16: Digital Fabrication#
Description#
A process that uses digitized information to facilitate the fabrication of construction materials or assemblies. Some uses of digital fabrication can be seen in sheet metal fabrication, structural steel fabrication, pipe cutting, prototyping for design intent reviews etc. It assists in ensuring that the downstream phase of manufacturing has minimum ambiguities and enough information to fabricate with minimal waste. An information model could also be used with suitable technologies to assemble the fabricated parts into the final assembly.
Potential Value#
Ensuring quality of information
Minimize tolerances through machine fabrication
Increase fabrication productivity and safety
Reduce lead time
Adapt late changes in design
Reduced dependency on 2D paper drawings
Resources Required#
Design Authoring Software
Machine readable data for fabrication
Fabrication methods
Team Competencies Required#
Ability to understand and create fabrication models
Ability to manipulate, navigate, and review a 3D model
Ability to extract digital information for fabrication from 3D models
Ability to manufacture building components using digital information
Ability to understand typical fabrication methods
References for Additional Information#
Eastman, C. (2008) “BIM HANDBOOK A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contractors.” Papanikolaou, D. (2008). “Digital Fabrication Production System Theory: towards an integrated environment for design and production of assemblies.” Cuba, 484-488. Reifschneider, M. (2009). “Managing the quality if structural steel Building Information Modeling.” Rundell, R. (2008). “BIM and Digital Fabrication (1-2-3 Revit Tutorial).” Sass, L. (2005). “A production system for design and construction with digital fabrication.” MIT. Seely, J. C. (2004). “Digital Fabrication in the Architectural Design Process.” Master Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Potential Output Information#
Fabrication models
Physical fabricated elements
Source: BIM Project Execution Planning Guide, Ver. 2.2 with minor revisions.