Building Information Modeling

Introduction to BIM
Jinyue Zhang @ University of Toronto
Land Acknowledgement Statement
We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University
of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the
traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the
Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still
the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle
Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work
on this land.

Introduction to BIM 1
Building Information Modeling

Introduction to BIM
Jinyue Zhang @ University of Toronto
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 3
About BIM

The future is already here

– it’s just not evenly distributed.
——William Gibson

Introduction to BIM 4
About BIM

Building Information VS. Building Information

Modeling Model

• Activity • Object
• Technology • Representation
• Process • Product

Building Information Management

Introduction to BIM 5
Vision of NBIMS for BIM
• NBIMS-US = National BIM Standard in USA,
– the Facility Information Council (FIC), chartered in 2005
– Re-chartered in 2008 as a buildingSMART project

• “An improved planning, design, construction, operation,

and maintenance process using a standardized machine-
readable information model for each facility, new or old,
which contains all appropriate information created or
gathered about that facility in a format useable by all
throughout its lifecycle.”
• “A BIM model is a digital representation of physical and
functional characteristics of a facility. As such it serves
as a shared knowledge resource for information about a
facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its
lifecycle from inception onward.”
Introduction to BIM 6
Inefficiencies in current AEC/FM

(Adapted from research by Paul Teicholz)

Introduction to BIM 7
Inefficiencies in current AEC/FM
• Construction projects are more complex.
– Many heterogeneous systems working together
• A huge but segmented industry.
– 65% of construction firms have 5 people or less
• Construction is not a perfect industry.
– Misunderstandings!
– Missing information on the drawing and specs set!
– Errors! That does happen!
– Changes!
• Human’s ability to imagine and analyze projects with
multiple dimensions is limited.
– General 3D space
– Time (schedule)
– Cost (budget)
– Energy, safety, quality…

Introduction to BIM 8
Inefficiencies in current AEC/FM

Introduction to BIM 9
Inefficiencies in current AEC/FM
• Construction projects are more complex.
– Many heterogeneous systems working together
• A huge but segmented industry.
– 65% of construction firms have 5 people or less
• Construction is not a perfect industry.
– Misunderstandings!
– Missing information on the drawing and specs set!
– Errors! That does happen!
– Changes!
• Human’s ability to imagine and analyze projects with
multiple dimensions is limited.
– General 3D space
– Time (schedule)
– Cost (budget)
– Energy, safety, quality…

Introduction to BIM 10
Limitations of 2D drawings
• Multiple views to depict a facility or its components.
• Stored as 2D vectors (lines and arcs) along with text
annotations and thus only interpretable by some people
but not by computers.
• Lack the capability to include non-spatial information
(such as data about schedule, cost, and energy) in
digital format.

Introduction to BIM 11
BIM supports digital twin
• BIM represents a design as objects
• Objects carry the information about their geometry,
relations and attributes.
• Digital building model is machine readable.
• Changes will be done in a consistent and automatic way.
• Different views/drawings can be extracted from the
building model in a consistent way.
• It supports many other design and management
activities (such as scheduling, cost analysis, and energy
analysis).

Introduction to BIM 12
A new process in design and management
• BIM is NOT just another CAD program.
• BIM process are very difference from CAD process.
• Building the "reality" 3D model from CDs vs. Creating a
"virtual" 3D model to generate CDs.
• Enables a new process in design and management of
construction projects and promotes more efficient
collaboration among project participants.
• Similar to the automation of manufacturing in the 1980s.
• Means higher quality, better speed, lower cost, and
benefits every sector in AEC/FM.

