Five distinctive characteristics of Building Information Modeling:
1. Building information modeling can demonstrate the entire life cycle of a building as well as its facility operation and its process of construction.
2. Utilizes parametric algorithms/technology allowing for changes among singular objects to instantly replicate and reflect throughout the rest of the project.
3. All information about an entire building and design documents are parametric and completely interconnected.
4. Able to directly compare the financial costs of two different materials used in design projects.
5. Allows you to extract different views from a design model for drawing purposes.
There are a number of applications that aid in the design of various objects including physical, conceptual and void-space oriented designs (rooms). Some applications such as 3D Studio Max and Google Sketchup excel in creating photo-realistic designs of buildings or objects that can be used as conceptual pieces whilst other applications such as Solidworks help to accurately design more functional and mechanical designs such as combustion engines or prosthetics. BIM differs in that it allows for changes in a design to be made in real time that affects the entire project, not just one particular detail. BIM also allows users to extract very specific information from rather physically massive designs/projects very easily.
Ecotect can definitely be classified as a building information modelling application. Ecotect allows a user to access certain information in a project such as total carbon emission or energy usage on an annual, monthly, daily or hourly basis. This feature is incredibly similar to current BIM applications which can access and calculate total material usage; as well as total financial costs of the project with regards to materials used .
