What do you think about modeling in engineering and construction? Models are a natural evolution for us in the digital world. When we first started using CAD, it wasn’t much more than a digital pen and a digital whiteboard. But hey, we’ve evolved! If you or your engineers are using any of the latest design tools, they are creating 3D models. And depending on the sophistication of the engineer, they can be very reliable models of information or data. Agencies like the Utah Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are leading the charge by putting models at the forefront of design and construction. We are moving towards models that are the legal document or the legal delivery of application and construction. are we ready Many states are already moving to approve models as an official engineering document of record. It’s happening So let’s leave this professional or legal debate to ‘others’ to resolve. What is the impact on bidding, construction and inspection?
Let’s look at offers and requests first. One of the few positives that came out of COVID was the acceptance of e-tendering as not just the norm, but a requirement for most agencies and businesses. What does our current build offer package look like? PDF of plans, specifications, legal and contractual documents and survey/geotechnical data. If a model is included, it is for informational purposes and in a proprietary format of the supplier. And this model, if done correctly, contains mountains of important and influential information about your project. But it is only informative. Can you consume all the information? Who on your team can digest the information? Today, it takes someone as talented with the modeling software as the person who created the models. Do your Bidding and Procurement staff have these skills? If so, you are very lucky. What about your subcontractors? Do they have the skill set needed to dissect a model using design modeling tools? In many cases, they may not even have access to the same tools as the model creator. I certainly feel like I’m painting an abysmal picture. But it is not a dark horizon. There is hope, there is a future, and help is on the way. Two things must happen to provide this digital bridge from design to construction.
First, we need industry consolidation on standards that provide for collaboration between vendors’ proprietary formats. We can all attack vendors over proprietary formats, but vendors should have the right to protect their heavily invested IP. This has two potential solutions. Truly open APIs, which are a long way off, or an efficient, robust, neutral data standard.
Enter the Industry Foundation or IFC classes. IFC, under the constant guidance and direction of buildingSMART International, is an ISO-certified representation of both the geometric model and the business meaning behind the geometry. With IFC, we can represent a road as a road and a bridge as a bridge in a way that any software can understand and use. When a vendor is reviewing proposals on Bid Express, Infotech’s online bidding platform, to determine if there are any jobs they would like to do, they have to review hundreds and hundreds of item lists and plan sheets. If they are a subcontractor, they may be looking for a single needle in a haystack. What if, instead, they could open the project in a virtual environment, move around it, and quickly determine if that type of project is in their wheelhouse? It’s just one of the many ways that having the model available throughout the lifecycle completely changes the way people work.
