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Project Managers:
Ric Jackson, (301) 424-4202 or rjackson@fiatech.org
Charles Eastman, Ph.D., (404) 894-3477 or chuck.eastman@arch.gatech.edu
Project Participants | Overview | Project Status | Business Case | Project Participant Activities | Project Deliverables | Resources
Project Participants
The project team includes an architectural firm (HKS Inc.), a 3D precaster (to be determined - termed 3DP), the academic team (GT and Technion), NIBS and FIATECH.
In order to undertake this work, the project team includes HKS Inc. a large architectural firm that has agreed to provide the architectural project and to participate actively in this study. HKS Inc. is a large architectural firm that has agreed to provide the architectural project and to participate actively in this study. The architectural firm will generate the design and construction documents for a significant project involving architectural precast concrete panels and structural precast concrete members with a BIM software program. It will have available both the 3D BIM model and also a traditional set of 2D contract drawings.
The precast contractor for the significant project will be selected in the September timeframe. At that time, the precast firm will be asked to participate in this project. The firm will undertake their part of the project in their normal way, as they bid the project. 3DP will be a large precast concrete producer that has already adopted 3D modeling and has at least one year of experience using the system in production. The precast company that has already adopted 3D modeling will be selected earlier, and compensated for its work in mentoring (hosting) the graduate student performing the 3D model of the significant building. They will also contribute their record of workflow for an alternative building.
Overview
This project will define the functional requirements for a Building Information Modeling (BIM) standard for precast concrete, focusing on the multiple exchanges between the architect and the precast contractor. It will document the process and workflows, and monitor the costs and benefits associated with the new data representation. It will also incorporate the results into the National BIM Standard. It will be the first module of the NBIMS and would be used by designers, fabricators, contractors, owners and software developers.
Project Status
The project is being funded by the Charles Pankow Foundation and is just getting started. FIATECH is seeking industry experts to serve on the project panel. If interested, contact Ric Jackson.
Business Case
The opportunity exists to examine and document an example specific workflow scenario between building sectors - the exchange of data between architect to precast concrete fabricator. This pass-off has traditionally occurred in the format of the contract documents (CDs) provided to the general contractor by the architect and passed to the precast fabricator. An early task of the fabricator is to generate from the CDs a new set of drawings of the precast assembly, typically called Precast Assembly Drawings, which will later be used to coordinate the detailing of each of the precast pieces and the development of piece drawings for actual production. Later these detail piece drawings are passed back to the contractor and architect to verify design intent and for construction coordination between different building systems.
The move to 3D modeling potentially reduces that task immensely, allowing the development of the Precast Assembly Model to be generated in hours rather than days or weeks. This project will test and document the integration and exchange of a 3D building model between architect and precast fabricator. It will address the information exchanged in different exchange tasks. It will also assess, the time and dollars associated with working in this new technology-enhanced process in relation to processes relying on drawing-based exchanges.
Project Participant Activities
This project will document and assess best practices and processes for using the new exchange technologies. There will be five experimental steps, which will allow both comparative qualitative analysis and recording of a 3D BIM enabled workflow, and comparison with existing 2D processes.
The precast engineering will be performed in three modes:
- The same significant project will be designed and drafted by the precaster selected for the project. Given that it is unlikely that the precaster chosen will be one of the handful among hundreds that have already progressed to full adoption of 3D modeling, this design work will be standard 2D practice and will allow recording of the workflow and of the man hour inputs for traditional 2D information exchange, in order to establish a 2D benchmark for the project.
- The same significant project will be modeled for fabrication in an experimental setting. A graduate student will model the project using 3D under the guidance of a mentor at 3DP's engineering design office. The graduate student will document the process and collect costs and timescale associated with developing the 3D Precast Assembly model, based on the HKS's BIM model of the precast construction work
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Some other building similar to the significant project will be identified as performed by 3DP. This will be monitored to provide a workflow map of the exchanges, and scaled appropriately to enable economic comparison with the significant building's process.
If it occurs that the precaster selected by the owner of the significant building happens to have a well-developed record of use of 3D modeling and has progressed to full adoption, and agrees to participate in the role of 3DP, then b) will be carried out (and monitored) in-house.
Comparison between the results of a) and b) will allow detailed monitoring and exploration of the workflow interactions and building information exchanges between the two parties (architect and precast engineer) in using BIM tools. Monitoring of the process in c) will provide a more accurate record of the 3D workflow than the experimental process describe in b).
Comparison between a) on the one hand and b) and c) on the other hand will allow assessment of the benefits of the 3D process to the precaster.
Project Deliverable
The outcome of this project will be the incorporation of the BIM for precast concrete into the National BIM Standard immediately upon the completion of the project. The project is scheduled for 12 months.
Resources
"Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Precast Concrete Draft Final Report," Charles Pankow Foundation, November 2007
"BIM and Interoperability for Precast Concrete Presentation," Charles Pankow Foundation, November 2007
© 2007 FIATECH. All rights reserved.
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