WIESBADEN, Germany - With the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implementing building information modeling systems - better known as BIM - across its divisions, the Europe District is beginning to require German government construction agencies, or bauAfA$mter, to use the system on a limited basis.
However, as with any technology adoption process, the district must balance between taking the leading edge and setting reasonable timeline expectations.
"It's not correct to say that BIM is new to Europe," said Jim Noble, Engineering Branch chief for the district. "There are many German firms in private industry that are on board with BIM. The challenge for us is to integrate our programs and collaborate on practices so that we're all on the same sheet of music."
The district has three trial projects requiring the use of BIM - a child development center at Storck Barracks in Illesheim, a health and dental clinic at Urlas Training Area in Ansbach, and a health and dental clinic at South Camp Vilseck in Grafenwoehr. The simplicity of these buildings' structure makes them good pilot projects, said Joseph McKenna, Europe District's BIM manager.
"The original idea was to start with simple, standardized one-story buildings, such as the CDC at Storck Barracks. Almost immediately after we proceeded in that direction, the customer for the HDCs requested the use of BIM. Progressing from such a simple project to more complex clinic projects is a big step for us." he said. "However, the more complicated the building, the more important it is to use BIM, so at least we are headed in the right direction."
The expectation from the customer is savings in time and effort during design and construction, and after completion, utilize the BIM model for facility maintenance, McKenna said.
Discussion on future in-house and bauAfA$mter projects have also begun. However, it will still take some time to fully incorporate BIM into the Europe District construction process due to the legal process outlined in ABG 75, an agreement between the U.S. and German governments that defines how construction works are accomplished in Germany.
"Our job now is to get together with our partners, agree on some parameters, starting points and interpretations and move forward. We're doing just that," Noble said.
Currently, the district is working with the Nuremberg BauAfA$mter, Bavarian CAD Administration in Munich and the buildingSMART Alliance, an agency involved with interoperability of software programs, for the utilization of BIM on the district's pilot projects.
"Thomas Liebich, CEO of the buildingSMART Alliance, has developed an Object and Properties Catalogue that extensively details information that can be attached to geometry in a BIM model. Not only is this a huge development for our projects, it has dovetailed into these organizations meeting with software companies to tailor their software to our needs," McKenna said. "Discussions between the Corps, bauAfA$mter and other organizations have been nearly continuous as the industry continues to transform to the exciting world of BIM."
McKenna will also be speaking at the buildingSMART Forum in September about the direction of BIM in the Army Corps of Engineers.
"We have not attended this forum in the past and it looks to be a great opportunity for us to become more involved with BIM here in Germany," he said.
In house, John Rice, the district's computer-aided design manager, has been working with the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center to create an enterprise licensing agreement with Autodesk.
"Many details, including cost, still need to be finalized, but this could lead to a much wider selection of software for design and, more importantly, review of BIM models," Rice said. "Right now, our capacity to review BIM models from outside agencies is limited."
Additionally, the district has been making significant strides over the past year to keep employees current with new and developing technologies.
The district hosted extensive training sessions on both Bentley Microstation and Autodesk Revit, two of the leading software packages from BIM, according to McKenna. Training session included architects and mechanical, electrical and structural engineers, and district officials. It is planned to continue having more training in the future.
"Right now we're focusing on getting the designers up to speed before we move on to reviewers, who will eventually see BIM models as part of package submittals," McKenna said. "There is a common misconception that BIM is just a computer program - BIM is a process. The program doesn't just show a 3-D model - we've had that capability with CAD - this is smart 3-D. It's a composition now. It shows exactly what a wall is made of and the volume of material."
Standard operating procedures are also being reviewed to accommodate the new developments, according to Brian Ballweg, an architect with the district.
"We are using BIM regularly in our concept designs, planning and design-build request for proposals. It's a great tool to assemble project requirements and documentation," he said. "The program has built-in efficiencies that enable us to modify concept designs and lay a solid foundation for potential in-house designs."
McKenna said the real benefit of incorporating BIM into the District is more than just money savings. Not only does BIM give designers a direct translation into the construction contract, the building owners have all of that information electronically rather than in stacks of manuals making easier to access.
"The real benefit is that customers will be able to maintain their buildings more efficiently," he said. "Now you can tie BIM into other databases that will tell the building manager when maintenance needs to occur, rather than letting problems happen first and then fixing it. It allows for preventative maintenance which translates into cost and labor savings."
For now, McKenna said he and other BIM managers around the district are tracking the pilot projects closely through design, construction and completion to ensure the information is being input correctly.
"The whole process saves money. Now we just have to get everyone in the district up to speed with the system so we can continue to integrate more parts of the process into our projects," he said. "It won't be an easy transition, but we were able to make the transition from drawing on paper to CAD, so I think we'll be able to make this transition."
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