aA technology’s most celebrated progress is often also its user’s greatest challenge. Data-centric design software is no exception. While it enhances collaboration and workflow efficiencies, coordination, and more, building information modeling (BIM) technology also seeks to re-establish the way designers and draftsmen create, requiring a positive mental shift in industry process and ideology.

Perhaps the most significant icon of this paradigm shift is BIM technology’s 3D dynamic visualization. Adding another dimension to design, this feature provides viewers with an intelligent tool that links elevations, surfaces, and alignments with the data and attributes associated with them. What’s more, the software automatically updates the document with each revision, making modifications and the evaluation of multiple design alternatives easy and cost-effective, op-timizing final design.

"Just like the jump we made from the draft board to CAD and now from CAD to modeling, the initial creation isn’t that much faster, but the true efficiency is gained when revisions are en-countered," said David Kasha, P.Eng., a regional practice technology coordinator for Stantec in Edmonton, Alberta. "To make a change, we used to go back and repeat a series of linear steps. With dynamic modeling, you modify one aspect and the change ripples through your design; you’re no longer required to go back and repeat all the steps. That’s where a lot of the in-creased speed comes from—the revisions."

According to Ron Moreno, P.E., P.L.S., project manager for RBF Consulting, Temecula, Calif., designing dynamically has created a completely new workflow at RBF. "Now design doesn’t need to wait for all the stakeholders," said Moreno. "Your dynamic design can evolve over time as new data becomes available within the team. This changes the way we design from the beginning of the project."

Creating one streamlined 3D model instead of dozens of page drawings forces designers to ac-count for each elevation and measurement up front, but also allows them to catch mistakes ear-lier on in the design process as well.

"Quality control is much increased; now you can do your QA/QC in the early project stages, not with the deliverables at the end," said Moreno. "Value engineering now has a new defini-tion; it’s not after the fact. Instead, these efficiencies are created at the beginning of a project so efficiencies go way up, time is reduced on re-work and review; they are all there from the be-ginning."

According to Kasha, BIM technology’s 3D dynamic abilities also help further client communi-cation."Model-based design helps you communicate with your clients more effectively than ever before," said Kasha. "Not all clients are technical in nature. The 3D model helps convey an effective vision or idea that someone looking at 2D information couldn’t construct in their mind."

Moreno agrees. All parties have come to realize the benefits of this paradigm shift. "Outside of the project team, you have owners, developers, and agencies who are not typically as focused on data, but who can now see work up front, visualize it, and buy into it without halting or slowing designs as much as before. People who aren’t familiar with intensive design have the ability to see what you are doing in a dynamic way."

STAY TUNED: Next month’s feature will uncover the cutting-edge world of BIM-ready products and how they can be used to enhance design.

Mindi Zissman is a freelance writer based in Chicago.