Study On The Application Of BIM Principle And BIM Software In Construction Projects

Information technology has already brought manufacturing and electronics industry huge and innovative changes, the application of which in construction industry is still at very low level. With the development of social civilization, the importance of low energy consuming, low pollution and sustainable development is growing, meanwhile, Chinese construction enterprises are faced with increasingly fierce competition and challenges. Therefore, information technology should be extensively applied in Chinese construction industry.Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an innovative tool and production process, which is a typical application way of information technology in construction industry. The rapid development of BIM has brought about a gigantic revolution in construction industries of Europe and the United States and other developed countries since 2002. With BIM technology, an accurate virtual mode is constructed digitally, which contains precise geometry and relevant data needed to support the design, construction, fabrication, and procurement activities through the project's whole life cycle. When properly implemented, . the BIM users can gain a range of benefits that include improved productivity, enhanced quality, saved cost, shortened construction period and etc. Although the BIM application is still in its infancy in China, recognizing and developing BIM to realize the reforming of Chinese construction industry becomes an irresistible trend.This paper studies the connotative meaning and the application of BIM in four parts:1. Through presentation the concept of BIM combined with various views, this paper puts forward that BIM is not only a model product, but also a work process. At the meantime, several factors which can illustrate very well what BIM is are summarized as followed:the information carrier of BIM is the parametric model, the implementation mean of BIM is software, the application based on BIM, the life force of BIM is the project's whole life cycle, etc. The benefits BIM can provide to an owner are also stated.2. Based on abundant cases, this paper illustrates the application of BIM in construction projects from two sides:the application of BIM in different phases and in different procurement modes. The stages include feasibility phase, design phase, construction phase and operation phase. The relevant procurement modes consist of Design-bid-build (DBB), Design-build (DB), Agency Construction Management (CM-Agent), Construction Management at Risk (CM@R), Lean Construction, and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD).3. Similarly, based on lots of real cases, this paper introduces different BIM softwares and their pros and cons. There are three kinds of BIM softwares:BIM modeling software for design, BIM modeling software for construction, and the software which has interoperability with BIM modeling ones. At the same time, this paper takes two real projects to illustrate the modeling process, the benefits gained, and the challenges faced using Revit and Navisworks softwares.4. Finally, this paper focuses on the challenges faced when using BIM and the future of BIM, aiming to provide some inspiration and reference to industry colleagues.