Nadine M. Post/ENR Steel pipe and tube can be cut to extremely tight tolerances, says maker of laser cutter.

Boosters of collaborative, virtual design and construction at the American Institute of Steel Construction Inc. are seriously concerned that the industry is focusing too much on building information modeling and too little on interoperability.

Their concern was echoed by attendees of an April 17 “eConstruction” roundtable in New Orleans, hosted by Chicago-based AISC and the American College of Construction Lawyers (ACCL). “The design-construction industry must continue to emphasize interoperability, not just BIM,” concluded the 50 attendees, who represented most facets of design and construction, including owners, architects, engineers, contractors, sureties, insurance companies, software vendors, fabricators, academia and lawyers. “Software vendors will need to increase their product’s ability to import, export and manipulate neutral data files,” the group concluded.

Saying there is a replication of effort, the group also is calling for a “single, inclusive organization” to address the many hurdles to the full implementation of a collaborative BIM process.

The group also wants development of a risk-reward matrix so that legal, insurance and surety agreements can be altered to reflect the new collaborative e-construction paradigm. “Currently, legal decisions for the AEC industry are based on a 100-year-old court decision that focused on the warranty of the rights of the individual stakeholders of a project and did not focus on a collaborative assessment,” said Patrick J. O’Connor, a lawyer representing ACCL. For lawyers to help in the paradigm shift to collaborative BIM, they need to understand the “requirements for a legal BIM framework,” he added.

Nadine M. Post/ENR Combined drill and saw will speeds work and save space, says maker.

The roundtable preceded AISC’s North American Steel Construction Conference, held April 18-20. There, structural engineers complained that interoperability is a long way off, that current BIM models are cumbersome to use and that vendors paint a BIM utopia that doesn’t yet exist. One engineer, working on an arena, said it takes eight minutes to save each change on the central BIM model.

Calling BIM “a nightmare,” William Scott, senior civil/structural engineer with ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Anchorage, said BIM is hard to use and share unless “you do workarounds.” He told of the time he tried to import a 3-D model into the analysis program and “none of the members were connected.” To make things work, “you have to have BIM specialists on staff,” he said.

On the convention floor, the attention grabber was a prototype for a cutting tool called the “Ring of Fire.” The machine, which is expected to be available for purchase in nine months to a year, is a combined drill line, burning machine and saw for any shape that fits through a 20-in.-square window, said the maker, Anton Peddinghaus, CEO of Peddinghaus Corp., Bradley, Ill. The machine replaces separate drills and band saws, takes up 20% less space and saves on conveyors needed to move the steel around. “If you only handle the steel one time and do all the processes, it could double the speed,”  added Peddinghaus. The unit has not yet been priced, but Peddinghaus thought it might cost $650,000. It is said to be the first of its type in the world.

A laser-cutting system for steel tubes and pipes, made by Mazak Optonics Corp., Schaumburg, Ill., also drew attention. The machine cuts to about 1⁄5,000-in. tolerance, making it easier for the fabricator to connect joints made from multiple tubes coming together at different angles. Mazak, a Japanese equipment maker, is planning the first U.S. installation of steel tubes cut by its own equipment on its building in Schaumburg, which is scheduled to start construction this fall.

On the fabricator certification front, AISC is launching a campaign to convince building officials that its fabricator certification “label” meets the requirements of the International Building Code’s Chapter 17 on special inspection. “There is a lot of confusion, especially in the East and South, about the subject,” says Bobbi Marstellar, AISC’s vice president for certification. For steel fabrication, “the only time the owner does not need to hire a special inspector to satisfy the code is when there is no welding or thermal cutting involved,” said Marstellar. “The message we want to get out is that our certification program meets the requirements of the IBC,” she said. That would eliminate the need and extra expense of a special inspector.

AISC revamped its certification program, which involves putting in place a quality management system, about five years ago. It is now more audit-science and process-based, taking a look at the fabricator’s entire organization, not just the shop floor, says Marstellar. There are about 670 certified fabricators. The program’s direct cost is $5,000 per year.

AISC is trying to get another message out: The lead time for steel ordered from service centers rather than from the mills can be as little as one day to a week, depending on the order. “There is a perceived misconception that there is not enough steel in the marketplace,” says John Gasperine, branch manager in the Marseilles, Ill., office of service center Infra-Metals Inc. According to AISC data, 70% of steel used in buildings currently goes through service centers.