20/32 Darling Street

South Yarra
VIC 3141 www.sofistik.com
Australia
Tel: +49 911 39901 0
M: +61 44 7457687
W: +61 3 98671598
e-mail: enquiries@smartbuildeng.com.au
My Open BIM Blog

Overview
As a migrant Structural Engineer passionate about Open BIM, IT and Engineering, I felt I
needed to share my thoughts given the 4+ years in Australia and what are my thoughts and
observations of the take-up of Digital Engineering in Australia.

What lead me to focus on BIM in Construction and my view on its effectiveness and
role and impact on the construction industry?
From a young Engineer, I was an extremely strong advocate for the adoption and standardization
of workflows and software to overcome a siloed approach in Engineering which culminated in
driving Digital Engineering for the companies that I worked for. The first big initiative was back
in 2005 to standardize all drawing offices in the seven (7) ports for the Ports Authority of South
Africa to REVIT and other Autodesk products. This failed due to the resistance of change to take
up new technology. I then attempted this in the Building Design Division at one of my employers
back in 2007 with the Revit Structure Suite 2009. This also failed as this BIM implementation was
cited as a “pie in the sky” approach. Once again, it was attributed to the resistance in the adoption
and take-up in new technology. Since immigrating to Melbourne, Australia in 2015, SMARTBuild
Engineering was established and have partnered with SOFiSTiK Germany, whom have been digital
disruptors in Structural Engineering for the past three decades. We partnered to drive OpenBIM in
Structural Engineering in Australia and New Zealand by offering a fully parametric modular
platform to support a continuous workflow from concept design to detailing for Buildings and
Infrastructure projects. This approach to market applies to Government department, Consulting
Engineers and D&C Contractors alike.

The effectiveness of BIM in Construction are manyfold. It will force the industry to relook at their
workflows which is currently very much disconnected having multiple platforms from different
vendors that has little or no interoperability. With the parametric modelling capabilities, it will
allow rapid optioneering for design optimization to be conducted that will decrease the duration of
the Design and Development phase and Detailed Design phase significantly.

The impact on the industry means a tighter collaboration between different disciplines working in
the Cloud, which is which is single biggest disruptor for BIM in Structural Engineering. It will
enable remote and distributed computing across different time zones and continents. More
connected workflows will result with use of APIs from software vendors. It will provide the
potential of creating connected workflows from concept design through to the manufacturing
process, even enabling paperless workflows through direct digital outputs from the fabrication
models to manufacturing.

By working through common platforms, the quality of the designs and documents will increase
through a more managed approach to monitor change management.
Re-usability of designs will also come into play. The parametric modelling functionality will enable
a rapid adaption of existing designs to similar ones.

What would you are the highlights and importance of digital transformation in
Engineering with relation to Construction 4.0?
The importance of its adoption will spur innovation not only in the design office but in construction
as well, such as with 3D printing with concrete and metal for example. The importance is increasing
collaboration and efficiency to enable faster decision making on a single platform. Digital Twins

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for example can assist private and government departments in Facilities management. Digital
transformation will also promote and emphasis the need for offsite modular prefabrication to
provide low costing housing for example. The current uptake of these technologies is surprisingly
slow. Tier 1 Consultants and Contractors will be forced to investigate these technologies for
adoption due to strong competition. Local and state governments certainly have their role to play
in the acceleration in the adoption of these technologies by mandating it. In State of Victoria,
Victorian Digital Asset Strategy (VDAS) is a case in point. Tertiary institutes will also need to
accommodate and inculcate the developments of this technology into the curriculum of degrees and
promote more research in these fields.

