Building Information Modeling (BIM) plays an important role in today's construction industry. Models are tools that help stakeholders communicate, visualize building geometry, perform trade coordination and clash detection among others. A less popular aspect of BIM that shows high potential is the quantity take-off (QTO) feature. Yet, its implementation among commercial general contractors (GC) has not received as much attention. The purpose of this study was to identify how the BIM QTO features were being implemented among commercial general contractors, what challenges they faced and how they worked to overcome those challenges. Through a three-step process including semi structured interviews with estimators, preconstruction, BIM and Virtual Design Construction (VDC) managers, valuable insights on the BIM QTO implementation state among general contractors were gathered and analyzed. Links between BIM QTO benefits, project design phases and delivery methods, software, training, leadership and jurisdictions were discussed. The data indicated that BIM QTO's benefits were best leveraged through early general contractor involvement, the adequate contract framework, trained BIM QTO estimators, and early and strategic communication between owners, designers and estimators. The conditions for increased efficiency were discussed along with the solutions to the common BIM-based QTO challenges.

The  construction  industry  is  a  costly  business  such  in  respect  of  capital  for  most construction defects which then require rework, tear down and rebuild again. This study is  meaningful  awareness  of  tools  that  can  reduce  this  best  through  communication  and information sharing between the parties.  The  construction  industry  is  known  as  temporary  projects  organizations,  where  the construction  project  consists  of  several  actors  who  have  to  communicate  and  share information  between  them  to  avoid  mistakes  later  in  the  build  time.  These  actors  are bounded together thus for the duration of the project, then broken when the project has reached its end. The challenge here is for these actors to apply a tool that can help and simplify communications, information sharing, and perhaps the most important aspect is to  create  a  routine  for  the  association  and  the  shattering  of  these  actors.  To  implement such  behavior  using  a  tool  such  as  BIM  in  the  industry  whose  size  perhaps  is indescribable may be a very hard task.  BIM (Building Information Model) could be seen as the solution to this problem because it  acts  as  a  portal  where  the  actors  involved  must  sign  in  and  communicate,  share information, and eventually create a behavior, a routine for this association and division of  the  actors  following  the  end  of  the  project.  The  technology  could  help  the  involved from  the  beginning  of  the  project,  already  in  the  model  stage,  break  down  and  prevent any construction barriers when the building has been placed in the works.  In the current situation used paper models, 2D models and three-dimensional models, 3D, where  the  last  one  is  a  part  of  the  BIM.  BIM  makes  it  also  possible  to  implement  4D, price  calculation  for  the  construction  from  beginning  to  end  and  5D  ie  construction details such as what kind of wood the door is made of, what kind of concrete it is, and even the amount of cable for the construction for example.  BIM  is  seen  as  a  information  technology  used  primarily  in  construction,  where  to encounter  several  obstacles  during  the  implementation  and  use  of  such  technology  is expensive  to  implement  in  a  small  operation,  but  it  creates  many  drivers,  many  agents that  have  implemented  BIM,  which  ultimately  pays  according  to  those  who  can  afford and in the current situation using it

The study addresses the automated translation of architectural drawings from 2D Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) data into a Building Information Model (BIM), with emphasis on the nature, possible role, and limitations of a drafting language Knowledge Representation (KR) on the problem and process. The central idea is that CAD to BIM translation is a complex diagrammatic interpretation problem requiring a domain (drafting language) KR to render it tractable and that such a KR can take the form of an information model. Formal notions of drawing-as-language have been advanced and studied quite extensively for close to 25 years. The analogy implicitly encourages comparison between problem structures in both domains, revealing important similarities and offering guidance from the more mature field of Natural Language Understanding (NLU). The primary insight we derive from NLU involves the central role that a formal language description plays in guiding the process of interpretation (inferential reasoning), and the notable absence of a comparable specification for architectural drafting. We adopt a modified version of Engelhard's approach which expresses drawing structure in terms of a symbol set, a set of relationships, and a set of compositional frameworks in which they are composed. We further define an approach for establishing the features of this KR, drawing upon related work on conceptual frameworks for diagrammatic reasoning systems. We augment this with observation of human subjects performing a number of drafting interpretation exercises and derive some understanding of its inferential nature therefrom. We consider this indicative of the potential range of inferential processes a computational drafting model should ideally support. The KR is implemented as an information model using the EXPRESS language because it is in the public domain and is the implementation language of the target Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model. We draw extensively from the IFC library to demonstrate that it can be applied in this manner, and apply the MVD methodology in defining the scope and interface of the DOM and IFC. This simplifies the IFC translation process significantly and minimizes the need for mapping. We conclude on the basis of selective implementations that a model reflecting the principles and features we define can indeed provide needed and otherwise unavailable support in drafting interpretation and other problems involving reasoning with this class of diagrammatic representations.

