Coming : The big DIFFERENCE between 3D CAD and BIM

I have been very busy designing a 2000 horsepower high pressure steam plant and an 8 megawatt emergency generator plant for the new Fort Belvoir Va hospital project. I have also been busy taking care of my wife and my horses.

I am working on a short paper regarding the use of building information models and 3D CAD. The differences are not fully appreciated by the AEC community as a whole. BIM has made a lot of progress for architectural application but for mechanical there isnt much of anything, especially for equipment. We MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) engineers are concerned with equipment becuase that is what makes the systems go.

Alas, the only building items truly becoming integrated with MEP engineering is the energy model aspects regarding building envelope. Virtual models of equipment? Its going to be a long time before we see working computerized models of mechanical and electrical equipment. I’d like to invest in something like this, but I dont see any movement coming from the established software or hardware manufacturers. Not enough demand- perhaps like Rodney said,

“we ain’t getting no respect”

I will share the big DIFFERENCE by next week, April 10. See you then.

Tags: BIM