Tools for BIM

BIM is an evolving process. Tools and technologies that facilitate BIM, are also constantly evolving. Following are a few resources that may guide you to some of the widely used BIM software tools.

G2-Crowd review of BIM tools	Comparison of different BIM software solutions based on user’s reviews.
Autodesk solutions for BIM	Autodesk software solutions of BIM for architecture, structure, MEP, civil infrastructure, construction and mechanical plants.
Nemetschek solutions for BIM	Nemetschek’s software solution for different BIM applications.
Bentley solutions for BIM	Bentley’s BIM modeling and visualization solution
Digital Project	Gehry Technologies’ software solution for BIM modeling
13 Free and Open source BIM software tools	H2S media team lists some of the open software tools available for BIM.
30 Useful websites by Arch2o	Arch2o shares the list of resources useful for BIM Design Software users.

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BIM vs 3D CAD

3D Modelling is at the heart of Building Information Modelling (BIM). But often, it is misunderstood as traditional 3D CAD modelling. While Computer Aided Design and Drafting has brought significant advancements in how AEC industry has been delivering the projects over the last 30 years; Building Information Modelling takes the industry a step ahead from CAD. Explore what the industry professionals have to say about the difference between 3D CAD and BIM.

BIM vs 3D CAD
What’s the Difference between BIM and CAD?	Dave Bandi explains in his article published on LinkedIn, how 3D BIM modelling is different from traditional 3D CAD modelling approach.
BIM vs CAD: What’s the Difference?	Dan Taylor explains in Capterra Construction Management Blog, the difference between CAD and BIM, and why should a construction manager care?
BIM vs. CAD… What’s the difference?	Charlie Jurgens explains in Akitabox blog about the definitions, applications and practical uses of CAD and BIM, in relation to facility management.
Isn’t BIM just 3D CAD?	Dr Stephen Hamil explains in his article published on National Building Specification(NBS), how BIM is not just 3D CAD and how master specification systems make a huge contribution to the ‘I’ in BIM.

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BIM Roles and Responsibilities

Behind every machine, there is a man. Behind every successful BIM project, there is a competent BIM team.

To achieve the BIM goals identified in the BIM execution plan for your project, it is important to identify and prepare the team that is going to take part in it and whether there are necessary resources and skills available or not. So, how should a BIM team be structured? What skills are necessary for each role? What responsibilities does each member of the team must take? Following are some documents that will guide you while developing your BIM team.

BIM Roles and Responsibilities
BIM Roles and Competences by BIR	Bouw Informatie Raad (BIR) explains the most common BIM roles in the Dutch construction sector and the accompanying competences expected from the employees.
BIM Titles and Job Descriptions: How Do They Fit in Your Organizational Structure?	In this Autodesk University lesson plan, a leading design/build firm showcases how BIM positions fit in their architecture, engineering, and construction organizational structure. It breaks down each role’s job description, key responsibilities, expectations and technology tools.
BIM Roles and Responsibilities	The VA (Department of Veteran Affairs) BIM Guide lists different roles in a BIM team and responsibilities of each role.
Individual BIM Competency	The article by BIM ThinkSpace discusses BIM Capability/Maturity assessment and focuses on the BIM competency of individuals engaged in managing, facilitating and delivering model-based projects.
BIM Knowledge and Skills Framework by ACIF and APCC	The framework, published by Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF) and Australasian Procurement and Construction Council(APCC) provides guidance about the required skills and education relevant to BIM for a broad range of industry stakeholders.
Common BIM Roles and their Responsibilities	Eng. Sharaf Abdulkader presents on Qatar BIM User Day about the different roles and responsibilities in a BIM team.

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Project Delivery Strategies

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Simply bringing a group of people together does not necessarily ensure that they will function effectively as a team. Lack of organization, misunderstanding, poor communication and inadequate participation can all lead to problems and difficulties which ultimately brings poor value to the client. In the ‘BIM Contracts and Legal Issues‘ we saw some of the legal issues that can arise when BIM is not mitigated well. What then is the best way to bring different participants in the project together and use BIM effectively? Here, we explore different project delivery methods/procurement strategies and what do they mean for a BIM project.

