Why should TIM technologies be introduced into the design?

Perhaps only the lazy one did not write about TIM (Information Modeling Technologies, formerly BIM) in design in modern Russia.

10 years ago, as the head of the technology department of a design company, after watching an advertisement about the use of TIM in design and evaluating all the positive aspects, I made a firm decision to implement TIM in life. Moreover, while developing coal processing and enrichment facilities in Kuzbass, back in 2013, this decision was almost on the verge of failure: "the old school of design in two-dimensional drawing and design software complexes (hereinafter CAD-2D) was very strong, and to resist it, the introduction of a new TIM, It was extremely difficult. 

And even now TIM is being implemented quite hard. Designers have to look for companies where they understand the full prospects of this design technology, and not just pretend to understand it.

Designers who once implemented CAD-2D are very fiercely defending their boundaries, writing and developing software scripts based on LISP and VBA. They develop various tricks, sometimes they themselves do not see that TEAM managers are not sitting still - they use C++ and Dynamo. There is an obvious winner in this race: a 1980 car cannot compete in speed with a 2020 car. Progress is inexorable. 

TIM is a coherent and global system. Any system consists of parts, and the sum of the "disparate" parts (i.e., designing in different CAD-2D software environments) cannot give a "whole" and a general, global like TIM. Parts are sections of the project documentation, which are defined by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 87 dated 02/16/2008 (hereinafter referred to as Resolution No. 87). And when designing coal processing and enrichment facilities, the main and leading section is "Technological solutions" paragraph 22 of Resolution No. 87. In the design of coal processing facilities, this section is the most important and the designers of this section, the enrichment engineers, should form the main part of this global system. And often some companies that supply TIM software products do not quite soberly assess the complexity of the design process of these objects and sections, telling about the joint work of technologists and builders in computer-aided design software complexes that implement the principle of simultaneous information modeling of buildings (hereinafter CAD TIM), which cannot be in nature for such objects.

While studying CAD design, I became more and more convinced of the correctness of my choice. For designers of concentrators, CAD TIM has become a panacea, for others - on the contrary. In the early years of application, gross errors in layout solutions (equipment placement) began to be excluded, which CAD-2D, for example, cannot provide. Since 2013, the practice and volumes of 3-dimensional models of equipment have been developed, and most importantly, the experience of application. If earlier an engineer created models of equipment in third-party complexes, then with practice, many engineers perform models and drawings of technical equipment.H (atypical products or non-standard), such as gutters, containers, etc., in CAD TIM. Now it has come to the point that in CAD TIM they make up "Circuit diagrams of devices" (equipment connection diagram).  Designers have gone so deep into working with CAD TIM (as a part of TIM) that they are beginning to push CAD-2D in almost all directions.

But let's be honest, there is one field of contact that tests the strength of both the designers themselves and the CAD tools used-2D or CAD TIM - this is the cost and the profit from the implementation. This is the same problem as with the introduction of CAD-2D at the time: purchase of equipment, staff training, purchase of servers, etc. Even the purchase of personal stations for each designer or the purchase of a server with a terminal architecture based on a "thin client", with remote workstations, becomes a stumbling block, which makes it possible to protect the intellectual property of the design company. For all this, investments are needed, often small companies do not have them, or not enough, and therefore the use of half measures begins, such as the purchase of simple gaming computers, small (diagonal) monitors, etc. Companies cannot spend money on 3-coordinate manipulators for each designer, professional keyboards, etc. 

The result is locally executed CAD TIM projects without combining into a TIM system, in fact, this is a 3-dimensional design of a separate project, issued as a TIM. Taking into account the specifics of design and constantly burning deadlines, designers often start in CAD TIM, and finish in CAD-2D.

We can say that at the moment the implementation of TIM is underway. Does it affect the industry of coal processing and enrichment - definitely yes. The main problems are investments and overcoming stagnation of thinking. TIM gives advantages, this is undeniable, therefore, with the arrival of fresh forces in the form of young specialists, TIM will give an impetus to the development of the design process.