Calls for more BIM-objects

- We need more BIM objects, according to hospital developers Pål Ingdal and Jan Petter Egseth.

2. Feb 2012 15:58 2. Feb 2012 15:58

Ingdal and Egseth have struggled during the planning-stage for the new Knowledge Centre at St. Olavs Hospital as several contractors have been unable to deliver BIM-objects, in particular in the field of electronics.

BIM-coordinator Pål Ingdal (front) and project leader electronics Jan Petter Egseth. Photo: Laila Sandvold Macdonald.

- At times we have had huge problems to find the objects we needed to do a complete 3D-modelling. As a result we had to design the necessary objects ourselves. In that respect this project has been groundbreaking, Egseth told web site Elmagasinet.no.

- Our experience is that most of the contractors are doing their utmost to deliver BIM-objects, but it has been a bit too much work on the electronic objects in this project. In order to meet our target we decided they had to be the right scale, but not necessarily a hundred percent authentic.

- As a result there are several squares used as a temporary solution, but for future projects we expect to get product specified models from the contractors, Egseth says, and expresses his hopes that the lighting contractors can deliver objects to the project library at the Knowledge Centre.

- It is one of our current demands. In the future all contractors have to be prepared to deliver BIM objects for all the projects they are contracted to.

The Knowledge Centre at St. Olavs Hospital covers almost 18 000 square metres and is an important touchstone for the Hospital Development Project for Central Norway (Helsebygg Midt-Norge). It is the first of the buildings to be projected and built with BIM. The work with BIM for building, operation and detailed engineering is due by the end of the year.

Helsebygg Midt-Norge employs BIM for assembly, progress, quantity and MOM (Management, Operations and Maintenance). This requires a different approach than when BIM is used solely for engineering. The project organization uses a model server in order to do this.

According to Pål Ingdal the use of BIM was not a completely new experience to Helsebygg Midt-Norge before they started work on the Knowledge Centre.

- When we were heading the project for a new children’s department at the hospital in Ålesund we used 3D-tools briefly. We worked with the same advisors then as now, so everyone brought some BIM-experience into the new project, according to Ingdal.

Almost everything at the Knowledge Centre will be “BIM-ed,” including the electronics apart from the cabling.

- It would have been too much work compared to what we would gain from it. Other than that the challenges for electronics are not dissimilar to other areas apart from a huge amount of very small components, according to Egseth.

Every field of expertise upload their BIM model every second week, he explains. Everything is then put together in the model server. An interdisciplinary marking system is used for the structure of the model.

- If we are to use the model for more than a 2D drawing it is important to structure it. At the moment the file size is about 1 GB. The plan is to use the model on the level of foreman and fitter, according to Egseth, who also says few others in Norway have yet to employ model servers for BIM (Building Information Modelling).