The companies said that today’s architects and engineers are performing design modelling with BIM toolsets but that some of the most advanced aspects have simply not been useful for constructors’ requirements. Contractors have been left to create their own 3D models for the limited purposes of construction visualisation. As a result, owners have been unable to expect their designers’ BIM work to survive the construction process let alone provide useful information once the scheme is operation.
'Construction modeling' is being developed by Bentley and Trimble as a response designed to fill this gap and enable all the potential benefits to be realised. In construction modelling, the architects’ and engineers’ work is preserved and referenced, with construction modeling overlaid and as-built changes included.
Bentley and Trimble will each contribute to construction modelling advances by pooling resources for product development. Schemas will be shared across design and construction applications. Other aspects include joining forces to advance standards to construction levels of detail and leveraging in certain cases common modelling software for virtual and physical positioning.
One of the initial outcomes of the collaboration is to enable engineers to create field data in Bentley Navigator, manage those point sets in ProjectWise and deliver them to Trimble Field Solutions via Trimble Field Link, creating positioning points between the construction model in the design office and positioning devices in the field.
Kiewit director of virtual construction Andy Kayhanfar said: “One of the challenges we face in construction is translating design models into meaningful construction models for survey utilisation in the field. Bentley and Trimble have provided a solution that helps drive greater efficiencies and reduces rework and risk when translating the design model to the survey.”
Bryn Fosburgh, vice president responsible for Trimble’s construction technology divisions, said, “We are now really hitting our stride working with Bentley so that our mutual construction modelling activities help our users, working together on projects, to get the most advantage of constructible models. We see a great many ways to transform workflows so that BIM’s lifecycle benefits can be achieved.”
Harry Vitelli, Bentley Systems vice president, construction and field, said, “Bentley’s ongoing collaboration with Trimble is delivering real-world solutions that will transform the design to construction workflow – for example, by enabling greatly enhanced information mobility through Bentley’s recently announced ProjectWise Connect Edition and Trimble’s recently announced Trimble Connect platform. Both of our companies share the belief that construction modeling will offer new levels of construction data visibility.”
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