What is 4D, 5D & 6D BIM?

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The acronym “BIM” is historically linked in the minds of many to 3-Dimensional or three spatial dimensional virtual modelling of buildings, however recently I’ve been seeing blog postings for 4D, 5D and even 6D BIM, so I decided to investigate.

To me being a Science Fiction nut, I’m happier with the 4th Dimension being Time

Until now I always thought the 5th Dimension was a multiple Grammy-winning American popular music vocal group best-known during the late 1960s and early 1970s for popularizing the hits "Up, Up and Away” and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".

Or

The 5th Dimension is a mathematical construct

Or

The 5th Dimension is a hypothetical extra dimension beyond the usual three spatial dimensions and one time dimension of Relativity. But that’s far too deep..........

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4D BIM is a 3D BIM that has objects and assemblies that have "schedule and time" constraint data added to them. The information can be contained in the BIM or can be linked or otherwise associated (integrated and/or operable) with project design and construction activity scheduling and time sensitivity estimating and analysis systems.

5D BIM is a 4D BIM that has objects and assemblies that have a "cost" dimension added to them. The cost information can be contained in the BIM or can be linked or otherwise associated to the building objects.

The publication An Introduction to Building Information Modelling (BIM) by ASHRAE has these reversed.

Recently I’ve seen 6D BIM referred too, this appears to be Life Cycle Management.

So in Summary:-

2D - Something with 2 dimensions (flat)

3D - Something seen in 3 dimensions e.g. width, length and height.

4D - Adding the aspect of Time to a project (phasing/sequencing)

5D - Adding the aspect of Cost to a project (cost estimating)

6D - The aspect of Life Cycle Management (owner/FM)

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