New approach to data management will help smooth path to buildings with artificial intelligence
BIM software specialist AGACAD is working on a new approach to data management to help project participants get access to the information they need at just the right time throughout a building’s lifecycle.
The Lituaninan company’s “Infinity BIM” project centres on a new data-management platform that is designed to create and deliver data more efficiently, on a leaner real-need basis, just-in-time and in just the right amount for each participant.
The ‘Infinity BIM’ moniker came about as a reaction to the overuse of BIM ‘dimensions’, which will only expand more as the AEC industry moves towards artificially intelligent building processes and structures.
“The ‘big bang’ for BIM was 3D design, a true watershed in AEC history,” explains Donatas Aksomitas, AGACAD CEO. “Emergence of the so-called fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh dimensions of BIM has been decidedly less revolutionary. They comprise, in roughly historical order, the addition to models of scheduling (4D), costing (5D), sustainability (6D) and facility management (7D) dimensions. We end up with a sort of periodic table of the elements, a list that grows as new BIM uses are popularised.
“Each new use brings new human and non-human actors and thus new needs for data exchange. Revit add-ons, clouds, project management software, ERP. CNC machines, panel manufacturers, 3D printers. Robots for layout and assembly. Virtual Reality systems in the office. Augmented Reality devices on-site. As-built BIM models linked to the Internet of Things: for building supervisors, security systems, maintenance crews, and tenants.
“It’s the onset of Industry 4.0 in AEC. And along this inevitable road to fully embracing AI, it no longer makes sense to add individual new BIM “dimensions”: 8D BIM, 9D BIM and so on. What’s needed is “infinity BIM” – technology able to effectively manage building information for any conceivable use.”
Aksomitas recently launched a blog to examine the underlying methodological issues. AGACAD’s hope is to have something to show on the platform side by the end of this year.
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