Model Buildings

Cutting Costs—Eventually

BIM can help a building’s owner save money—but not on design fees, at least not yet. Architects and engineers are still feeling the sting of paying for software and hardware upgrades. “We had to update computers from 32-bit to 64-bit processors, get larger monitors, go from two to four gigabytes of RAM, and double our server size,” says Dunham’s Jensen.

Dunham is also paying for training—“you’re not billable when you’re teaching someone to use a new product,” Jensen notes—and for custom software creation. “We built a lot of the parts and pieces that go into the program, such as ductwork elbows and valves in the piping,” he says. “We’re still using commercial software, but we’re manipulating it to do what we need it to do. And you’re still paying for the brainpower of figuring out a system.”

In the meantime, building owners are saving money on the construction process, because BIM lets designers give contractors a more perfect set of building instructions. The process may get faster still in the future, when designers hope to give contractors access to their three-dimensional BIM product. “We do not pass along the three-dimensional model to the contractor,” Crump says. “But by taking a design to this level of detail and delivering it in two dimensions, we’re still able to minimize the conflicts we pass along to the contractor.”

Some contractors aren’t technologically able to use a three-dimensional model. A bigger worry, however, is concern over the liability implied by BIM. “We’re delivering a design concept, not a simulated reality or an assurance of a perfectly built product,” Crump says. Expansions in liability law and its applications, he hopes, will help protect construction designers from unreasonable expectations. “We will need to work out a liability release similar to the liability release for the two-dimensional information,” he adds.

Some firms are also concerned about showing contractors proprietary information, including customized software. “We’re right on the cusp of having electronic file transfer law, plus software adjustments,” Jensen says. “I tell my guys to make it so others can see everything, but not see how every part is built. In the future, this will be the normal way of passing along information.”