Accurate and frequent construction progress tracking provides critical input data for project systems such as cost and schedule control as well as billing. Unfortunately, conventional progress tracking is labor intensive, sometimes subject to negotiation, and often driven by arcane rules. Attempts to improve progress tracking have recently focused mainly on automation, using technologies such as 3D imaging, Global Positioning System (GPS), Ultra Wide Band (UWB) indoor locating, hand-held computers, voice recognition, wireless networks, and other technologies in various combinations. Three dimensional (3D) imaging technologies, such as 3D laser scanners (LADARs) and photogrammetry have shown great potential for saving time and cost for recording project 3D status and thus to support some categories of progress tracking. Although laser scanners in particular and 3D imaging in general are being investigated and used in multiple applications in the construction industry, their full potential has not yet been achieved. The reason may be that commercial software packages are still too complicated and time consuming for processing scanned data. Methods have however been developed for the automated, efficient and effective recognition of project 3D BIM objects in site laser scans. This thesis presents a novel system that combines 3D object recognition technology with schedule information into a combined 4D object based construction progress tracking system. The performance of the system is investigated on a comprehensive field database acquired during the construction of a steel reinforced concrete structure, Engineering V Building at the University of Waterloo. It demonstrates a degree of accuracy that meets or exceeds typical manual performance. However, the earned value tracking is the most commonly used method in the industry. That is why the object based automated progress tracking system is further explored, and combined with earned value theory into an earned value based automated progress tracking system. Nevertheless, both of these systems are focused on permanent structure objects only, not secondary or temporary. In the last part of the thesis, several approaches are proposed for concrete construction secondary and temporary object tracking. It is concluded that accurate tracking of structural building project progress is possible by combining a-priori 4D project models with 3D object recognition using the algorithms developed and presented in this thesis.

The purpose of this study is to facilitate sustainable building by the use of BIM. The goal is to determine which aspects of sustainable building, which can be analyzed mainly with BIM tools, but also other aids. The study is based on literature studies and interviews. The literature review examines aspects important for sustainable building by studying environmental certification systems applicable in Sweden, as well as the BIM tools available on the market to analyze these aspects. The literature also includes the concepts of BIM and sustainability in order to provide a clearer view of its meaning. The interviews have brought the study's overall understanding of the industry and guidance on the subject. The results are presented in a table, where the aspects relevant to sustainable building are listed. It can also be read which aspect the certification systems raise. Overall, the study shows 132 aspects distributed across seven areas: Site, Water and Wastewater, Energy and Pollution, Materials and Waste, Indoor and Wellbeing, City Design and finally Implementation and Management. The table also suggests BIM tools and other aids, which can be used in the analysis of a specific aspect. The study shows a slight majority of the aspects, 55 percent, are possible to analyze with BIM tools. The Site is the area with most aspects, which can be analyzed with BIM tools, 95 percent. And Materials and Waste resulted in least aspects with only ten percent. Overall, the study examined 35 different BIM tools. The aspects that require other means of analysis often generates important information about the project, from a sustainability point of view, and in many cases the information can be integrated in the BIM model manually. In the end, the project gets a packed BIM model with useful information, which follows the project all the way into management and later demolition and recycling. The study shows that sustainable building demands a holistic approach where several aspects should be considered in order to achieve sustainability. To analyze the aspects of sustainability requires that relevant and accurate information about the project be collected. Various proposals can be drawn and compared to generate the most sustainable option. A tool for this is BIM. BIM is defined partly as a method of work, building information modeling, but also as a virtual model, building information model. BIM facilitates the coordination of information gathering, both as a working method and a technical tool. This will contribute BIM to achieve the purpose sustainable building. / Syftet med den här studien är att underlätta hållbart byggande genom användandet av BIM. Målet är att utreda vilka aspekter inom hållbart byggande som kan analyseras med fokus på i huvudsak BIM-verktyg, men också andra hjälpmedel. Studien bygger på litteraturstudier och intervjuer. I litteraturstudien undersöks aspekter som är betydelsefulla vid hållbart byggande genom att studera miljöcertifieringssystem som är tillämpningsbara i Sverige, samt vilka BIM-verktyg som finns att tillgå på marknaden för att analysera dessa aspekter. Litteraturstudien innefattar även begrepp rörande BIM och hållbarhet för att ge en klarare bild av dess innebörd. Intervjuerna har tillfört studien övergripande förståelse för branschen och vägledning i ämnet. Resultatet redovisas i en tabell, där de aspekter som är relevanta för hållbart byggande är listade. I tabellen går det även att utläsa vilka aspekter certifieringssystemen tar upp. Totalt visar studien på 132 aspekter fördelade inom sju delområden; Platsen, Vatten och Avlopp, Energi och Föroreningar, Material och Avfall, Inomhusklimat och Välmående, Stadens Gestaltning samt Genomförande och Förvaltning. I tabellen redovisas dessutom förslag på BIM-verktyg samt andra hjälpmedel som används vid analys av en specifik aspekt. Studien visar att en knapp majoritet av aspekterna, 55 procent, är möjliga att analysera med BIM-verktyg. Platsen är det delområde som visar flest aspekter som går att analysera med BIM-verktyg, 95 procent. Material och avfall resulterade i minst aspekter med endast tio procent. Sammantaget har studien undersökt 35 stycken olika BIM-verktyg. De aspekter som kräver andra hjälpmedel för analys genererar ofta information viktig för projektet ur hållbarhetssynpunkt, och går i många fall att integrera i BIM-modellen manuellt. Sammantaget medför det att projektet får en fullmatad BIM-modell med användbar information som följer projektet ända in i förvaltning och sedermera rivning och återvinning. Studien visar att hållbart byggande handlar om att ha en helhetssyn där flertalet aspekter ska beaktas för att uppnå hållbarhet. Det räcker således inte att bara se till exempelvis energihushållning för att anse att ett projekt är hållbart. För att analysera aspekter rörande hållbarhet krävs att relevant och riktig information om projektet insamlas. Då kan olika förslag utarbetas och jämföras för att ta fram det mest hållbara alternativet. Ett redskap för detta är BIM. BIM är definierat dels som en arbetsmetod, byggnadsinformationsmodellering, men också som en virtuell modell, byggnadsinformationsmodell. BIM underlättar samordningen av den insamlande informationen, både som arbetsmetod och som tekniskt verktyg. På så vis bidrar BIM till att uppnå syftet hållbart byggande.

