BIM for Construction

"Vico’s Virtual Construction Software suite consists of six integrated solutions that are designed specifically to bring the benefits of BIM to construction companies. At the hub of the suite is Constructor, a dedicated construction modeling application that covers architectural, structural and MEP modeling, allowing contractors to create detailed Virtual Building models of their projects. The main difference between these models and the BIM models you can create with individual disciplinary tools such as Revit Architecture, Tekla Structures, ArchiCAD, and so on is that an object in Constructor includes a detailed “construction recipe” that specifies various quantities and scheduling related attributes relevant to construction. Also, in Constructor, you would typically build the model as it would actually be built in the real world, for which a knowledge of construction is absolutely essential. Once the model is created, quantity-takeoff is automatically available and is quick and accurate. The extracted quantity and location data serves as input to two of the other applications in the Virtual Construction suite, Vico Estimator for generating cost estimates, and Vico Control for create project schedules. What is also impressive is the enormous flexibility in which the project can be broken down for estimating and scheduling—by floor, by zone, by building, by discipline, by material, by element type, by location, and so on (see Figure 2). This allows for extensive “what-if” analysis, and allows the construction team to explore many budgeting, scheduling, and procurement options, including those related to lean construction and fast-track construction. They can also effectively leverage the use of the 5D Presenter tool for this purpose, which is another tool in the Virtual Construction suite. It combines the building model data along with schedules and cost information to provide a unified and interactive 5D simulation of the project’s progress. Rounding off the suite are two additional applications: Cost Manager, which allows visual monitoring of the differences between the project budget and actual cost; and Change Manager, which automates the process of checking for drawing revisions across construction drawing sets." to find out more...

Passage & Image from http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2008/issue_33.html by Lachmi , founder and editor of AECbytes, Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology