Building Information Modelling - Science topic

You can give SAR coherence for snow cover mapping a try.

Look for exploring geology

Beyond the scarcity of information, are you sure of the relationship between variables?

Through the visualization of the project in order to avoid overlaps (clash detection) and simulations in order to evaluate the performance of each component before the realization, the objective of which is to design efficient buildings

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Thank you Temitope Akanbi . Yes I know LOD. But there seem no relevant specifications for the object information and modeling style mentioned in the question? Could you list some?

The first step in integarating BIM from design to construction stage is to use one of the software such as Revit, Teklastructures, digital plan and many others for 3 Dimensional representation of the project, these software can be integrated with other software for example can be integrated with robot structural analysis for design and analysis of the structure, with Primavera for scheduling, with Navisworks for construction simulation and clash detection before starting the construction process. this will help visualizing the project for the stakeholders, engineers and project managers and prevent any change orders during the construction phase. Also, clash detection prevent any sudden technical problems during construction which reduce construction waste to great extent.

I think Etabs, SAP, STAAD Pro, SCIA Engineer are best for analyse and design. However, Abaqus, Ansys, ATENA are best for research.

In AutoLISP or ObjectARX C#/C

- Disable all layers except envelopes, partitions, doors and space labels.

- With each space label: Zoom centre then zoom out to a common zoom factor: You'll be able to figure out a factor by zoom extents on the largest space's boundary.

- Use the space label's insertion point (assumption that label insertion points are within their space's boundary.

- Run boundary poly command "_bp" (I think)

- With each space boundary, get the selection set of intersecting envelopes.

- Finally, for each bpoly line segment, match the points from the segment to the adjacent envelope/partition/door.

There are several future directions to study BIM in CEM. I think the Integration of BIM with other digital technologies, such as Blockchain, RFID and GIS will carry a great importance in the upcoming years. Addressing the role of BIM in enhancing lean construction and sustainable practice is also another direction.

Dear Nora Temaj, thanks for your question. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a complete process of creating and managing information for the life cycle of buildings and structures. Therefore, continuous improvement is required.

Loh Yong Seng Thank you for your kind participation.

Done filling the questionnaire survey. Btw, the questionnaire survey form is quite complete regarding the maturity upgrade BIM Level in AEC industry companies. Good job

Yes. I filled out the form. Best wishes for you dissertation. 🙂

"Building Information Modeling for dummies" by Stefan Mordue, Paul Swaddle, David Philp

This is a good book for beginners. If you’re new to BIM and not sure where to start, this book would be it.

Hello Sherif,

I am currently measuring the benefits of modular construction projects and have substantial literature relevant to your question.

Kindly link up for a deeper discussion and possible collaboration

Regards

Ibrahim

I suggest that you use the 5D BIM technology, which is related to the cost of construction elements. You need to model your project using software as revit, and then link the model's elements to the cost and time schedule using software like Naviswork. This will give you visualization for the construction phases and the project life cycle.

I agree with you, so the operator must have significant experience and skill in use from the start

BIM or Building Information Modelling is a process for creating and managing information on a construction project across the project lifecycle. One of the key outputs of this process is the Building Information Model, the digital description of every aspect of the built asset. This model draws on information assembled collaboratively and updated at key stages of a project. Creating a digital Building Information Model enables those who interact with the building to optimize their actions, resulting in a greater whole life value for the asset.

Current BIM software is used by individuals, businesses and government agencies who plan, design, construct, operate and maintain diverse physical infrastructures, such as water, refuse, electricity, gas, communication utilities, roads, railways, bridges, ports and tunnels.

This link should help:

Also to add to Tim Belden 's list, the CIOB

Best

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your suggestion. Actually the research study is based on finding the inter-relationship among barriers to adoption of industry 4.0 in the construction industry. Maybe the description was a little bit confusing which is why I have modified it. However, I do not agree with your last remarks regarding the use of software combination because integrating industry 4.0 is not as simple as it seems. I have identified those barriers on the basis of extensive literature review as well as discussion with industry experts. This study aims to present a graphical representation of the interrelationship among the variables using Interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC. For better understanding, I have attached the reference article from which I was able to extract the idea, you can refer to it.

I think use of BIM makes maintenance planning and execution much easier. so also is space management in FM. Application of BIM in FM reduces time and cost.

sorry, dont have much reference but speaking from experience.

Well done,

i am doing my dissertation

Linked Building Data is hot area for research in this domain, due to the departmentalization of construction processes and management tasks, methodologies that link construction data from different domains to achieve better management is something you could look into, IFC standards, semantic web technologies, Ontologies. This is all under your area of concern.

