Study Of BIM Application During Project Design Stage

BIM is another revolution in construction field succeeding CAD, not only in technology, but also in management. Design stage of construction project is the critical stage for the application of BIM, it is not only critical for the improvement of the generalized design quality, but also provides BIM model support for the follow-up stages of the construction project. Focused on BIM application at design stage, this thesis analyzes the key BIM application points at design stage as well as the main factors that affect the application. This thesis proposes that the key points of BIM application at design stage are visual design communication, design analysis, collaborative design&interference check, cost control at design stage and producing of shop drawing.Design institute’s attitude towards BIM adoption is different prominently under different project delivery methods. The critical issue for construction owner to achieve project success is how to motivate design institute to adopt BIM and improve design quality. Based on deep analysis of different delivery methods, this thesis proposes that the owner’s commercial incentive and compulsory requirement under DBB mode are the major impetus for the BIM adoption by design institute. Under CM or IPD mode, the aspiration to adopt BIM for design institute is stronger. Another factor influencing the adoption of BIM in design stage proposed in this thesis is BIM standard and tool. Although IFC, IFD and IDM have good systematicness and theory level, they still can’t support high-quality data exchange between different BIM softwares with different functions; this situation impedes the development of BIM application in certain environment.Based on research for CMMI, this thesis constructs BIM-GCMM, a generalized capability maturity model for assessing BIM application. Its characteristic is to improve internal process of single organization focus by CMMI and then extend to the process between multiple organizations and take BIM application as a unit process of whole project process. At choosing of process area and definition of maturity level, factors which are only intimately related to BIM need to be choosed based on systematic rules of CMMI. This thesis also makes assessment for one typical case. By means of statistical analysis and typical case analysis about domestic BIM application at design stage, this thesis finds that domestic BIM application is mostly at initial stage and the repeatability of successful case is not sufficient. The BIM applications dominated and implemented by design institute focus on the projects that are with complicated space and unique structure, while the encouragement and enforcement of owner is the major impetus when owner plays the dominant role. The segregation of design, project budget, project management consultancy etc. also further affects the development of BIM. Even so, the capability maturity of some of BIM application projects has reached managed level and these projects have the aspiration to develop towards the highest level-defined level.