Dive Brief:
- Building information modeling has several advantages, its supporters argue, but one that is likely to get attention from developers who have to pay for it is that it has a bigger "wow" factor for potential investors.
- Jonas N. Salih, a British consultant who helps companies implement BIM, says in a blog post, "A simple 2-D drawing does not attract attention or excite the investor. On the other hand, the different dimensions in a BIM tend to make an impression."
- Salih also says BIM saves time and money on the back end of design because a change needs to be made only once, and the software propogates it throughout the model. This eliminates layer-by-layer revisions that a two-dimensional CAD model would need.
Dive Insight:
Building information modeling is not a small investment for an engineering or design firm, and that cost has kept it in the province of larger projects. Salih makes an interesting argument: Getting more investor buy-in with better presentations seems like something everyone in the process can appreciate.