Milligan - Blog Post 3

Future Problems with Revit / BIM

There are several foreseeable problems that could arise as the use of BIM and Revit increases in our industry. The first one, which is probably the most obvious, is the increased resources needed to keep up with the trends in BIM use. Firms may not have the appropriate hardware needed in order to use BIM in an efficient way, or they may not have the appropriate resources to use BIM for some or all of their projects. Obtaining the appropriate hardware is an added cost to the firm for them to stay relevant. This cost will eventually be relayed into project costs, driving up the price of design or construction. This leads to another potential problem, which is the temporary spike in design and construction costs while the industry adapts to this learning curve. However, lack of resources is not only relevant to hardware, there is a need for additional people resources, too. There needs to be some at each firm that specializes in this process and is able to bring the firm up to speed.

The other major problem that will be faced with the increased use of BIM and Revit is the development of overdependency on the software. Our entire education process is based on the idea of learning the “how” and “why” behind a process, learning to do it the long way, and then learning to take short cuts. Those short cuts are only valuable when you understand the process they are cutting out. As BIM becomes more popular in building design, and is able to take on more responsibility in the design process, it will be less necessary to have professionals able to do the process the long way. There could even reach a point where no professionals are able to do the process the long way. This creates a situation of overdependence on the results BIM is spitting out. If you are unable to do the process yourself, you are unable to understand if the model is giving you reasonable information. This is dangerous due to the possibility of receiving faulty information from a BIM model and not being able to tell that it is faulty until something fails. 

Comments:
Josh: It was interesting to read your post about the future advantages of BIM, compared to our group's assignment to consider the future problems with BIM. There is the question with future growth if the benefits will outweigh the potential problems. One benefit you discussed which helps to balance out future problems is the use of BIM for clash detection. While one of the potential problems is resources needed, as you point out, clash detection makes the design process easier and more efficient. This reduces the overall time needed for coordination processes.

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.

Mark: You make great points about the different evolution rates between hardware and software and the problems that poses for BIM development in our industry. One thing that we didn't discuss as a group, which your post sparked me to think about, is the idea that it won't just be a one-time investment to be a part of the "BIM world." As the software continues to advance and grow, firms will be forced to continually invest in their hardware. It is not even just hardware that will need to be updated, but knowledge on the software as well. Each time a new release comes out, it will be up to someone in the firm to get trained and familiarized with the new updates for ease of use on projects.