Safety of workers in the construction environment remains one of the greatest challenges faced by the construction industry today. Activity-based hazard identification and prevention is limited because construction safety information and knowledge tends to be scattered and fragmented throughout safety regulations, accident records, and experience. With the advancement of information technology in the building and construction industry, a missing link between effective activity-level construction planning and Building Information Modeling (BIM) becomes more evident. The objectives of this study are 1) to formalize the safety management knowledge and to integrate safety aspects into BIM, and 2) to facilitate activity-based hazard identification and prevention in construction planning. To start with, a Construction Safety Ontology is created to organize, store, and re-use construction safety knowledge. Secondly, activity-based workspace visualization and congestion identification methods are investigated to study the hazards caused by the interaction between activities. Computational algorithms are created to process and retrieve activity-based workspace parameters through location tracking data of workers collected by remote sensing technology. Lastly, by introducing workspace parameters into ontology and connecting the ontology with BIM, automated workspace analysis along with job hazard analysis are explored. Results indicate that potential safety hazards can be identified, recorded, analyzed, and prevented in BIM. This study integrates aspects of construction safety into current BIM workflow, which enables performing hazard identification and prevention early in the project planning phase.

Accurate and frequent construction progress tracking provides critical input data for project systems such as cost and schedule control as well as billing. Unfortunately, conventional progress tracking is labor intensive, sometimes subject to negotiation, and often driven by arcane rules. Attempts to improve progress tracking have recently focused mainly on automation, using technologies such as 3D imaging, Global Positioning System (GPS), Ultra Wide Band (UWB) indoor locating, hand-held computers, voice recognition, wireless networks, and other technologies in various combinations. Three dimensional (3D) imaging technologies, such as 3D laser scanners (LADARs) and photogrammetry have shown great potential for saving time and cost for recording project 3D status and thus to support some categories of progress tracking. Although laser scanners in particular and 3D imaging in general are being investigated and used in multiple applications in the construction industry, their full potential has not yet been achieved. The reason may be that commercial software packages are still too complicated and time consuming for processing scanned data. Methods have however been developed for the automated, efficient and effective recognition of project 3D BIM objects in site laser scans. This thesis presents a novel system that combines 3D object recognition technology with schedule information into a combined 4D object based construction progress tracking system. The performance of the system is investigated on a comprehensive field database acquired during the construction of a steel reinforced concrete structure, Engineering V Building at the University of Waterloo. It demonstrates a degree of accuracy that meets or exceeds typical manual performance. However, the earned value tracking is the most commonly used method in the industry. That is why the object based automated progress tracking system is further explored, and combined with earned value theory into an earned value based automated progress tracking system. Nevertheless, both of these systems are focused on permanent structure objects only, not secondary or temporary. In the last part of the thesis, several approaches are proposed for concrete construction secondary and temporary object tracking. It is concluded that accurate tracking of structural building project progress is possible by combining a-priori 4D project models with 3D object recognition using the algorithms developed and presented in this thesis.

