By Steve Rizer
A recent survey conducted by JB Knowledge Technologies Inc. indicated that nearly 40 percent of commercial builders are employing some form of building information modeling (BIM) technology, but with BIM cloud solutions emerging, how will this number fluctuate?
In an interview with ConstructionPro Week, JB Knowledge President James Benham predicted that with BIM cloud solutions becoming available, “this number will only continue to grow, regardless of individual users’ hardware, allowing BIM tools to be an option for even the smallest of construction IT budgets. As the BIM data sets get larger and the cloud makes them more accessible, augmented-reality solutions … will create major competitive advantages.”
It is unlikely that BIM adoption will surpass 60 percent until cloud-based BIM becomes pervasive, according to JB Knowledge’s Second Annual Construction Technology Integration Report, for which more than 700 industry professionals revealed how they are employing and integrating technology on building projects.
“As BIM leaders Autodesk and Trimble continue to acquire solutions to enhance their current offerings, the hope is that solutions like 360 Glue will become widely used and therefore more cost effective for contractors of all sizes,” the report states. “One of the most limiting factors in BIM growth -- sharing and distribution of massive files -- should become a non-issue that will propel adoption forward in the cloud.”
Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Navisworks, and Trimble SketchUp were the most popular software products used among survey participants.
The ConstructionPro Network member version of this article includes additional results from the survey, more comments from Benham, and coverage of a recent "virtual reality" development of interest to architects and engineers.