Project Delivery Methods and BIM
Measuring the Impact of BIM in Design-Bid-Build	This case-study presentation will discuss and analyse the impact of BIM as applied in design-bid-build of a rural, public, higher education facility.
Design/Build and BIM Meet	Jeff Gavin explores in his article how design-build and BIM together are bringing together all who has a stake in the project’s success in the same bucket.
IPD and BIM: A new dimension to collaboration	Lindsay Stirton explores in this article, the option of using BIM under an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) contracting model.
Collaborative Project Delivery	Collaborative project delivery methods such as design-build, integrated project delivery (IPD), and public-private partnerships (PPP) are gaining ground on traditional approaches. Learn more about these approaches with Autodesk.
How to setup a project organization structure to enhance collaboration for a BIM-enabled construction project commissioned by the private sector?	A research paper by Bansri Pandey, explores the impact on BIM by employing different project delivery methods.

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BIM Contracts and Legal Issues

While planning for BIM, it is necessary to understand the constraints and obligations that follow it in order to plan and manage them. Following are some of the documents that help understand the legal issues that follow a BIM implementation and how to develop contract documents that include BIM addressing these issues.

BIM Legal Issues
BIM: recognising your obligations and limitations	This article considers two examples where discrepancies and misalignment of obligations can emerge in contract documentation if parties are not careful when assembling their contracts: the CIC BIM Protocol and Government Soft Landings.
BIM: mapping out the legal issues	Koko Udom, in the article published at NBS, intends to achieve two purposes in this article: the first is to outline the legal issues that may occur in adopting the BIM process and the second is to expand the discourse on the appropriate approach for adopting BIM in the UK in light of these legal issues.
An Investigation into the Legal Issues Relating to Building Information Modelling	The paper published by RICS, explores the findings gathered from a web-based survey of the top 100 UK construction companies, revealing the some of the legal issues relating to BIM adoption.
BIM Legal and Insurance Issues	A presentation by Michael D. Hastings and Brian P. Clifford at BIM Forum.
BIM legal issues from a practical perspective	This article provides an interesting overview of the management processes Nunelah Design Consultants have instituted to support the legal responsibilities while adopting BIM in their projects.
BIM Contracts
CIC BIM Protocol BIM Protocol FAQs	The BIM Protocol is a supplementary legal agreement that is incorporated into professional service appointments and construction contracts by means of a simple amendment.
Consensus Docs 301 – Building Information Modeling (BIM) Addendum	The first standard contract document that globally addresses legal and administration issues associated with using BIM. An overview of the BIM Addendum discussing its drafting process and the specific rights and obligations set forth, can be found in this article.
AIA E202-2008 Building Information Modeling Protocol Exhibit	E202 defines the extent to which model users may rely on model content, clarifies model ownership, sets forth BIM standards and file formats, and provides the scope of responsibility for model management from the beginning to the end of the project.

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BIM Standards

BIM is a collaborative process and involves many stakeholders in a project. Without agreeing upon a common project standard between all stakeholders about how to implement BIM, it can give rise to chaos, misunderstandings, legal battles and loss of productivity. Various countries have taken leadership in establishing national BIM standards in order to implement BIM on a national scale. These standards differ from each other based on their context, practices and industry requirements. Following is a list of some of these BIM standards which can be used as reference to develop one’s own project specification as per the need of the project.