Introduction to BIM 13
A new process in design and management

Introduction to BIM 14
Current BIM adoptions

How the owner was

billed

Introduction to BIM 15
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 16
About the course
• Meeting times
– From Sept. 10 to Nov. 26/Dec. 20
– On Tuesdays
– 4-6:30pm, start at 4:10pm
• Office hours
– By email, office TBA
• Course Website
– Login to UofT Quercus
– Find it under “Courses”

Introduction to BIM 17
Lecture schedule
• Schedule on one page

Introduction to BIM 18
Suggested books
• Sacks, R. Eastman, C. Lee, G. and Teicholz, P. (2018) BIM Handbook: A guide to
Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and
Constructors. Third Edition. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Hardin, B. (2015) BIM and Construction Management: Proven Tools, Methods and
Workflows. 2nd ED. Publisher: Sybex.
• Kensek, K. M. (2014) Building Information Modeling: BIM in Current and Future
Practice. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Reddy, K. P. (2012) BIM for Building Owners and Developers: Making a Business
Case for Using BIM on Projects. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Teicholz, P. (ed) (2013) BIM for Facility Managers. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Stine, D. J. (2012) Design Integration Using Autodesk Revit 2013. Publisher: SDC
Publications.
• Krygiel, E. and Nies, B. (2008) Green BIM: Successful Sustainable Design with
Building Information Modeling. Publisher: Sybex.
• Smith, D. K. and Tardif, M. (2009) Building Information Modeling: A Strategic
Implementation Guide for Architects, Engineers, Constructors, and Real Estate Asset
Managers. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Levy, F. (2011) BIM in Small-Scale Sustainable Design. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Kelvin, G. (2007) Integrated Practices in Architecture: Mastering Design-Build, Fast
Track, and Building Information Modeling. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
• Clements-Croome, D. (ed) (2013) Intelligent Buildings: An Introduction. Publisher:
Routledge.

Introduction to BIM 19
Grading System
• Individual BIM Project: 30%
• Group Research Report: 30%
• Final Exam: 40%, on Nov. 26th, 4:10-6:10PM, closed-
book, short answer style, no calculations, no modelling
work, focus on theory.

Introduction to BIM 20
Individual BIM Project
• Develop a 5D building model
• What building to model
– Four houses available on the course Website
– You may select whatever you want
• A small residential house would be sufficient.
• Missing information
– Any reasonable assumption is acceptable.
• Number of tasks
– Minimum 15 tasks (installing 15 windows does not count)
• Software
– 3D geometric model by any software
• Revit 2022-2024 is recommended
– Scheduling by any software
• Microsoft Project, Primavera SureTrack, VICO Office Schedule Planner
• Navisworks is the one to be used in tutorial lecture.
– Navisworks to do 5D modeling
– Software available with educational licenses

Introduction to BIM 21
Individual BIM Project
• Resources
– Training materials
– Download and install earlier
• Deliverables, due on Dec. 20th (no exception)
– Digital files of your Revit and Navisworks model
– A short report submitted online, no more than 2 pages to document
• Your assumptions if any
• Lessons learned
• Marking scheme
– Reasonable assumptions (10%)
– A good 3D Revit model with reasonable details (20%)
• Number of building elements and assemblies/components
– A reasonable construction schedule (30%)
• Durations and interdependencies
– A detailed cost/resource plan (20%)
• On all building elements
– Reflection report (10%)

Introduction to BIM 22
Group Research Paper
• A group of 4-5 students, 4 is better, no more than 5
• Topics: BIM use in
– programming phase, design collaboration and coordination, energy analysis and
sustainable design
– construction planning/scheduling, estimating, quality controlling, offsite
fabrication
– facility management, corporate knowledge management
– BIM+VR/AR/MR, BIM+AI, or any other possible application areas
• Grouping and topic selection procedure
– Self-signup a group online, chat with your team members
– Topics sign up by Sept. 17th
• Deliverables
– Full report due on Dec. 20th (no exception)
– No more than 20 pages (12pt, single spaced), see details in the outline
• Presentation
– Tentatively scheduled on Nov. 19th
• Marking scheme
– Originality, scientific content, structure/organization, citation, grammar, etc.
• Tips in writing academic reports

Introduction to BIM 23
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 24
Evolution of AEC CAD
• 2D solutions
– Electronic drafting board

• 3D solutions
– Modeling for pure visualization purposes
– Simple movie tools

• 4D/5D solutions (current BIM applications)

– Real architectural elements
– Models to integrated time/cost information
– To optimize construction processes and minimize the risk of
construction errors

• nD
– Integrated data models to enable better business processes of
building product delivery

Introduction to BIM 25
A history of understanding what a design is
• Past
– The design is a drawing of the product.
– The design is a surface model of the product.
– The design is a 3D model of the product.
– The design is an editable 3D model of the product.
• Current
– The design is the integrated representation of all the
compositional, analytical and fabrication representations of the
product.
• Not only geometry information, but material attributes, bill of
component, data for fabrication, etc.
• Not fully realized in AEC/FM industry

• Future
– The design reflects design intention, functions and maintenance
of the product.
– The design uses a knowledge-base formed through previous
designs and expands the knowledge-base for future designs.

