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Owners driving adoption of Building Information Modeling: Autodesk

Patricia Williams

Caesar Ruest says the architecture and construction industries are moving away from disconnected workflows towards a more collaborate environment. Ruest , building information modeling (BIM) solutions executive at San Rafael, California-based computer-aided design (CAD) software vendor Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), spoke at the annual convention of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC) in Montebello, Quebec.

MONTEBELLO, Que.

While the pace of BIM adoption in Canada lags that of the United States, owners on this side of the border increasingly are asking design teams to deliver projects using this technology, says Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) BIM solutions executive Caesar Ruest.

“(The attitude is) ‘if you want to deliver CAD drawings and rolls of documents, forget it,’ ” Ruest told the annual convention of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada.

“ ‘We don’t want you to be part of our team unless you deliver a building information model. That is the only way you can play with us.’ ”

Ruest, Autodesk’s Toronto-based BIM solutions executive for architecture, engineering and construction, told a market and technology trends panel that design complexity is changing as a world-wide trend.

“We are starting to see some unique designs within the transportation sector, the civil engineering sector, the heavy construction sector,” he said. “The challenge this brings to you as an engineering group is managing this change.

“You have to come to the table with more complex solutions to solve these complicated problems.”

Ruest said the architecture, engineering and construction industry globally is moving away from the realm of analog or “silo” drawings and “disconnected” workflows into a more collaborative environment.

“The industry has seen that the old way has been error-prone, causing under-performing projects,” he said. “The trend is definitely more digital and definitely more digital in the form of intelligent three-dimensional models.”

Ruest said building information modeling enables a “holistic” approach to design and construction, bringing owners and other key players to the table at the inception of a project.

A 2009 U.S. survey found that BIM adoption has grown dramatically, with 50 per cent of respondents using BIM software. Contractors saw the great growth of BIM use that year, Ruest said.

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