BIM Now For The Future

Building Information Models (BIM) is becoming the normal way for creating design drawings for pump stations and treatment plant facilities, but are we getting the most out of these models that we can? This session will show ways that the BIM model can be used to improve the quality of the design before construction, along with techniques for using the model after construction for asset management and creation of digital twins. By implementation of the standards discussed, owners will be able to see cost savings with reduced change orders during construction and time savings in transferring data to their asset management software. With every discipline creating 3D elements in a BIM model, it becomes easy to cut sections anywhere in the model to check for coordination issues between disciplines. However, running a more formal clash detection using a software like Autodesk Navisworks, finding these coordination issues becomes an easy way to document and track these clashes through the design life of a project. These reports can also be submitted to the client to verify the quality of the design coordination on a project. Running clash detection multiple times during a project will help to catch interferences that can result in costly change orders and delays during construction to get resolved. In addition to running clash detection on the BIM models, bringing them into a virtual reality (VR) environment and walking through them as a design team or with the client can be a major benefit on a project. Sometimes it is hard to pick up all the details of a large project when flipping between drawings from multiple disciplines to get a true understanding of the design intent. Walking through a model in VR can save hours of time in review and make the project much easier to understand. Having the engineering staff and maintenance crew walk through the model can provide valuable information about preferences that can make the final construction easier to maintain throughout its life. Besides using the BIM model to improve the overall design and construction, it can be used to help maintain the facility throughout its life. Whether it is used to create the basis for a digital twin or simply to populate data in an asset management software, the information stored in the model can be exported for use after design. With all the information that goes into the model there is no sense in having to input it again into another platform when it can easily be exported into a format that can be used by an asset management software. Any of the major BIM authoring tools can have custom parameters added for any piece of equipment or anything else that an owner would like to track in their management system in the future. Examples of this procedure from complete projects will be demonstrated in the presentation. Planning for the asset management part of the project during design can save hours of data transfers after construction. When it comes to creating a digital twin of the facility the BIM model has more value than the information as it also provides the geometry. A digital twin is a digital replica of the physical plan that has embedded information included. That information can be asset information as previously described for an asset management program, operations manuals and design specifications, work order histories, or even live links to data readouts from equipment sensors. Whatever the level of digital twin created, the foundation will come directly from the BIM model. Incorporating clash detection, virtual reality reviews, and asset management planning during the design phase of a project will save the owners time and money. Money will be saved by reducing construction change orders and data entry into asset management systems. Time will be saved in construction with less downtime due to changes. Therefore, we need to think about BIM now to plan for the future.