PRESENTATION READY

Prior to the creation of BIM, architects would work internally in 2-D and only generate 3-D views or renderings when it came time to make a presentation. In essence, this would limit the times that architects would interact with their clients because they would have to switch from “work” mode to “presentation” mode, explains Murphy.

“Since we are almost always ‘presentation ready,’ this means that we can convene design meetings at short notice, even with clients who aren’t nearby. Instead of having two or three meetings in schematic design, with an engaged client, we might be checking in with a quick walkthrough of the BIM model once a week,” he says.

Another tool architects are taking advantage of is rendering engines, which are now available inside the BIM workflow, obviating the need to export models.

“This has made had a significant impact on our workflow,” confirms Ogrydziak. “Now, we can make publication-quality renderings extremely quickly. Because these rendering engines can simulate natural and artificial lighting effects, we are able to both analyze and share the feel of a space with a level of accuracy that was previously unavailable, and without needing to laboriously export the model to specialized rendering software. For those clients who prefer still renders to the live model, this rendering engine is a critical tool.”

Beyond end-users, all project stakeholders find these advanced model rendering, sharing, and viewing options beneficial.

For example, S.E.A. is currently working on a complex residence with many double-curved walls. Due to the nature of the design, exporting sections is not the best way to enable the team’s mechanical and structural engineers to understand the space. However, with the aid of a BIM viewer, they can fully understand the complex spaces and offer better-informed ideas about appropriate engineering designs and systems.

In other words, clear communication with mechanical and structural engineers enables early clash detection.

In terms of building team communication and collaboration, BIM viewers offer enhanced, highly efficient project interactions.

“With access to both rendered 3-D model and 2-D drawings of all of our projects on an iPad, the technology allows us to essentially have a mobile office,” notes Adler. “We can make presentations or have meaningful discourse about a project, pretty much anywhere.”

For larger project meeting groups, designers can supplement iPads or Android devices with an HDMI cable, which turns any TV into a screen. In cases where a TV is not available, phone-sized projectors can be used instead.

On a current project, the contractor working with Design Associates Architects had been relying on a BIM viewer to carefully study and understand the structure’s complex structural system.

“We had an online meeting with the structural engineer some time back to review a couple of connections, and having him bring up a 3-D assembly on the screen to a room full of nodding heads was huge,” explains Lee.

RESIDENTIAL BIM

Beyond BIM mobile, BIM technology itself goes a very long way toward establishing an efficient workflow for complex residential projects.

While BIM proffers quite a list of benefits, perhaps the most common one praised by small architecture firms is how BIM takes out all the painstaking, tedious details involved in ensuring that one design change is reflected in all the project’s document sets.

“If there is one thing I love about BIM, it’s that it eliminates most of the painful coordination problems that plague any complex drawing set,” states Murphy. “I’m talking about basic stuff, such as detail tags that automatically adjust when you move a drawing to a different sheet, door and window schedules that are always current, and intersections of complex roofs that always show correctly on section views.”

By consolidating an entire project into a single file driven from a 3-D model, not only is the manpower required to propagate design changes significantly reduced, but the potential for errors is significantly reduced, and architects are freed up to spend more time on the creative process.

Pointing out another benefit leveraged by BIM’s effortless ability to automate changes across the board, Murphy says it allows designers to make changes much later in the design process without having to redo a lot of work.

For example, architects typically don’t look at the trim and waterproofing details around the windows until late in the construction document phase and long after the window dimensions would have been ‘locked down’ in the pre-BIM days.

“Imagine that while putting together 90 percent of the CD set, we discover that we really need to increase the metal trim above a window from 2 inches to 3 inches for some technical reason, but this extra inch means that the head trim no longer aligns with the adjacent horizontal panel joints,” explains Murphy.

“With BIM, I can just make the window itself 1 inch shorter directly from the detail or elevation view, knowing that this will be instantly reflected in the schedules, the window head height on the wall sections, and other portions of the drawing set,” he continues. “To me, that represents a new kind of design freedom, the ability to circle back, to allow your late discoveries to inform your prior decisions without paying a huge time penalty.”

Looking at a typical project from more of an overall perspective, Guy W. Peterson, FAIA, Office for Architecture (OFA), Sarasota, Florida, points out that the time spent building a 3-D model and studying various design solutions in schematic design allows for a seamless transition into design development and quick execution of necessary design revisions leading into subsequent phases. Unlike the pre-BIM sequential and fragmented way of doing things, the BIM workflow is streamlined because everything builds upon prior phases in an efficient way.

Of course, another commonly quoted BIM benefit is enhanced communication. Never has an architect’s design intent been so clearly and accurately communicated than with a model.

“Being able to clearly communicate complex designs to all the members of the project team eliminates a huge amount of ambiguity regarding our design intent and allows everyone to communicate more efficiently than in the past,” agrees Ogrydziak.

Rather than trying to “tell the story” through a series of separate drawings, engineers and contractors can much more clearly see what the architect has in mind by looking at a 3-D model.

Image courtesy of Design Architects Associates

For this Design Architects Associates’ high-end, custom residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, BIM presentation software helped the client envision the semi-enclosed look providing a sense of shelter, as intended by the architect.