Construction IntelligenceLet the data tell the story

Part 1: 4D Construction Planning

Building projects are becoming increasingly demanding and complex. There have been reports of common issues with construction projects emerging from a poor and inadequate connection between the design and construction stages owing to inefficient data and information transfer.

1. What is 4D Planning?

BIM stands for Building Information

Modelling, and it is a word used to describe an intelligent 3D model-based method for designing and building infrastructure. The rapid implementation of project management and BIM has led to tremendous growth in architectural/ structural design and facility management, and the development of newer 4D Planning allows managers to project managers, engineers, technicians, and other project team members collaborate, communicate, and reduce risk throughout the project lifecycle Project Planning and Management Following BIM standards, one of BIM applications are 4D Planning and Scheduling. Insufficient construction quality and inadequate planning and scheduling can be alleviated by integrating BIM into the initial design processes with accurate and usable construction project data. To mimic the sequence diagram of construction tasks and activities, it is possible to create a 4D model of a project, providing stakeholders with a visual and virtual picture of the construction process.

1.1. Why do we need 4D BIM?

Designers, engineers, and planners have used 4DBIM to optimize designs, analyse project planning capabilities, and manage resource requirements. According to BIM principles, 4D planning and planning are examples of BIM applications. By incorporating BIM in the initial design phase, poor construction quality and inefficient construction planning can be reduced combined with analysing the impact of delays on project progress and tracking the actual progress of project progress by specifying material handling and site logistics, improving construction efficiency. The optimization of on-site construction performance can be facilitated by integrating BIM and scheduling. The contractor’s procurement team can use 4DBIM planning to create practical risk mitigations. In addition, the 4DBIM tool facilitates the application of effective risk reduction methods throughout the procurement phase of a construction project, allowing for better resource allocation, construction material logistics, etc. Better supply chain management and risk reduction.

1.2. 4D Planning role

The usage of 4D BIM to speed up the scheduling and planning stages of the construction process is quite advantageous. In the construction business, the visual step-by-step approach comprises a variety of time related information, such as leadtime, construction, and installation time, drying and mixing allowances, and so on. Consequently, any required changes can be implemented, and inconsistencies may be identified. A well-planned construction schedule also provides for resource mobility, better resource planning, and the most effective use of resources. Finally, collaboration increases since everyone involved in the project understands what they`re working on and when they`re working on it.

The growing use of 4D modelling in construction projects demonstrates the value of incorporating these capabilities into recent digital management systems, which include role reorganisation, workflows, and practises, to provide a tool for onsite monitoring and constructability analysis of construction progress. Acquiring the following three critical talents can create the 4DBIM, such as, 1) visualisation of spatial and temporal relationships between construction project activities, 2) analysis of the construction programme to evaluate implementations, and 3) error reduction via construction schedule validation to improve the integrity of communications and collaborations among project team members.

To optimise the building process, 4D simulation allows for the analysis of many possibilities. With the potential to utilise BIM to simplify the establishment of linkages between activities and 3D models. 4D Building Information Modelling allows you to connect points between the building components of the building model and planning the work plan that accompanies them and estimate when and on what components will be needed to install the site. You can add parameters to building model components to help you track ordered supplies.

1.3. 4D Planning Applications

To track construction progress, 4DBIM is combined with pre-built images using timelapse photography used to communicate, interact, and gain final approval of the design and construction sequence throughout the planning phase. 4DBIM was created to integrate BIM into project schedules to improve the communication of planning and construction sequences. 4DBIM is provided as a useful tool for identifying construction risks early in the design and planning stages of construction projects so that measures can be proactively taken to eliminate them on site and prepare to allocate security resources.

2. Advantages of Integrating 4D Planning in Construction Projects

The advantages to the owner in terms of time and money, as well as the unknown costs that were minimised through visualisation, coordination, realisation, and detection of disputes and conflicts, were significant. Some unfavourable project planning concerns or dangers, such as 1) inadequate papers and design 2) multiple uncoordinated consultants, can be regulated or minimised by adopting BIM technology.3) field construction prior to design; 4) frequent design/scop adjustments and continuous design evolution by the owner. One of the most important advantages is the elimination of conflict between manufacturers and designers in the final product. The second major benefit is that it simplifies the procurement process since a unified BIM system may help with design coordination from the start of the project.

