Building information modeling to support the management of the built environment

This paper presents a software environment that customizes the Autodesk Revit Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to facilitate use with new Brazilian requirements for BIM use. The new Brazilian legislation requires using BIM for construction projects of public agencies, including the use of a Construction Information Classification System (CICS) adapted from internationally used standards to the needs in Brazil. The software environment combines existing Revit add-ins with an add-in specifically developed for checking that a BIM meets the requirements. We demonstrate use of the environment in a case study. The environment is available upon request. Our study is set in the broader context of supporting the activities and processes in designing, creating, and using the built environment that are applied in projects, such as new construction, renovation, expansion, acquisition, and rental of buildings, building complexes, and larger built environments. Considering the diversity and amount of information required in these projects, we deal with BIM as a tool for organizing this information and managing its flow to support both project management and several types of analysis, including feasibility studies and comparisons between investment alternatives, verification of the effectiveness of the solutions adopted, risk analysis, and return on investment. To support all of these functions and reuse, information must be standardized. We show how the new Brazilian standard furthers this goal.