BIM in Civil Engineering

Collaboration is something that can be beneficial in many different fields, and the extent of technological advancements that have been achieved in recent years leads to even more possibilities for better communications and easier data sharing. This can also be applied to the construction industry, and the scope of possibilities that modern collaboration methods can provide has led to a new advancement in the industry called BIM.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a comprehensive system that focuses mainly on reaping many benefits that come from advanced collaboration, allowing for the existence of a unified set of 3D models, with little to no separation in between. BIM is all about increasing the efficiency of the project by offering the entire construction process a single unified information source.

This information source is represented by the MEP design. A comprehensive unified source of information allows for the different participants of the project to be able to communicate using the same file formats and thus eliminating the possibility of the project being out of sync in most cases. This kind of synchronization and unification is what BIM is all about in the first place.

At the same time, it’s wrong to say that BIM can only affect the design stage of the project. All of the different phases of the construction can be heavily influenced by the existence of BIM, from early concepts to the post-construction maintenance. The complexity of BIM as a system can be split into several different BIM levels, such as:

• 3D BIM
• 4D BIM
• 5D BIM
• 6D BIM
• 7D BIM

While the meaning of 3D BIM might be somewhat obvious, including three of the usual dimensions of any model, the other levels are a bit more difficult to comprehend. The addition of scheduling and time allocation creates a 4D BIM system, including costs and construction simulations, makes it 5D BIM. On top of that, building performance and energy analysis usually exist in 6D BIM and tasks like maintenance and facility management are on the 7D BIM level.

As it stands, there’s no solution at the moment that can offer a complete 7D BIM experience, but the industry itself grows rapidly and there are some examples of companies offering up to 5D BIM-ready platforms, which is an impressive growth since BIM has become active and popular just a few short years back.

One example of such a solution is offered by Revizto, making all of the different BIM processes cheaper, easier, and faster at the same time. The overall versatility and effectiveness of the solution have earned Revizto a significant amount of popularity in the industry.

Revizto and its capabilities

There’s a lot of MEP-related capabilities and workflows that Revizto’s solution can offer, including:

• Custom parameters
• Project QTO
• Point cloud verification
• Reporting & dashboards
• Status visibility
• Constructability review
• System isolation
• Accountable issue tracking, and so on.

It’s a popular BIM solution that offers a plethora of different features and functions, allowing for calculated and accurate designs in the end. Revizto’s solution helps with creating comprehensive information-rich designs with many different details and nuances – and executing them exactly as planned.

Tracking and implementation

Tracking is extremely important for projects of all sizes since it’s the entire process of analyzing the existing data to make the necessary adjustments to the process if they are needed. Some of the data types that can be analyzed and utilized that way are usage reports, win/loss statistics, various customer feedback, and so on – all of that information can be collected and analyzed to make the outcome of the project even better than before.

Implementation is another significant part of the project’s success since you have to make sure that your employees know what they have to do and know how to do it in the first place. It’s not uncommon for the industry, in general, to provide barely any information before switching staff between different projects, but this hurts the overall efficiency in many different ways when done that way.

This problem is often made worse by the existence of software that can work with multiple projects at once, so it’s a top priority for companies to inform their staff about the changes that are directly related to them to achieve the biggest efficiency in that regard.

Collaboration and fabrication

As we’ve stated before, collaboration is the main focus of BIM as a process. This is why most of the BIM-related software, including Revizto, is focusing heavily on various means of data transfer, communication, compatibility, and so on. IFC-compliant software can be connected directly to the platform, for example, since Revizto easily works with IFC files, exporting or importing them at a moment’s notice.

At the same time, various means of data modification and analysis are made possible by the ability to export the project’s data into different formats, such as Excel spreadsheets, allowing for calculations, formulas, and other operations based on the existing data. Data import back into the system after all of the calculations are done is also supported.

A somewhat more specific feature of Revizto is the ability to access and distribute the information directly from your database, especially when it comes to various parts of the MEP design, such as pipes, fitting, and so on. This entire system makes it way easier to calculate the amount and types of materials that would be needed for the construction, drastically reducing the amount of waste generated in the process.

Clash detection and estimation

Unintentional clashes are relatively common when it comes to MEP design, especially when it comes to bigger projects. Like a lot of the systems out there, Revizto is offering its own solution for collision detection to make sure that all of those problems can be solved at the design stage and not in the middle of actual construction.

Quantity takeoffs are something that’s also important in the construction business, since the entire Revizto system is capable of providing various metrics and information to know exactly how much materials and resources are needed for the project, to make the measurements and the cost estimates as accurate as possible with no mistakes.

MEP and BIM

The design stage is the one that probably benefits the most from the introduction of BIM, and MEP design teams have a much easier time with collaboration, cooperation, and so on. A significant part of it is automatic clash detection, but there are also other benefits that Revizto can provide to MEP designers, too:

• MEP layouts. Clash detection makes it way easier to create much more energy-efficient layouts with many different advantages.
• Interdisciplinary documentation. This one ties back into the general cooperation advantage, making it easier to coordinate interdisciplinary activities, wasting fewer resources, and having barely any reworks.
• Facility maintenance. The existence of a single digital system that can monitor various parameters of an already created building makes it easier for MEP contractors to maintain different systems throughout the warranty period.

Conclusion

Numerous advantages of BIM for engineers have already cemented its position as the future for the construction industry (and civil engineering, as well), and a lot of platforms like Revizto are attempting to make the transition as easy as possible for everyone. The future in the form of end-to-end BIM is as close as it gets, with many companies already using BIM platforms for prolonged periods of time.

Revizto can help with saving money, time and effort by leveraging various advantages that BIM can offer to construction businesses within a single unified environment, such as fast and easy data exchange, collaboration, productivity software, and so on.