April 19, 2010

New iPad app enables remote access to BIM models

RYAN STARR

RCD Digital Media

Ian Keough, a technical designer with New York-based Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, spends a fair chunk of his time working with Building Information Modeling (BIM).

BIM – a computer-aided design system that uses 3D objects to represent real physical building elements – is becoming an increasingly popular tool. But Keough wanted to take things a step further.

“It seemed to me there was a critical gap,” he says. “Although we were using BIM to deliver projects, once you delivered a BIM model there was no further use or extension of that model into the field.”

So Keough created the goBIM app, which can be used on the iPhone, or better yet, on the iPad, which recently launched in the U.S. and is expected to be available in Canada by May.

Other BIM apps have been created, but the goBIM app stands apart because it offers users access to the actual BIM data, such as information about materials, manufacturers and volumetrics.

“There are a couple of other apps out there that allow you to look at 3D models, but this is the only one where you can select an element and get the metadata,” Keough says.

While the goBIM app works perfectly well on the iPhone, Keough says it will really shine next month when he releases a version designed for use on the iPad, which has a larger screen.

“It will have native iPad resolution, so you can look at your models on the 1024 x 768 screen at full resolution.” Keough says sales of the goBIM app have been “better than I expected given that (BIM users are) still a somewhat small community.

“BIM is not the standard in the U.S. or Europe, but within the first week of this thing going on sale, we sold it in 15 countries.

“So there are obviously enough savvy people out there who think this is a useful thing.”

Keough sees room for growth with the goBIM app.

While he designed the prototype to work with Autodesk Revit – the platform he uses every day – Keough is looking into creating apps for other BIM platforms, such as Graphisoft's ArchiCAD.

“There is a giant user base outside the U.S. that uses ArchiCAD as a BIM platform,” he says. “I haven’t developed an ArchiCAD exporter yet, but every day I get five or 10 people asking me when it’s coming.”