The ultimate BIM CAVE brings industry one step closer to a virtual building environment
It is possible that an innovation known as the BIM CAVE—short for Building Information Modelling Computer-Aided Virtual Environment— could turn out to be the greatest boon to the design-build process since the introduction of computer-aided drafting—perhaps the greatest ever. The latest iteration of the technology, at Texas A&M University, two decades after an earlier BIM CAVE incarnation at the University of Illinois, has a dozen 46-inch monitors, and with an assist from three computers and some software, can provide the closest thing to the physical experience of a building without actually having to be anywhere near it. “The BIM CAVE gives you the sense of being inside the buildings and its systems, so you can get a lot more information quickly,” says Julian Kang, associate professor in the department of construction science in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M, and head of the team develop ing the BIM CAVE. “For example, the distance from the floor to a valve—you get it right away. It enables people to physically relate themselves to the space.” The BIM CAVE uses Autodesk Navisworks software and allows users to view and analyze large projects and combine models created by other software applications like Revit, Inventor, AutoCAD and others. Three graduate students on the team have developed extra software specifically for the BIM CAVE to control camera perspective and enable the exchange of 102 | Winter 2012
visual information between the computers on the Navisworks platform. Even before a formal unveiling ceremony at Texas A&M in late 2011, the BIM CAVE had caught the attention of two construction companies engaged in campus building projects. They requested use of the BIM CAVE for coordination meetings with subcontractors. “We would like to see how industry can use the BIM CAVE to improve the discussion process, do coordination and help with decisions,” Kang says. “Also, they may be able to test how it is changing the decision process during pre-construction coordination meetings.” A good chunk of time at construction meetings of this sort inevitably deals with potential or existing clash issues. Aided by a big screen at one end of a cramped room in a construction trailer, the various players—from architects to subtraders— sort through the issues one clash at a time. Those whose clash is not currently under review must wait their turn. A BIM CAVE could speed up the process, perhaps cutting the meeting time by more than half. “The BIM CAVE would allow various people to look at various clash issues at the same time,” Kang notes. “More screens means more perspectives. The number of people that could make use of this at once would depend on the number of screens. It can be extended to as many screens and computers as we want.” The necessary computing power is available today in a way it was not back in the
early 1990s, when the BIM CAVE concept was first rolled out. Also, its portability will only improve as hardware continues to diversify and expand. Users and developers will select from flat screens, LCD projectors and other devices, depending on requirements and the available space on construction trailers, Kang says. He emphasizes the speed and range of precise information delivered by the BIM CAVE, and makes the point that immersion into a virtual building that provides an almost-tactile sense of its components and
PhotoS: JOHN PETERS, COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
By Godfrey Budd