STEP LOGIC on Development of BIM

The interest in information modeling is growing. According to statistic data of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, the introduction of BIM allows reducing the construction time by 10% and the coordination and approval time by 90%. How is the BIM market formed in Russia, what prospects does the transition from traditional design to information modeling offer and, most importantly, how important is it for integrators to develop BIM? Representatives of the major Russian system integrators discussed the above issues at the round table hosted by ICT-Online.ru. Yury Batyzhev, Director of Engineering Systems Department at STEP LOGIC answered the journalist's questions.

How would you assess the current state of the domestic BIM market? What are the prospects for replacing traditional design with information modeling?

Over the past 5 years, we have seen a growing interest in BIM technology by the government and businesses. In fact, BIM is becoming a standard for all advanced organizations. Thus, a roadmap for the implementation of BIM technology at the Moscow Construction Complex was approved in October 2017 in Moscow; in February 2019, the RF Ministry of Construction developed and published amendments to the Town Planning Code concerning the information modeling technologies. In particular, the document introduces the concept of the "information model of capital construction project".

The series of measures envisaged by the federal project “Digital Construction” shall ensure digital transformation of the industry by 2024. It is expected that transition to digital construction will reduce construction costs by 20% in 5 years. While the time from approval of a construction project to commissioning of erected property will be reduced by 30%.

How important is it for integrators to build up competence in BIM? How promising is it and what opportunities does it offer for an integrator?

According to our observations, those system integrators who promptly respond to the market changes have already moved from mechanical drawing, what is AutoCAD essentially, to full-scale 3D simulation of engineering and IT systems package.

By adopting the BIM technology in 2016, STEP LOGIC managed to catch up with the new wave of innovation in the construction industry, thereby improving the quality of its projects and enabling its design solutions to be used throughout the entire life cycle of the properties.

BIM allows you to quickly and effectively solve a number of tasks. For the companies that employ BIM in their projects this technology contributes to quality and accuracy of design, reduction of human factor impact on design process, while at the same time it takes into account architectural, economic, technological, engineering and other important characteristics of 3D modeled buildings.

In addition to this, the customers can also benefit from BIM. Here are just some advantages of BIM technology:

• Single payment for documentation instead of five separate payments (conceptual design documentation, project documentation, detailed documentation, engineering documentation, service documentation);
• All technological risks are considered and prevented in a digital model instead of a real facility;
• Design time can be reduced by 20% due to teamwork of design engineers;
• Project cost is calculated automatically;
• Quality of managerial solutions will be improved due to complete, high-quality and up-to-date project information aggregated in a single information environment;
• High-quality visualization of design solutions: the possibility of making video presentations and "overflights" of the proposed construction site when developing a technical and commercial offer for Customer.

Your company's experience with BIM. If you have such experience, please share with us the story of its development, competence, place in the general business. If not, what alternative technologies do you offer, are you going to develop BIM in the future?

STEP LOGIC shifted to BIM modeling 3 years ago. To do this, we created a unified environment for collaborative network design, developed project templates, libraries of equipment and materials. BIM-managers were integrated in design processes. The company's internal standards have been developed to regulate the modeling processes and to use the model by foremen, project managers, chief engineers, etc.

All the disciplines necessary for the construction and modernization projects (architecture, construction and finishing, utility networks and critical IT equipment) are developed by STEP LOGIC engineers using BIM-modeling and specialized design modules.

STEP LOGIC engineers add a 3D fully-integrated building model to the conventional paper design documentation, such as plans, drawings and explanatory notes. The resulting 3D model is used at all stages of the building's life cycle. Besides, the object acquires new parameters, time and cost, which makes it possible to correlate the paper documents and the construction of the facility in real time using 5D-graphs. Using these graphs helps clearly demonstrate the project progress and eliminate the downtime and problems caused by incorrect sequence of work.

If your company already offers BIM, please tell us more about the solutions and technologies, implemented projects. What changes does BIM offer regarding customer interactions, project progress, what specific features are available?

As a BIM modeling tool, we chose Autodesk Revit, which is now becoming the de facto industry standard. In addition, many engineering system equipment manufacturers, such as Panduit, Schneider Electric, have already developed comprehensive Revit-based product lines.

The use of Revit functions provides a reduction in design time and operational results for the "decoupling" of complex intersystem nodes. And the final 3D visualization of the consolidated network plan is positively perceived and highly appreciated even by the most technically sophisticated customers.

We have completed a pilot project using BIM-technologies in a new television center owned by a leading Russian television company. This project involved the development of a model for the integrated engineering infrastructure of the data processing center and the power center. At first, the duration of modeling was 20–25% longer than in conventional drawing, as the design team had to solve unusual organizational problems. By the end of the project, however, the overall teamwork pace had increased significantly. The total duration of the project decreased by 20%.

What is your vision of BIM prospects for the domestic integrators and, in particular, for your company business.

BIM is actively conquering the Russian market. And taking into account the active steps taken by the Government in order to transfer the construction industry to this technology, the number of the BIM-based building projects will grow.

At the same time, the use of information modeling together with other advanced design technologies can solve a wider range of problems. For example, in our everyday work we often need to develop a BIM model of an existing building. This is where 3D laser scanning technology comes to the aid. The resulting “point cloud” is downloaded and outlined in Revit, which allows us to visually monitor the execution of construction and installation works, including:

• Possibility to identify all deviations from project: incorrect height of trays, pipes, raised floors, wrong slope, uneven walls;
• Possibility to check raised floor and subfloor levelness;
• Possibility to employ specific methods to demonstrate inconsistency of the works with existing standards and the project, and to document non-compliances;
• Automatically search for conflicts between a new project and existing elements.

Once completed, the 3D model can be used in other software products. For example, you can use Autodesk CFD to model the whole range of climate control processes on the property, including ventilation, air conditioning, heating, as well as the external temperature and wind factors. The program helps solve the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic problems to calculate the parameters of the ceilings and the heat transfer values. The modelled process is visualized using the capability of the program with the resulting images including cross-sections while the adjustable parameters allow you to display isosurfaces and graphs.

Thus, the combination of Revit and CFD makes it possible to model, calculate and visualize the results for the most complex process that happens in a data centre, the transfer of heat away from the IT equipment: the heat flows travelling between the 19'' server cabinets and the air conditioning units, the feeding of cold air under the raised floor to the perforated tiles and the servers, as well as the movement of the heat transfer medium in the refrigeration system. Naturally, this tool helps us not only design and check the effectiveness of the cooling systems in new data centers that we design, but also analyse the situation in existing data centers that need modernization.

Source: ICT-Online