Success with BIM: from planning to operation
EMPLOYEES OF BPS INTERNATIONAL GMBH, MUNICH, REPORT ON INTRODUCTION AND PROVEN BENEFITS OF BIM WORKING METHODS. WHEN WORKING ON TECHNICAL BUILDING SERVICES (TGA), SOLAR-COMPUTER-SOFTWARE IS USED.
PS International originally came into being as an IT company, which had to be enhanced by a planning department only after having started its activities in the development and construction of company-owned business parks. Therefore right from the beginning BPS has been focused not only on planning, but in particular on the effective operation of real estate. When properties and facilities are planned, developed and operated from a single source, it goes without saying, that the benefits of BIM can be used to the fullest extent. As for the planning phases, the advantages of BIM lie in modern calculation methods.
The path toward BIM started for BPS with the use of 3D planning of architecture tasks and technical building services. The purpose here was twofold: on the one hand, all new projects were created as parameterized 3D models in strict accordance with the newly mastered procedure; on the other hand, the company-owned property portfolio with a total area of 80.000 m² was subsequently digitized with Autodesk Revit, in parallel. With the beginning of the practical application of BIM data for space and facility management, BPS International had no time to wait for BIM planning and creation of new construction objects.
After all it was about identifying and proving the advantages, that property operators could take from BIM working methods for their purposes. And this had to be done quickly. Anyway, 3D models are not created just to exhibit them: the model production aims at achieving a better ROI in the facility development. Then the question arose what kind of data could be taken from the model and in what form, as well as what software combinations could be considered. The experience of the practical application of BIM data and the associated use of mobile devices fundamentally changed old procedures both on site and in the course of facility maintenance. The procedures in the planning area, as well as the structuring of the tasks and building of an appropriate planning team turned out to be involved, too.
Nowadays the interdisciplinary planning department of BPS can rely on the expertise of approx. 60 employees, when it comes to meeting the challenges of the modern BIM facility planning with a practice-based approach. In the course of the company structure development at BPS and the rapid growth of its planning department, there have established some software products, which allow BIM to be a holistic method for the development of real estate.
OpenBIM has already become absolutely essential for data exchange and data archiving; but as long as there is a possibility to leave the disciplines of architecture, technical building serves and static engineering in their native formats and to handle them within some central model, it should not be waived – for reasons of reliability and low error rates. For BPS International Revit is currently the cornerstone for all planning activities. This is why the compatibility with Revit was a basic prerequisite while choosing the calculation software. BPS has tested different software solutions for combining with Autodesk Revit and has come to the conclusion, that the modules provided by SOLAR COMPUTER meet all the demands of BPS. Greatest attention was paid to the import and export functions from/into Revit.
Yuliya Zolotova, BIM manager at the BPS Group, says: „Through the SOLAR- COMPUTER module GBIS the bi-directional information transfer is realized from BIM models straight to SOLAR and vice versa. The reports are generated while transferring information from the model. This allows to quickly identify errors and to immediately correct them. The transfer of information is carried out automatically. This reduces not only the expenditure of time for planning purposes, but also minimizes human errors in the course of calculation works.”
Although manual calculation methods are still used in the field of technical building services, BPS is interested – due to the origin of the enterprise – in a modern software solution, which would be very close to its 3D planning technologies. While simple operations can be still calculated in Revit, there is only one possibility left for some more challenging or complex calculations (such as, e.g., sound level evaluation for pipeline systems) – the one to use specialized software, which can be integrated or at least connected with Revit in the best way.
Dimitri Kats, Lead architect of the BPS Group, comments: „While aiming at the use of a BIM calculation software, we have to keep a close eye on the requirements applying to the Revit model. This is why the first „spontaneous“ attempts to use an appropriate software would not always have success. But over the time we have established a corresponding procedure.”
BPS International currently uses SOLAR-modules for calculations of heat transition coefficient – U-value according to DIN EN ISO 6946 / k-value according to DIN 4108, for the heating load calculations according to DIN EN 12831, as well as for the purposes of energy efficiency of buildings in accordance with EnEV, heater layout according to VDI 6030 and pipe network calculations according to VDI 3805. These modules support BPS at all calculations, which are too complex for Revit or for a manual procedure.