Given my position a as practising Structural Engineer, where do you see the digital
Engineering drive in Construction 4.0 in the future resolving technical challenges
Cloud computing for real time collaboration will by far be the biggest disruptor that will be the key
to driving paperless construction. For Structural Engineers, Cloud computing will provide a central
repository for the access of information. It will enable all stakeholders of a project to converge and
communicate and track the project performance on a common platform. All of this will be
underpinned by Building Information Modelling (BIM). Virtual/Augmented Reality for
visualization of the structure before its built will become more of a norm as the technology gets
cheaper. It will create a far more intuitive way of designing structures by providing a more holistic,
highly visual capability of what the structure will look like even before it is built. Visualization of
the project in real-time space will also aid government planning authorities to provide a more rapid
approval process by knowing exactly the influence of the proposed structure is in relation to the
current built environment. 3D Printing or Additive manufacturing derived from Industry 4.0 will
become more mainstream in the Construction sector. 3D printing to provide low cost housing
solutions for example in remote communities with fast turnaround construction times can be cited
as one of the opportunities to meet the population demand. Scan to BIM and other geospatial
solutions such as of Digital Twins for reality capture will increase. This will assist in brownfield
projects to know establish exactly how the new work will blend in with the existing. Drone
technology will come more into the fore by offering low cost aerial surveys. It will also influence
how site surveys are done to track construction performance remotely. IoT in Engineering and
predictive analytics for asset condition monitoring will be another disruptor. The data analytics of
structural behaviour can very much influence Structural design codes around the world. It will also
open more opportunities to providing performance-based solutions. Robotic/Mechanized
construction in the case incremental launching of bridges for example to reduce construction times
and risks. The adoption of Lean Construction to minimize wastage and to drive sustainability by
means of re-use of materials will become more prevalent. Generative design in Structural
Engineering will be the key to optimization of structures or components of structures by only
providing material where its required. Blockchain will also come in the fore to streamline the
procurement process and provide more control over the various procurement processes in the
supply chain. With the merging of Construction and IT, it will open further growth paths in job
opportunities and areas of study. These mentioned technologies will also play a huge role in risk
mitigation.

As a digital innovator in construction, what has been the most challenging aspect(s)
of working on the BIM application at SMARTBuild Engineering?
The workflow of SMARTBuild Engineering is fully OpenBIM based underpinned with Revit &
SOFiSTiK FEA & BIM products. Although the IFC file format provides a way to open and view
models, I still don’t believe IFC 4.0 is the solution. Working in native file formats is and in the case
of SMARTBuild Engineering, it is REVIT, not only for Buildings but Bridge Modelling as well. I
find Model co-ordination from IFC is also difficult to track and document changes.

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From my observations, how is the industry adapting to Digital Engineering what do
you think is the critical success factors of this innovation and their respective
barriers?
From my engagement with the industry which includes Consultants, Contractors, Manufacturers
and Government bodies, the take up digital engineering initiatives varies considerably and so is
the maturity levels of adoption. To a large extent, the workflows are still very much disconnected
requiring a high level of custom programming to make different software platforms talk to each
other. In the case of many small companies, sadly, digital engineering is virtually non-existent as
the management of these companies cannot see the benefit of its adoption. Cost of the correct
software implementation, downtime from staff re-training and BIM Implementation are all factors
that influence the negative decision making. For the Digital Engineering drive to be successful, it
needs to be driven by management with full support of the staff to get on board. Companies need
to seek advise from bonafide software suppliers of Structural Engineering solutions that has a
proven track record in the software use and advanced development and testing. The provision of
training and technical support is vital for a successful implementation. The onslaught of digital
engineering will get companies to rethink the configuration of the teams and who does what.
Traditionally, drafters did exactly that and engineers did the design. The way software is
developing the gap between traditional design and modelling/drafting is ever closing. This
presents a problem in culture of workplaces of how projects are executed. In the case of consulting
engineers, they will have no option but to adapt to survive going forward. Technology is moving
at a breakneck pace, unfortunately the industry is too slow or reluctant to adopt and to adapt to
change. In the case of government projects, the different states should have a unified and
mandated approach for the industry to comply. It should be made mandatory to include these
requirements in tenders to encourage this industry to take up digital engineering as part of
Innovation.

My advice to someone who wants to take up Structural Engineering as a career,

what should they focus on to make them stand out in the Australian industry?
First and foremost, master the first principles of Structural Engineering from Finite Element
Analysis (FEM) to strength of materials. The focus should also be on Soil-Structure Interaction,
since it provides a holistic approach to the global behaviour of a structure. Also knowing the
balance of design and what is practical to build. Software is just a tool to assist in the modelling
and design, however the theoretical knowledge will need be in place to drive it properly. Knowing
how to build an analytical model to simulate structural behaviour is an art and this is what needs
to be mastered to stand out. Learning software programming for customization of workflows will
prove to be extremely valuable, such much so that it will become common place for Structural
Engineers in generations to follow. Structural condition monitoring using I.o.T is certainly a niche
career path. My personal advice is follow your passion and look at where your strengths lie and
capitalize on that. Become your own mentor rather than having a reliance to be spoon fed. This is
how leaders are born.

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