With the growing number of complex requirements for building and facility projects, diverse domain experts iteratively exchange building design and product data during the design, construction, and facility management phases. Such data exchanges, however, frequently involve unintended geometric transformations, inaccurate project requirements, and insufficient syntactic and semantic elements in building model data. To ensure the interoperability of building information models, this dissertation includes an examination of rules categorized from the Precast Concrete Institute model views and a generalization of the rule logic and structures of each rule set. Moreover, rule logic is coded and implemented on modularized validation platforms of a validation tool referred to as the IfcDoc tool, an automated model view documentation and validation application. This dissertation is expected to help domain experts evaluate whether building design data fulfill the data exchange specifications of their domain and the objectives of a proposed project. Furthermore, to identify unreliable and inconsistent IFC mapping procedures of BIM authoring tools, software developers using the proposed approach would implement an automated debugging process in their IFC interfaces according to the specifications of a targeted model view.

[pt] Grandes projetos de engenharia como prédios e infraestrutura urbana demandam milhões em investimentos e estreita colaboração entre equipes de especialistas ao longo de vários anos de projeto, construção e operação. Para vencer estes desafios, a indústria de Arquitetura, Engenharia e Construção (AEC) está ativamente desenvolvimento métodos e ferramentas baseadas na Modelagem da Informação da Construção (BIM). BIM promove o uso de modelos CAD 3D como uma base de dados centralizada para todas as características físicas e funcionais de uma instalação e suas informações associadas de projeto e ciclo de vida. A complexidade inerente de um modelo BIM oferece um desafio crítico de visualização: como melhor apresentar informações relevantes necessárias para diferentes análises de engenharia? Este trabalho contribui para responder esta questão através de uma abordagem teórica e prática. A tese primeiro apresenta uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre o estado atual de visualização de informação (VIS) em pesquisas BIM. A revisão analisa em detalhe as visualizações adotadas em diversos casos de uso ao longo das fases do ciclo de vida de um projeto de engenharia. Baseado nesses resultados, a tese descreve a especificação e avaliação de um novo sistema 4D para planejamento da construção que supere várias limitações de trabalhos anteriores. Colaboradores de engenharia utilizaram o software para revisar os planos reais de construção de uma planta industrial de Óleo e Gás. As ferramentas de visualização desenvolvidas tornaram evidente incertezas no cronograma, conflitos de espaço de trabalho e outros problemas de construtibilidade. A tese contribui para pesquisas em BIM com importantes recomendações de visualização e também contribui para pesquisas de VIS ao trazer à tona desafios interessantes em um domínio de engenharia cada vez mais relevante. / [en] Large-scale engineering projects such as buildings and city infrastructure require millions in investments and tight coordination between expert teams across several years of design, construction, and operation. To tackle these challenges, the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is actively developing methods and tools based on Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM promotes the use of 3D CAD models as a centralized database for all physical and functional characteristics of a facility and its related project/life-cycle information. The inherent complexity of a BIM model offers a critical visualization challenge: how to best display relevant information required by different engineering analyses? This work contributes to answering this question through both theoretical and practical approaches. The thesis first presents a systematic literature review on the current state of information visualization (VIS) in BIM research. The review analyzes in detail currently employed visualizations in diverse use cases across an engineering projects life cycle. Based on these findings, the thesis describes the design and evaluation of a novel 4D construction planning system that overcomes many limitations of previous work. Engineering collaborators used the software to review the real-world construction plans of an Oil and Gas industrial plant. The developed visualizations made evident schedule uncertainties, workspace conflicts and other constructability issues. The thesis contributes to BIM research with important visualization guidelines and also contributes to VIS research by raising awareness to interesting challenges in a increasingly relevant engineering domain.

