BIM is so last year!

BIM, probably has moved to the most commonly used term in the Architecture community in the last few years with the least amount of knowledge behind what BIM actually is.  Just about everyone is on the BIM bandwagon because its the in thing to do, you need to fit in with the jargon and clients are requesting it for their projects.  I believe that most of the individuals using the term BIM are misguided to believe that creating a Revit model with a door schedule is BIM.  The misguided notion is that they created a model and it has information, so it must be BIM.  I don't know about you but there is nothing that I see revolutionary to the practice of Architecture with that mindset. 

Even though some of the projects in my firm are what I would determine BIM, many are what I would call BIM Lite.  These BIM Lite projects are training mechanisms for new users but they still believe that they are doing BIM, really they are just learning Revit.  With the wide misconception of BIM, it is hard to educate users, a firm and the community why they are not actually doing BIM or even what it actually is.  For beginners, it is a process and not something that can be completed solely with a program.  I don't think people will get over their incorrect views until a new "hip" term is coined and BIM becomes so last year!

Here are my Top 10 "You are probably not doing BIM... If"  

1. you have not radically changed how you work.
2. you use a large amount of text.
3. you don't use a ridiculous amount of Shared Parameters.
4. you can't show perspectives of rooms to your client for fear of it not portraying the design.
5. you are scared of sharing your model with contractors.
6. you are more concerned with drawing graphics than data.
7. your team launches AutoCAD as much as Revit.
8. you have data in places that doesn't or cannot interface together.
9. your consultants are not creating data rich models also.
10. you think that just because I mentioned a lot of things about a Revit model, you still believe that Revit = BIM

How about this for a BIM term replacement, DAMMIT (Data And Models Merged Into Technology)

The technology can be anything and will change by project phase but the data and models change and morph.

Comments

[Greg Howes]

Great article. As a builder/fabricator working on a team with fabrication experience on more than 1,000 buildings in 10 countries, I simply couldn't agree with you more. In our experience far too many architects do think Revit=BIM (while actually doing most of their work in sketchup). And for most architects integrated project delivery means they are trying to convince the contractors they work with to also use revit. I am not criticizing revit (we use it every day - along with many other apps), just making clear that there is far more to BIM than purchasing a software application.

Deke Smith, of buildingSMART does a great job of detailing the potential of real BIM and the problems with how it is currently practiced in his book.

http://amzn.to/gy4wzt

Also check the article on "Beyond BIM" on aecbytes.

http://bit.ly/f2sk8c

We are busy applying BIM practicing what we refer to as fabrication information modeling. There are many others successfully doing the same. Some will be at the free conference on digital manufacturing that take place at SCI-Arc in L.A. on March 25-26th. Information here:

http://www.sciarc.edu/lectures.php?id=1902

Greg