Build Magazine September 2015

Build Magazine 12 ear not! This step comes as a natural reaction to the increasing demand of the business for more accurate and compatible data. Owners and Facility Managers are pushing for “as-built” data collection during every step of the building process, which requires the development of a new generation of soft- ware solutions. The contractors on the other hand are struggling to meet these information requirements as it gets increasingly hard to collect and structure the data the way the clients want it. In this context comes COBie which is to help neatly organise this immense amount of information in a way that it can communicate with everyone involved in the building process. Luckily for us, COBie has been already tested on field for couple of years in the United States and did not cause any chaos there, so we shouldn’t panic too much about it here in the UK. It is all about software The new rules require a new approach, which means that the British contractors should consider implementing a BIM enabled software system. According to Nick Tune, former BRE Group Director - Digital & Data, current CEO of coBuilder UK and an openBIM advocate – “The construction industry is striving for in- creased productivity from BIM, which is based on accurate information. There is no way of achieving this goal without ‘as built’ accurate open DATA, that we can all understand” Yes, the trend is to develop software solutions integrated in every step of the building process, collecting de- tailed and structured product informa- tion during the course of the building of the project. These software tools support all major data types, which allows easy export to BIM formats such as IFC, COBie and others. There are already pioneering compa- nies in the construction software busi- ness developing such systems and platforms to offer to large contractors and manufacturers. With the COBie deadline however, integrating such a system becomes more of a necessity rather than a choice for most of the companies in the British construction industry. We got word from Alex Lubbock of Carillion who shared his experience: “Ca- rillion provide facilities management functions across the world and it is vital that the data we receive and distribute during construction is accurate and can easily be used by our teams and our customers to manage their assets”. The BIM Countdown Has Begun! Are We Ready To Face It? By Alexander Chervenkov Product Manager at coBuilder April 1st 2016 – most of us have marked this date on the calendar as when BIM Level 2 is officially becoming mandatory in the UK. On this day, the “mighty” CO- Bie, which is in fact nothing more than a sophisticated XML spreadsheet, is bound to open a new chapter for the British construction industry, effectively integrating BIM formatting for all future government projects. F