5D BIM: Precision workflows and cost analysis from design into construction

BIM excels at visually representing what architects have designed and what builders intend to build in three dimensions; these first three dimensions of BIM are named after each spatial axis: x, y, and z.

The fourth dimension, scheduling and sequencing of construction tasks and milestones, adds “time” to these spatial dimensions, producing models that sequentially fly in elements on a project-delivery timeline, delineating during construction what’s been demolished, completed, or currently under construction and what’s next. Critically, this functionality moves BIM beyond being just a design tool.

5D BIM is more than a construction and project management tool. It encompasses scheduling of material delivery and implementation, labor requirements and tasks, and project phasing.

It also plays a vital communication and collaboration role, spotting and troubleshooting bottlenecks, clashes, or other problems across the entire project team: client, designer, builders, engineers, and subcontractors. When a project timeline and its constituent parts are melded with a detailed model, users can query the model via the timeline or via individual components. This can give an instant visual answer to questions like, “What’s happening next week?” or, “When do we install the doors?”

With 5D BIM software, project teams can embed cost data in nearly every element of their model and understand how formal material changes to a project will affect cost. In this way, BIM becomes a risk-assessment tool, removing mountains of unreliable and potentially expensive guesswork from budgeting—a boon to clients and the entire project team, but especially for cost estimators.

Autodesk Revit offers numerous ways to embed cost information into a model. It can pull the type, number, and cost of discrete components (such as furniture) from a model and update them automatically. It can also use the dimensions of an element (such as a steel beam ) to derive cost; changing the length of the beam on the fly will automatically alter its cost. Additionally, Revit can incorporate rate costs by material and discern costs of individual components of a larger, multipart assembly, such as a wall. This functionality can be embedded in cloud-based traditional BIM platforms, as well as additive applications that work within larger modeling applications.