Adopting BIM at Design Phase for Structural Buildings

Abstract

In the construction industry, using of traditional methods to design and perform the works with participation of different disciplines by individual method make the design of structure more pruched to errors and mistakes and increase the possibility of generate the wastes due to need sometimes to re- work. In addition to the continuous change of designs, and this needed to updating documents and plans manually to keep pace with these changes, thus wasting time and effort, so this considers "inefficient" practice. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an innovative technology that makes the design phase and construction industry more efficient to achieve the requirements of sustainability. A case study was taken to investigate the possibility of using BIM technology and structural analysis softwares (Robot and Etabs) in the structural design stage, where a model is modeled in the Revit software, and it is exported to Robot and Etabs softwares for the purpose of analysis and design, which showed close design results between these design softwares with a slight difference in the amount of rebar, about 4% more by using the Etabs software for all the structure. All the process performed from modelling to analysis and design then extracting schemas and quantity estimation for reinforcement and concrete was done in a short time and with satisfactory results.