Is there a flavour of BIM reserved for post-occupancy applications? Is it really BIM or just another way to get 2D data into a dedicated FM system? Is that BIM? Is that object-based, parametric Facilities Management?
The information on Revit, as least up to Revit 2009, is sketchy. Sounds like nothing more than compatibility via file export. Google and you'll see what I mean. Its not there. Yet.
A BIM based solution has been available in Europe for about ten years. ArchiFM most likely started its life as a skunkworks project at Graphisoft. A bright software engineer named Tibor developed a hook between a conventionally engineered relational database (Delphi, I think) and the less conventional geometric database. It played nice with Oracle and SQL and Crystal Reports. It was ArchiFM. Several versions appeared including a web-based companion application and several add-ons for maintenance scheduling, key management, etc.
Some ArchiFM clients sought more sophisticated applications. At one time, the pharmaceutical giant Novartis was rumoured to be using ArchiFM in tandem with building controls applications to actually run plant equipment in their buildings. No case studies were ever produced describing this.
ArchiFM came to North America briefly in 2000. And promptly left again in 2003. In 2005 Graphisoft announced they were leaving the development of the application to a new private venture - vintoCON - who continue to develop the application and provide support to a raft of existing clients, mostly based in Hungary, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
vintoCON's website suggests they may be trying to come back across the Atlantic. If they do, and their stuff works, there would be an FM solution that exploits the virtual building technology in ArchiCAD. A virtual building, virtual tenants, phones, parking stalls, lightbulbs, leases and all the as-built building information you could ever want. The roll of drawings behind the furnace turned into DWFs that might reflect the actual state of the building. If anyone knew where they were.
It would close the circle. Will we see it here? Is there anyone on this forum who has worked with it?
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