Five years ago, in an interview with a leading CAD software executive, the distinction was made that CAD dealt with the firm realities of our built environment down to engineering-grade detail, and that GIS dealt with fuzzy issues such as wildlife migration. While pains were made to acknowledge the utility of both toolsets, the distinction between CAD and GIS in this vendor’s mind was precision.
While that was a somewhat valid point at the time, that distinction has crumbled rapidly. Data capture advancement such as LiDAR are feeding high precision data into CAD, GIS and BIM. The architecture, engineering and construction industries are grappling with more fuzzy concepts such as livability, and the need to measure and quantify environmental impacts. GIS has also been embraced by surveyors and engineers who have added more precision, and it even offers robust solutions for better facility management. On the eve of the second GeoDesign Summit, at the Esri campus in Redlands, Calif. this week, it seems a fitting time to contemplate the changes underway, and some of the drivers that are pushing greater convergence.
CAD, GIS and BIM Convergence
While it once was true that CAD solves more linear problems with hard measurements, and GIS solves fuzzier problems that require more creative approaches, the advent of BIM has helped speed the convergence. CAD began with visualization, while GIS was largely rooted in the storage of spatial data with presentation and ability to analyze as layers. With BIM, the tools fuse the visualization of CAD with data storage that allows in-depth queries and reuse of knowledge about all the individual components of a building, thus adding GIS-like analysis capabilities to CAD-like data visualization.
The concept of GeoDesign centers on the ability to simulate, analyze and test different design scenarios, with both statistical and visual analysis tools. The workflows to accomplish this level of analysis are being addressed across all three (CAD, GIS and BIM) toolsets, but each don’t enable the full ability to answer the types of queries and analysis necessary, nor do they provide the multi-user environments that are needed for the necessary evolution of workflows.
Standards and Mandates
A common language is needed between architects, landscape architects, planners, developers, construction trades, and facility managers. Interoperability standards have a large role to play in how different tools address the issues of GeoDesign, allowing for the interchange of data between software packages by adherence to data exchange standards. Interoperability will ensure that no intelligence is lost as different tools are utilized for the solution of different problems along the building lifecycle, extracting the building model and context into different analysis functions and workflows, and then sharing the knowledge from the analysis function back to those that need to know.
Policy mandates create a means to foster interoperability and efficiency, driving innovation as well as pushing for a more collaborative approach. The mandate for BIM by the Government Services Administration (GSA) for all government-owned buildings in the United States has fostered greater collaboration among vendors to meet the goals of more efficient building construction and maintenance. Building energy efficiency mandates that are being fostered in Europe are similarly encouraging a collaborative industry approach, with aggressive low-energy targets causing changes in practice that will have an impact on resource consumption, environmental impact and ultimately economic vitality. Mandates on consumption seem to be an inevitability due to population pressures, consumption patterns and finite resources, and the GeoDesign approach, as well as greater spatial management, will be needed to address scarcity and global impacts.
Sensors Push Integration
As our models get more realistic and interactive, sensor webs promise to animate and constantly update our models to provide a living and adaptive view of our built environments. The proliferation of inputs on the current state of impacts and performance will also foster the need for greater integration between different disciplines and across different simulation and modeling tools.
Sensor inputs can in a sense act as a glue between the different tools because of their ability to inform living models. Sensors would include such inputs as weather, traffic movement, the way that wind affect the built environment, the movement and impact of pollution, as well as the many things that citizens as sensors can inform. The bringing in of these dynamic inputs inform our models, and the need for deep analysis to understand the complexity of these inputs calls for a whole new level of computing capabilities in order to better inform design and the management of our world.
Perhaps the distinction between toolsets, and the fusion of functions, isn’t an important factor for greater GeoDesign adoption, at least not at this stage of development. While the entrance of such fuzzy concepts as livability into the firm disciplines of design and engineering are fostering the need for a new approach and new software capabilities, the parallel software development being done within and across toolsets will likely foster the best solution. Given the urgency of issues that must be addressed, the chaos of the open market, along with targeted mandates, are likely to provide the quickest action, while also creating new business opportunities.
REFERENCES
Bentley Describes an Integrated Geospatial Workflow, GeoWorld, March 21, 2005
BIM and GIS, Jack Dangermond’s keynote at EcoBuild 2010
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