What is BIM Data Processing?

Raw BIM data is complex and incomplete. Managing it the traditional way is expensive, manual, slow, and requires specialized expertise. Open, centralized and automated BIM data processing changes all this.

The goal of BIM data processing is to make raw BIM data usable and valuable. For every construction professional. Automatically.

How does it work?

Data processing means cleaning, organizing, structuring, and enriching the raw data to make it more useful for analysis and visualization purposes. BIM data processing does this especially for BIM (Building Information Model) models.

This is what Simplebim does. The goal is to turn raw BIM data into easy-to-use information and actionable insights for every construction professional on a daily basis.

It is not as difficult as it might sound. And we can start with something very simple, like trimming the model. And continue from there to comprehensive data processing, like some of largest Simplebim users among global construction companies, which enrich the data in various ways. Typically, se start with something simple and then progress in steps to more advanced operations. Simplebim scales with our needs!

Why Do We Need Simplebim for Data Processing?

There are generic data wrangling, data munging, data transformation, data cleaning, data cleansing, or data processing platforms out there. So why do we need Simplebim?

Very simply, because BIM has unique qualities and features, which the generic tools cannot handle. For example, all the 3D geometry-based analysis, quantity take-off, and classifications, like defining the locations. 

But also very specific data structures and connections between the building element objects, which cannot be found and handled in a generic way.

Why Do We Need Data Processing in the First Place?

First. Data in its raw form is rarely useful to any organization. This applies to all digital data in all industries, but especially to BIM data. In construction, we are still developing our skills compared to many other industries. BIM data processing makes BIM data usable and valuable.

Second. According to some studies, data professionals spend almost 80% of their time preparing the data, leaving only 20% for actual use. With BIM, the ratio is probably even worse at the moment, because of the inefficient workflows and a lot of manual work. 

So, data processing is an important task in any digital data processing and usage. The more efficiently we can do it, the more value we produce. Simplebim BIM data processing tools allow users to excel in all of this.

Benefits of BIM Data Processing

• Data processing helps to improve data usability because it turns data into a compatible format for the downstream applications and usage from multiple different data sources (different design disciplines, model author tools, companies, and so on).
• The users can use ready-made views and reports, which work for every model, every model update, and in every project.
• Consistent and enriched data enables automated data flow and automated data analysis, and simulation, because the data is always the same.
• Standard enriched data can be automatically connected to other data sources. This again enables game-changing, comprehensive insights into data.
• Data wrangling scales the data usage. Because of the automation, the data is available with reasonable skills, resources, cost, and always on time. Enriching and connecting the BIM data to other data sources enables a large number of use cases, and thus a large number of users for the data.
• Since large volumes can be consistently processed, BIM data processing enables large-scale big picture analysis of building data with modern tools, even machine learning and AI. Not just within a single project, but to the whole project/asset portfolio.

BIM Data Processing Use Cases

BIM data processing can and should be used any time we try to use BIM model data.

This can be as simple as removing extra objects from other design disciplines’ models before importing them to our model author tool as a basis for our work. 

For example, structural engineer probably only needs load-bearing objects from the architectural model - not the furniture or spaces, or other details. Or an architect only needs the foundation from the structural model.

Or you could prepare your model for energy analysis software.

Or a construction company will process models from all the disciplines, in various ways. Standardizing and normalizing them. Classifying. Enriching. Calculating quantities. Defining locations. And then use the enriched data in a scalable and updatable way for cost estimation, production planning, scheduling, procurement, tendering, logistics, onsite management, and more…

Here some examples of how users managed amazing projects thanks data processing.

BIM Data Processing Steps

Data processing typically has six steps: Importing and Exploring, Structuring, Cleaning, Enriching, Validating, and Publishing and exporting data.

Let's Revolutionize BIM Data Usage

Digital data in construction is the same as in any other industry! So far, our construction industry has been laying behind in digital data usage. One of the major issues to solve is to manage the data in scalable way. Simplebim introduces next generation BIM data processing tools, to do just that!

The goal is to turn raw BIM data into easy-to-use information and actionable insights for every construction professional on daily basis. The right time and the right tools are already here - what are we still waiting for?