by Maksim Markevich in BIM
The structural design process is simply a series of stages engineers follow to solve a problem. So shouldn't it be automated?
The structural design process in building design is poorly automated. This results in issues, not only in the design process, but also in the construction phase. There are four key reasons as to why the structural design process is so far behind. These all stem from the overall building design process.
We outline the four key reasons as to why the structural design process is so manual - and how we can fix it.
The RIBA Plan of Work 2017 lays out the stages of a building project as follows (and as illustrated above):
Stages 1-4 are the most closely connected with building design. Looking into each stage, you can see that every stage depends on the previous one:
This interdependence means errors and flaws can build up easily. If the Client said: "Let's change the building shape from a rhombicuboctahedron to dodecahedron", the whole process would have to start again from the beginning.
Here are the main roles involved in the scope of work:
It is hard to define the correct process for this ecosystem. Firstly, there are different processes and workflows for every type of building (architect-led, engineer-led). Secondly, their tasks often overlap across several disciplines. So, as a rule, we have collisions and errors.
This is a common problem for every field of work - and building design is no exception.
The two main building design delivery systems are:
Having two completely different systems seriously affects the building design process, as you have to know what you want from the outset. It is almost impossible for companies to change their delivery system quickly, so we cannot change strategy even if we realise that we need to.
To suddenly start issuing documentation to the construction site, when you never did before, would take a long time to put into practice. Therefore, the building design process must be flexible and adapt with time.
This is why outsourcing is not common in the field of building design. Every country has its own building codes and cultural features.
There is no worldwide community for this aspect in the building design sphere. To give an example of this in action, it is the presence of such a community in IT that allows it to grow so quickly.
The way to fix the building design process - and therefore the structural design process - is to break down each process and automate each one individually.
Automation has been around in building design for a long time (e.g. CAD and CAE). But building design processes now need to be supported to a much more advanced level by IT infrastructure, from input to output.
Take a real example:
Imagine an architect-led design-build project. Roles involved in that process would include structural engineer, architectural designer and MEP engineer. We have some input data from the customer and the main goal is to get a developed design in the form of a BIM model.
The design phase is simply the conversion of one data model to another.
Let’s say we have the architectural and MEP models and we want to design the structural part of the whole model. We can break down the structural engineering process into stages:
Every step should be automated. We can do so in five steps, which we break down in order of the diagram shown above:
So, using BIM technology and working closely with IT infrastructure, we can automate the whole sphere of structural engineering.
The next step is to apply this to every stage of the building design process.
To see how Kreo Design automates the structural design process as outlined above, request a demonstration.
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