BIM is about Connected Data

Gregory Smith, Director of BIM/VDC, Yates Construction

Over the last 20+ years, we have thought of BIM or Building Information Modeling, as a destination. A constructible 3D model of our project. A final product. The thing that makes BIM such a worthwhile and challenging initiative within construction is realizing it is, instead, a journey. A continuum of discovery, trying to achieve a state of connected data.

With BIM and connected data, our goal is to get the right information to the right person, at the right time, for the right task, in the easiest way possible. It is not simply to build a cool virtual model that we can spin around for our client. It is all about the data.

What does that mean to a construction team out in the field?

Let’s take our old, grizzled superintendent, Builder Bob, that is out in the field, prepping the site for a concrete pour. Builder Bob needs to know the sizes and locations of plumbing penetrations so he and the team can “sleeve” those locations prior to the concrete pour.

To run back to the trailer to check the drawings would take Builder Bob at least an hour or more, there and back, along with a smoke and coffee break, with his crew just standing around, waiting for an answer. Instead, Builder Bob pulls out his trusty tablet computer, fires up his favorite AI LLM (Artificial Intelligence Large Language Model) software that is connected to our project management system and writes a prompt.

“What are the diameters of the plumbing pipes penetrating the concrete slab on level 3, area A? I need the locations of each of these penetrations and dimensions to the nearest grid lines.”

The lights flash, the wheels whir, the ground shakes and finally Builder Bob has his answer, all within a few seconds. A drawing is pulled up that shows the diameters of each plumbing penetration, with dimensions to the grid lines. And we have a reference back to where that information came from. This sounds great but Builder Bob wonders in the back of his mind if he can trust the data. “Is this LLM giving me the latest and greatest information? Or is it hallucinating and making up an answer it thinks I want?” Good question!

Our BIM team knows that Builder Bob has the right answer. The drawing he pulled up is the shop drawing created by the plumbing trade contractor. That shop drawing is a derivative of the fully coordinated, signed off trade contractor model from our construction coordination process. The plumbing trade contractor uses the architectural design model, the structural concrete model, along with the rest of the trade models, to route their plumbing. The designers, fully involved in the construction coordination process, adjusted their discipline specific models based on feedback and RFI’s (request for information) submitted by the construction team, taking us all the way back to our initial “BIM model” we used at the beginning of this process.

That initial model, from where we started with it, has been updated as new information is developed in the construction process. The new information, and the changes in the model, are automatically reflected in the 2D PDF design drawings because the 2D PDF drawings are connected to the 3D model. The estimate is updated because the quantities in the 3D model are automatically updated and connected to our estimate. The trade contractor models automatically pull in this new design information allowing the trade contractors to update their models. And the trade contractor shop drawings are automatically updated because the shop drawings are coming directly out of the trade contractor models.

Builder Bob’s LLM is smart enough to go out and look for the latest and greatest, most relevant information to his needs. We’ve structured the data in a way to make it easy for humans and AI to find the correct, most up-to-date information that we need to build from, allowing us to have a higher level of trust in the data that is presented to us.

This all sounds easy but it’s not. Although we’ve made huge strides in connecting data, we are not yet where we need to be. With BIM and connected data, our journey, we are getting closer to providing the right information, to the right person, at the right time, for the right task, in the easiest way possible.