Photo: Judy Schriener/ENR Contractors peruse BIM guide at AGC conference.

Building information modeling is sweeping through the industry and a new guide for contractors from the Associated General Contractors of America is designed to help them keep up.

BIM is a design software tool that simulates construction and allows collaboration among the owner, architect, engineers, consultants, contractors and specialty contractors. The tool contributes to faster project delivery, enhanced economics and lean construction, according to the guide, unveiled at AGC’s midyear meeting Sept. 29-30 in San Francisco.

More than 150 contractors snatched up copies at the release session. “We’ve had a tremendous interest from members,” says co-author David Hanson, senior vice president in the Tampa office of Walbridge Aldinger Co.

Related Links: Early Adopters Find the Best Models Are Digital Virtuosos 10/2/2006 Team Members Seek Ways Out of the Building Modeling Haze 6/5/2006

Hanson and 23 other AGC members authored the BIM guide, which is free to AGC members. It includes sections on risk management, software and hardware options and training. The guide also outlines contractor benefits, including the ability to identify design conflicts, errors and omissions prior to construction; higher reliability of expected field conditions; the ability to do “what if” scenarios; and fewer callbacks and lower warranty costs. Vendors contributed to a chart comparing various tools in the appendix. “BIM is going to change a lot of responsibility matrixes,” says AGC President Harry Mashburn, president of Mashburn Construction Co., Columbia, S.C.

Contractors are interested in BIM, but someone has to convince the project participants to use it and, ultimately, the owner to pay for it, none of which are easily accomplished, says William A. Cobb Jr., president of Haverstick-Borthwick So., Plymouth Meeting, Pa., and chair of AGC’s Electronic Information Systems committee. While he’s optimistic about the future of BIM and has been pushing for its adoption, he says, “Right now it’s obstacle, obstacle, obstacle.”

Another challenge for contractors that want to use BIM is risk management. Another of the guide’s co-authors, J. William Ernstrom, general counsel and senior vice president of Alberici Group Inc., St. Louis, Mo., warned contractors in the BIM session at the conference, “Right now the lawyers have no idea how to handle this,” referring to the risk and levels of responsibility that may be unclear when using BIM. He also anticipates bonding companies asking contractors, “How are you planning to handle the risk?”

Other questions about BIM that AGC contractors discussed needing answers to include: Is it okay to turn a designer’s 2D drawing into a 3D figure without the designer’s permission? Who owns the model? Who maintains it and is responsible if anything goes wrong?

As BIM is more widely used, the guide’s authors point out the advantages of starting to use BIM now. “You can look at five different ways to sequence a job before you do it,” says Hanson. “I see conflict of collision detection of the greatest benefit to us as contractors,” adds Michael E. Kenig, vice chairman of Holder Construction Co., Atlanta, another co-author of the guide. He believes that adoption will come slowly, with contractors using it to visualize a couple of trades but not all of them on a single project, or for envisioning the mechanical piping or the structure or fire protection, one or two at a time before tackling an entire project.

One primary reason to adopt BIM early on is for marketing. For one thing, a contractor using BIM differentiates itself from competitors, at least for now, says Hanson. Also, it enables clients and the public to “see” what a project will look like when finished. Making the model “intelligent” by embedding detailed information into various parts will come later in the adoption process.

Kenig says, “Visualization, as they say, is the low-hanging fruit. But it’s a big piece of fruit.”