Good luck!

You can start with BIM standards and Handbooks such as New Zealand handbook.

Following to learn!

Maybe you already know about it (it is a well-known reference), but a useful starting point to learn more about BIM-based methodologies is the BIM Handbook by Sachs, Eastman, Lee and Teicholz.

I suggest to stay away from teaching software applications, especially commercial ones. For me BIM is a great source for data and integration with other digital systems. However, students are trained with lack of knowledge how to utilize and process the data contained in standard ifc format of BIM files. Therefore, I am more biased to the computational aspects of BIM education. I can suggest two sources which can be useful to understand the data content in ifc files. First, open source BIMServer provides a great API layer to manage the user, project and BIM (ifc) data. It is pretty. It is not a design of CM tool, but just provides a server environment which can be hosted in cloud or local environments. Second, IfcOpenShell is a great open source python-based library which you can parse the ifc files and do all sorts of things with the data extracted from ifc files. Links are the followings:

If I understand you correctly, you are asking about risk management tools used in the field of Big Data analytics. In practice, I can see two main aspects of this.

There exists technical protocols and best practices to ensure information security. These are ensured both physically and logically. For an example, we follow the SOC-2 standards, which is audited once a year by a third party evaluation and certification body.

There are automated intrusion detection systems to periodically test information systems for security weak-points. These alerts the administrators about possible security loopholes before a hacker would discover them.

Before a software is released for production, there are several layers of thorough testing both automated and manual to verify the functional integrity as well as security. Software are released for production environment only after passing these simulations in a separate virtual environment.

Sometimes, data in a Big Data information system is not all contained in a single Database, but spans across multiple storage systems and servers. All these storages of information require both storage level encryption and access control.

Access control is another aspect of information security risk management. Nowadays many information systems offload user authentication into third-party authentication providers. This is implemented as Single Sign On [SSO].

Software agents processing data in large enterprise applications also have an identity, called a service account. These are also authenticated and authorized to access various services for information.

Friction circle (based on the assumption that a tire can develop equal limiting longitudinal and lateral forces) gives you:

- The maximum longitudinal force that the tire can develop while it is developing a specified lateral force, or

- The minimum lateral force that the tire can developed while it is developing a specified longitudinal force.

Consequently, the maximum longitudinal force in the absence of lateral force generation and the maximum lateral force in the absence of longitudinal force will both be equal to adhesion coefficient*normal tire load.

For tires developed for emphasized traction or cornering capability, "friction ellipse" may be more suitable.

Thanks Peter Zeile and Aryan Shahabian for your posts.

I agree with both however it is much more difficult to work in some areas than the others when it comes to VR and more specifically in AR. I’ve recently reviewed a couple of papers in this area which although we’re good attempts missed on the research methodology 101 and that was a shame!

We have also published a couple of papers recently mostly in conferences to test the ground and believe that there definitely are new boundaries to be explores and new grounds to cover.

At SET, UoB, we have recently won some investment fund for developing AR/VR research in our school and acquired a good mix of AR/VR Technologies (HoloLens included). We are still to set up our new lab physically but good news is that we will be up and running soon.

on another account in an independent research group I lead we are also concentrating on self-commissioned research in this area.

The discussion here was what we have in our group as a regular topic and have recently decided to dedicate our next project to a couple of ideas which will hopefully come to fruition soon.

Ill keep updating the post both in here and in a project I’ve set up on RG.

Thanks again and hope we can develop some areas of joint research activities in the near future.

Poorang

Dear Mr. Caribe,

Information aggregation is an essential quantum mechanism in health practice functor algebra - systems classification. The velocity of light as it operates in Internetworks is therefore relativistically very important in health care including medicine delivery mechanisms especially when they are internetworked or even just locally telephonically networked. I had published a working paper in Quantitative Finance on the Pharmaceutical Sector somewhat arguing against the post globalisation common knowledge that drugs and pharmaceuticals through decentralised delivery can give legitimacy to the market in particular price competition and predatory pricing. You can find this paper on www.researchgate.net/profile/Soumitra_Mallick. Unfortunately there are references to two of my papers forthcoming in Econometrica and Journal of Economic Theory in the references, which should be ommitted, it was over enthusiasm which drove me to make those references. However, some versions of those papers were subsequently published as Archived papers and are listed on the RG site. Sorry about that. There is also a paper on development of the Public Health Engineering Field (Mallick, Hamburger & Mallick (2017)) which uses the e-econophysical information aggregation of systems aggregation principle using String Matching Field Theory (Mallick (2012, 2014)) one of which papers was presented at the World Finance Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. I hope this answers your question to some extent.