Introduction to BIM 26
How did we get from 2D CAD to BIM

Moore’s Law: long-term trend in the history of computing hardware. Number

of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has
doubled approximately every two years.
Introduction to BIM 27
 Increasing Computing Power

Atari 2600 Microsoft Kinect Oculus Rift Microsoft HoloLens

1980’s 2010 2012 2016

Introduction to BIM 28
Capabilities in CAD

Three Technologies to Support CAD Capabilities (Eastman 1999)

Introduction to BIM 29
History of CAD: a timeline

A Timeline of Major Technological Development affecting CAD

(Eastman 1999)

Introduction to BIM 30
Display technologies
• Mid-1950s, engineering analysis
– Not for display, but automatically calculate engineering formulas

• Mid-1960s, calligraphic displays

– Similar to plotters, an electron beam in the display traced lines,
curves, and text on the phosphor of the display tube.

• Late 1960s, storage tube displays

• Late 1970s, pixel-based bitmap displays
– Quickly dominate the display market in few years

• Recently CRT, DLP, Plasma, LCD, LED

Introduction to BIM 31
Hardware improvement
• In the 1970s, mini-computers
– Early CAD is an interactive application that required very large
amounts of dedicated processor time to respond to a user’s
commands.
– Mini-computers cost $20,000-$40,000, allowing 2-4 people
working on the same machine at once.

• Early 1980s, IBM personal computers

– They offered a huge increase in the number of computing cycles
per dollar available to an individual.

• Now, much more advanced personal computers,

workstations, and affordable servers

Introduction to BIM 32
Software and algorithms
• Starting early 1970s, CAD software was developed in an
evolutionary manner
– With only a limited analytic or formal base

• Research was intense in the development of algorithms

– Symbols, introduced first as purely graphic entities, then later as
data-loaded ones
– Layers, as a means to structure data
– User application languages
– 3D wireframe and surface modeling
– Solid modeling and integrated rendering modules
– Parametric solid modeling

Introduction to BIM 33
AEC CAD Timeline

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Experimental Commercial Commercial

Domain
CAD in CAD on CAD on
specific CAD
research mainframes personal
and computers
workstations BIM 4D-5D CAD
Commercial
3D CAD

Hand Drafting

2D CAD

3D CAD

BIM

4D-5D CAD

Introduction to BIM 34
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 35
Working concept - 2D
• Draft everything in 2D
• No 3D model is created
• Design changes maintained manually on every drawing
• Typically one file contains one type of drawing

Introduction to BIM 36
Pros & Cons - 2D
• Benefits
– Compared to hand drafting
• Faster modifications
• Accuracy
• Smart drafting tools (fills, dimensions)
• Repetitive elements (blocks, xrefs)
– Compared to other CAD methods
• Easy to understand concept (electronic drafting)
• Relatively small files through small amount of data
• “Quick and direct” solution for all building types

• Drawbacks
– Changes on one drawing do not have influence on another.
– It includes no more content than at hand drawing.
– Collisions and other design problems are difficult to identify.

