Functional Suitability of BIM Tools in Pre-Construction, Construction and Post-Construction Phases of a Building Project

Abstract

Managing building projects and communication of information between the stakeholders of the projects is getting collaborative and faster, with the availability of Building Information Modelling (BIM) software system. Numerous BIM systems are offered by various software developers. Each one of these systems provides pre-construction, construction, post construction functionalities or all of them. Some are suitable for architects, contractors, engineers, clients or all of them. Therefore there is a need to develop a systematic approach to evaluate the functional suitability of these systems and guidelines to help the project stakeholders to evaluate the BIM software for their need. This paper presents a study of commonly used BIM systems for their functional suitability for Pre-construction, Construction and Post-construction phases of the Building Project. Various functionalities of these three phases are derived. The relevant functional areas in Pre-construction, Construction and Post-construction are identified. A scoring methodology is presented to rate the BIM systems based on these functionalities. This methodology forms the basic guideline for architects/engineers, general contractor, sub-contractors and facility managers to evaluate functional suitability of BIM systems for their respective functions.