b'THE OFFICIAL NFBA MAGAZINEBUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM):CAN IT HELP US BUILD BETTER POST-FRAME BUILDINGS?RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGYA s a professor in the Department of SustainableBIM in Wood-Based Construction. Biomaterials at Virginia Tech, I help prepareThis is a sophomore level class where students for working in the construction industryI introduce the methods and materials using wood, wood composites and other materials such asfor various types of wood construction, bamboo and hemp. Most of my students become designers,and how to create detailed models using manufacturing engineers or construction managersREVIT software. Over this time, I haveBy Daniel P. Hindman involved in residential construction, or the manufacturealso noticed a larger trend of BIM usePh.D., P.E.of construction supplies, such as wood trusses, woodin building construction, and I also composites, flooring, or other materials. About six yearsnoticed several BIM software companies ago, students came to me concerned that they needed aexhibiting at the Frame Building Expo trade show. I new skill set to be able to apply for jobs and internships insuggested this topic for a technical article to help the construction. They talked about a program called REVIT,post-frame community understand what BIM is, and how which I had heard of, but had no prior experience with.this tool can be used to improve post-frame construction.One of my graduate students insisted that we needed toThroughout this article, I will try to answer the question invest time and resources in addressing this problem andin the title of this paper. As a user and educator of BIM understanding what students needed. As I learned moresoftware, I believe that there are definite advantages about REVIT, and building information modeling, orto using BIM. However, there can be a learning curve BIM, I realized how useful and helpful this tool couldand costs associated with software and computing be for my students learning and for the constructionneeds. BIM has the ability to help us visualize our final industry in general.buildings in a very organized and systematic way. Using Since that time, I have been teaching a class calledBIM, more accurate and detailed models of buildingsand the information they containare available to continued on page: 2120 / FRAME BUILDER - VOL5 3'