USA
National BIM Standard-United States® (NBIMS-US™) Version 3 (V3)	Following a multi-year effort, the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART alliance® released the latest edition of the nation’s consensus-based standard governing building information modeling (BIM) in July, 2015.
BIM Manual v2.0	BIM Manual published by Department of Veteran Affairs, USA.
IU BIM Guidelines & Standards for Architects, Engineers, and Contractors	BIM guideline and standards developed by Indiana University.
BIM Guidelines and Standards for Architects & Engineers	BIM guidelines published by Division of Facilities Development, Department of Administration, State of Wisconsin.
UK
British Standards and Publicly Available Specifications for BIM	The BIM Level 2 suite of documents has been developed to help the UK construction industry adopt BIM Level 2.
AEC (UK) BIM Protocol	BIM protocols have been developed by AEC (UK) BIM committee to realize a unified, usable, co-ordinated approach to BIM in a project environment.
PAS 1192-2:2013 Specification for information management for the capital/delivery phase of construction projects using building information modelling	PAS 1192-2 specifies requirements for achieving building information modelling (BIM) Level 2.
Hong Kong
HKIBIM Standard	The Hong Kong Institute of Building Information Modeling’s BIM Standard establishes a process for adopting BIM on building projects.
Australia
NATSPEC National BIM Guide	The National Building Specification’s National BIM Guide is a suite of documents that can be used to implement BIM on a project.
National guideline for digital modelling	These National Guidelines and Case Studies for Digital Modelling are the outcomes from one of a number of Building Information Modelling (BIM)-related projects undertaken by the CRC for Construction Innovation.

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BIM Execution Plan

First step to getting started with BIM on your project, is to understand what you want to achieve from BIM and how you can plan for it. Planning for BIM begins with developing a BIM execution plan (BEP), also sometimes known as a BIM implementation plan or BIM deployment plan).

What is a BIM Execution Plan (BEP)?	NBS (National Building Specification for the UK) explores the BEP and how to rise to the challenge of meeting Employer’s Information Requirements (EIRs).
BIM Execution Planning Guide	This Guide provides a structured procedure for creating and implementing a BIM Project Execution Plan. It also contains the BEP template.
BIM Deployment Plan	The Autodesk BIM Deployment Plan offers tools and guidance for building industry professionals interested in implementing BIM.
IU BIM Execution Plan Template	BIM execution plan template developed by Indiana University.
BIM Execution plans that are actually executable	Nick Dyer, presents his experience of working with BIM Execution Plans, at Autodesk University event 2017.

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What is BIM?

The concept of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been around in the construction industry since 1970s. ‘History of BIM‘ highlights more how it evolved over time and came to be the concept as we know it today. Different institutes, professionals and researchers have defined BIM in different ways. Following are some definitions which are widely accepted across the industry. You can also find some opinions about What is BIM from the industry professionals, for you to think about the subject further.

Definition
BIM definition by the NBIMS Project Committee	National Institute of Building Sciences explains what BIM is in their Frequently asked questions.
BIM definition by NBS-UK	National Building Specification for the UK explains the definition of BIM. Also find out what BIM is, as a variety of speakers give their explanation of BIM in a video made by NBS.
What is BIM
BIM 101: What is Building Information Modeling?	Erin Green discusses the definitions, perspectives by different companies and misconceptions around BIM in an article.
What is BIM?	Learn about Autodesk’s perspective on the subject.
A video about What is BIM?	A simple explanation of what is BIM with a video created by bimplicity.

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BIM Uses

We have learnt about what is BIM and some of the benefits of BIM. But how exactly we can use BIM? What are its applications? What can we do with an information rich 3D model? Let’s explore some of the uses/applications of BIM in this module.

Image Courtesy: Bansri Pandey

BIM Uses for different phases of a project, explained in the BIM Execution Planning Guide	There are many different tasks which can benefit from the incorporation of BIM. These benefits are documented as BIM Uses, and this guide includes twenty-five uses for consideration on a project.
The uses of BIM – Classifying and selecting BIM uses. V.0.9, Sep 2013	This document is designed to communicate the BIM Uses classification system and BIM Use Purposes. The first portion of the document introduces the BIM Use classification systems. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the components of the classification system, including the BIM Use Purposes and BIM Use Characteristics
Understanding Model uses	This Model Uses List represents the latest stable taxonomy with 125 Model Uses, organized under 3 Categories and 9 Series.
Implementing Building Information Modelling: a case study of the Barts and London Hospital	A cast study of implementing BIM on two large scale hospitals in UK by major contractor Skanska.
Key BIM use cases for a contractor on large and complex Infrastructure projects	This presentation looks at the key drivers for use of BIM technology in construction. Case studies on Infrastructure projects to demonstrate key uses of BIM as a contractor is presented with an emphasis on how to establish a use case.

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