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Top 5 books to learn more about Building Information Modelling (BIM)


What is BIM?


Building Information Modeling (BIM) helps create and manage information models in a custom data environment that contains both graphical and non-graphical information (Ingibjörg Birna Kjartansdóttir). The information associated with the 3D Model increases as the project progress increases.


Building Information Modeling (BIM) refers to the consistent and continuous use of digital information throughout the entire lifecycle of a built facility, including its design, construction, and operation. BIM is beginning to change the way buildings look, the way they function, and the ways in which they are designed and built.


The simplest way to explain BIM dimensions is that they are further details or pieces of information added to a model to help the project team better understand the model. They are the specific ways in which different data types are integrated into an information model. You get a better picture of the project by adding more dimensions of details, such as how it will be organized, its cost, and how it should be maintained.





5. Building information modeling: a strategic implementation guide for architects, engineers, constructors, and real estate asset managers by Dana K. Smith


The optimal approach to design, build, operate, and maintain buildings

With this book you’ll learn:

  • how to implement this new technology as part of a comprehensive systems approach to the design, construction, management, operation, maintenance, and use of buildings.

  • Understand how BIM supports more streamlined, integrated, and efficient business processes throughout the life cycle of buildings, from their initial conception through their eventual retirement or reuse.

  • The benefits of BIM: better quality buildings, lower construction, and operating costs, shorter project turnaround times, and a higher quality of building information to support better business decisions.

  • A plan for incorporating BIM into every organization’s existing workflows enables you to take full advantage of all the benefits that BIM offers.


Throughout the book, sample documents and figures help you better understand the principles of BIM and how it works in practice. In addition, first-hand accounts show you exactly how adopters of BIM have gained a competitive edge.


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4. Delivering Value with BIM: A whole-of-life approach

This book provides a practical and strategic framework to realize value from implementing BIM by adapting Benefit Realisation Management theory. It presents an approach for practitioners aiming to implement BIM across the life-cycle of built environment assets, including both buildings and infrastructure.

Also, the book features:


  • wide-ranging information about BIM

  • the challenges of monitoring progress towards benefit goals and the greater context of implementation; a set of dictionaries that illustrate:

- how benefits can be achieved

- what the benefit flows are and

- the enabling tools and processes that contribute to achieving and maximizing them

  • a suite of measures that can serve to monitor progress with examples of how they have been used to measure benefits from BIM

  • real-world examples from across the world and life-cycle phases that show how these benefits can be achieved

  • information on international maturity and competency measures to complement the value realization framework

This book has been developed in close collaborative consultation with industry, government, and international research organizations and could be used for industry courses on BIM benefits and implementation for asset management or by universities that teach BIM-related courses.


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3. Building Information Modeling: Technology Foundations and Industry Practice by André Borrmann


This book combines discussions of theoretical foundations with reports from the industry on currently applied best practices. Part I discusses the technological basics of BIM and addresses computational methods for the geometric and semantic modeling of buildings.


Part II covers the important aspect of the interoperability of BIM software products and describes in detail the standardized data format Industry Foundation Classes. It presents the different classification systems, discusses the data format CityGML for describing 3D city models and COBie for handing over data to clients, and also provides an overview of BIM programming tools and interfaces.


Part III is dedicated to the philosophy, organization, and technical implementation of BIM-based collaboration, and discusses the impact on legal issues including construction contracts. In turn,


Part IV covers a wide range of BIM use cases in the different lifecycle phases of a built facility, including the use of BIM for design coordination, structural analysis, energy analysis, code compliance checking, quantity take-off, prefabrication, progress monitoring, and operation.


Part V, a number of design and construction companies report on the current state of BIM adoption in connection with actual BIM projects and discuss the approach pursued the shift toward BIM.


Part VI summarizes the book’s content and provides an outlook on future developments. The book was written both for professionals using or programming such tools and for students in Architecture and Construction Engineering programs.


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Recommended


 

2. Building Information Management. A Standard Framework and Guide to BS 1192


This book is a guide to BS 1192:2007 Collaborative production of architectural, engineering, and construction information, the standard that provides a best practice method for the development, organization, and management of production information for the construction industry.

This book explains in detail:


  • the processes and procedures needed to improve the quality of production information.

  • It will help designers prepare the information before passing it to a construction team to enable a project to be constructed.

  • The adoption of the management processes required to manage information throughout a project lifecycle will also allow the move from a document-centric environment to an information-centric environment unlocking the power of information technology.


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1. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Designers, Engineers, Contractors, and Facility Managers

The BIM Handbook provides:

  • an in-depth understanding of BIM technologies

  • the business and organizational issues associated with its implementation

  • the profound advantages that effective use of BIM can provide to all members of a project team.

This book also includes:

  • Information on the ways in which professionals should use BIM to gain maximum value

  • Topics such as collaborative working, national and major construction clients, BIM standards, and guides

  • A discussion on how various professional roles have expanded through the widespread use and the new avenues of BIM practices and services

  • A wealth of new case studies that clearly illustrate exactly how BIM is applied in a wide variety of conditions


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