Although BIM is rapidly gaining popularity and widespread use in China, several challenges remain. Today, with insights from industry experts, we will explore the issues surrounding BIM application from three key perspectives: legal, technical, and management.
Legal Issues in BIM: One major concern is model ownership. Typically, BIM models are created by design firms and later utilized, expanded, and maintained by construction companies. Currently, there is no established standard for the cost of BIM model creation. Since the design unit builds the model but the owner benefits from it, designers often lack the incentive to invest in model development. Conversely, if the construction unit creates the model, it may not support full lifecycle use, and the owner might not receive ownership rights. Furthermore, disputes often arise regarding subsequent operation and management of the model. Two possible solutions to address ownership are:
1. The owner holds ownership of the model and is responsible for its accuracy. This approach simplifies ownership issues, minimizing conflicts among project participants. The downside is the increased initial cost for the owner, who must also assume responsibility for any model errors.
2. Ownership belongs to the modeler. In this case, various specialized modeling vendors own their respective BIM models and ensure their accuracy. Owners pay an authorization fee to use the model, which tends to be more cost-effective. However, this method complicates the acquisition and calculation of usage rights during projects, and modelers may hesitate to share the complete model due to liability concerns.
Technical Issues in BIM: Construction projects involve multiple specialized designs, leading to diverse BIM modeling platforms. Since each platform has its own data structure and format, cross-platform data exchange standards and compatibility remain challenging. To address this, the following solution has been proposed:
A single BIM model consolidates all information related to architecture, structure, and mechanical and electrical systems. This model can be created either separately or collaboratively. Its advantages include easier archive management, quicker adaptation to design changes, and elimination of format compatibility problems. However, the model’s large file size can reduce system performance and efficiency.
Management Issues in BIM: A BIM model contains comprehensive information covering the entire lifecycle of a construction project. This results in large data volumes and heavy system processing demands. Additionally, BIM data formats differ from traditional CAD and text files, and cross-platform data exchange standards have not yet been fully standardized. Consequently, challenges arise in data classification, naming conventions, and archive management.
The traditional engineering coding systems mainly fall into two categories. The first is the MasterFormat system, which is based on project execution results rather than equipment or product classification. This system struggles with early-stage object coding and is better suited for project work breakdown structure (WBS) decomposition, making it less ideal for BIM coding. The second is the Uniformat system, which classifies project elements and effectively addresses BIM coding challenges during the early project phases.
Thanks to expert insights, we now have a clearer understanding of the challenges slowing BIM adoption in China. With strong governmental support and active participation from various enterprises, BIM technology is poised to improve significantly and become more widely embraced across the country.
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