By Julia Lubacheski, Regional Lead for São Paulo, Brazil and BIM Specialist at EngBim Ltda
The view of traditional design processes has already seen major changes with the implementation of electronic models. 3D modelling software that can have an initial view of the project, change and direct the designer’s perspective on it and simulate the project, now it is what it is and living what it is.
When we look at the 3D of BIM, we already find a series of advantages with this simulation to understand the possible interferences of the disciplines that accompany this project, the famous “confrontations”.
At this first moment, we already understand that there is a sudden change from the traditional process to BIM, but when we look at all the other points that BIM brings as new aspects of rethinking the workflow, we find disciplines such as computer science, management, intelligence, and collaborative engineering that are off the grid or are seen very quickly within an architecture or civil course. So, it is clear that every way of working is rethought even more because now we open our minds to what is really digital, programming, and new forms of management.
The architect’s new profile will depend on their area of expertise within the office. As there is currently the “designer” “cadist” occupying a specific role, now they are defined in a modeler profile, needing to adjust to design and have a three-dimensional view within the virtual space. I understand the representation of projects before made lines, now they are digital elements that carry some parameter information inside them.
Another new one is a very large experience within software programming, this is an area of software agility, the knowledge that is still foreseen in the science of elaboration, some scripts are much more important with regard to more common programming languages. Within architecture and engineering programs for creating automation/plug-ins and included modelling and management software APIs. This profile is basically essential to make modelling in the virtual world even more digital and faster and to bridge this with the management area.
Managing it all also becomes much more complex, as digital enables collaborative work across multiple disciplines at the same time, making a single flow. But from different management, it extends to the coordination of disciplined people within a single management model, requiring an integrated work environment. In addition, it is necessary to understand how new possibilities exist through scripts and codes to streamline the process, thus influencing both the costs of a company and its final product.
Deeply understanding the work of employees in this digital form of work is also an area of management. Management in programs and activity processes has also adapted with new ones that will come as information for construction, simulations, and augmented and virtual reality. Construction within the project before construction is also a requirement for the new profile of the BIM professional. Basically, with the implementation of new technologies within the civil construction area, the day-to-day will require different expertise in all the new terminologies that we study today. Modelling, manufacturing, simulations, common data environment (CDE), virtual reality… This new profile will basically demand how all these new implementations work together to specialize in one or more strands.