The concept of BIM (Building Information Modeling), as outlined in the 2003 BIM White Paper, originated from the marketing initiatives of CAD (BIM) software manufacturers. It was inspired by the adoption of the BOM (Bill of Materials) concept from mechanical engineering to the construction industry. This innovation followed the introduction of Revit® CAD software in 2002, which was developed by the same team as Pro/ENGINEER (BOM concept), but it was specifically adapted for the construction industry. Pro / ENGINEER has revolutionized the MCAD (Mechanical Computer Aided Design) market. Element-based parametric modeling, which is the foundation of Pro / ENGINEER, dominated the industry for a quarter century, and all the leading MCAD systems have become the conceptual successors of Pro / ENGINEER.
In mechanical engineering, PDM and PLM became key platforms in the early 2000s, gathering information from CAx systems and simplifying project management through BOMs, minimizing errors and data duplication
Since the mid-2000s, active marketing of the BIM-BOM concept in the construction industry has significantly increased interest in Revit® (BOM-BIM) software and the growth in popularity has been so massive in many countries that Revit® has virtually supplanted other CAD programs in the planning field, cementing its dominance in the global CAD (BIM) market by the early 2020s.
Popularity of Google search queries Revit® (BOM-BIM) has gained popularity in design departments in almost most countries of the world
The modern marketing concept of BIM (Building Information Modeling), is a database integrated into CAD (BIM) programs, containing comprehensive information about the elements of the project. This database not only stores the geometry of elements, but also registers additional attributes and properties of each element, intended for transfer and export to external systems. A feature of CAD (BIM) databases that distinguishes them from other systems and databases used in construction is the need for specialized tools to access this data.
Since in BIM (CAD) data geometric information and attribute meta-information of are now in one format rather than split into logical files of already existing formats (semi-structured and structured formats), specialists have to use specialized BIM tools that help to work with this special BIM formats.
To store project data, modern CAD (BIM) programs usually offer the use of closed data formats, to which the user can access only through additional paid CAD (BIM) tools or limited API (Application Programming Interface) connections. An API is a request tool and intermediary that allows different computer programs to communicate with each other by sending requests and receiving responses.
Every CAD (BIM) system offers a quality and secure way to work with data, which facilitates the creation of automation and data processing chains, but this process is accompanied by the need to purchase subscriptions and pay for each data request.
While other industries work with open data and open tools, the construction industry has to work with closed or semi-structured CAD (BIM) formats
Alternatively, CAD (BIM) vendors provide the ability to export some of the project data into semi-structured formats or the open IFC (IGES-STEP) format.
Data quality issues and the complexity of the semi-structured «open BIM» IFC format do not allow direct use of this data for automation and process analysis, data processing, which often leads developers to the inevitable need to use closedBIM solutions with "quality" access to data.
Once we have familiarized ourselves with the basic data types and the differences between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, the need to recognize the scope and role that each data type plays in the overall flow of information business processes becomes apparent.