Improve and maintain coordinated communication, build integrated construction planning and scheduling, identify time-based conflicts, track, and monitor project progress during construction. It should be mentioned that the advantages are highly dependent on BIM implementation, which is influenced by a number of elements including personal commitments, mutual trust/respect, early project team engagement, and BIM technical capabilities. 4D environment planning aids in the planning and management of construction phases such as logistics and operations. In addition, the creation of 4DBIM enables for the status, monitoring, and updating of construction progress. 4DBIM technology is commonly used to create technical and economic documents, such as project schedules, which can be submitted for construction project tenders. Visualizing work schedules allows for better control and management of projects at various stages. Other benefits of using 4D-BIM include fair distribution of labour, minimizing interference between different constructions, and avoiding unwanted overlap between different construction sectors.

3. Potential Risks of Integrating 4D Planning in Construction Projects

Contractual risk and technical risk are two types of BIM risk. The first concern is the lack of ownership of BIM data, as well as the contractual risk is deciding who will be responsible for importing BIM data into the model and ensuring its accuracy and consistency. Other aspects of BIM are cost and schedule, contractual obligations and accompanying technology that will become concerns. Before commencing a construction project, many contract managers require subcontractors to provide route method design and associated labour costs. One of the most effective strategies for mitigating these risks is effective collaboration to share the risks of using BIM across projects participants. Specific benefits of BIM in the construction industry. The absence of a complex dispute resolution process can pose risks when implementing BIM.

4. Commercial aspects

There are many costs and training time risks associated with the learning curve, which significantly reduces employee productivity and performance. Many companies worry about wasting money and time training their workforce costs, thus increasing the risk of BIM implementation. The problem of BIM hindering profitability in the construction industry is well known. Insufficient standards and safeguards for BIM implementation expose all project participants to additional risk. Since there is no standard contract template, the adoption of BIM will be uncertain and challenging when integrating BIM/4DBIM into Contract Risk and Technical Risk which are two types of BIM risks. The first concern is the lack of ownership of BIM data, as well as copyright protection and other laws. Another contractual risk is deciding who will be responsible for importing BIM data into the model and ensuring its accuracy and consistency.

Other aspects of BIM are cost and schedule, contractual obligations and accompanying technology that will become concerns. Before commencing a construction project, many contract managers ask subcontractors to provide a complete design of the key routing methods and associated labour costs. One of the most effective strategies for mitigating these risks is effective collaboration to share the risks of using

BIM across projects. Misunderstanding BIM as a management barrier can have consequences, such as hindering BIM achievements and special interests in the construction industry. The lack of a complex dispute resolution process can lead to risks when implementing BIM. There are many risks in terms of training cost and time regarding the learning curve, which significantly reduces employee productivity and performance.

If you are reading this article, then probably you want to implement BIM within your organization. You could be a developer, consultant, contractor, manufacturer, supplier, operator, etc. You know that BIM is the future and sooner or later you need to implement it, but how?

In this article I am going to list down 5 main steps that illustrate how to start using BIM within your organization. Am I missing something here? Oh yes, I forgot the typical cliché question .. What’s BIM??

BIM in my understanding is ‘A holistic process of creating an intelligent model and managing information, from planning & design to construction & operation, through a collaboration platform, across several dimensions’. What differentiates BIM models from other 3D models is that they are intelligent, and I mean by that, they contain lots of data that makes them very useful in later stages. The creation of BIM models must be carried out within a collaboration platform AKA Common Data Environment (CDE) or as we BIM geeks like to call it a single source of truth. This CDE could be network or cloud based but most importantly is to be collaborative. The function of the model should be clearly defined to determine its BIM uses, and which BIM Dimensions are going to be followed to bridge the gap between the virtual and physical worlds in order to leverage design, construction and operation processes, but that’s another article.

So, let us cut to the chase, what are those 5 steps that will help you initiate your BIM deployment plan. Simply they are: Define, Hire, Evaluate, Strategize and Implement.

First Step: Define

You have to clearly define your BIM goals by asking yourself a direct question. What do I need from BIM? Do I need to increase design quality? Do I need to better coordination between disciplines? Do I need better understanding and visualization for my projects? Do I need to improve communication within my projects? Do I need to be more competitive within the market? All these legitimate questions will help you to better understand your BIM targets and easily create your BIM objectives. Taking into consideration that you might do a breakdown for those objectives to be on short-term and long-term basis in order to maximize the benefits acquired like time, cost and resource savings. While defining their objectives, the organization management must consider tangible business values like reducing cost and increasing profits, and intangible business values like the organization ranking, reputation and stakeholders’ satisfaction.

After having a clear perspective on what are your BIM goals, now let us move to the second step.

