WHAT IS NOT BIM ?

The term BIM is a popular buzzword used by software developers to describe the
capabilities that their products offer. As such, the defi nition of what constitutes
BIM technology is subject to variation and confusion. To deal with this confusion, it is useful to describe modeling solutions that do not utilize BIM design
technology. These include tools that create the following kinds of models:

• Models that contain 3D data only and no (or few) object attributes. These

are models that can only be used for graphic visualizations and have no

intelligence at the object level. They are fi ne for visualization but provide

little or no support for data integration and design analysis. An example is

Google’s SketchUp application which is excellent for rapid development

of building schematic designs, but limited use for any other type of analysis because it has no knowledge of the objects in the design other than

their geometry and appearance for visualization.

• Models with no support of behavior. These are models that define objects

but cannot adjust their positioning or proportions because they do not

utilize parametric intelligence. This makes changes extremely labor intensive and provides no protection against creating inconsistent or inaccurate

views of the model.

• Models that are composed of multiple 2D CAD reference files that must

be combined to defi ne the building. It is impossible to ensure that the

resulting 3D model will be feasible, consistent, countable, and display

intelligence with respect to the objects contained within it.

• Models that allow changes to dimensions in one view that are not automatically refl ected in other views. This allows for errors in the model that

are very diffi cult to detect (similar to overriding a formula with a manual

entry in a spreadsheet).

REFERENCE BIM Handbook