Building information modeling (BIM) is a digital 3D model that represents a building's physical and functional characteristics. It's a process for creating and managing building data throughout the entire lifecycle - from design and construction to operation and maintenance.
The BIM model stores information about all the building's physical and functional elements in a digital database. This database can be accessed and shared by the entire project team, including architects, engineers, contractors, and facility managers. The key advantages of BIM are:
Autodesk Revit widely-used BIM software in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Revit allows users to create, visualize, and analyze building designs, as well as generate construction documents.
Revit supports a wide range of design and documentation tasks, including architectural design, MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) engineering, and structural engineering. It offers a variety of tools and features to support these tasks, such as 3D modeling, drawing generation, scheduling, and data management.
A key feature of Revit is its ability to enable collaborative workflows. Multiple users can work on the same model simultaneously, and Revit includes tools for tracking and resolving conflicts between different user changes. This helps improve communication and collaboration among project team members. Revit is considered the industry standard for BIM software and is widely used in the AEC sector across many countries.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. In the construction industry, the assessed "product" is a building or infrastructure project.
Integrating LCA with BIM allows for more accurate and comprehensive LCAs of buildings to be conducted faster. BIM models contain detailed information about the materials, components, and systems that make up a building. This data can be used to more accurately assess the environmental impacts of those elements. Another key benefit is that BIM models can be used to simulate different design scenarios and compare their environmental impacts. This helps designers and decision-makers choose the most sustainable options.
Integrating LCA with BIM also improves communication and collaboration among project teams. By working from a single, comprehensive source of information, errors, and rework can be reduced, ensuring the final design is as environmentally friendly as possible. Overall, the combination of LCA and BIM enhances the construction industry's ability to make informed, sustainable design choices.
The most common issue with integrating LCA from Revit is that the time saved through automation is directly proportional to the quality of the model. However, this doesn’t mean you need a perfect model to calculate an LCA. With One Click LCA, you can import data via Excel even if your model lacks material layers. To calculate the embodied impacts of the building, you need a general idea of what materials will be used.
Another common misconception is that automated LCA can only be done with a Revit model. One Click LCA supports automated data import from Excel, IESVE, DesignBuilder, ArchiCAD, Tekla Structures, BIM, and any IFC or gbXML file. You can read the full list of integrations here. If your data isn't in any of these formats, you can use manual input in the cloud interface.