Academic One-Day Course Offered to Improve Engineers’ BIM Skill

Abstract

The construction industry has been adopting the new Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology as the main approach of working, covering all sectors, including design, construction and maintenance. Construction enterprises have been demanding the University to carry out professional courses in order to be able to update their professionals with this new methodology. Recently, a design and construction office requested a one-day BIM training course, to increasing the BIM knowledge of the employees. The short course was properly designed to present the basic concepts, to experience the handling of the BIM modelling software most used, and to disseminate the large range of BIM applicability. The proposed professional action covers the areas of construction (conflict analysis, planning, and material quantity), structures (interoperability, analyses, and the transfer of information between software types), and the recent heritage building information modelling (HBIM) perspective. For it, the applied didactic procedure was based on the presentation of case studies related to situations of conflict between disciplines, of interoperability problems, and of rehabilitation of old buildings. This training involved all the company's employees, composed of designers, architects, civil engineers and economists. The difficulties found in the course are mainly due to the heterogeneity of the attendees, who have different interests and specific familiarity perspectives. The course was held with the objective of initiating professionals in the new topic and to acquiring knowledge in BIM adoption, in a way they can apply in their company. The participants followed the course with great interest and satisfaction, formulating several questions contextualized in the particular field of expertise of each professional. The course aims to contribute to the dissemination of the potential of BIM in the design, construction, and refurbishment of historical buildings. The course was evaluated in its generality and topic taught, resulting in a positive grade.