Building Information Modeling, commonly referred to a just “BIM”, has been around for years, particularly in Europe and in the United States, but is now gathering popularity within the construction industry in this country.  Here in New Brunswick there have been a number of mechanical contractors that have used BIM software in working their projects but there has not been a project in which BIM has been used by the whole project until now as Bird Construction is using BIM in the construction of the Downtown Events Centre in Moncton.

There are a couple of organizations in Canada that have been organized with the purpose of promoting the use of and education in relation to BIM.  They are the Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) and the Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC).  See below for links to these organizations where more information on conferences and training sessions can be found.  In fact CanBIM is having a regional session June 1 & 2 in Halifax. You do not need to be a member to attend and would be a great event for anyone to attend who may be interested learning more about BIM.  A link to information on this session has also been provided below.

Unknown too many, CANB – Moncton Northeast provides BIM Training, at least introductory training.  Moncton Northeast is a Distributor for BuildForce Canada (formerly the Construction Sector Council) and one of the available products is an online learning course called Introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM).  The course covers basic concepts, getting started, and putting BIM to work in building construction. It also provides an overview of how BIM can improve productivity, cost-effectiveness, worker-effectiveness, and error-management during the six phases of a project: design, bidding, construction, commissioning, delivery, and as-builts.  Completion of this course also fulfills the requirements for Level 1 certification through CanBIM.  The course is also accredited by the Canadian Construction Association for one (1) gold seal credit.

Information links:

Canada BIM Council

CanBIM – Halifax – June 1&2

Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC)