BIM innovation for smart planning and construction – Geospatial World
BIM awareness is incomplete unless all the three levels — geometry, information management, and process management — are present. All the three levels were dealt with at length in the session titled BIM: Developments and Innovations, moderated by Uwe Huttner, IB&T Software GmbH on the second day of INTERGEO 2021.
In information management, local knowledge is a core requirement for the construction, maintenance and repair of underground pipelines. Photos of open construction pits, existing local expert information or specific contact persons have been proven to be enormously valuable to make infrastructure projects run smoother and more economically.
Underground infrastructure
“The value of underground infrastructure is underestimated,” said Lisa Wolff, Deputy Project Manager, localexpert24. A digging operation might go awry if accidental damage is caused to underground infrastructure. It could lead to construction trouble, increased costs, delays in project completion, and unhappy residents. It could result in power outage, hit water supply, gas supply, etc. To a large extent, situational accuracy on underground infrastructure is missing.
Plans cannot be as accurate as the real picture. Taking the example of underground cables, how they run underground, who laid them there, and how to get in touch with the right people requires location expertise and thorough documentation. Wolff said that localexpert24 has over 9,000 documentation points across Germany addressing situational accuracy on underground infrastructure.
Workflow and Geometry
Simon Bunya, Account Manager, EPLASS Project Collaboration talked about his company’s offering, the DESITE integrated, project collaboration platform workflow. The EPLASS Common Data Environment (CDE) allows for 360 degree views, and the ability to zoom in and out without the need for installing anything on the computer as it is Cloud based. Through the integration of DESITE in EPLASS, collision checks can now be run, and 4D and 5D simulations can be created. EPLASS has also developed new applications for the infrastructure sector such as an EPLASS defect management and a construction diary.
Wahid Fazelly, IB&T Software GmbH talked about BIM in railway design, focusing on track information and geometry. “It is important to extract information from the real situation,” Fazelly said, elucidating about IB&T’s CARD_1, an innovative all-in-one CAD solution in Civil Engineering for Planning, Surveying & BIM.
Use cases of smart planning
The session on use cases of smart planning and construction was moderated by Gunther Wölfle, which again talked about BIM life cycles in openBIM, its use in the reconstruction of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral, utilization of BIM methods in Germany by civil contractors and surveyors.
Thomas Tschickardt, Digital Construction Manager, Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau AG discussed the life cycle approach with openBIM. The BIM method is currently still being tested in infrastructure sector, especially in the execution and maintenance phase. OpenBIM methodology throughout project A 10/A 24, which is the first highway project in Germany where implementation of BIM from design and execution to maintenance is pursued in a comprehensive and life cycle oriented approach. Speaking on the project, he mentioned that it was complex to integrate BIM into it as a distance of 30 km was already constructed, including about 20 bridges.
Reconstruction of Notre Dame
The devastating fire that gutted Notre-Dame made headlines throughout the world. It was then decided to rebuild the beloved monument. At the beginning of 2021, Autodesk signed an official partnership with the EPRND, the public institution in France in charge of rebuilding the Cathedral of Paris — which will see the public institution benefit from Autodesk’s expertise and technologies in helping to rebuild and preserve Notre-Dame heritage monument for future generations. “We had collaborated with Gexpertise on the Eiffel Tower project before Notre-Dame. The result of the Notre-Dame engagement with EPRND is without equivalent worldwide in the sector of BIM modeling of historical monuments,” said Emmanuel Di Giancomo, Autodesk BIM ecosystem development manager for Europe (EMEA), Autodesk.
OpenBIM and autonoumous solutions
For more than 10 years, Trimble has been the main player in the Scandinavian BIM environment. It has been creating solutions and technologies to connect different stakeholders from different disciplines in an openBIM environment to deliver advantages across the whole life cycle of a project. Stefan Argiriu, Software Sales Manager, Trimble, said, “Closed BIM might work for smaller projects but open BIM is necessary when contractors and sub-contractors are involved.” He talked about the benefits of his company’s offering, Quadri, the CDE platform that connects to objects and translates in real-time. Quadri is unique in that it is not exclusively for the big players in the market. It works for a variety of units, small to big, and is convenient for sub-contractors too.
Hexagon, a global leader in sensor, software, and autonomous solutions is transforming construction from project to product — prefabrication and modular construction. Dietmar Bernert, Vice President, Hexagon Geosystems, emphasized on the approximately $ 49 trillion investment needed to support all the population that would be living in cities by 2050. He also talked about reality capture solutions, like Hexagon’s first autonomous sensor that walks around using Artificial Intelligence and the first flying autonomous scanner. Besides, he talked about the importance of smart reality — a mixture of digital and physical realities.