There has been an increase in adoption of building information modeling (BIM) by commercial contractors over the past few years but there is not a clear indication of current application or the frequency of each use. This research was undertaken to determine the frequency and best practices of using BIM in commercial construction. Leading commercial contracting firms were contacted and employees were selected to complete a telephone survey that was designed to determine how they are using BIM. It was found that BIM is being used with more frequency on projects, with plans to continue to implement it even further on all projects that allow for its use. Most companies are incorporating trade contractors in their coordination meetings but are taking the lead to ensure a high standard is maintained. Trade contractors are given responsibility to resolve smaller clashes while bringing the larger problems to the clash detection meetings. The model quality being received is increasing as well the frequency of models being received from the design team; however, there is a lack of consensus as to the level of development requirement to ensure the model can be used for facilities management. Commercial contractors are adopting building information modeling for a variety of reasons. These include client requirements, innovative technology strategies, and fear of being left behind. Overall its use improves processes within their companies. The general agreement is that BIM is having a positive impact on profitability, schedules and sales. BIM further improves the efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness. The best practices undertaken by commercial contractors include using BIM as a sales and marketing tool, utilizing subcontractors knowledge and allowing them to resolve minor clashes, having combination of BIM teams and BIM experts and investing in training employees and further development of BIM uses.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) use in the contracting industry has grown significantly in recent years. With this change in the construction industry, consensus has not been reached as to what BIM is, who is using it and what they are using it for. The purpose of this research was to determine current BIM practices of US-based commercial MEP contractors. Executive, middle management, and field personnel were interviewed to determine the current BIM practices in their companies. The majority of companies interviewed were using BIM and most were using it on a significant portion of their projects. The majority of MEP contractors using BIM were seeing positive results in many of six key performance indicators, profitability, schedule duration, field efficiency, change orders, rework, and safety. The top uses of BIM for MEP contractors were clash detection coordination, prefabrication, design creation, and quantity take-off/cost estimating. Most MEP contractors have not yet incorporated BIM for scheduling, sequencing, or safety analysis. Additionally most MEP contractors did not have a formal BIM training program in their company.

Samhället blir alltmer digitalt och digitaliseringen är viktig för samhällsutvecklingen. Av den anledningen är det inkluderat i FN:s Agenda 2030 och EU:s digitala kompass. Boverket har fått i uppdrag av regeringen att utveckla en digital miljö för Plan- och bygglagen (PBL). De flesta av de digitala tjänster som krävs för att utbyta information metodiskt är utvecklade ochfinns tillgängliga på Boverkets webbplats, men det är fortfarande de tryckta kopiorna som är juridiskt bindande.BIM har blivit allt vanligare i Sverige men då det inte finns några nationella krav på att använda BIM är det upp till varje aktör att implementera arbetssättet efter egen förmåga. I takt med att byggnader blir alltmer komplexa ökar även installationerna som behövs i en byggnad i både antal och komplexitet. Trots den ökade användningen av BIM har antalet problem med installationer varit oförändrade eller i vissa fall ökat under de senaste tio åren.Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka om digitaliseringen genom BIM kan förenkla installationssamordningen i byggprojekt samt vilka utmaningar som kan uppstå vid implementeringen och användandet av BIM.Enkätstudier och observationer har genomförts på konsultbolaget KAMTech i Örebro, Sverige, för att undersöka installationssamordnarens arbete och deras användning av BIM.Litteraturstudier har gjorts för att undersöka tidigare forskning inom ämnet och för att se potentialen för digitalisering, i form av BIM, inom installationssamordning. De givna enkätsvaren visar att tydlig kommunikation, gemensam planering och ömsesidiga krav är viktiga för en lyckad installationssamordning. Respondenterna anser även att BIM ger klarhet och bättre översikt samt att tidiga kollisionskontroller ger positiv inverkan för projektets välgång. Däremot framgår det av enkätsvar och observationer att det är en utmaning att se till att alla arbetar i den senast uppdaterade modellen i projekten.Studien visar att dagens installationssamordnare huvudsakligen använder BIM för att genomföra kollisionskontroller. Installationssamordnarna tror att möjligheten att upprätta protokoll för samordnade kontroller som är kopplade till ritningar och beskrivningar genom hyperlänkar skulle underlätta deras arbete. Slutsatsen är att digitalisering genom BIM kan förenkla installationssamordningen i byggprojekt genom att samla all data på ett ställe och skapa tydlighet samt struktur. Användning av BIM kan också bidra till ökad effektivitet och produktivitet i projekt genom att ge en visuell överblick av hela projektet. Implementeringen av BIM kan dock vara utmanande på grund av bristen på lagstadgade krav och standarder i Sverige. / The digitalization in the society is increasing and it is crucial for societal development, and it is therefore included in the UN Agenda 2030 and the EU's Digital Compass. The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning has been commissioned by the Swedishgovernment to develop a digital environment for the Planning and Building Act (PBL). Most of the digital services are developed and available on the National Board's website, but hard copies are still required according to the law.Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become increasingly common in Sweden, but since there are no national requirements or standards for BIM, it is up to each company to implement the working method according to their own abilities. As buildings become more complex, the number and complexity of installations required within these structures hasincreased. Despite the growing adoption of BIM, the number of issues related to installations has remained stagnant or even increased during the past decade.The aim of this report is to investigate whether digitization through BIM can simplify the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) coordination in construction projects, as well as the challenges that may arise during the implementation and utilization of BIM.Survey studies and observations have been conducted at the consulting company calledKAMTech in Örebro, Sweden, to investigate the MEP coordinator's work and their use of BIM. Literature studies have been conducted to investigate prior research within the field and to explore the potential for digitization in MEP coordination through the implementation of BIM.The survey results show that clear communication, shared planning, and requirements are essential for successful MEP coordination. According to the responders, the use of BIM in projects offers a sense of clarity and improved project overview. They also express that early clash detections have a positive impact of the project’s result. Survey results and observations also indicate that there are challenges to keep the model updated to the latest version in theprojects.Currently, BIM is primarily utilized by MEP coordinators to conduct clash detections. The MEP coordinators believe that having capability to establish protocols for coordinated checks, accompanied by hyperlinks to drawings and descriptions, would facilitate their work.The conclusion is that digitization through BIM can simplify the MEP coordination in construction projects by gathering all data in one place to organize and create clarity. The utilization of BIM can enhance efficiency and productivity in projects through its ability to provide a visual overview of the entire project. However, the implementation of BIM can be challenging due to the lack of legislated requirements and standards in Sweden.

