From the course: BIM Foundations

BIM acronym

From the course: BIM Foundations

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BIM acronym

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- Let's focus on the acronym for a few minutes, BIM, B-I-M. It seems pretty clear what BIM mean so far, right? Building Information. When it comes to the M, it could be a little bit more confusing. Try to think about what you've heard around you. Maybe the M stands for Model or Modeling. And what about management, right, confusing. It's actually the three of them. That's what I call the three M's of BIM. Now I'm not going to mislead you. BIM stands for Building Information Modeling. That is the official definition because BIM is above all a process, the process of sharing information about building and also defines the execution plan of implementing the process of the common data environment. Then comes Building Information Model, the physical object. That, in this case, is more virtual. The 3D BIM Model has the Building Information Model as it's more commonly called. But what's the difference between a 3D model and a 3D BIM model? And why do we have to use a different software? A 3D BIM model is a smart composition of objects and information. It's the combination of 3D shapes and its related data. And that is the big difference and only a few software are able to create the smart models. So what about the last M for Management? Management is a new term for the building industry, but any other industry knows how it's important to use the manager to ensure the process without interfering on the project development. That is the human part, making sure everybody collaborates for the benefits of the project without any conflicts of interest. So there are my three M's of BIM. So to actually be able to say we're doing BIM or we're using the BIM technology, you need to work with the three M's. There is no BIM if there's no 3D model. They'll all in agreement about that. But also, there is no BIM if you don't share the 3D BIM model using a common process on a collaborative platform or without the supervision of a BIM manager. So that's the true definition of BIM. BIM is more than just a software. It's modeling, model, and management. It's a collaboration process to share information using a smart 3D model.

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