What is a BIM Authoring Tool?

A BIM Authoring tool is a 3D design software that organizes the model by objects, attributes, and relationships.

The so-called BIM Authoring Tools for the construction industry mainly range in the fields of architectural, structural, plant and infrastructure design. All disciplines that base the project on a virtual three-dimensional geometric model that faithfully represents what the real artifact will be.
These tools can organize various information associated with the individual constituent elements and can also coordinate other contributions that are not strictly BIM, that is, that do not produce informed 3D models, but rather diagrams, tables and other graphic or non-graphic documents.
Even the project tables themselves, if you look closely, are not exactly BIM elements: plans, elevations and sections are derivatives of the virtual model that are obtained more or less automatically from the 3D model and perhaps paginated together with construction details, structural diagrams, energy simulations, window schedules, etc. which are project drawings not represented with a 3D geometric model, but are based on the data (primarily dimensional) provided by the BIM model.

The closer the relationship between the BIM model and the documents derived from it, the lower the possibility of errors and inconsistencies between the different parts of the project.

Returning for a moment to the project tables, when we talk about BIM they seem like things that are taken for granted, but the example is useful for reasoning about the design process. If you export plans, elevations and sections from the BIM model as two-dimensional drawings to lay them out in another graphics program, it is clear that the connection with the source model is lost. If a last-minute change occurs in this, you must re-export all the documents affected by that change and rearrange them in the previously defined layout. If you forget to "update" one of the drawings, you get an error.

Obviously this does not happen if it is possible to maintain a dynamic connection between the model and its various representations laid out on the tables, for example if the program in use has a module dedicated to layout that can automatically update the drawings according to the changes made to the 3D model. In practice the software “slices” the 3D model several times horizontally for the plans of the various floors, vertically for the sections and from the outside for the elevations. The tables do not store lines and fills independent of the model, but the coordinates of where and how to produce these “slices” of the model.

For drawings this is now a fairly common practice, but just as it can be done with views of the virtual building, the same can be true for drawings always derived from it, but with a tabular representation, such as an abacus of the windows, a metric calculation, an energy simulation. They could also find space in the project tables, but if they are in an A4 format report, always within the program (or in any case with dynamic links), nothing changes. Indeed, some of these elaborations, which are often produced downstream, can have a greater influence on the design choices if it is possible to keep them "hooked" to the model even during the composition phases. As regards the energy simulation, different formal options could be evaluated in relation to their contributions to energy saving, for example considering the protrusions on the facades in relation to their shadows and therefore the solar radiation that derives from them.

There is another class of IT tools that intervene in the management of construction, operation and maintenance of the works that are always connected to the BIM model, but normally intervene on a defined project. These are applications for the management of the construction site, safety, time schedules, material procurement, the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), facility management and management of the life cycle of the building from when it enters into operation to when it is decommissioned. These are sometimes referred to as Processing Software, while with Reviewing Software we are referring to specific applications for the control of BIM models (model checking) through BIM Validation, Clash Detection and Code Checking processes. All things that deserve specific insights, without considering the new technologies to make the works "speak", such as the recent safety sensors to monitor the health status of bridges, which are always based on the related BIM models.

Which BIM authoring software to choose to manage your workflow in the AEC (architecture engineering construction) supply chain

Usually when talking about BIM authoring software the names that circulate among professionals and students are essentially three: Revit, Archicad, Allplan. But there are also others, those certified by buildingSMART are all listed on the page dedicated to Certified Software, an updated list that can be sorted according to different criteria. Interesting is the one regarding the Scheduling IFC4 with Status Finished and the related date in the column Completed, because it can give an idea of ​​the attitude of software houses to attribute importance to the format dedicated to OpenBIM and interoperability, even if the IFC format currently most in use is still 2X3.

In addition to the topic of exchange with other professionals through export and import of IFC files, which is certainly a parameter to consider in the choice, another aspect to keep in mind is the possibility of managing everything, or at least a large part of the usual workflow for your design studio, without having to make excessive use of other programs. Eventually it will be good to make sure of full compatibility between the different applications.
Here the issue becomes broad and must be calibrated to individual needs, perhaps reflecting on some questions.
Is it better to have a single program, or a series of linked modules? It would be better to limit the use of too many different programs.

How easily can the team work online on the same project (data security and backup included)?
Is there already a satisfactory internal rendering engine for your needs, or do you have to rely on a more specific external program? In the second case, does the rendering program import the proprietary format of the chosen BIM Authoring tool?

Are the included “pure” modeling tools sufficient, or is it necessary to use a specific program, perhaps for algorithmic modeling, for more daring formal compositions?

Is there a great integration and dynamic linking of elements between the two software? Revit is linked to Dynamo, Archicad to Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, but the panorama can be expanded.
Does the creation of personal items and their management meet the requirements of the study?
And so on for everything else: MEP design, structural calculation, energy simulation, costing, schedules, layout of documents, Gantt charts, facility management, construction site design, etc.
What is integrated into the BIM authoring tool? Does it meet your needs, or do you have to go outside?
With what level of interoperability?
The difference does not concern so much the size of the projects that the studio usually manages, but rather the different aspects that it is able to develop internally and how it relates to other external professionals for what it does not deal with directly.

The choice is certainly not simple, nor obvious and in the end you can realize that the price, which is usually considered first, is not such a determining factor compared to others such as training, scalability over time of the solution adopted, the ease of adapting to the chosen tool, or adapting it to the standards of the studio, the coverage that it guarantees to the various internal activities and the ease of relationship that it establishes towards the outside.
     
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