Application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for automatic integration of construction costs management information into 3D models in consideration of Vietnamese regulations

Abstract

Some countries concentrate to study on BIM as an effective tool in quantities taking-off and costs estimating. In contrast, due to special features of Vietnamese law regulations, issues on BIM application for these works are still not considered properly in Vietnam. Therefore, in this research, the authors would like to review studies performed on BIM uses on these works in Vietnam, and to analyze the necessities and difficulties when using BIM for automatically taking off quantities and estimating construction costs, then to propose technology methods for addressing this issue. Two methods are proposed to automatically calculate construction works quantities and costs based on models designed in Revit, more specifically, the first one is using Keynote to develop a database on components codes and to establish the components schedule in Revit; the second is using Dynamo to develop connection nodes between Revit models and Excel Sheets, facilitating the data export from Revit to Excel, then using Excel to adjust data in consistency with models.