BIM is a digital model of a building that carries data, not just geometry — every duct, wall or beam in the model is an object with properties every discipline can query and update, rather than a line on a drawing.
Procore’s construction management glossary defines it plainly: “Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a construction management term for technologies used to generate and manage digital representations of spaces (buildings, job sites, and so on).” That “job sites” clause matters — BIM on a Canadian project isn’t limited to the finished building; the same modelling approach extends to site logistics, staging and phased construction sequencing.
What separates a BIM model from a set of 3D drawings is that the data travels with the geometry. A duct in the model isn’t just a shape — it’s an object carrying its size, its manufacturer, its cost code and its position in the schedule, so a change to any one of those properties can be checked against everything else in the model rather than manually re-checked drawing by drawing.
That shared, data-carrying model is also what makes automated coordination possible in the first place — see clash detection during coordination for how teams use it to catch physical conflicts between disciplines before anyone builds them.
On a hospital addition, the structural, mechanical and electrical consultants each build their discipline’s model in the same shared coordinate system rather than on separate drawing sets. When the structural engineer raises a beam by 150mm to clear a duct run flagged in coordination, that single change updates the beam everywhere it’s referenced across every sheet and schedule pulled from the model — instead of someone having to remember to update the same beam on a dozen separate drawings by hand.
See also: Clash detection during coordination · As-builts vs record drawings.
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