Does anyone use BIM as BIM?

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Author Message David G. Axt, CCS, CSI ,SCIP Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 1652 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 02:36 pm:    To date, I don't know of any architectural firm that links specifications or material data to their BIM model. Instead a firms use BIM as a 3D drafting tool. So I ask, does anyone use BIM as BIM? David G. Axt, CCS, CSI, SCIP Specifications Consultant Axt Consulting LLC Marc Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 476 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 02:39 pm:    A BIM can be any number of things...it does NOT have to include spec info to be a BIM. information about the geometry...does indeed count as information. Gail Ann J. Goldstead, AIA, CSI, CDT, LEED AP, BD+C Senior Member Username: ggoldstead Post Number: 9 Registered: 03-2015 Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 04:00 pm:    Response to David G. Axt Short answer: No. I agree with your position. If a Contractor needs info, they should read the specs; which, it's obvious that they do. I have our Reviteers keep any info they might put in very generic. We have a Material Legend on the drawings that will define the drawing tags and refer to individual spec sections. It works pretty well. Gail Goldstead Jeffrey Potter Junior Member Username: jpotter Post Number: 2 Registered: 02-2017 Posted on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 - 11:59 am:    BIM is such a wide range of information, data, etc. and specs are knocking on the door wanting so badly to be included. However, I feel the specs still have not been let in. At my firm, we use a software (not naming names) that allows the Revit Model to pull the specifications, which I am currently setting up. It is a grueling task, but something I can see being very helpful to us (spec writers) in the future. The downside to this and why I say specs have not been let in the door yet, is that only those on our server (inside the firm) can see, comment, mark-up, the specs in Revit. No one from the outside (Owner / Contractor) will be able to see the specifications or know how they are connected to each family. I view BIM, in short, that is information available to all through one model that helps determine and view the important aspects of the building. From my own definition, specs are not part of BIM. Until Autodesk makes a "function" (whatever that may be) in Revit for the storage and inclusion of specs within the model, specs will not be BIM in my mind. They will be separate. Chris Grimm, CSI, CCS, SCIP, LEED AP BD+C Senior Member Username: chris_grimm_ccs_scip Post Number: 400 Registered: 02-2014 Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2018 - 12:43 am:    One challenge is avoiding duplication. If Reviteers put product x and all about it in the model, but competition is required and product x info is proprietary, is that a conflicting requirement when the spec is correct and lists 3 allowable products x, y, & z with their attributes? Can we say it is enough if the model includes generic product types accurately and the specs are based on same generic product types, and ideally have a live linkage from the model which reports on whether or not said generic items are in the specs? It should not be necessary for the specs in their entirety to reside within the .rvt or other BIM file in order to be linked to model. As long as you allow for the specs to be separate but yet informed to some degree by what is in the model generically, there are at least 2 established commercially available spec systems and 1 newer one which do in fact "link" specs from the model. I've worked with some A/E firms that in fact do this. Also there isn't really any reason why design firms couldn't generate a list of assembly codes &/or keynotes that are in their model, with no special software, and use that to inform the spec process and vice versa. Brian Payne, AIA Senior Member Username: brian_payne Post Number: 147 Registered: 01-2014 Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 11:32 pm:    I posted in the other thread...Just posting to follow this.