The TLDR:Â
- Use BIMIT
- If youâre a smart architect, drag-and-drop your registered your point cloud into the siteâand get a standardized LOD 200 BIM of your existing conditions.
- Youâll save money, time, sanityâand while driving your firm towards the BIM-based promise land.
- For even smarter architects, use BIMIT to increase your firmâs profitability.
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BIMIT launched for architects and engineers needing to streamline the process of creating accurate existing conditions plans.
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Matt, an architect at a New York City-based firm (and early BIMIT supporter) identified the root of an industry-wide problem:
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Recreating existing conditions is not a value-add a task for a designer. Itâs not why a Client would hire us. But itâs a necessary step to get to through the design phase efficiently. We want something that helps us maximize the project time we are given to focus on the design opportunities.
Where the project (and problem) starts for Matt
Mattâs architecture firm has just been hired by a well known Tech Company to design a 20,000 square foot office spaceâitâs going to be a new hybrid headquarters đđ
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To start the new renovation project, Matt needs accurate information on the current state of the spaceâthe existing conditions (#currentsituation). đ¤
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Itâs unlikely that the Client has accurate, trustworthy existing conditions drawings for Matt to start using for his basis of design.
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So Matt talks to the Client, who then talks to the owner of the building, the Landlord, in hopes that maaaybe they have accurate existing conditions drawings đ
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They donât đ˘
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The Landlord ainât helping Matt
To no surprise, the Landlord hasnât updated their existing conditions plans since the last renovation 7 years ago. Since then, the space has changed significantlyâwalls have been demolished for the former tenant, two additional bathrooms were added, the egress path has changed, and the HVAC ducts are routed to provide cooling for only 36 occupants.
The conclusion is common and predictableâand Matt has to break it to the Client: we need an existing conditions survey to start the design with accurate information đ
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After losing a few days, the Client now has to spend more money to coverâan avoidableâmisstep.
Matt canât start the projectâs schematic design or design development phase without confirming site conditions. To avoid wasting more time, the Client reluctantly adds âexisting conditionsâ to Mattâs original scope of work đ
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At this point, the project has started off on the wrong foot since the Client didnât originally factor the cost of an existing conditions survey (probably, because the Client and Matt assumed the plans provided by the Landlord were up-to-date.)
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Because existing conditions isnât a service Mattâs firm specializes in (nor wants to take the liability for), he decides to subcontract this portion of the scope to a consultantâusually a surveyor providing existing conditions surveys.
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Enter the Surveyor
âMatt calls up his preferred surveying company, SCAN-TO-BIM INC. At $0.50 - $1.50 per square foot, the surveying company can perform two costly but necessary services: 3D site scanning and 3D modeling. These services would provide Matt the necessary files to be used as accurate backgrounds for his basis of design.
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A Money Issue
The Problem? When the Client reluctantly agreed to an added âexisting conditionsâ scope, they only provided Matt a âjust-get-it-doneâ budget of $6,000, or $0.30 per square footâless than half of what SCAN-to-BIM INC normally charges.
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Without a sufficient budget and time still ticking, Matt has two options:
- Go back to the Client and admit he didnât budget correctlyâŚ
- Or plead with SCAN-TO-BIM INC to perform services at his lower budget of $6,000.
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After Mattâs honed his best âChris Voss negotiation tactics,â SCAN-TO-BIM INC reluctantly agrees to perform surveying services for $6,000 (in exchange for a promise of future work, of course đ)âŚ
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First: a 3D site scan
SCAN-to-BIM Inc. uses a LIDAR-based camera to digitally capture the space in the form of a point cloud--essentially, a large file format made up of millions of points. Cool, but why does Matt need a point cloud? He doesn't, really.
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Second: a 3D model
â(or a BIM, building information model)
Scan-to-BIM Inc then takes the point cloud file and traces over it within their design authoring software, which is most likely Autodesk Revit.