BIM and Pipeline Strategy

[RodCole]

There has been a lot of discussion in the past relating to BIM and program interoperability. The other side of the discussion tends to center around the subject of file compatibilty, or file exchange standards for emerging file types.

The main point of this exchange is to provide a way to leverage other applications in the developement of your 3D model. One of the main reasons for using specialty programs as early in the design process as possible is not only to create a better model, but to also provide valuable information as soon as possible in the design phase.

In the architectural world we mostly hear from the major software suppliers regarding their ideas of how the industry should evolve. This generally ends up being to buy their products as well as their partners software products. Not hard to imagine why they would like to see things follow this path, but not my idea of a good time to be had by all.

Something that I have stumbled onto fairly recently is the concept of a file pipline. From what I have seen this approach has been used extensively in the motion picture and video game industry for a long time now. In fact they have been using a vast array of software products and graphic assets to produce very complex projects with the goal of producing a high quality finished product while maintaining profitability.

Seems to me that with the rapid emergence of new 3D graphic hardware and software that there just may be an opportunity to borrow project management and pipeline strategies of the graphic arts professional world to create our own projects including the production of construction documents.

Part of what got me thinking about this is watching the developement of holographic programs. The thing that has not changed, in my mind at least, is the need for better file compatibility standards. This would go a long way to making the pipeline strategy more practical. 2 cents.