2015 8th International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation
Research on the application of BIM Model in Interior Design
Huang Weiyan 1,a, Yang Peng 2,b
College of Art and Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China 1
Nanjing Institute of Visual Arts, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China2
hwy45111@126.com
Abstract—In the context of the digital information era, the 2D
models with the major expression means of the traditional
computer graphics software, such as AutoCAD, have become
less and less able to meet the demands on interior design of
large construction projects with complex geometry. In
combination with the application of the BIM technology at the
stage of design, construction design and anaphase project
management of interior projects, BIM's strengths and its
problems exposed at present were summarized to explore how
this new technology can better serve specific interior projects
and how practitioners should meet the changes brought by
information technology in the industry.
Keywords- BIM, AutoCAD, Revit, interior design, modeling,
optimization
I. INTRODUCTION
The so-called BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a
digital visualized architectural model constructed based on
advanced 3D digital design solutions. As the name implies,
it not only points to the model itself, but also covers the
whole process of model forming and playing its roles. This
means that it is possible for BIM to effectively save energy
and costs, reduce pollution and improve efficiency at various
stages of a project, such as design, construction and use,
because a construction project will be influenced and
controlled by BIM throughout its life cycle from the
beginning to even the operation and maintenance after the
completion. In a manner of speaking, it was the rapid
development of information technology that gave birth to
BIM during the increasingly complex interactions among the
links, such as design, construction and operation, of large
construction projects. Today's construction projects are
increasingly complex in the coordination of different links,
and there are more and more obstacles to be overcome if a
big construction project is completed by conventional means.
BIM coordinates various complex relationships with a
mathematical model through different functional simulations
and program derivations, and it also offers unlimited
possibilities to the design itself. Due to the above advantages,
the BIM working model is rapidly applied to the
construction industry. Nowadays, the big cities where these
weirdly shaped buildings emerge are precisely the direct
beneficiaries of this new technology. As the complement and
supplement of architectural projects, interior design will be
inevitably affected by the BIM model, and especially the
BIM-based building projects develop this new working
model and initiate the thorough renovation from drawing
tools to design methods. In this process, all the links of the
978-1-4673-7644-0/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICICTA.2015.195
stages, including design, construction and anaphase project
management, undergo great changes. Based on the analysis
of the current application process of BIM in interior design
projects, the advantages brought by it and various problems
occurred currently were discussed in this paper with a view
to providing better ideas and methods for interior designers
in the future and creating more values with the new design
working models in the era of BIM.
II. APPLICATION OF BIM AT THE PROGRAM
STAGE OF INTERIOR DESIGN
Designers in the past always draw various spacial
dimensions with AutoCAD or other traditional graphics
software at the design stage of interior projects. It was just
the realization of computerization in design process and,
with the 2D drafting and without considering the overall
space, it was not substantially different from the traditional
manual graphics in terms of design method, and this required
a strong dimensional imagination and a lot of practical
experience of designers in order to avoid engaging the mere
decoration of interface. Inexperienced young designers
always declined to AutoCAD draftsmen due to the lack of
design practices when they were green hands in this industry
and their creativity was quenched in the long and repetitive
computer operation.
Figure 1. Drawing interface of AutoCAD (Drawn by the author)
The working method of BIM has radically changed this
pattern of design. In BIM, virtual 3D space will be built in a
computer at the early stage of design based on parameterized
modeling software, such as Autodesk's Revit and Robert
McNeel & Assoc's Rhino, with the link to the related
professional files of architecture and other equipment
professions, allowing designers to visually observe the
characteristics and basic situation of architectural space and
providing real feelings of interior space from different angles;
meanwhile, integrated analyses of building volume
769
767
relationships, structural features and functional requirements
can be made and the spacial forms with both artistic styling
and practicality can be obtained through designers'
adjustment through these parameterized software and digital
technologies. Fig. 2 shows the unique space made through
the simulation of the actual spacial requirements in a
computer with Rhino Grasshopper software operating in a
Rhino environment.
Figure 2. Working interface of Grasshopper (Provided by Shanghai Gold
Mantis Construction Decoration Co., Ltd)
BIM, as a way of working, not only fits interior
decoration model through software in a computer and
optimizes programs, but also realizes direct communication
with designers and makes up for the deficiencies of 2D
drawings, so it can facilitate the efficient adjustments at the
design stage. Fig. 3 shows the corrugated aluminum ceiling
of the corridor in the commercial space of a large building.
