Virtual construction

The concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been around for a long time. Sometimes referred to as virtual building, the idea has, until fairly recently, been the preserve of the architectural community.

The idea is to use interactive, intelligent computer models of buildings to analyze the constructability and based upon that analysis to do accurate estimating and scheduling. Indeed, since the scheduling (and thus the time dimension) was part of the equation, people gradually began to refer to four-dimensional modeling. That got people playing with a fifth dimension — cost.

An early leader in all this was Graphisoft, whose 3D program, ArchiCAD, is used by architects all over the world. When people began thinking in terms of a fourth and fifth dimension, they tended to use ArchiCAD as the front-end software to which they developed their own systems.

Several firms came up with their own way of integrating the time and cost dimensions into their proprietary solutions, among them Skanska from Sweden, Kajima from Japan, and YIT Corporation from Finland.

YIT devoted six years on research and development of its product, and finally ended up selling it to Graphisoft, which turned it in the foundation for the new Virtual Construction line of products the company has since introduced.

While all this was going on, there developed a sort of background buzz among some of the big players in the architecture-engineering-construction sector about CAD software that could create 3D models with a 4D sequencer that would automatically link the construction model to the project schedule, and, further add a fifth dimension that would produce cost-loaded schedules for financial analysis. And that is exactly what Graphisoft did with its two new applications, dubbed simply Graphisoft Constructor and Graphisoft Estimator.

The AEC sector’s interest grew in the months leading up to the release of the new products because people saw, for the first time, the real possibility of BIM as a mature technology that could be used, not only by architects and engineers, but by the actual constructors as well.

At the time it introduced its new products, Graphisoft’s CEO Dominic Gallello said up to 25 per cent of any construction product is waste. In North America, he added, “construction is the only non-agricultural industry that has seen a consistent decline in productivity over the past 40 years.” The company’s goal, he said, was to take two or three per cent (if not more) out of the cost of every building project. At the same time, the company’s Clay Freeman said virtual construction is “about winning more business and increasing predictability.

“Winning more business is achieved by reducing the time and cost required to prepare a bid, and by creating more compelling presentations by using cost and time simulation. Predictability is increased with more accurate estimates, the ability to better analyze schedule alternatives, and closer synchronization of changes between design, cost and schedule.”

This software is neither cheap nor simple. It is complex enough they have already warned that you won’t be able to hire a youngster out of a CAD course at a community college and expect him to use this software. It requires, they say, a veteran with plenty of construction experience.

Still, as with almost everything in the computer world, you can probably expect further research and development to result in simpler software at lower prices.

It’s not for everyone yet but one day BIM systems might become common. So while Virtual Construction is barely entering the main stream, it is a fascinating subject you might want to learn more about.

Go to the Graphisoft website at www.graphisoft.com/products/construction

There is also a good article on the subject in AECbytes, a good source of analysis and reviews of AEC technology. It’s at www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/issue_15_pr.htm

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com