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Sep
15
2008

I want so bad to beleive in BIM now (electrical firm)

Posted by Robert

I have worked for a resller and was involved with Revit MEP (then called Revit Systems) and now work for a large electrical design-build. The program is seriously lacking in content for the electrical firms to embrace and that there are severe limitations to have the program do what we need it to do to be able to create a set of drawings that would need approval of the AHJ. I understand all too well that the BIM products are not CAD. I understand the limitations that CAD has and BIM products like Revit MEP have to improve upon CAD. I feel that all of the benefits that the movers and skakers are touting dont work in the real world at least on the electricl side. So much of what we do is dia-grammtical and there is no way for instance to tie our one-line power diagrams in to the model. The lighting calcualtions are of no real value to electrical engineers so we still need to do the calculations outside of Revit. I have every reason to believe that the BIM is the future. What I am having a real hard time with is if that time is now. On many occasions I have spoken with Architects and tried to inform them on how young and incomplete the Revit MEP (BIM product ) really is, where as the Revit Architecture/ Structure are well developed. So what happens MANY electrical firms are faking it by doing most of the work in AutoCAD and importing it into Revit. My other issue is that our industry throws around BIM and a larger portion of the industry still are ill-informed just what that means. I have been in several key meetings where the General and the Arch stated this was going to be a BIM only project only where in truth it was just 3D coordination which I can easily do in CAD, not that I would want to. The issue 3D coordination ISNT BIM. I want to believe, again having woked hand-in-hand with Autodesk, only to feel like the industry isnt nearly as ready as it beleives it is. I have felt on many occasions where Autodesk didnt help and the folks that tried have been out of the industry so long there examples on how to intregrate BIM are unrealsitic. I know BIM is the future but how can it help my company now? I want to be able to inform my company in a manner that is honest, whetehr good or bad.

   
Reply posted on 01 May 2009 04:20 PM
Stephen Carr

Robert - I own an electrical estimating and project management firm, and have been keeping an eye on this buzzword (BIM) for some time. For reference, we prepare electrical estimates in the $30,000 to $30,000,000 range. We have customers of all sizes, in 27 states.

Do you still feel the same way now about BIM as you did last year. If not, what has changed?

As of today, I do not see this technology coming down to the majority of electrical contractors for another decade, if ever. From an estimators point of view, document quality has been declining for the 38 years I have been in the industry. I do not believe electrical estimators will benefit from BIM on most projects, as the engineers will not want to expend the effort, or incur the liability to prepare these models. As you mentioned, our documents are diagrammatic.

From what I am seeing, BIM is being used only by the largest of contractors, on the largest of projects. In a week of searching the internet, I have not been able to find an electrical contractor getting any benefit from BIM

Some I have talked to believe it will first be used for as-builts, maybe within the next decade.

If you see this reply, I would like to here from you. It seems like you are already dealing with the issues that may confront my firm in the up-coming decade.

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