B3 - Current disadvantages of BIM / Revit - Chris Sager

         A large aspect of BIM that gets influenced negatively today is the social legality of the work done. Contracts have always been drafted using some form of boilerplate. That is, a repetitive language that the creator of an agreement uses on basically every contract he drafts. Boilerplate writing exists today because while lawyers are extremely busy with numerous requests, they also want to protect themselves [2]. By creating a new contract that is related more to BIM and the interactions designers and contractors have, a lawyer would be putting themselves in an uncomfortable position because he does not understand how this emerging field works and the possible litigation that could arise. It’s much easier for a professional in the field to use language from a previous contract that they know worked for them. Elise M. Carlin Discussed this same idea back in 2010 when she published the article called Legal Risks of Building Information Modeling (BIM) [1]. Carlin states, “The use of BIM radically changes the relationship between the contractor and designer, and potentially increases the legal risk for contractors.” While it is, an older article, I believe the interpretation still holds firm. If you think some construction firms are slow moving concerning the methods they use to get work done, lawyers could be even worse. Their interest in working outside of the box and coming up with a reasonable agreement between multiple parties working on BIM projects, is very truncated. 

While the legality of the work being done is an important factor to discuss I also believe, the computing power necessary to complete some projects is becoming a bit cumbersome. I have not had too many problems working with Revit on Drexel University machines, but my personal computer is not very powerful, and as projects become more complex, the power necessary to open and manipulate assignments is increasingly difficult with size. While it’s a little bit unconventional for this article, I visited a website that determines what computers are currently the best on the market for CAD projects [3]. The most popular one that is displayed is a staggering $3,139.00 Powerhouse of a system. This goes without saying, you can just forget your laptop or any laptop for that matter when working with BIM. Some specs of this unit include 32 GB of memory, 4.4 GHz of power, and other configurations. By the way, If you would prefer a portable system – you can expect to pay about $3,750 for one listed on this website. You can conclude here that the price tag of a machine capable of running BIM software smoothly is large. This is due to immense specs necessary to work with these large files and designs.

Sources

[1] "The Legal Risks of Building Information Modeling (BIM)." Construction Law Signal. N.p., 17 June 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2017. (Click Here)

[2] Rouse, Margaret. "What Is Boilerplate? - Definition from WhatIs.com." WhatIs.com. N.p., Oct. 2006. Web. 27 Jan. 2017. (Click Here)

[3] "Engineered in the USA." Get the Fastest Revit Workstations & Improve Your Workflow | BOXX. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2017. (Click Here)

Comments for my Peers

Maissoin Ksara Wrote a very interesting article discussing the possible future problems with Revit / BIM (Here). I certainly must agree with the idea, as projects become more advanced and designs more complicated, processing power will become most important. The question here is, will we be able to create CPUs and graphics cards capable of working with such large designs but at the same time keeping the costs down so they can be implemented by most firms. Ksara also begins to discuss the topic of Interoperability, a category I discussed partly in last week’s discussion. The ability for users to share data accumulated in one piece of software to another is very important. I believe computing power and Interoperability will need to grow, rather than one or the other.

Peter Dannemann Got my attention with his article discussing the future advantages of BIM / Revit (Here). In week one I discussed the idea of drones and how they are being implemented across the world in construction sites for things such as geotechnical surveying. Peter is most likely correct when he discusses the idea of this drone data being implemented into BIM to help with the creation process. I would not be surprised if the information was not already being used by some companies. I know that if you invest the money in UAV’s for construction, you certainly would like to be able and implement your data into design software you use.

I agreed a lot with what Brandon Mengel had to say regarding more current problems with BIM / Revit (Here). It seems while most are concerned with processing power of the devices in the future being able to handle BIM programs, it’s still more of a current issue. As files become larger and more complex in design with curves, the system you use the software on better have excellent specifications, otherwise you’re in for a lot of difficulty. I love the idea Mengel discussed regarding how-to videos on functionality when hovering over buttons and going through toolboxes. I also don’t know what several icons do in the software still, I am eager to learn though, Revit, TEACH ME PLEASE!