Structural BIM
Engineers Gear Up for Digital Transition

By Nadine M. Post, special from ENR

Structural engineers are transitioning to 3D digital design, but this shift is toughest for smaller firms.

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For larger structural engineers, the transition to digital, 3D building information modeling is perplexing, awkward and demanding. For smaller firms with fewer resources, the switch is downright angst-ridden. But no matter the size, BIM experts at the 2007 Structures Conference advised firms that they need to gear up for the transition or they will be left out in the cold.

"I would start now," says Howard W. Ashcraft, a construction technology lawyer with Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos Rudy LLP, San Francisco. Firms that cannot offer BIM deliverables will soon be at a competitive disadvantage, he warns.

Few engineers attending the May 16-19 meeting in Long Beach, Calif., disputed that BIM and even collaborative BIM, which includes sharing of the BIM model with other firms on a project, are coming. But they feel trapped in the transition. That's partly because "designers are at the wrong end of the BIM reward stick," says Ashcraft. "Contractors get an immediate bang for the buck; designers don't," he says, pointing out that "Making an investment to increase your efficiency will not benefit you in the short term."

BIM start-up and continuation costs are an especially big concern for small firms. Sources report that for a firm of 20 employees, the initial cost could easily reach beyond $100,000 for upgrading computer hardware, buying software licenses and training. Initial cost does not include soft costs such as time away from "real" work during training, the learning curve, time spent reorganizing the work flow, revamping contracts and fixing problems with the systems.

That aside, when large-firm structural engineer Walter P. Moore and Associates Inc. introduced BIM, it was the firm's best year, says Doug Ashcraft, a principal and operations manager of the Houston-based firm. "The productivity of trained engineers is frightening," he says. Currently, WPM has more than 70 projects designed using BIM, he adds.

For those structural engineers afraid to take the leap, help is coming soon.

The Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which organized the Long Beach conference attended by more than 1,000 engineers, has just formed a BIM committee. Its purpose is to explore, document and disseminate benefits, risks and practical and contractual implications of implementing building information modeling as it affects the structural engineering profession.

"The AEC industry has really hit the tipping point regarding BIM, and we did not see that the structural engineering community was represented in any real sense," says Joseph M. Ales Jr., a principal in WPM's Tampa office and the BIM committee's chairman.

Information will be provided in the SEI e-newsletter, articles in Structure Magazine and through sessions at the annual Structures Congress. "I think a BIM guideline will be expected at some point in time," says Ales. "I don't see our committee doing this on our own," but rather in collaboration with other structural engineers' associations, he adds.

Though the committee of 12 is made up of structural engineers, Ales expects to add members from outside the profession, such as an architect, a mechanical engineer and a contractor, "to have the full range of disciplines represented." The idea is to ease the transition to the sharing of electronic data and documents among members of a project team, which is known as collaborative BIM or integrated project delivery.

Howard Ashcraft calls BIM, by itself, "CAD on steroids." Collaborative BIM, he says, is the real paradigm shift because it offers the potential to improve construction quality and productivity. In the near term, however, it raises big issues about insurance, liability and interoperability. "Delegating design to software raises questions of who is in responsible charge," he says. "What our intelligent models are doing is unlicensed practice of engineering. The registration rules have to change."

Though many groups have IPD initiatives, Ashcraft says one group a bit ahead of the curve is the American Institute of Architects California Council, which this month released Integrated Project Delivery: A Working Definition. The document defines not only IPD but lays out "essential" principles and new business models. It also describes the stages of the process, including how to build an integrated team.

Performance-based design is another hot topic for structural engineers, especially in seismic zones. On May 31 in San Francisco, the Applied Technology Council rolled out the 35%-complete draft of its Performance-Based Seismic Design Guidelines for new and existing buildings-the ATC-58 Project. The 10-year project is four years away from completion.

The project "introduces methods of structural reliability," says Ronald O. Hamburger, a principal in the San Francisco office of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger and the project's technical director. "If you make the effort [to follow ATC-58], you will see advantages and it will change the way you practice," he adds.

At the core of the work are "fragility functions." Hamburger describes them as the probability that some component will reach or exceed a damage state as a function of a demand parameter.

Performance-based seismic design for tall buildings is another area of great interest to western U.S. structural engineers. To come to their aid, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, last year formed a Tall Buildings Initiative. TBI, a consortium of several groups, is a focused effort aimed at clarifying performance objectives, model and analysis protocols, design frameworks and building-department administrative processes, including peer review, says Jack P. Moehle, PEER's director and TBI's organizer. The long-term goal is to develop a framework for seismic design of tall buildings, summarized in a guidelines document.

Work on that is about to begin, he says.

Sidebar

Document Flow Application Gains Partners

A software application that manages the flow of project documents from design development through project closeout and interfaces with commonly used project-management software such as Prolog and Expedition recently took on new partners and added new dimensions.

Adenium Inc., a software company located in Cleveland, upgraded its application and joined with ReproMAX, one of the largest reprographers in the country, and McGraw-Hill Construction to offer Project Document Manager, or PDM

Southwest Contractor is part of McGraw-Hill Construction, which also includes Dodge, Sweets, ENR and Architectural Record.

While other products offer document management within different stages of the design and construction process, PDM manages documents from beginning to end. Its open architecture allows it to be fully integrated into any contractor's workflow, and it keeps all project documentation in one place through design development, preconstruction, construction and closeout.

For example, the software tracks subcontractor activity - including prequalifications and low bidders - from the preconstruction phase into the construction phase so information doesn't have to be re-keyed into a new system. It manages requests for information so they aren't taped to one set of drawings but are available for the entire project team.

PDM is also Windows-based, not Internet-based, which means companies buy the software and run it on their own systems, behind their own firewalls. Another advantage is the open architecture of the program. PDM can interface with any scheduling, accounting and project management software. "The documents follow along through every step of the project with automatic version control," says Ron Perkins, head of business development at Adenium.

PDM also interfaces with Document Fulfillment Systems, an online plan room that Adenium and ReproMAX developed that, among its numerous functions, allows automation of print orders.

"Customers can still use DFS if they want," Perkins says. "PDM automates more than just the document printing aspects. It automates all steps through project closeout."

Skanska USA based in Parsippany, N.J., uses the Adenium application. Over the past decade, Skanska consolidated its offices across the country and started to develop efficiencies in systems and processes. "One thing was very clear - a real void existed in document handling," says Chris Stockley, chief information officer for Skanska USA. "We didn't need a system that created another information island; we needed a way to consolidate project information into one system and make it searchable."

In addition to consolidating project information into one system, the application allows Skanska's superintendents to maximize the use of their time on the jobsite and not spend excess time on paperwork in the trailer, Stockley says. "We are developing a truly connected workforce, which we believe is a value to our customers," he adds.

Hill International based in Marlton, N.J., recently started utilizing PDM. As Hill expanded and began managing global projects with global players it needed more sophisticated document handling, says Shawn Pressley, Hill's project controls engineer. "The system lowers the risk of claims because you know who touched what, when they touched it, who printed it and when," Pressley adds.

Full integration into Primavera and other project management software was also a plus for Hill. "For us, the ROI is clear and helps us differentiate our services with owner relationships as well as mitigate potentially costly risks throughout a project," he says.

For more information on PDM, call 1-866-239-4261.

Useful Sources

For more engineering and BIM news, go to enr.com

Visit the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, at www.seinstitute.org

To find out more about the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center's Tall Building Initiative, visit peer.berkeley.edu/research/tall_building.html