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Stephen,

In the office of the firm I work for we had a few months ago a chap in doing a CPD for us, about BIM but more specifically on Revit. He raised quite a few issues about the software and its use; pertinently very few were about the technical aspects of the use of the software (modelling and data production), most of it was about seriously important but difficult issues such as contractual liability and so on.

He made the very good point that if BIM is to be taken seriously it needs to be fully considered not as just a bit of software but a key part of the building procurement process, including being written into contracts so responsibilities, liabilities etc were clearly defined. This would effectively necessitate a suite of revised JCC contracts, JCC-BIM (with various flavours for procurement types) if you will, that would make clear how everyone in the supply chain of a contract, consultants, client, contractor, suppliers, subcontractors etc, would have to exchange information and act towards each other, and be liable and so on for information supplied and exchanged.

But how likely is that to be replicated through the entire supply chain though, when a great many subcontractors struggle with relatively simple Autocad LT, and very basic information exchange processes? If you get a subcontractors drawings in Autocad and not your BIM format for checking, do you then have to create a BIM model of the information to check it, to fulfil your own responsibilities, and then be expected to supply that to everyone else on a project, and update it?

The overwhelming problem with BIM is that for all its promise, it is like hydrogen powered cars. Great idea, but until everyone has one there won't be the infrastructure; and until that happens there is no point buying one.

The construction industry is one of the most flexible there is around; it is also one that is the most varied and unlikely to go for one format simply because someone says so. Sure Autocad DWG is now the default format, but how many years did that take, for what is a relatively simple, 2D information format, which so many still struggle with?

PS I'm presently working with a BIM focussed engineer who is so difficult to work with, refusing to provide work in progress drawings because it is too difficult to extract from the Revit model, and unable to overlay our autocad drawings to compare against etc, that I would hesitate to go anywhere near it or recommend it to anyone!