The BuildingsMART Alliance in the United States has identified 25 distinct applications of BIM technology, which holds significant authority within the industry. Among these, they highlight five key applications during the BIM operational phase: building system analysis, spatial management, maintenance planning, asset management, and disaster planning. In addition, the author emphasizes the importance of the surrounding environment model and building value assessment during the planning and design phase, as well as the archive model in the construction phase. These applications are essential, representing typical BIM information use at different stages of construction projects. Consequently, a complete construction project must ensure the continuity and consistency of BIM information throughout its lifecycle.
BIM technology requires that all information generated at each stage of a construction project be digitally stored in a centralized database for easy access and retrieval at any time. Since the information needed varies across different project phases, BIM must enable timely extraction of relevant digital data. The BIM process in construction engineering can be broadly divided into four development stages: planning, design, construction, and operation & maintenance. These stages are interconnected and influence each other, meaning that any inaccurate information can lead to errors in subsequent phases, ultimately affecting the entire project’s success. Therefore, maintaining the continuity and consistency of information throughout the construction process is critical.
Traditional operation and maintenance methods have exposed numerous challenges within the modern engineering industry, including incomplete data, drawing inaccuracies, and information errors. Such problems can directly hinder the progress of construction and later operation and maintenance activities. The BIM model forms the foundation by representing the building’s essential attributes, with components in the model corresponding to real-world building elements. It is crucial that the information for all components in the BIM model remains fully consistent; otherwise, incorrect data will cause significant issues during later construction, operation, and maintenance phases. One of BIM’s most notable advantages is its ability to enhance collaboration among all stakeholders compared to traditional methods. BIM provides a collaborative platform where designers from various disciplines can work together efficiently. Therefore, ensuring the continuity and consistency of information exchange during the design process is vital for successful collaborative engineering design. Moreover, BIM is fundamentally an information-driven concept: all building components are parameterized within the BIM system, and the software tools used rely on comprehensive data management. Essentially, BIM technology revolves around creating a complete database of complex building data, encompassing data generation, storage, and retrieval.
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