October 15th, 2007
Bentley BIM Approach/Features Preferred

• Rating12345

A quantitative analysis of the recent BIM survey showed that 58 percent of building professionals preferred the approach and features of Bentley BIM solutions while 38 percent preferred those of Autodesk’s Revit. Of those with “strongly preferred” responses, 69 percent chose Bentley BIM solutions and 31 percent chose Revit.

The blind survey was conducted by Lachmi Khemlani, Ph.D., founder and editor of AECbytes, the building industry’s leading BIM newsletter. AECbytes’ registered subscribers were asked to choose among 12 fundamental BIM approaches and 19 BIM features identified by Dr. Khemlani. The quantitative analysis applied the respective strengths of Bentley BIM solutions and Revit – as established by Dr. Khemlani – to the collection of responses and determined the winner.

Of the 650 respondents to this Bentley-commissioned survey, 46 percent identified themselves as architects, 14 percent identified themselves as engineers or construction professionals, and the remainder indicated they worked in operations. The group was divided equally between single-office and multi-office firms.

Huw Roberts, global marketing director, Bentley Building, commented, “Our initial interest in the survey was twofold: first, to aid in our understanding of what BIM users value as a guide to our ongoing BIM development; and second, to provide a comparative measure of the values placed on the relative strengths of Bentley BIM and Revit.

“After analyzing the results, we believe that many who are considering BIM would benefit from using this survey to help them think through their BIM decisions. Dr. Khemlani’s BIM survey and her comprehensive qualitative analysis highlight the important BIM issues very well. Of course, we are also pleased that for the majority of respondents, the approach and features of Bentley BIM were preferred over those of Revit.”

The 12 BIM approaches, as paired in the survey and listed with the respective rates of preference, are:

1. A BIM application leveraging the powerful documentation and visualization capabilities of a CAD platform (preferred by 65 percent) versus a BIM-only application with more efficient modeling but less well-developed documentation and visualization tools (18 percent)
2. A scalable solution supporting collaboration and distributed work processes (47 percent) versus a single-database solution featuring easier setup, organization and management (32 percent)
3. Modeling governed by mandatory constraints, better guaranteeing model integrity (39 percent) versus more flexible modeling where the user takes charge of model integrity (41 percent)
4. Fully automated change management and coordination (59 percent) versus semi-automated change management with faster performance (24 percent)
5. Intuitiveness and ease of use promising a short learning curve (49 percent) versus enhanced scope and better capability to model complex forms (35 percent)
6. Support for 3D PDF for electronic publishing and distribution (53 percent) versus support for 3D DWF (14 percent)

The 19 BIM features, listed with their importance to respondents, are:

1. Full support for producing construction documents so that another drafting application need not be used (8.8 out of 10)
2. Smart objects, which maintain associativity, connectivity, and relationships with other objects (8.7)
3. Availability of object libraries (8.3)
4. Ability to support distributed work processes, with multiple team members working on the same project (8.2)
5. Quality of help and supporting documentation, tutorials, and other learning resources (8.0)
6. Ability to work on large projects (8.0)
7. Automated setup, management, and coordination, reducing traditional CAD management tasks (7.9)
8. Multidisciplinary capability that serves architecture, structural engineering, and MEP (7.8)
9. Ability to support preliminary conceptual design modeling (7.8)
10. Direct integration with cost estimating applications (7.5)
11. Support for construction-related tasks such as quantity take-off, estimating, and 4D scheduling (7.5)
12. Direct integration with energy analysis applications (7.4)
13. Extensibility and customization of the solution (7.2)
14. Direct integration with structural analysis applications (7.1)
15. Direct integration with project management applications (7.0)
16. IFC compatibility (6.7)
17. Number of third-party developers developing add-on applications for the tool (6.4)
18. Built-in ability to generate highly photorealistic renderings and animations (6.3)
19. The market-share leadership position of the vendor offering the BIM solution (4.9)

The quantitative analysis was performed for each respondent. A respondent’s overall preference for Bentley BIM or Revit was first based on his or her weighting of the 12 BIM approaches. The magnitude of the respondent’s overall preference was determined by his or her rating of the BIM features. In the case of a tie in the BIM approach weightings, the BIM features alone determined the preference. A PDF file containing the full details of the quantitative analysis is available at www.bentley.com/en-US/Promo/BIM+Wizard/About+the+BIM+Wizard.

The classifications of BIM approaches, as ascribed to Bentley BIM or Revit, and the BIM features, as ascribed to Bentley BIM or Revit, were all developed by Dr. Khemlani. The quantitative analysis was performed by Bentley.

Bentley also announced its new analyst-based BIM Wizard, an online tool to help building professionals and their organizations:

• Structure their BIM decision making
• Accelerate and improve their BIM evaluations
• Poll the BIM needs of a larger firm or project organization
• Insert industry expertise into their final BIM decisions

The BIM Wizard enables these professionals to take the BIM survey and uses their responses to generate a recommendation of Revit or Bentley BIM – based on their BIM approach preferences, their ratings of the BIM features, and the respective strengths of Bentley BIM and Revit as established by Dr. Khemlani. It also creates a report that compares their choices to the responses of their peers in the survey conducted by Dr. Khemlani. The BIM Wizard is available at www.bentley.com/BIMWizard.

AECbytes has released a qualitative report on the survey titled “Top Criteria for BIM Solutions.” To read the complete report, which was authored by Dr. Khemlani, go to www.aecbytes.com/feature/2007/BIMSurveyReport.html.