BIM Software Explained: What Design Teams Actually Use It For

Ever wondered what design teams are really doing inside those 3D models?

Most people assume BIM is just a fancy way to draw buildings. It isn’t.

BIM is short for Building Information Modelling. It’s essentially a single source of truth that ensures architects, engineers and builders are all working towards the same goal. It has also become quietly ubiquitous across large scale project delivery.

The numbers back that up.

According to recent industry research 74% of architects now use BIM on their jobs. An additional 13.9% plan to adopt soon bringing the total to nearly 88%. Using BIM isn’t a trend anymore. It’s just how the industry works.

So what does the software actually do all day?

Here’s what’s coming up:

1. What BIM Software Really Is
2. Why Engineering Consultants Depend On It
3. The Five Jobs BIM Actually Does
4. The Tools Design Teams Really Open
5. Where BIM Projects Go Wrong

What BIM Software Really Is

A BIM model looks like a 3D drawing. It isn’t one.

Each wall. Each beam. Pipe. Pump within the model contains information. Size. Material. Fire rating. Cost. Maintenance schedule. Geometry is just what you see. Everything else lives underneath it.

Exactly. A line on a 2D drawing represents a line. A wall in a BIM model knows its material, its weight and who is responsible for that wall.

Pretty simple, right?

Why Engineering Consultants Depend On It

Here’s the part most people miss.

Design coordination used to occur on paper. People collaborated from their personal set of drawings. Those drawings slowly diverged from each other. Problems surfaced when someone was on-site with a saw.

Building Information Modelling eliminates that guesswork. Now engineering consultants are federating every discipline model into one combined file and checking it for clashes before the first ground is broken. Structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, fire and geotechnical teams collaborate on the same digital structure. An interdisciplinary team based out of a Christchurch office could be modelling seismic strengthening at the same time the services engineers route ductwork around it — working concurrently on the same model.

That’s the real value. Not the pictures. The coordination.

And it’s not cheap. Industry numbers put rework at 5% of project costs on average. But it can skyrocket on complicated projects. Identifying a clash in a model takes minutes. Identifying it in the field takes weeks.

The Five Jobs BIM Actually Does

Ask five engineers what they use BIM software for and you’ll receive five nearly identical answers.

1. Clash Detection

This is the big one.

Clash detection checks each discipline model against one another and reports where objects occupy the same physical space. A duct passing through a beam. A sprinkler line through a cable tray. A drainage pipe going straight through a pile cap.

The software identifies thousands of these on a large project. Teams eliminate the noise, bundle the legitimate issues and resolve them in the model. No one builds concrete around an error.

2. Design Coordination

Clash detection is automated. Coordination is not.

Design teams have regular coordination meetings where every discipline reviews the federated model together. Issues are identified, assigned, tracked and closed out. It eliminates the days of sending marked up PDF’s back and forth for weeks and hoping everyone received them.

3. Quantities And Cost Planning

Because every object carries data, the model can be counted.

Do you want to know how much concrete there is? How many light fittings? How many linear metres of pipe? Just ask the software. Quantity surveyors receive figures that update themselves if the design changes rather than having to measure drawings by hand.

4. Sequencing And Simulation

Connect your model to a programme = 4D. Throw cost on top of that = 5D.

Teams utilize this to validate how a build will physically perform. Where will the crane locate? Can the steel go vertical prior to the slab? What happens to site access when stage two begins? Figuring that out on a screen is inexpensive. Figuring it out on site is costly.

5. Handover And Asset Data

The model doesn’t stop being useful when the building opens.

Facility managers receive a database listing every asset in the building including serial numbers, service intervals and replacement dates. That’s precisely why so many public sector clients now include BIM deliverables in the contract.

The Tools Design Teams Really Open

There’s no single piece of “BIM software”. There’s a stack of it.

• Autodesk Revit — the workhorse for buildings and services modelling
• Civil 3D and OpenRoads — used for roads, earthworks and infrastructure
• Navisworks and Revizto — federation, clash detection and issue tracking
• ArchiCAD — popular with architectural teams
• Tekla Structures — steel and concrete detailing
• Autodesk Construction Cloud — the shared environment everything lives in

Typically, design teams will have several of these going at once. Models are exported to IFC, the neutral file format that allows interoperability between different software packages without anyone losing information.

It’s become pretty normal. Worldwide expenditures on BIM software hovered just under USD 98 billion in 2024 and are expected to continue to rise over the next 10 years.

Where BIM Projects Go Wrong

BIM fails for boring reasons. Almost never technical ones.

The usual culprits:

• Starting coordination too late, once the design is already frozen
• Modelling to the wrong level of detail for the project stage
• No agreed naming or file standards between disciplines
• Treating the clash report as the finish line instead of the starting line

A report that has 3,000 clashes noted on it isn’t a deliverable. That’s fodder. The deliverable is winnowing that down to the fifty issues that really count and getting them fixed.

There’s another trap worth knowing about.

Lots of companies purchase the software without altering the underlying process. Teams who model in 3D but coordinate via email are essentially buying BIM and silently receiving CAD. The tool doesn’t work unless the workflow works WITH it.

Bringing It All Together

BIM software isn’t really about 3D. It’s about information.

Facilities teams use it to operate and maintain these assets more effectively. Owners use it to vet designs, evaluate lifecycle costs and manage risk across their facilities portfolios. Architects use it to create designs, and to collaborate with consultants, contractors, and subs.

Representatives from all of these groups get together in Building Information Modeling Leadership Forums (BIM Leadership Forums) sponsored by Autodesk to continue to define what Building Information Modeling means to each industry.

A quick recap of what it gets used for:

• Clash detection between disciplines
• Day-to-day design coordination
• Automatic quantities and cost data
• Construction sequencing and staging
• Asset data for the whole life of the building

Tools will continue to evolve. AI is slowly being integrated into clash grouping and model checking. Over two thirds of construction pros currently use AI in some aspect of their work.

It’s the same principle though. Build it once virtually, iron out the bugs while it’s cheap, then build it for real.

That’s the whole idea.