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By now, you have all read much about the onset of Building Information Modeling, or BIM, within the Construction industry. Many of you have dabbled in it; many use it selectively; and many others still have fully committed to BIM as the primary design methodology for your practice.
All of you, however, have probably reached the same frustration with BIM adoption: what about the MEP systems? Whether you are using Autodesk's Revit product or one of the competing software packages such as Bentley Architecture, a common complaint has been that MEP systems are not being captured in the building model. Therefore, the full coordination capability of such software is not being realized. HESM&A understands these issues and stands ready to be your BIM partner.
Regardless of how far along your firm is with BIM adoption, we can work with you to realize a coordinated product. HESM&A currently utilizes Autocad MEP 2009 for all new projects; drawing intelligent objects in 3-D for major systems. Our Autocad MEP drawings can be coordinated with any number of platforms used for Architectural and/or Structural through the use of Autodesk's NavisWorks program. NavisWorks will bring files from different software packages into a common model for the purposes of running clash detection. HESM&A can run clash detection on your project prior to issuing our MEP drawings to you.
Additionally, we are currently training our key staff on Revit MEP. We have already started using Revit models to provide better input into our mechanical load and energy software. Although the MEP content (the intelligent block representations of equipment) is not yet fully realized, HESM&A is working to get the most out of the current software. Often, this may involve utilizing Revit for initial stages of work, and then completing the construction drawings with 3-D Autocad. Again, whichever combination of software tools is ultimately used, the final clash detection can be run via NavisWorks.
The key to making this transition, as always, is our people. While we have our key technical cad people working with the software, our project managers will be communicating with our clients throughout the project process. The key to the adoption of any new system is constant communication with our client to ensure that project deadlines are not compromised. As we continue to address our client's needs, we will move closer and closer to the ideal BIM delivery model.
Many engineers have elected to wait to adopt BIM technology until after the content is further developed and the bugs are worked out. At HESM&A, we believe that the future is now and that our client's needs are now, so we are committed to working with you to make this future a reality - NOW.