Thursday, May 19, 2011

Interesting article on a BIM failure

Got this link from my boss about a life science building that wound up in litigation.


After going through what little details were provided, there was one thing that struck me about the project - the lack of communication was singled out as a key reason why the project failed.

So what the heck does that have to do with BIM? This ain't no magic wand - and designers can easily go blindly into a project with the same bad habits they had in plain AutoCAD. The tool doesn't matter - if you fail to communicate, have clear goals and objectives, and knowledgeable leaders involved on the project, you will still fail just as you did in the 2D world.

One of the comments was that everything fit in the chase in the model...well obviously, it didn't - so were they using generic piping, duct without insulation, no conduits, etc. What was missing? Did it not line up from floor to floor? I'd like to know more...there's a reason why we've invested so much time in our libraries, getting as close to industry standards and specs. Reminds me of an architect that not long ago told me that every wall should be 4" wide in the model, and dimensioned to the center...give me a break. If Revit can model accurately, then you should draw it the way it is - which I suspect didn't happen here.

It boils down to this - bad habits easily translate between CAD and BIM packages - and the tools and models are only as good as the information you put into it. IT's like saying the car made me drive home drunk, 'cause I didn't know any other way to get home...geez...

Hey - anybody working on 2012 yet?

5 comments:

Travis said...

Have a job in 2012. Waiting for the first run through for the design of the building. Great features in 12 that I can finally talk about because I am out from my NDA with Autodesk.

Unknown said...

Agree that it's not BIM. You can select and model a door that fits and is spec'd correctly in BIM. But if the design doesn't work for the conditions or I didn't listen to client needs, etc, it's not a BIM failure. BIM doesn't replace poor design skills, BIM only makes good designers better

Michael Jones said...

Garbage in, Garbage out.

Todd M Shackelford said...

David,

How did I miss that you posted this first, and you did a hell of a lot better job of analyzing it.

Well played my friend, well played.

David Butts said...

You know Todd, now that I'm back in the real world, I finally have more time to look at things from the "other" side...and be more objective...but this one bent me the wrong way, and I had to say something...