Integrated 3D, 4D and 5D solutions: from Archicad to STR Vision CPM via IFC

The session poses a simple question: once the BIM model has been built, what is done with the information it holds. The presenter starts from the time lost redoing and re-coordinating work, and places the concept of integrated solutions there. She clarifies from the outset that integrated does not mean doing everything inside a single tool, but chaining different tools together so that what is produced in design remains useful in cost estimating and on site. On that framework she arranges the 2D, 3D, 4D and 5D dimensions as types of information and uses, not as features of a product. The first half is demonstrated in Archicad on the model of the Fira Barcelona entrance hall, chosen for its barely orthogonal geometry. A column is selected and its properties opened to show that a building element holds far more than geometry: height, shape and materials, and alongside these a classification and non-graphical properties such as fire resistance or the storey it belongs to. That classification is not decorative, because it is what makes it possible to locate and filter the elements later on. From there the session moves to export in IFC format, with the caveat that exporting is not simply saving: it has to be decided what information goes out and how. The second half moves to STR Vision CPM, an application for quantity take-off, cost estimating and financial control of construction work, with a sheet-and-column interface close to Excel. The IFC is imported, displayed in the viewer, and each element is confirmed to retain its length, volume and area quantities. A bill item is then dragged from a price list in BC3 format onto the take-off sheet and the quantity is associated with it by reading it from the element's property. To avoid going one by one, the columns are filtered by material, a selection of eighty-four elements is obtained and the length of all of them is dragged across at once. The same approach extends to parametric rules: a measurement rule is created for columns with a tubular structure and saved in a reusable catalogue. Two versions of the IFC are then compared to locate the design differences, for example a slab in which stair openings have been made; the changes are not applied by themselves, the software flags them and the decision remains with the user. The closing section links the cost estimate with the Gantt chart and export to Primavera and Microsoft Project. It is worth watching it for what it is, a 2017 session: the versions and interfaces that appear on screen are those of the time.