Will BIM’s level of development help leave drawings behind?

Abstract

Level of Development specification (LOD) has evolved from a relatively obscure technique for cost estimating to an enabling methodology for countless interoperable BIM use cases. With the advent of databases and automation to both capture LOD requirements based on particular use cases and automatic validation of LOD compliance prior to performing use cases, the full power of object based LOD is becoming apparent. Within this new LOD framework, design progress reporting, quality metrics reporting, and design gate control is possible at a BIM object level. With the growing value to customers of BIM models as complete life cycle tools, and the increasing use of digital devices during construction, such as tablets, to view building information, could the end of the drawing sheet paradigm be at hand?