Integrating Specifications and BIM - A Closer Look

Recently, Deltek hosted a thought leadership webinar, “Breaking Down Silos Between BIM, Specifications and Building Product Data.” Prior to diving into the presentation, a few polling questions were asked of the webinar attendees, one in particular was, “What role does BIM play within your firm?” Over half of the pollsters indicated they can’t live without BIM in their firm.

When it comes to using BIM, is your firm part of the “Can’t live without it” or are you undecided when it comes to utilizing BIM in your organization? The good news is, if you are an existing Deltek e-SPECS Linx customer, you are positioned well to migrate from e-SPECS Linx to e-SPECS for Revit^® which is one of the solutions available in the e-SPECS product suite. The beauty of e-SPECS for Revit is the ability to synchronize your specifications with BIM.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The phrase ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is a well-known saying and suggests a picture tells a story just as well, if not better than a lot of written words. However, when we combine the written word with pictures, the story comes to life and is communicated even better. Take this same idea and apply it to architects and engineers who work to develop designs (pictures) to communicate how a structure should be built and identify the necessary building materials (specifications), so when the facility is constructed, it achieves the intended aesthetic and functional requirements. When you combine the design drawings with specifications for a building project, you have the ideal communication platform for a contractor to bring the project to life at the job site. Yet, these two methods of communicating – design drawings and specifications – typically are done separately without any automated coordination, requiring a lot of manual work that introduces risk for the drawings and specs to be out of sync. But times are a changing… With the evolution of Building Information Modeling (BIM), we now have software solutions, such as Deltek’s e-SPECS for Revit, to keep the designer’s drawings and the building product specifications in sync throughout the project.

Let’s First Talk about BIM (Building Information Modeling)

The three key factors to a successful building project are: 1) Communication, 2) Communication, and 3) Communication. BIM is the mechanism to allow communication to happen across all project stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. In case you are not familiar with BIM, it is a collaborative automated process that allows multiple project stakeholders and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) professionals to collaborate on the planning, design, and construction of a building within a 3D model. What was once done with flat drawings and required a lot of imagination has come to life through 3D technology to ensure the image is consistent for each person on the team. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a BIM model being used for clash detection. To me, the BIM image looked as though someone was given a box of fluorescent markers to color code a 3D building image.

To sum it up, there are many benefits of using BIM, but at a simplistic level, it supports a collaborative design process while improving communication, increasing efficiencies and reducing errors. 

e-SPECS for Revit: Integrate Your BIM Models with Your Specs

So you have your design drawings, which have been implemented into a BIM model, but how do you communicate the building products that have been selected and specified to support the design and BIM model?

e-SPECS for Revit by Deltek is a software solution that allows you to link, sync and integrate Revit with your construction specifications and automates the creation of your project manuals. e-SPECS is the only solution supporting industry-standard Revit parameters to automate and coordinate project specs. Gone are the days of error-prone manual efforts previously required to produce product specs. Today, it’s all about implementing the most efficient processes to consistently produce the highest quality construction documents and reduce manual work. e-SPECS for Revit improves efficiency by automating processes which results in reduced time to develop project specifications and increases spec accuracy by integrating and synchronizing with your BIM model.

Four ways e-SPECS increases efficiency include:

• Seamlessly integrate and synchronize BIM models with specs
• Ensure accuracy with project specific keynotes
• Collaborate within the Revit environment
• Coordinate with Drawing Reconciliation Reports

"Being able to get input from the Revit Model, quickly filter through brackets, run reports, view track changes, and pre-edit the specs with the checklist editor makes this software unbelievable and farther ahead than the competition.”

Jeffrey Potter, Specifications Writer II at HMC Architects

 e-SPECS creates time and cost benefits resulting from increased efficiency, clearer communication, more accurate design estimates, and fewer change orders. e-SPEC users indicate the biggest reward of using the software is the ability to streamline editing of specs, while ensuring the specs are in sync with the BIM model. This reduces rework while improving project quality resulting from lower project risk and better predictability of project outcomes.