A TOOL FOR AUTOMATING BIM MODEL ELEMENTS TABLE CREATION FROM INTENDED BIM USES AND MILESTONES

Industry, such as the need for increased productivity and construction waste reduction. However, in order to do so, adequate guidelines must shape how the BIM methodology is conducted throughout the project lifecycle: what... [ view full abstract ]

Industry, such as the need for increased productivity and construction waste reduction. However, in order to do so, adequate guidelines must shape how the BIM methodology is conducted throughout the project lifecycle: what workflows should be followed, what are the expected uses, how the information will be exchanged and what properties should be included in the model. For many companies, the initial barrier of producing guidelines that are suited for their workflow is very laborious to overcome, which often causes this step to be neglected, resulting in poor outcomes, as produced BIM models are not adequate for intended uses. A particularly important document for achieving this is the Model Elements Table/Matrix or Model Exchange Table (MET), “a table used to identify the party responsible for generating and managing BIModels and at what Level of Development. A Model Elements Table typically includes a list of Model Components in the x-axis and Project Milestones (or Project Lifecycle Phases) in the y-axis”. Hence, this paper proposes a tool to facilitate the creation of such document, focusing on aiding BIM managers on the task of creating modeling guidelines according to intended BIM uses on proposed milestones. While there are a number of publications aimed at establishing guidelines describing how to prepare a MET, this can be a complex task even for experienced BIM managers, as it involves determining appropriate LODs (Levels of Detail) and LOIs (Levels of Information) for each intended BIM use at each project milestone. The proposed tool is a web application which converts the user input – a matrix specifying intended BIM uses at project each milestone/phase – into a formatted guideline document that specifies at what level of detail model elements must be created and what information they must carry along the project development. This tool uses knowledge from several sources to correlate BIM uses x project phases x LOD x LOI x components.  It is a customizable tool, allowing users to edit the database to change the aforementioned correlations to their companies' specific needs.

The research was developed according to the Constructive Research methodology, which is useful for the development of innovative artifacts. The validation process consisted on applying the tool on a real project in a company that procures BIM projects and already had its own BIM mandate, in order to gauge how the proposed tool compared to their current workflow.

The research aimed to determine the applicability of the tool, the validity of the correlations defined and if there are any excess information or gaps it might have not addressed. These were evaluated on a test case, by comparing the tool-generated MET to the manually generated guidelines of the respondent company.