When it came into effect in April 2016 the government’s mandate for the BIM Level 2 accreditation was initially regarded as a major step forward for firms wishing to supply public sector works. It was intended to promote the use of BIM and accelerate its growth. Nearly four years on BIM is becoming part of the landscape for an increasing number of practices. If the packed seminars at LondonBuild recently are anything to go by there is an appetite to learn about BIM implementation.

The Construction Manager BIM survey published by BIM Plus suggests that BIM is now a contractual requirement on over 50% of private sector work. In the public sector a third of respondents to the survey reported that they had found BIM to be a contractual requirement on non-central government projects. Since the previous survey a year ago the number of clients not requiring BIM at all dropped from around half to just over 40%.

The survey also reported progress when it came to digital technologies, demonstrating that certain tools, once considered innovative, were now becoming indispensable to construction businesses. Drone surveys were a large area of growth as were augmented and virtual reality technology, with nearly 40% of respondents stating that they were “just beginning to use” these technologies. Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), a key component of BIM level 3 has seen a jump in use in the last year suggesting that the practice was on the verge of entering the mainstream.

At LondonBuild many of the questions focused on the technology with one delegate stating; “I need BIM, but it is so expensive and time consuming, how do I get it without breaking the bank?” The impression that new software and upgraded infrastructure are necessary for BIM implementation is inaccurate. Moving your systems to the cloud brings many of the latest innovations in digital visualisation and three-dimensional modelling within reach of businesses of all sizes.

Working with Driving Vision gives you the opportunity to simplify the difficult and automate the mundane, to design constructible, sustainable and easy to maintain projects, on-time and on budget with Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) We have developed tools and workflows to make your planning, scoping, tracking and visualisation easy and efficient. Our cloud-based storage enables you to share data with all project participants quickly. Hosting both BIM Execution Plan and the BIM implementation documents in a centrally coordinated Common Data Environment (CDE) means that they can be updated, accessed or extracted at any time throughout the project. We can provide GdaaS graphical interfaces that don’t rely on large inhouse servers to support them. Get in touch to book a demonstration of our capabilities and learn more about our support for BIM processes.

Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now