It started off at first as a well organised and practiced sales pitch with presentations from the head honchos of the Australian and Californian Autodesk bases. But as the day went on we saw very informative demonstrations of new and existing products and came out feeling somewhat inspired as to where building information modelling could take me as a user the company I work for.

Building information among other things is process of creating a central building model that contains all the relevant information that the client, consultants and contractors may need for a particular project. Think of it as creating an ‘Intelligent Model,’ that if constructed correctly can give you information.

This is something we currently do in house but should be exploiting more.

I believe we should be storing as much information inside our models as possible for our use in-house, and possibly using this information as a commodity for external parties rather than using the software as 3D image producer, having said that the 3D aspects have their place.

The downside of constructing this ‘Information Model,’ is being able to firstly obtain all the information required, and being able to manage the resources and time required to collate and input the information into the ‘Intelligent Model.’ This information could firstly include standard items such as; Materials, cost of materials, cost per quantity, make & model of equipment, make & type of materials and items already considered in the standard templates the software provides.

But there are items that can be implemented that we don’t necessarily consider to be an important part of our ‘Information Model,’ such as; average construction times, average manufacturing times, lead times. There are extra items that can be included that cut out the initial reliance of Quantity Surveyors. Information that can help with the scheduling and coordination of trades as well as weights of materials and information that could help with logistics and transport.

All the items mentioned will help in cutting down on the overall project time. Quicker timeframes means the client is prolapsing less $$$.

Another powerful tool that took my attention was the addition of ‘Green Analysis’ programs including, ‘Ecotect,’ and ‘Green Building Studio.’ The benefits of these programs are their ability to continuously evaluate our designs in terms of ongoing running costs from design conception, right through to completion and beyond. It would give us the ability to continuously change items within our designs to vary results for the better of our clients.

Imagine having the ability to explain to clients that lighting option ‘x’ will cost you more $$$ in electricity per year compared to option ‘z.’ Or that this concept will cost this much to run your mechanical & electrical services over the course of a year.

Telling the owner of a standalone development of ‘y’ metres squared will cost $100,000 per year to run with high quality products and environmentally friendly specification, or $250,000 using a cheap and nasty product?

I believe the barrier we have had before this technology is that clients at the time of design don’t understand the cost saving down the track. They don’t see and understand the savings the building can have for them over its lifetime.

The programs links into current standards and has access to current rating systems available in Australia and allows you swap and change items like wall systems, glazing systems and insulation types (amongst others) to evaluate the design in terms of its environmentally friendliness in real time.

We have a responsibility to the environment and to our client, as does everyone in the design and construction work force. I think that the addition of this technology in the early stages of design development is only a positive step forward in helping us achieve a balancing in what we design and specify and what the clients needs.