BIM by numbers

As well as dropping the initially very promising 5D viewer, Vico has gone away from pushing the concept of “recipes”.

These claims I make based on the (previously mentioned in this blog) product demonstration I had the pleasure of attending recently.

While the first one saddens me, the second move is good.

“Recipes” was not a helpful word to use in the context of an intelligent construction planning toolset.

Not because of its inaccuracy.

The word correctly portrayed the information needed to be collected to fully describe the ‘ingredients’ and ‘steps to be performed’ for a building element, it was more the dangerous suggestion of a ‘BIM by numbers approach’ it tended to reinforce, that I did not like.

Funnily enough, in principle, I’d love to have a ‘BIM by numbers approach’ in place. One day.

I just think, it is a long way ahead for most companies doing anything BIM these days.

It requires the type of ‘knowledge banks’ that most cannot dream of yet, databases that include not just routinely used company and project information but also an extensive collection of know-how, all recorded and structured in ways that are not ‘natural’ for how these companies currently operate.

Time to scale back from the big vision and get some meaningful BIM under way, whether you call those information packages ‘recipes’ or something else.