It's Just New to You

Back in the beginning of March I was lucky enough to participate as a panel member on a discussion about BIM. However, I got a minor shock at the start of the session when the question was posed to the audience, "...just to be sure we're all on the same page: does everyone here know what BIM is?" and we got back a room full of blank faces. Our intent was to have an open discussion about collaborating across disciplines within a BIM environment. At least two of us on the panel had done the BIM 101 presentation ad nauseum throughout our region and beyond. So much so that while the main panel member struggled with the presentation equipment and room layout he kicked it out to me to talk about "what is BIM" and I couldn't find the words easily. Thankfully he got his slides up and relieved me of my bumbling to take the conversation back to a more structured intro to BIM. Needless to say, it seems this region of the world is not as aware as other regions when it comes to facilities technology.

As I've elluded to before: one should realize that what is now called BIM has been around in the industry for quite some time. It might not have had the BIM term applied to it but there was a building being modeled in 3D with information embedded into the electronic media which was leveraged towards a wholistic project approach. I believe 20 to 25 years ago is when this logic really hit the market in the form of software. It wasn't until recently when Autodesk turned out its marketting juggernauts that this logic had a single, recognizable, industry-wide accepted term associated with it.

My point is this: don't get stuck on the labels. Think conceptually. What I like about BIM is its concept. It has the potential to give the architect (or engineer) back the power to think architecturally (or engineeringly [I don't know if that's a word]). CAD, in most people's opinion, suffers from a transition of thinking to documenting. Unfortunately, I feel that there has been a major drop off in the thinking aspect. People are succomming to CAD and forgetting the concept to skip straight to the documentation: sometimes in an effort to increase efficiency. If you stay focussed on concepts you may realize that you know BIM more than you think.