BIM for Concrete? 1

[mustafa52]

Hi Guys
I am trying to get some opinion on how can BIM/Revit modeling be applied to Concrete Sub Contractors. How can a concrete subcontractor take advantage of BIM?

 

[mustafa52]

Say for example

How can we apply BIM to Levee Walls? How can we take advantage of bim to reduce our cost for productivity , forming etc.

Pls share your ideas and opinion

 

[Brad805]

If you are involved early in the project and have sufficient time to model the project you can assist with the material procurement, but if not, then the most significant benefits will be the avoidance of fit problems and the production of accurate schematics for prefabricating components. I know many use it for scheduling also.

A few of the most most significant advantages that BIM can help engineers with are:
1. The ability to see how everything fits together visually before you are on site with tool belts and heavy equipment. I know we can all look at blueprints and should be able to figure it out, but BIM makes it so easy for anyone (eng/tech/contractor...) to see problems in advance, why wouldn't you use this technology?
2. Your computer will never move things differently between plans. I know, all our CAD techs are perfect, but I have found that from time to time things will get moved and then I (engineer) get to figure out how to fix the problem. Yes, the tech modeling things can make mistakes, but it is a lot harder to make those mistakes once he see's how everything fits on his screen.
3. Dimensions. These days it seems our profession is so concerned about errors we have started to be pretty skimpy when it comes to dimensioning things. With BIM, that can cease. Contractors are builders not math guys. By giving them dimensions they do not have to sit and waste a lot of time on site doing arithmetic.

I have attached a pic of a small part of project I was recently involved in. In this case, the Municipal engineer did not quite know how to work around some of the existing underground pipes nor did they have perfectly accurate as-built drawings. We worked for the GC and figured out how to fit all various hatches and internal gates inside the CIP structures. This model included all the rebar and we were able to produce very detailed material lists.

We use Tekla Structure (TS) so I don't know much about Revit. I will say that if you do a lot of repetitive design work you can make custom components with TS that will greatly improve the speed of your drawing/design production. I know of some form work supply companies that have complete models of their form systems. These models help them show their customers how to assemble the parts, prepare formwork drawings, and provide a complete list of the rental components.

Brad