After reading the third chapter in the BIM handbook, I was
surprised at the importance of language for computers to communicate with one
another. I understood the basics, that different programs saved the files in
various ways, however the implications did not register. In the past two weeks,
we investigated the different BIM programs, including their strengths and
weaknesses. If these programs were able to save to the same file type, there
would be no issues with going from one program to another. A user friendly
program could be the first step to making a structure, where laying down the
simple plans were the main priorities. Once this task was completed, a more in
depth program could be incorporated to display the complex curves and other more
difficult objects. It is a shame that these different languages must exist, had
no language gap existed, the full potential of each program could be utilized
and there wouldn’t be any need to settle for one program.
What was
interesting in the second article I read, Electronic Data
Interchange And Paperless Processing: Issues and Challenges, was that this
data interchange issue was prevalent in many other instances outside of the BIM
field. For example, in the medical field, a standard issue medical form type
does not exist. It is common for doctors to be lacking information because they
are unable to access it due to its file type, computer language, or even if
it’s a physical document not at that healthcare facility. Similarly to this, as
was mentioned in the initial article, if someone is unable to view all of the
documents in a construction project, he may accidentally and unknowingly make a
mistake. This could be possible if a HVAC engineer placed duct work through a
structural column because that column did not appear on his original drawings. In
addition, the article mentioned the importance of a standard of technology for programs
to communicate with each other and how it may limit or allow the program’s
ultimate success. This was the case with the “quad-stereo” which was the more
advanced technology in the past, but did not have the standardization necessary
for it to be easily adapted to. I was surprised at the clear connection between
healthcare and audio technologies to the many types of building information
modeling software.
The second article, The Importance of
BIM in Structural Engineering, gave a good description of data interchange.
It described this interchange as the ability of one relational database to talk
with the others. This could take place between an architect’s database and one
of the subcontractors database, a government entity’s database with a
geotechnical engineer’s database and ultimately, any database in the set with
any other database in the set. The primary issue commonly seen is having to
smooth or simplify some of the data so that it is appropriate for another user
of the database. For example, an HVAC engineer would need to know the location
of many structural members, but not necessarily all of the details relating to
them. While this information would not hurt the HVAC engineer, it would mean a
significantly larger amount of data for his computer to process. This is even truer
for larger structures such as high rise buildings and stadiums. The application
of data interchange to the structural engineering field made this technological
issue much more digestible.
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