Building information modeling has come a long way recently, but it is still far from being business as usual. That, and lack of BIM software interoperability, were about the only two subjects of general agreement regarding BIM among the 60 attendees of a recent “eConstruction” roundtable, in Phoenix. As recently as two years ago, there were no model BIM contracts and most designers did not have staff trained on BIM, said John Cross, a vice president of the American Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago, which cohosted the March 31 session with the American College of Construction Lawyers.
“People are not waiting for the silver bullet to start using BIM,” said Derek Kunz, director of project development in the Denver office of Mortenson Construction. Kunz added that BIM-enabled jobs still have “heavy” learning curves.