BIM Enabled Plant Room MEP Layout for an Educational Campus; the success story

Jun 15, 2017 -- EPC firms or general contractors upon taking up the construction projects of institutional buildings like educational campus, libraries, memorial towers for a non-profit organization etc. Their core challenges lie in making building designs that are exemplary. In fact, not only this, such constructions demand safe, durable, well-coordinated, environmental friendly and aesthetic designs.

To comprehend the designs well and enable contractors to accomplish construction work successfully, it’d take dedicated efforts from design engineers and architects. It essentially requires them to amalgamate their design data BIM platform for efficient collaboration and coordination.

Taking up multiple projects round the year, Hitech, a 25 plus-year-old design support company, has several success stories to their credit. Leveraging BIM capabilities, their engineers have helped EPC firms, general contractors, and MEP consultants across the continent of Europe and North America from concept to construction.

Hunting down mammoth challenges

Skilled and experienced MEP engineers onboard at Hitech, when ventured into designing MEP layout of a plant room for a college building in Europe, had to address some serious challenges. Understanding 2D drawings and spatial arrangement from pdf files, was crucial for engineers who were accustomed using and working with 3D CAD models.

Usually plant room equipment such as feeder water systems, heaters, tanks etc. are interdependent; so changing their placement and accommodating MEP fit-outs was not an option. Along with such constraints, there were a lot of risk factors involved in terms of safe construction to install MEP equipment in plant room. However, a thorough study of manufacturing details from 2D files, and its conversion to 3D in phased manner helped their engineers to streamline the design process further.

Delivering the most comprehensive and efficient engineering solution

By thorough examination of available basic architecture and structural models, drafting MEP layout became a little less daunting. Alongside, leveraging Autodesk Revit’s data-rich 3D modeling and rendering capabilities, engineers at Hitech comprehended the plant room MEP layout. The gravity of BIM requirement was realized during early stages, as there were approvals needed from all the stakeholders and sub-contractors.

Additionally, Hitech Engineers developed shop drawings & sheet setup, and 3D renderings were prepared to coordinate and develop a clash free MEP layout and detailed plan of mechanical equipments. This entire plant room MEP layout was examined, and studied to enable assistance during construction and installation and handed over to the client post dedicated efforts of more than three months.

Making the most of BIM

These BIM ready 3D models were deployed at construction site to assist designers to foremen and technicians. BIM 3D visualization helped the client to efficiently use great ideates and keep the project on track. It essentially streamlined the workflow on a construction site and reduced guesswork for good.

Cumulatively, an elimination of rework led the client to have timely completion of the project and saved a significant extra cost. BIM visualization for entire plant room arrangement in the educational building helped the client to accelerate the work and make informed decisions even during construction.

To suffice, the benefits are obvious and numerous, and there are no second thoughts about it. The scope of construction work will decide the gravity of challenges and their impacts. Thus, wise is the one who leverages BIM and expertise talent from designs in order to stay profitable throughout.

About Author: Hiral Patel is a news editor and has been contributing to the AEC industry since 2008. She mainly writes about the application of BIM across Architecture, MEP and Structural sectors. Her focus is towards encouraging construction companies, sub-contractors and architects to adopt right technologies to improve efficiency and profitability.