BIM Level 2: Revision time

They are revising PAS 1192-2, the core draft standard for Level 2 BIM. A consultation document is out, for comment to BSI by the end of August. Apart from dealing with wording that is now out of date as other documents have come out, one proposed change stood out. The revision will recommend that contractors don’t use the designers’ model but replace it with their own, to avoid any liability issues. That suggestion surely cracks open the logic of Level 2 BIM. If the contractor has to re-model the whole design before progressing to subcontracts, does that not introduce time, cost and the risk of error, as well as breaching the consultants’ copyright?

What needs to be said in PAS1192-2 is that the project’s BIM protocol should make it clear that the contractor has the right to use the consultants’ models.

It should also set down the development expected from the contractor, with replacement of elements of the consultant’s model with the next levels of definition from the contractor and his specialists. Otherwise we have confusion. What if the contractor is involved as a consultant before Stage 4? Does he have to have a parallel model? In a novation, where the contractor takes all design work on board as if it were their own, does that obviate the need to remodel? Presumably, when a contractor leads from the start the designers’ models are the contractor’s property anyway. But let’s keep the logic of Level 2 intact.

I know these issues are expected to be overcome at Level 3, but to rule that contractors should not use the federated design model themselves is surely a major step backwards.

Where did this idea come from?

Richard Saxon CBE is a client adviser at Consultancy for the Built Environment