Do you want to save time and money on your next hotel project? Base4 strives to be leaders in the A/E Technology domain. We commit to being the forefront of our industry for technology to provide these benefits to our clients. In this series, we highlight one of most powerful software platforms- BIM. This newsletter is the first of a several part series on BIM and how it can save you time and money on your next hotel design.
Before sharing specifics of BIM software, we need an understanding of the history of how hotel drawings are commonly prepared:
Early Technology: CAD/AutoCAD: Until 10 years ago, AutoCAD was used almost exclusively for building drawings. CAD is an acronym for “Computer Aided Design.” With CAD, designers use digital sketch tool where lines and shapes are drawn to represent building components; however, all these elements remain independent of one another one.
Latest Technology: BIM: BIM stands for “Building Information Modeling.” BIM is a process for working collaboratively in design from one three-dimensional model. For hotel owners, this means that all components of a hotel- including walls, windows, columns, floors, HVAC equipment, etc.- are all being modeled in 3d space. This translates into a virtual construction site, where a building is being constructed ‘virtually’ prior to a shovel ever being lifted on the site. The BIM market is dominated by software produced by Autodesk called Revit.
Base4 has been using Revit exclusively for the last several years for architecture, MEP-FP, and structural design. Revit has moved us from placing unintelligent lines and shapes on a piece of paper to placing intelligent objects, all interconnected, into a 3D model of your hotel offering a much deeper level of design and coordination.
As you can see from these graphics, Revit is a powerful technology that brings tremendous added value compared to its CAD counterpart.
For owners, design teams, and general contractors, the numerous benefits of utilizing the efficiency and intelligence of Revit is often underestimated. Therefore, in Part 2 of this series, we will explore each of these benefits in more detail so you can take advantage of them on your next project.
Blair Hildahl
Base4 Principal
608.304.5228
