To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often, or so said the nation’s favourite Briton, Sir Winston Churchill. Advances in computer technology have dramatically changed the way we work and live. However, technologies in construction have fallen behind other industries. This may be because, unlike manufacturing, construction operations are rarely performed in a fixed sequence or at a fixed location. One only has to look at the aeronautical and motor industries to see how the use of three dimensional computer technologies has driven progress; the same cannot be said in construction. With the advent of Building Information Modelling (BIM) this imbalance has been tackled head on.
The term BIM should now be familiar to all of us. To recap, it comprises the use of three dimensional, real time, dynamic, building modelling software to increase proactivity in the design, construction and operation stages of a construction project. More…