At the Fall BIMForum/BuildCon conference in Dallas, an entralling presentation about how HD BIM was used to build five buildings of the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada in record time was given by Greg Luth of Gregory P. Luth & Associates (GPLA). HD BIM is “high definition building information modeling” and refers to BIM modeling that is detailed enough (LOD 400) that what are called “shop drawings” can be produced from the BIM model. Shop drawings include, literally, the nuts and bolts for structural steel and rebar in the case of reinforced concrete structures.
GPLA is a structural engineering company which has comprised between 10 and 16 engineers at different times. Greg described a number of projects that GPLA had completed using the HD BIM approach. The first in 2006 was the USC School of Cinematic Arts where the HD BIM approach proved itself very successfully saving 20% in costs and 30% in time.
The Tesla Gigafactory project involved five buildings, 3.5 million square feet, 32,000 tons of structural steel, and 2,500 tons of rebar. All the steel and rebar shop drawings were produced from the BIM model. The structures for all five buildings were delivered only seven months after GPLA received the first telephone call from Tesla.
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