Fully appreciating the implications of design alternatives for a major structure can take a great deal of analysis and an even greater ability to visualize changes. One Rhode Island structural engineering firm finds the stakes high enough that it has developed its conference space into a 10-projector BIM immersion room for collaboration with as many as 40 people.
"We realized BIM could be supercharged by creating a room where the design and construction teams could be immersed in the models," says David J. Odeh, principal at Odeh Engineers, in Providence. The company has invested about $100,000 in the room over several years. Employees call it "the war room."