How to BIM Start in 5 Steps

Second Step: Hire

If you need to save time you have 2 options, either to hire a BIM consultancy for a limited time to cast the BIM foundations for your organization or hire a BIM Manager with a proven track record to start the journey with you. Option 1 will lead to option 2 in the end, that is why I always prefer to start directly with option 2, but some organizations tend to hire a BIM consultancy in the beginning to avoid the hassle of recruiting a BIM professional without having enough BIM knowledge.

Third Step: Evaluate

The newly hired BIM Consultancy or Manager will be asked to evaluate the current situation. This means current team evaluation by doing interviews, meetings and tests in search for good BIM calibres and believe me you’ll be surprised with the potentials you have within your team. Also, they will liaise with your IT department to evaluate the organization’s current BIM infrastructure i.e. hardware configuration, how many software licenses do we need to buy based on the team evaluation, etc. Also, they will have several meetings with your department heads to get familiarized with your current internal and external workflows trying to find a common ground to implement standardized BIM workflows, of course, this step could take weeks or months depending mainly on the organization scale and manpower.

Upon completion of the evaluation process the BIM Consultancy or manager will generate a report that illustrates the current situation with a clear moving forward based on their evaluation.

Fourth Step: Strategize

Based on the evaluation report done for the team BIM knowledge, organization BIM infrastructure & workflows and in line with the organization BIM objectives. A strategy should be planned with a list of activities prioritized based on the conclusions of the report. For example, the evaluation report will conclude that current engineering team needs training in addition to hiring some new candidates to boost the BIM production. So which activity should be done first? This is something that should be agreed between the organization management and the BIM Manager/ consultant. Also upgrading hardware configuration and purchasing additional software licenses should be liaised with IT department. Developing the organization’s BIM documentation and Library should be included in the strategy as well as drafting the initial BIM organization chart and indicating the roles and responsibilities. The strategy should clearly define a stakeholders engagement plan based on power/interest grid technique and a risk management plan.

After having a clear strategy that is agreed by the organization management with defined activities that are prioritized based on the evaluation report and BIM objectives. You can finally start implementing your strategy. This implementation should be done on a corporate level with interdepartmental engagement and on a project level with all stakeholders engaged as well. Of course, the implementation should be defined with a clear communication management plan incorporating best collaboration approach depending on corporate and project scale.

Fifth Step: Implement

Start your BIM implementation with a pilot project, no matter how big your project is, single discipline or multi discipline, there is a BIM implementation workflow that you can benefit from but ideally the project should include several disciplines to test your team’s coordination skills. The implementation framework will focus on collaboration internally within the organization and externally with stakeholders involved in the project. This pilot project should include measurement at all key stages to really understand how BIM has improved the design and/or construction process. The positive benefits to each stakeholder in the process should also be documented for any return-on-investment calculation. Firms find that the more BIM projects they complete, and the faster and better they complete them, the higher return they get. Just like moving from drawing boards to 2D CAD, moving to BIM may initially lead to some drop in productivity while the system is mastered. To assist with this, it is recommended that the initial pilot project team does not work on traditional 2D CAD projects and BIM projects simultaneously, which could be counterproductive to learning the new system.

Conclusion

Resistance to change is a common human trait. So, moving to BIM requires the positive support of management and key staff, together with setting the right expectations at the start of the process, formulating a road map, and ensuring the appropriate level of training for employees. By starting small and building confidence, and increasing core capabilities and experience, the transition to BIM will accelerate with each new project.

Who we are

Camilion is a young company based in Barcelona that focuses on bringing automation solutions to the AEC industry. Our goal is to help you make the most of your time by providing software solutions that range from software integrations (plugins) to strategic consulting services.

The beginnings

I remember the day I learned that it was possible to customize Revit’s interface. Just the idea of having a custom toolbar with the name of my company and a bunch of buttons inside was so exciting! A new world of possibilities opened before me, and I started to daydream of all the cool things I could add to my very own toolbar to solve the many challenges me and my colleagues were facing on a daily basis!

Of course, the second thought that popped up in my mind was the question: ‘But how does it work?’

In this article you’ll get a quick overview of how Revit plugins work and useful resources for learning more technical stuff regarding this process.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a tutorial, it’s an overview of how the process works. If you’re already a developer or you’ve worked with Revit’s API, most of the concepts outlined here will already be known to you.

Not all buttons are the same

The first thing to acknowledge is that there are different ways of creating your customized toolbars in Revit. Two other common ways include using PyRevit and Nonica. PyRevit is a plugin that let’s you write your code in Python to create buttons with custom functionality, while Nonica is a plugin that allows you to link your Dynamo scripts to buttons in your UI.

In this article we’ll talk exclusively about creating Revit plugins by writing code in C# language and compiling a .dll (we’ll explain what this means later).