B3 - Future of BIM

The video discusses how quickly the AEC industry is moving towards BIM and how advanced users of the software are incorporating automation and computer programming to automate some menial and iterative tasks. In Bill Allen’s “The Future of BIM will not be BIM-And its coming faster than you think”, he estimates that BIM will evolve and drastically improve in under ten years.

I think overall the future of BIM in our industry is bright however like all things, some facets will change. In the past, pen and paper was the method designers and engineers used. From that, spawned many different programs such as AutoCAD which became the gold standard. I believe Revit is the first iteration of this new method called BIM. After Revit runs its course and begins to show its flaws, other programs will spawn and eventually replace Revit or force it to improve or change. I believe the "new new" thing will incorporate more design aspects into the program rather than drafting aspects. That way, an engineer could explore different virtual models and run the loads and load combinations within the same software. This can cut down on back and forth calculations and consultations with architects about what can and cannot be done.

At my old company, one of the eldest partners still did design and drafting on pencil and paper. He is probably one of the last engineers doing it that way. Just like he is a dying breed, one day AutoCAD will probably become the dying software as BIM replaces it. Just as the whole office was on CAD and he was on paper, one of our client architects began using Revit which forced us to start to adapt. My old boss also said he was looking into relocating the office and upscaling all of the technology including making a concerted effort to switch to Revit. One day however, everyone will be using Revit and wondering whats next after that.

Wenhan:
I agree with what you were saying about how crazy the advantages already are and what they will be soon. Revit will definitely also be incorporated into construction more and more until contractors can view the 3D models on site and even view live updates when issues arise.

Kyle:
The material properties are definitely one of the most interesting aspects of designing with Revit. Using these to communicate with other programs seems very interesting and I think the future will be incorporating all of these into one solo program.

Alynne:
I didn't even consider the fact that the files will be so huge and require such impressive computing power. It does seem significantly different from cad though. I used to work exclusively with AutoCAD and we would have about 5-10 files per job. This had advantages and disadvantages.

[1] Allen, Bill. “The Future of BIM Will Not Be BIM—and It's Coming Faster than You Think.” YouTube, uploaded by Autodesk University, 23 November 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq6yKyauu-o