Bright colors highlight systems for plumbing, steel or mechanical, electrical and fire protection. What may look like an abstract piece of industrial, high-tech artwork is actually a sample of Building Information Modeling (or BIM), in this case in the form of a federated model consisting of separate models from different subcontractors and trades. And, all of it is located centrally on a Web site that each can access.

“Subs have models, so what we’re doing is bringing each of their models into our federated model,” South Cole, Linbeck BIM project engineer, told Texas Construction. “The intent is to coordinate all the trades. In theory, it happens in paper drawings where you place them on a light table and lay them on top of one another. In practice that may or may not work.”