siliconindia | | July 20198IN MY OPINIONThe international defi-nition for Building Information Mod-eling (BIM) reads `digital representa-tion of physical and functional char-acteristics of a facility which creates a shared knowledge resource for in-formation about it, forming a relia-ble basis for decisions during its life cycle, from earliest concept to dem-olition'. The same is defined by the U.S. National Building Information Model Standard Project Committee.Fundamentally, it is a software driven interface which provides the project delivery team with a 3D vir-tual visualization of the look and feel of the building to be constructed. The traditional building design was largely reliant on two-dimensional technical drawings (plans, eleva-tions, sections, and others). Building information modeling extends this beyond 3D, augmenting the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height, and depth), including time as the fourth dimension (4D), cost as the fifth (5D), estimation as the sixth (6D) and facility management as seventh (7D).Large scale infrastructure pro-jects are the need of the hour so as to meet the demand of a vast country like ours. We need large residential complexes, mega malls, multispe-cialty hospitals, multistoried park-ing, and hypermarkets. Multi-crore investments are involved in such projects, and errors here also cost in crores. Architectural Engineering Construction (AEC) companies face various challenges while executing these large projects. These projects are executed by a team of profes-sionals ­ architects, structural engi-neers, service engineers, and various consultants & contractors who may not necessarily work-out of one lo-cation. The coordination and collab-oration between these teams is very important for the success of a large complex project. Today, the industry is limited in the way teams work to-gether and shares information i.e. via drawings. Everyone is working as per their own set of drawings, which most of the time, despite all efforts, do not match, as they might lose a link in the entire cycle. Also, these large scale projects have long gesta-tion periods, which sometimes get executed in multiple phases. During the course, team compositions also change. Due to a lot of reworking By Soumya Das, Director, Rudrabhishek InfosystemHolding a Masters in Environmental Planning from the School of Planning & Architecture, Soumya started her career as an Architect Planner for Boston Reconstruction and later moved-on to Rudrabhishek Infosystem, where she has played a key role in its growth journey so far.ADVANCING IMPACT OF BIM IN AEC INDUSTRY: LARGE PROJECTS IN THE PURVIEWBIM has the capacity to minimize errors, as it identifies any potential clash due to incorrect or mis-communicated information at an early stage
< Page 7 | Page 9 >