Abstract Purpose: The construction industry's productivity in Sweden is low and one of the major causes of this is the lack of work preparation. A study showed that 45 percent of the fault causes could be linked to work preparation and accounted for up to 30 percent of the error costs. Work preparation is a tool for efficient and safe execution of work, but despite good foundation, the use of it does not work at present. The lack of use of work preparation is to a large extent a result of poor communication and information exchange between production management and occupational workers in production. The aim of the work is to investigate communication and information exchange between production management and occupational workers in the production. Identifying deficiencies in communication and information exchange, how they can be rectified. As well as provide improvement suggestions for the use of work preparation as a tool between production management and occupational workers. Method: To achieve the goal, a qualitative case study on three building projects has been carried out. The methodology has been semi structured interviews with team members involved in the work preparation, observation of meetings, document analysis of the organization's work preparation and a literature study to gain knowledge of the factors that cause deficiencies in communication and information exchange of the team members involved in the work preparation. Findings: The identified underlying causes of communication and information exchange failures are too little information about work preparation, unclear how to implement it and too few tools. Production management does not realize the value of work preparation, which means that the time required for a good work preparation is not set aside. Implications: An adequate work preparation is an important factor in increasing the productivity of construction projects. In order to achieve an adequate workforce the organization must have stronger guidelines and more tools to streamline it and appoint the responsible party to implement them. Production management needs to realize the value of a work preparation and set aside the time required for it to be beneficial. Limitations: The limitations on the work have been a requirement based on the time perspective of the work. The work is considered despite the limitation to Peabs office in Jönköping applicable to other projects. The work has not had the purpose of changing the work preparation but focuses on the use of it, how it is worked and used. Reflecting that work preparation is a general term not only used in the construction industry, the result is generalizable to not only building projects but in all areas of work that require a comprehensive work preparation in an efficient and flexible manner. / Sammanfattning Syfte: Byggbranschens produktivitet i Sverige är låg och en av de större felorsakerna till detta är bristande arbetsberedning. I en studie påvisades det att 45 procent av felorsakerna kunde kopplas till arbetsberedning och att det stod för upp till 30 procent av felkostnaderna. Arbetsberedning är ett verktyg för ett effektivt och säkert utförande av arbetsmoment, men trots bra underlag fungerar inte användningen i dagens läge. Den bristande användningen av arbetsberedning är till större del ett resultat av undermålig kommunikation och informationsöverföring mellan produktionsledning och yrkesarbetare i produktionen. Målet med arbetet är att undersöka kommunikation och informationsöverföring mellan produktionsledning och yrkesarbetare inom produktionsmomentet arbetsberedning. Att identifiera brister i kommunikation och informationsöverföringen, hur de kan avhjälpas. Samt ge förbättringsförslag på användningen av arbetsberedning som verktyg mellan produktionsledning och yrkesarbetare. Metod: För att nå målet har en kvalitativ fallstudie på tre byggnadsprojekt utförts. Metodvalen har varit semistrukturerade intervjuer med involverade parter i arbetsberedningen, en innehållsanalys av organisationens arbetsberedning samt en litteraturstudie för att få kunskap om de underliggande orsakerna till brister i kommunikation och informationsöverföring mellan produktionsledning och yrkesarbetare. Resultat: De identifierade underliggande orsakerna till brister i kommunikation och informationsöverföring är för lite information om arbetsberedning, oklart hur den ska genomföras samt för få hjälpmedel. Produktionsledning inser inte värdet av arbetsberedningar vilket gör att tiden som krävs för en god arbetsberedning inte avsätts. Konsekvenser: En adekvat arbetsberedning är en viktig faktor för att öka produktiviteten i byggprojekt. För att uppnå en adekvat arbetsberedning måste organisationen ha starkare riktlinjer och mer hjälpmedel för att effektivisera den och utse ansvarig part som genomför dem. Produktionsledning behöver inse värdet av en arbetsberedning och lägga den tid som krävs för att den ska bli gynnsam. Begränsningar: Begränsningarna i arbetet har varit ett krav utifrån tidsperspektivet för arbetet. Arbetet anses trots avgränsning mot enbart Peabs kontor i Jönköping applicerbart mot andra projekt. Arbetet har inte haft som syfte att ändra på arbetsberedningen utan har fokus på användningen av arbetsmomentet, hur det arbetas med och används. Reflekterande på att arbetsberedningen är en generell term som inte bara används inom byggindustrin så är resultatet generaliserbart och kan användas inom alla områden med arbetsmoment som kräver en arbetsberedning.