[pt] Atualmente o processo que envolve a construção de um empreendimento é baseado em documentos impressos e desconexos. Há uma tendência global de que um mesmo projeto seja elaborado por diversas empresas e diferentes equipes, porém, as ferramentas computacionais que são utilizadas ainda são as mesmas de décadas atrás. Devido a essa mudança de paradigma, a metodologia conhecida como modelagem da informação da construção, BIM, vem aos poucos ganhando aceitação na área de AEC (Arquitetura, Engenharia e Construção). Motivada por esse processo de transição, essa dissertação tem como objetivo estudar e avaliar algumas das ferramentas computacionais disponíveis no mercado que são utilizadas na implementação da metodologia BIM. Essa avaliação é feita a partir do projeto de um empreendimento real que foi feito utilizando a metodologia tradicional, isto é, documentos 2D independentes. O projeto é modelado em 3D com uma base de dados integrada de acordo com a metodologia BIM. O projeto baseado no modelo 3D é então comparado com o projeto original. Ao término desse estudo são obtidos exemplos reais dos benefícios da modelagem 3D parametrizada. Uma série de deficiências são detectadas nos documentos 2D originais, o que não teria acontecido caso a metodologia BIM fosse usada desde o início do projeto. Além disso, é avaliada a integração entre uma ferramenta de modelagem 3D estrutural (Autodesk Revit Structure 2012) e um software de análise estrutural (Autodesk Robot 2012). Estratégias de integração são testadas e as melhores práticas são descritas em detalhe. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que o uso da metodologia é promissor e sua implementação deve ser seriamente considerada no Brasil. / [en] Currently the process involved in the construction of a facility remains fragmented and dependent on paper-based communication modes. There is a global trend where a single project may be developed by different companies and may involve several teams of specialists. However, the computational tools that are still in use are the same as the ones being used for decades. Due to this paradigm shift, a methodology known as Building Information Modeling, BIM, has been gaining acceptance in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) area. Motivated by this process of transition, this thesis aims to study and evaluate some of the computational tools available in the market that are used to implement the BIM methodology. This assessment is made using the design of an actual facility, which is done using the traditional 2D design methodology, i.e., disjoint 2D documents. The project is modeled in 3D with using integrated database according to the BIM methodology. The resulting project is then compared to the original project. At the end of this study, real examples of the benefits of parameterized 3D modeling are obtained. Several inconsistencies in the original design documents are observed, which would not have occurred if the BIM methodology had been used from the beginning of the project. In addition, the integration between a 3D structural modeling tool (Autodesk Revit Structure 2012) and a structural analysis tool (Autodesk Robot 2012) is evaluated. Integration strategies are tested and the best practices are described in detail. The findings of this work suggest the use of the BIM methodology is promising and support its use in Brazil.

In a quest to design novel deployable structures, flexible polyhedra provide interesting insights. This work follows the discovery of flexible polyhedra and aims to make flexible polyhedra more useful. The dissertation describes how flexible polyhedra can be made. The flexible polyhedra first considered in this dissertation have a rotational degree of freedom. The range of this rotational movement is measured and maximised in this work by numerical maximisation. All polyhedra are established computationally: an iterative solution method is used to find vertex coordinates; several clash detecting methods are described to define whether each rotational position of a flexible polyhedron is physically possible; then a range of motion is defined between occurrences of clashes at the two ends; finally, an optimisation tool is used to maximise the range of motion. By using these tools, the range of motion of two types of simplest flexible polyhedra are maximised. The first type is a series of flexible polyhedra generalised from the Steffen flexible polyhedron. The range of motion of this type is improved to double that of Steffen’s original, from 27° to 59°. Another type of flexible polyhedron is expanded from a model provided by Tachi. Based on the understanding of Steffen’s flexible polyhedron, optimisation parameters are carefully given. This new type has achieved a wider range of motion, so now the range of motion of flexible polyhedron is tripled to 80°. After enlarging the range of motion of the degree of freedom in the 1-dof systems, the dissertation found multiple degrees of freedom in one polyhedron. The multiple mechanisms can be even repetitive, so that an n-dof polyhedron is found. A polyhedron of two degrees of freedom is first presented. Then, a unit cell for any number of mechanisms is found. As a repetitive structure, a 3-dof polyhedron is presented. Finally, this work presents the possibility of configuring a flexible polyhedral torus and a closed polyhedral surface that is able to flex without the need to stop.