BIG BIM little bim

shows how to master:

1. The secrets to making more money and keeping your clients happier using BIM.
   

2. Ways to focus knowledge and experience on your strengths—design and problem solving.
   

3. The everyday details of building information modeling.
   

4. Ways do more and better with less, while creating more certainty of outcomes.
   

5. Building sustainable value into every project.
   

6. And, a time tested and field proven approach that can be applied every project.

BIM is really not about software. BIG BIM little bim is designed to help people understand BIM. Perhaps an example is the best way to describe the difference between BIG BIM and little bim:

Initially, little bim is like software on personal computers before the internet and before local area networks were everywhere. Using early tax software as an analogy, you improved how you prepared your return and simplified the computations, but you depended on the software that you loaded on your machine. You did not really know whether the databases included were up to date or reflected current tax law. You loaded new versions of the software as they were mailed to you. You shared data via disks or paper. You printed out and mailed your return.

In today’s architectural context, you load Revit/Archicad/Bentley/etc... on your local machine. You leverage your work product, but the improvements are largely internal to your office and your projects. In this mode BIM is really just regular computer aided design and drafting (CADD) on steroids. You model your project. You run simulation software locally. You get all the benefits of real 3D CADD and then some. This is the mode where most people start to become virtual building proficient and what most people understand as BIM today. In this mode, people worry about what software they should use.

In transition, little bim is like running software on personal computers once they are connected to a dependable LAN with minimal internet connectivity. Taking the tax software example one step further, you centralized files from last year and you shared the tax schedules with others in the office, so that more eyes were available to pick up mistakes. Your accountant took your data and checked it for you. You printed out and mailed your return.

In today’s Architectural/Engineering (AE) context you are now beginning to do more collaboration. Now you can share information within a larger context. Data still comes to the network in a package, but more information is centralized and shared among your closely connected associates. You are still closely linked to software and the data embedded in these tools. If you are the architect, ideally your engineers are on the same network. You begin to be able to do real conflict checking, cost modeling, process simulation. You have many of the benefits, but it is still mostly an internal or project oriented exercise that gives big benefits. This is the mode where most of the people talking about BIM right now are working (or hoping to work.) In this mode, the internet is a reference, people worry about what software they should use and are trying to figure out if they really need to change how they do business.

BIG BIM is like personal computers once they are fully networked and fully integrated with the internet and have become Web3.0 appliances. Finishing the tax software example, you are now accessing your tax information in a central database that someone else maintains. When Congress passes a new law, it is integrated immediately. You now have immediate access to the latest versions of everything. When you try to input illegal or illogical information you know it immediately. You add your information; standardized processes verify it and it is integrated with the central repository, where the system reacts in standardized ways, depending on the need.

In the Architecture/Engineering/Construction/Operations (AECO) context, you are working globally. You no longer work in isolation from anything or anyone. You integrate data from everywhere to understand what you are doing in a big world context.  No longer can building context be limited to the surrounding buildings or the neighborhood.

Your client's business metrics affect your design. Now you know how a design decision affects the bottom lines of the designer, the fabricator and the owner, before it is memorialized. You know how the direction that you are taking impacts on the environment and other resources. When you analyze an aspect of an asset, your results are repeatable and ‘real-world’ accurate since you are working with real-world information, not assumptions, guesses or opinions. You set constraints and the unworkable options are eliminated before you spend time on unproductive tracks.

With BIG BIM your data is fed from a central repository that not only archives everything it also links information that once could not be linked. The data in the repository is shareable, interoperable and grows over time to encompass everything about an asset (as opposed to a building.)  The data becomes the primary issue, and you can create or manipulate the data using an almost unlimited set of tools. Everything from spreadsheets to modeling software can be used.  This is the mode that US government agencies are working to  implement and where the Onuma Planning System is working. In this mode, what software you use is not important. Data and information are king.