represted on 3-D should solve this miscommunication between the design unit and the contractor. However, it might raise into another issue as foremen should be educated to be able to read a BIM drawing.
Joshua Lovett
It was interesting to read about future advantage of BIM/Revit, which looks like a contradiction to our discussion topic. Your first paragraph made me think about modeling-related department staying within a large firm. Its role is creating Revit families that benefits for engineering department within the same company in their design (i.e. structural detailing, weld, gusset, shear tabs, etc..). It would be a future tasks for drafters during the transition between AutoCAD to Revit or any BIM software.
Another possible problem is the establishment of curriculum for Civil, Architectural, and Environment Engineering (CAEE) students that will mostly focus in BIM/Revit. As BIM will become a bright future on building design, I am strongly agreed that adding some technical electives, and student projects concentrated on BIM topics will benefit students on their professional career (In fact, they will not rely on learning BIM/Revit at their Co-Op firm). However, several engineering and natural science courses will be cut if BIM becomes dominant courses in CAEE curriculum. It will be dangerous for engineering education as students will not understand on foundation, and theoretical knowledge behind BIM design and database. For examples, you can successfully create a complete building model in Revit with a little knowledge on building construction, but you will struggle in selecting a reliable material and interior features for the model, or running a structural, HVAC, and energy analysis to improve the model. In the other word, it is unrealistic to construct the actual building based on unrealistic data.
The previous problem proposed a trouble in overdependence on BIM software. As the software packages includes data to make design decisions, faulty data selection contains negatively impact on the design decisions. Moreover, it contains a possibility to be replaced by unreliable data that would awfully affect the whole project, or the software can be hacked for purposes. Therefore, blindly trust on software is dangerous, but it is unavoidable as more and more projects are designed through BIM technology. As a fact, BIM/Revit can be a powerful toolkit only for professionals that contain an ability to express their design idea to the computer, and have enough experience to control BIM data.
Comments
Mark Odorizzi
Thank you for sharing real experience during your Co-Op throughout your blog post. While building my new PC two years ago, I chose a used core i3 processor (CPU), and a pre-owned motherboard for affordability. However, I suffered in staring and the monitor to wait the computer for responding my MS Excel task. I believe fast data processing would be a keystone for BIM technology, and a huge demand on hi-end CPU on AEC industry will be a real thing. My only concern is about thing happened at a time when none of the hardware could support BIM technology.
Zac Arnold
It is absolutely true that AutoCAD is a digital version of pencil and drafting paper. Thus, it is very time-consuming while architects and/or engineers decide to replace something in the technical drawing of project. During my first Co-Op, We have waited for 2 weeks for changing an elevation of 7' sanitary sewer in the technical drawing due to a mistake. That mistake was a misrepresentation of linetype (the correct linetype was a dashed line instead of straight line on the previous drawing). Thus, a BIM drawing represted on 3-D should solve this miscommunication between the design unit and the contractor. However, it might raise into another issue as foremen should be educated to be able to read a BIM drawing.
Joshua Lovett
It was interesting to read about future advantage of BIM/Revit, which looks like a contradiction to our discussion topic. Your first paragraph made me think about modeling-related department staying within a large firm. Its role is creating Revit families that benefits for engineering department within the same company in their design (i.e. structural detailing, weld, gusset, shear tabs, etc..). It would be a future tasks for drafters during the transition between AutoCAD to Revit or any BIM software.
Dung - You explained great details regarding the potential for modeling software to surpass the advances in computer hardware. It is a great point that not only will the amount of data become greater, but the power needed to graphically model the data will become much greater as well. Your story about a firm taking a hit in purchasing hardware that can support this modeling software I'm sure is prevalent in many firms. The fact that the firm was only able to purchase one station demonstrates another problem. Even if a firm as the capabilities to participate in BIM processes, it may be only on a limited scale, and there may be only one or two people in the firm that are able to participate in those processes.
ReplyDeleteI think your point pertaining to curriculum based on BIM is very valid, and is a topic I did not discuss in my own post about the future problems of BIM. You are absolutely correct that courses in BIM would benefit students in their professional careers and make them desirable hires for an engineering firm after graduation. I think a few additional challenges that would arise in developing a BIM curriculum is that it must be dynamic. As we learned in our guest lecture, Dynamo (which is a tool I hadn’t heard of before this class) is becoming a prominent tool for BIM users. A valuable curriculum should be able to learn and adapt with these new trends, which is very difficult. The best professors for BIM courses would be adjuncts that can relay to students how Revit is actually used in the real world, and they may be using these new and upcoming software tools.
ReplyDeleteDung,
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out if hardware could keep up with software advances. Just like Moor's law, technology is exponentially increasing but can we physically keep up and utilize this new upgrade? However, I am not convinced enough that Revit/BIM will be capable of design decisions unless AI has advanced to that level of sophistication. But who knows? AI is already breaking grounds every other month nowadays so it could be possible in the near future.