The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) is kicking off development of a new guideline to help building owners and their design teams utilize building information modeling (BIM) during the building design, construction and operations process and to better support owners’ performance requirements.

The National BIM Guideline for Owners, to be developed under the auspices of NIBS, The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and ASHRAE, will provide uniformity in the delivery of BIM projects to federal, state and local government building owners, as well as institutional and commercial building owners.

The U.S. building industry is under increasing pressure to deliver high-performance buildings to meet the needs of owners, occupants and the government. Owners and contractors are looking for opportunities to improve certainty in schedule, performance and cost while managing risks. At the same time, there is an increasing concern from multiple segments of the industry on the availability of a skilled workforce, as well as the productivity of the buildings workforce today and into the future. Efforts are underway on a variety of fronts to address productivity challenges, including the expansion of off-site construction techniques; development of enhanced tools and processes such as building information modeling (BIM); enhancing mid- to long-term forecasts of workforce needs; and attracting new, technology-savvy entrants to the workforce through development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs.

The National Institute of Building Sciences is convening an exclusive list of leaders from public and private organizations to develop a solution to advance and elevate the building industry.

The meeting takes place February 4. Key partners include Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Representatives from the practitioner, technology and academic communities also are participating.

Following a two-year effort, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has issued a report, Bridge Information Modeling Standardization, which sets a path to implement the use of computer modeling for bridge construction in the United States.

Over the past several decades, many industries have improved efficiencies by moving from document-based information exchanges to integrated data models. The construction industry, including buildings and heavy/highway, has lagged behind manufacturing industries for a number of reasons. The FHWA’s goal was to build on the progress that the buildings sector has made in building information modeling (BIM) standardization, through the work of the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART Alliance, the buildingSMART International and other industry participants, to advance the standardization of digital information for bridges—otherwise known as bridge information modeling (BrIM)—in the United States.

The National Institute of Building Sciences has completed development of a new guideline to help building owners and their design teams utilize building information modeling (BIM). The National BIM Guide for Owners (NBGO) draft is now available for public review and comment until Monday, October 31.

Responding to the industrywide need for increasingly savvy and project-involved building owners, the National Institute of Building Sciences, with the support of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASHRAE, Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) and International Facility Management Association (IFMA), compiled a carefully balanced, integrated team that has worked for the past year to craft the first NBGO. The NBGO defines an approach to creating and fulfilling BIM requirements from the owner’s standpoint. The Guide builds on the premise that BIM, in and of itself, is not the end but rather the means to a number of potentially valuable project delivery outcomes for the owner.

Today, following a year-long development process, the National Institute of Building Sciences released its new guideline to help building owners utilize building information modeling (BIM). The National BIM Guide for Owners (NBGO) provides building owners with an approach, from their own profession’s standpoint, to create and fulfill BIM requirements for a typical project. Unveiled during the kickoff of Building Innovation 2017: The Institute’s Fifth Annual Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C., the Guide is now available free online.

Industry professionals interested in learning how to use layers in the nation’s leading CAD standard should attend the upcoming webinar hosted by the developers of the United States National CAD Standard® (NCS)—The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). This upcoming free, webinar, “CAD Layers: Why Do We Need Them?” will be held Thursday, February 9, 2017, from 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET.

This January, following a year-long development process, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) released its new guideline to help building owners utilize building information modeling (BIM). Now, only a month later, the Institute has agreed to allow the Chinese affiliate of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, BOMA China, to translate the National BIM Guide for Owners (NBGO) into Mandarin.

NIBS, with the support of BOMA and ASHRAE, and financial support from the U.S. Department of Defense – Defense Health Agency, compiled a carefully balanced, integrated team to craft the NBGO. Available free online, the NBGO provides building owners with an approach, from their own profession’s standpoint, to create and fulfill BIM requirements for a typical project. The guide addresses three broad areas the owner should understand in order to work effectively with the Project BIM Team: process; infrastructure and standards; and execution.

While many design professionals in the U.S. building industry use building information modeling tools, many people still require and rely upon computer-aided design (CAD)-based, two-dimensional drawings for project information delivery. In 2014, the developers of the United States National CAD Standard® (NCS)—The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)—released NCS Version 6 (V6), which includes a new section on implementing BIM. A new webinar, “BIM Implementation,” to be held Thursday, August 17, 2017, from 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET, will highlight this new content.

Three leading construction industry organizations jointly announced today the release of Version 3.1 of the U.S. National CAD Standard (NCS), which streamlines delivery of commercial and institutional building projects by standardizing the organization and presentation of computer-aided (CAD) drawings and other design data.