BIM & VDC fundamentals: start here
For students, apprentices, technicians and professionals moving into BIM or VDC. Follow a guided path in order, check your understanding as you go, and open any term for the full professional definition.
Learning paths
Introduction to BIM and information management
Follows the life of project information from the owner's first questions to handover: BIM → information requirements → CDE → execution planning → coordination → validation → handover.
For: Students, apprentices, new graduates and professionals moving into BIM or VDC roles. No prior knowledge assumed.
Construction delivery and contract administration
From choosing a delivery method to closing out the contract: delivery models, contract forms, tendering, scheduling, changes, payment and handover.
For: Project coordinators, junior PMs, site staff, designers moving into construction administration, and BIM/VDC staff who need the contract context. Canadian practice first.
Planned paths: Introduction to VDC · BIM for contractors · Introduction to openBIM · BIM to facility operations.
Basic terms
Appointed party
A provider of information — a consultant, subcontractor or supplier — appointed by a lead appointed party, usually organised into a task team.
Appointing party
The party that receives information about works, goods or services from a lead appointed party — usually the owner or client.
As-built drawings
Drawings, prepared from the contractor's marked-up site records, that show the work as actually constructed, including changes and field deviations from the design.
Building information modelling (BIM)
The use of a shared digital representation of a built asset — its geometry, properties and related documents — to support design, construction and operation decisions with reliable information.
Change order
A written amendment to the construction contract, signed by the owner and contractor, recording an agreed change in the work together with any adjustment to the contract price and time.
Clash detection
The automated checking of a federated model to find places where elements conflict physically, violate required clearances or conflict in time.
Common data environment (CDE)
The agreed single source of information for a project or asset, used to collect, manage and share each information container through a controlled workflow of states, statuses and revisions.
Critical path method (CPM)
A scheduling technique that models a project as a network of dependent activities and identifies the longest path through it — the critical path — which sets the shortest possible project duration.
Deficiency list
A list, prepared at or near substantial performance, of work that is incomplete or does not conform to the contract documents and must be corrected before completion.
Design-bid-build (DBB)
The traditional delivery method in which the owner first has the design completed by consultants, then invites contractors to bid on it, then awards a separate construction contract — usually for a stipulated price.
Design-build (DB)
A delivery method in which one entity, the design-builder, contracts with the owner to provide both the design and the construction under a single contract.
Federated model
A combined model assembled from separate discipline or package models, each of which remains owned and maintained by its author.
Final payment
The last payment under a construction contract, certified once the work is complete, deficiencies are corrected, close-out documents are delivered and lien periods have expired.
General contractor (GC)
The firm that contracts directly with the owner to build the project for an agreed price, hires and coordinates the trade contractors and suppliers, and controls the site.
Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)
An open, vendor-neutral data schema for describing buildings and infrastructure — their elements, properties and relationships — published by buildingSMART and standardised as ISO 16739-1.
Information container
A uniquely identified, persistent set of information — such as a model file, drawing, document, schedule or data set — that can be retrieved from a file system or application.
Information management
The set of processes for specifying, producing, checking, sharing, storing and handing over information about a built asset so that the right people have reliable information when they need it.
Lead appointed party
The party appointed directly by the appointing party that coordinates information management for its whole delivery team.
Level of detail
How much graphical or geometric detail a model element shows. As a project-wide numbered scale it has largely been replaced by level of development and level of information need.
Operation and maintenance manual (O&M manual)
The handover documentation that tells the owner how to operate, maintain and repair the building's systems and equipment, including product data, maintenance schedules, warranties and contacts.
Pre-installation conference
A meeting held before a trade starts a complex or critical installation, bringing together the contractor, the installer, the consultant and often the manufacturer to confirm requirements, conditions and inspections.
Prequalification
A procurement step in which an owner assesses firms' experience, capacity, safety record and financial standing before inviting a shortlist to bid or propose.
Principal-in-charge (PIC)
The senior partner or principal of a consulting firm — typically architecture or engineering — who carries overall accountability for the firm's performance on a project and is the client's top-level contact.
Progress payment
A periodic payment, usually monthly, to the contractor for the value of work completed and materials supplied during the period, less holdback and previous payments.
Request for information (RFI)
A formal written question from the contractor to the design consultant asking for clarification of the contract documents — typically about design intent, an apparent omission or a conflict.
Risk register
A living log of identified project risks, recording for each its cause and effect, likelihood and impact, owner, response and current status.
Shop drawing
A drawing, diagram or set of details prepared by a contractor, trade or supplier to show exactly how a specific part of the work will be fabricated and installed.
Stipulated price contract
A construction contract in which the contractor agrees to perform a defined scope of work for a fixed total price, adjusted only through the contract's change provisions.
Submittal
Information the contractor provides to the consultant for review during construction — shop drawings, product data, samples and similar — to show how the work will meet the contract documents.
Trade contractor
A specialist firm that performs one part of the work — such as mechanical, electrical, masonry or curtain wall — under a contract with a general contractor, construction manager or owner.
Transmittal
A cover record that accompanies documents, drawings, samples or other items sent between project parties, listing what was sent, to whom, when and for what purpose.
Virtual design and construction (VDC)
A project management method that uses integrated, multidisciplinary models of the product (the facility), the organization and the process to plan and control a project against explicit, measurable objectives.
Warranty period
The period after handover — commonly one year in standard Canadian contracts — during which the contractor must correct defects in the work at its own cost, separate from longer manufacturer or extended warranties.
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
A hierarchical breakdown of the entire scope of a project into progressively smaller deliverables and work packages that can be estimated, scheduled, assigned and tracked.