It is an integrated design that brings together structural engineers and architects working on the outside of the plant and connects them to what plant designers are doing on the inside.īIM can bring many benefits to the plant design and construction process, but it requires careful planning and implementation. With BIM, these tools talk to each other. In greenfield environments, designers can bring together land survey and GIS data, to quickly see how they will bring in pipes from the outside. The model can then be populated with up-to-date information about elevations, pipe runs, instrumentation, etc. Using reality capture technologies, plant designers and engineers can image the plant inside and out and then feed the BIM model with accurate 3D images to create a digital twin. For example, in urban areas where space is limited and existing plants must be refurbished, a lot of the information about these facilities is either missing, wrong, or out of date. While many of BIM’s benefits stack up quickly once the project is underway, a more integrated design solution also enables a project to kick off faster.
