The evaluation and justification of 3D and 4D CAD, as well as the utilization and management of 3D and 4D models, constitute an important problem in the adoption and implementation of 3D and 4D models by all levels of the construction industry, specially, owners, contractors, designers, consultants, and trade contractors. We lack:
A wide-raging samples of actual uses of 3D and 4D models on a variety of completed projects, including the reported benefits from the uses of these models, and the documented implications of the benefits for overall project performance. Hence, we are not able to learn sufficiently from past experience and pass it on for the implementation of 3D and 4D modeling on future projects.
A well-established framework that would allow us to articulate the implementation of 3D and 4D CAD and the corresponding benefits that 3D and 4D models make over existing processes. These barriers often hinder the investment decisions and implementation determination.
Research Goals
This empirical study will:
Compile a portfolio of 3D and 4D uses on 20-30 construction projects completed in the last six years to identify the features of 3D and 4D implementation and benefits.
Develop a framework to underline the qualitative or quantitative measures that can be used to calibrate implementation factors, benefits to product, process and organization, as well as contributions of modeling to the improvement of the design & construction process performance and the overall business performance.
Conduct a cross-project comparative analysis to reveal the underlying correlation between the implementation factors and the benefits captured by the use of 3D and 4D modeling.
Research Updates
Till August 2005, we have:
Completed studies of the 3D and 4D CAD applications on 32 case projects of varied type, size and complexity (16 in the U.S. , 14 in Europe , 2 in Asia ).
Tested the original framework on the 32 case projects and updated this framework to its 3rd Version.
Developed 5 Crosswalks to
illustrate the patterns/relationships between implementation factors and attainable benefits:
9 types of 3D/4D model uses and their related benefits;
timing of model uses vs. timing of benefits;
11 kinds of scenarios of key stakeholders' involvement and the corresponding ranges of benefits;
3 kinds of scenarios of developing level of detail in 3D/4D models and the corresponding ranges of benefits;
the typical procedure of 3D/4D modeling and possible reasons for extra effort/costs in this work flow.
Published one conference paper "Experiences with 3D and 4D CAD on Building Construction Projects: Benefits for Project Success and Controllable Implementation Factors" for the 22 nd CIB-W78 Conference Information Technology in Construction.
Been in the process of preparing a CIFE Technical Report "Case Studies on the Implementation and Impacts of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) in Finland" and a journal paper "Cross-project Case Studies on the Implementation and Benefits of 3D/4D CAD."
& Benefits of 3D and 4D CAD 