4D BIM plays a central role in construction site safety planning and allied activities, as it helps prevent accidental occurrences by allowing you simulate and dynamically visualize various construction scenarios.
4D BIM incorporates an extra element of “time or schedule” to a 3D BIM model. It is an important tool to drive virtual risk analysis, and understand and evaluate site conditions against safety standards. BIM companies provide 4D BIM Modeling helps contractors, project managers, owners, AEC firms to plan and make safety assessments, thereby evading potential hazards, prior beginning the construction work.
BIM allows creating 3D BIM models with 4D sequencing and scheduling, taking into consideration the applicable safety standards specified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The building’s visual representation as 3D model along with 4D sequencing and scheduling, allows stakeholders to identify potential hazards and plan safety considerations under the purview of entire construction framework.
Overall 4D BIM aligns site plans, communication, status information and risk-mitigation frameworks along safety guidelines, and creates roadways for improved occupational safety.
Construction site safety hazards
Construction sites can prove fatal to workers if health and safety guidelines are not strictly followed – often caused by negligence of construction managers or contractors.
Here are five most common safety hazards at construction sites.
As many as 71% of safety incidents can be prevented by safety considerations at design stage.
Different work methodologies can be assessed to come-up with methodology-efficiency matrix – allowed by increased visualization.
- Feasibility of equipment placement on site can be assessed and evaluated. This helps you avoid potential clashes due to improper equipment placements.
- 4D scheduling and simulation potentially reduces the scope for uncertainty in the planning process.
4D acts as a platform for identifying potential hazards and modalities, which allows mitigating risks by applying suitable methodologies to prevent safety compromise in pre-construction stages.
Conclusion
Realistic simulations can allow constructors to ensure effective program control and mitigate risks; and when there are no robust risk mitigation frameworks then it can help them build one. 4D BIM Service providers offer 4D BIM modeling services to help ensure health and safety guidelines, making the tool critical to the project’s success.
4D sequencing and scheduling enhances the construction efficiency by allowing stakeholders to adhere to safety procedures, essential to reduce the project risk.
The potential of 4D BIM modeling lies in detailed visualization, hazard identification, scripting layouts that advocate safe movements, detecting clashes and optimizing work sequences that allow reduction of workspace congestion.
About Author:
Harika Singh is an academician and published writer. Her passion for engineering and technology reflects in the in-depth coverage she provides on technology trends. 20 years of work association with institutes of repute across India and the US positions her to provide valuable insights to business stakeholders on achieving scalability and operational efficiencies through digitalization.
Building information modeling (BIM) is a model-based approach that plays an important role in the performance improvement of quantity surveying practice. As BIM combines technologies and processes it helps in the efficient creation and use of information for building construction and operations.
BIM helps surveyors in lots of ways, for example with the help of virtual design and construction features inside BIM, the surveyor can achieve longer control across the construction development. Hitech BIM Services is a leading BIM service provider company with a high-level of BIM knowledge and expertise. It adheres to all the rules and has worked with many reputed clients worldwide.
• Awareness and training
• Lack of evidence of financial benefits
• Social and habitual resistance to change
• Interoperability issues with software
• BIM improves communication and co-ordinations amongst different teams in a construction project.
• BIM helps the surveyor make the work quicker at minimum cost.
• It also helps in sustainability and produces accessible synchronous information regarding project performance.
• It also helps surveyors to optimize their work profile effectively.
BIM for building surveyors assists them in accessing and analyzing all this data in the form of geometries. This 3D visualization of the survey data provides a surveyor not with just information, but with insight. And this insight enables these professionals to make the right analysis and advice architects and contractors accordingly, in the best interests of occupants and all the stakeholders involved in the building design and development projects.
If you have any BIM project in mind and would like to outsource it then contact us and we will provide you the best quotes and services.
Multi-storey construction is a complex design and construction process. It requires the use of sophisticated design, planning, and construction tools and processes like BIM to achieve mandatory outcomes. The adoption of BIM technologies minimizes the risks associated with design and construction errors.
Adopting 4D BIM allows project teams to create an accurate and comprehensive construction based on visual planning. The use of a 4D model in the construction of a multi-storey building helps detect spatial and temporal errors before the actual on-site construction begins.
