To take in the many presentations about building
information modeling tools at the recent BIMForum conference in Dallas is to see
first-hand the velocity of change arriving on construction jobsites, along with
the upward move of the BIM adoption curve each year.
Chris Heger, a superintendent with Turner Construction,
talked through how BIM tools are changing the pace of construction with some
keynote examples among many. Modeling tools give his team the ability to create
construction patterns and then mine for repeatable patterns, or to look for
interchangeable parts from one job's similarity to another. Teams then put
those parts to re-use on other projects.
What we're seeing in the construction trades, many
attendees said, is that BIM is making information a bigger part of the
project's supply chain in order to build at faster rates. Big Data is about
thinking of the model as the database to mine, other attendees said.
BIM gives Heger's teams the ability to put work in place
in much tighter areas, because they're "synchronizing men and machines
faster than ever. We're pushing the edge of fatigue," he added. On some
jobs with BIM integration, the firm is erecting steel at twice the normal rate.
Project teams are also saving more information that was once tossed away,
creating information supply chains that compress time.
Contrast the quickening pace with larger gains in
networking speeds, sensors and processors that can render files on a jobsite
and it's easy to see why paradigm shift is a hot term again, along with Gigabit
Ethernet. ENR breaks down some of the big ideas from the event:
Networking, Sensors and AR
Three big trends will make Augmented Reality and Virtual
Reality tools more common with collaboration, says James Benham, founder of
software development and consulting firm JBKnowledge (which specializes in AR
and VR with apps such as SmartReality).
First, pay attention to the growth in fiber to the home,
which promises to bring upstream and downstream speeds of 1 gigabit per second
to homes via gigabit ethernet and gigabit internet. From there, it's not a big
leap to add speeds like that to a jobsite. But it is early in the rollout of
gigabit internet networking speeds.
Still, South Korea, a leader in wireless networking
technology, has succesfully tested 5G networks, he continued, and "that's
a really big deal." Benham cited estimates that 5G (and by that he means
true 5G) will be in North America by 2018. The ability to deploy gigabit speeds
of data transfer on a smart phone will transform how workers use them on
jobsites.
Second, processors are evolving rapidly, bringing major
power to ipads and other tablets that will help them render ever bigger models
on a tablet, "and big ones, with mechanical stuff in them," he
quipped. Third, cheap sensors are here, here, here," he contined. With
each sensor embedded in computing systems, the internet of things grows
exponentially, giving models much more to interact with on projects. In
Benham's view, that really matters with AR and VR tools because sensors
increase how much an AR app can render.
Finally, keep an eye on quasi-secret projects with AR
technology, such as Google's Genie project, details of which leaked about a
year ago, and Google's Project Tango, which, the site says, is about
incorporating 3D motion and depth sensing to applications.
According to the website: "Project Tango devices
contain customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion
of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These
sensors allow the device to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every
second, updating its position and orientation in real-time, combining that data
into a single 3D model of the space around you."
Design Intent as a Declining Term
During a Q&A session with attendees, Turner's Heger
noted that, as BIM adoption spreads, Design Intent is not a term that he hears
as often as he once did. "And I think it's s indicative of what BIM is
doing and transforming."
After all, prior to contractors' adoption of BIM, their
job was to take a designer's 3D idea and use a 2D medium to create that 3D
object. "There's a lot that gets lost in translation," he said. A
Design Intent discussion between a designer and a contractor is usually a moment
of deep distress. "It's a conversation that often leads to increases
costs. With BIM, that term [Design Intent] goes away."
Trade Contractors, BIM Know-How and RFPs
During a panel discussion, one specialty contractor
asked: What makes a trade contractor attractive? Many specialty firms do not
have their own BIM departments. How do general contractors wade through this
when selecting trade contractors?
Heger noted that he currently only takes RFP responses
from trade contractors who work with BIM tools "because it's got to be
fair."
Ricardo Khan, director of integrated construction for
Mortensen Construction, said the firm gives a high priority to specialty
contractors who can do fabrication work off of a BIM model because it gives the
firm certainty about the coordinates of the work. "It's also about trust,
teamwork and experience with that trade partner," he added.
Time Has Come
Mortensen's Khan noted that the firm has been working
through the BIM puzzle of adoption for some 16 years, and is only now seeing a
generational shift play out with BIM and collaboration tools across projects.
Project managers that reluctantly worked with the tools years ago are now
superintendents, while at the same time, he added, "we're starting to see a shift in the
culture because institutions are training their students to come out into the
workforce and be ready [for BIM]."
Added Heger: "Once you've done it and it works,
you'll never go back."
Source: ENR.com
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