Soumitra Kumar Mallick

for the RHMHM School of Mathematical Sciences Thinking

USA, Japan, India

Great question and very good critical observations. BIM is not the "magic bullet" that it was portrayed as when it hit the market. It is just a tool, not a philosophy. BIM is merely a highly effective computer design tool that can be linked with estimating and scheduling tools to assist the project manager, but it still requires human intervention and a discipline to feed the tool and evaluate its output. Like all the other magic bullets that have arisen in our industry, critical path scheduling, partnering, alliancing, lean construction, to name a few, BIM does not guarantee success. Its the people on the project team that make that happen. We seem to forget that no matter what gimmicks we employ in the project delivery process, the project team must still plan, design, construct, commission, and maintain the completed project. That is and always has been a very difficult, very complex effort. The tools help sort out the complexities, but only if their practitioners understand and appreciate their limitations. I spent 20 years in the construction industry before moving to academia and have found that my academic colleagues tend to assume reality out of the project management equation because it greatly simplifies the analysis and leads to gee-whiz, publishable findings. I'll end this missive before I go off the deep end on this line of reasoning. Thank you very much for initiating this dialog. It is greatly needed. Cheers

Doug

Embodied substances are those, which reside with the product under normal conditions. So your question about embodied water, we consider concrete mixing which include water as w/c ratio is a design parameter.

The fixation of water in concrete and mortar is mainly governed by the composition and age of the cement paste only, but the properties of cement paste as well as the amount and distribution of the aggregate and air affect the migration of water.

The state of water in hardened cement paste can be classified as [Horrigmoe, 1983]:

¨ Chemically bound water

¨ Physically bound or adsorbed water

¨ Free or capillary water

The chemically bound water is that part of the total water content, which reacts with the cement and becomes chemically bound by strong chemical bonds in various hydration products. This water is in crystalline phase and is considered as part of the solid matter in the hardened cement paste. The maximum amount of chemically bound water is required for full hydration is about one quarter of the weight of cement [Hassan, 1993].

Van der Waal forces fix physically bound or adsorbed water to the surface of the pores. In the pores, surface forces at the solid surface, form thin adsorbed layers of water molecules and attract molecules of water vapour. The thickness of the film is proportional to the relative humidity within the pores of the hardened cement paste as illustrated in Figure-5.1 for a micropore of variable thickness. At a relative humidity of 80%, the adsorbed layer is thick enough to fill the gel pores [Hassan, 1993]. Due to strong adhesive force between adsorbed layer and the gel pores, physically bound water is considered the part of gel, which is not available for further hydration.

Due to the comparatively large size of the capillary pores, water in these pores is beyond the influence of surface forces and is referred to as free or capillary water. The availability of free water in large capillary pores is strongly affected by the relative humidity, and hence responsible for the progress of cement hydration [Hassan, 1993 and Horrigmoe, 1983].

So, come to your question, the chemically bound water in concrete is considered as the embodied water, which about 60 to 75% of the initial water content. For example if w/c is 0.5 and the cement content is 400kg/m3, so in this case initial water cont will be 200 kg/m3 and embodied water may be 120 to 150 kg/m3

Dear Ehsan,

GIS, BIM and PLM are 'information systems' intended to serve assets at different scales (please see simplification here: http://www.bimframework.info/2014/10/asset-hierarchy.html). I doubt you'll be able to find a single classification that comprehensively covers all three knowledge domains due to disciplinary silos. I therefore suggest you develop a specialised Taxonomy using a small number of concepts (e.g. asset size, use, reuse, lifecycle cost, or whatever you need) and then apply these concepts to identify/link different Classifications across domains.

Hi Gordon, the Avanti programme may help.  The findings from this research helped define BIM in the UK.  http://www.cpic.org.uk/publications/avanti/

Dear Madhav

The modules need to be designed as stand alone structures, but also when assembled as part of the larger structure. The key parameter is the choice of the type of connections needed when the individual modules are assembled together.

Best wishes

It is very cool to share knowledge with other researchers.

When we talk about BIM we have to consider a set of different software developed to deliver different uses of BIM.

Synchro Software 4D BIM / VDC Construction Project Management

Vico Software: 5D BIM Construction Software | Virtual Construction

Vico Software: 5D BIM Construction Software | Virtual Construction

Workers can receive work Instructions and see task, material needed, and workflow using AR! Checkout hololens!

