Beyond “Standardization” with BIM: Nishimatsu Construction and WOGO Develop a BIM Model Optimization Tool

In the construction industry, working-hour regulations and a shrinking workforce have made efficiency, labour saving and standardisation more important than ever. BIM in particular is expected to serve as the foundation that links design, construction and maintenance – yet putting it fully to work in practice still involves many challenges, both in handling the data and in coordinating across departments.

At Nishimatsu Construction Co., Ltd., company-wide efficiency is being driven forward as part of its effort to become the most attractive general contractor in Japan. Digital and AI technologies are essential to that goal, and for the Digital Construction Center and the Design BIM Section, improving efficiency is one of the central missions.

WOGO has now developed, jointly with Nishimatsu Construction, a BIM Model Optimization Tool that optimises the geometry data of BIM models to suit the analysis being performed. This article covers the background to the development, the reasons WOGO was chosen, and what comes next.

1. The challenge – putting BIM fully to work in practice

Nishimatsu Construction has been advancing BIM use across design, production design and construction. As each department standardised its own work according to its own purposes, however, coordinating across departments – and putting BIM fully to work as a company – remained a challenge.

“With working-hour regulations and a shrinking workforce being talked about everywhere, I see our challenges as eliminating wasted work, automating what can be automated, and standardising work that currently depends on individuals.”

The sharpest difficulty lay in using BIM models for analysis and simulation. In shadow calculations, generating a calculation model from a Revit model would sometimes freeze or produce a model with missing geometry. In airflow analysis, IFC conversion and import into the analysis software likewise led to missing geometry and manual adjustment, lengthening analysis time.

As a result, engineers were entering the outermost geometry by hand in Revit for shadow calculations, and entering simplified models by hand in the analysis software for airflow analysis – situations where the BIM model could not be used to its full potential.

BIM was being used, and yet a separate model still had to be rebuilt for analysis. That situation meant the real value of BIM was not being drawn out.

2. Why WOGO – a 3D × AI proposal, and the promise of unconstrained thinking

Behind Nishimatsu Construction’s decision to work with WOGO were WOGO’s distinctive 3D and AI technologies, and its ability to make proposals unconstrained by the conventional thinking of the construction industry.

The proposal for automated design using 3D × AI, in particular, made a strong impression.

“I remember being struck by the proposal for automated design using 3D × AI. Over the course of our conversations we were drawn to ideas we would never have arrived at ourselves, and to their distinctive 3D technology, and we decided to commission the development.”

Rather than searching for answers within the assumptions of the construction industry, WOGO offers new approaches to real-world problems from the perspective of 3D, AI and software development. That combination of technical strength and imagination is what made this project possible.

3. The solution – automatically optimising BIM models for each analysis

What we developed is a BIM Model Optimization Tool that runs as a Revit add-in.

The tool automatically lightens and simplifies complex BIM data to suit the analysis at hand, such as shadow calculations or airflow analysis. By extracting and organising the geometry needed for the analysis from a highly detailed Revit model and converting it into a calculation or analysis model, it aims to reduce the errors and manual work that arose when linking to analysis software.

This is expected to make analysis and simulation more practical, and to widen the use of BIM in detailed design and on large projects. Post-release updates have extended support to more complex building geometry, and optimisation time has been cut from the original 15 minutes to 3 minutes.

4. How Nishimatsu Construction rates WOGO on the project

It was not only WOGO’s technical strength that Nishimatsu Construction valued as development progressed. Regular progress updates and careful discussion of how to solve problems were also important in moving the project forward.

“During development they shared progress and issues with us regularly, and we were able to move forward while discussing carefully how to solve problems and what might be possible. That was a real strength.”

At the same time, at the start of the project WOGO’s experience with BIM software was still limited. That did not necessarily work against the project.

“At the outset, WOGO’s limited experience with BIM software was a concern – but I think the freedom of perspective that came with it also worked in our favour. Going forward, I hope they will keep building their understanding and experience of BIM software.”

Combining Nishimatsu Construction’s practical expertise with WOGO’s 3D and AI technology allowed development to draw on the strengths of both sides.

5. The effects felt today, and the impact expected ahead

By automating the adjustment and rebuilding of analysis models that used to be done by hand, the tool is expected to make BIM models far easier to use in day-to-day practice.

In detailed design and on large projects in particular, BIM models carry a great deal of information and place a heavy load on the link to analysis software. Being able to optimise a model for the analysis in hand is therefore highly significant in widening the use of BIM.

The development also looks beyond shadow calculations to other simulation domains such as airflow analysis. Because each analysis needs different information, technology that converts and organises BIM data according to its intended use is likely to grow steadily more important.

Not only creating BIM, but using it fully in practice. As a foundation for that, the BIM Model Optimization Tool is expected to play an increasingly important role.

6. Looking ahead – widening BIM use through “optimisation” as well as standardisation

For its future use of BIM, Nishimatsu Construction aims to build the right model from the upstream stages and to circulate that model through design, production design and construction. With BIM as the foundation, the company intends to create new value by circulating data, technology and knowledge.

That requires standardisation, so that models can be used across departments – and equally it requires optimisation, converting data into a form that is easy to use for each purpose: analysis, simulation, construction, maintenance and more.

Drawing on what it learned working with Nishimatsu Construction, WOGO will continue to advance its 3D data optimisation technology, BIM included. By further automating data conversion between the various tools used in practice, we will help make design work more efficient from end to end.

The collaboration between Nishimatsu Construction and WOGO is an attempt to take BIM beyond standardisation. With practical BIM use in view, the two companies will keep widening the possibilities for data use and productivity in the construction industry.