To be effective and competitive in the design and construction sector, AEC firms need to adopt progressive methods to achieve positive construction outcomes. Over funding or under funding are risks that need to be taken into account based on project timelines, and there is a need to work more efficiently. It is also important to save time and money, demand fewer resources, and not compromise on quality are specific areas that need to be addressed.
How does 4D BIM save time and money during construction of multi-storey buildings?
The addition of the “time” attribute to a 3D model results in a broadly defined 4D environment. This extra feature provides the model with greater dynamism of representing the behavior of multi-storey building elements along time. The adoption of 4D BIM augments construction and helps architects, contractors, and builders calculate accurate project timelines. It also enables a deeper understanding of large-scale projects preferably, multi-storey structures that show high-complexity at every stage.
4D BIM for multi-storey buildings ensures enhanced team coordination and communication between architects, contractors, builders, and other stakeholders. This enables improved project delivery time, streamlined project planning and time, and significant cost savings.
Benefits of 4D BIM Scheduling
An architectural firm from Manchester, UK required a coordinated 4D BIM model with construction sequencing and a project intro video. 2D drawings were provided as input. The business needs were - clear design intent, save cost on design rework, devise a systematic design flow, etc.
The challenges for the team included - technical drawings in a foreign language, five different inter-woven levels, and missing MEP dimensions of pipes and systems.
The team at Hitech CADD Services built a fully coordinated 4D BIM model by detecting and eliminating clashes and created a time liner video for hassle-free construction. The entire project of creating a 4D BIM simulation was achieved in 2 months and delivered to the client.
The 4D BIM model helped the client develop a clear design intent, save costs, and reduce project rework based on a sequential video. Read Case Study.
The key purpose of 4D BIM is project scheduling, but it revolves around various aspects for architects and contractors. The roles of an architect include building design, team management, prepare construction documents for structure and material, work with contractors, etc. On the other hand, contractors need to direct and oversee construction, interact with clients, check constructability, coordinate with various stakeholders, etc.
To achieve successful deliverables out of every role mentioned for architects and contractors, there is a single factor that connects all - Time. Knowledge of a contractor is key when building a 4D model for the planning process. A contractor can provide valuable feedback to build a 4D model for constructiveness, approximate construction cost, and consistency.
With a host of benefits, 4D serves as a tool to identify bottlenecks and improve coordination between various project teams.
Authored by:
Harika Singh is an academician and published writer. Her passion for engineering and technology reflects in the in-depth coverage she provides on technology trends. 20 years of work association with institutes of repute across India and the US positions her to provide valuable insights to business stakeholders on achieving scalability and operational efficiencies through digitalization.
BIM can be used in numerous ways for construction sites. From better planning of resources and materials to improving collaboration between various disciplines, BIM is used widely to help keep the project within the scheduled time and budget.
BIM helps construction companies gain financial benefits, increase project efficiency, prevent on-site incidents, and increase safety. BIM provides better insight for construction managers and all other stakeholders who are involved in the project.
Ways in which BIM can be used on construction sites:
- Get deeper insights into various aspects of building design & construction during the pre-construction stage.
- Remove bottlenecks through enhanced communication & collaboration between various disciplines such as Architecture, Structure, MEP, and FP.
- Accurate clash detection reduces rework.
- Easy to understand potential hazards whilst simulating various scenarios and strategies possible.
- For existing & as-built models, construction managers can leverage digital surveying through Reality Capture using 3D laser scanners, drones, etc.
For one of the leading architectural firms in India, Hitech developed a clash-free 3D model for a data center building. Using Revit and Navisworks, the team of BIM experts at Hitech resolved the inter-disciplinary clashes and provided a coordinated 3D model, sheet setup, schedule, and joint details to the client. This helped the client to implement smooth and hustle-free documentation while saving on cost and time due to reduced reworks while ensuring safety on the worksite due to the use of BIM.
BIM can empower construction projects through collaboration, onsite safety, and information management. It has the ability to predict and prevent construction challenges beginning from the design phase itself, which is why construction companies are increasingly adopting BIM for construction projects.