Dear Yeshwanth Babu Reddy

This is something about middle east if you are interested.

Since the question is concerning to BIM, the simple way is to check the data exchange. Try to export and or to import  some file produced by the two software and find whether  both software can exchange any data or file between them.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but I found it useful for thermal envelope simulations

Dear Aruna Shantha.

Based on your question, I humbly feel that you wanted to strengthen your research's background. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

As you already knew, construction project is actually a process, where basically there are several common phases inside them, and there are also several sub-phases inside the common phases.

Back to your question, a system is basically consists of several frames, where frames constituted a number of components, and components may have their sub-components.

Based on the two statements above, there is some resemblance between process and system. However, the concerned is on 'what object do you want to focus?' Somebody else might say that  'process' and 'system' is just a semantic inquiry, another person might say the other way round.

Thus, modestly I would say, there is no issue between both. From my 2cents, construction project is a process that has definite timeframe, which to successfully execute the particular process we need to have some sort of tools / mechanisms. The tools / mechanisms were able to be viewed as a collection of components, which at the end summarised into a system. This is what BIM should be placed.

Happy researching :-)

Use random variable formula

Hello Mohammad,

See the attached youtube video regarding the implementation of BIM during construction.

There are other things that can be added into the BIM during the construction phase as well.  One could laser scan each room prior to covering the walls to capture the routing and location of electrical conduit, piping etc. so that one can provide more accurate "as built" information to the model.  Technical information such as exploded parts lists, guarantee or warranty information, maintenance schedules, operations manuals, check out and testing information, lube maps etc. can all be attached to the objects in the BIM model for later use by the facility manager.

Best regards,

Steve 

I believe that BIM on research advances do not support this assertion.

Obviously "nonusers" or teams of projects located in the pre-BIM stage will always have arguments to justify their option not to implement the changes required by BIM.

Professionals with BIM skills are able to give solutions to problems including retrofit projects projects.

I believe that the challenges of retrofite projects are generally the same for new projects.

At the end should be generated a budget and quantitative should be raised for the acquisition and the work must be planned. In a workflow based on BIM all this information has the potential to be more reliable.

Hi Ranjith

Just to clarify OLAP does not provide information quickly because it is on-line, it is quick because all of the raw data is held in system RAM. This means you need a massive amount of RAM available to accommodate all the data you have and are likely to need in the foreseeable future.

The primary function of OLAP, is for use as a business intelligence tool, which can be used to understand how a business is performing over different locations and different products over time, hence the three dimensions of the OLAP cube. Of course, you can use many more dimensions if it is appropriate. The open source version PALO, for example, can handle up to 256 dimensions (anything more than 3 dimensions is known as a hypercube).

Large supermarket chains were quick to adopt this software, as it enabled them to analyse how different locations performed, or how much they made from different product lines, and how much they made week by week. The core raw data is generally aggregated to a high level of abstraction for management to see the overview, but they can drill down to identify whatever level of detail they need to analyse queries quickly. They can also "slice and dice" to get the answer to any specific questions they might have.

Since large supermarket chains record live data streams from all their cash registers, they can easily see what products are selling and can handle their inventory needs much more easily. Many provide these data streams direct to product suppliers to allow the product supplier to manage the inventory re-supply for them. They can also track sales flows by shelf, shelf position and location within each store if they want to.

This leads to the collection of vast amounts of data, hence the need for vast data warehouses to store it all, as well as massive compute power to process it, as well as enough system RAM to load it all into.

As you can see, large supermarkets use this system for strategic analysis in order to discover trends and identify opportunities for making more money. Were this to be adopted by construction, an obvious difference is that a large supermarket might stock 40,000 - 100,000 product lines, depending on the size of the store. Many will have hundreds or thousands of store locations. In construction, there will be fewer product lines, but each product will be constructed out of thousands of individual components. With a supermarket, each product will be re-sold many, many times every day, whereas, in construction, each product is unique, although many copies may be built and sold over time. OLAP could certainly be used to collect all the data about costing for each individual properly, but there would need to be a considerable input from both quantity surveyors and management accountants, in order to ensure costs were allocated properly. Providing the additional cost of this would could be justified, then it could be beneficial for cost analysis purposes. But remember, costs can be more volatile in construction, unlike in supermarkets, where large supermarket chains can negotiate fixed price contracts for a whole year. Labour rates may vary from one location to another. Allocating overheads might also be problematic, given that once a construction site is completed, it is necessary to move the staff and equipment to another one.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Bob

Dear Ivan, 

Thank you very much for your comments. Actually I am not professional IT person. The website has been prepared for easiness of process not for the promotion.  Though i will ask my web developer to solve this issue. 

