This article is sourced from the WeChat official account: BIMCoder, with excerpts from Mr. Liang.
Benefit 1: Design plays a crucial role in refining and expressing the project, addressing various client requirements such as cost efficiency, structural integrity, energy performance, aesthetics, and functionality. The design decisions made will influence every subsequent phase of the project.
Benefit 2: Early and precise design visualization is possible. BIM software generates 3D models directly, rather than deriving them from multiple 2D views. This enables visual design at any stage while maintaining consistent dimensions across all views.
Benefit 3: Automatic updates during design changes. When design elements are governed by parametric rules, the 3D model prevents geometric, alignment, and spatial coordination errors, significantly reducing the effort required to manage design modifications.
Benefit 4: Accurate and consistent 2D drawings can be produced at any design stage. Drawings for any object set or specified project view can be extracted reliably, greatly cutting down the time and errors involved in creating construction documents across all disciplines. When design changes occur, simply inputting new parameters will regenerate fully consistent drawings.
Benefit 5: Early collaboration among multiple design disciplines is enhanced. BIM technology supports simultaneous work across various trades. While collaboration through traditional drawings is possible, it is inherently more complex and time-consuming compared to coordinated 3D models, which facilitate efficient change management. This process shortens design timelines, reduces errors and omissions, and offers early detection of design issues—providing opportunities for ongoing improvements. This approach is more cost-effective than waiting until late-stage design to make major decisions or apply value engineering.
The points above primarily emphasize improving energy efficiency during the design process, enabling both single-discipline and multi-discipline design teams to work more efficiently. BIM also supports cost estimation during design. At any stage, it can extract accurate quantities and spatial data for budgeting purposes.
Early cost estimates rely on project-related formulas, such as the number of parking spaces, square footage of different office types, or unit costs per square foot. As the design matures, more detailed quantities become available, allowing for increasingly accurate and comprehensive cost projections. Before reaching the level of detail required for construction bidding, all stakeholders can be informed of the cost implications related to the current design.
It is important to align this process with the BIM international standard ISO 19650. This standard defines that the information requester must identify the responsible party to provide the necessary data. The appointed party is then responsible for supplying or coordinating provision of information from others. Designers often are neither obligated nor motivated to provide detailed quantity takeoff information alongside their design models. Therefore, the information requester must clearly specify requirements, and relevant parties (such as designers or consultants) must respond accordingly based on standards or agreed protocols.
As a reminder, when requesting information, the requester should consider who will supply it, under what scenarios and processes, and whether the workflow can form a closed loop. Avoid falling into a cycle of unilateral requests without completing the information exchange process.
Benefit 6: Enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability. Integrating building models with energy analysis tools allows for assessment of energy consumption early in the design phase. Traditional 2D tools require significant input preparation time, making early-stage energy analysis impractical. Often, energy analysis using 2D tools happens only as a final check or regulatory step, limiting opportunities to optimize building energy performance.
By linking building models directly with various analysis tools, BIM improves the overall quality and sustainability of buildings.
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