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Company: BIM3
Location: London, UK

Headquartered in the City of London, BIM3 delivers building services and infrastructure design across a range of public and private sector projects and helps design residential, governmental, and commercial buildings. It has just over 30 employees and has delivered projects for many of the big names across the construction industry, including Mace and Laing O’Rourke.  Historically, key projects have included the Stansted Airport expansion, and building services work for the Shard in central London.

More recently, BIM3 has been working on 40 Leadenhall Street, popularly known as “Gotham City.”

Key areas BIM3 concentrates on today include healthcare and data centres, where the company now has clients
located in the UK and across the rest of Europe. Over time, more of the work BIM3 has been doing has been cloud-based and online, and the focus has shifted from 2D to 3D design.

Gauging challenges

Whenever BIM3 wins a new contract or receives a new order, it needs to be able to respond quickly. Doing that effectively relies on having access to the latest design software, a robust systems architecture and high-quality services and support. In delivering on these requirements,
BIM3 relies on the capabilities of their Autodesk reseller and architecture, engineering, and construction software specialist, Graitec. BIM3 values the expertise of Graitec in rapidly putting together product and support packages but also the tailored approach and personal touch that Graitec offers. As David Huke, director of Graitec, states: “We pride ourselves on our commitment to meeting the specific individual needs of our clients. When we were working with BIM3 on the Shard project. I personally went up the side of the building in a lift with a server, 12 workstations and 24 monitors and set up and configured their whole network for them.”  Graitec has also helped BIM3 get up and running with the software quickly, delivering in-depth training programmes on Autodesk® Revit® MEP, BIM software for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers, and project review software, Autodesk® Navisworks®.

Graitec has taken BIM3’s team through an essential capability right through to advanced levels. That has been key as around 90% of BIM’s projects today use Revit MEP, and most also use Navisworks.

Construction

More broadly, BIM3 now has nearly 50 licences of the Autodesk Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) software collection, which includes both Revit MEP and Navisworks and a range of other construction design software tools.   It also has 30 licences, again sourced from Graitec, of what is now known as BIM Collaborate Pro (previously known as BIM 360 Design) to help deliver a collaborative BIM environment, not just internally but also across wider construction projects teams.  On most of its construction stage projects, BIM3 uses Fabrication MEP within Revit itself. It finds the libraries and content are more applicable to the level of detail it needs. It also continues to use Autodesk® AutoCAD® design software on some projects.  Across all these software solutions, Graitec provides BIM3 with ongoing high-quality Gold-level support. While the BIM3 team are experienced designers and has a high level of knowledge and understanding of the Autodesk software, this support has proved to be invaluable.

As Richard Hasell, director, of BIM3, stated: “As with all design software, whenever a new version of software comes out, there can be some teething problems or issues that you can’t solve on your own. Having that gold level of cover means we have someone on the end of the phone who can either jump on and sort it out for us or escalate any queries or issues directly to Autodesk on our behalf. That’s been key as Graitec know who best to talk to in order to get fast answers to any queries we might have.”