And I have shared this link in research gate to review my calculator. So researchers can try my calculator and give their comments so i can make it better. It will be validation of my research. 

in my view the main barrier is the lack of knowledge:

lack of knowledge on the part of the builder or developer that has the role of financing this process, and KNOW wants "BIM" but do not know what they want.

Lack of knowledge on the part of designers who owns the market and did not change its processes considering BIM and have to interact with a new participant in the process: the expert BIM.

Lack of knowledge on the part of self declared BIM specialist, which despite having BIM skills, there is NOT a working methodology on how to interact with the parties involved.

Hardik,  The submission that I referenced is titled “Capturing the ROI of All-in Building Information Modeling: A Structured Approach”.  It is available here at ResearchGate.  I have developed a spreadsheet used in the BIM ROI Workshops that allows for analysis of 19 benefits (the mantra is “every penny, for every stakeholder, for every phase”), which I can make available with some common understanding.  (ken.stowe@autodesk.com) The performance metrics that I have collected over 7 years, and present in the workshop, support the assertion that the model-based environment can produce savings when compared to the traditional 2-D/paper methods.  The metrics come from many sources.  Those include company-reported case studies, and academic studies from:

Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE) – Stanford - USA

Construction Industry Institute – Auburn, TX  USA

Chalmers University of Technology – Sweden

University of Alberta - Canada

University of British Columbia - Canada

University of Salford – UK

BIM Task Group – UK Government

Yonsei University – South Korea

Delft University – Netherlands

Building and Construction Productivity Partnership – New Zealand

Curtin University - Australia

Israel Institute of Technology - Israel

University of Maryland - USA

University of Southern California - USA

Lean Construction Institute

Simon, I greatly admire Douglas Chelson, whose  PhD Thesis, “THE EFFECTS OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING ON CONSTRUCTION SITE PRODUCTIVITY” located on line has an abundance of just the kind of metrics that help the attendees of the workshop work up a reasonable forecast of each of the savings categories.  Douglas is now at Western Kentucky University.  I hope that I can help you with your PhD efforts.

I have also written a paper for a special issue in Buildings.

"BIM Guidelines Inform Facilities Management Databases: A Case Study over Time"

Perhaps it might be useful.

up to 3D it is a graphic model

4d is for time 

5d is for quantity

6d is for facility management

7d is of property management

We can add do model up to 7d is used for project management as well as for operation and Maintenance. Building information model is used for any type of structure

In india now a days 60% BIM used for building project, rest is for highway and bridge, STP etc., I am interested to work in BIM for Hydralic structure

There are many BIM compatible Energy Analysis software with different requirements and different outcomes (e.g. Ecotect, Energy Plus, DOE2, IES, Sefaira, GBS, Eco Designer, BEAVER, eQUEST, etc.). It depends on what level of details you are after and what kind of project you are working on.

Regards,

Mehran

You might take a look at CREATE

This is a suite of tools for inteactive 3D can be used with Oculus Rift.

Please see this link

have a look to I-Simpa. it is a open source 

Ok Haitham, but if I need use de objetcts BIM with prices with uptdate. Directly in CAD (type Revit, Archicad, etc...)

sorry i expressed the concept badly: i said "each wall" because i suppose that you have more than one thermal zone behind the wall you are analyzing.

Good Luck !

Key metrics typically used during the design process to "sanity check" calculations (speaking as a mechanical engineer) are: energy use index (ekWh/sf/yr, where ekWh is an equivalent kilowatt hour considering all heat sources (electricity, gas, etc.)), total heating load (W/m² or W/sf), total cooling load (W/m² or W/sf). 

From another perspective, typical energy modeling software (e.g. eQuest, EnergyPLUS, etc.) will break energy use down by Heating, Cooling, HVAC Fans/Ventilation, Pumps, Lighting, and receptacle loads. Load modeling software will further break down heating loads into key external loads (conduction through walls, roof and glazing, ventilation and infiltration loads), and cooling into external loads (solar heat gain, conduction through walls, roof and glazing, ventilation and infiltration) and internal loads. (lighting, equipment and people)

Hi Luan,

You may want to check the good work of SBEnrc in this space, and explore current/completed projects listed on NATSPEC BIM R&D Projects' page (use the 'procurement' filter). Links are provided below.

