What's all the Buzz?

Have you ever noticed that in most big cities there’s a Starbucks on just about every corner? They are everywhere … until you need one. By "need one" I mean you’re in some small, nowhere town and you need a place that has wireless Internet. Of course as soon as you find that one Starbucks, all of the others you drove around looking for just start popping up all over the place. I had a similar experience over the past week and a half with BIM … you’ve heard of BIM, right?

As you probably know, BIM stands for building information modeling. Until a couple of weeks ago it was pretty new to me. It sounded familiar, I knew I had heard of it, but it wasn’t something I knew too much about. Then, my co-worker Tara Taffera, editor/publisher of DWM magazine, told me about a presentation on BIM that was at a WDMA meeting. I started looking into and then, just like those Starbucks, it started showing up everywhere … articles, presentations, even this past week at the NFRC meeting.

BIM has been described as the next generation of CAD; BIM tools can help with space calculations, material selection, even energy performance. Now I, like many of you, am still just learning about BIM, but from what I’m gathering it’s one of those things that, sooner of later, everyone’s going to be doing.

It makes sense to me to use a BIM tool to create a building. After all, with a drawing you’re limited; you've got lines and arcs depicting a 3-D object. BIM allows you to see a representation of the building as an object. You can demonstrate the entire life cycle of the building!

Still, BIM is in its infancy. And, as with anything else, it will require a learning curve. There will be start-up challenges. Some will be hesitant change--you know, there are still companies and businesses out there with no website and no email; there are probably others not just ready to part with blueprints, too.

I’d like to get a feel for what you in the glass industry think about this BIM buzz. Let’s get some discussion going on this. Feel free to post a comment, or send me an email and tell me what you think.