Introduction to BIM 37
Working Concept – 3D
• Building and building components can be
modeled in 3D spatial space
• 3D and 2D information can be included in
one file Project File

• Drawings are derived from the model, at

least partially
• Additional content can be created including
visualization and basic quantity take-offs Drawings

Manual or automatic update

3D Model

Introduction to BIM 38
Pros & Cons – 3D
• Benefits
– Compared to 2D CAD
• Visualization and calculation
• Easier checking of planning/design errors
• Managing changes is easier
– Compared to other methods
• Users may work purely in 2D if they wish
• Smaller file size

• Drawbacks
• No architectural semantics
• Documentation is not fully automatic
• Do not support any automatic evaluation of cost and energy
consumption

Introduction to BIM 39
Working Concept – BIM
• Real architectural elements used for modeling
• Building information data attached to the elements
• Changes of the model affects all drawings (and vice
versa)
• Automatized documentation workflow
• Architectural content (libraries)
• Additional materials (rendering, animation, cost,
quantity take-offs, schedules, energy consumption,
lighting, structural parameters, maintenance
requirements)

Introduction to BIM 40
The BIM Concept
Building
Information
Modeling

Also known as
“Virtual Building”
or “Building
Simulation”

Project drawings, building views, visualizations, calculations and quantity take-

offs are automatically derived from the 3D model.
Introduction to BIM 41
Pros & Cons– BIM
• Benefits
– Elements have architectural/engineering meaning
– Changes on one drawing have influence on all others
– Rich visualization content (animation, sun studies, renderings
etc.)
– Automatic quantity take-offs, schedules
– Connection to structural, energy calculation, collision detection
etc. software
• Drawbacks
– Might be difficult to learn the BIM approach for 2D crossgraders
– Training requirements

Introduction to BIM 42
From BIM to XIM
• While it has its roots in buildings, the principles of BIM
apply to everything that is built, including roads and
highways …

• Bridge Information Model

• Sewer Information Model
• Road Information Model
• ….
Introduction to BIM 43
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 44
What makes BIM significant?
• Parametric modelling
– The key technology empowered BIM
– Consistent information and no redundancy
– Automatic rule-based adjustment

• Support better coordination

– All disciplines work in one set of coordinated models in any project
phase
– Simulate the real-world construction and operation

• Data and information integration

– Life cycle data and information integration
– As the base platform to integrate a lot of data from IoT devices

Introduction to BIM 45
Major applications

Introduction to BIM 46
Visualization
• The most fundamental application of models
– Communicate design intent, construction intent, construction
method, etc.

• Visualize some abstract information, for example

schedule in construction planning and stress distribution
in structural analysis
• Support the application of Virtual Reality (VR) and
Augmented Reality (AR)

Introduction to BIM 47
Simulation, analysis, and optimization
• The key: digital non-geometric information
– Building physics information such as acoustic and thermal data,
construction management data such as cost and schedule,
operation data such as volume of passages in a subway station
staircase, etc.

Introduction to BIM 48
Documentation and integration
• In the design phase
– Design drawing generation, specification composition, more
importantly: accurate and high quality of design documents.

• In the construction phase

– Shop drawing generation, the integration of 3D geometric data
and cost/schedule data, link to smart construction data, etc.

• In the operation and maintenance phase

– Integration of space, asset information, and operation data from
IoT devices, etc.

Introduction to BIM 49
Agenda
• About BIM
• About this BIM course
• BIM history/overview
• From 2D/3D CAD to 4D/5D BIM
• BIM applications
• Associated challenges

Introduction to BIM 50
Challenges to be expected
• Changes in the relationships of project participants and
the contractual agreements between them
– Traditional contract terms are tailored to paper-based practices.

• Who is responsible to create and maintain the building

model?
• I am a contractor, but project designer did not create a
BIM model, what can I do?
• How can different parties share building models without
losing information?
– Data exchange standards

Introduction to BIM 51
Challenges to be expected
• Changes related to the new deliverables – BIM models

• What about the added cost in modelling?

• Ownership of the multiple design, fabrication, analysis,
and construction datasets?
– Largely discussed but no consensus yet
• Who can access what information in which manner?
• Responsibility of data accuracy?

• Professional groups, such as the AIA and AGC, are

developing guidelines for contractual language to cover
issues raised by the use of BIM.

Introduction to BIM 52
Challenges to be expected
• Changes related to the business process change
– Not the same change of adopting CAD

• Why do I change my business processes to adopt BIM?

• Should I build my in-house BIM capability or just hire a
consultant?
• How do I convince senior people to use new
technologies?
• How can I evaluate the ROI?

Introduction to BIM 53