Regards,

Bilal

Hi Luan,

Your research questions might guide the selection of a particular data collection methodology. It sounds like you might be interested in learning opinions of several groups of stakeholders within the public sector. I would recommend looking up the work on mental models approach. The approach uses in-depth interviews. I think both face-to-face and phone interviews are appropriate. You might also consider the work on information richness. Phone interviews do not afford the same rich communication exchange as face-to-face interviews. As a result, they will likely be shorter and leave you with less elaborated answers from your interviewees. However, they are certainty a more cost effective way of data collection.

Morgan, M. G. (2002). Risk communication: A mental models approach. Cambridge University Press.

Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management science, 32(5), 554-571.

Yulia

Jeet the below mentioned article will also be very useful

Measuring the impact of prefabrication on construction waste reduction: An empirical study in China Zhengdao Li , Geoffrey Qiping Shena, Mustafa Alshawi. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 91 (2014) 27–39

You can always do that in post-processing, outside the analysis software, since there is no single unanimously accepted procedure. I can suggest the article at the link, since it also comes with software support on one of the author's website.

https://synchroltd.com/newsletters/Business%20Value%20Of%20BIM%20In%20Global%20Markets%202014.pdf  If this helps.

In the design phase BIM  reduce the number of errors resulting from traditional design documentation (clash detection) thereby avoiding many errors on the construction site.

By creating a BIM model, containing all the information about the building we receive one common database used as the basis of knowledge of the building and the construction works. This can greatly improve the accuracy and quickness of cost estimations, Of course 3D model can improve greatly a productivity of quantity takeoff by automatization of quantity calculation.

An additional advantage of working with the model using BIM is the preparation and updating of all documents in the form called “the active document” (in an editable digital version), which enables quick creation of current reports required in the planning and implementation phase of the investment and allows updating the documents relating to the current status of the project, etc.

BIM might mean quantity surveying processes would change, it doesn't change how the profession is practiced. There could be divided opinions about this, regardless the truth is that BIM provides more opportunities for quantity surveyors to improve their outcomes. QS who are not BIM compliant are likely to diminish in value and relevance within the next decade. Those who are well rooted in BIM will be better for it.

I suggest this article may be useful

Dear  Zol Bahri Razali  and D. B. Ilozor ·

many thanks for your interest

Abbas

In theory yes. In practice it depends. Do not forget the human capacity for abstraction, the BIM is a slower and more cumbersome approach. The benefits: BIM is good at tedious repetitive tasks that humans don't like. The BIM is a formal process, the frameworks encourages a complete plan, without BIM it is easy to skip something or forget to change all aspects of scope, schedule, and cost. Last, the BIM is a record, you can go back to the BIM and review the record. Also, be certain to define what type of construction. There is heavy construction, building construction, and industrial plants. The BIM is something different to each of these.

Like any interaction with Humans....what comes out is only as accurate as the data/info put in.  Each  Analysis program has it's strengths and weakness, again depending on Human interaction.  Regardless, there WILL ALWAYS be the need to  Manually verify, or at the very least, the ability to Manually, independently verify the results...

See if what you can get from this paper: http://www.ppml.url.tw/EPPM_Journal/volumns/02_01_January_2012/ID_013_2_1_23_36.htm

Are you in Deakin's Geelong Campus?

You can have a look our paper: context model: An Ontology-Based Approach to Context-Aware Access Control for Software Services (http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-41230-1_34).

In this paper, we clearly differentiate context entity and context information. The user model needs to model/capture relevant user-specific context information (e.g., user profile)...

I agree with Bradut that People is one of the most important factors inhibiting the adoption of new processes enabled by BIM. Usability of the software, implementation cost, learning curve, all prevent FM people from trying new toys.

Also, the benefits of BIM in operation and maintenance are not quantified yet. It's hard to know how much the organization can save by getting the right information in time. It could mean millions of dollars if there is an emergency. Or it could mean nothing if the field workers claim that they remember everything in the building. FM industry has been in the reactive and passive mode in the history. It's hard for owners to quantify the benefits from BIM.

There are other issues such as the lack of tools, "incomplete" BIM for FM, etc. But the current trend is similar to the adoption of BIM in construction several years ago. Many industrial and academic conferences going on. Software vendors are pushing new tools. Standards are being developed. Things will get better in the near future.

Thank you all for your response and contribution. @ stephen thanks for the link.

By the way, BIM leverage IPD.  Are there synergies between BIM and IPD?