By using the BIM model, designers finalized the shape and
scale of corrugation, greatly improving the efficiency of
communication by solving the problem that the 2D drawings
can't effectively
y and intuitively
y communicate with designers.
Figure 3. Data comparison of the programs of the corrugated aluminum
ceiling of the corridor in the commercial space of a large building(Provided
by Shanghai Gold Mantis Construction Decoration Co., Ltd)
In fact, the new design model has also changed the
composition of project designers: the young designers are
not required to previously determine the complete space
design, and they can build a virtual 3D complete information
model in a computer and then revise and improve it under
the direction of senior designers. This process will not only
liberate them from redundant and inefficient drawings, but
also help these young designers understand the design
process and design ideas in a more intuitive way and
improve their design capacity by participating in the creative
processes.
768
770
III. APPLICATION OF BIM AT THE
CONSTRUCTION STAGE OF INTERIOR DESIGN
The construction drawing of interior design is an
important stage linking design and construction and it
requests that all ideas in design program should be
transformed into concrete practices in drawings, including
planes, tops, facades and lots of detailed nodes. These
drawings are required to be accurate in dimension, have
detailed material callouts and clearly and concisely reflect
the concrete internal structure (as shown in Fig. 4).
Moreover, the construction drawings of interior design will
be affected by the adjustments in other professions on site
during drafting construction drawings, and this requires
timely follow-up modifications, which will take a lot of
labor and omissions will easily arise. That's why
construction drawings involved quite a lot of manpower and
time and repeated modifications and realignments were
common in the past when AutoCAD was used as an aid in
drawing. AutoCAD is impotent particularly in processing
complex irregular-shaped forms in design programs.
Figure 4. Detailed nodes of a set of doors in an interior project (Drawn by
the author)
The major advantage of BIM at the construction drawing
stage is synchronization. Revit software, for example, which
is as accurate as AutoCAD , can be used to build complete
spatial models and models of spatial components in the form
of 3D modeling, and finally the detailed façade drawings of
the final drawings are directly exported by the model (as
shown in Fig. 5). Therefore, when a local adjustment is
made, the drawings of other related parts will be adjusted
automatically. This means that all modifications are
completed synchronously in BIM, which facilitates the
interactions among different professions and eliminates the
hidden troubles caused by frequent modifications during the
construction process. Meanwhile, synchronous recording of
component information and production of schedules are
allowed in Revit, and this information is beneficial to project
material consumption statistics, and it keeps synchronous
update in the modification process, increasing efficiency and
ensuring accuracy (as shown in Fig. 6).
Figure 5. Direct exportation of part dimensions of forms by using
Revit(Provided by Shanghai Gold Mantis Construction Decoration Co.,
Ltd)

Figure 6. Statistics of component data (Provided by Shanghai Gold
Mantis Construction Decoration Co., Ltd)
The BIM system can be used to deal with regular spatial
components and its advantages lie in the solutions in the
construction drawings of complex irregular-shaped spatial
structures. As shown in Fig. 7, the irregular-shaped copper
ceiling of a lobby space is exported by using the BIM model,
and each part of copper plate is expressed in detail, and
specific positioning programs are provided; meanwhile, the
construction simulation in the BIM model ensures the
feasibility of construction and can present the detailed
problems omitted in design, detect the shortages on minor
details and solve them before construction.
Figure 7. Software-aided positioning (Provided by Shanghai Gold Mantis
Construction Decoration Co., Ltd)
IV. APPLICATION OF BIM AT THE
CONSTRUCTION AND ANAPHASE OPERATION AND
MAINTENANCE STAGE OF INTERIOR DESIGN
In the operation of traditional interior projects in the links,
including design, construction, maintenance and anaphase
management, the professions exist in the form of chain
cooperation, and this leads to the inevitable problems in the
coordination among them. The finalized design programs
always need major modifications because of the
requirements of water, electricity, heating and ventilating
equipment installation or the specific requirements of
architectural structure on site. These modifications bring not
only the loss of efficiency but also a lot of omissions and
great troubles in the final drawing review and construction.
