BIM-Based 4D Modeling and Scheduling - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 401

Table 15.1 ( Continued )

Company Product Product Overview

Vico Software Virtual
Construction

Visual Construction 5D construction planning system consisting of
Constructor, Estimating, Control, and 5D Presenter. The building
model is developed in Constructor or imported from another
BIM-authoring system, and objects are assigned recipes that define
the tasks and resources needed to build or fabricate them.
Quantities and costs are calculated in Estimator, schedule activities
are defined and planned using life-of-balance (LOB or location-based)
techniques in Control, and then the 4D construction simulation is
visualized in Presenter. As an alternative to using Control, schedule
dates can be imported from Primavera or MS Project. Changes in the
scheduling system are automatically reflected in the 4D visualization.

a The table was prepared and reported by Chuck Eastman, Paul Teicholz, Rafael Sacks and Kathleen Liston (2011) in
their book, BIM Handbook, a Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and
Contractors . The original name of the table is “Selected BIM Tools with 4D Capability.”
b API: Application Program Interface, DP: Digital Project, DWG: Drawing (CAD programs file extension), DGN: Design (CAD
programs file extension), DWF: Design Web Format

has two staircases: a main staircase and a fire escape, which has fire exit doors to the
rear garden. The elevator of the building has a lift capacity of four persons (weighing
approximately 320 kg). Each apartment consists of 140m 2 living space with three
bedrooms, one living room, and two bathrooms. Since there is a total of 18 apartments
in the building, a covered parking area is constructed on the basement floor with a
capacity of 23 vehicles. Water tanks and a bunker are located on the basement floor.
Also, a green living space is provided for the residents on top of the parking lot. The
general view of the building is given in Figure 15.6.

Creating and Linking the 3D Model

To build a 4D model, firstly a 3D model of the building should be developed, using
a modeling software program, in terms of intelligent objects and appropriate group-
ings of the construction components. Construction components should be created
based on hierarchical groupings so that the construction schedule can be easily linked
to the model. Once the 3D model of the project is created using the CAD appli-
cation, the model should be imported into the Navisworks TimeLiner. 3D models
can be imported into the Navisworks TimeLiner in two different ways: importing a
3D model file into a new Navisworks file by using “open” command or by adding
or merging a new 3D model geometry into an already existing Navisworks file with
“append” and “merge” commands. The major difference between the “append” and
“merge” commands is that, once the files are merged using the “merge” command,
the models are combined and cannot be updated individually. This could be a problem
if the models were updated by different people (e.g., architectural and structural engi-
neers). A snapshot of how to import a 3D model into Navisworks is represented in
Figure 15.7.