BIM Visual Programming Tools Applications in Infrastructure Projects: A State-of-the-Art Review

Jorge Collao,Jose Turmo,Fidel Lozano-Galant,José Antonio Lozano-Galant

doi:10.3390/app11188343

Jorge Collao, Jose Turmo + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188343

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Abstract

The Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology improves architectural and infrastructure projects by digitizing their processes throughout their life cycle stages, such as design, construction, management, monitoring, and operation. In recent years, the automation of these processes has been favored by the use of visual programming (VP) tools that have replaced conventional programming languages for visual schemes. The use of these tools in architectural projects is becoming increasing popular. However, this is not the case in infrastructure projects, for which the use of VP algorithms remains scarce. The aim of this work is to encourage both scholars and engineers to implement VP tools in infrastructure projects. For this purpose, this work reviews, for the first time in the literature, the state-of-the-art and future research trends of VP tools in infrastructure projects.

Highlights

(2) Figure 4b shows the distribution between the number of studies that applied visual programming (VP) tools in Building Information Modeling (BIM) infrastructure projects and those that applied BIM in infrastructure projects without VP tools
These results indicate that the parametric longitudinal design of BIM projects through VP tools is the main application found in this review
The results of this review show that the potential research lines of VP tools in infrastructure projects are as follows: (1) Automation of the design of infrastructures: Parametric design is clearly the main application of VP algorithms in the literature

Summary

Introduction

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction and Operation (AECO) projects industry is characterized by its dynamic and evolutionary nature [1,2]. This dynamic spirit has been reflected mainly by the technological developments made by the AECO industry [3,4], which has undergone a revolution in the traditional manner of developing projects [5,6]. This technological growth is mainly focused on the following three trends:

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