Transportation Infrastructure and "String Theory" Autodesk on BIM Bentley Systems on BIM LaiserinLetterLetters™ Laiserin's Lemma™—Ad BIMinem Argument™ Today's Top-Level Take-Away—Powers of Ten > "Only 15%-20% (on a fee basis) of the total project "design phase" is what A/E's would call schematic design. All of A/E design may account for only 5% of construction cost, which may be only half of total first cost, which is itself a small fraction of total lifecycle cost. Do the math: the front-end design work... accounts for as little as US$100 (maybe less) of each US$1-million of total lifecycle cost... Unquestionably, most of the human, social and environmental value of each US$1-million in lifecycle cost flows from that initial $100 of schematic design input." (Jerry Laiserin) Transportation Infrastructure and "String Theory" Theoretical physicists generally follow Einstein's dictum that "everything should be made a simple as possible, but no simpler." The result often is multi-dimensional reasoning, such as string theory, which seems brain-numbingly complex to laypersons, but harbors an elegant simplicity. Down in the well-grounded realm of applied physics in transportation, the folks at Infrasoft developed a modeling concept called "string objects" that radically simplifies the multi-dimensional problem of collaborative design for road and rail infrastructure engineering and construction. More... Autodesk on BIM For a while now, the LaiserinLetter has been promoting the term "building information modeling" as the successor to "CAD" for AEC design/documentation software. Herewith, Phil Bernstein, Vice President of Autodesk's Building Industry Division—the largest vendor of AEC design/documentation software—offers his view. More... Bentley Systems on BIM Anyone who follows the AEC design/documentation software industry well enough to know about layers-versus-levels and blocks-versus-cells also knows that getting archrivals Autodesk and Bentley Systems to agree on any terminology is no easy task. That's why the LaiserinLetter takes special pride in getting these two leading players to agree on the term "building information modeling" as the successor to "CAD" for AEC design/documentation software. Herewith, Keith Bentley, Co-CTO and Founder, and Brad Workman, Vice President, Building Vertical at Bentley offer a first cut at Bentley's view. More... LaiserinLetterLetters™ An occasional sampling of reader electron-mail, or "keep those waves and particles pouring in, folks!" More... Laiserin's Lemma™—Ad BIMinem Argument™ (lemma: a short theorem used in proving a larger theorem) In rhetoric, an ad hominem argument is a statement that crosses the line from "Your point is stupid" to "You are stupid." In our ongoing dialog about the future of AEC design/documentation software, I've been pushing for Building Information Modeling or BIM as the best label for the superset/successor of CAD. Lots of folks, including the major AEC design software vendors, agree with both the concept and the name. However, there are other folks who seem to agree with the underlying concept but still want to attack the name—sort of an ad BIMinem argument. Everyone's entitled to personal choice in nomenclature (just as some people cling to "CAAD" or "CADD"), but industry-wide communication usually is best served by industry-wide terminology. More...