Resellers of Building Information Management (BIM) software packages say that the UK government is stuffing up the introduction of such software in the industry, by failing to make sure that the software is compatible.
When the government announced in May last year that BIM software would be made mandatory on all public sector building projects, resellers of the software started to rub their paws eagerly.
However, it turned out that the issue of compatibility in BIM software packages is delaying its wider use in the building services sector.
H&V news quoted BIM reseller Mintronics’ John Minto, saying that the government’s BIM plans were “largely failing”.
NG Bailey Engineering principal mechanical engineering manager Will Pitt and Interserve Engineering Services head of business development Edward Halford have agreed that while BIM was set to transform the design and delivery of buildings, the software was being scuppered by inter-operability problems.
Halford said that BIM software was sufficiently developed to allow multi-disciplinary co-ordination at early stages but the transfer of BIM information into a format suitable for manufacture and beyond is still tricky.
Some design and detailing required by the government cannot currently be handled by many of the BIM systems being used by architects and consultants.
Halford’s company recognised how some SMEs can struggle with BIM integration, due to cost, time and resource considerations, but some of it was to do with the lack of compatibility across various software packages, as well as the non-availability of supply chain components appear to be holding a number of small and medium-sized enterprises back.
He wanted more standardisation of software packages, improved compatibility, and better integrated technical libraries from manufacturers and suppliers.
To make matters worse, the use of level 2 BIM will become mandatory within public sector projects by 2016, before many have got the hang of level 1.
