The Path To Bim Automation

Ten years ago, the lack of programming expertise was one of the main obstacles to implement BIM automation in most AECOO companies. Only large corporations with enough resources could employ coding gurus to rethink, develop and deploy custom tools that could enhance and automate their processes.

Nonetheless, in the last 5 years, visual programming tools, such as Dynamo, have democratised BIM automation among non-programming experts. Masters in coding from all around the globe have been making open-source contributions enabling less experience professionals to automate their own complex workflows. Programming is no longer about typing code but rather about connecting existing nodes or functions that contain short pieces of code.

Visual programming tools and independent packages have enabled hundreds of thousands of building professionals to develop algorithms from a user-friendly development framework. The range of applications is as wide as in any other programming language, in fact you can even type Python code within a custom Dynamo node. Thus, my presentation in BIM Coordinator Summit 2022 will dive in some of the most promising applications of Dynamo (such as 4D simulation, parametric design or data management) with sample scripts developed at Nonica.io and linked to the packages we make most use of.

The potential of Dynamo to flexibly manage data have brought Revit into an interesting central position to cluster all BIM information. For instance, regarding 4D simulation, exporting and importing

BIM models to Navisworks or other similar BIM management software will bring scheduling information into an environment from which information is very difficult to be retrieved. In contrast, 4D simulations can be done with the help of Dynamo and scheduling information can be stored and managed within Revit in order to carry out other time-related analysis such as cash flow analysis or material reception schedules. Nevertheless, benefits at scale would only be reached when algorithms are used widely not only by Dynamo developers but also by average BIM modelers in Autodesk Revit. However, when professionals attempt to share scripts at scale, significant obstacles appear; on one hand, Dynamo packages by independent developers required to be installed and updated in every machine in order to execute the custom functions which is very time consuming, on the other hand, the accessibility to scripts is not straightforward and requires several clicks and search or scrolling. In fact, these have been two of the most recurring topics in forums and they would also be addressed in my presentation in this event. Additionally, analysing how and who run certain automation scripts within an office can be of tremendous value for the automation strategy of a company. Imagine being able to find who is not making use of scripts because they don´t know how, in this case, timely professional training would make companies save money and increase the effectiveness of their strategies. Moreover, there could be scripts that are run with errors in some projects and needs updating, or not run at all by a group of professionals, because they simply don´t carry out certain BIM tasks. For them, it would be logical to implement a different set of custom functions that they could make use of. Therefore, deployment tools capable of gathering and managing all this data have emerged enabling data driven decisions across BIM projects and companies. These are only a few examples of the potential of data analytics which have already been unleashed in other industries. This is the natural next step. Finally, it is important to underline that BIM automation is not only about automating tedious functions but also about generating automated designs that can foster the creativity of the designer. The basis for a generative design is a parametric design, a design based on parameters. Thus, alternative designs are calculated by sampling all the value combinations of parameters within the specified ranges. Although generative design is for most professionals unknown or in an experimental phase, it is an emerging trend that can significantly improved design quality and work efficiency.