Meanwhile, the repair of specific parts in anaphase
management will involve more workload due to imperfect
drawings and incomplete component information.
769
771
BIM has changed the traditional ways of cooperation, so
that all departments work together to provide unified and
efficient platforms for interoperability and communication
for professions, significantly reducing communication costs
and improving communication efficiency. All the work
details of a project will be recorded and shared, and any
adjustment to parameters will be reflected in the whole,
greatly reducing the probability of making a new start in
construction and avoiding unnecessary waste (as shown in
Fig. 8).

Figure 8. BIM's platforms for interoperability and communication (A
picture from the Internet, source: www.autodesk.com)
BIM not only provides programs at the design modeling
stage but builds complete constructing models and input the
information of fitting components with the optimization in a
3D level. This will not only ensure the efficiency and quality
of construction, but offers the model use data for anaphase
operation and maintenance (as shown in Fig. 9).
Figure 9. Establishing a complete model database (Provided by Shanghai
Gold Mantis Construction Decoration Co., Ltd)
V. MAJOR EXISTING ISSUES IN APPLICATION OF
BIM IN INTERIOR PROJECTS
In the new age of digital information, BIM has radically
improved the way of thinking in design and realized the real
harmonization of "function and form" and provides endless
possibilities for designers in their creation, an effective
platform for the efficient completion of construction project
and reliable sources for anaphase management. However, as
a new system, BIM shall overcome lots of obstacles and
difficulties in its development, particularly in the
professional field of interior design which has more
complicated problems. Currently, BIM is primarily applied
to the interior design of large BIM-oriented construction
projects. Compared with construction projects, the issues in [3] Fang Fengyang. A Comparative Analysis of Application of Autodesk
the application of BIM in interior projects include: Revit Architecture and AutoCAD in Interior Design (Architectural
Design Management, China, Jan. 2013), p.21-27
(1) The effective operation of BIM relies on teamwork.
At present, however, the lack of effective feedback from
design department and construction team and material
suppliers and the absence of a close two-way communication
mechanism have stopped the effective sharing of a lot of
resources;
(2) Most software in BIM is not as popular as AutoCAD
in China, and it set relatively high technical demands on
designers. The traditional AutoCAD drawing method cannot
be replaced by BIM in the short term, and this requires BIM
model to work based on the drawings of AutoCAD and dims
BIM’s efficient synchronization;
(3) No criterion for interior BIM model data has been
established and the problems caused by the confusion of file
data criteria obscures its convenience and makes it difficult
for the BIM model to play its due role in the search during
using BIM and anaphase operation and maintenance;
(4) Despite of the high overall efficiency of BIM, as a
system for construction services, BIM has the software most
of which is less adapted to the interior design in detailed
operations, such as less free drawing annotation and less
diversified expression.
These problems do not mean that BIM is deficient, but
rather reflect some shortcomings of the interior design
industry in China: the relative independence between various
professions, the lack of teamwork and awareness of sharing,
relatively lower industrial and technical threshold and weak
basis for standardization, which are in urgent need of
solutions in the new era. Meanwhile, it is necessary to
accelerate the development of technical supporting software.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The application of BIM in design originally stemmed
from the requirements of the process of complex irregular-
shaped forms, but BIM’s obvious advantages reflected in the
process of application at all levels quickly make it a weapon
promoting the changes in the era. As an emerging
technology, BIM will inevitably go through a long period of
adjustment and improvement in its development and meet all
kinds of obstacles and difficulties during this period. In the
long term, however, the requirement for efficiency,
environmental protection and energy conservation in the era
will accelerate the development of BIM and bring a digital
revolution in various industries. It is predictable that BIM
will really lead the industry of interior design into the era of
information integration application with overall
collaboration in the near future and provide more extensive
creative space for designers.
REFERENCES
[1] Wang Yu & Chang Qian. Success in a Job Presupposes Ready Tools:
Cases of BIM of WDCE and the Experience (Journal of Architecture,
China, Jun. 2011), p.101-104
[2] Bu Yiqiu. From CAD To BIM: While the Prospects are Bright, the
Road ahead is Tortuous. (Architectural Creation, China, Jun. 2011),
p.154-158

770
772